Safe Streets worker fatally shot

For the second time this year, an outreach worker for Safe Streets has been shot to death.

Mayor Brandon Scott Thursday night confirmed the death of Kenyell "Benny" Wilson who worked for the city's violence interruption program in Cherry Hill.

Baltimore Police responded to Harbor Hospital at around 4:40 Thursday afternoon responding to a report of a 44-year-old man who had been shot who had driven himself to the hospital.  The man later died.  Police do not know where the shooting occurred.  

The mayor confirmed the wounded man was Wilson.

"Safe Streets has a special place in my heart and I consider the Violence Interrupters who bravely serve this program as a part of my family. Tonight, our brother Kenyell Wilson became a victim of the gun violence he worked every day to prevent. I am deeply saddened and angered that “Benny’s” life was taken in a weak cowardly act,” Scott said in a written statement.

“I have spoken with Commissioner Harrison and directed him to make apprehending the individual or individuals responsible for taking the life of one of our prime examples of changing your life a top priority. 

"I ask that you keep Kenyell’s family and his Safe Streets family in your prayers and reflect on ways that you can continue the work of our fallen soldier in your own community. My administration will continue to support Safe Streets and community-based violence interventions like it. We will not be deterred from doing so and will further invest in these interventions that work and will continue to be central to my comprehensive strategy to reduce violence in Baltimore,” Scott added.

Safe Streets uses ex-offenders and others to physically stop violent incidents from occurring.  The program in Cherry Hill recently celebrated one year without a homicide in the neighborhood.

Wilson is the second Safe Streets employee to be shot and killed this year.

In January Dante Barksdale, a Safe Streets director, was shot and killed in the 200 block of Douglas Court.

In May, police arrested 28-year-old Garrick Powell in connection with Barksdale's murder.

Wilson's death was called "devastating," by Shantay Jackson, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

"As someone who turned their life around to do the work of curing Cherry Hill of violence, “Benny” epitomized redemption. While he has transitioned physically, his light will never leave us and it guides us as we continue the critical work of interrupting violence in our neighborhoods," Jackson said.