BALTIMORE — Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison sought to reassure residents at the end of a holiday weekend that left eight dead and four others injured, even as city residents remain ordered to stay at home because of the novel coronavirus.

In a news conference Monday afternoon, Harrison called the level of violence “incomprehensible and unconscionable,” but noted two of the shootings had happened inside residences, suggesting that the victims knew the perpetrators of the violence.

“These are not random. We know for a fact that these are not random,” Harrison said of the incidents while speaking at the department’s Northern District. In several instances, victims had been carrying handguns; a few of the dead had been previously convicted of crimes such as attempted murder. “Some of this was retaliatory violence,” he said.

Harrison urged residents with information to call the Metro Crime Stoppers tip line, at 1-866-7LOCKUP. He could not say whether the recently launched surveillance planes had been flying at the time and the location of any of the incidents over the weekend.

With businesses closed by the coronavirus and residents ordered inside, property crime in the city is down by nearly 25 percent, the Baltimore Sun reported Sunday. Gun violence in Baltimore remains down slightly from last year’s highs. Last year saw 263 shootings by this date, in contrast to 217 as of Monday, according to data provided by police. As of this date last year, 119 people had been killed in the city, compared to 118 so far this year.

Memorial Day weekend has often been a time of violence in Baltimore. Several years have seen mass shootings, such as in 2016, when five people were shot outside a North Baltimore home during a cookout. In 2000, nearly a dozen people were injured and one person was killed when two gunmen began shooting into a crowd of mourners honoring a slain gang member.

And it’s not just in Baltimore: This year in Chicago, nine people were killed and at least 27 were wounded over Memorial Day weekend, making it the deadliest one since 2015, the Chicago Tribune reported.

— Baltimore Sun