The altercation between Baltimore Police Officer Salvatore Rivieri and the skateboarding teen, Eric Bush, at the Inner Harbor two summers ago continues to spark debate. The news here is that a judge threw out Eric's lawsuit saying he filed too late.

We also learned that Rivieri faces three departmental charges -- using a discourtesy and excessive and unnecessary force. He's awaiting word on his punishment and could then challenge the ruling at a departmental trial board.

The views on his actions (the video is below) are still viewed in the extreme, which is what happens when attorneys get involved. I wrote an update on the case in Sunday's paper.

Here are some viewpoints I got over the weekend:

Amazing. ... I'm the daughter of a retired police officer as well as a mom of a son that skateboards. This officer had NOTHING better to do then to harras these young boys.  Most of the kids that skateboard (that I know) are good if not great kids. They are at an age where they have found skateboarding and it keeps them out of trouble.  This officer should be sent to the worst part of Baltimore City in order to FIGHT REAL CRIMES like drugs, murders, muggings, etc. 

I do not believe this you man was a "threat" to the officer. Obviously, this officer has never been threaten  in a real crime. I find it sad that this young man's mom filed the charges too late. ... I would have LOVED to have seen this officer pay the price for harassing this young man.  The things that came out of this officer's mouth and his obvious anger was TOTALLY uncalled for. 

Why in the world would this officer have displayed SUCH anger and verbal abuse to a 14 year old kid?

From another reader:

In the past my son has also skateboarded in the inner harbor. For the most part the police understand kids will be kids and as long as they are not bothering anyone they leave them alone.
I would guess this officer needed to show how important he was and knew he couldn't get away with his gestapo tactics with an adult. It's a shame one bad cop spoils it for all the other good ones.

And from Rosalind Heid:

Get a grip Baltimore City - you need to put your officers in the path of real crime; not some petty offense where these young men are, heaven forbid, skateboarding! What kind of a city is Baltimore? Will citizens just sit on their hands and watch a police officer and his family destroyed and say nothing?  How can Officer Salvatore Rivieri pay $1 million if Eric Bush and his mom win their lawsuit?

I am appalled the Bush family would pursue this flimsy case – but as they say, “follow the money.”  I live in the Inner Harbor and have seen the damage skateboarders do.  I have also been threatened and intimidated by them when I had “the nerve” to ask that they desist from destroying the marble steps of the Columbus statue near where I live. Many pedestrians also have had dangerous encounters with skateboarders since public safety is not their concern.

As a tax-paying resident of the city, it sickens me to think of the money this worthless case is costing in terms of court time and defense attorney fees.  And let’s not forget what it must be doing to police morale! If Eric Bush and his mom win their case, I’ll be ashamed to call myself a Baltimorean.

She added in a separate e-mail: I think you owe it to your readers just how much this case is costing taxpayers in terms of legal fees and court time. How is officer Rivieri paying his attorneys? Police officers don't make all that much money and the cost must be staggering. Or is the police union handling it. Since the case is against Officer Rivieri personally, is his union responsible or is the Police Department? You say there are "hundreds of pages of letter and legal motions with lawyers bickering...." this costs money. Also, is there a "discovery process" involved that would allow the complainants access to Rivieri's personnel file. Face it, Eric Bush and his mom are just "dialing for dollars" - in millions. I respect the police and think it is obscene the citizens of Baltimore are mute about this waste of money and damage to a police officer's livelihood. I circulated a petition here in the Inner Harbor and collected many signatures in support of Officer Rivieri. I never met the man but everyone who knew him said he was a "great cop." It sickens me to see the contempt being shown him now.

Here's the YouTube video:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A man suspected of shooting an off-duty Baltimore police officer during a robbery Thursday night walked right into the arms of the law.

Police tell me he came into Sinai Hospital's emergency room with a bullet in his leg -- the very same hospital the wounded officer was being treated for a gunshot to his abdomen. After questioning, and sending cops to a false shooting location, a police spokesman said the man confessed to being at the scene and gave up the name of his friend.

Police are now hunting for the accomplice. Police have a news conference scheduled for 2:30 p.m. to provide further updates.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

I'll be doing another radio gig this afternoon -- an hour on crime with Anthony McCarthy on WEAA-Radio, 88.9 FM., from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

I'll be talking about crimes of the day -- from the sword killing at Hopkins to Inner Harbor crime to bars in Mount Vernon.

I look foward to hearing from you.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A bad day for police.

Thursday afternoon, a Baltimore County police officer on his way to work in the Towson Precinct was killed when he apparently lost control of his pickup truck in the northern part of the county and crashed. He was identied as Detective Jason Simons, 32. Making his case even sadder is that Simons was the stepson of Baltimore County Police Lt. Michael Howe, the commander of the tactical unit who died a year ago after suffering a stroke.

Then Thursday night came word that an off-duty Baltimore police officer was shot outside his Northwest Baltimore home in an apparent robbery attempt. Police said three men armed with guns tried to rob the officer, who shot at them and was wounded in the stomach during the gun battle. The officer was listed in serious condition at Sinai Hospital and police said they have two people of interest who are being questioned. They'll be more on this case later today.

The last time Baltimore police officers were shot was in July when two were wounded while responding to a domestic disturbance call in West Baltimore. In January, a 23-year-old man was convicted and sentenced to life for killing Baltimore Officer Troy Lamont Chesley Jr. during a robbery outside his girlfriend's home in 2008.

In the middle of all this, a Baltimore officer, Mark J. Lunsford, was charged by the feds with embezzling money and stealing jewelry and clothes from houses during drug raids. Authorities said the six-year veteran, who was assigned to a DEA task force, added his informant's name to cases the informant didn't work and then asked for the informant to be paid bonuses. The informant would then split the money with the officer, the feds said in an affadavit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

The court documents, which you can read at the end of this post, are both detailed and complicated, and involve a wire-tap, numbered bills, expense watches and secret FBI surveillance of a Sykesville parking lot near where the officer lived. Lunsford has been suspended without pay and was released from detention to home monitoring. He is due in court again next month.

One interesting detail from the indictement: it notes that the informant Lunsford was using to learn drug intel on Baltimore streets was dropped by the FBI because he was deemed unreliable and untruthful, yet kept on by the DEA and Baltimore police. And who knew an informant could get a bonus? In one case, the court papers note the bonus totalled $10,000 and might have come from federal grant money to Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Two Baltimore police officers shot and critically wounded a man this morning in Northeast Baltimore who apparently was waving a spatula. Police initially said the officers thought the man was charging them with an edged weapon.

Details are still a bit murky, but cops got a call for a mental patient in the 2400 block of Bridgehampton Drive and said that paramedics approached him first and ran when he emerged with a shiny object in his hand. Police then approached and a department spokesman said they shot him when he refused to put the object down. Police later said the man charged at the officers and it was dark, so it was difficult for them to determine what he had in his hand.

It's unclear as of this moment what exactly the paramedics and the officers saw the man holding. Police told us this morningt that the man called police asking for his mother and a member of the clergy and that he might have been trying to commit what is known as "suicide by cop."

Hopefully, more details will emerge later in the day. This morning's shooting was the 13th involving a city officer this year, compared with 20 in 2008 and 33 in 2007.

