A few years ago, in a desperate effort to avoid being taken over by a hedge fund, employees of The Baltimore Sun publicly begged a local entrepreneur to buy their publication.

That request was recently granted: a Maryland businessman, David D. Smith, purchased the legendary newspaper and returned the 186-year-old paper to local hands for the first time in nearly 40 years.

But Mr Smith may not be quite what The Sun's journalists were hoping for. According to interviews with current and former employees of the paper, Mr. Smith's purchase has already raised alarms among many inside and outside the newsroom, who fear he will impose his political interests on the organization in a final coda for a once-proud newspaper that is struggling with a long-term decline.

Mr. Smith is executive chairman of the conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the nation's largest operators of local television stations with nearly 200 stations, including Fox45 in Baltimore. Sinclair has been a reliable ally for former President Donald J. Trump; Mr. Smith reportedly told Mr. Trump said in 2016: “We are here to deliver your message.” In 2018, the company required its stations to do so movie promos echoing some of Mr. Trump's attacks on the news media.

Mr. Smith has frequently supported conservative causes. According to tax records, his family foundation has donated more than $500,000 in recent years to Project Veritas, a right-wing group that has attempted to covertly capture political opponents and journalists.

The Sun's new owner did little to address internal concerns during a three-hour meeting with staff members on Tuesday. According to two people in the meeting, Mr. Smith told the newsroom that he had read the paper only a few times in recent months and not at all in the past four decades. He urged them to increase profits and said he wanted the publication to emulate the local Sinclair station, Fox45. He also said at the meeting that he wanted the newspaper to report on corruption. (The Sun won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for do exactly that.)

“I think it will be a disaster,” John E. McIntyre, an editor at The Sun for 34 years, said of Mr. Smith's ownership. Mr. McIntyre took a buyout in 2021 and now does occasional freelance work for the new crosstown rival, The Baltimore Banner.

“What I expect is that he will make good on what he said, to make The Baltimore Sun the same as his TV station Fox45: a megaphone for right-wing disinformation and contempt for the city of Baltimore,” Mr. McIntyre said. added.

The Sun, Maryland's largest newspaper, has suffered declining advertising revenue and print circulation in recent years, with virtually all newspapers facing the same headwinds. The newspaper once had about 500 journalists and numerous foreign bureaus. Now The Sun and its sister newspapers employ around 150 people, including those on the business side.

In 2021, Alden Global Capital, an investment firm that has a playbook of buying local newspapers before costs come down, bought The Sun. The newspaper's employees and others in the community tried to fend off Alden's purchase. In February 2021, Stewart Bainum Jr., a Maryland hotel magnate and lifelong Democrat, reached a deal to buy The Sun and two of its sister publications for $65 million, with a plan to run them through a nonprofit.

But that deal fell through and Mr. Bainum eventually founded local rival news organization The Baltimore Banner, which hired some of The Sun's top reporters and has nearly doubled its newsroom in less than two years to 70, nearly the same size as The Sun. The flag reported earlier this week about the staff meeting with Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith bought The Sun and several other newspapers from Alden on Jan. 12 with a partner, Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator. The new owners said they had used personal funds independently of Sinclair. The price of the deal was not disclosed, but Mr. Smith told the newsroom at the meeting that the deal was in “nine figures,” or at least $100 million.

Guy Gilmore, Chief Operating Officer of Alden's MediaNews Group, said in a statement: “We are always open to discussions about local ownership and are pleased that our premier newspaper operations and technology platform will continue to provide services to The Baltimore Sun.”

Mr. Smith, through a representative, declined to comment for this article. He told The Sun an interview Monday that he bought the paper because “we have an absolute responsibility to serve the public interest” and that he thought the paper could be “tremendously profitable.”

Mr. Williams, his business partner, said in a telephone interview Friday that employees had misinterpreted Mr. Smith's comments during the staff meeting.

“What matters is what we do – that's what we'll be judged on – not what someone says at the first meeting, but what we do every day in that newsroom,” Mr Williams said.

He added: “Why would we spend a fortune buying this just to destroy it? That makes no sense.”

Mr. Williams owns a Sinclair-affiliated media company and has had a long career as a radio and television show host and columnist. In 2005, Mr. Williams admitted that he had been paid $240,000 by the George W. Bush administration to promote the administration's No Child Left Behind law in his columns and elsewhere.

Mr Williams said personal politics would have “absolutely no” impact on The Sun's journalism, and that he wanted rigorous and factual reporting. “More than anything, we need balance in reporting,” he said.

