Four juveniles charged with attempted murder in two separate Baltimore shootings

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Baltimore police announced the arrests of juveniles in connection to shootings across the city.

According to the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), a 17-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with the attempted first-degree murder of an 18-year-old woman.

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Investigators said the woman was shot on W. Hoffman Street in west Baltimore back in August of 2025. No motive has been released.

Baltimore police also announced the arrests of two 16-year-olds and a 15-year-old for the shooting of a 61-year-old man on W. Lexington Street back in October of 2025.

Each juvenile has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, investigators said.

According to BPD, one of the juveniles has a prior arrest for auto theft.

Law enforcement expert Jason Johnson said without proper intervention the nature of the crime committed by juveniles often escalates.

“Most young people or most people in general, any type of murder charge is not the first serious crime they’ve committed,” Johnson said. “There’s an escalation. It starts with property crimes. You get away with property crime, or if the sanctions aren’t enough to dissuade you, then you escalate into more serious crimes, including robberies, carjackings, shootings, homicides.”

Johnson believes doing away with automatic charging would make the problem worse.

“The problem is when you have serious and violent offenders who happen to be under 18, our juvenile justice is not showing the ability to deal with it, even to the point of not being able to keep track of young people already on GPS monitors or other types of monitors, and they’re reoffending,” Johnson said.

The cases remain under investigation.