Police do have a variety of non-lethal weapons they can use to try and difuse a situation without or before resorting to their guns. But each circunstance is unique and doesn't always lend itself to using either a Taser or in some cases, though not every cop carries one, a gun that shoots a bean bag to disable a suspect.

Back in 1999, a Baltimore police officer shot and killed a man after he mistook a cell phone for a gun. But in that case, officers had been searching for the man who had failed to appear for a detention hearing in federal court on a drug case. The officers chased him through alleys in East Baltimore and reported that several times the man stopped and made a gesture as if he had a gun. The officer had shot at him during the chase but missed.

A few minutes later, police said he made the same move on a street and the officer fired and hit him three times, killing him. When they reached him lying on the street, he had a cell phone, not a gun, in his hand. The shooting was ruled justified.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime, Police shootings
        

They really were selling guns with their chips 

When Stella Tsourakis' brother was busted by the feds in April on charges that he sold guns from his Lexington Market Utz potato chip stand (seen at left in a photo by The Sun's Kim Hairston), she went on the offensive. She protested her eviction from the market, started a petition drive and put signs on her stall: "This has nothing to do with ATF because no guns were found here."

On Tuesday, her brother the co-owner of the stall, Michael Papantonakis, pleaded guilty in federal court in Baltimore and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. I wonder how the people who signed the petitions feels now?

According to his guilty plea filed in court, Papantonakis, a former bounty hunter, used his girlfriend who worked at the stand, "to accept money on his behalf in exchange for firearms. One one occasion, [the girlfriend] was observed by law enforcement displaying a firearm behind the counter of the Utz stand and later, transferring another firearm in a plain paper bag from the stand. On another occasion, both the defendant and [his girlfriend] were observed transferring firearms to law enforcement officers from the loading dock of the Lexington Market."

Here is the plea agreement filed by the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

The following statement of facts, if presented at trial, would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that from at least in or about September 2007 through on or about April 1, 2009, in the District
of Maryland and elsewhere, the Defendant, Michael Papantonakis, not being a licensed dealer of firearms within the meaning of Chapter 44, Title 18, United States Code, did knowingly and willfully engage in the business of dealing in firearms.

During the month of May 2007, Baltimore Police Department (“BPD”) Detective/Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“BATFE”) Task Force Officer James Bradley was contacted by BPD Detective Stephen Mahan who informed Detective Bradley that he had a confidential source (“CS”) who had been purchasing firearms and cocaine in Baltimore, Maryland from an individual later identified as the Defendant, Michael Papantonakis. At the time, the Defendant owned an Utz potato chip stand in the Lexington Market in Baltimore, Maryland.

As a result of this information, beginning on September 17, 2007, a confidential source of information and an undercover officer with the Baltimore Police Department spoke several times by telephone with the Defendant. Some of these phone calls were recorded. The purpose of the calls was to arrange for the purchase of firearms and ammunition from the Defendant. During the period of time alleged in the indictment, law enforcement officers and confidential sources of information acting at the behest of law enforcement, met with the Defendant on nine separate
occasions in order to purchase firearms and ammunition. The majority of these meetings occurred at the Defendant’s Utz stand at the Lexington Market in Baltimore, Maryland. During several of these meetings, the Defendant used his girlfriend Sharon Heberle, an employee of the stand, to accept money on his behalf in exchange for firearms. On one occasion Heberle was observed by law enforcement displaying a firearm behind the counter of the Utz stand and later, transferring another firearm in a plain paper bag from the stand. On another occasion, both the Defendant and Heberle were observed transferring firearms to law enforcement officers from the loading dock of the Lexington Market.

On April 1, 2009, a search and seizure warrant was executed at the Defendant’s residence at 1026 Boyd Street Baltimore, Maryland. Recovered from the residence were approximately thirteen firearms. Approximately fifteen firearms were sold by the Defendant during the period of September 2007 through on or about April 1, 2009. During this time, the Defendant was not a licensed dealer of firearms within the meaning of Chapter 44, Title 18, United States Code.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The Circuit Court civil suit filed against Baltimore Police Officer Salvatore Rivieri was dismissed because it was filed too late (beyond the 180-day deadline), but for the first time we have a sworn statement from the cop captured on the now-famous YouTube video.

Parts of the brief statement seem to contradict the video on which Rivieri screams at 16-year-old Eric Bush for calling him a "dude," tackles him and takes his skateboard. Rivieri says he advised Bush and his friends to stop skateboarding on the Harbor promenade and drove off in his electric golf cart. "He looked back and saw Plaintiff riding his skateboard again."

The officer returned and "repeated that t he group had to stop skateboarding and asked if they had heard the first order. One member of the group responded in the affirmative and stated that he attempted to inform Plaintiff of the order, but Plaintiff was wearing earphones. Officer Rivieri reiterated his previous order to Plaintiff, but Plaintiff was wearing earphones. Officer Rivieri reiterated his previous order to Plaintiff, but Plaintiff protested."

"At that time, Plaintiff hled his skateboard in a threatening manner. Officer Rivieri approached Plaintiff and instructed Plaintiff to give him the skateboard. At that time, Plaintiff refused and pulled the skaeboard to his chest in order to prevent Defendant from obtaining it. Defendant then grabbed the skateboard with his right hand and Plaintiff resisted. At that time, Defendant wrapped his left arm around the Plaintiff's left shoulder and pulled the Plaintiff to the ground while still supporting the Plaintiff's full weight. Once on the ground, Plaintiff relinquished control of the skateboard, which rolled to a stop approximately one foot behind Defendant."

"Plaintiff immediately lunged foward to stand up as Defendant was still leaning over in front of him, at which time Defendant used his right hand to push Plaintiff back down to a seated position. Defendant wa then able to safely retrieve the skateboard and place it in his electric car."

It appears from the video, which you can watch yourself, that Rivieri quickly gets angry at what he perceives is disrespect from Eric. After yelling at the youth for talking back, the officer rushed toward him and says, "Give me that skateboard." There is a few seconds not captured on video, so it's impossible to know for sure if Eric indeed held the skateboard in a "threatening manner" as the officer says.

The officer does put Eric to the ground and Eric appears to try and sit up when the officer yells, "Sit down! I'm not a dude!" and pushes him back. I've watched this several times and I just don't see that "Eric immediately lunged foward" as the officer says. He did try to stand up, and I guess it's all in how you view it.

What is troubling here is that police officers need to keep their cool and keep control, and yes the officer was angry that Eric had earphones in and couldn't hear is order, and then, instead of answering, "Yes sir" and "I'm sorry sir, I'll stop," Eric appears indifferent and dismissive. That only make Rivieri more upset and seemed to be what prompted him to seize the skateboard and make an example out of the youngster. He threatened to "smack him" and said, "I am Officer Rivieri. The sooner you learn that, the longer you are going to stay in this world. Because you go around doing this kind of stuff and somebody is going to kill you."

After the incident but before he knew the video had been posted on the Internet, told a Sun reporter, "These kids, they've got nothing better to do." He declined to comment after the department suspended him.

Now we've learned the department sustained and internal charge of discourtesy and the officer is awaiting punishment. He's set to return to patrol in the Southeastern District (he was pulled from the Harbor detail).

Unless Bush appeals, they'll be no civil trial, and prosecutors ruled that the officer did not assault the youth. Seems to me internal sanctions are appropriate; it's tough, but cops can't lose control on the street.

