A man was shot and killed after he swung a baseball bat at a person who cleans windshields at intersections for cash, Baltimore's police commissioner said Thursday.
The 48-year-old man who was shot was driving through an intersection near Baltimore's Inner Harbor in the afternoon when he encountered so-called squeegee workers and had a heated interaction, Commissioner Michael Harrison told reporters.
The man drove through the intersection, parked his car and came back with a baseball bat, Harrison said.
“He swung the bat at one or more of those squeegee workers. In return, one of the squeegee workers pulled out a gun and fired, striking this male victim,” the commissioner said, adding that police didn't know if he hit anyone with the bat.
The man was pronounced dead at a hospital. His name wasn't released.
The workers fled the scene on foot, Harrison said. No arrests had been made as of late afternoon.
A witness told The Baltimore Sun that he saw a squeegee worker shoot the man after he got out of his car with the bat. Cody Bro, who was visiting Baltimore for a convention, said he saw the driver “arguing with one of the squeegee people — the people who squeegee your windows.”
Squeegee workers, also known as squeegee kids, consist mostly of teens from low-income neighborhoods who clean off drivers' windshields at intersections in exchange for money. Some drivers have complained about them.
