State police today said they used a helicopter to rescue a 45-year-old Allegheny Allegany County man who was trapped at his mobile home for several days without heat, food or phone service. On Friday, Feb. 5, the man evacuated his family from their Flinstone, Md. mobile home off Maryland Route 144 in a remote mountainous region of Western Maryland, police said. He returned to the property to clear his driveway and to care for several animals, and was forced to remain at the home without a means of leaving the area, police said.

On Sunday, he lost power and heat to his home. As temperatures dropped, he ran out of food and lost phone service to contact his family, police said. On Tuesday, police were notified by the family and attempted to make a rescue using four-wheel drive vehicles and snow mobiles. But the deep snow prevented a ground rescue.

At 9 a.m., members of the Maryland State Police Aviation Command arrived in the area and found the man motioning to the helicopter, police said. A trooper was lowered from the helicopter and hoisted the victim up. He was suffering from moderate to severe hypothermia and has been taken to Western Maryland Regional Medical Center for treatment, where his condition was listed as "guarded." As for the animals he had returned to take care of, we're told they didn't make it out in the rescue.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Crime elsewhere
        

In today's paper, Peter Hermann showed how officers were going above and beyond to get to work and police the city's streets as the rest of us were paralyzed by the record snow. Along the way, he interviewed Dino Gregory, a 19-year veteran whose son is a junior forward for the University of Maryland basketball team. This is the second father of a UMD basketball player that Peter has interviewed recently, after talking to guard Sean Mosley and his father for a story about Police Athletic League centers being shut down in the city due to budget cuts.

As a UMD alum and Terp fan, I'm jealous. But it's also great to see how engaged these two players' families are in their community. Here's the piece about Gregory from Peter's story:

The 51-year-old called the military base at Aberdeen and a driver in an Army Humvee picked him up - he waited two hours on a street - and drove him to the Baltimore County line. From there, a county police officer in a four-wheel drive drove him to the station on East Baltimore Street. It took him five hours, and he still was two hours late.

For the next eight hours, Gregory stood in front of a downtown 7-Eleven "to make sure they didn't get robbed." When his regular shift had ended, he made up the two hours of lost time standing "in the freezing cold" at The Block on East Baltimore Street looking at the nearly deserted strip clubs, only two of which were open.

At 2 a.m., Gregory retreated to the basement locker room in the Central District station, where he stretched out on the floor, using a book bag for a pillow. He ate potato chips for dinner.

The officer and former drill sergeant said he has repeatedly insisted that his children keep appointments and be on time. "If I didn't go in, what kind of example would I be setting," Gregory said. "If I had snow shoes, I would've walked there."

For the record, the younger Dino Gregory scored 8 points against UNC.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown
        

It's always been the thought that crime drops as snow falls.

But take a look at Justin Fenton's story today and you might think othewise. Bottom line is, it's hard to say. Police say they respond to relatively more domestic disputes in snowstorms, but the total number of calls last weekend actually dropped in relation to calls from previous weekends. And people still kill each other and drugs dealers (at least the dedicated ones) still have customers. Two people were killed in this past weekend's storm -- one was a domestic, the other a bar fight. Four people were killed during December's 20-inch snow event.

Sgt. Bob Jagoe, who runs the Regional Auto Theft Task Force, reminds everyone NOT to leave their car running while they shovel or run inside the house. In the snow, he said four-wheel drive SUVs are disappearing.

"I think people sometimes think when it snows, everybody's in it together, we're all in this mess, and who would think of committing crime on such a beautiful day," Jagoe told Justin. "But it only takes a minute, and a running car is a perfect way to make a quick getaway."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

With snow piled on roadways and trapping many, Maryland State Police say their biggest challenge is dealing with cars stuck on the roads. Here are their latest stats from the weekend storm:

Maryland state troopers answered thousands of calls for service during the weekend storm, but most of those calls involved disabled or unattended vehicles caught in the snow. 

From noon Friday, February 5th, through 11:00 p.m. yesterday, February 7th, troopers across Maryland responded to more than 2,900 calls for service. Of those, more than 1,300 involved vehicles that had become disabled or were found unattended along an interstate or state highway. Troopers at the Frederick Barracks dealt with 140 disabled/unattended vehicles, the most of all 22 barracks.  They were followed by Waterloo Barracks in Howard County (131), Glen Burnie Barracks in Anne Arundel County (130), and Golden Ring Barracks in Baltimore County where troopers handled 112 disabled or unattended vehicles. 

 Troopers responded to 389 traffic crashes. Most of those crashes (232) involved minor property damage and no personal injury. Troopers handled 157 crashes that involved either personal injury and/or damage significant enough to require the vehicle to be towed. Troopers at the Forestville and College Park barracks in Prince George’s County handled a combined 56 crashes, while troopers at the Rockville Barracks in Montgomery County handled 55 crashes. 

Troopers made 685 requests for tow trucks during the period. More than 100 requests were made by troopers from the Glen Burnie Barracks, who patrol Anne Arundel County. 