Here's the YouTube video:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

The Inner Harbor cop caught on video screaming at a teenaged skateboarder has apparently gotten a civil lawsuit thrown out. This report comes from WBAL Radio and my colleague Justin Fenton is gathering more details for Sun website and Wednesday's paper.

The skateboarder, Eric Bush, had sued Baltimore Police Officer Salvatore Rivieri (left, in a photo by The Sun's Elizabeth Malby) after the incident in February 2008 in which the officer berated him, put him in a headlock and threatened to smack him for showing disrepect and calling the cop "dude."

Many saw this as an abuse of police power while others said it highlighted unruly teenagers who weren't taught to respect authority. At the time, the Police Department suspended Rivieri after the video became a hit on YouTube. WBAL reports that the officer was put back on patrol after prosecutors decided against filing criminal charges in the case.

Just got word from the police spokesman that Rivieri had an internal complain of discourtesy sustained and that he's awaiting to hear his punishment from a disciplinary committee (I'm told the punishment could be anything from a letter of reprimand to firing, though that probably won't happen in this case). He's been assigned to the Southeastern District. My question is whether the department disciplined him or even charged him internally. A Baltimore Circuit Court Judge threw out the case, according to WBAL. Hopefully we'll know why by the end of the day and whether the youth plans to appeal.

Here's the video:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Not the best timing.

A spate of weekend shootings and a third of the Baltimore Police Department's patrol cars sputtered to a stop after mistakenly getting fed diesel. Playing off the mayor's desire to give city workers unpaid leave to fill a hole in the budget, one cop told me, "They've furloughed the cars."

Patrol cars were being fixed Monday and last night but it's safe to say this could cost the city thousands in overtime and other costs (at left, a pump as a crime scene at the Fallsway station in a photo by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor). Just a mistake the city didn't need. Cops have about 1,200 vehicles in their fleet and at least 70 went down because of this mistake. Most were marked patrol cars, the type used to keep neighborhood safe.

Coming soon in the newspaper, I'll take a look at nonfatal shootings in the city, which have dropped about 25 percent since last year and more than 60 percent over the past decade. Even with homicides going up a bit this year over last, city police say the years-long trend bodes well and shows that violence is ebbing.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The note from Baltimore Police Department's chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, came out mid-afternoon on Saturday:

"Commissioner Bealefeld is meeting with various section chiefs about a revised deployment which will include an increased presence by the Patrol division and specialized deployments in strategic areas by undercover operations units and the Violent Crime Impact Division (VCID). Investigators do have some positive leads in some of these shootings and detectives are currently working to determine if there is a commonality among them. Community intelligence is vital to these investigations and Police are asking anyone with any information to come forward."

When I got in this morning I tallied the numbers. I count 11 shootings (at least 13 victims) from Friday night to roughly 11 p.m. Sunday. Two dead (see the Baltimore's Sun's homicide map). A number of juveniles among the wounded, including a 16-year-old shot in a dispute at Pop Warner football game on North Franklintown Road.

Seven people were shot before the note came out and four more were shot after. The shootins, as listed by the Police Department's Facebook and Twitter pages:

Sunday
2400 Maisel Court, homicide, 11 p.m.
2100 Aiken St., male shot in leg, 11:43 a.m.

Saturday
1200 Franklintown Road, 16-year-old shot in leg, 9:41 p.m.
1000 Billie Holiday Court, male shot in side, 4:01 p.m.
2000 Rupp St., male shot in leg, 1:13 p.m.
1300 W. Baltimore St., 1:06 p.m.
300 S. Spring Court, shot in stomach, 1 p.m.
Harford and Lanvale, shot in thigh, 3 a.m.
Jasper and Druid Hill Ave., shot in leg, 1:45 a.m.
1600 Cypress St., shot in head and chest, homicide, 12:40 a.m.

Friday
3800 Sinclair Lane, three shot in legs, 9:52 p.m.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has sent a letter to the city's police commissioner urging him to start padlock proceedings against Suite Ultralounge, the club in the basement of the Belvedere Hotel that has been linked to violence.

Fights and a shooting outside the Mid-Town club led to a summer-long debate over downtown crime and prompted the liquor board to revoke its license. The club owners appealed and in August Circuit Court Judge Kaye Allison ruled that the board acted inproperly when it pulled the license.

The liquor board is now drafting new rules and policies to close the club in the coming months. In the meantime, Rawlings-Blake and two other councilman are urging Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to use the padlock law. City police have used the nuisance law to shut down a liquor store and force owners of other establishments to improve their security.

I have a call into police to see if they're considering the request. Here is the letter sent to Bealefeld:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

My colleague Justin Fenton has posted an updated story on the Hopkins student who killed a man with a sword this week.

Police now say the confrontation occurred outside the student's garage, not inside, as first reported by authorities. And they say the student didn't react to a noise and find an intruder but in fact had been alerted by police that a suspicious man had been spotted in the neighborhood. He and officers from the city and Hopkins investigated but found nothing.

A few hours later, police now say the student grabbed the sword and went outside with friends and later found the suspect in a driveway. Police say the student was backed up to the exterior of a garage door when they said the suspect lunged and the student made a single swipe with the sword.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

I enjoyed chatting with some of you on Wednesday during the live chat. Some of the questions were quite compelling and are ones reporters like myself have long struggled to answer. All of the questions were interesting.

I couldn't get to all of them but I'll try to respond to a few more in this space.

One reader asked if I think tasers should be banned in Baltimore (the Baltimore County Council voted to ban them effective Sept. 21). I think this will come down to the same argument over guns and other weapons, with some saying people should be able to defend themselves and others saying tasers are lethal and should be prohibited. I'm not going to express my opinion on this one. City police carry them and in many jurisdictions around Maryland and elswhere suspects have been killed during their use.

Several people asked me about budget cuts and how they will effect crime. One specifically wanted to know if the city police department's technolgy department will face cuts. I know every department in the city is being forced to cut back and that means less services both to the citizens and to the workers. Police use computer crime tracking software and are giving cops BlackBerrys, and crime mapping has become an integral part of the crime fighting strategy both in how police are deployed and how commanders are held accountable, so I would guess that the technology section is one the police commissioner has to preserve.

A question I can't immediately answer, but one worth exploring, is comparing the Baltimore Police Department's budgt to that of other cities, I presume the reader meant of comparible size? The Baltimore Police Department's budget for fiscal 2009 is about $351.2 million.

Someone asked about the Police Department putting information such as shootings on Facebook. I'm all for any additional information thhe police or any other governmental agency want to provide citizens. It's update, useful info that people should know. The department is trying various things to spread the word about what their cops are doing (they also post big arrests and updates in major crimes). The trouble is that they define what to distribute. Earlier this summer when an unruly mob took over the Inner Harbor and two people were stabbed, there wasn't a word on Twitter or Facebook (and it took us in the media more than a day to pin it down). The rational: it was a nonfatal stabbing and didn't meat the criteria for Twitter or Facebook. I argued that the crime was a near riot at the harbor in which two people were stabbed, and not putting it up opened the police up to accusations it was trying to cover up downtown crime. I say put it all up.

