BALTIMORE — On the one-year mark of Baltimore’s largest mass shooting, city officials, residents and victims’ families are pausing Tuesday to remember the two lives lost and everyone doing the “hard work of healing.”

Last July, gunfire broke out after midnight at the Brooklyn Homes community’s annual Brooklyn Day block party, turning an event “about love” into a bloody crime scene. Thirty people were shot, two fatally. Both the Housing Authority of Baltimore City and the Baltimore Police Department had little presence at the event, saying they weren’t aware it was planned.

The shocking incident created “scars and trauma,” Mayor Brandon Scott said in a Tuesday statement, that “continue to ripple through our entire city.”

“The tragedy shook our community to its core, forever impacted families, and irreversibly altered lives,” Scott said.

In the year since, Baltimore prepared after-action reports examining the role city agencies played. The police department moved to discipline some officers, including looking to fire two employees. Other city agencies have tweaked policies, while the Housing Authority of Baltimore City beefed up its security presence. Meanwhile, Brooklyn Homes residents have been left looking to heal.

On Tuesday, the city is partnering with a host of community organizations for a Healing and Wellness Event in Brooklyn beginning at 2 p.m., specifically geared toward Brooklyn Homes residents. And in Glen Burnie, the family of one of the young people killed, Aaliyah Gonzalez, is hosting a memorial event in her honor.

Krystal Gonzalez, Aaliyah’s mother, said she didn’t want to memorialize her 18-year-old daughter with a candlelight vigil like so many others she has attended.

“The thought of it made me sick to my stomach,” she said. “The sadness is just palpable. It’s exhausting. I didn’t want any part of that when it came to July 2 this year.”

Instead, her family planned a fun event for the community that reflected her daughter and her family’s upbeat outlook on life. Gonzalez emphasized that the festival celebrating Aaliyah’s life will include security, in contrast to July 2, 2023.

Gonzalez and Aaliyah’s brother Rashon Shelborne passed out hundreds of fliers to advertise the event, which they hope to hold annually. “We don’t want July 2 to be a day of grief. We already know it’s going to be a sad day, but we’re going to change the narrative and we’re going to celebrate Aaliyah’s life,” Shelborne said.

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