Armed 17-year-old carjacker rolls the dice, promptly meets his match when victim pulls his own gun and opens fire

An armed 17-year-old is in “grave condition” after police said he pulled a gun on a man sitting in his vehicle early Tuesday morning in the Baltimore neighborhood of Canton, WBAL-TV reported.

The would-be carjacking victim and the teen exchanged gunfire outside a car wash off South Haven Street, police told the station.

‘I mean, it’s always shocking, but it seems as though this is a consistent pattern with what’s been happening lately with carjackings in the district. Carjackings are up.’

Police told WBAL the 31-year-old victim flagged down an officer around 2 a.m. on Boston Street saying he’d been shot. Police said investigators believe the victim was shot five minutes away on South Haven Street, where he was sitting in his car before the teen walked up to him armed with a gun, the station said.

Police said the victim grabbed his licensed handgun, and he and the teen exchanged gunfire, after which the teen was unresponsive, WBAL reported, adding that police haven’t said whether the teen acted alone.

Medics took the man to a hospital for treatment, according to WBAL’s news radio station.

Around 2:20 a.m., police were called to the South Haven Street location and discovered an unidentified male — later confirmed to be the 17-year-old — suffering from severe gunshot wounds, the news radio station said.

Emergency medical personnel were dispatched, and the teen was taken to a hospital in critical condition, the news radio station added.

Those with information about the incident can call police at 410-396-2100 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 866-7LOCKUP, WBAL said.

“I mean, it’s always shocking, but it seems as though this is a consistent pattern with what’s been happening lately with carjackings in the district. Carjackings are up,” Arch McKown — vice president of Baltimore Police Department Southwest District Community Relations Council, a liaison between his neighbors and police — told WBAL.

City police data shows carjackings have increased 1,000% since this time last year — from just one reported in the Southeastern District in 2023 to 11 in the same time span this year, WBAL said.

In August, a 16-year-old female driver was shot during an attempted carjacking, Baltimore police told WBAL. Police said the girl and two of her friends were seated in the parked car in the 5100 block of Levindale Road around 7:20 p.m. Aug. 3 when a masked assailant approached them, flashed a gun, and “demanded the occupants get out of the car,” the station said. Police told WBAL that the girl immediately reversed the vehicle and was trying to drive away when the assailant shot into the car, striking the teen. Police said she was taken to a hospital, the station said.

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