Two readers asked about gangs and crime in Station North. Yes, the organized, West Coast Crips and Bloods types, are relatively knew to Baltimore but are here. But some tags that you might see around the city aren't necessarily the real thing. They could be copycats, groups that want to be affiliated with the gangs but aren't, or just random grafitti. Police have experts in their gang units that can tell the difference, and if you see some around, ask a cop or call your district station and let them know about it. As to crime in Station North, sure, anytime crime hits a neighborhood, whether its already established or up and coming, it hurts. The city is trying to take back some parts of town and that goes hand in hand with crime fighting. People will come to visit and live in a nice neighborhood full of restaurants, shops and art stores. They won't come if there's violence, but criminals won't set up shop in places that won't tolerate them -- such as neighborhoods with clean streets, regular police patrols etc...

Two other quick tid-bits. Someone asked about whether garbage trucks can go the wrong way down one way streets. I have a call into public works but I doubt they are exempted from the traffic laws, though I also doubt there's a cop in the city who write them a ticket. They drive big trucks down our narrow, car congested streets and alleys, and if driving the wrong way down some of them helps them pick up our trash quickly and efficiently, I'm all for it.

And lastly, many people keep asking whether the Johns Hopkins student will be charged for killing an intruder with a samurai sword. The answer is I just don't know. It's way too early and not up to police. They need to finish collecting evidence, make sure the students' statement makes sense and matches the evidence collected from the scene. Does the students' version match with his earlier statements? Lots of things need to happen. My colleague Justin Fenton wrote a follow up story in today's newspaper that might shed some more light on this topic.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I'll be doing a live chat on police and crime issues starting at noon today. I'll entertain just about any question you have, and with the violence this week that includes a Hopkins student killing an intruder with a samurai sword, we have a lot to talk about.

To participate in the chat, click here.

With such a busy schedule, I don't often get enough time to chat with readers, so I look forward to meeting all of you.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The Johns Hopkins student who apparently fought back against an intruder on Tuesday used a unique weapon to kill -- a samurai sword.

But looking back through Baltimore Sun clips I found that the samurai sword or weapons that resemble a samurai sword has been used many times before in our area (though I have to say, this appears to be the first samurai sword killing in Baltimore City in at least three years. City police list "zero" under sword killings in their year-end homicide statistical survey.).

Here's a website with a history of the samural sword that looked interesting.

I only had to go back to March of this year to find the first mention of a samurai sword. A California gang member was sent to Baltimore to separate real Bloods members from fake Bloods members, and police said he tortured a 19-year-old man, smashed him with a sledgehammer, cut him with a box cutter and stabbed him with a samurai sword. He then set the body on fire. The man's crime against the gang: he refused to send money to a gang member in prison. The victim died and the gang member was convicted of murder.

In 2003, an Edgewood man was accused of attacking his girlfriend in their home using a "samurai-style sword" and then leading Maryland State Police troopers on a 60-mph chase.

In 2000, police in Anne Arundel County shot a woman armed with a knife who was fighting with her husband who had a samurai sword.

In 1993, a fistfight at a party in Baltimore County ended with a 25-year-old man dead on a living room floor -- nearly decapitated by a samurai sword.

And in 1991, two men were fatally stabbed in Baltimore County after a fight in which one of the combatants was armed with a samurai-style sword.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A Baltimore police officer shot and killed a drug suspect who tried to stab another officer early today in East Baltimore, according to media accounts. Details still still coming in but it's the latest in a series of shootings deemed to be self-defense.

In the latest case, the officer's bullet-resistant vest apparently saved him from serious injury. Just a couple days ago an officer shot a man who police said tried to rob him with a gun outside his Northeast Baltimore home. And on Tuesday, a Johns Hopkins student used a samurai sword to kill a man who had broken into his garage. That case remains under review by city prosecutors.

At left, Baltimore police officers chat at the scene of the samurai sword killing on University Parkway, near the Johns Hopkins campus, in a photo by The Sun's Lloyd Fox. The sword was described as a 3- to 5-foot long razor-sharp weapon.

I'm not sure if we're seeing more of these types of incidents -- officers have been robbed in the past while off-duty and shot back, and there usually are a handful of civilians to fatally wound someone in self-defense. We'll have to see how prosecutor rules on the Hopkins incident.

In this latest case, Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told me that officers assigned to the Monument Street Intiative were arresting people suspected of selling cocaine on Orleans Street about 12:30 this morning when one suspect got lose and "repeatedly stabbed the officer." His partner ordered the man to stop, Guglielmi said, and then shot him, possibly twice.

The wounded man was rushed to Johns Hopkins Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1:36 a.m. Guglielmi said the officer was not seriously hurt. The impact "was absorbed by the vest." The officer, whose name and age were not immediately available, was not injured and was not taken to a hospital.

The dead man has not yet been identified.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Just hours after an off-duty Baltimore police officer shot and critically wounded a man who he said tried to hold him up at gunpoint, authorities tells us a Johns Hopkins student used a samuari sword to kill a man breaking into his garage on University Parkway.

The Johns Hopkins student was still being interviewed by homicide detectives this morning, but from initial statements from a police spokesman it appears this killing was justified. It does highlight crime in the off-campus area around Hopkins.

The name of the intruder has not yet been released but police said he has a prior record of break-ins. The name of the student hasn't been made public either; in the past, police have released the name of every citizen who kills another, even when ruled justified (it's up to prosecutors, not police, anyway).

But city police have new rules in which they typically do not make public the names of officers who shoot civilians. I'm interested to see what they do in this case; they previously released a report with the name of a North Baltimore store owner who shot a robber, but the robber didn't die and was charged, and the name of the shooter was in the court papers anyway.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

You can always tell when the rank and file cops are battling City Hall. Not an opportunity is wasted. A city police officer shot a man who he said tried to rob him at gunpoint outside his city home and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 union immediately jumps on the mayor.

The president, Robert Cherry, says this proves lots of cops live in the Baltimoe and Mayor Shelia Dixon should be more supportative and stop complaining that so many cops reside outside the city limits. I'm not sure she complains but she does express her opinion that she wishes more lived in Baltimore, as has have mayors before her.

More troubling for me is that police, citing their new policy that is now hardly new anymore but has been under review for about nine months, won't release the name of the officer to the public. It's difficult to assess the full story without all the facts. This is the 11th shooting of a civilian by a police officer this year; there were 20 in all of 2008 and 33 in 2007.

What I think is happening behind the scenes is a fight over budget cuts. Police are struggling to slice more out of their budget and keep crime initiatives going. At the same time, the command staff is going on a retreat costing $11,000 (it's Leakin Park, not Hawaii), but it has raised some questions.

And now I'm hearing from The Sun's police reporter, Justin Fenton, that police are being forced to give up planned raises to deputy majors and majors, something that was a long time coming in an effort to make command positions more desirable. Commanders don’t receive overtime, so in addition to being on the chopping block and non-unionized, they were making less than people ranked below them. The idea was to bump up deputy major pay through a stipend, and then as a result were to raise majors as well.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said that is being shelved for the time being as they sort through the budget mess. Also, police are going to significantly scale back non-operational overtime, including public affairs and legal.

