Leonard Carolina was 40 years old when he died on Monday, October 2, 2017, four days after he was stabbed in the chest on Riggs Avenue in Baltimore. He was hurt on the evening of Thursday, September 28, 2017, and police later found him inside a house in the 2700 block of Riggs Avenue. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists his death as a homicide.
According to WMAR, police said Carolina "and another person got into a fight at the
intersection of Poplar Grove and Riggs Avenue on September 28 before 8:00 p.m." Officers were then called to a house on the 2700 block of Riggs Avenue "for a report of a stabbing." When they arrived, they "found Carolina with a stab wound to his chest." He was taken to a hospital, where he died the following Monday. The Sun's notes confirm that he "was stabbed on Sept. 28, 2017 at 8 p.m." and that the date in the database reflects the date he died.
Police did not publicly name or describe the other person in the fight, and they did not say what the two had argued about or whether they knew each other. It is not clear from the public record whether Carolina made his way into the house after he was hurt or whether the stabbing itself happened there. A volunteer-run list of the city's 2017 homicides describes the case only as "Stabbing victim found in home" and lists no suspect.
In early October 2017, Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland posted an appeal about his death under the headline "Baltimore City: Leonard Carolina murder," which began, "On 9/28/17 at around 8:00 pm Leonard Carolina was in the 2800 block of Riggs Ave when..." When police released the case, they asked anyone with information to call 410-396-2100 or Metro Crime Stoppers, and said tips could also be sent by text to 443-902-4824.
He was not forgotten by the neighborhood. On Sunday, December 31, 2017, the group Baltimore Presence held a gathering in his name at Braddish Avenue and Riggs Avenue, a short walk from where he was hurt. His name also appears in the Baltimore Beat's "print vigil" listing the people killed in the city in 2017. No obituary or family fundraiser for him could be found, and no news story described his work, his family or the people who loved him.
Riggs Avenue is a long residential street of brick rowhouses that crosses Poplar Grove Street and Braddish Avenue, with corner stores and churches scattered among the homes.
After the unrest of 2015, Baltimore recorded more than 300 homicides a year for eight straight years, and the share of killings that ended in an arrest fell sharply.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Leonard Carolina could be found in news archives or public records. More than nine years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone who was near Poplar Grove Street and Riggs Avenue shortly before 8 p.m. on September 28, 2017, or who later heard talk on Riggs Avenue that fall about who fought with him, may hold the detail detectives still need. 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).
