Police seek tips to identify pair in East Baltimore shooting

Baltimore police are circulating images of two people they believe may be connected to a nonfatal shooting on East Preston Street, hoping a tip from the neighborhood will lead them to names, charges and an arrest. Officers responded around 9:25 p.m. on June 4 to the 1200 block of East Preston Street, where two victims were found, a 21-year-old man and a 32-year-old man. CBS Baltimore reported the shooting happened inside a business on the block.

The department is offering up to $7,000 for information that results in a felony charge and an arrest, a reward structure that underscores how much investigators still depend on public cooperation in shooting cases that do not immediately produce a suspect. Police are directing people to submit tips through the P3 Tips mobile app, the Metro Crime Stoppers website or by calling 866-756-2587. Metro Crime Stoppers also says anonymous tips can be made 24 hours a day through its hotline, website or P3 Tips app.

That model has become a familiar part of Baltimore’s violence-reduction playbook, especially in East Baltimore, where fear, loyalty and distrust can all shape whether witnesses come forward. The East Preston Street block sits in Broadway East and Collington Square, an area long marked by disinvestment and vacancy but also by renewed redevelopment pressure. A local profile traced the street’s history to James H. Preston, the former Baltimore mayor for whom it was named, and said redlining and segregation-era policies helped drive the corridor’s decline.

The broader public-safety backdrop is important. City officials said Baltimore ended 2025 with 133 homicides, the fewest in nearly 50 years, and that homicides fell 31.44 percent while nonfatal shootings dropped 24.51 percent over the year. In a Feb. 2 update, Mayor Brandon M. Scott said the city had logged 10 homicides and 26 nonfatal shootings so far in 2026, and that the Group Violence Reduction Strategy had been connected with 613 arrests and more than 344 people enrolled in life coaching and wraparound services.

For police, the East Preston Street case shows the limits and the stakes of tip-driven investigations. Images can put a face to a case, but in a city still trying to reduce shootings, solving the case often depends on whether someone is willing to make the first call.