Detective Tyrone S. Francis took the stand in his own defense Friday against charges that he and two fellow officers kidnapped teenagers and left them to fend for themselves in far-flung areas.

Francis said the teens were providing information to police, and they were dropped off where they asked to be let out. Michael Johnson Jr. called 911 after being left in Howard County without shoes or a working cell phone, he testified earlier in the trial.

"I would not hold them against their will," said Francis, who was driving the vehicle.

"You didn't feel a need to return either one of them to their neighborhood?" prosecutor Michelle Martin asked.

"That was my intent, until they requested to be released," Francis said. "Ma'am, they asked to be released, and I released them at their will."

Martin, who is prosecuting the case alongside State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, his first trial as the city's top prosecutor, also got in a dig at the Police Department. She asked Francis why he would leave one of the teens in a violent "drug-dealing area" like the corner of Lafayette and Harford.

Francis replied that violent, drug-dealing area "pretty much" summed up "the whole city."

Martin laughed. "You guys have been doing a great job," she said.

That drew immediate objections from defense attorneys, who then changed their minds. "Actually, I don't object," defense attorney Michael Belsky said. "I want the jury to hear that."

Just what kind of information the detectives gleaned from the teens is unclear. Francis said the first teen "hinted around some things, but he didn't give anything that I guess was of too much significance."

The officers' supervisors were also called to testify, saying that they were not advised that the officers were leaving their designated area that night and that they were unaware of any information the detectives gathered from the teens. 

"No informants, to your information, were developed that night?" Bernstein asked Lt. Michael Fries.

"No sir," Fries said.

The supervisors, however, said that officers are instructed to get potential informants away from the area where they are picked up, and said they are not always given details of the investigative work their detectives do. Fries and Lt. Parker Elliott added that they believed the officers were the "best of the best."

Also testifying was Roland Patterson, an attorney with the NAACP, who said he had multiple conversations with the lead internal affairs detectives while the investigation was ongoing. Patterson said he wrote a letter to then-State's Attorney Patricia Jessamy and spoke with the detective because he believed the case had grown stagnant.

"The result we desired was accomplished," Patterson testified.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Killings in Baltimore continue to climb, with police saying a man whose body was found on fire Wednesday in Southwest Baltimore had been killed by asphyxiation and homicide detectives investigating a Friday morning fatal stabbing in Upper Fells Point.

As of early Friday, 70 people had been slain in the city, a 25 percent increase over the same point last year. Twenty-six people have been killed this month, up from 16 in all of last April.

Det. Nicole Monroe, a city police spokeswoman, said an autopsy determined that the body found on fire in the basement of a vacant home in the unit block of Monroe St. was that of a 50-year-old man. He had been asphyxiated, and police have not identified him pending notification of his next of kin. The investigation was continuing, Monroe said.

At about 6:30 a.m. Friday, police responded to a report of a stabbing in the 1700 block of E. Lombard St., in Upper Fells Point, Monroe said. A neighbor said the victim was found in front of a neighborhood bar, but police did not have any information on the case, including the man’s identity or a possible motive.

City police have also identified a man shot to death in a triple shooting off North Avenue in East Baltimore Thursday afternoon.

Alex D. Venable, 26, of the 1700 block of Aberdeen Road, was one of three men who were shot; two other men, both 25, remain in critical condition at local hospitals, said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

The triple shooting occurred about 1 p.m. in the 1900 block of N. Collington Ave., when the three men were approached by two suspects who opened fire on them, police said. Two suspects were last seen running west in the 2100 block of Cliftwood Ave.

A fourth man shot and killed himself about half a mile away on E. Oliver Street as police swarmed neighborhoods looking for suspects, according to city police. Police said officers attempted stop him because he was acting suspiciously when he took off running and later shot himself, according to police and witnesses.

Guglielmi said police have not yet notified his family.

Police said the two incidents are not related.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore
        

The Sun's Nick Madigan reports:

The death of an 18-month-old Randallstown boy in February has been ruled a homicide, the Baltimore County Police Department announced on Friday.

On Jan. 31, the toddler, Stiles Brown, was taken by ambulance from his home on the 9500 block of Branchleigh Road to the University Specialty Hospital with “multiple traumatic injuries,” a statement from the police said. He was pronounced dead on Feb. 4.

The hospital, located in the 600 block of South Charles St., has a traumatic brain injury unit and his operated by the University of Maryland Medical Systems.

The office of the Chief Medical Examiner infomed the police of the cause of death on April 20. Detectives have been awaiting the results of the autopsy and the investigation into the case continues, the police said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

A man at a computer station at the Our Daily Bread employment center was stabbed in the stomach this afternoon and police caught a suspect after he ran across the street and right to the Baltimore City Jail.

Catholic Charities, which runs the employment center on The Fallsway, described the stabbing as an "extremely unusual and sobering event." It occurred on the first floor; the victim's condition could not be ascertained, the name of the suspect has not been released.

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi could only confirm a stabbing shortly after 1 p.m. at the center's address. In a statement, Catholic Charities said the center was immediately closed and will open again on Saturday.

The statement called the attacked "unprovoked."

"We are widely appreciated as a place of welcome, compassion, and opportunity for our clients as well as our staff and volunteers," the statement said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Downtown
        

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury convicted a man of attempted first degree murder and several handgun violations for opening fire on 11 city police officers in 2009. The suspect still faces charges in the killing of a customer and the wounding of the owner of a Catonsville convenience store.

Bradrick Green got into the confrontation with police who were searching for a suspect in the November 2009 shooting of Sudhir Shah, who owned Yours Convenience Store in Catonsville. A customer, Brian Michael Meise, 52, was killed in that holdup. At left is a picture of Shah when he reopened his store, taken by The Sun's Lloyd Fox.

Shah, a popular member of the community, reopened his store in May 2010. "And I have bad memories in my mind," he told a reporter then. "I'm going to work. I have to. But I'm not going to own a gun. Don't believe in that."

Here is a story with more details on the arrest of the suspect and his conviction in the shootout. He is scheduled for trial Oct. 3 in the store shooting.

A 36-year-old Catonsville man who was wounded in 2009 during a shootout with nearly a dozen police officers has been convicted by a Baltimore Circuit Court jury of attempted first-degree murder and other charges.

Bradrick T. Green, who has a long criminal history, was arrested on Nov. 21, 2009, after police said he repeatedly fired a .45-caliber handgun toward 11 officers, some of whom had tried to pull over the hack cab in which he was riding on the 200 block of S. Athol Ave.

He ran on foot and continued to fire, said the officers, none of whom was wounded. Police pursued and ultimately shot Green in the stomach on Pen Lucy Road.

In addition to attempted murder, Green was convicted of first-degree assault, 12 counts of using a handgun in a crime of violence and various other weapons offenses. Green faces a maximum of 11 life terms plus 306 years when he is sentenced on Aug. 3.

Even then, Green will not be done with court appearances, all connected to what police said was a crime spree that developed over a matter of days. He faces trial on Oct. 3 in the killing of a man in a Catonsville convenience store and the attempted murder of the store’s owner, an incident that took place five days before the shootout the resulted in his arrest.

In that case, green has been charged in the Nov. 17, 2009, killing of  Brian M. Meise, a 52-year-old customer at Yours Convenience Store, and of wounding Sudhir Shah, 55.

Green is also charged with attempted murder and carjacking in connection with a Nov. 20, 2009, incident on Ingleside Avenue in Catonsville. The victim, Tyrone Brady, was shot in the head and the arm but was able to run away from the scene and did not suffer significant injuries, according to John Magee, a prosecutor with Baltimore County State's Attorney's Office who intends to bring that case to trial on May 11.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system, Southwest Baltimore
        

The Sun's Frank Roylance reports:

A reporting system set up to provide Maryland lawmakers with data on crime scene DNA testing by state and local law enforcement agencies has major flaws, a state auditor’s review has found (read full report here).

The report by the state Office of Legislative Audits said that a “lack of clear guidance” in the legislation, in implementing regulations and in the report forms provided to police, led to “inconsistencies” in the reporting that have rendered any conclusions drawn from the numbers “unreliable.”

The numbers for 2009 found, for example, that police collected 11,359 samples of crime scene DNA (as distinct from personal DNA) from 4,836 crimes. More than 1,800 of those crimes were committed in Baltimore City.

The average “turnaround” time for test results varied from 28 days in Howard County to 240 days for the National Capital Park Police.

But the review revealed that police agencies differed in how they defined and counted crimes and samples for the reports. Some provided estimates rather than counts. They also had different ideas on when to start counting the days it took to get DNA test results back. Three local police departments didn’t report at all on samples they sent to private labs — between 14 percent and 17 percent of their crime scene DNA evidence.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A man who supplied drugs that federal authorities said led to a fatal overdose was senenced today to nine years in prison, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. Luis Reyes-Torres, 26, distributed morphine and methadone.

"Drug dealers should be on notice that they can be held accountable if anyone dies after taking the drugs that they distribute," Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement.

Reyes-Torres pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the nursing home where he worked and giving them to a woman. That woman gave them to another man in exchange for marijuana. That man then sold the drugs for $60 to Brandon Sgaggero of Frederick.

On March 6, 2008, Sgaggero was found dead in his apartment. An autopsy found that he had overdoses on methadone and morphine. Two other intermediaries have pleaded guilty to selling drugs and are to be sentenced in June and July.

Prosecutors said this is the third case prosecuted in Maryland "in which the distribution of drugs resulted in a drug user dying from an overdose." A Boonsboro man was sentenced to 20 years in prison and an Olney woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2008.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

Baltimore police are warning residents to be wary of scam artists pretending to be with BGE and with the Social Security Administration who authorities say have bilked at least two people out of money.

In one incident on April 19, police said a 78-year-old woman from South Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood reported giving a man $1,000. The man had knocked on her door and told her she needed to come up with $1,900 to avoid having her electricity cut off, according to a police report.

"She advised that despite knowing she had paid her bill, she stated she was scared of having her service turned off," the police report says.

In another case, on April 26, police said a 69-year-old woman in the Riverside neighborhood gave $500 to a man who claimed she owed money to social security. He warned that her benefits would be cut off and demanded $1,000. Police said she gave him all she had -- $500.

The police report states the man then demanded even more -- $3,200 -- and instructed her to send money to an address in Aberdeen.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: South Baltimore
        

The man charged in connection with last month’s fatal shooting of a 19-year-old woman in Better Waverly is already in jail and being held without bail in connection with a January armed robbery, according to court records.

James Cureton, 21, of the 5200 block of Anthony Lane, now faces first-degree murder and other charges in the death of Tanise Ervin. Authorities had described her as an innocent bystander who had just graduated high school and was planning to attend college to study nursing.

Baltimore Police also announced Friday that suspects have been charged in a fatal shooting in January as well as in a February stabbing.

Ervin was one of three people shot March 12 outside a carryout in the 900 block of Gorsuch Ave. The shop is steps away from where she lived with her mother in Serenity House, an apartment building that is an offshoot of a women’s shelter run by the Sisters of Mercy and Sisters of Notre Dame.

Cureton was arrested April 1 on unrelated armed robbery, assault and gun charges at the Baltimore City Detention Center. A trial on those charges is scheduled for May 3.

In the armed robbery case, Cureton is accused of stealing two cellphones, a set of keys, a wallet and a pack of cigarettes from a couple in the Frankford neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore on January 28, according to court records.

Ervin’s family, residents of Serenity House and other neighbors said they feel reassured now that they know Ervin’s accused killer is not walking the streets.

“The fact that he will be able to be brought to trial for the actual shooting is just wonderful news for all of us,” said Katie Allston, executive director of Marian House, which is affiliated with Serenity Place.

Allston said they will support Ervin’s mother through the trial and will explore ways to memorialize her daughter. “We like the idea of there being some positive messages out there as a result of this tragedy,” she said.

Baltimore Police have also charged a man and a woman in the stabbing of Steven Williams, 53, in the 1100 block of West Cross Street in Washington Village on February 15.

According to documents, Anthony Johnston, 29, of the 1700 block of E. 28th Street, and Chadonna Chase, 23, of the 200 block of Perrywood Court in Aberdeen, approached Williams and began to fight as a result of an ongoing dispute over property.

Williams tried to run away but Johnston chased him and stabbed him repeatedly with a sharp object, according to the charging documents. Witnesses said they saw Chase removing evidence dropped by Johnston and leaving the scene with him in a tan SUV registered to her, the charging documents state. 

In addition, police have charged Freddie Curry, 39, of the first block of Enchanted Hill Road in Owings Mills with first-degree murder and other charges in connection with the January 28 shooting of Raynard Benjamin, 30, in the 800 block of West Pratt Street.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

After the state rested its case Friday morning, the defense team for three officers accused of misconduct called an interesting first witness: the lead Baltimore Police internal affairs detective who investigated the case for a year but was not called as a state witness.

