Cherry Hill

A man died last night after he was shot on the grounds of a low-rise apartment complex in Cherry Hill, police said.Detective Marvin Sydnor said Charles Gilmore, 28, of the 3100 block of Oakford Ave. in Northwest Baltimore, was in the 2700 block of Spelman Road at 8: 48 p.m. when a man behind a wall fired several shots, hitting Gilmore once in the abdomen.Sydnor said Gilmore died at Maryland Shock Trauma Center at 10: 15 p.m.Pub Date: 12/29/98

Cherry Hill's long wait for a supermarket is over, and residents of the isolated Baltimore community south of the Hanover Street bridge couldn't be happier. The neighborhood's 11,000 residents have been without a full-service grocery since October 2000, when the Super Pride supermarket closed. For months, residents have taken buses, the light rail, taxis and hacks out of the neighborhood to buy the fresh produce, baked goods and meats the local corner stores did not stock. Catholic Charities, which owns the shopping center where the market is located, and city officials spent months trying to find a grocer for Cherry Hill.

In the morning paper comes news of Catholic Charities spending $1.1 million to buy Cherry Hill Shopping Center, which is a grand gesture and also a reminder of everybody in government turning their backs since the day maybe 25 years ago when I went there to purchase heroin.Nothing could be easier than buying a bag of dope at the shopping center, I was informed by those who knew. They called themselves The Group. They were a bunch of people from Cherry Hill, mostly with histories of heroin abuse, who had gone to the various drug treatment programs for help in beating their habits and were politely told to get lost.

A 6-year-old boy was seriously injured last night when his family's Cherry Hill rowhouse caught fire, according to Baltimore police and fire officials. The boy, who had second- and third-degree burns over 25 percent of his body, was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and later transferred to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, police said. His name was not available. The boy lives with his mother and two sisters in a rowhouse in the 600 block of Bridgeview Road, a neighbor said.

Services for Beatrice Elizabeth Day Evans, a longtime resident of Cherry Hill, will be at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Joseph L. Russ Funeral Home, 2222 W. North Avenue.Mrs. Evans, a native of North Carolina, died of cancer Thursday at the Joseph Ritchie Hospice in Baltimore. She was 70.Married in Burlington, N.C., to William Clavon Evans, she and her husband moved to Baltimore in 1946 and settled in Cherry Hill, where she spent the rest of her life raising children and caring for her family.

A recreation center in Cherry Hill will be closed for the rest of the week after Monday night's double shooting as city officials review the center's hours and offer support services to affected staff and youth. The 16- and 18-year-old victims of the shooting inside the Dr. Carter G. Woodson Recreation Center remain in the hospital, according to Officer Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman. Police said that two males came to the center, in the 2500 block of Seabury Road, about 7:55 p.m. The shooter entered the center for about 30 seconds, and shot the two victims, said Maj. Michael McDonald of the Southern District.

NOT LONG AGO, Cherry Hill looked a lot like most people's inner-city nightmare.In 1996, eight teen-agers were shot to death. Each was under the age of 16 -- and each carried a gun. Drug markets operated in the open air during the day. At night, the gunfire was so regular that we could almost tell time by it.Today, my community is safer and stronger, and there is greater confidence that we can continue the progress than at any time in my memory. How that happened shows how a neighborhood can turn the tide against a wave of violence and drugs.

An 8-year-old girl drowned yesterday afternoon at a Baltimore pool, authorities said. City officials received a call about 3:30 p.m. about a girl who was not breathing at Cherry Hill Splash Park in the 100 block of Reedbird Ave., authorities said. Lifeguards pulled the girl out of the water and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived, Department of Parks and Recreation officials said. About 3:50 p.m., after CPR efforts failed, emergency crews took the girl across the street to Harbor Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Frances Petty is the shamrock lady of Cherry Hill.Her house overflows with green. There are flower pots in the basement, flower pots in the living room, flower pots in the upstairs rooms. If it's green and it grows, Mrs. Petty cultivates it.She's also one of her community's most senior residents. She purchased her home in the 400 block of Swale Road in late 1945, when Cherry Hill was being built to meet the demand for housing for defense workers."The paint was wet on the wall when I moved in," Mrs. Petty recalls.

A 19 year old Cherry Hill man was shot to death near his home yesterday, city police said. Markielous Jackson, of the 3200 block of Gulfport Drive, was accosted by two males on that block at around 6 p.m., according to Baltimore Police Sgt. Ernest Anderson. Jackson was shot several times and pronounced dead at the scene, Anderson said. Police were questioning several possible suspects. Anderson said pollce believe the shooting may have followed an argument.