As many as five Baltimore homicides over the past three months might be connected to the April kidnapping of two teenage boys from a Catonsville home, according to several law enforcement sources.
In the past week, three people police believe are connected to the kidnapping have been slain in Baltimore in brazen daytime shootings that authorities say might be part of a continuing feud between at least two rival drug gangs. The recent slayings include the double murder of two men in their sport utility vehicle last Friday in Northwest Baltimore and the fatal shooting of a teenager in East Baltimore on Tuesday evening, according to several police sources who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.
It is not clear if the kidnapping of Stephon Blackwell, 16, and Sterling Blackwell, 15 - who were later returned to their relatives - triggered the violence or if that act was itself part of a rivalry, police sources said.
Specialized units planned to swarm over the Southeast, Central, Eastern and Western districts last night, searching for associates of the Blackwell family and members of another group with drug ties, according to a police source with knowledge of the sweep.
Police Department spokesman Sterling Clifford and other police officials declined to comment for this article because the investigations are continuing.
The slayings police believe are connected to the kidnapping have been unfolding this year even as the city has marked a significant reduction in homicides and shootings. As of yesterday, 126 people had been killed in Baltimore this year, compared with 184 slain over the same period last year. The number of nonfatal shootings has also declined this year - 337 incidents, compared with 444 for the same period last year.
Yet, since the Blackwell brothers were kidnapped and returned, there has been a steady pace of shootings and killings that police suspect is connected to deep-running disputes between rival criminal organizations. Many of the shootings have occurred in broad daylight, in some cases involving multiple victims.
At least three of the victims might have been Blackwell associates, according to police sources. Police sources would not say how the other victims might have been connected to the kidnapping.