Det. Lakishna DeGraffinried said she became the primary investigator two days after the allegations first surfaced that the officers - Tyrone Francis, Gregory Hellen and Milton Smith - had allegedly driven a teenager to Howard County and left him there without shoes or a cell phone.

But DeGraffinried seemed to have little grasp of the case. She repeatedly told defense attorney Kenneth Ravenell that she had not testified before the grand jury, then Ravenell produced the transcript of her grand jury testimony. She then claimed that her testimony had come from information prepared by someone else.

She also said she did not know what became of the blue van driven by the police officers and processed for evidence by the crime lab. And she shrugged when asked by defense attorneys why evidence that could justify the officers' actions was not presented to the grand jury.

Curiously, she also testified that the teenage victim's statements to police were faxed to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which at that point was publicly calling for charges against the officers. In opening statements, defense attorneys said the NAACP had been improperly involved in the investigation. Ravenell asked if providing statements to outside agencies in the midst of ongoing investigations was typical - she said no.

We'll have more from this trial as it continues to unfold.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Sun's Julie Scharper reports that Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III announced at the mayor's Northeast District town hall meeting Thursday night that he has named new commanders for the district.

The move solidifies a district that has battled new challenges in recent years, a problem I'll be writing about in a future story. As of April 16, the district had seen a 20 percent uptick in total crime and leads the city in homicides. 

Maj. Delmar "Sonny" Dickson retired in January, and Deputy Major Darryl DeSousa had been acting major since then. DeSousa was officially given the nod to become the district commander, and his Deputy Major will be Rick Rutherford, who moves from the Western District, Scharper reported.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: City Hall, Northeast Baltimore, Top brass
        

Family and friends gathered Thursday night to remember Phylicia Barnes, the teenager from North Carolina who went missing from Baltimore in December and whose body was jound last week in the Susquehena River.

The vigil was held outside the apartment complex where Barnes was last seen. The same evening, mourners gathered at a church in her hometown of Monroe, N.C., for a memorial service. Here is  a picture from the Baltimore vigil taken by The Sun's Amy Davis. It shows cousins of Barnes, Christine Brown, left, and her sister Kathleen Ford, center, leading a prayer during a memorial vigil for Barnes. Behind them at center is Phylicia's father, Russell

The discovery of Barnes' body ends one mystery but now the search for how she died, and her killer, if she was murdered, begins. The Sun's Jessica Anderson, who was at the vigil in Baltimore reported that at one point people in the crowd "bowed their heads, some held white or purple candles — purple was Barnes' favorite color — and they wore shirts with her high school portrait. They formed a large circle that spilled into the parking lot."

"We're just still devastated by this," said Barnes' father, Russell. "It's been definitely a trying time, and it's not over."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

A member of a police fugitive aprehension task force on the Eastern Shore shot a tire out on car with a fleeing fugitive, enabling officers to arrest two suspects Thursday afternoon. The officer fired when the driver took off with another officer hanging from the car window.

The incident occurred in Salisbury after officers stopped car occupied by a man wanted on a warrant charging him with armed robbery stemming from a home invasion in March on Kent Island, according to Maryland State Police.

Here is a full account of the shooting from authorities:

Maryland State Police are investigating a police involved shooting that occurred late this afternoon in Wicomico County when a member of a fugitive task force shot the tire of a vehicle containing a wanted fugitive that was attempting to flee while another police officer was partially in the car.

The driver of the car containing the fugitive is identified as James D. Brown, 41, of the 2500-block of Castle Street, Salisbury, Md. He is charged with second degree assault and failure to obey a lawful order of a police officer. He will have an appearance later tonight before a court commissioner in Wicomico County. 

A passenger in the car, who was the subject of the police search, was also arrested.  He is identified as Clarence Cornish, 32, of the 100-block of Willis Street, Cambridge, Md.  He is charged on a Kent County Grand Jury indictment with 16 criminal charges including armed robbery, burglary, assault, and use of a handgun in the commission of a felony. These charges stem from a home invasion that occurred on March 31, 2011 in Kent County.  Cornish is being taken to Kent County where he will be held without bond. 

This afternoon, members of the Maryland State Apprehension Team/Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force were in the Salisbury area searching for Cornish. The fugitive team included Deputy Gregory Simpler from the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office and Officer Kevin Larkin of the Salisbury Police Department. 

Shortly before 4:00 p.m. today, members of the fugitive task force spotted Cornish riding in a car northbound on Rt. 13 near Salisbury. Task force members attempted to stop the vehicle at the red light on Rt. 13 at Connelly Mill Road. As they approached the car, Officer Larkin opened the passenger door and ordered Cornish out. Cornish did not comply and the officer reached in the car, attempting to remove him. As he did, the driver, Brown, pulled off with Officer Larkin partially in and out of the vehicle. 

In fear for the life of Officer Larkin, Deputy Simpler fired one shot from his department-issued .40 caliber pistol at the rear driver’s side tire in an attempt to deflate the tire and disable the vehicle.  The car continued about 70 yards until it stopped.  Officer Larkin was able to disengage himself from the moving car without injury.

When the vehicle stopped, the fugitive team approached the car again and arrested Cornish and Brown without further incident. A third person in the back seat of the car was not arrested. 

No one on the scene was injured in the incident. As is procedure, the police involved shooting is being investigated by the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit.   

Deputy Simpler is an eight-year veteran of the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office. He has been placed on routine administrative leave by his department while the investigation continues. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Crime elsewhere, Police shootings
        

Baltimore police have charged a 21-year-old man with first-degree murder in last month’s shooting of a 19-year-old woman who authorities described as an innocent bystander who had just graduated high school and was planning on attending college to study nursing.

Tanise Ervin was one of three people shot March 12 outside a carryout in the 900 block of Gorsuch Ave. in Better Waverly, steps away from where she lived with her mother in Serenity House, part of a woman’s shelter run by the Sisters of Mercy and Sisters of Notre Dame.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi identified the suspect as James Cureton, of the 5200 block of Anthony Lane. He is being held without bail on unrelated armd robbery, assault and gun charges at the Baltimore City Detention Center, awaiting a May 3 trial on those charges.

Guglielmi said Cureton has been charged in an arrest warrant, which is in the process of being served. News of the arrest first appeared in an on-line neighborhood newsletter after police briefed North Baltimore residents on the case.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: North Baltimore
        

The Sun's Jessica Anderson reports:

Three men were shot just off North Avenue in East Baltimore Thursday afternoon, one of them fatally, and a fourth man shot and killed himself about half a mile away as police swarmed neighborhoods looking for suspects, according to city police.

The triple shooting shortly before 1 p.m. in the 1900 block of North Collington Ave. where numerous people had gathered outside a corner store. Det. Donny Moses, a city police spokesman, said the men were approached by two other men who opened fire on them (picture above is by The Sun's Amy Davis).

Plainclothes officers from the Violent Crime Impact Section were doing narcotics work and responded to the scene, which police had secluded with lines of yellow police tape.
One man, who has not yet been identified, was shot in the head. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said a 25-year-old was shot multiple times and remains in critical condition at a local hospital. The third victim, who also is 25 years old, was also taken to a local hospital and his expected to survive his injuries. Two suspects were last seen running west in the 2100 block of Cliftwood Avenue.

Only a black shirt lay in the sidewalk. Neighbors sat and watched detectives scour the scene from their front stoops in the bright sunlight. Most were too afraid to give their names.

A short time later, officers with another violent crimes unit was in the area of North Wolfe and East Federal streets and came across a man who police said was acting suspiciously. Moses said he appeared to be holding something heavy, concealed in his clothing, prompting the officers to get out of their vehicles and approach him.

The man then pulled out a gun and took off running down North Chapel Street, an alley between Wolfe and Washington streets. Moses the officer giving chase and bystanders said the man shot himself when he reached Oliver Street.

Moses said detectives don't believe the Oliver Street victim was involved in the shooting on Collington Avenue. Police have not identified any of the victims and have not yet learned the motives for either incident.

Just four days earlier, a man and a woman were each shot in chest in the 2100 block of Cliftwood Ave., which is about two blocks from the triple shooting on Collington Avenue. Both victims survived.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a former United Way of Central Maryland employee on charges that she bilked the nonprofit out of more than $400,000 by steering deposits to a bank account she had allegedly commandeered.

Dorothy Shields Talbot, 48, who lives in Woodlawn and worked in United Way’s finance department from 2001 through 2010, was charged with wire fraud. A statement from the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office says she had been responsible for depositing donations into a corporate bank account.

Talbot faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Her initial court appearance has not been scheduled. Reached by telephone Thursday evening, Talbot said, “I don’t have any comment” and then hung up.

A statement from United Way says that its security personnel caught the suspected fraud and notified the FBI and prosecutors. The statement describes Talbot as a “former long-term non-managerial employee, acting alone.”

United Way also said that the organization expects to recover most of its loss from insurance and that auditors are working to ensure that “we can direct the funds as originally intended. … It is critical that justice is served in protecting our donors and people in need in central Maryland.”

The indictment says Talbot, as a senior administrative coordinator, was responsible for opening up the finance department’s mail, which included charitable donations. It was her job to deposit the donations into an account at M&T Bank, according to prosecutors.

In December 2004, the indictment says that Talbot was ordered to close another bank account, this one at Wachovia, which had been used to handle money from an internal employee activities committee. Prosecutors allege that she never closed the account, and instead diverted checks from donors meant for M&T into the account with Wachovia.

The indictment also alleges that she changed the address on the bank account from United Way’s address at 100 South Charles Street to her home on Triple Crown Court in Woodlawn, and then to a new home address on North Bend Road, also in Woodlawn.

Prosecutors allege in the indictment that Talbot “used $400,000 of the monies deposited into the … Wachovia account … for her own personal use and benefit.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Three people were shot, one fatally, at North Collington and West North Avenues this afternoon. Then, as police swarmed the area, a man apparently shot himself in the head near East Oliver and North Wolfe streets.

The Sun's Jessica Anderson was at the scene and will have a full report shortly on the latest violence. The shooting occurred shortly after 2 p.m.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

The Sun's Andea F. Siegel reports this unusual development in a civil case:

The parents of a teen killed in Crofton were handed a pair of new athletic shoes Wednesday as part of the settlement of a civil lawsuit over their son's death. The shoes had belonged to a youth accused of having a role in the death of Christopher Jones in 2009.

"I saw him in brand new shoes, and I thought he's got a lot of nerve coming in here with brand new shoes and he's saying he has no money," said Jennifer Adkins, whose 14-year-old son, Christopher Jones, had been riding his bike home when youth gang members in western Anne Arundel County punched him in the face in May 2009, leading to his death.

She suggested, during a settlement conference of the family's civil lawsuit against the six teenagers, that he hand over the shoes that he appeared to be so proud of.

"I wanted him to walk out of the courthouse in his socks and be embarrassed and humiliated. He can say Chris Jones' mother took the shoes off my feet," Adkins said. Her request surprised the retired judge who was holding the settlement conference.

But soon, the Jones' family's lawyer, Richard Jaklitsch, was holding the shoes. "It was the first time in my 28 years of practicing law that this has happened," he said.

Read the full story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

The state has rested its case in the trial of three Baltimore police officers accused of kidnapping and misconduct, State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein's first as the city's top prosecutor.

Defense attorneys for Tyrone S. Francis, Gregory Hellen and Milton Smith III were denied a motion for acquittal after arguing that the case had been improperly charged and that the state had failed to produce evidence of a crime.

"Your honor, it's time for Greg Hellen to go home," his attorney, David Irwin told Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. Doory. Attorney Michael Belsky said the case was "simply not properly charged" and that there was no evidence of kidnapping, assault or misconduct. Doory said there was sufficient evidence to present the case to a jury, which he said was a "low hurdle."

The defense team will now begin presenting its witnesses, including at least one of the officers. Before the trial began, the attorneys said their presentation could take as long as two weeks.

The officers are accused of picking up two West Baltimore teens in May 2009 and driving them far from their homes and abandoning them. One teen, Michael B. Johnson Jr., was left in a Howard County park with no shoes and no cell phone, prosecutors say.

"The record is replete with evidence that supports these charges," assistant state's attorney Michelle Martin said in asking Doory to deny the motion for acquittal.

The defense contends that the teens were giving confidential information to the detectives, who conducted high-level drug investigations, and that the teens wanted to cover their tracks out of fear of being labeled snitches.

Both victims were shaky on the stand, and Johnson admitted that he was not truthful when he called 911 and said the officers had beaten him up. Defense attorneys ripped several of the state's witnesses for inconsistencies in their statements, and has suggested that they colluded with each other and Bernstein to get their stories straight.

The final witness for the state Thursday was Maj. John Hess, who oversees the police department's Violent Crimes Impact Section. The officers have claimed that they were gathering information in the investigation of a violent West Baltimore drug dealer - was was charged by federal prosecutors last year - but Hess said he was not aware that the officers were working that case that night.

"Are you aware of any leads that were developed" as a result of their interaction with the teens, Bernstein asked Hess. "I'm not aware of any," Hess said.

