BALTIMORE — Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday that she has fired Police Commissioner Anthony Batts two and a half months after the city broke into riots following the death of a man injured in police custody.
Rawlings-Blake announced her decision in a three-paragraph news release that also noted she has named deputy police commissioner Kevin Davis as interim commissioner.
Rawlings did not give a reason, but the move comes amid a spike in the city’s homicide rate.
Baltimore was rocked with civil unrest in late April after black resident Freddie Gray died a week after suffering a critical spinal injury in police custody. Six police officers have been criminally charged in Gray’s death.
Since the rioting stopped, the city has seen a sharp increase in violence, with 155 homicides this year, a 48 percent increase over the same period last year.
