After-action report alleges officers’ indifference and party organizers’ resentment behind BPD inaction on Brooklyn Day
After being alerted that hundreds of people had “snuck in” the block party, a police captain replies, “Anyone that wants some OT tonight the check book is open!”
Above: Mayor Brandon Scott with BPD veteran Richard Worley, named Acting Police Commissioner shortly before the Brooklyn Day mass shooting occurred. (@BaltimorePolice)
The report promised by Baltimore Police after the Brooklyn Day mass-shooting, released today, confirms previous media reports of internal police communications that showed officers and line supervisors were well aware of trouble brewing before the outdoor gathering turned deadly.
The report notes that social media posts about the event were known to police days earlier, and it documents slow or mocking responses by officers to intel about the increasingly restive crowd and to more than 40 calls from the public about fights, guns and rowdy behavior.
The 100-page document also includes new details that paint a fuller picture of how BPD attitudes and inaction contributed to gunfire at a longtime community party that ended with 30 people shot, two of them fatally:
• BPD’s Social Media Monitoring Unit captured and passed along a single post about the party several days before the July 1 Brooklyn Day event.
But it’s still not clear why nothing came of it. The unit itself shut down for the weekend, which left no one working on the day of the event.
• Around 1 p.m. on June 28, a supervisor at BPD’s Open Source Unit contacted the Southern District intelligence officer to let him know about a posting that referred to “Brooklyn Saturday.”
But the post was “described as quickly disappearing from the author’s social media page and was unable to be located again,” the report says.
• The Brooklyn Day event was shut down early last year by BPD because of its “large size, unpermitted nature and indefinite endpoint,” causing “attendees and organizers to be particularly upset,” according to the report.
“It is believed that this likely affected whether BPD would receive notification [in 2023] and how the event was advertised,” the report stated.
• About two hours before the shooting, a sergeant alerted superiors to a crowd of roughly “800-900 people” remarking “Looks like the citizens of Brooklyn snuck in ‘Brooklyn Day’ on us.”
To which an unnamed captain replied, “Appreciate it. Anyone that wants some OT tonight the check book is open!”
About an hour later, a major weighed in, advising that police “monitor only – don’t get drawn in and become a target.”
Officers are identified in the report by rank. No names are disclosed.