Doory interjected, asking Hess what officers were supposed to do when they gain information in a case. Hess said it must be documented in case folders and forms.

Defense attorney Kenneth Ravenell noted that the officers were suspended the day after the interaction with the teens.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Two Baltimore police commanders who were under scrutiny have been cleared of criminal charges and returned to duty, the Police Department confirmed.

Maj. Anthony Brown, who oversees the city department's SWAT team and special operations section, had been suspended last month when a handgun reported stolen from a politically-connected Southeast Baltimore businessman was determined to be a personal weapon registered to Brown.

The gun had not been reported missing or stolen by Brown, and sources said the business owner, Nicolas Ramos, claimed he had had it for years. Ramos was a member of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's transition team, and was appointed to Gov. Martin O'Malley's Commission on Hispanic Affairs.

In Maryland, a private citizen can sell a firearm to another citizen, but must conduct the transaction at a firearms dealership or in the presence of state police, and there is paperwork that must be filled out. However, Maryland's highest court ruled in 2006 that it is legal for a regulated handgun to be "loaned" between two people who are permitted to own and obtain a handgun. The Court of Appeals said that "transfer" refers to a permanent exchange of title or possession and "does not include gratuitous temporary exchanges or loans."

A spokesman for the State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, whose office reviewed the case, did not immediately return an email seeking comment. Ramos was also cleared in the case, and the theft of the gun remains under investigation.

Also cleared was Maj. Terrence McLarney, the commander of the city's homicide unit. McLarney had been cleared in mid-March of criminal charges after his department vehicle was found abandoned on the side of Interstate 95 when he slid off a rain-slicked road. 

State police said last month that McLarney told investigators that a car in front of him began swerving and that he "braked hard and his vehicle began to slide and left the roadway." The statement did not address why McLarney did not report the accident and left his car, which was found hours later by a state trooper.

In that case, Howard County State's Attorney Dario J. Broccolino reviewed the case and declined to pursue charges. 

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said both commanders were reinstated to full duty and the internal cases were "concluded based on prosecutorial review of their incidents." He declined to comment further, citing personnel issues.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Top brass
        

A 34-year-old Baltimore man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for selling drugs after getting caught in an undercover narcotics deal. The suspect was identified as Barry Green.

Here are some details from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

According to Green’s plea agreement, an undercover Baltimore Police officer drove to the corner of Pembridge and Spaulding Avenues where he had observed Green engaged in what the officer believed was the sale of illegal drugs.

Green approached the officer’s car and asked how many. The officer responded by asking for cocaine. Green walked to a nearby house on Pembridge Avenue, retrieved a small object from a windowsill and returned to the officer, giving him a vial containing cocaine in exchange for a pre-recorded $20 bill. 

The undercover officer drove away, contacted other officers in the area and described the events. The other officers quickly located Green, arrested him and seized $214, including the pre-recorded $20 bill, along with two more vials of cocaine from the windowsill. 
       

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

The Maryland Lottery's slogan may be "Let Yourself Play," but the feds are saying it's the lottery that got played. Authorities are saying a suspected drug dealer laundered money through winning tickets.

In a scheme outlined in a federal indictment filed Wednesday -- and fully explored in a story here -- prosecutors say that Steven Blackwell bought winning $5,000 lottery tickets from three players and then cashed them in for the proceeds. The original player presumably got their winnings tax-free, and the suspect got clean cash out of the deal.

Three times in a little overa a month, the indictment says, the same woman working for Blackwell cashed three winning tickets, each for $5,000. The charges also include allegations that money was laundered through Las Vegas casino chips, including up to $35,000's worth from the Venetian Resort.

You may remember Blackwell -- he's been linked to a string of violence and authorities are trying to break up his alleged empire by seizing $10 million. He is linked to two real estate companies that own a string of properties in the city and he owns a $740,000 house in Elkton.

More details from a previous story by Sun reporter Justin Fenton:

Federal authorities are trying to seize more than $10 million from reputed drug kingpin Steven Blackwell Jr., who was indicted along with two others on federal heroin distribution charges last month.

The brief court filing in U.S. District Court indicates for the first time the scope of Blackwell's alleged drug empire and links him to two real estate companies that own property in East Baltimore and a home along the Elk River in Cecil County that was purchased for $740,000.Authorities have labeled Blackwell, 26, a key player in a violent drug feud that began with the abduction of his two younger brothers and included a quadruple shooting outside an appliance store and a shootout at a backyard cookout that injured 12 people, including Blackwell.

Despite his reputation, Blackwell, also known as "J.R.," hadn't faced serious charges since he was 17 years old. He was picked up in New York last week after being indicted along with co-defendants Tahirah Carter, 34, and Joy Edison, 24, whose roles have not been spelled out.

Court papers and state business records show that Blackwell and Edison are linked to two real estate companies, JJM Realty LLC and J. Edison Properties, which own property in the Oliver, Berea and Johnston Square neighborhoods that were purchased between Aug. 29, 2008, and Jan. 6, 2009. According to assessments, they appear to be vacant homes.

State records show that JJM is registered in Blackwell's name for the purpose of "buying, selling and renting properties," while J. Edison properties dissolved last year after failing to file proper paperwork.

The Cecil County home is in a new development along the Elk River, with 35,000 square feet of property, and the title is in Edison's name.

Federal prosecutors filed a document Tuesday giving notice that they intend to seize "any and all property obtained directly or indirectly" as a result of drug dealing, including $10 million in U.S. currency.

Blackwell has yet to make an appearance in Maryland court, and details of the allegations remain unclear. But a news release from the U.S. attorney's office announcing the indictments indicated a wide range of agencies working on the investigation, including the IRS, FBI, city and state police, city prosecutors and New York's Drug Enforcement Agency.

In April 2008, Blackwell's two younger brothers were abducted by masked gunmen from their Catonsville home by rival drug dealers who thought Blackwell was cheating them on the price of heroin, according to documents previously filed in federal court by an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Blackwell paid a $500,000 ransom to free his brothers, the records show.

Six weeks later, authorities said, gunmen took revenge with a quadruple shooting outside the Allen & Family Appliance store, a discount appliance shop in East Baltimore. The store was operated by the family of Terrell Allen, described by law enforcement officials as a drug dealer who took part in the Blackwell kidnapping. The shooting killed Allen's father, Tony Allen, 52, and a 27-year-old named Omar Spriggs. Terrell Allen and another man were injured.

In the months that followed, several Blackwell associates were killed. Then on July 26 of last year, gunfire rang out at a backyard cookout in East Baltimore held to commemorate their deaths. Twelve people were shot and wounded, including Blackwell, a pregnant woman and a 2-year-old girl.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

In a legal case that has lasted years and pit a cop from the small western Maryland town of Thurmont against the Maryland State Police, the state's highest court has finally ruled that the cop can't sue over a botched emergency call.

On Oct. 24, 2002, the cop, Richard White, was dispatched to an ACE Hardware store for a report of an armed robbery that had just occurred. The state police dispatcher, William Henrickson, based his information from the store employee who had dialed 911:

"Yea, I'm in Thurmont at the ACE Hardware. I just got shafted. A guy just robbed me."

Henrickson's dispatch sent White on a high-speed chase of a man he thought was armed. The officer missed a turn on Yellow Springs Road, went into a culvurt, became airborne and slammed into a tree. The officer was severely injured.

Turns out the man being chased was wanted for shoplifting, not armed robbery. And he didn't have a gun.

The Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that White can't sue Henrickson because of the so-called "fireman's rule," which "precludes police officers and firefighters injured in the course of their duties from suing those whose negligence necessitated the public safety officers' presence at the location where the injury occurred."

The officer alleged that he relied on the dispatcher to exercise "reasonable care to provide accurate informatiion and would not have commenced the high-speed chase had he not been givent he false information that the suspects were armed."

But the high court ruled that the officeer "was injured in the course of his duties as a police officer and no 'exceptions' to the firefighter's rule applied."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A statement from police:

Baltimore County Police are asking for the public’s help identifying three suspects responsible for an armed robbery and attempted murder that occurred April 19 in the 9900-block of Cervine Lane (near Randallstown).

A 23-year-old victim was outside a friend’s house when he was approached by three black males. They asked the victim to go with them, but he refused. The three suspects then began punching the victim until he fell to the ground, then they began to kick him. One of the suspects used a knife to stab the victim in the upper body. All three fled the location after taking some of the victim’s property. The victim was transported to Sinai Hospital for medical treatment for his injuries, which were considered potentially life-threatening.

Investigation revealed that the victim had seen the suspects earlier at the Marriottsville Shopping Center, located in the 9900-block of Liberty Road, 21133. Detectives were able to pull surveillance video from the area so that it could be used to identify the suspects.

The first suspect is described as a black male, approximately 30 years old, 6’ to 6’2” tall, 230-250 pounds, with dread locks.

The second suspect is described as a black male, approximately 30 years old, 6’ to 6’2” tall, and 190 to 200 pounds.

The third suspect is described as a light-skinned black male, approximately 20-25 years old.

Anyone with information about the identities or whereabouts of the suspects is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587). To text a message to Metro Crime Stoppers, send to "CRIMES" (274637), then enter the message starting with "MCS," or e-mail a tip to Metro Crime Stoppers. Those contacting Metro Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and might be eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,000.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

A former Montgomery County police officer pleaded guilty today to using a law enforcement database to conducted wanted checks on her boyfriend and others involved in personal disputes, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Delores Culmer, 37, of Silver Spring, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced June 13. She admitted to using her police powers to access databases at least 20 times between August 2008 and April 2010. Those databases included information about unserved arrest warrants and and motor vehicle information.

Prosecutors said she did unauthorized checks on her boyfriend, a person with whom her sister was having a dispute, a friend of her boyfriend and her boyfriend's brother.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Crime elsewhere
        

Two men have been arrested and charged with robbing nine people who were waiting in line to pay rent at a Cockeysville apartment complex. A third suspect died prior to being charged, according to statement from Baltimore County police.

The suspects were identified as Dacron Hobbs (pictured left), 34, of the 1500 block of Pennsylvania Ave. in Baltimore, and Dwaun Thomas, 31, of the 1000 block of Herndon Court, also in Baltimore. Both have been charged with multiple counts of armed robbery and are being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center.

Police said the victims were lined up outside a rental office at the apartment complex on Hogarth Cricle on Dec. 27 when three men, one armed with a handgun, demanded money.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

A man charged with calling a cab in Frederick and killing the driver when they arrived in Baltimore in January 2009 was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder, according to the city’s State’s Attorney’s Office.

A jury hearing the case in Baltimore Circuit Court also convicted Robert Lee Murphy, 22, with using a handgun in the commission of a violent crime and robbery with a deadly weapon. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 23 and faces life plus 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors said that Murphy called all three cab companies located in Frederick but dispatchers refused to take him to Baltimore because he did not have enough money — $75 to $90 — for the 50 mile trip. Prosecutors said the suspect had $50.

Instead, prosecutors said Murphy requested a ride to a convenience store about a mile away. Yellow Cab driver Stephen Mauk, 47, picked Murphy up in a minivan (picture above by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum) about 12:15 a.m. on Jan. 26.

He was found dead four hours later, slumped in the driver’s seat of his cab on North Bond Street in Southeast Baltimore, with a gunshot wound to his head. Police arrested and charged Murphy in March, 2009. His first trial in July 2010 ended in a mistrial.

Mauk had a wife, three daughters and one grandchild. His brother, Kevin Mauk, said in an interview in 2009 that the victim had been driving a cab at night for a year before he was killed, after he was laid off from his job in operations at United Healthcare.

Police said at the time of the arrest that detectives believed Murphy to be a member of the “L Gang,” a subset of the Bloods gang. He has prior convictions related to drug dealing and illegal handgun possession.

Authorities said that over a 10-day span in 2009, Murphy went on a crime spree that included killing Mauk, stealing a gun in Howard County and carjacking a man in Frederick. Howard County prosecutors dropped the gun charges and the carjacking case is still pending.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

A man fired shots at a police officer around 5 a.m. Wednesday from a home in Glen Burnie as officers responded to the residence for earlier reports of a gunshot, Anne Arundel police said.

The officer, a 17-year-veteran of the force, returned fire and took cover as officers from the Special Operations Section and Crisis Negotiations Unit surrounded the home, in the 100 block of Oak Spring Drive, just off Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard. Negotiators convinced a man inside the home to surrender at around 7:45 a.m.

The man was wearing body armor when he was taken into custody, police said, and no one was injured during the incident.

Police believe the man may have fired multiple shots at a home located behind the one on Oak Spring Drive, which prompted the initial call to police.

-Yeganeh June Torbati

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Police shootings
        

View Larger Map

Baltimore police are investigating a shooting death of a man Tuesday night in South Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood. Few details are known but police said the shooting occurred about 10:20 p.m. in the 3600 block of 5th St.

