BALTIMORE (AP) – In the corner of his office, John Williams set down a gilded headstone in the shape of a teddy bear. Williams had just made it to honor an 8-month old child killed by his father – one of the sad tasks he performs as a director of a funeral parlor in a city riddled by violence.
Coming off of the most violent year in Baltimore’s recent history, Williams has buried more bodies – many of them young black men, many gunned down in the city’s west side – than ever before. In a normal month, he might do three funerals. This past summer, he buried two people a week. Some died naturally, of illness or old age. Most showed up pierced by knives or bullets.
In a city that routinely leads the country in violent crime, Baltimore’s murder toll has proved harrowing, even to those in the death business.
“In this city, we think homicide is just another way to die,” Williams said. “But to hear a mother’s cries when she sees her son for the first time after he’s been murdered. To hear brothers and sisters and girlfriends go through that grief. To hear those shrill cries, day in and day out, week in and week out, it does something to you.”
“I try never, ever to get numb to this. But you have to shield yourself sometimes. Homicide is becoming my normal.”