A multi-agency report detailing the break-downs in internal communication among key city agencies in the events leading up to the Brooklyn Day mass shooting were released on Wednesday morning.
The After-Action report includes the anticipated nearly 100-page long report from The Baltimore City Police Department whose response before the incident, as described in July by acting Commissioner Richard Worley, was “unacceptable.”
Baltimore City Administrator Faith Leach’s office compiled reports, referred to as after-action reports, or AARs, from the Baltimore City Police Department, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE), the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC), the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), and the Baltimore City Fire Department (BCFD). The shooting that occurred at the Brooklyn Homes housing project during its “Brooklyn Day” celebration in the early hours of July 2nd killed two people, Aaliyah Gonzalez and Kylis Fagbemi, and wounded 28 others. It is believed to be the worst mass shooting in Baltimore’s recent history.
According to a memo from the CAO’s office at the top of the 178-page compiled document, the office received the reports on August 17th and then compiled a series of recommendations “to improve cross-agency collaboration and communication.”
“The mass shooting incident and AAR process revealed a disconnect between Brooklyn Homes residents and the city government agencies that serve them,” wrote the CAO’s office.
The CAO did give specific instructions to Commissioner Worley. Among the recommendations for “accountability” the CAO wrote that the commissioner would “Implement leadership changes within the Baltimore City Police Department command staff and refer offending personnel to the Police Integrity Bureau.” The specific offending personnel were not named publicly in the report. The commissioner is instructed to update the Mayor on those recommended personnel changes within 30 days of the AAR’s public release. As per the federal consent decree, leadership changes are “subject to the commissioner’s discretion.”
“These reports are only a first step. Now, we will continue to pursue the reforms necessary to respond. Baltimore City government agencies and counterparts fell short on our promise to our residents, and we will do everything in our power to ensure those mistakes are not repeated,” said Mayor Brandon Scott in a written statement.
The Police Response
BPD’s report was conducted by the department’s Compliance Bureau, according to Commissioner Worley.
“Throughout this report, key findings demonstrate that certain procedures may not have been handled properly and policies may not have been followed. In those cases, I have directed the Compliance Bureau to follow our process and submit all potential violations of policy to our Public Integrity Bureau to investigate and hold such members accountable,” Worley wrote in a statement preceding the findings.
The findings confirm earlier statements made by Commissioner Worley that the Southern District, which contains Brooklyn Homes, was fully staffed in the hours leading up to the shooting. There were also “several” discretionary officers that could have been on hand for Brooklyn Day but they “were never requested until after the critical incident”, according to the report.
BPD’s Open Source Unit did find one mention of the event on social media three days before the Brooklyn Day block party but on the day of the event, they had no one live-monitoring social media channels. Despite having some intel of the event, the report states that, “the Southern District did not act to develop additional information or determine the reliability of the intelligence received. There was no intel gathering plan implemented by the District Command, nor any planning for the possibility of Brooklyn Day taking place on July 1 as the intel suggested.”
Furthermore, on July 1st, supervisors on both the day and evening shifts did not thoroughly inspect their “areas of responsibility” and the findings of the report concluded that if they had done so “it would have been clear that Brooklyn Day” was taking place.
The report noted that a review of over 4,000 emails showed that no proactive plans to handle the event were taking place. The police department’s AAR also found that they already had a drafted Brooklyn Day plan in place from when officers responded to the event in 2022 that outlined the event’s history and a suggested deployment strategy.
The Brooklyn Day shooting took place during Commissioner Worley’s first month as acting commissioner, following the departure of Commissioner Michael Harrison. Worley is Mayor Scott’s first pick for the position and the two have recently completed a series of town-halls to engage with residents. He has a hearing with the Baltimore City Council on September 21st where the council will decide whether to advance his nomination.