City police are still investigating the shooting death Monday of a man in West Baltimore. It occurred on Bentalou Avenue, near West North Avenue. These shootings come after a particularly violent weekend.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: South Baltimore
        

Two men who robbed a Bel Air store that sells supplies for paintgun games apparently went heavy on spray-on tanning applications to disguise themselves. We don't yet know if they were Jersey Shore castmates, but we do know they drove away the red SUV pictured here.

Here is a plea from the Harford County Sheriff's Office:

At approximately 4:45pm on Tuesday, April 26, 2011, Harford County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to an armed robbery that had just occurred at JC's Paintball located in the 100 block of Tollgate Road in Bel Air, MD.  The two suspects entered the store, threatened the storeowner and a juvenile employee with a knife before proceeding to steal an assortment of paintball guns, CO2 cartridges, paintball masks and various paintball supplies.
 
Both  suspects are described as two white males in their early to mid 20's who had applied heavy spray on tan applications (described a dark bronze/black in color) in order to disguise themselves:

• Suspect one is described as approximately 5'11" tall with a thin build and facial hair on the chin.  He was wearing a light blue long sleeved shirt, dark blue jeans, boot styled shoes, tan baseball cap over a doo rag.

• Suspect two is described as approximately 5'8" tall with a medium build wearing a red long sleeve shirt, black cargo pants, boot style shoes, oversized dark sunglasses  and a black doo rag.
 
They fled the store in an unknown direction, in an early 1990's style red SUV with Maryland tags, possibly a Chevy Blazer with slight damage to the paint on the front of the vehicle.  Investigators have reason to believe that the suspects may reside in or around the Arbutus area.

Anyone with information should call Detective Shawn Craig  at 410-836-5437.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Harford County
        

A new update on the melee at the Inner Harbor and downtown Monday night, from Sun reporter Yeganeh June Torbati:

At least six people were arrested Monday night as police were called from across Baltimore to help disperse a crowd at the Inner Harbor, shortly after two teenage boys were stabbed several blocks away, according to the department.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi described those arrested as facing minor charges for non-violent offenses and said they were connected to the stabbings. He said about 100 teens came to the harbor after Easter Sunday, on one of the last days of Spring Break for city students.

“At the end of the day the police department is going to do whatever it takes to keep downtown, or the East side or West side safe,” Guglielmi said. “On this occasion, we brought in additional resources from other districts and were able to shepherd individuals out of the downtown area and encourage them to go home.”

Guglielmi could not say exactly how many police were called to the downtown area. A police helicopter flew overhead, and cruisers blocked intersections with their lights flashing.

Police described the stabbing victims as a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old boy. They were attacked shortly before 10 p.m. as walked with a group of friends near East Baltimore and North Calvert streets, according to a statement one of the teens made to police, Guglielmi said.

The 15-year-old, who was stabbed multiple times in the shoulder and right leg, was taken by his family to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. He told police about five or six teenagers attacked him and his friends as they walked along East Baltimore Street. He described the person who stabbed him as a stocky, shirtless 17-year-old.

Police found the 16-year-old victim at North Gay and East Fayette streets. Police said he was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Police said they are reviewing CityWatch camera footage to gather more information on stabbings and other melees that broke out Monday night. Police said a fight broke out in McKeldin Square, Light and Pratt streets, about 8:30 p.m. Most of the crowd had cleared out of the downtown area by 11 p.m., Guglielmi said.

Some who witnessed the crowd and the police response posted messages on the social-networking website Twitter describing what they had seen. Some described the scene as a mob, or as “hoards of teens,” and as scary.

Police would only describe it as a “crowd.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Downtown
        

Maryland State Police have identified the body found along with the body of Phylicia Barnes in the Susquehanna River as a 53-year-old man. Police said there is nothing that connects him to the case of the missing teenager.

There has been speculation that the bodies were linked because they had been found on the same day about three miles apart in the river. But police now say it appears that the man left his house in March, well after Barnes disappeared in late December, and that he had threatened suicide. 

We'll have more information on this as the day develops. Here is statement from police:

The male body found in the Susquehanna River south of the Conowingo Dam last week has been positively identified, but investigators have found no connection between him and Phylicia Barnes, whose body was recovered more than three miles upriver on the same day.

The body has been identified as Darryl Harper, 53, of Richmond, Va.  Members of the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division Latent Print Unit notified investigators late yesterday they had matched fingerprints from the body with prints entered in the National Crime Information Center database for missing persons. 

The cause and manner of death for Harper have not been identified at this time.  Further tests are being conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

When the positive comparison of prints was made, State Police investigators contacted officials in the Richmond Police Department to assist with notifying Harper’s wife and to obtain further information. It was learned Harper’s wife reported him missing on April 15, 2011.  Harper’s wife told investigators she and her husband had lived in Cheektowaga, New York until November 2009, when they moved to an apartment in Cockeysville, Md.  They lived there until February 2011, when they moved to Richmond.

Harper’s wife said her husband left Richmond in early March 2011, to travel to their former apartment in Cockeysville to pick up items.  She said she received a call from her husband in mid- March and that was the last time she talked with him.

Mrs. Harper told investigators a relative in the Harrisburg, PA area had called to tell her Darryl Harper had checked himself into a hospital in East Penn, PA, on the Susquehanna River, on March 25, 2011, requesting help with mental health issues. Police learned he stayed in the hospital one night.

According to Mrs. Harper, her husband told a relative in March he was going to jump off a bridge.  She said her husband had attempted suicide in 2006.

Maryland State Police investigators are continuing to review information concerning Darryl Harper.  However, neither they nor Baltimore Police homicide detectives have found anything that would connect him to Phylicia Barnes or her disappearance.  The investigation is continuing. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Harford County
        

A disturbance involving dozens of juveniles down by the Inner Harbor last night again highlighted the growing way that we're using social media to track crime. We used eyewitness accounts and listened to an online feed of the Baltimore Police scanner, as The Sun's Julie Scharper herself navigated the downtown area. Check out tweets from Julie and Justin Fenton here, and here's Julie's account of the incident that ended up in today's paper:

A teenager was stabbed as police struggled to disperse a large group of young people who converged downtown Monday evening, Baltimore police said.

The teenager, who was injured shortly before 10 p.m. near the intersection of Gay and Fayette Streets, was taken to a nearby hospital with non life-threatening injuries, said Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman. She did not know the victim's age or gender.

A least 100 teenagers roamed the streets near the Inner Harbor, City Hall, the Convention Center and the First Mariner Arena for more than two hours as police used megaphones to order them to leave.

About a dozen police cars and wagons, lights flashing, were parked along Calvert and Pratt streets. Police officers twirled espantoons and opened the wagon doors as they shooed the teens along. The young people walked in large, boisterous groups and did not appear to be heading toward a destination. Asked why they had gathered downtown, one young person said, "It's the day after Easter."

For a historical perspective, here's a Sun story from 1995:

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke dismissed reports yesterday of rowdiness at Baltimore's Inner Harbor the previous night, but offered to extend Easter concerts past nightfall to allay continuing fears about the large crowds of teen-agers who gather there every year.A commotion toward the end of Sunday's jazz festival prompted management to lock the outer doors of Harborplace, according to city police. All the shops already were closed but most restaurants stayed open.

Some store owners and callers to radio talk shows complained yesterday about feeling alarmed by the teen-agers, whom they described as unruly and rude. But other witnesses said the young people were just milling about at the harbor, as has become an Easter tradition.

Throughout the bright and breezy afternoon, more than 9,000 people gathered peacefully to listen to jazz at the harbor. The concert ended on a sour note, however, when two groups of youngsters ran along the crowded promenade, and Harborplace management locked the pavilion doors, city police said.

It was never necessary to force the youths to leave the promenade or call in more police officers than the 29 already assigned for the jazz festival, said police spokesman Sam Ringgold. Authorities reported no resulting arrests, crime or damage, except for a flower pot that was turned over in front of Phillips Restaurant.

Mayor Schmoke, who arranged for Easter concerts for the past two years after an unruly crowd led to the early closing of Harborplace in 1993, said he did not consider a group of teen-agers running along the promenade "a disturbance."

"The fact that some young people ran up and down is certainly far short of what I would call a disturbance," he said. "Some people seeing a group of young people running may think it's a stampede. But I just don't think it's a fair characterization."

Two years ago, the Rouse Co. ordered the Harborplace pavilions closed early after about 4,000 young people converged at the Inner Harbor. Although police reported no resulting crime or fighting among the youths, some people expressed fear and discomfort at the size and racial makeup of the crowd, which was largely black, and complained about a lack of security.

To ease tensions over the traditional Easter gathering of many of the city's youth at the Inner Harbor, Mr. Schmoke set up the jazz concerts. The goal, he said, was "to make this a true community event and invite everyone to come down to share a nice afternoon."

Sunday's concerts, which featured jazz artists performing at the Harborplace Amphitheater and in front of the Maryland Science Center, drew enthusiastic and diverse crowds for nearly four hours.

As the evening wore on, most of the tourists and families left the Inner Harbor, while increasing numbers of teen-agers arrived.

About 7:45 p.m., as the jazz artists were packing up their equipment, about a dozen youths near the Pratt Street pavilion raced up the promenade to see what was happening with another group of youths, according to witnesses and police. A little while later, the other group rushed toward Pratt Street.

About 25 youths surged past the Harborplace shops and ran around the outskirts near Pratt and Light streets, Mr. Ringgold said. The commotion went unnoticed among some people in the area of the Science Center. Within 15 minutes, Harborplace management locked the doors to the pavilion, police said. The shops and most of the food stalls already had closed, but three restaurants stayed open. The shops kept to the normal holiday schedule of closing at 5 p.m., said Rouse Co. spokes woman Joan Davidson. She denied that management had locked the doors to the pavilions earlier than usual because of crowd concerns.

"I think this whole thing is very overblown," Ms. Davidson said, adding that she spent much of her day on "damage control" after numerous people complained about the teen-age crowd to local radio talk shows.

WCBM talk show host Sean Casey said at least one caller complained about being accosted in a parking lot, while others described youths "acting in an intimidating fashion" and using "foul language."

Rodney A. Orange, president of the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said black teens have complained to him that "they feel stereotyped. They only want to enjoy their evening, wherever they are going, but very often they're looked at suspiciously."   

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Downtown
        

The mother of the transgendered woman who was beaten in a Rosedale McDonald's met with Vicky Thoms, the only person to try and stop the attack that was videotaped by a restaurant employee. They met at a rally Monday night to support the victim (picture by The Sun's Gene Sweeney Jr).

"I'll never forget you for this," Renee Polis told Vicky Thoms, who was hit in the face as she stepped between Chrissy Polis and the two teens who were caught on video punching and kicking Polis, and dragging her by her hair until Polis appears to have a seizure.

The Sun's Nick Madigan and Erica L. Green report today on why Thoms stepped in and why police have thus far charged the suspects with assault, but not hate crimes. Baltimore County's top prosecutor said his office is reviewing the case and could add more charges later.

Read the complete story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Vicky Thoms says she's no hero, that she'd have stepped in to help anyone.

What the 55-year-old from Rosedale did was try to break up a brutal beating of a transgendered 22-year-old at a McDonald's, which was captured on video and broadcast around the world on the Internet.

The person who shot the video, a McDonald's employee who has been fired, did not try to help, and in fact warned the suspects to leave because the police were on their way. Here is what Thoms told Sun reporter Erica L. Green (who also took the picture of her above):

"I knew she was clinging on to her life. ... I just keep seeing it over and over again. ... It's terrible that a human being had to go through that."

More follows:

Thoms said she watched the beating for about two minutes, "I couldn't take it anymore." She was afraid to intervene because she has a back injury. She also said she had no idea the victim was transgendered, but added, "It wouldn't have mattered."

"I think McDonalds should take responsibility for this," Thoms said. "I want to see every single one of their employees involved fired."

Of the video, she said, "It makes me sick to watch it. ... I'm not a hero, I would have done it for anyone. That's why I stepped in, they're going to kill her."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (48)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

UPDATE, 5:25 PM: Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger says the accuser in last year's incident asked prosecutors to drop the case. Here's more from Sun reporters Nick Madigan and Erica L. Green. 

As we interview the Good Samaritan who tried to intervene in last week's Rosedale McDonald's attack, and try to get answers from police on why charges weren't filed against the adult suspect Teonna Monae Brown until four days later when the story went national, the Smoking Gun has obtained court documents showing that Brown had been accused of assaulting another woman - in the same McDonald's - last year.

In a handwritten police statement, Dower said that she had left the McDonald’s with her two daughters when Brown confronted her, asking “Did you call me ugly?” Though Dower said she had not, Brown “kept trying to badger us.” At one point, Dower said, the teenager “pushed me in the back.” After Dower pushed back, Brown “took her fist and threw a punch to my face.”

As the pair scuffled, Dower said, Brown hit her in the back with an umbrella and “pulled my wig off my head.”

As Dower called 911, two females grabbed her daughter by the hair and dragged the teenage girl across the floor. “I had to stop talking to the operator, get on top of my daughter and protect her while trying to fight off those girls,” Dower stated.