Trif Alatzas, The Sun's publisher and editor-in-chief, would continue in this role, Mr Williams said.

The Baltimore Sun Guild, which represents journalists at the newspaper, said in a statement rack after the staff meeting: “The editorial direction he described – focused on clicks rather than journalistic value – concerned many of our members, as did his attitude toward vulnerable communities in the city we love.”

Journalists at The Sun have not heard from or seen Mr Smith since the meeting, said two employees who spoke on condition of anonymity. Nothing has immediately changed in their daily work, the people said.

The Sun has continued to cover its new owner. An article published reported on Wednesday that Mr. Smith has contributed $100,000 to a PAC supporting Sheila Dixon, a Democrat and former mayor of Baltimore who is challenging the city's current mayor. Thursday newspaper published an article about Mr. Smith's involvement in financing a ballot petition asking for the size of the Baltimore City Council in half.

Mr. Bainum said in an interview Friday that The Baltimore Banner had seen a big increase in new subscriptions since announcing the sale of The Sun.

“We launched the Banner 19 months ago to bring more high-quality journalism to Baltimore and Maryland,” he said. “If these sales of The Sun reach even greater heights, it will certainly be a boost for the region. The more local news, the better.”

External critics were pessimistic about The Sun's new ownership. Guardian media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote: “You often hear the desire for more local ownership, because national vulture capital chains have done so much damage. But as the situation in Baltimore shows, local ownership can be just as bad.”

David Simon, creator of the TV show “The Wire” and former Sun reporter, said in a wire on the social media platform

Josh Tyrangiel, a media executive and filmmaker who sits on the board of The Baltimore Banner, said in an interview about Mr. Smith: “He's the Grim Reaper. And since he clearly knows nothing about journalism, he will be a carefree Grim Reaper.”

“The sun faces a miserable, undignified death,” he added.

The Baltimore Sun, Maryland's largest newspaper, has been sold to David D. Smith, executive chairman of the national Sinclair network of television stations and other media outlets.

Mr. Smith, who grew up in Baltimore, bought Baltimore Sun Media, which includes The Sun, in a private deal from Alden Global Capital, an investment firm that has become the nation's second-largest newspaper operator. Sun Media also includes The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, and several other publications in the Baltimore area.

It was unclear how much Mr. Smith paid for Baltimore Sun Media.

Triffon G. Alatzas, the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Sun, said in an email to the newsroom on Monday that Mr. Smith had purchased The Sun “in support of his hometown newspaper.” Mr Alatzas said Mr Smith would meet with The Sun staff on Tuesday.

In a interview with the newspaperMr Smith said: 'We have an absolute responsibility to serve the public interest,' adding: 'I believe the newspaper can be hugely profitable and successful and, over time, serve a greater public interest.'

Like many city newspapers, The Sun has seen it circulation and advertising revenues are eroding as readers have gone online to get their news. Alden, which acquired The Sun in 2021 when it purchased the Chicago-based newspaper Tribune Publishing chain, has implemented aggressive cost savings.

The Sun, which dates back to 1837, also faces competition from The Baltimore flag, a nonprofit subscription website that began publishing in 2022 after hiring some of The Sun's top reporters. The Banner was founded by Stewart Bainum Jr., a hotel magnate and former politician who tried unsuccessfully Buy The Sun.

The Sun will now have a local owner for the first time in almost four decades. It was owned by Times Mirror, a Los Angeles-based media company that included The Los Angeles Times, before being sold to the Tribune Company.

Baltimore Sun Media employs more than 150 employees across its publications, with more than 230,000 paid subscribers for its print and digital editions.

The Sun will differentiate itself from Sinclair, which is based in Maryland and owns about 200 television stations, including the Fox affiliate in Baltimore. In 2018, Sinclair was criticized when anchors at the stations were assigned to read an editorial about media bias. Mr Smith strongly disagreed with the criticism of the scripts.

Mr. Smith is the latest wealthy investor to try to revive a news organization in recent years. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong bought The Los Angeles Times in 2018and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, bought The Washington Post in 2013.

Baltimore Sun Media has won 16 Pulitzer Prizes. The Capital Gazette won a special Pulitzer citation for reporting on a shooting that killed five employees at its offices in June 2018.

The city of Baltimore is suing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for blocking access to data on guns used to commit crimes — information it says is essential to tackling gun violence and identifying sellers who flooding the city with weapons.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, the city’s lawyers argued that the ATF adopted an overly narrow interpretation of legislation enacted by Republicans in Congress in 2003 at the urging of the National Rifle Association. The law blocked public access to gun trace data collected by the federal government on weapons recovered from the nation’s crime scenes.

