If you walk around certain areas of Baltimore City, you're bound to see a liquor store.
Walk a few more blocks in either direction, and you're likely to see another.
According to a 2018 Johns Hopkins University study, every 10% increase where alcohol outlets were located, there was also a 4.2% increase in violent crimes.
A FOX45 investigation determined three deadly shootings in the first month of the year, were just a few hundred feet from a liquor store.
According to the Baltimore City Liquor License Board, there are 1221 liquor stores in the city of Baltimore.
One of those stores, the location where 13-year-old Kesley Washington was shot in the head and died.
Retired FBI Agent Tyrone Powers says liquor stores lead many of the things city leaders have been sounding the alarm about.
“We don’t talk about those open-air liquor stores which attract drug dealing, which attracts the violence that we’re talking about," said Powers.
23-year-old mother Maya Morton was shot and killed, just around the corner from a West Baltimore liquor store. Two small children were also injured in that fatal shooting.
Councilman for that district, Eric Costello, acknowledging the effects of businesses like liquor stores in the area.
“That’s one of the largest open air drug markets in the state of Maryland if not the largest at Pennsylvania Ave and Laurens St.," said Costello.