The victim in that case pressed charges herself, and prosecutors dropped the case a few months later.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

The Sun's Nick Madigan reports:

Baltimore County police on Monday released additional details of an attack last week on a transgender woman in a fast-food restaurant, during which another woman, they said, was assaulted after attempting to intervene.

The incident prompted widespread condemnation after a video, captured by an employee of the McDonald’s at which it occurred, went viral on the Internet. Two females, one 14 years old, the other 18, have been charged in the attack.

The woman who intervened, Vicky L. Thoms, “attempted to separate the suspects” from the 22-year-old transgender woman, Chrissy Lee Polis, according to a court document that provides details of the attack.  Thoms is seen above in a picture by The Sun's Erica L. Green. Details from her interview are coming soon.

Darick Jones, the restaurant’s manager, told police that he saw Thoms being punched in the face, “which caused her to become disoriented.” The suspects then pushed Thoms away while the attack on Polis continued, the document said.

Polis then “fell to the ground after struggling to fend off the suspects and the two suspects fled the area,” according to the document.

More details:

Interviewed by the police, Thoms confirmed she was punched in the face during the melee, which apparently erupted after Polis had attempted to use the women’s bathroom. The police officer, identified only as Sgt. George, observed that Thoms had “redness around her right eye, which is consistent with someone punching her in the face.”

The older suspect, Teonna Monae Brown, who lives on the 2000 block of Kelbourne Road in Rosedale, was arrested Friday and charged with first-degree assault, which is classified as a felony, and two counts of second-degree assault, which are misdemeanors. She was incarcerated at the Baltimore County Detention Center in lieu of $150,000 bail.

The 14-year-old was charged as a juvenile. She was interviewed by police after being identified in the video, and acknowledged she had been in the restaurant with Brown and that they had gotten “into a fight with a woman over using the bathroom.”

Police also interviewed Deshawn Brown, the sister of the older suspect. She said her sister had admitted assaulting a woman at the McDonald’s at 6315 Kenwood Ave.

A rally was planned for 7 p.m. Monday at the restaurant to raise awareness of hate crimes, according to civil-rights activists and other organizers of the event.

The video of the assault in the restaurant April 18 prompted hundreds of thousands of views on various websites. The video shows Polis being kicked and punched in the head by two people until she appears to have a seizure. Although two people tried to intervene, others can be seen standing and watching, and some are laughing.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Baltimore police announced Monday that detectives have linked last week’s fatal downtown shootings of a man sitting on a bench and another in his apartment and said that a single suspect has been arrested and charged in both cases.

Authorities said they believe robbery was the motive in both cases.

Isaac Tyrell Truss, 23, who lives in the 200 block of Park Avenue, just blocks from the slaying scenes, was arrested on Friday afternoon and charged with murder and robbery for the shooting of Edward Alfred Jones, 50.

Jones was shot about 3:30 Friday morning as he waited on a bench for a bus in the 200 block of W. Fayette Street. CityWatch cameras captured that shooting, and witnesses identified Truss as the person who attacked Jones, according to court documents.

Police said they then charged Jones in Thursday’s shooting of Keith Cooper, 47, a resident of a high-rise housing complex on West Conway Street near the Inner Harbor, according to charging documents.

Cooper and Truss were seen on security cameras entering the building together just before 1:30 a.m. Thursday, and Truss left by himself shortly after, according to charging documents. A ballistics comparison showed that the casings found in Cooper’s apartment matched the .38-caliber handgun used to shoot Jones. Cooper’s body was discovered about 9:20 a.m.

Police are also investigating several other shootings and stabbings:

Baltimore Police are also investigating nine shootings and stabbings this weekend, including the fatal stabbing of a 22-year-old man as he left a West Baltimore restaurant with a carryout order late Saturday.

Tevon Corey Allen walked into Maryland General Hospital just before midnight and was pronounced dead at 1:05 p.m. Sunday, according to police. Based on the investigation, Allen went to a restaurant in the 500 block of N. Pulaski Street, near West Franklin Street. As he left, Allen was approached by two people, one of whom stabbed him. Police have no suspects or motives, a spokesman said.

In addition, a 21-year-old man was shot while playing basketball in the 5200 block of Loch Raven Boulevard Sunday; he was driven to a hospital for treatment at about 1 p.m. A 39-year-old man was also stabbed in the neck in the 1100 block of East Biddle Street at 4:22 p.m. Sunday and was hospitalized, police said.

Police are also investigating the non-fatal shooting of a 41-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman at 8 p.m. Sunday. The two victims were found inside a home in the 2100 block of Cliftwood Avenue, police said. No information about suspects or motive were available.

Baltimore Police spokesman Detective Kevin Brown also identified several victims of recent fatal shootings:

--- William Edward Cann, 46, was shot at 11:09 a.m. Friday in the 1700 block of Homestead Avenue. Officers found him in the alley behind that address. Cann was brought to Johns Hopkins Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 11:45 a.m.

--- Brandon Littlejohn, 20, was shot in the 700 block of North Calhoun Street and walked into the Maryland Shock Trauma Center just before 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

Police have not yet identified victims in a double shooting of two victims found in a vehicle just after 2 a.m. Sunday in the 4200 block of Rokeby Road, nor a 25-year-old man who was shot multiple times just before 2 a.m. Sunday while sitting on his steps in the 4700 block of Sayer Avenue.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, Downtown
        

A 22-year-old man was fatally stabbed as he left a West Baltimore restaurant with a carryout order late Saturday, one of nine shootings and stabbings this weekend that Baltimore Police are investigating.

Tevon Corey Allen walked into Maryland General Hospital just before midnight and was pronounced dead at 1:05 p.m. Sunday, according to police. Based on the investigation, Allen went to a restaurant in the 500 block of N. Pulaski Street, near West Franklin Street. As he left, Allen was approached by two people, one of whom stabbed him. Police have no suspects or motives, a spokesman said.

In addition, a 21-year-old man was shot while playing basketball in the 5200 block of Loch Raven Boulevard Sunday; he was driven to a hospital for treatment at about 1 p.m. A 39-year-old man was also stabbed in the neck in the 1100 block of East Biddle Street at 4:22 p.m. Sunday and was hospitalized, police said.

Police are also investigating the non-fatal shooting of a 41-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman at 8 p.m. Sunday. The two victims were found inside a home in the 2100 block of Cliftwood Avenue, police said. No information about suspects or motive were available.

Baltimore Police spokesman Detective Kevin Brown also identified several victims of recent fatal shootings:

--- William Edward Cann, 46, was shot at 11:09 a.m. Friday in the 1700 block of Homestead Avenue. Officers found him in the alley behind that address. Cann was brought to Johns Hopkins Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 11:45 a.m.

--- Edward Alfred Jones, 50, was shot at a bus stop in the 200 block of W. Fayette Street at about 2:30 a.m. Friday. Police have arrested a suspect who has been charged in connection with this shooting as well as the Thursday shooting of Keith Cooper, 47, in his apartment in a building for seniors and the disabled near the Inner Harbor. Police believe he was shot at 1:30 a.m., Brown.

--- Brandon Littlejohn, 20, was shot in the 700 block of North Calhoun Street and walked into the Maryland Shock Trauma Center just before 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

Police have not yet identified victims in a double shooting of two victims found in a vehicle just after 2 a.m. Sunday in the 4200 block of Rokeby Road, nor a 25-year-old man who was shot multiple times just before 2 a.m. Sunday while sitting on his steps in the 4700 block of Sayer Avenue.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: West Baltimore
        

Phylicia Barnes' family is trying to plan a funeral and figure out how she ended up at a dam in northeastern Maryland, where the body of long-missing teen was found last week. They're also stumped as to who the mysterious man was whose body was found near hers.

Relatives sat down with Sun reporter Jamie Smith-Hopkins on Easter Sunday. Here is a bit of what Jamie wrote (read full story):

As far as family members know, Phylicia Barnes had never traveled to the area around the Conowingo Dam, where her body was discovered last week after a long and frustrating search that began when the teen disappeared four months ago while visiting family in Baltimore.

Bryan Barnes, the North Carolina teen's 23-year-old half brother, said Sunday that he's hopeful police will make an arrest soon in connection with her disappearance and death. He said the family knows of no one missing who might be linked to Phylicia. The body of an unidentified male was found in the Susquehanna River near Phylicia's.

And he doubts very much that she woke up the day she disappeared and decided, without telling anyone, to head to northeastern Maryland on a whim. Her body was found 40 miles from Baltimore.

"That doesn't make any type of sense," said Bryan Barnes, in one of the most extensive interviews a member of her family has given since her body was identified. "She had no reason to be there, no reason whatsoever."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

Police are investigating four homicides that occurred early Sunday in Southwest and West Baltimore. Names of the victims have not been released. Here's what a department spokesman sent out to reporters:

HOMICIDE
700 Blk N. Calhoun Street (Western District)
4/23/11 - 23:20 Hrs

Officers responded to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma for report of a walk-in shooting victim.  Upon arrival they located the victim (B/M 20 years-old) being treated for multiple gunshot wounds.  Further investigation revealed that as he was at the intersection of Calhoun and Harlem he was approached by an unknown male who began firing at the him. After being struck he was transported by a nearby companion to Shock Trauma.  At present, no word on motives or suspects. 

HOMICIDE
4200 Rokeby Road (Southwest District)
4/24/11 - 02:12 Hrs

Officers responded to the above location for report of a discharging of firearms.  Upon arrival they located two individuals (black males in their early twenties) sitting within a vehicle suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.  Medics were called and pronounced the victims at the scene. At present there is no word on suspects and/or motive. 

HOMICIDE
4700 Blk of Sayer Avenue (Southwest District)
4/24/11 - 01:47 Hrs

Officers responded at the above date/time to the location for report of a shooting.  Upon arrival they located a victim (b/m 25 years of age) suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso.  He was transported to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma where he was pronounced at 02:53 Hrs.  Further investigation revealed that he was shot multiple times as he sat on his steps by an unknown individual.  At present, no word on suspects or motives. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

From new story on Phylicia Barnes by reporters Raven L. Hill and Jessica Anderson: 

The discovery of Phylicia Barnes’ body ended one mystery and began another for police, who must now determine how the missing North Carolina teen ended up in a river 40 miles north of Baltimore, and identify the man found the same day in the same body of water.

Authorities said it could take the medical examiner’s office days, weeks or even months to determine how Barnes and the man died. A police spokesman said there are no apparent signs of trauma on either body pulled Wednesday from the Susquehanna River near the Conowingo Dam (shown above in a picture by David Hobby).

“Our hearts are sad, but we stand strong,” said Phylicia’s father, Russell Barnes, who has led vigils and searches for his daughter since she disappeared Dec. 28 from a Northwest Baltimore apartment while visiting her half sister.

“We’ve got to find out who would do this to our angel,” Barnes said. “We are going to find out what happened with Phylicia. I told everyone at the beginning, her life will never be forgotten. Trust me, we’re not finished at all. The police assured me they are on this.”

The case attracted national attention, and her classmates at Union Academy in Monroe, N.C., held candlelight vigils in her honor. The school scheduled a news conference Monday to talk about Phylicia.

“Our hearts go out to Phylicia’s family and friends,” a statement from the school read.

As relatives begin to mourn, police are exploring new leads. A half-dozen Baltimore homicide detectives who worked the case nonstop for months will join state police in a joint, expanded investigation.

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said detectives need to identify the male body to determine whether he is a person who has been reported missing and whether he has any connection to Barnes. His body was found by boaters less than four miles from where Barnes’ was spotted.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Guglielmi said.

The lead homicide detective said during the investigation that it appeared Phylicia had simply “vanished,” and police grew frustrated as they examined hundreds of tips without turning up any credible leads. Police conducted extensive searches, including one earlier this month involving 200 officers and volunteers in Patapsco Valley State Park.

Until crews working on the dam discovered the body early Wednesday, Guglielmi said, “we had no reason to go up there. We were surprised at the location.”

Rumors swirled about Phylicia every time a body turned up. Bryan Barnes, Phylicia’s 23-year-old brother, said police were cautious even when they called girl’s father Thursday to inquire about a rose tattoo found on the body in the river, and whether it might match a tattoo on his daughter’s ankle.

The brother said police told them not to be overly concerned and “that they didn't think it was her. … It changed in a matter of hours.” Police confirmed Phylicia’s identity using dental records.

Bryan Barnes said the family was grieving but was trying to stay focused on funeral plans and reviving fundraising for a reward fund for tips in the case. The Baltimore County firefighter said relatives flocked to his grandmother's house upon hearing the body was Phylicia’s, and they talked into the night.

“Being as though it had been four months, I kinda figured it would end this way,” he said. “Of course, we didn't want it to, but being realistic, it was hard to keep the faith.”

Police now face a formidable challenge, said Lawrence Kobilinsky, professor of criminal justice and biochemistry at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “The question now: Are the two bodies related? Were they together? Maybe they had an accident, [or] were they both killed and thrown into the water?”