I'm not sure the budget cuts and the new swipe at City Hall are linked, but the two have historically gone together. Here is Cherry's statement:

An off duty Baltimore City Police Officer was able to fight off an armed suspect this afternoon (Monday, September 14, 2009) after the suspect approached the police officer, produced a handgun, and forced his way into the police officer's home in Northeast Baltimore. Our police officer was able to retrieve his service weapon and shoot and incapacitate the suspect. Our police officer was not harmed during the home invasion.

The City of Baltimore should salute the dedication to duty and quick judgment performed not only by this police officer but the entire rank and file as we work together to reduce crime in the City and keep our citizens safe from the thugs who continue to roam the streets and pose a threat to our civility and sense of security.

Of particular interest to the FOP is the fact that this police officer resides in the City of Baltimore. All too often we hear from Mayor Sheila Dixon and her staff about the number of active and retired police officers who do not reside in the City. The FOP will always defend the right of our police officers to live where they choose, but today's shooting is a reminder that there are many of us who do reside in the City.

The police officer who fought off the armed thug this afternoon brings back a tragic and horrific memory a couple years ago when another one of our fine police officers, Detective Troy Chesley, was gunned down returning home from work - returning home to his dwelling in the City.

It is time for the Mayor to start giving more credit to the rank and file for the good work we perform every day and night and to recognize that many of our police officers do in fact reside in the City of Baltimore and even while off duty, we are placing ourselves on duty to protect the law abiding taxpayers and citizens of Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I just got back from East Northern Parkway where a young man sitting on a red bicycle was shot in the head about 3:45 this afternoon.

Police had few details but tell me that it occurred just as students were streaming out of a high school complex on nearby Pinewood Avenue, a complex that took over the old Northern High School. The young man, in his late teens or early 20s, is not believed to be a student but students and others are being questioned as witnesses.

The victim was in critical condition at Sinai Hospital as of 5 p.m. Police knew of no motives and had no suspects late in the afternoon.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore's top cop has decided against hooking up a video camera inside Shirley's Honey Hole to his vast surveillance network. The bar owner had agreed to this unique and some would say troubling expansion of police surveillance as a condition of keeping her East Oliver Street tavern from being padlocked as a city nuisance.

Lawyers agreed to the terms on Monday before a public hearing. The owner, Shirley Barner, also agreed to close her bar for the entire month of October and hire a security guard. Police said the bar attracted drug dealers, noted three shootings outside the tavern in June and said drugs were being sold and stashed in the vestibule (above, an example of one type of police surveillance camera, in a picture by The Sun's Karl Merton Ferron).

But allowing police to watch a live video feed from inside a private business seemed troubling. Even though Barner and her attorney consented, the fact it was part of a plea raised questions as to whether she was pressured and whether the city would start forcing this provision to other places througout the city.

In the end, though, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III decided he can't have cops watching the insides of bars (they already have more than 450 camera feeds to keep track of) and it raised too many liability questions. What happens if a cop sees someone doing something illegal -- they've had to act, and that could be quite frequently. Also, the cameras could be used as an excuse by the owner to shift responsibilty for enforcing rules to the police, which they certainly don't have time to do for one bar.

We're already watched just about everywhere we go, from train stations to the Inner Harbor to the stadiums. Live video feeds to police seemed an intrusion into the last bastion of freedom -- the corner bar.

"It's not a place for government inside a private business," Bealefeld's chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi told me.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

I just got to the office after watching hundreds of people, many of them cops and firefighters, running by my house for the annual Charm City Run honoring the lives lost in the Sept. 11 attacks. I know, the pic is bad, but blame a poor photograher and rainy weather!

Runners started at Baltimore Police Headquarters on Fayette Street and raced through the streets of Federal Hill and other neighborhoods before ending at Federal Hill Park. Despite the rain, people seemed upbeat. I missed seeing Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III but did catch Maj. Anthony Brown as he ran by on Fort Avenue.

From the race website: The Run to Remember Fund of the Baltimore Community Foundation which supports the Baltimore Police Foundation and Baltimore Fire Department. Direct Contributions to the fund can be mailed to the Run to Remember Fund c/o the Baltimore Community Foundation 2 East Read Street, Baltimore MD 21202. The web site will post the winners later this morning (one runner was way out in front at least on Fort Avenue).

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Readers have been asking me for the mug shots of the four men charged with stealing Cal Ripken Jr.'s number 8 statue from Camden Yards. Here they are, from left to right, Matthew Rayner, 20; Gary Parker, 19; Jason Stoneburner, 19; and Patrick Reynolds, 18. Parker is from Southeast Baltimore; the rest are from Essex (mug shots from Baltimore Police Department).

They've all been charged with felony theft and destruction of property in connection with what police describe as a drunken adventure in which they are charged with toppling and stealing the aluminum number 8 statue honoring Ripken in a plaza near the Eutaw Street entrance to the Camden Yards baseball stadium.

They were arrested after driving through the city with the statue in the back of a pickup truck and got caught when they stopped to argue near Patterson Park and someone called police. An officer spotted the number 8 in the back of the truck and arrested them.

As Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told WBAL-TV: "Don't come to Baltimore to be a moron."

I still don't know motive; the father of one of the suspects told me Wednesday that he didn't even know his son had been arrested until I called. As of this morning, Reynolds had been released from jail on $15,000 bail and Stoneburner was being held in the Baltimore City Detention Center on $8,500 bond. Information on the other two suspects wasn't immediately available.

A court date has been set for District Court on Patapsco Avenue for Oct. 13.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The theft of Cal Ripken Jr.'s No. 8 statue from Camden Yards (crime scene at left in photo by Sun photograher Amy Davis) reminds me other strange things people have pilfered over the years in Baltimore. I'd love to see a Top 10 list. Here's a few to get us started:

In 1995, someone got away with a one-of-a-kind baseball from Babe Ruth Museum that had been signed by 22 members of the 1934 American League All Star team, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Fox. The "Matchless Ball" was returned as mysteriously as it disappeared.

In 1997, someone made off with 300-pound solid brass doors to the city's downtown Circuit Courthouse.

In 2005, someone stole the large fiberglass crab statue from a sidewalk in front of Eddie's grocery store in Roland Park. It had been wearing a chefs jacket and holiding tongs and a whisk in its claws.

These are just a few cases I can remember. Now we've got one more to the list -- the stolen No. 8 from the plaza in front of the main entrance to the baseball stadium near Eutaw Street. I just got back from the scene and spoke to a few tourists from Cleveland waiting for a tour. They couldn't believe someone from Baltimore would pull off such a theft from the Orioles.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Nothing is sacred in Baltimore when it comes to crime.

Baltimore police tell me that four men in a pickup truck stole Cal Ripken Jr.'s No. 8 statue (at left, in a picture by The Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr.), which was put up in 2001 as a tribute to the baseball legend. I'm waiting for a police report and more details, but cops captured the theft on surveillance video and arrested four people.

Here's the best part: cops spotted the men driving along Lombard Street with the No. 8 in the back of an open-bed pickup truck!!

I'll have more as details become available.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

There's already more than 450 police surveillance cameras in Baltimore. Add hundreds more from private companies, some of which link in to the police Citiwatch Center, and you're pretty much under watch just about anywhere.

Now you can't even escape to the corner bar.

At least if Shirley's Honey Hole on East Oliver Street is where you go.

City lawyers and cops crafted a unique plea deal for the bar owner to avoid getting padlocked under the city's newly enforced nuisance law -- she closes for the month of October, hires a security guard and installs a camera that gives city cops a live video feed. Plenty of businesses have surveillance cameras, but this one is inside, hooked up to the government.

