Argument on the dance floor led to shooting, police say
BALTIMORE — An argument on the dance floor of a lesbian nightclub spilled out onto the streets after the club closed around 2 a.m. Saturday, March 7, leaving one woman dead and two others wounded by gunfire, Baltimore police said.
The female shooter remained at large Saturday afternoon, said Officer Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman.
The woman was bumped on the dance floor of the Coconuts Cafe and got into an argument with at least two women before leaving the club, Monroe said.
Around 2 a.m., after the club closed for the night, the two friends left and one got into a car when an SUV pulled up. The woman who had been bumped on the dance floor stepped out and approached the woman outside the car from behind, beating her on the head with a metal pipe, Monroe said.
A melee ensued, and the attacker returned to the SUV and got a handgun, shooting the first victim multiple times, Monroe said. She then shot through a window of the car, wounding the second victim in the hand.
The first victim tried to run, but the shooter stood over her and fired at her again, Monroe said. That victim died at a hospital. A third woman who was standing nearby was hit by stray gunfire but wasn’t seriously injured.
The club is located north of downtown in the Mount Vernon neighborhood, home to restaurants, museums and a thriving gay nightlife. While the neighborhood is occasionally plagued by vehicle break-ins and muggings, homicides are rare.
Female homicide suspects are also fairly rare in Baltimore.
In 2008, 16 of 107 known homicide suspects in Baltimore — about 15 percent — were female, according to police department statistics. Over the past two years, women have made up about 11 percent of murder suspects in the city.