Shots Fired Near Inner Harbor Skate Park Send Sunday Crowds Fleeing

Catina Smith was mid-task when her phone rang Sunday evening. Her 16-year-old daughter was crying on the other end, saying "someone's shooting." Smith, a Baltimore chef and "Hell's Kitchen" Season 24 competitor known around the city as Chef Cat, did not hesitate.

"I dropped everything and left," Smith said.

Officers in the 600 block of Light Street heard gunshots around 6:59 p.m. Sunday. Baltimore police said no one was shot. Investigators were searching for a possible suspect and released a description: "Possible description of the suspect. Black hoodie, black ski mask." No arrests have been made and the investigation remains open.

Rash Field, next to the Maryland Science Center, hosts the skate park where Smith's daughter and her friends had been spending the evening. The teenager told her mother that a spray of bullets had cut through the air during a fight and that she had taken cover, hiding in bushes near the park. In a later call, she described seeing a young person at the skate park holding what she believed was an AR rifle, "standing like he's some sort of soldier."

Police declined to disclose what type of weapon was fired, saying the investigation remains open. When officers reached the scene, the crowd had already scattered. Department spokesperson Donny Moses said people were "fleeing too quickly to count" by the time police arrived.

"I was just shaking," Smith said. "If something would have happened to my baby girl I don't know what I would have done."

Smith's daughter and her friends were eventually picked up by another parent who was closer to the scene. After making it home safe, the two embraced. "When she got home, we were hugging for like five minutes and she said, 'I'm not going there anymore,'" Smith recalled.

A bystander who was performing live music elsewhere in the area said friends urged him to come down to the Harbor that evening, but instinct kept him put. "Something told me not to," he said.

The shooting scare comes amid a history of violence at or near the Inner Harbor. Last March, a 16-year-old was shot in almost the exact same location as Sunday's incident. In April 2023, police released surveillance video of the person they said shot two teens near the Inner Harbor during a large juvenile disturbance. That incident unfolded on the 400 block of East Pratt Street near Shake Shack, where a 14-year-old was shot in the leg and a 16-year-old in the back; police said more than 200 minors had gathered at the scene when shots were fired.

On Memorial Day last year, 17-year-old Neal Mack was killed and two others were injured in a shooting at the Inner Harbor, and police charged a 15-year-old with murder. Since the start of 2023, five children under 18 have been fatally shot and another 23 have been injured by gunfire, according to Baltimore police statistics.

The skate park at Rash Field is named Jake's Skate Park, in memory of Jake Owen, a young skater killed by a distracted driver in 2011, and was designed as a gathering space for families across the city. Sunday's shooting investigation is ongoing, and Baltimore police are asking the public to come forward with any information about the suspect.