East Baltimore

A man was shot in East Baltimore around 7 p.m. Friday, police said. Homicide detectives are investigating the Milton-Montford shooting because of the seriousness of the victim's injury. The man was struck in the torso. The shooting took place near the intersection of Ashland and North Montford avenues, police said. There have been two homicides so far in Baltimore during 2012. An 84-year-old woman, Mary Hines, was found stabbed and burned Thursday in a house less than a half-mile north of Friday night's shooting.

An East Baltimore church was destroyed in an early morning blaze Sunday after a burglar stole sound equipment from the building, according to police. No injuries were reported in the fire and burglary, which occurred shortly after 4 a.m. at the Paradise Christian Center, located in the 3000 block of E. Oliver Street, according to police spokesman Kevin Brown. Brown said the fire started when a burglar attempted to steal the sound equipment, and eventually consumed the entire building.

Fire officials responding to reports of a possible gas leak Monday night in East Baltimore said they found what appeared to be a methamphetamine lab, but later determined that it was a large marijuana growing operation. Hazmat team members were called to a vacant home in the 3300 block of McElderry St. about 8 p.m. by Baltimore Gas & Electric workers, who received "reports of an odor of natural gas at that location," said Chief Kevin Cartwright, Baltimore Fire Department spokesman.

A Baltimore police vehicle was in a collision Saturday afternoon at an East Baltimore intersection, police said. Around 5 p.m. the police cruiser and another car crashed at Chester Street and Ashland Avenue in the Middle East community, according to police spokesman Det. Donny Moses. Both drivers were taken to area hospitals with injuries that are not considered life-threatening, he said. Police are investigating the crash, and Moses said he did not know who was at fault.

City police are investigating the death Thursday of a 36-year-old man found shot several times in the Oliver neighborhood of East Baltimore. Officers found the victim at 7:56 p.m. He was unresponsive and lying on the sidewalk in front of a vacant house in the 1400 block of Holbrook St., near Greenmount Cemetery. He had sustained several wounds to the head and torso, police said. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he died at 8:50 p.m. Mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Two men were shot in East Baltimore about 6 p.m. on Tuesday, though their injuries were not expected to be life-threatening, city police said. The men were found near the intersection of E. Fayette Street and N. Caroline Street, one with a gunshot wound to the leg and another with a gunshot wound to the arm, police said. No other information was immediately available. There have been 35 recorded homicides in Baltimore this year, a 40 percent increase over the same period in 2012.

I had a lonely feeling as I walked along the empty, isolated blocks just north of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in East Baltimore. In the distance, a bulldozer was eating away at a block of Patterson Park Avenue rowhouses. The emptied lots reminded me of 1950s urban renewal clearance. It's been a full decade since redevelopment was announced for this big chunk of Baltimore: 88 acres bounded by Broadway, Patterson Park Avenue, Madison Street and the Amtrak railway embankment. It's the neighborhood that I often viewed from a train window, a spot that seemed to embody 1940s working-class East Baltimore, when there were abundant jobs at the tin mills, paint factories and garment-making shops.

Baltimore police continue to investigate a shooting that left a 21-year-old man wounded in East Baltimore. Officers responded about 5:21 p.m. Wednesday to the 1800 block of Aisquith Street, east of Greenmount Cemetery in the city's Oliver neighborhood, where they found the victim who had been shot in the stomach, police said. The man did not give officers any information before he was taken to an area hospital, police Det. Vernon Davis said. But Eastern District detectives found a witness who had seen the shooting.

Baltimore police say they found a teenager with a gunshot wound to one of his legs early Saturday afternoon in East Baltimore, about a block from the old American Brewery. The 17-year-old victim, who was not identified by police, was discovered in the 1600 block of N. Bradford Street just before 1:30 pm. Police had no suspect or motive for the shooting. — Dan Rodricks