The autopsy might shed light on whether Phylicia and the man died around the same time, he said. Autopsy results could also be crucial in linking the few details that are publicly known, such as where she was last seen, at her apartment, and where her body was found in the river.

“If she was really well-preserved, there may be some evidence of cause of death, which may be helpful in determining manner of death,” Kobilinsky said. “Assuming there’s soft tissue, there may be a few things they are able to tell, including cause of death.

“They’re looking for any evidence that she was fighting for her life,” he said. “Were her fingernails broken in trying to fight off an assailant? There may be signs there was a ligature around her neck or held her arms, or wrists or ankles together to restrain her. If they find a skull fracture, then they know that blunt trauma ended up killing her. If she was shot or stabbed, there may be some evidence in the skeletal system.”

An added challenge for police is the amount of time that has elapsed since Barnes went missing.

“The longer it’s out there, the less you have to work with,” said Brian F. Spatola, a forensic anthropologist in Washington, D.C. Water conditions “take away more and more of the things that would be helpful in looking at cause of death.”

Richard C. Fahlteich, a retired Baltimore homicide commander, said that finding the body will help push forward what until Wednesday been a stalled case. But he cautioned that police sometimes never learn how a person died.

He has never personally been aware of an incident in which two bodies were found in the same area on the same day. “It really is strange,” Fahlteich said. “It may well be a sad coincidence.”

But the experts said that is unlikely.

“They’re not just random bodies that happened to come together at this location,” Kobilinsky said. “You just don’t find bodies popping up one after the next unless they hit the water at the same time.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Harford County, Northwest Baltimore
        

A man found shot in an alley in Northeast Baltimore today is the latest victim in a string of shootings over the past 24 hours. The shootings include one early Friday in downtown Baltimore:

Five men were reported shot, one fatally, in separate attacks over a 21-hour period Thursday night and into Friday, according to a Baltimore police spokesman. The latest shooting occurred shortly after 11 a.m. Friday in the 1700 block of Homestead St. in Northeast Baltimore.

Police said a man was found in an alley after having been shot several times. There was no update on his condition Friday night. Earlier Friday, about 2:30 a.m., a man was shot in the back while sitting on a bench at a bus stop in the 200 block of W. Fayette St. downtown, one block north of 1st Mariner Arena. Police said the unidentified victim was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead at 3:20 a.m.

Police said they had a person of interest in custody, but did not offer additional details. The killing was the fourth to occur downtown this year, all in April. There were three killings downtown in 2010.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

This post has been updated 

Six men were reported shot, one fatally, in separate attacks within a 24-hour period spanning Thursday night and Friday, according to a Baltimore police spokesman. There have been 58 people killed in Baltimore thus far this year, compared with 52 at this time last year.

The latest shooting was reported about 11:10 a.m. in Northeast Baltimore. Police said a man was found shot in an alley off the 1700 block of Homestead St. He was wounded several times, police said. There was no immediate update on his condition.

Another man was shot about 2 a.m. in the 200 block of West Fayette St., as clubs and bars let out in the downtown. Police had few details and could not say whether the gunfire was connected to nightlife activities.

Police did say they had a person of interest in custody.

Here are addition details from city police:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Downtown, East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore
        

As the desperate search for missing honors student Phylicia Barnes came to a heartbreaking end Thursday, police said the discovery of her body in the Susquehanna River could be "instrumental" in hunting down new leads in a 4-month-old case that has yielded painfully few clues.

"We're at stage one of a new phase of the investigation," said Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. "Finding her body is really going to be instrumental in giving us an opportunity to bring closure to the family. … It gives investigators a real opportunity."

The African-American teen from North Carolina was 16 years old when she disappeared Dec. 28 from her half sister's Northwest Baltimore apartment, touching off the Baltimore Police Department's most extensive missing-person investigation in years.

The discovery came with a twist: Another nude body, that of a black male, was pulled from the Susquehanna hours later Wednesday after being spotted by boaters about three miles to the south. He had not been identified, and while police said there's no evidence of a connection, they also said they could not rule one out.

Col. Terrence Sheridan, the superintendent of the Maryland State Police, said police throughout the region have been notified about that body, and additional tests would be conducted on both to determine how they died.

"Our mission today is to find out what occurred with Ms. Barnes and the unidentified man recovered at the same time," Sheridan said.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Harford County, Northwest Baltimore
        

It happened in a flash. Anusha Singh was serving a customer at her family's pizza place in Northeast Baltimore when two men burst in, one of them brandishing a handgun, and demanded money from the register.

"I didn't know how to react," said Singh, 28. "It just happened in two minutes, and then they ran."

Faced with a sharp increase in commercial robberies across the city this year, the Police Department has been focusing its attention in recent weeks on helping business owners like Singh improve security measures that can help thwart a robbery or at least help police respond quickly and track down the culprits.

That effort includes sending SWAT team members around the city to make face-to-face contacts. On a recent weekday afternoon, Lt. Scott Mezan and Officer Daraine Harris popped into liquor stores, a nail salon and mom-and-pop groceries to check security systems and make sure business owners know how to reach police.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Investigators with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the IRS seized more than $600,000 in cash from Baltimore attorney Stanley Needleman's office during searches conducted last week, the Baltimore CityPaper reported on its website, citing two sources.

The Sun reported last week that agents had raided his Calvert St. office and Pikesville home. The CityPaper now reports that agents found $120,000 in cash in his Pikesville home, and about half a million dollars in a safe in his office. "The safe was so full, you couldn't put another dollar in it," a source told the CityPaper.

No charges have been filed, and the scope of the investigation remains unclear. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

UPDATE, 4:12 P.M. Additional updates will appear here, including updates from a press conference scheduled for 8 p.m. at state police headquarters in Pikesville.

UPDATE, 3:18 P.M.: The Sun can confirm that the body found yesterday has been determined to be that of Phylicia Barnes, according to two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation.

UPDATE, 3:13 P.M.: Charlotte television station WBTV reporter Derrick Rose wrote on Twitter that Phylicia's father confirms that the body found yesterday is his daughter. We are awaiting confirmation from state police.

Baltimore police have provided dental records of missing teenager Phylicia Barnes to the state medical examiner's office for comparison to a body pulled from the Susquehanna River, and a determination is expected this afternoon, an official told The Sun.

An apparent tattoo located on a woman's body found north of the Conowingo Dam Wednesday has raised questions over whether the body is that of Barnes, WBAL-TV is reporting.

Barnes had a tattoo of a rose on her lower right leg, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Citing a source, the television station said that the body pulled from the water has a "similar tattoo." Law enforcement authorities told The Sun the report was premature but investigators are exploring the possibility.

Chief Medical Examiner David Fowler declined to comment on preliminary findings and referred questions to state police. But he confirmed to The Sun that police had submitted Barnes' dental records for comparison, which he described as a routine step. "Like in any other case, police have provided dental records for the presumed individual for comparison," Fowler said. "Within the next couple of hours, a forensic orthodontist will do that comparison."

The body was one of two pulled from waters near the Conowingo Dam on Wednesday, prompting immediate speculation that one of them could be that of Barnes, whose disappearance has confounded detectives, family members, friends and strangers.

Police said crews working on the dam reported seeing what appeared to be a body floating in the river north of the dam at about 7:30 a.m., and Natural Resources police later recovered the body of a female from the water.

In the afternoon, boaters in the river south of the dam found the body of a man. The bodies were taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for autopsies, officials said.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (39)
        

View Larger Map

UPDATE, 11 a.m. - Police say the shooting happened on the 14th floor of the Hanover Square building, a high-rise housing complex for seniors and the disabled, reports Liz F. Kay. The victim, a man in his 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to spokesman Kevin Brown. Police said they are exploring a number of possible motives and can't say whether there was forced entry. They were reviewing video surveillance and urging anyone with information to call police.

Brown called the shooting an "extreme abnormality" for the area.

City police are on the scene of a serious shooting just a block from the Inner Harbor. Police said on Twitter that a man was shot at about 9:20 a.m. in unit block of West Conway Street, which runs from the Harbor to Camden Yards and behind the Baltimore Convention Center. Additional details were not immediately available, but we have a reporter headed to the scene.

That specific block is the Sheraton hotel and the Hanover Square high rise apartment, though police say the shooting happened in the Central District, indicating the shooting may have occurred on the north side of the street where the hotel is located. The border of the Southern and Central districts splits Conway in half.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Downtown
        

DNA has come through again for authorities.

The Sun's Jessica Anderson reports that Baltimore County police have used forensic evidence to link a man serving time for killing his wife to a 10-year-old rape:

Nankisoor Ramnath, 56, was charged with second-degree rape and related charges after his DNA was linked to a 2001 rape, said police spokesman Lt. Robert McCullough. McCullough said Ramnath met the victim on April 21, 2001, at an Exxon gas station in Baltimore and took her to lunch at a McDonald's restaurant in Baltimore County. He later took the woman home, where, the woman said, he forcibly raped her, McCullough said.

The woman reported the incident to police, but detectives had "exhausted all leads" and suspended the investigation several months later, McCullough said. In December, Maryland State Police officials contacted Baltimore County Police, alerting them to a DNA match in the Combined DNA Index System, a national DNA database, McCullough said. Ramnath's DNA was collected following his conviction in 2008.

He is serving a 25-year sentence for strangling his wife, Nirmala Maharaj, 50, in their home in the first block of N. Ritters Lane.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

Maryland State Police could learn today how two people died after autopsies are conducted on the bodies found Wednesday in the Susquehanna River near Conowingo Dam. The male and female were found hours and miles apart, and thus far there is no known connection.

The Sun's Jessica Anderson reported:

Crews working on the dam reported seeing what appeared to be a body floating in the river north of the dam, near the Harford County side, about 7:30 a.m., police said. They notified two state police troopers who were crossing the Conowingo Dam on Route 1. About an hour later, Natural Resources Police officers recovered the body of the unidentified female from the water. Shortly before 2 p.m., police said boaters in the river south of the dam found the body of a man, which Natural Resources Police later recovered.

Police notified several police agencies in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Baltimore police have been searching for 17-year-old Phylicia Barnes since she disappeared in December. They have searched several parks, including spending a day in Patapsco, and the investigation has become one of the department's most extensive.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Harford County
        

Two bodies were recovered from the waters at Conowingo Dam Wednesday, a Maryland State Police spokesman said. Gregory M. Shipley said police were investigating the remains but he did not immediately release any additional details.

Baltimore City police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that one of the bodies was an adult female. He said homicide detectives were notified as is routine while police continue to search for Phylicia Barnes.

The 17-year-old has been missing since December and has been the subject of an extensive search. City detectives did not drive up to the scene.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Harford County
        

Lawyers for two of three police officers charged with abducting teens and abandoning them in a park without shoes and cell phones are saying the youths mde up the stories to avoid being branded snitches.

That comes from opening statements made by defense attorneys at the trial's opening this morning. A third defense lawyer is set to give his opening remarks later today. Here's a full story on this morning's events.

The case is being prosecuted by State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, who told the court that the accused officers took the teens because they believed they were “above the law they swore to honor and uphold. The defendants didn’t feel these victims showed an adequate amount of respect."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, West Baltimore
        

Alert Anne Arundel County officers who stopped people driving through a school parking lot without headlights after midnight this morning found a cache of candy and sports drinks taken from a school concession stand.

The car had been in the parking lot of Old Mill High School about 12:10 a.m., and police said the officer saw the contraband inside. "It was determined that the suspects had been involved in burglarizing the concession stand on the high school’s playing field," a statement from police said.

Three were arrested adn two were charged as adults with theft, fourth degree burglary, trespassing and malicious destruction of property. One suspect was charged as a juvenile with the same offenses. Approximately $300 in concessions were recovered and returned to a school representative.

Police identified the suspects as:

Suspect #1: Michael Aaron Hicks, 18, of 7919 Carriage Drive, Severn, Md.
Suspect #2: Nathaniel Matthew Stevenson, 18, of 7805 Winbourne Lane Apartment F, Glen Burnie, Md.
Suspect #3: 16-year-old male from Hanover 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

SEE UPDATE BELOW (There have now been 55 homicides in Baltimore this year, up from 52 at this time in 2010)

Four people were shot in Baltimore in a roughly three-hour period starting a little after 11 p.m. One man shot in West Baltimore was killed, two shot in one incident in Southeast Baltimore were wounded, as was a man shot in Southwest.

The first of the shooting occurred after 11 a.m. in the 600 block of North Curley St. Police said a 20-year-old was shot in the back and was in critical condition this morning. A 23-year-old was shot in the stomach and was treated and released from a hospital.

About 20 minutes later in West Baltimore, a man was found shot in the back in the rear alley of the 500 block of Schroeder St.  The unidentified victim was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and pronounce dead at 12:14 a.m. 

At 2:07 a.m., police responded to the 2100 block of Garrison Boulevard for a man shot in the hand. 

