He overcame his criminal past to help stop violence on Baltimore’s streets. His arrest reveals the job’s fragile balance

The Safe Streets logo in March 2022, on the door of the Belvedere Safe Streets office in Baltimore, Maryland, where Antoine Burton worked. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Antoine Burton was highly respected in his Baltimore community, even before he became what is known as a violence interrupter – a job in which he mediated numerous conflicts and connected people with resources to address what are often the root causes of violence.

He came strongly recommended to Safe Streets, a community-led violence interruption program for the city, as someone who had the credibility among his peers to steer those at the highest risk of involvement in violence, just like he once was, toward a better path, said a city official who oversees the municipally-funded program.

But last week, Burton was accused of being on the other side of the violence he worked so hard to prevent. He was arrested on first-degree attempted murder and gun charges in connection with shooting another man – who is in stable condition – while being prohibited from possessing a firearm due to past convictions, police said.

Burton was ordered to be held without bond the following day and has a preliminary hearing scheduled on July 8, court records show

He was part of a workforce that has been credited with contributing to Baltimore’s historic declines in violent crime in recent years and the lowest number of homicides recorded in nearly 50 years in 2025, city data shows.

There had been no red flags leading up to the alleged shooting that indicated he was at risk of possible violence, which both shocked and devastated city officials and community members who worked with him closely, they told CNN.

But his case underscores the delicate balancing act of being a “credible messenger”: someone who is deeply rooted in the communities they serve, whose job is to intervene in volatile and sometimes dangerous situations to reduce violence. Drawing on shared life experiences to build trust with those at risk of violence, many workers like Burton navigate a thin line between facing circumstances that could trigger past traumas and maintaining their own stability, said city officials and community leaders.

The accusations against Burton have raised questions about his criminal background and the vetting process city officials use before hiring someone for Safe Streets. The initiative has faced criticism for not disclosing the identities of its workers, including from city officials like the U.S. State’s Attorney for Baltimore City Ivan Bates who has scrutinized the “lack of transparency” around the program.

The mayor and the director of his office that oversees the program, however, say the case is an outlier and does not represent a program that is proven to be effective in reducing violent crime. Still, the incident may be a setback to the reputation of Safe Streets by seemingly confirming misconceived notions that all workers are at risk of being accused of a violent incident.

CNN has reached out to the public defender’s office for comment on Burton’s behalf.

How violence interrupters balance recovery and triggers

Sean “Weezy” Wees, who is the director of a Safe Streets site in the south Baltimore neighbourhood of Brooklyn, knows firsthand the mental battle violence interrupters face every day they go into the field.

They never know how a person will react when approaching them in the middle of a conflict. Not everyone is going to want to listen when emotions reach a boiling point, and violence interrupters have to “be able to accept and tolerate disrespect,” he said.

“That’s where the work comes in. That could be triggering for you because you used to be a man that didn’t tolerate no disrespect from nobody,” he said of violence interrupters. “We have to be able to engage and have a rapport with the type of guys that I used to be myself.”

In the early 2000s, Wees was on the other side of the violence he now works to prevent.

“I was one of the same ones carrying guns, selling dope, doing everything under the sun in the Brooklyn community, basically tearing it down through violence and drug abuse and things of that nature,” he said.

It wasn’t until his little brother was killed by gun violence in 2015 that Wees realized he wouldn’t wish that pain on his worst enemy, he said. When he was hired by Safe Streets in 2019, Wees had been on his recovery path for a few years and was already mediating conflicts in his community, he said.

Wees says he had a good relationship with Burton, and he couldn’t speculate what was going through his mind at the time of the alleged shooting, but he emphasized “he’s human, and not everybody knows how to channel or tune down once you get to 10.”

It’s critical, Wees said, for violence interrupters to know their own limits, to have their outlets and time for reflection, and to lean on their team when they get triggered.

Part of that involves meeting with their site psychologist, taking advantage of other mental health resources offered from the city and being honest about their mental state before starting a shift, Wees said.

One of those psychologists is Deidre McClellan, who provides therapeutic support for all Safe Streets workers, including Burton. When she heard about Burton’s arrest, she thought about how many staff members are often expected to carry the pain of the entire community while trying to save lives.

That was part of Burton’s struggle, she said, as he was one of the workers who are constantly exposed to grief, trauma and crises while “simultaneously trying to heal from and remove himself from the trauma that he’s experienced.”

McClellan, who works for the Catholic Charities provider that helps operate the program, visits each site biweekly to spend time with every worker to give them the space to talk about their mental and behavioral health, she says.

The incident reminded McClellan of what she teaches them about trauma: It has layers, and certain behaviors can be rooted in grief, violence, trauma, abandonment, poverty and incarceration, she said.

“It also reminded me that healing is a journey, but it’s not a destination that we reach,” McClellan said.

Questions raised about the vetting process

Safe Streets was founded in 2007 and was later adopted as the city’s flagship gun violence prevention initiative in 2022 under the mayor’s revived Group Violence Reduction Strategy effort, which aims to curb gun violence through a collaboration between law enforcement, social services and community members.

Baltimore isn’t the only city that has gone beyond the typical arrest-and-prosecution process to fight violent crime. Other major cities like Detroit, San Antonio and New York have also invested in similar community-based initiatives that involve social services and intervention by trusted community members.

