Scott filmed rapping as Baltimore reels from deadly weekend violence

Brandon Scott was filmed rapping at a lounge event while Baltimore was absorbing a violent weekend that left a 3-year-old girl, a 56-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man dead. The contrast between the mayor’s public appearance and the city’s grief landed hardest in neighborhoods already living with the daily cost of gunfire and crashes.

The child killed in Southwest Baltimore was identified as Jordan Bright. Police said officers responded Saturday, June 20, 2026, to the 1800 block of West Pratt Street after a hit-and-run crash and later found the vehicle and arrested a 14-year-old boy in connection with it. Police said the car had been reported stolen by a family member shortly before the collision, and Bright later died at a hospital.

Two other deaths added to the toll. Baltimore homicide tracker data show a 56-year-old woman was found dead from a stabbing at 400 E. 25th St. on June 20, 2026. Another tracker entry shows Xavier Williams, 24, was shot and killed the same day at 5400 Park Heights Ave. In all, the weekend deaths cut across Southwest Baltimore, East 25th Street and Park Heights Avenue, widening the circle of families forced into mourning.

Scott has spent much of the year defending his public safety record as the city points to steep declines from prior years. WMAR’s June 2026 tracker showed Baltimore ended 2025 with 133 homicides, down from 194 in 2024. The same tracker said May 2026 brought 8 recorded homicides and 32 non-fatal shootings, a reminder that lower totals have not erased the violence that still shapes life in many blocks.

In early June, after Baltimore recorded a 23% drop in homicides through the first five months of 2026, Scott said, “We still have a long way to go,” and, “We lost people this weekend, and that's too many people for us.” Those words now sit beside the images of the mayor in a nightlife setting as families on West Pratt Street, East 25th Street and Park Heights Avenue were left to confront another deadly stretch.

The episode sharpened a familiar test for City Hall: whether residents judge the administration by the trend lines it cites or by the symbolism of how its leaders behave when the city is again burying children and adults killed in a single weekend.