Town Hall on gun violence among Baltimore youths.

It was billed as a town hall meeting on youth violence. But more than that, it was a transformative moment for two of Baltimore’s leading media organizations. Like the eclectic group of people — victims, parents, educators, community activists, cops and politicians — who were invited as panelists and audience members, The Baltimore Banner and WJZ-TV were drawn to the University of Baltimore’s mid-Belvedere campus by these chilling statistics: Seventy-three people 19 years old or younger had been shot in Baltimore by the first week of May — 19 of them fatally.