UPDATE FROM POLICE:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

Baltimore County police have released a composite sketch of a man who exposed himself to an elementary school student. Authorities are warning children to not accept rides from strangers. Here are details from police:

On April 12 at 8:30 a.m., the suspect approached two 9-year-olds in the 3400-block of Upton Road, 21234 as they walked to Carney Elementary School in Precinct 8/Parkville. The suspect offered the two children a ride to school in his vehicle and they accepted. As the two students were exiting the vehicle when they arrived at school, the suspect exposed himself to one of the students. The students reported the incident to school staff members later in the day. 

The suspect is described as a light-skinned black male, approximately 40 years old, 5’8” tall, with bushy black hair.  He may have dental braces on his teeth, but witnesses gave conflicting reports. 

The suspect vehicle is described as a faded red truck or SUV with black leather interior.  The interior was cluttered and there was a booster seat in the back seat. 

Anyone with information about the identity or whereabouts of the suspect is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-307-2020 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587). To text a message to Metro Crime Stoppers, send to "CRIMES" (274637), then enter the message starting with "MCS," or e-mail a tip to Those contacting Metro Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and might be eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,000.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

An employee of a bail bonds shop on Eastern Avenue has been charged with shooting a man who was fleeing the store after getting into an argument over fake gold, Baltimore police said today.

The victim was struck in the leg; the suspect was identified as Jose Centeno, 26, of the 3800 block of Glengyle Ave. in Reisterstown. He was charged with attempted first-degree murder.

Police said he was one of two employees of Big Louie's Bail Bonds who produced guns during the argument, which occurred last week.

Here are more details from police:

4500 Blk of Eastern Avenue (Southeastern District)
4/13/11 - 13:51 Hours
 
On the above date/time/location an officer on routine patrol heard several gunshots.  Localizing it to the front of Big Louie's Bail Bonds, he responded and further investigation revealed the following; two male subjects entered the business and a verbal altercation ensued with the owner over an attempt by the pair (the day prior) to sell fake gold.

The altercation escalated and became physical. Observing this, two other employees of the business produced handguns and attempted to intercede.  As a result, the two male subjects then fled the location.  One of the employees, Jose Centeno, followed them outside and fired upon the pair.  It was later determined that he struck one of the pair in the leg.

The shooting victim (41-year old male) was transported to John Hopkins Hospital where he was treated and released. Mr. Centeno is being charged with 1st Degree Attempt Murder and related lesser.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

Howard County police said a 19-year-old Columbia man was critically injured in a shooting Monday night in an Ellicott City neighborhood.

Police were called to the 3600 block of Mount Ida Dr. at about 11:10 p.m. and found Terrell William Young suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Young was transported by MedEvac to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was listed in critical condition, police said. Police said they believe Young was visiting the neighborhood with an acquaintance when a man fired shots at him in the parking lot of a townhome community. Young doesn't have any criminal record himself, according to electronic court records - only a few traffic tickets.

Police are offering a reward of $500 for information leading to an arrest. Anyone with information was asked to call police at 410-313-STOP. Callers can remain anonymous.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: Howard County
        

The Anne Arundel County NAACP and county police are appealing for help in the killing of a 63-year-old retired teacher found shot to death in her vehicle parked in a shopping center parking lot.

On Jan. 28, before 11 a.m., officers were called for a report of a sick/injured person in the 7300 block of Ritchie Highway, the parking lot of the Pep Boys and Gavigan's furniture store. In the vehicle, Myra Elizabeth Cason was suffering from a gunshot wound to her upper body.

Here's an update from county police:

This incident remains an active homicide investigation. Investigators have conducted interviews, collected evidence to be analyzed, consulted with other jurisdictions to determine if there were any incidents similar in nature and have reviewed and monitored law enforcement databases in an effort to identify a possible suspect.

On April 25, 2011, at approximately 6:30 p.m., the Anne Arundel County Branch of the NAACP is holding a planned gathering in the parking lot where the homicide took place in the 7300 block of Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Detectives from the Homicide Unit will be present to hand out informational fliers and to continue to seek information from the public regarding this incident. Anyone with any information on this crime is asked to contact Detective Regina Gow of the Homicide Unit at 410-222-3417 or the Anne Arundel County Police Department at 410-222-8610.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

By some accounts, Randy Scott DiGennaro was a terrific neighbor — the type who would shovel snow and cut grass for the elderly, and run errands for the sick. But others felt intimidated by the man who sat guard on his front porch.

Baltimore County authorities said the tension on Fairgreen Road in Dundalk erupted Friday night in an argument over a parking space and ended with gunfire. In the aftermath, the 55-year-old DiGennaro has been charged with attempted murder and a man who lived nearby remains critically injured with bullet wounds to his face and chest.

The 45-year-old victim, Brian David Sheppard, had planned to visit his childhood friend, a disabled man who lived next door to DiGennaro, and had a six-pack of beer in his vehicle. Neighbors said he might have parked too close to the suspect's new truck, sparking an argument.

"I can't tell you what happened or why it happened," friend and neighbor Mark Phoebus said. "He was not disgruntled. He'd always wave and talk to you. He wasn't a troublemaker. I was shocked when I saw the [police light] hit that home. Not Randy."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

The Harford County Sheriff's Office announce today that they've concluded a six-month investigation that broke up what they're calling a multi-county drug group. Deputies searched 31 locations during the probe.

Police said they seized guns, pills and vehicles. Much of the drugs were prescription medications, the police said, but authorities also said that cocaine, marijuana and steroids were involved. Police arrested 14 people in Baltimore, Harford and Anne Arundel counties.

For more details, here's a statement from the Harford County Sheriff's Department:

The Harford County Task Force announced the conclusion of a six-month investigation, which resulted in the dismantling of a large-scale multi-county narcotics operation involving the sale and distribution of illegal prescription drugs.  

The investigation, of which Harford County was at the nucleus, began with a tip from a confidential source. Electronic surveillance which included a wiretap, aided in the investigation, which concluded on Friday, April 15, 2011 with the execution of thirty-one court, ordered search and seizure warrants. 

“Since its inception in 1988, the Harford County Task Force has been instrumental in combating narcotics violations in Harford County. The task force concept of collaborating with municipal, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies is extremely vital to successfully identifying, investigating and apprehending narcotics violators,” stated Sheriff L. Jesse Bane.

“As this investigation unfolded, we quickly began to realize how pervasive the sales of illegal prescription drugs had grown in our community. While the abuse of a prescription medication does not hold the same stigma of more traditionally abused illegal drugs, it is just as addictive and destructive; and contributes to just as much crime and violence in a community.” 

Law Enforcement Officers seized approximately 1,500 pills of various types (predominantly opioids) with a street value of over $ 45,000. In addition to the illegal prescription drugs recovered, investigators seized cocaine, marijuana, steroids, fourteen firearms, ten vehicles and an undisclosed amount of cash.

Fourteen people have been arrested and charged on a variety of state and local charges: 

• Ronnie Stocks, age, 33, Abingdon, MD   $ 1,000,000 bond
• Joseph Ercolano, age 32, Fallston, MD   $    750,000 bond
• Sean C. Holloway, age 36, White Marsh, MD   $    750,000 bond
• Eric Smith, age 34, Nottingham, MD    $    750,000 bond
• Sharon Gillums, age 50, Edgewood MD   $     250,000 bond
• Brent S. Musgrove, age 36, Aberdeen, MD   $     250,000 bond
• William C. Kendall, age 44, Bel Air, MD    $     250,000 bond
• Matthew C. Kolakowski, age 29, Abingdon, MD  $     250,000 bond
• Gregory Sobieski, age 25, Bel Air, MD    $     250,000 bond
• Kenneth J. Darr, age 36, White Marsh MD   $     250,000 bond
• Wilbert Whitaker III, age 24, Bel Air, MD   $     200,000 bond
• Curtis Carter, age 36, Havre de Grace, MD   $     150,000 bond
• Taaz A. Robinson, age 28, Aberdeen, MD    ROR
• Ryan C. Sturm, age 27, Towson, MD      ROR

“As we investigated this drug organization, we found there were no socio-economic distinctions between users and dealers involved.  There is high demand for this type of drug.  In fact, those who have traditionally been involved in the sale of cocaine and crack have now moved into the illegal prescription drug trade,” stated Lieutenant Lee Dunbar of the Harford County Task Force.

The execution of the search and seizure warrants occurring in less than eight hours in three counties (Harford, Baltimore & Anne Arundel) was a collaborative effort between various jurisdictions and agencies, allowing a successful completion without incident.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Harford County
        

Green Buick LeSabre Robbery Crew from Citywide Robbery on Vimeo

With Baltimore police grappling with a spike in commercial robberies this year, the department is re-launching its Citywide Robbery website to post surveillance photos and "Wanted" fliers in hopes of generating tips. As of April 9, commercial robberies were up 57 percent, with 174 incidents recorded compared with 111 at the same time last year.

The website, which was shut down a few years ago for unknown reasons, was relaunched according to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi after the department took note of another police department's success in solving a series of home invasions after posting photos online. It's another example of Baltimore police using technology to help generate tips and interact with the public. On the right hand side of the page, you can sign up for e-mail alerts when new cases are posted.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Baltimore County police have released the name of a Dundalk man charged with shooting a man who pulled into the wrong driveway.

Randy Scott Digennaro (seen at right), 55, of the 7800 block of Fairgreen Road, faces charges of attempted first-degree murder, second-degree assault and use of a handgun during a felony after shooting Brian Sheppard, 45, of the 3500 block of Louth Rd. Police say Sheppard was visiting a friend and pulled into Digennaro's driveway, and before he could even exit his vehicle he was shot multiple times.

Digennaro went back into his house and barricaded himself inside for several hours, police say.

A check of court records indicates Digennaro doesn't have any prior arrests.

Here's what Sun reporter Jill Rosen wrote Saturday. Fox 45 interviewed a neighbor over the weekend.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

In case you missed it Friday, defense attorneys for three officers facing misconduct and kidnapping charges will have a joint jury/bench trial, a second attempt to have their cases severed that failed to achieve the desired result. The Sun's Yeganeh June Torbati reported for Saturday's print paper:

"I don't know how we expect the jury to ignore a trial that is occurring before them in a courtroom," said Kenneth W. Ravenell, Smith's attorney. Growing exasperated at times, Ravenell said, "Judge, this becomes a total cluster."

The attorneys also referred to past decisions handed down by higher courts that "strongly disapprove" of bench and jury trials being held simultaneously.

"There's going to be all sorts of land mines that the court is going to have to dodge," said David B. Irwin, who represents Hellen. Irwin said the granting of the request was a "once-in-a-decade occurrence."

Tackling his first case in the courtroom since taking office in January, Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein [seen at right] said the defense was "engaging, quite frankly, in gamesmanship to keep the cases separate."

[Circuit Judge Timothy] Doory acknowledged that a joint trial for the three men could get messy, and warned Bernstein that some evidence against the three men may be excluded because of the unusual arrangement. That, Bernstein indicated, was a risk he was willing to take in order to try the three police officers together.

[Photo credit: Brendan Cavanaugh, Patuxent Publishing]

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

A man found injured in a what police at first thought was a car accident near Lake Ashburton Sunday night had been shot in head, city police said this morning. More details are expected later thiis afternoon, but police say it occurred about 10:15 p.m.

Officers responded to the reported accident in the 3200 block of Vickers Road. They found a 57-year-old man "inside of a car disoriented and bleeding from the head." He was rushed a nearby hospital, where doctors determined he had been shot.

"The vehicle that the victim was in, apparently struck a parked car before coming to a stop in the block," a police spokesman said in a statement.

Details on other weekend shootings:

Baltimore police are investigating at least three other shootings over the weekend. A man who was shot Saturday on North Decker Street in East Baltimore died of his injuries. Also on Saturday, a man walking on Forest Park Avenue was shot in the thigh.

And on Sunday, police said a man was shot in the back in Northwest Baltimore:

Detectives have determined that the shooting from this afternoon at North/Woodyear, actually occurred in the 1800 block of Presstman Street. At 5:20pm this afternoon, we found a 49 year old man shot  in the 5300 block of Wabash Avenue. The victim was transported to a local hospital with a gunshot wound to his back. Detectives believe that the victim was standing in the 4200 block of Hayward Avenue when two unknown males approached him. The victim attempted to run from the location and one of the suspects fired a shot. The victim was struck in the back and the suspects fled from the scene on foot. Detectives are continuing to investigate.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore
        

[Above, residents wait to return to their homes as police survey a nearby crime scene. Photo by me]

Three people were shot - one who suffered serious injuries - in West Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood Friday afternoon, police said.

At a crime scene that spanned several city blocks of mostly vacant homes, police said at least one gunman opened fire at about 3 p.m. on three males. An adult was struck in the stomach in the 900 block of N. Calhoun St., and a man and a 16-year-old were struck in the face and found in the 1200 block of W. Mosher St.

Police spokesman Det. Jeremy Silbert said the males shot in the face did not appear to have life-threatening injuries, though the man shot in the stomach was taken to a local hospital in serious condition. 

