Police investigate South Hanover Street shooting after man walks into hospital

A 23-year-old man with gunshot wounds walked into a Baltimore hospital Friday afternoon, and police later traced the shooting to the 3600 block of South Hanover Street in South Baltimore.

Baltimore police said officers first responded to the hospital at about 1:56 p.m. on May 8 after the victim arrived as a walk-in shooting case. Detectives then identified the crime scene and took over the investigation, which remained active as Southern District detectives sought information from the public.

The man’s injuries were described as non-life-threatening, but the location and timing added to the sense of unease along a busy South Baltimore corridor. South Hanover Street is a familiar route for residents, workers and drivers moving through a part of the city that includes Cherry Hill, Brooklyn, Carroll Park, Locust Point and Westport, along with nearby areas tied to the Southern District’s broad patrol zone.

The district also borders Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, the Southwestern, Western and Central Districts, the Inner Harbor and the Patapsco River, which gives investigators and patrol officers a wide and complicated beat. In a case like this, the first sign of violence was not a 911 call from the block itself but a hospital arrival, a pattern that can delay a clear picture of where a shooting began and how it unfolded.

Police said anyone with information should call Southern District detectives at 410-396-2499. Anonymous tips can also be submitted through Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP.

The shooting comes against a broader backdrop in which Baltimore police reported fewer deadly and non-fatal shootings citywide. In its 2025 mid-year report, the department said homicides were down 22% and non-fatal shootings were down 19% compared with the same period in 2024. Even so, a daytime shooting in South Baltimore shows how quickly a single incident can ripple through a neighborhood, sending a victim to a hospital, pulling detectives into the case and leaving nearby businesses and residents to absorb the disruption. Baltimore police said its public crime map and open-data tools are updated regularly and could later show more details as the investigation develops.