Colonel Terrence B. Sheridan, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police is today reminding motorists that travel is still hazardous in many locations around the state. While most of the interstates are incredibly clear, there are still areas of some that are snow and ice covered, which can create a serious hazard for the unsuspecting driver. Travel is even less predictable on secondary roads. 

Vehicles that are still abandoned on state roads and interstates continued to be towed and stored by Maryland State Police in order to facilitate snow removal by the State Highway Administration.  No parking is permitted on state roads or interstates when the snow emergency plans are in effect. The most vehicles stored by troopers were in Prince George’s County, where 33 vehicles were towed away and in Montgomery County, where troopers stored 28 automobiles. 
 
Drivers whose vehicles were towed from state routes by State Police should contact the barracks nearest to where the vehicle was left. A list of barracks and locations is available at www.mdsp.org. 
 
For vehicles towed in Prince George’s County, owners can call the Forestville Barracks at 301-568-8101, or the College Park Barracks at 301-345-3101. Owners of vehicles towed by State Police in Montgomery County should call the Rockville Barracks at 301-424-2101. 

Additional troopers remain on patrol as cleanup from the weekend snow continues and preparations are made for the predicted mid-week storm. Troopers assigned to the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division, Automotive Safety Enforcement Division, and the Special Operations Division, have been reassigned to road patrol duties to supplement the regular patrol force across Maryland. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

UPDATE: There has been an arrest in this case. The story got held due to space in today's paper, but there's no reason not to post it here:
A 25-year-old Baltimore County man has been charged in the fatal stabbing of his ex-girlfriend's boyfriend on Saturday, Baltimore police said. About 6:45 p.m., police found 24-year-old Damien Osacoca laying in a pile of snow in the 4000 block of Massachusetts Ave. in Southwest Baltimore, bleeding from his head and torso. Police said Charles Kerins, of the 1100 block of Ingleside Ave. was picking up his 4-year-old daughter from his ex-girlfriend's home and got into a fight with Osacoca, her current boyfriend. Kerins and a woman later appeared at the Southwest District to report he had been involved in a stabbing, police said, and he was transported to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was treated and released. After an investigation, Kerins was charged with first-degree murder and was ordered held without bail.

You won't see much street crime in two-and-a-half feet of snow, but there's always the possibility of domestic related situations flaring up when people are stuck in the same place for hours or days on end. On Saturday night, after the snowfall had finally stopped, a 24-year-old man died from stab wounds after a domestic dispute at an ex-girlfriend's house, according to police.

The man, who has not been identified, went to pick up his daughter from his ex-girlfriend's house in the 4000 block of Massachusetts Ave. in the Southwestern Police District at 6:54 p.m., and a fight broke out with the woman's 26-year-old current boyfriend. Both men were stabbed, and it wasn't clear who was the aggressor or what sparked the altercation. Detectives are investigation. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

At least somebody wants a Toyota!

That's just one of the highlights looking back at a week of Richard Irwin's Police Blotter feature. Yep, someone actually stole a truck full of Toyotas. Maybe they're planning on taking them in for a bulk recall! And, in keeping with the snow theme, a city gunman found an innovative way to utilize his surrounding.

Read on:

Theft -- Someone entered the parking lot of DMT Trucking Inc. in the 1200 block of Chesapeake Ave. between Sunday night and early Monday and drove off in a 2007 Sterling tractor and a new car carrier trailer containing various models of eight 2010 Toyotas

Arrests -- Members of a crime reduction unit were in the 800 block of W. Saratoga St. near the Poe Homes neighborhood about 6 p.m. Wednesday when they observed a young male attempting to hide a handgun in the snow. A search of the teenager revealed a box of ammunition. Recovered from the snow was a .32 caliber semiautomatic handgun. The youth was charged as a juvenile with illegal possession of a firearm.

Arrests -- City police and Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive federal agents raided a house in the 1100 block of Bonsal St. Wednesday and arrested two men on warrants and seized an 8mm rifle and several ounces of suspected cocaine. Arrested and charged with weapon and drug violations were Jimmie Newell, 47, whose address was not available, and Randy Carver, 52, of the Bonsal Street address.

Theft -- Someone broke into Hertz Equipment Rentals in the 5500 block of O'Donnell St. between Tuesday night and early Wednesday and pumped out 1,742 gallons of diesel fuel from an underground storage tank. The fuel was valued at $4,093.

Stabbing -- A man was cut in the back by another man inside Lexington Market in the 400 block of W. Lexington St. shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday and was taken by ambulance to an area hospital,. The victim's condition was not available, and no arrest had been made.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Best of the Blotter
        

City Councilman Bernard C. "Jack" Young has been chairman of the City Council's public safety and health committee since 2007, and next week he is expected to be elevated to City Council president to fill the vacancy created when Stephanie Rawlings-Blake became mayor. Young, an East Baltimore Democrat, has called investigative hearings to grill police about various issues and in January 2009 was escorted out of a commanders meeting. Young addressed his stint on the public safety committee and his relationship with the Police Department in a brief question-and-answer session with the Baltimore Crime Beat.

Q: What were some your accomplishments as the chair of the public safety committee?

