Curtis Bay residents worry after arrests in January triple shooting case

Three arrests tied to a January triple shooting have not quieted Curtis Bay’s worry that gun violence is still shaping daily life around Liberty Bay Apartments on Fairhaven Avenue, where two men and a 15-year-old boy were shot.

Police said the case began Jan. 31, when investigators say a separate 15-year-old boy was arrested that same day for illegally possessing ammunition. Later investigative work led to additional arrests, including a 17-year-old and 32-year-old Eric Pinxit Jr., whom police said was taken into custody in Burtonsville, Maryland, on April 7 and charged with attempted first-degree murder. He was transported to Central Booking after the early morning arrest by members of the Warrant Apprehension Task Force.

The arrests have done little to ease the mood in a neighborhood where residents say police activity is common but a sense of safety is not. Denise Segar, a Curtis Bay resident, said, “What our kids see, then they’re repeating,” a warning that the violence around them is bleeding into how young people think and behave before summer even arrives.

That fear is landing in a citywide pattern that remains strained. Baltimore Police data show the Southern District had 13 nondeadly shootings so far this year, compared with five at the same point last year. The Southeast District had eight shootings, up from one a year earlier. Baltimore Police also maintains a public crime-stats open-data portal that tracks city crime and investigations, making the spike visible well beyond one neighborhood.

The unease has also reached nearby schools and families. On March 25, police activity near Sparrows Point Middle School and Sparrows Point High School triggered secure protocols that were lifted about 40 minutes later. Baltimore County Public Schools said there was no threat to students or staff, but the brief lockdown showed how quickly a shooting investigation can spill from one block into schools, buses, and household routines.

For Curtis Bay, the central question is not only whether arrests are being made, but whether they are changing what residents feel when they step outside. The numbers suggest the violence is still rising in parts of South Baltimore, and the people living closest to it are still waiting for that reality to change.