Just like all Safe Streets staff, Burton underwent an intensive vetting before he was hired, said Stefanie Mavronis, the director of the mayor’s office of neighbourhood safety and engagement, which oversees Safe Streets.

It became apparent through his vetting and his early days on the job that Burton had a natural talent for conflict mediation and a passion for connecting with young people in his community, Mavronis said.

Not all Safe Streets workers have a criminal record, but some do, and the hiring process takes that into account when onboarding people who can leverage their past to work with those at risk of going down a similar path, she said.

Burton had been convicted of robbery with a dangerous and deadly weapon, escape from confinement, attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and drug-related offenses in cases from the 1990s and 2002, court records show.

In 2020, he was federally indicted and later pleaded guilty to charges of possessing a firearm despite being prohibited from doing so due to those prior convictions, court records show.

After the incident on June 7, Burton was identified as a suspect from surveillance footage from the gas station where the shooting took place, the probable cause affidavit says. When officers approached him, they recovered a handgun equipped with a magazine containing several cartridges, it says.

Burton admitted to detectives he had an altercation at the store with the victim — whose name was redacted in the affidavit — and “also advised that the firearm that was recovered was the same one that he used,” the document says.

All candidates undergo a deep background check by the Baltimore Police Department, Mavronis said. The police department referred CNN back to the mayor’s office for further questions about the vetting process.

Disqualifying factors for Safe Street workers include a history of arson, rape or crimes involving children; active warrants, probation or parole violations; or any patterns of criminal conduct that suggest the person is an active risk to public safety, Mavronis said. There’s also consideration to how long it’s been since incarceration or prior convictions, she added.

Job candidates must pass an interview panel that consists of staff from the mayor’s office of neighbourhood safety and engagement, one of the program’s administrators, police and at least one community member who they’d serve, Mavronis said.

Those who are hired then undergo monthly background checks, she said.

Ultimately, the only people who can do the job effectively “are the main group that is susceptible to relapse, be it relapse on drugs, relapse to street life, or relapse to behaviors that were prior to gainful employment,” said Ray Kelly, a community policing expert who sits on the state commission on police training and standards.

Ideal candidates are “dedicated to charting a new course for their lives and encouraging others to find another path too,” Mavronis said.

Incident does not represent Safe Streets staff, advocates say

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement he was “furious” about Burton’s alleged actions, saying he “failed to live up to our standards for frontline community violence intervention staff.”

The accusations against Burton are “fundamentally incompatible” to the mission of Safe Streets, and there hasn’t been a prior case of a staff member accused of shooting another person, Mavronis said.

There have, however, been a few instances where Safe Streets workers were arrested on weapons charges after they had left the job, Mavronis said, and at least one involving an active employee who was arrested on drugs charges.

City leaders continue to double down on research that has shown the program’s effectiveness. A recent study from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions found the program is associated with a 42 per cent reduction in homicides involving people from age 15 to 24 and a 21 per cent reduction in youth nonfatal shootings in neighbourhoods from 2007 to 2023.

Despite the positive impact of programs like Safe Streets, some in the community and city government have voiced criticisms.

The city state’s attorney cut ties with the mayor’s office of neighbourhood safety and engagement in December, while criticizing the office for not disclosing the identities of Safe Streets workers and alleging there is no oversight for the funding and operational spending of the program, according to his letter to the mayor at the time.

“The veil of secrecy that surrounds this program is widely known and continues to keep the public, my prosecutors, and the city government from truly understanding the exact nature of the work being provided by these ‘violence interrupters,’” Bates said in the letter.

Bates declined to comment on the case when contacted by CNN because he is prosecuting Burton in the alleged shooting.

The mayor’s office of neighbourhood safety and engagement said it provides “strong fiscal oversight and accounting of how public dollars connected to the program are spent.”

Mayor Scott has in past statements defended keeping the identities of the workers secret, saying revealing them would compromise their safety while doing an inherently dangerous job, according to CNN affiliate WBFF.

There’s always pushback when it comes to investing in “unorthodox methods of violence interruption,” especially when those funds would be directed toward historically disinvested communities, said Kelly.

While trust in the program may be damaged due to the case against one of their colleagues, the staff in recent days has only intensified their presence in communities, Mavronis said.

Ultimately, the staff who “put their lives on the line every day” will have to deal with the fallout, she said.

Every staff member across 10 sites came together a day after Burton’s arrest to share their thoughts and feelings, she said. What became clear was that they want even more access to mental health support, and they are doubling down on their efforts to check in with each other, Mavronis said.

The Belvedere neighbourhood site where Burton worked has been hardest hit, according to Wees. “He’s part of a brotherhood; your team is your team… You’re used to seeing them every day,” he added.

When he spoke with his fellow site directors this week, Wees relayed the same message: “Man, it’s just time to go harder.”

“If the community or the public have any doubt in the work we’re doing, it’s time for us to show them why they shouldn’t doubt us,” Wees said. “You can’t break down a whole organization that’s built around community violence just because of one person’s actions.”

“You never know what that person was going through that day; you never know what that person was going through that week or that month. So, as a human being, who are you to judge?”

By Emma Tucker, CNN