The bullet ripped through the window, shattering glass in all directions, before landing in the lining of a brown leather jacket.

Stray gunfire is not uncommon in Baltimore, one of a number of big U.S. cities struggling to stem a rise in violence.

But in this case, the crime scene was a novelty: the sixth-floor office of a Maryland federal prosecutor.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Warwick discovered the bullet hole this week after puzzling over why the street noise in his office was a little louder than usual. When Warwick pulled up the blinds, he found an opening the size of a golf ball and shards of glass scattered across his credenza, next to investigative files and framed family photos.

A veteran prosecutor of murders and large drug cases, Warwick knew the hole was likely the mark of a large-caliber firearm. Following its path, he closed his door and found a tear in his coat. Warwick fiddled with the lining until a copper-colored slug dropped to the floor.

A bullet hole in the window of a federal prosecutor’s sixth-floor office in Baltimore. (Maryland U.S. attorney's office)

No one was injured by the shot, and police believe that it may be connected to a pre-dawn shooting May 27 more than 100 yards away.

Federal prosecutors spend much of their time in court and are typically steps removed from the frontline violence of the crimes they prosecute. The nearly one-inch hole in the thick glass and the ripped jacket were vivid, unsettling reminders of what victims and witnesses in their cases regularly experience.

“Imagine what kind of damage those bullets do to people on the streets of Baltimore,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Our office already is devoting all the federal resources we can to combat armed criminals and violent gangs. Unfortunately, we need police, prosecutors and judges to send more armed criminals to prison if we want the carnage to stop.”

Last year was one of the deadliest in Baltimore, with nearly 350 killings, an increase of more than 60 percent.

[In Maryland, deadly count on the rise]

In the days since the bullet was recovered, there has been much discussion in the office about the trajectory and type of bullet and how it ended up in Warwick’s coat. U.S. marshals and the FBI were on the scene Wednesday before turning it over to Baltimore police technicians.

On Friday, police were still investigating the possible connection to a May 27 shooting down the street from the U.S. attorney’s South Charles Street location, a few blocks from the Inner Harbor.

Two men were arrested after shots were fired at 2:30 a.m. close to the intersection with West Baltimore Street, more than 100 yards away from the prosecutor’s office and visible from Warwick’s window.

One man, accused of firing the gun, was charged with attempted first-degree murder and released on bail, according to court records and a police report. The other, who is in custody, faces several firearms charges. The shooting occurred after the two men “had words with” two other individuals, according to the report.

At the downtown intersection, police found a spent .45-caliber casing. About a block away, officers recovered a loaded silver and brown .45-caliber handgun sticking out of a flower pot, according to the report.

Detective Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman, said forensic tests were still being conducted to determine whether the bullet is a match.

Warwick said Friday that he was not rattled because of the time of day the shot was fired and the likely connection to the nearby shooting. What is more concerning, he said, is the force of the bullet and the damage that can be done from high-powered firearms.

“It’s not about the window,” Warwick said. “It’s about the abundance of high-powered weapons in an urban setting.”

Peter Hermann contributed to this report.