That's a key difference and it's perfectly legal because the owner consented. But a  key question, I think, is how much consent did the owner Shirley Barner really give if she accepted the terms as part of a plea deal to save her business? And what's stopping the city from making cameras-linked-to cops a part of other plea deals with other problem bars? And why stop there. Make it a condition for a liquor license, or zoning improvements, or just about anything else?

If the corner bar is no longer a sanctuary, what is?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this new city campaign holding bar owners responsible, even outside their front doors. Some bars attract customers who don't deal drugs, who don't scream as they walk home at 2 in the morning, who don't overturn flower pots for the fun it, who don't attract police cars every night. Bar owners know who the troublemakers are and they could take a stand on behalf of their neighbors to tell patrons who disrupt the surroundings by yelling or urinating on peoples' front steps that they're barred from the establishment until their behavior changes.

Just be good neighbors.

I understand that in many parts of this city, where drug dealers run the streets, it's difficult if not impossible for owners to stop the violence, and we don't them to be cops. Even calling 911 can risk death. But try to be responsible and as Eastern District Police Maj. Melvin Russell explained on Tuesday at the Honey Hole hearing, "help us to get the bad guys out."

It will be interesting in March when attorney Peter A. Prevas challenges the constitutionality of the padlock law in Maryland's second highest court, the Court of Special Appeals. He represents the very first extablishment to be padlocked,  the Linden Lounge, which remained closed for months until its owner agreed to make security improvements and was allowed to reopen just before it's year-long ban ended.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

After the all the controversy over state Del. Jon S. Cardin using a police boat and cops into stage a fake raid for an elaborate marriage proposal, here's how to properly use a police helicopter for such an event, as first reported in today's Washington Post:

Take your hopefully future bride-to-be hiking (as this man did in Montgomery County along the Billy Goat Trail in Great Falls), propose, get a yes, continue hiking and watch your fiance of a few minutes fall off a cliff. The U.S. Park Police had to fly over the area to rescue the woman, who apparently is now recovering.

On the Cardin front, this story is turning into a text-book example of how to not make a story go away, both from the police and the political perspective. The cops had the upper hand at first, playing this off as low-level officers who accepted an inappropriate request under pressure from a state delegate. They simply used bad judgment.

It was Cardin to kept the story going by at first refusing to be interviewed and releasing a vague statement that left people wondering whether it was he or his friend who actually set up the whole misguided adventure. Then the city added to the confusion by sending Cardin a bill for $300, which many felt way too low, and refused to make public either the bill or how the in-house accountants arrived at the figure. Then the cops said they woudn't under any circumstances divulge who owned the boat.

Cardin is remaining mum and evasive (he did send a letter to the editor at the Baltimore Sun, paid the $300 and threw in another $1,000 donation to the Police Department's horse unit), meaning when the city's police commissioner says during a radio interview that it was Cardin who asked the cops for help with the proposal, that small tidbit became news, and another headline on a story that should've have disappeared by now.

Is it any wonder that in a Baltimore Sun Internet poll, most people don't think Cardin has made appropriate amends. Now it looks like both Cardin and the cops have something to hide.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The court documents just filed in the arrest of a Baltimore police officer accused of stealing money from a drug dealer (who turned out to be an undercover detective) provide a detailed account of the case.

Authorities say the officer was targeted because of complaints and moved from a drug task force working Pennsylvania Avenue to the Northwest Police District. There, he was put in charge of training a rookie cop (done, police tell me, to avoid tipping the officer that he was under suspicion). The rookie is not in any trouble.

Members of the department's Internal affairs Integrity Unit set up the sting for Thursday night in the 3900 block of Carlisle Ave., in an area normally devoid of drug dealers. At 9:45 p.m., an undercover officer parked a green Cadillac at Carlisle and Mt. Holley Street while another officer called 911 and described a suspicious green vehicle driving around the block, supposedly looking to buy drugs.

At 9:48 p.m., a dispatcher sent Officer Michael Sylvester (in picture) to the call and told him a person was sitting in the Cadillac for 15 minutes and "acting strange." At 9:50 p.m., court documents say Sylvester pulled up beside the vehicle and shouted, "What are you doing here?" The undercover officer answered, "I'm waiting for my home boy to come meet me."

The court documents say Sylvester ordered the driver to turn off his ignition, turn over his license, get out of the car and sit on the curb. The man gave Sylvester permission to search the car and he emptied his pockets onto the front seat of the car. The charging papers say Sylvester conducted the search alone. After the search, court documents say Sylvester told the driver he was free to go and drove off.

Police say that the uncover officer had $259 in marked bills in his pants pocket and an additional $135 in marked bills in the arm rest of the Cadillac. After Sylvester and the training officer left, the undercover says in court documents that $50 was missing from the money that was in his pocket and $20 was missing from the money that had been in the car.

Undercover police officers followed Sylvester through the remainder of his shift, which ended at 11 p.m. They stopped Sylvester in the parking lot of the Northwestern District after he had changed into civilian clothes and was about to get into his personal vehicle. A lieutenant escorted the officer to an office while detectives searched his locker and reported, according to the charging documents, finding three blue zip lock bags containing suspected cocaine in the breast pocket of his uniform.

Police say Sylvester, 29, is being charged with theft and drug possession.

Here are the charging documents:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Soon, if she hasn't already, shooting victim Ana Matheus should be getting a new vera Bradley handbag.

Ana is the Kennedy Krieger worker who encountered stray bullets Tuesday night outside the East Baltimore medical institution. A co-worker was struck in the hand, but Ana got lucky, in that a bullet tore not through her but through her bag, along with her checkbook, a credit card and a $20 bill.

Ana was shaken but not hurt, and police quickly made an arrest.

Today, my colleague, Baltimore Sun police repoter Justin Fenton, got this email from Gale Poudrier of Greenstreet Gardens in Lothian, southern Anne Arundel County. In addition to flowers, they sell the handbags:

"Justin, we are a retailer for Vera Bradley and read about the horrible shooting at Kennedy Krieger Institute. We would like to send Ana a replacement bag. How can we do this?"

Justin got the message to a spokesperson at Kennedy Krieger who promised to get Ana in touch with the store. The police have her damaged handbag.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

More grim news today from the Baltimore Police Department: a 29-year-old city cop on the force for four years was arrested today and charged with stealing money and drugs from an undercover detective posing as a drug dealer and conducting an integrity sting. The charged officer, at left, has been identified as Michael Sylvester.

The city force has had a problematic history and mixed results with internal stings, which officials have routinely said are conducted routinely but rarely catch cops in wrongdoing. The last one I can find that we wrote about was a year ago when an undercover cop tried to get another cop accused of being brutal to hit him.

The cop did, got arrest and got found not guilty by a judge who said the accused cop might have had good reason to hit the undercover officer.

In 2006, a female officer was convicted of illegal gambling after a sting caught her at a secret poker game. Another officer was indicted in 2003 on charges that she made a false arrest by claiming to have found drugs on a suspect that in fact had been planted by Internal Affairs.

