Thomas Atkins Jr., a 32-year-old man, was stabbed in the 400 block of North Kenwood Avenue in East Baltimore and died of his injuries, with the Baltimore Sun's homicide database listing his death on Sunday, February 26, 2012. The Baltimore Police Department investigated the killing, and the database lists it as a homicide.
According to the Baltimore Sun, police found Atkins around 1 a.m. in the 2800 block of Orleans Street "suffering from multiple stab wounds."
He was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he died. Investigators came to believe that the stabbing itself had happened a short distance away, in the 400 block of North Kenwood Avenue, and the Sun's homicide database notes that "it was determined the stabbing occurred" there. The paper reported that police "released no other information about the stabbing."
WBAL-TV reported the same basic facts, saying officers responding to Orleans Street found him "suffering from multiple stab wounds to his body," and that "detectives believe the victim was stabbed in the 400 block of N. Kenwood Avenue." The station urged anyone with information to contact the homicide unit. A weekly Baltimore Sun roundup of the city's killings described him as found "lying on the sidewalk bleeding in the 2800 block of Orleans Street in East Baltimore's McElderry Park."
The gap between where he was stabbed and where he was found suggests that Atkins may have moved, or been moved, from Kenwood Avenue toward Orleans Street after he was hurt, though the reports do not say how he got there. They also do not say whether he knew his attacker, what led to the stabbing, or whether anyone else was with him. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser for him surfaced in the research for this story, and searches for his name are crowded with other men named Thomas Atkins, including his namesake, an older Baltimore man who died of cancer later that year.
McElderry Park is a rowhouse neighborhood in East Baltimore, east of the Johns Hopkins Hospital campus. Orleans Street is one of the main roads running through the east side, and North Kenwood Avenue crosses it, so the two locations named in the reports sit close together.
Baltimore recorded roughly 200 to 280 homicides a year between 2007 and 2014, one of the highest rates of any large American city, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Thomas Atkins could be found in news archives or public records. More than 14 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone who was on North Kenwood Avenue or Orleans Street in McElderry Park in the early hours of that weekend in late February 2012 may have seen him, heard an argument or noticed someone leaving the area.
Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
