Drinks continued to flow at businesses around Federal Hill’s Cross Street Market Saturday evening — less than 24 hours after a murder occurred just a block over.
A 24-year-old man was shot and killed at the 1100 block of Marshall Street just after 1:30 Saturday morning. He was pronounced dead at Shock Trauma.
Workers and business owners were unsure how the incident will impact business as baseball rolls into the playoffs and football now in full swing, but they hope the most recent instance of violence to hit Federal Hill won’t be a deterrent for fans that traditionally flood their establishments after games.
“I am not particularly concerned, but I do think there will be some hits bars take,” Billy McClean, 27, told The Baltimore Sun in an interview late Saturday afternoon.
McClean manages Pub Dogs, a small bar on East Cross Street across from the market. He said that the bar, which is smaller than some of its neighbors, varies in business after Orioles games depending on the day and game attendance. On weekend nights, he said “a lot” of people tend to come through for a drink after the game.
While some establishments were light on guests around 6 p.m. Saturday, game watchers filled bars like Country Club and guests played ping pong at Crossbar as the Orioles hosted one of their last home games of the regular season. Security stood at the door of several bars — a usual sight — waiting for fans to flood them after the game.
More people started to show the darker it became.
Patrons milled about at the actual market at Cross Street, which normally fills with people after day games, in spite of the bullet hole that shattered one of its windows. People sipped cocktails at Watershed, and ate burgers and drank beer at Southside Burger Bar.
Instances of violent crime saw a slight uptick in Federal Hill from 2022 to 2023.
According to a neighborhood crime analysis from the Baltimore Police Department, there were 70 instances of violent crime in the neighborhood in 2023 vs. the 62 that occurred in 2022.
There were no homicides in Federal Hill in 2022. A single murder occurred in the neighborhood last year.
Off-duty Howard County Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Demby, 23, was shot multiple times on the 1100 block of South Charles Street last September. He was pronounced dead at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
McClean said Demby’s murder impacted business last year.
“That was a tough one,” he said. “That impacted all the bars, for sure.”
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