A:  Mostly the issues that we focused on were, police shootings, naming officers involved in shootings. There were [also] investigative committees about how they discipline police officers. Transparency with the Police Department has been one of the issues that I've been working on, and I think they're a bit more transparent than they were.

Q:  Do you think the city is on the right track with its public safety strategy?

A:  I think we're pretty much on the right track, with the exception that I think we need to put more focus on community policing. When you have officers on these beats, they get to know their area and their district. That would foster a better working relationship - they know the good, the bad, and they know the ugly. Also, trying to reconnect with our schools so students will not have the attitude that police officers are against us. I heard students say, 'I don't talk to them, all they want to do is lock us up.' Under Officer Hite [Col. Rick Hite, who retired last year], they were starting to look at officers as Officer Friendly again.

Q:  What are some unanswered questions you still have based on your experience leading the public safety committee?

A:  As you know, the homicides. Those homicides stats - we have all these people that are still at the medical examiner, whose deaths have not been ruled, and we need to know so we know whether we have the correct homicide stats. They say crime is down, but most people in the community don't feel crime is down. We want hard, factual numbers.

I continue to support Commissioner Bealefeld. The incident that happened [when he was escorted from the Comstat meeting] is behind me, and it was always behind me. I never exposed it to the media, and I still want to know how it was done.

Q:  You were pretty upset at the time..

A:  I was a little upset. But I really want to work in cooperation with Commissioner Bealefeld and our new mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, to work as partners to come up with priorities.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

I was out tonight with a Baltimore police officer showing an Iraqi cop around the city. At left, Baltimore Officer Robert Horne shows Lt. Col. Saad Maan al-Mosawi (on the right) around near the Avenue Market. Then, at a routing assault call on Park Avenue, the radio erupted with frantic cries of an officer under fire.

It was up in Northwest, just off Reisterstown Road, and all police knew at that moment was that an officer had been shot. Horne sped off with his Iraqi counterpart and reached he  scene on Oakmont Avenue in time to see the officer being rushed off to the hospital.

Police had returned fire, hitting two men and killing one of them. For the Iraqi officer, it was quite a sight, and a jolt from what had been a rather routine evening. Now he saw the helicopter hovering overhead, the tactical unit in their large command bus and enough crime scene tape to reach the Middle East.

Reports are still being compiled but it appears plainclothes officers were either in the area questioning people about a shooting a couple days earlier or had responded to reports of a man walking around with a gun. Police said one gunman opened fire, striking the officer, a veteran of the Iraq War, and other officers returned fire. One man fell on the porch of a rowhouse and later died; the other ran inside and was later taken to Sinai Hospital.

The officer was struck in the right arm and taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where just hours after being sworn in as new mayor, Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake joined Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to address the media.

"We're not going to back down," she said. "Our citizens deserve to live in safe neighborhoods."

Visiting a wounded police officer is never easy for a mayor, or anyone else, and Rawlings-Blake had to do it on her first day on the job. And she had some tough words. Meanwhile, the Iraqis got a taste of violence in an American city.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news
        

Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy announced the filing of a bill designed to fix four loopholes in the Maryland Gang Prosecution Act that was passed in 2007. The bill will be filed by freshman Del. Gerron Levi, a Democrat from Prince George's County, and Jessamy's office said it has "broad bi-partisan support including Speaker of the House Michael E. Busch and Del. Mary Dulany-James." Of the 23 co-sponsors, 19 are Democrats and four at least six are Republicans.

Jessamy said in the three years since the law was enacted, it has been rarely used by prosecutors due to broad language and weak penalties, and because it does not allow for some common gang crimes such as witness intimidation to be charged. It's a sentencing enhancement bill that allows for tougher penalties if a crime is committed by a gang member or in furtherance of a gang activity.

The proposed revisions would tighten up the language, "establish a statewide gang member validation criteria, add additional gang related offenses to the list of underlying crimes, and make the penalty for a violation of the statute a true enhanced penalty."

The 2007 bill created a rift among state's attorneys and the Attorney General's Office that I covered during a stint reporting on the General Assembly. There were differences between what elements to include, and how much jurisdiction to allow the attorney general's office, which had traditionally investigated white-collar and environmental crimes.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Thirty-four-year-old James L. Fortune knows the term "suspended sentence" well. When he was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995, he got 20 years in prison with 10 years suspended. When he violated his probation in 2004, the judge gave him 10 years but suspended just about all of it. And when he pleaded guilty to drug distribution in 2009, he again received 10 years with the balance suspended.

Now he faces charges of first-degree murder in a January 2008 double-shooting at a West Baltimore liquor store that left one man dead and another paralyzed.

Detective Kirk Hastings wrote in charging documents that witnesses identified Fortune as the person responsible for the shooting, but the Dec. 7, 2009 traffic stop that uncovered the handgun provided the evidence to charge him. Fortune has been held without bond since then on charges related to that incident, court records show.

UPDATE: Prosecutors respond to Fortune's list of suspended sentences, saying that in the case of the drug conviction Fortune had completed his parole and probation and had no drug convictions. Prosecutors offered a split sentence - meaning that Fortune would serve some jail or prison time - that it was undercut by the judge with a suspended sentence offer.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, West Baltimore