The so-called Tiahrt Amendment, named for its sponsor, former Rep. Todd Tiahrt, Republican of Kansas, prevents the use of federal funding to release information about traces recorded in the federal firearms tracking database — tantamount to a disclosure blackout.

An ATF spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The agency’s lawyers are skeptical that legal challenges to the Tiahrt amendment will succeed in the appeals court, according to officials with knowledge of the situation.

Local police forces have access to tracking information, but are often reluctant to share it with local governments. The ATF — despite President Biden’s pledge to improve access to firearms data — has flatly refused to make public information that could identify manufacturers, gun sellers and federally licensed dealers most likely to sell to criminals or straw buyers.

“We actually need all the data,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott, who added that the information was particularly crucial for identifying gun dealers outside the city, in neighboring Baltimore County and elsewhere, whose guns often end up being used to commit crimes to commit. Baltimore.

“By limiting our ability to deploy effective public safety strategies, the Tiahrt Amendment, put forward by NRA-backed politicians and Congress, endangers the lives of residents not only here in Baltimore City, but across the entire United States of America,” Mr. Scott said. reporters announced the lawsuit on Tuesday.

In the filing, the city cited three crimes that required access to tracking data: the murder of Izaiah Carter, 16, who was shot near his school in East Baltimore in March; the death of Maya Morton, 23, who was caught in the crossfire of a shooting in January while driving with her two young children; and a shootout at Carver Vocational-Technical High School in October that seriously injured two teenagers.

In 2020, President Biden campaigned on a promise to repeal the Tiahrt Amendment. But those efforts failed, and an attempt to repeal the bipartisan gun law passed in 2022 was unsuccessful.

Gun rights groups and gun manufacturers have lobbied intensely to block legislative efforts to roll back the amendment, arguing that the effort is a political stunt to “name and shame” law-abiding federally licensed dealers whose guns inevitably end up in the wrong hands ‘.

But the trace data, in the rare cases that have been made public, has illuminated the avenues through which legally manufactured and legally sold firearms are acquired by criminals.

From 2014 to 2020, six small retailers in South and Northeast Philadelphia sold more than 11,000 guns that were later recovered in criminal investigations or confiscated from owners who obtained them illegally, the report said. a study of firearms tracking data in Pennsylvania by the gun control group Brady, the most comprehensive analysis of its kind in decades.

The report’s conclusions confirmed what law enforcement officials have long known. A small percentage of gun shops — 1.2 percent of the state’s licensed dealers, according to Brady — were responsible for 57 percent of firearms that ended up in the hands of criminals through illegal resale or outright purchases by gun buyers who turned them over to people who excluded were the possession of weapons.

A similar dynamic exists in cities like Baltimore and Chicago, which have no legal gun dealers in their jurisdictions. The purchasing activities migrate to neighboring areas or to nearby states where firearms can easily be traded in the trunks of cars.

Gun violence in Baltimore has declined somewhat over the past two years, and this year the number of homicides will slowly drop below 300. for the first time in almost ten years. But it still remains one of the most dangerous cities in the country, and many of the guns used to commit crimes there are transported from other places with looser gun laws — made easier by its central location on I-95 -corridor.

City officials estimate that 60 to 70 percent of firearms used in crimes occurred outside Maryland’s borders between 2017 and 2021.

The purpose of the lawsuit is to zero in on “trends in how crime guns are entering communities,” said Alla Lefkowitz, director of litigation at Everytown, who helped draft the complaint.

“Are one or two gun shops responsible for most of the crime guns in a city – or does it come from a more diverse source?” she asked. “Do most crime guns come from within or outside the state? What are the most popular crime weapons? This database is a very powerful tool.”

A 17-year-old was arrested Friday and charged with gun felony charges as detectives investigate whether he was involved in a shooting at a block party in Baltimore on Sunday that killed two people and injured 28 others, police said.

In a statementBaltimore police described the teen as a “young person of interest” in the shooting and said he had been charged with possession of a firearm by a minor, possession of assault weapons, reckless endangerment and having a gun in a vehicle.

The teen, who has not been publicly identified, has not been charged with the neighborhood party shooting, though the statement said detectives believe he was “involved” in the deadly gunfire that traumatized many in the city’s southern Brooklyn neighborhood.

Members of the city’s homicide unit and SWAT team arrested the teen at 7 a.m. after executing a search warrant, police said.

The arrest marked the first possible breakthrough in the investigation into the Baltimore shooting, which was staggering for the sheer number of victims even in a city long plagued by gun violence.

