Mother shares heartbreak after murder of her son

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    BALTIMORE, MD (WJZ) — The mother of a 14-year-old murdered in northeast Baltimore came back to the scene where her son, Ty, was shot just days ago to honor his life.

“I could care less who did it because what difference does it make if they catch him. I still can’t have my son back,” his mother, Tamesha, told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. She asked us not to use her last name. “He was my baby.”

The teenager was gunned down in the 2600 block of Polk Street in the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello neighborhood just before noon Friday. He is of more than 50 people shot in Baltimore since Labor Day.

“He was a good baby. If you met him and you sat in his company, then you loved him,” his mom said.

Ty was an aspiring rapper. “I ain’t worried about jail, I’m just worried about dying,” he said in one of the lyrics his family played for us.

Tamesha got comfort from Tyree Moorehead.

Moorehead is painting a memorial to Ty at the scene. He has designated it a “No Shoot Zone.” This is one of thousands Moorehead has painted across the city as he urges people to put down their guns. You can read more about his activism here.

“The shooter didn’t have neighbors running out of their house—outraged—saying, ‘What are you doing out here?’” Moorehead said as he lamented the lack of action in the neighborhood. “They didn’t have older men and women stepping out saying, ‘I’ve been living here for years. You’ve got to stop this.’ We used to have that.”

Moorehead took a break from spray painting Ty’s name on the sidewalk to hug and the teen’s heartbroken mother.

“I wish we could paint the whole city a ‘No Shoot Zone,’” he said.

There have been 238 homicides in Baltimore City this year. That is seven fewer than last year at this time.

At least 519 people have been shot and survived in the city so far this year. That compares to 570 at this time last year.

That includes a 59-year-old man hit in the shoulder in Northwest Baltimore Tuesday afternoon.

Also Tuesday, police identified 39-year-old Melvin Thompson as the man who was killed in Federal Hill Park on Sunday.

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