A 27-year-old man who was fatally stabbed Saturday evening became Baltimore’s 300th homicide victim this year, a gruesome milestone for a city that has struggled to curb rampant violence of a kind not seen since the 1990s.

Four hours later, the tally reached 301.

The man who became No. 300 was found with torso wounds about 4:45 p.m. on West Baltimore Street, police said. The next victim, a 22-year-old man, was found shot in the chest on Annapolis Road just after 9 p.m..

The swelling death count has both disturbed and confounded a community still struggling to recover from riots that followed the death of Freddie Gray in April.

“Three hundred lives wasted,” said Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP. “All those people had potential.”

Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis released a statement saying that public safety in the city “requires sustainable partnerships founded in mutual trust and respect.”

Read the article “Baltimore’s 300th Killing this Year: A Violent Milestone in a Riot-Scarred City” on washingtonpost.com.