Fifteen of the injured victims were between the ages of 13 and 17, police said. The two dead were also young: Aaliyah Gonzalez, 18, and Kylis Fagbemi, 20, police said.

Three victims remained in hospitals on Friday, police said, and were considered to be in reasonable condition.

Mayor Brandon M. Scott said in a statement Friday that bringing the perpetrators of the crime to justice was the city’s number one priority. 1 priority,” and that he was grateful to those “who had a hand in bringing in this interesting individual.”

“Today’s arrest is a signal that with the help of the community we can get justice for Aaliyah, Kylis and everyone affected by this tragedy – and the people of Baltimore have my word we won’t rest until we do.” “, he said.

Michael S. Clinkscale, the teen’s attorney, said his client told him he didn’t have a gun with him at the party. He stressed that the teen had not been charged with murder or attempted manslaughter.

“He’s a good young man and he says he was scared like everyone else,” Mr Clinkscale said in an interview on Friday. “He ran away from the shooting. He was actually shot in the lower left leg.”

The shooting raised questions about why there were no police officers at the block party around the Brooklyn Homes, the public housing complex at the center of the event. Although it has no set date, the party has been held every summer for 27 years and last year agents attended.

Acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said at a news conference Monday that the department learned of the party’s existence just “a few hours” before the shooting, which occurred just after 12:30 a.m. on Sunday. He said multiple weapons were used.

Commissioner Worley said the department had found advertisements or social media mentions of the party in recent years and sent agents to check them out. But this year, he said, analysts and one of the department’s top intelligence officers had found none of the posts. He also noted that no one had applied for a permit for the event, although he acknowledged that they had in previous years.

“We knew it was going to happen at some point, but we had no indication it would happen that day because we’d never seen any advertisements for it,” said Commissioner Worley.

Videos from the party showed hundreds of teens and youth dancing and singing along with local rappers. As they shouted and waved their hands in the air, many held up phones to capture the revelry on a hot summer night.

After midnight, those phones captured scenes of chaos and terror as teens ran from gunfire, people fell to the ground, and a mother wailed as she met officers at the crime scene where her daughter, Ms. Gonzalez, was fatally shot.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reporting contributed.

Videos from a Saturday night block party show hundreds of teens and young adults dancing in Brooklyn’s Baltimore neighborhood and singing along to the lyrics of local rappers. While shouting and waving their hands in the air, many hold up phones to capture the revelry on a hot summer night.

But the videos, released shortly after midnight, tell a tale of terror and tragedy: teens running from gunfire, people falling to the ground, and a mother crying as she encountered police officers at the massive crime scene where her daughter was fatally shot.

A barrage of gunfire had swept through South Baltimore’s Brooklyn Day celebration, killing two young people and injuring 28 others. Half of the shots were under the age of 18, police said.

Even for a city ravaged by gun violence in recent years, the number of casualties was staggering, amounting to more people than would fit in an average high school classroom. In the past decade, only 10 other shootings in the United States have resulted in so many gunshot victims, according to the Gun Violence Archivesa research group, although many mass shootings have claimed more lives.

On Monday, many people in the Brooklyn borough remained shocked, with many city leaders urging people to provide information, even as police received sharp questions about why no officers were at the event. While it has no set date, the event has been held every summer for 27 years, the mayor said, and last year officers attended.

Acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the department learned of the party’s existence just “a few hours” before the shooting, which occurred just after 12:30 a.m. on Sunday. He said multiple guns had been used and police had not yet arrested anyone.

He and the mayor, Brandon M. Scott, deflected questions about the absence of officers and tried to draw attention to the perpetrators of the violence.

“We won’t stop until we find those responsible and hold them accountable — we don’t,” Scott said. “Having said that, we need the help of our residents and anyone who knows anything to come forward and speak up so that we can bring to justice those who recklessly perpetrate this type of violence.”

Mr Scott referred to a video circulating on social media of a teenage boy at the party showing off a gun and said the adults present have shied away from their responsibility to keep younger people in check.

“There were grown adults filming young people with guns saying nothing, doing nothing, not saying to the police, ‘Hey, I know this teenager is here at this event with a gun,'” Mr Scott said. “There was a time when even the toughest on the street, if they saw a young kid with something like that, they’d step in there and do something.”

Still, city leaders shed little light on why police didn’t know about the event sooner. In the days leading up to the party, several people had mentioned it on social media platforms. On Twitter alone, a handful of people discussed the event in public posts two days before it took place. One user wrote on Thursday that “all of Baltimore” was “talking about going to Brooklyn Day.”

