Locust Point Remembers Alex Wroblewski, Killed At Royal Farms

BALTIMORE, MD — It is around 9 p.m. Saturday night and the crowd at the In Like Flynn Tavern in Locust Point surrounds the bar, getting as close together as they could. Some have pints in their hands, others have shots. Almost all have tears running down their cheeks. And everyone is singing very loudly.

“When you walk through a storm/Hold your head up high/And don’t be afraid of the dark,” they almost shout. “At the end of a storm/There’s a golden sky/And the sweet silver song of a lark.”

The song, from “Carousel” by Rodgers and Hammerstein, is a rally song for the Liverpool Football Club or, as many in the United States say, the soccer team in Liverpool. On Saturday night, they were signing it honor of Alex Wroblewski, 41, a lifelong resident of Locust Point and a huge fan of the Reds as the team is known.

On Tuesday, Wroblewski, known to his friends as “Albo,” was gunned down as he stopped for a snack of milk and cookies on his way home from work at The Rowhouse Grille in Federal Hill.

Police say Wroblewski, 41, was shot in the stomach outside a Royal Farms store around 1:15 a.m. on Tuesday, police said. He died at the hospital, officials reported. Three suspects charged in the case were arrested on Wednesday in Atlanta.

People considered Wroblewski to be the “Mayor of Smalltimore,” in honor of the fact that as the big as the world gets, he makes it all seem a little smaller, bringing people together.

“He was the glue for us, for the neighborhood,” says a long time friend of his, John, who did not want to give his last name, saying “this night, this is about Albo. We’re not important tonight. What matters is the life he lived, the community he helped, how he brought people together.”

John, in a suit, tie removed, his glass having been emptied several times, has been mourning Wroblewski all day.

First there was the funeral at Our Lady of Good Counsel Roman Catholic Church. Hundreds of people had gathered from all walks of life – people who knew him as a data analyst at Merck, people who knew him from his days coaching for the South Baltimore Little League, people who knew him from work, from the neighborhood.

The crowd then moved over to Francis Scott Elementary and Middle School. Wroblewski’s dad, Alex Sr., had taught there for many years and many of the teachers knew his son first as John’s son and then as a student.

Outside the school, candles in hand, they shouted “Albo, we love you!” and listened as City Councilman Eric Costello and Police Commissioner Kevin Davis spoke of the loss to the community, the horror of crime.

And then it was on to neighborhood places like In Like Flynn.

A large man, with a beard almost as large, sits across from John, echoing those sentiments.

“You can write about Albo for days and not ever come close to capturing who he was and what he meant to the people here,” he says.

Locust Point is one of those neighborhoods where families go back generations. There are very tight-knit groups of Irish and very tight-knit groups of Italians. And they don’t necessarily spend a lot of time with each other.

Wroblewski, to the degree that it can be changed, did that.

“A lot of us arrived in Locust Point from other places and it didn’t matter to Albo,” John says. “Whether we were from out of state, from another county, or just from a different group of people, it didn’t make much difference to him.

“People were people and that’s what was important to him.”

The night is filled with stories of Wroblewski going out of his way to help someone. Whether it was walking a co-worker to her car late at night, running errands for someone who couldn’t get out, or just being there for someone, Wroblewski was the man.

There is a lot of talk of his trip to Anfield in 2015 to watch his beloved Liverpool play Manchester United.

“He made sure to tell those folks from Man U where they could go,” someone says.

Mostly, though, there were stories of a warm-hearted Alex Wroblewski who, at 41, is gone way too soon.

There is talk of Wroblewski’s Warriors, the group he organized to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was in honor of his uncle John, who died from a blood cancer. Many donated. It was not easy to say no to Wroblewski, his friends say, because he asked so little.

“He brought people together in ways no one ever could,” says John. “We’ll get over it, we’ll move on. But it will never be the same.”

One of the restaurant’s managers, who has been moving person to person offering comfort, points to the last lines of the song they had all been signing as proof that together, they will be able to move on.

And Albo will be with them.

“Walk on through the wind/Walk on through the rain/Though your dreams be tossed and blown,” the lyrics go. “Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart/And you’ll never walk alone/."

“You’ll never walk alone.”

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