The widely publicized sting came in 2002, hailed then as the first of its kind targeting Baltimore police, when Officer Brian L. Sewell was charged with planting drugs on a suspect. Allegations swirled over missing evidence, a poorly done investigation, stolen surveillance photographs and a story put out by police that turned out not to be true.

The case had appeared clearcut. Sewell had responded to a call for a man selling drugs in a park. He confronted a man fitting the description, searched him, said he found drugs and arrested him. But the drugs he said he had found had actually been placed on a park bench by Internal Affairs. But detectives made several mistakes, including calling in a false 911 call that included a generic description of a suspect. That enabled the officer to say the man he had stopped fit a description from a caller.

But Sewell didn't arrest him right away. Instead, Sewell picked up the planted "drugs" (in reality ivory soap) and took them to another call where police had detained a man coming out of a vacant house. Police said Sewell arrested the man and added a drug charge to him -- the drugs he had taken off the bench in the park. Unfortunately for police, detectives didn't see Sewell pick up the drugs from the bench because they had actually been targeting another officer they thought was dirty. And they didn't see Sewell's arrest of the man at the vacant house.

But they couldn't account for the missing "drugs", sparking a days long scramble to figure out what had happened. Meanwhile, the man Sewell had arrested lingered in jail. It wasn't until a detective decided to look into other cops who had reported making drug arrests around the time of the sting stumbled upon Sewell, pulled the drugs he had inventoried with the department and discovered they were soap.

The arrested man was quickly released after having spent 10 days in jail and Sewell was arrested. Prosecutors were later forced to drop the criminal charges because evidence went missing as part of an unrelated break-in to the Internal Affairs office by a disgruntled officer upset he had been transferred because of a fight he had with his wife. Sewell was convicted of internal administrative charges and fired, but that conviction was overturned by an appeals court and he retired from the force. He died in August 2003.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

One of the sister's killed in Wednesday's double slaying in Lothian, in southern Anne Arundel County, spoke in February at a funeral for her nephew who was killed fighting in Iraq. Cheryl Timmons read a letter the soldier's wife, Breon Matlock, had written to Army Spc. Michael Benson Matlock Jr. shortly before his death:

After their first date, his wife wrote, "From then on it was us. ... You said, `If we love each other we can make it work.' ... I remember the look on your face when I told you would be a father. Your eyes brightened up. And during their last phone conversation, the day before he died at 6:15 p.m., the two discussed plans to visit Hawaii, before their call was disconnected. "You told me you wanted to take me and Byron around the world. ... Baby, I love you so much. You are my heart forever."

Matlock was a 2005 graduate of Glen Burnie High School and enlisted in the Army in 2006. He was in Iarq as an infantryman with the 101st Airborne Division and was on his second deployment, patrolling northern Iraq hunting for insurgents. He was killed Feb. 20 when the vehicle he was in hit a roadside bomb. The above quote is from a Baltimore Sun story by reporter Nicole Fuller, who attended the service.

He had married his high school sweetheart and had a 1-year-old child. Gov. Martin O'Malley and Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold attended the funeral in Annapolis. Now the family has two more to bury.

Timmons and her sister, Sheena Blandford, were killed in their home, allegedly by Blandford's husband, Theodore Nathanial Blandford. Police who went to his home in Prince George's County chased him into Washington and shot and killed him during a confrontation there. He's seen at left in a mug shot released by Anne Arundel County police this morning.

Both sisters were members of the First Christian Community Church in Annapolis, where the secretary confirmed for me that Timmons had been related to the young soldier. They, as the soldier, will be buried there, and funeral plans are still being worked out.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Patrol officers have long complained they're short-staffed, so now Baltimore's police commissioner is giving them a another cop in their pocket.

BlackBerrys armed with an application called PocketCop that allows them to quickly search for outstanding arrests warrants, pull up mug shots and arrest histories. It could replace computers in police cars (an endeavor that in the city has historically failed. Most officers don't have computers in cars or the ones they do have don't work). At left, Sgt. Shawn Edwards uses the device during a demonstration in a photo taken by the AP.

I would love to hear back from police officers who are or who are going to use this.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III says this could help get cops out of their patrol cars and into the community, now that they're taking their work stations with them. But this device also allows the bosses to do something else -- using GPS, they can track the locations of officers, and already have used it during a test phase in the Western District to see whether officers were properly deployed when a person got shot.

I can see defense attorneys drooling!

Already, the Baltimore Police Department's Facebook page is lighting up with comments from the community and cops. Any new technology should help city police, who have long lagged behind their suburban counterparts who have computers in cars, direct access to the same screens that 911 dispatchers have (a patrol officer in Anne Arundel County can watch as a 911 operator types in an emergency call and can scroll through the text to get absorb all the information).

The department is using $3.5 million in federal stimulus money to pay for this for 2,000 patrol officers; it's not clear how they will pay next year.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

Two shootings (out of several) have generated interest this week -- the woundings of two on The Avenue in Hampden and and another near Johns Hopkins Kennedy Krieger Institute in East Baltimore. In that case, an employee's handbag may have saved a woman from being shot.

Police made an arrest in the case about an hour ago.

The Sun's Justin Fenton reports that the Hopkins shooting occurred Tuesday evening and that a bullet pierced Ana Matheus' purse, checkbook, credit card and a $20 bill. Another employee was shot in the hand; both apparently hit by stray bullets.

Matheus is fortunate. The 27-year-old employee at the pediatric hospital told Fenton: "I've always felt pretty safe with the security guards on the corners, but I don't know, it definitely feels less safe now. It's pretty surreal."

The sprawling Hopkins campus is in the middle of one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city, one that is quickly being transformed by Hopkins itself as the insitution expands and claims neighborhoods that have long been all but abandon, if not by people then certainly of resources.

But legitimate workers in the area, be they Hopkins doctors and nurses or postal employees, have largely been immune from the drug violence around them. They have plenty of guards and certainly have to take precautiions not required in other areas of the city, but rarely has a worker been shot or violently attacked. Still, shootings happen, and stray bullets find all sorts of victims.

The shootings in Hampden grabbed attention because they happened about 11 p.m. on The Avenue, the main shopping drag through the north Baltimore community and home to several hip restaurants and new wine bar. One of the victims was six months pregnant who was wounded in the arm; a man was struck in the leg.

My colleague Brent Jones spoke to patrons and some restaurant owners, but most said the shooting appeared targeted and they predicted it wouldn's scare people away. Police have released few details of the incident, prompting some readers of this blog to question whether the cops were trying to cover it up.

Police made an arrest Tuesday night, charging William Hyde, 18, of Carroll County, with attempted murder. He was caught in North Carolina and we'll have to wait until he's extradited back to Maryland to obtain court documents that will further explain the shootings.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore's street violence seems overwhelming at times. And authorities who are left to pick up the piece often get left with just that -- a piece.

But in this case, it might be enough to send an alleged drug lord, Terrell Allen, to prison for life, following his conviction in federal court on Tuesday. All for having 27 rounds ammunition in a Winchester box.

The tale starts back in 2008 when two Blackwell brothers were kidnapped and then mysteriously returned without police filing any charges. Cops vowed an investigation into two feuding drug gangs but nothing much happened, except for a series of retaliatory shootings across the city and a detailed account of how the Blackwells paid a $500,000 ransom.

