Dashawn Anderson, 31, was stabbed on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, in the 1700 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in West Baltimore. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists his death as a homicide.
The attack happened in broad daylight. Officers on patrol received multiple reports of a cutting in the block at about 1:35 that Wednesday afternoon, CBS Baltimore reported. When they arrived they found Anderson with cuts to the chest.
An ambulance took him to Shock Trauma, where he was pronounced dead. CBS Baltimore reported that he was attacked with a sharp object near the Upton Metro station.
The next day, police released surveillance video showing two people walking away from the scene, and asked the public to help identify them. WMAR described the pair as suspects, and an independent online list of Baltimore homicides noted that "police need help with suspect IDs." The same list recorded an $8,000 reward for information in the case. No names have been released, and no one has been publicly charged.
A relative spoke briefly to WJZ in the days after the killing. "It's really very hard," the relative said. "Gotta stop the violence. Life is too short." A memorial fundraiser posted on January 19, 2023, the day after his death, which appears to be for him, read, "Sadly, we are raising funds to say farewell to our beloved Dashawn Anderson." His name was later read among the city's victims of violence in community memorials and prayer lists.
Little else about his life has been made public. The record does not say what led to the attack, whether he knew the people seen leaving, or whether he was waiting for a train.
Pennsylvania Avenue was once the heart of Black cultural life in Baltimore, home to theaters and jazz clubs where famous performers played in the middle of the twentieth century. Today the stretch near the Upton Metro stop is a busy corridor of shops, bus stops and rowhouses, and CBS Baltimore noted that the killing came weeks after a separate deadly shooting at another West Baltimore Metro stop. The list of homicides noted that the block lay inside a Group Violence Reduction Strategy area, a zone where the city focused its violence prevention efforts.
Homicides in Baltimore began falling steeply in 2023 and 2024, reaching the lowest totals in decades, yet many killings from those years remain unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Dashawn Anderson could be found in news archives or public records. More than three years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near the Upton Metro station or the 1700 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in the early afternoon of January 18, 2023, or who recognizes the two people in the police video, may be able to help. 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).
