Southwest Baltimore

City police on Sunday reported five shootings over the weekend, two of them fatal. At about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, officers responding to a call about shots fired in the 500 block of Coventry Road in Southwest Baltimore found a man with gunshot wounds, police said. He was pronounced dead at an area hospital, police said. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call homicide detectives at 410-396-2100. About 9:40 p.m. Sunday, a man was shot in the 1300 block of North Spring Street, police said.

A man was shot several times shortly after noon Saturday in a residential neighborhood of Southwest Baltimore, police said. The man, who police found in the 500 block of Coventry Road, in the Irvington neighborhood, had life-threatening injuries and was taken to an undisclosed hospital. No other details were immediately available.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's pick of a Californian to head Baltimore's Police Department prompted questions Monday from City Council members and other city leaders who had been hoping the new commissioner would come from the department's ranks. "You have one guy who was a Baltimore City kid, who struggled through the ranks of the Police Department. … It seemed like he was almost a shoo-in," said Councilman Nick Mosby. Council members were surprised Monday when the administration began putting out the word that Anthony Batts, 52, who had previously led departments in Long Beach and Oakland, would assume the top post in Baltimore.

Baltimore police have charged a man in a triple shooting that killed two brothers in Southwest Baltimore, a crime that investigators believe led to the retaliatory killing of the mother and brother of one of the suspects. But any celebration over closing a case that police feared would led to further reprisals was muted, as gun violence in the city continued to take its toll with the unrelated shooting Sunday night of a 9-year-old boy in Druid Heights. Police said the unidentified boy was struck in the hip and critically wounded about 11 p.m. in the 400 block of Bloom St. Two men in their 20s, who police said were "well-known to law enforcement," were also struck and appeared to be the intended victims.

The mother and the brother of a suspect in a triple shooting were gunned down in an ambush outside their Northeast Baltimore home, according to sources, prompting police to assign a special unit of top investigators to stop the "momentum of violence. " Police released few details Friday about the crimes - the triple shooting took place Wednesday in Southwest Baltimore and the ambush a day later - but condemned the violence. "From now on, when incidents like this happen, when there's this momentum of violence, we need to respond," said acting Police Commissioner Anthony Barksdale.

Two men were killed and an unidentified woman was critically wounded in a shooting late Wednesday in Southwest Baltimore, police said. Police said officers were first called to the 600 block of Linnard St. about 9 p.m. for reports of shots fired but did not find anything suspicious. Later, around midnight, officers received a call from a man who said he was inside a home where people had been shot. When police arrived, the caller was gone and officers found the victims inside.

A broken 10-inch-wide water main in Southwest Baltimore caused a sinkhole to open on Frederick Avenue near its intersection with East Lynne Avenue late Tuesday night, according to city officials. The water main was shut off quickly and Frederick Avenue was closed at the intersection, in the city's Mill Hill neighborhood, said Kurt Kocher, a public works spokesman. About 100 homes in the southwest neighborhood remained without water Wednesday, as crews arrived early to begin repairs to the pipe, he said.