Earlier this year, the Blackwell's were targeted at a cookout on Ashland Avenue in a shooting that left a dozen people injured, including the alleged leader of the Blackwell clan. That was part of a night in which 18 people were shot on the Eastside (see map above), and the violence bought renewed attention to the Blackwell-Allen feud. The city's police commissioner and mayor criticized the seemingly slow pace of the investigation after the kidnappings.

In their investigation, federal authorities had searched Allen's house after he got shot in May 2008 in front of the family's appliance store on Greenmount Avenue near East North Avenue. Over the years, Allen has been convicted for manslaughter and drugs and has escaped many other arrests, including a charge of murder.

The irnony in the drug world is that he becomes a victim and gets busted anyway. Though he faces life in prison, Baltimore Sun reporter Tricia Bishop quotes his attorney saying he's hoping for fewer than nine years.

It's too bad that cops couldn't get more on these two gangs that police say is responsible for so much violence, and going after Allen for ammunition found after he had been shot more than a year ago, while a worthwhile tool to get him off the streets, even if only for nine years, unfortunately shows shortcomings in an investigation promised more than a year ago.

Now, its seems police are paying renewed attention to the gangs. Last week, police arrested the alleged leader of the Blackwell group, Stephen J.R. Blackwell, and charged with causing a disturbance linked to police surveillance of him.

Here is the federal case against Allen from court documents filed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives: 

On May 15, 2008, at approximately 6:00 p.m., Baltimore Police officers responded to a shooting at the Allen Family Appliance store (AFA) located at the intersection of the 1800 blocks of North Port Street and North Gay Street in Baltimore, Maryland. On their arrival, officers observed four (4) males with gunshot wounds outside that store. All of the shooting victims were then transported to local hospitals. Two victims, Tony Allen and Omar Spriggs, later died of their wounds. The two remaining victims, Terrell ALLEN and Reginald Davis, were treated for their wounds and are expected to survive. Numerous pieces of ballistic evidence were recovered at the scene, indicating multiple firearms were used in this incident.

While investigating the crime scene, Detectives observed a blood trail leading from outside of 1873 North Gay Street into the AFA store and toward a four drawer filing cabinet. The second drawer of that file cabinet was observed to be slightly ajar. Detectives then opened the drawer arid observed a silver colored revolver handgun inside. Detectives then secured the location and followed the blood trail out of the store to where survivIng victim Terrell ALLEN's clothing was located on the street. ALLEN's clothing had been left there by the paramedics who had been treating him for his gunshot wounds.

Later that same day, BPD detectives sought and obtained a search warrant targeting the AFA store; a search warrant that was executed that same day. In executing that warrant, investigators recovered the silver handgun from the file cabinet. That firearm is more particularly described as a .44 caliber Taurus revolver bearing serial #RB618663. In its revolver chamber were five (5) spent shell casings. In addition, a shoebox containing numerous rounds of different ammunition was recovered from the second floor of that location. The described Taurus firearm was swabbed for skin cells. Numerous blood samples were recovered from the interior and exterior ofthe AFA location in order to compare those samples to persons involved in this incident.

Detectives then obtained and executed a seizure warrant on Terrell ALLEN to recover his DNA. Based on analysis performed by certified forensic chemists of the Baltimore Police Department, Terrell ALLEN's DNA was found on the seized handgun and in the blood trail that ran between the file cabinet in which it was found and the site where ALLEN had been treated by paramedics.

The Baltimore Police Department's Firearms Examination Unit has examined the ballistics evidence recovered from the above-described crime scene, but was unable to ascertain whether any of that recovered evidence can be matched to the described seized Taurus handgun.

According to an eyewitness, he/she had observed Terrell ALLEN in possession of a silver colored revolver on a previous occasion. A second witness stated that he/she observed Terrell ALLEN enter the AFA store immediately after the shooting had occurred. This witness did not observe any other individuals either enter or leave the location before or after Terrell ALLEN until law enforcement officers had arrived at the scene.

Your affiant has obtained criminal history information of Terrell ALLEN from various law enforcement databases, and according to those databases, ALLEN has been convicted of at least one prior offense that is punishable by over one year's imprisonment, to include 1991 and 2001 convictions for Possession with Intent to Distribute Controlled Substances, and a 1993 conviction for Manslaughter.

The described Taurus handgun meets the definition of a firearm as outlined in 18 U.S.C. S921. Further, your affiant knows that the seized/described Taurus firearm was . manufactured in Brazil, and its presence in Maryland thereby affected interstate commerce.

Based on the foregoing, your affiant respectfully submits that there is probable cause to believe that on or about May 15, 2008, in the District of Maryland, Terrell ALLEN, the defendant, did knowingly and 'unlawfully possess a firearm while being a convicted felon, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 922(g)(1).

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore police just announced on Twitter that they arrested a man in the weekend shooting on The Avenue in Hampden:

SHOOTING ARREST: William Hyde (W/M/91) arrested moments ago by BPD Warrant Task Force and US Marshalls for shooting on W. 36th in Hampden

As soon as I get the charging documents, probably on Wednesday, I'll share them with you. Meanwhile, here are some more details from today's story.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

A new report from the Baltimore Health Department reaches some interesting but not necessarily startling conclusions. Like adult susects and victims, in which both groups typically have dealings with the criminal justice system, children too live in both worlds.

Looking at past criminal histories, problems with truancy and in school, researchers found the youngest of our victims and suspects to be virtually indistinguishable:

Among the findings, youth who later become victims and perpetrators of violence in Baltimore City begin to show signs of concern to child serving agencies within a year of entering Kindergarten. Among youth with reports to the Department of Social Services for allegations of abuse or neglect (48%), the average age of first involvement was 6.6 years. Academic records point to truancy and suspensions, both with an age of first occurrence around age 13 years (92% of youth with an available school record had a history of chronic truancy and 62% had a history of suspension or expulsion.). The average age of first referral to the Department of Juvenile Services was 13.6 years (73%).

Here is a link to the entire report.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

My apologies for not getting back to my readers sooner -- I was out all day Monday shadowing the city school police chief for a one or two articles scheduled for this week. As such, I still don't know much about the double shooting over the weekend in Hampden, though my colleague Justin Fenton reports that Baltimore police do have a suspect and have issued an arrest warrant.

I have a call into the Northern District and will most certainly have an update once police make an arrest. The shooting on a popular shopping street that draws people from all over the city certainly is troublesome and has got people concerned. The victim was pregnant.

In other news, Julie Bykowicz reports an update in the state Del. Jon S. Cardin, D-Baltimore County, rent-a-police-boat-and-helicopter wedding caper. Baltimore's Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told the WBAL C4 radio show on Monday that it was Cardin who asked for the special treatment from low-level officers.

Cardin's statements had left it murky as to what role he and a friend played in setting up the stunt that involved a fake police raid as he proposed to his fiance aboard a boat in the harbor. He has repayed the city $300 and apologized, but he has refused to name the owner of the boat, say who was with him on his trip or how the plot got started. Police are still investigating but have said they will not name the boat owner. Police also have refused to release the letter the commissioner sent to Cardin with the bill and have not described how they came up with $300.

So with questions remaining and a full accounting still hanging out there, every little drip and drab will become a headline. Both Cardin and the police could've ended this last week by giving out full details. It's a one-day story that easily could've been over in one day. The scant details only leave us wondering what else is there to this story?

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)