Commissioner Worley said the department had found advertisements or social media mentions of the party in recent years and sent agents to check them out. But this year, he said, analysts and one of the department’s top intelligence officers had found none of the posts. He also noted that no one had applied for a permit for the event, though he acknowledged that the same was true of previous Brooklyn Day celebrations.

“We knew it was going to happen at some point, but we had no indication it would happen that day because we’d never seen any ads for it,” he said.

The shooting comes as Baltimore’s homicide rate has fallen slightly from recent years. according to The Baltimore Banner. But it has sparked fears that such a large, public shooting could spark a wave of retaliatory violence. The city saw an average of about 333 homicides per year between 2015 and 2022. according to The Baltimore Sun.

Krystal Gonzalez, whose 18-year-old daughter, Aaliyah Gonzalez, was one of the two killed, said Monday she felt more pain than she had ever felt in her life. She said with tears in her eyes that she recently organized a party for Aaliyah to celebrate her graduation from high school.

Aaliyah had worked at Starbucks, worked extra shifts and saved money for a car, her mother said. For much of high school, Aaliyah had longed to go to college out of state, but she changed her mind shortly before graduating and planned to enroll at Anne Arundel Community College near her home in Glen Burnie, a suburb of Baltimore.

“Suddenly, in senior year, as it’s about to end, she said, ‘Mom, I don’t want to leave; I want to stay here,” Mrs. Gonzalez himself. “She wanted to stay with us.”

Ms. Gonzalez said she didn’t think Aaliyah had ever been to the Brooklyn borough before, and that Aaliyah had spent the night with a friend in suburban Baltimore who decided to go to the party.

“She was such a good girl,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “She would analyze people — why do they feel that way? What can I do to help? – that’s who Aaliyah was. She was so, so smart and sensitive, and I swear this world didn’t deserve her. She was too good to be here.”

On Sunday morning, Ms. Gonzalez said, she was awakened by her husband’s screams of “No!” after someone used Aaliyah’s phone to call him and tell him she had been shot. Ms Gonzalez said she couldn’t believe the victim was her daughter and rushed to the crime scene, only to be stopped by officers who told her she didn’t want to see her daughter’s body.

“We need to find out who did this,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “It hurts so much.”

Police identified the other victim as 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi. Commissioner Worley said officers are still watching videos and interviewing victims.

On Monday afternoon, remnants around the Brooklyn Homes, the public housing complex that was the centerpiece of the event, were a haunting reminder of what had happened the day before. Another truck with snow cones was parked in the parking lot of the complex. A few lawn chairs and a fuzzy purple stool stood outside rows of identical, squat redbrick apartments.

People living in the area said the party had started as expected, although perhaps with more young children than usual. There was a DJ in the parking lot, people dancing and vendors serving food.

Anthony Wicks, who lives nearby, said he watched over his 6-year-old daughter as she played in their front yard at the party on Saturday night.

Hearing gunshots, Mr. Wicks grabbed his daughter and ran. As he ran, he was hit in the side of his torso by a bullet that had ricocheted off something else.

“I almost was; it was almost my daughter,” he said Monday. “The kids aren’t even allowed to go outside. It is too much.”

Donna Owens contributed reporting from Baltimore. Alain Delaqueriere contributed research.

At least two people were killed in a shooting at a neighborhood party in Baltimore on Sunday morning, police said.

Just after 12:30 a.m., officers received multiple calls for a shooting at 800 Gretna Court, in Baltimore’s southern Brooklyn borough, the city’s acting police commissioner Colonel Richard Worley said at a news conference Sunday morning.

A woman was found dead at the scene, Colonel Worley said, adding that the other victim was also an adult, but he gave no further details. Several other people suffered gunshot wounds, he said, and three were in critical condition. Nine people were taken to hospitals at the scene and 20 others took themselves to area hospitals, Colonel Worley said.

“This morning, all of Baltimore is in mourning,” Brandon Scott, the city’s mayor, said at the news conference, calling the shooting a “reckless, cowardly act.”

Colonel Worley said investigators were reviewing the video to try to identify a suspect.

“We won’t stop until we find you,” Mr. Scott said.

He added that the shooting highlighted the need to address the “over-proliferation of illegal guns on our streets,” and the opportunity for those who shouldn’t have them to get their hands on them.

In 2022, Baltimore recorded more than 300 homicides for the eighth consecutive year. despite new initiatives by city officials. In the first half of 2023 there were 138, according to to The Baltimore Sun.