Detectives were interviewing possible witnesses, as groups of residents waited on the steps of vacant homes waiting for the crime scene tape to come down so they could return home. One woman could be overheard saying she saw one of the victims lying in the street and asking a fleeing friend, "How you gonna leave me here, homie?"

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Breaking news, West Baltimore
        

Attorneys for three Baltimore police officers accused of kidnapping and misconduct have been unsuccessful in trying to get their cases heard separately, but a development before Friday's lunch break could lead to that result anyway.

Earlier in the morning, Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. Doory struck down a motion to have the allegations of kidnapping by two different teens severed into different cases. That came on the heels of Doory's rejection yesterday that the defendants, Tyrone Francis, Gregory Hellen and Milton Smith, be tried separately. 

Attorney David B. Irwin, who represents Hellen, told Doory that the Court of Appeals has "strongly disapproved of joint and simultaneous trials of co-defendants when one wants a trial by jury and the other by judge." He said such a case was recently struck down by the appellate courts. "There's too many landmines," Irwin said.

University of Baltimore law professor Byron L. Warnken, who has not attended the hearings, said the elections could lead to separate trials, but it is not a certainty.

“I think certainly in an abundance of caution that might be a reason for the judge to separate out the jury trials and a non-jury trial, but the one having the jury trial could actually have the trial simultaneously," he said. "You always have a greater potential for mistrials…when you have multiple defendants. My guess is this only gets greater when you have some of those defendants with a jury trial and some of those defendants with a bench trial in the same proceeding.”

However, Warnken said he believes Hellen wants a bench trial because he is concerned about the jury's perception of police.

“I’m thinking the reason he asked for a court trial was because of this fear of a primarily African-American jury viewing alleged criminal conduct of a police officer who was white against victims who were African-American," he said.

Arguments will continue this afternoon. Jury selection is not slated to begin until Tuesday.

The case against the officers involves allegations that they picked up two West Baltimore teens in May 2009, dropping one off in East Baltimore and, separately, the other in a Howard County park without shoes or a cellphone.The case has taken on added significance with State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein selecting it as the first case he will personally try as the city's top prosecutor.

Bernstein hasn't tried a case from the prosecutor's side of a courtroom since 1991, when he was a federal prosecutor. But he's been a well-known white collar defense attorney for years.

In the early going of the trial, Bernstein and defense attorney Kenneth Ravenell have occasionally sparred. Today, Bernstein laughed out loud at one point when Ravenell said he wasn't trying to "pick" on Bernstein in attacking his argument.

"We all know each other ... It's going to be a hard fought case, and we'll try to do it as clean as we can," Ravenell said.

-Justin Fenton and Yeganeh June Torbati

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A man who saw kids beating a young puppy last year on the Carroll Park golf course has been given a $3,000 reward for helping police. Robert Widerman's tips help prosecute three juvenile offenders.

Two 10-year-old boys and a 13-year-old boy were arrested in the May attack in which they tied up a young pit bull, beat it with a belt and pelted it with rocks. The attack came as a City Hall Anti-Animal Abuse Task Force concluded its yearlong look at animal cruelty in Baltimore.

Widerman got his reward from the task force, the Snyder Foundation for Animals and the city's animal control office. He was among several golfers who witnessed the attack and tried to save the dog, which later died.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, South Baltimore
        

Anne Arundel County police have arrested a Silver Spring man in the March 29 shooting in the parking lot of the Marley Station Mall on Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie. Police said that the suspect and victim, 23-year-old Rickey Johnson of Snow Hill, had been arguing.

Two friends of the victim drove the wounded man to a nearby Dunkin Donuts and called police, who put out a lookout for two men in a dark gray Honda. Anne Arundel County police described the shooting as "drug related" and that the mall parking lot was picked as "meeting point."

The suspect was identified as Christopher Royal Gayle, 22, of the 1700 block of Mount Pisgah Lane in Silver Spring (pictured at left). Police said he was arrested at his Montgomery County house and hcarged with attempted first and second-degree murder, using a handgun in the commission of a felony and illegal possession of a handgun. Police said they are still trying to identify the second suspect.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

Two men, ages 31 and 33, have been charged with shooting two teens and a woman Wednesday night in Dundalk, a dispute that county police say stems from a fight at a middle school from earlier in the day. The Sun's Nick Madigan reports:

The two men charged were identified as Charles Gregory Robinson, 33, of the 4500 block of Pimlico Road in Park Heights, who was also charged with using a handgun in a felony, and Quincy Alford, 31, of the 3300 block of W. Forest Park Ave. in the city's Ashburton neighborhood.

The shooting took place about 8:20 p.m. Wednesday in the 100 block of Lee Lawrence Court in Dundalk, where county police found three people suffering from gunshot wounds. Two boys, ages 14 and 15, were taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital in East Baltimore for treatment of their wounds, while a 31-year-old woman was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. None had injuries that appeared to be life-threatening.

A statement from Baltimore County police said the shooting may have been connected to a fight earlier in the day at Dundalk Middle School.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

The three city police officers charged with kidnapping two Baltimore teens two years ago will be tried on the charges together, a judge ruled Thursday, rejecting arguments by two of the defendants' lawyers that a joint trial would be unfair to their clients.

The trial of officers Milton G. Smith III, Tyrone S. Francis, and Gregory Hellen marks the first time new city State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein has prosecuted a case since a stint with the U.S. Attorney's Office from 1987 to 1991. The former defense attorney was elected last fall after a campaign that included a pledge to occasionally try cases, unlike his predecessor.

Lawyers for Francis and Hellen argued Thursday that their clients were less involved in the incidents because they mostly stayed in the van while Smith allegedly spoke with and detained Woodland.

Read more here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Support crime vicitms and run at the same time.

The Baltimore State's Attorney's Office is raising money for crime victims with it's 11th annual Victim's Fund Run & Walk, being held this Saturday at Patterson Park. The run starts at 9 a.m. It is timed to commemorate National Crime Victims' Rights Week.

State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein called it a "great way to spend a Saturday morning. We're going to have people from throughout the Baltimore area coming together to show our support for crime victims and to enjoy some exercise and coversation in Patterson Park."

The first 400 people to register will get a T-shirt. There will be cash awards for the top three male and female finishers in a 5K race. There also will be raffle drawings with gifts that include airline tickets and gift cards to area hotels and restaurants.

You can register at here at Charm City Run or call 410-396-1897. It costs $20 to register ahead of the race, and $25 to register the same day. Same-day registeration can be done between 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. at the Virginia S. Baker Recreation Center in Patterson Park.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

[Photo by me]

Law enforcement authorities this morning raided the office of defense attorney Stanley H. Needleman. At his law office in the 1000 block of N. Calvert St., an unmarked vehicle with a Baltimore Police shirt hanging in the window and emergency lights on the dashboard was parked out front, and the front door was ajar with a handwritten "Closed Today" sign taped to it. Through the front window, men appeared to be looking through papers, and three agents were lingering around back of the office. A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration initially denied that agents were involved, then said the agency would have no comment.

Needleman used to share office space with his son, attorney Jonas Needleman, and Jonas' wife, attorney Christie Needleman. Jonas and Christie apparently moved up the block to a new space in recent months.

Two other attorneys share space with Stanley Needleman on other floors of the building, but their offices were not targets of the raid.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore's mayor and police commissioner announced this morning the Hometown Heroes Project, an effort to recruit community members to find people who want to be police officers. It's a renewed attempt to attract more city residents to the 3,000-member force.

"It's a way for someone to give back to their community while making Baltimore a safer place," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told reporters at a news conference this morning. Residents who sign up will be trained in the recruiting process and procedures.

Last year, despite budget shortfalls exceeding $120 million, the mayor promised to hire up to 400 new police officers. The department had been losing officers to attrition at a faster pace than hiring.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said that he began his career as a cadet when he was 19 years old. He said part of the program is also to attract cadets who could become future police officers.

Bealefeld started as a cadet in May 1981 on the midnight shift -- he attended community college during the day -- on what was called the "hot desk." His job was handle warrants. He also compared fingerprints of newly arrested suspects to prints on file. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said he used a magnifying glass "It's now what could be considered CSI-like, minus the technology," the spokesman said.

At the news conference, Bealefeld said: "We need to fill 300 positions over the next several months," Bealefeld said. "I've worked my way through the ranks. None of that I think would have been possible without the grounding, experience and start I got here when I was 19 years old." He said that being an officer "is not about car chases. ... What you do every day is help people to be safe, and help people across the city make their lives better. You can't get that experience through a recruitment poster. You really have to live that. ... What we really need are people who are dedicated to service."

Anyone interested in the program is urged to call the Baltimore Police Department recruitment section at 410-396-2340 or visit the department's web site.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Breaking news, City Hall, Confronting crime, Top brass
        

[UPDATE, 1 P.M.: Court records show Blackwell was stabbed 32 times, and Abdullah admitted to detectives that the stabbing occurred after an argument over him taking video games from her home escalated. Police tracked down a stolen XBox 360 system and games to a pawn shop, and located a Nintendo Wii from the Blackwell home inside Abdullah's residence, records show.]

Baltimore police have charged a 20-year-old acquaintance with last month’s stabbing death of a Coppin State University nursing student who was stabbed during an argument inside her home in North Baltimore’s Remington neighborhood.

Syron Abdullah, who turned 20 on Tuesday, was charged with first-degree murder and was awaiting a bail hearing in District Court. Police released few details this morning, but said in a statement that he had been arguing with the victim, Jhoma Blackwell, 18.

Police had confirmed on Wednesday that homicide detectives were detaining a “person of interest” in the March 29 killing. The president of the Remington Neighborhood Association had spoken with a homicide detective about the case.

Authorities had said they did not believe the killing was random. In a statement, police described the suspect only as an acquaintance. Det. Jeremy Silbert, a department spokesman, said this morning that the supsect was not the victim’s girlfriend. He would only say that the two knew each other.

Also, relatives of the victim, who was killed in her home in the 2600 block of Huntingdon Ave., posted a video you YouTube. A woman who identified herself as Blackwell’s older sister addressed whoever committed the stabbing:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, North Baltimore
        

A 24-year-old woman who was found shot in the head and body behind an apartment building in Northwest Baltimore died of her injuries, becoming the city’s latest homicide victim, police said this morning.

Police officers responded shortly before 9 p.m. to the 4500 block of Westchester Road, in Windsor Mills, and found the victim lying on the grass. The apartment building is located between West Forest Park Avenue and Windsor Mill Road, near Leakin Park.

A police spokeswoman said the woman, whose identity was not immediately released, had been shot in the head and body. She was taken to Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 9:37 p.m. Police said they had no susects and knew of no motive.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

[UPDATE: County police say three people - two male teens and a female - were shot in the incident in Turners Station]

Police say a shooting in Turners Station touched off a chase that led through Baltimore and ended when the suspect vehicle crashed into a city police officer's cruiser in Northwest Baltimroe.

Details about the shooting were not immediately clear, but at least two people were struck, according to reports. At about 8:30 p.m., I started getting Twitter messages from people who reported seeing a large number of police cars flying through Southeast Baltimore. It's fairly typical for me to get a message or two like that in a given night, but they kept coming in, and from all over the city - Fells Point, downtown, Northwest Baltimore.

Police say the chase ended in a collision at Northern Parkway and Reisterstown Road. A city police officer was injured and taken to Maryland Shock Trauma with non-life-threatening injuries. Amid that chase, authorities were also responding to the shooting of a female in the 4500 block of Westchester Road north of Leakin Park, and two fires in Northwest Baltimore. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Baltimore County, Breaking news, Northwest Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore
        

City police say they have arrested and charged a 22-year-old man in the stabbing death of a 43-year-old in Brooklyn that occurred late Sunday.

Police say Eric Monroe Phillips, of the 5000 block of Brookwood Rd, approached the victim, Antonio Miranda, in the 3800 block of S. Hanover St. just before midnight and attempted to rob him. Phillips is accused of hitting Miranda with a blunt object, then stabbing him multiple times. Phillips is charged with murder and robbery, among other charges, and was being held without bail. 

It took police a few days to identify Miranda, who does not appear to have a criminal record, and police said the case was solved through "community intelligence."

Phillips has pending theft charges in Anne Arundel County from January, and in August 2009 pleaded guilty to fourth-degree burglary there, receiving 18 months in prison with all but six months suspended.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Breaking news, South Baltimore
        

View Larger Map

One man is in custody after shots were fired during an attempted robbery of a bail bonds business in Greektown, police say. Just before 2 p.m., police say two men entered the Big Louie La Fianza bail bonds office in the 4500 block of Eastern Ave. in an attempt to commit a robbery, but police said they fled after an employee of the business fired a weapon at them.

Det. Kevin Brown, a police spokesman, said one of the suspects "almost ran right into a police car in the area" and was captured, while the other suspect remains at large. Brown said police were checking to make sure the gun was licensed, and he did not immediately release the identity of the captured suspect.

Big Louie exclusively provides bail bonds for the Latino community, according to its web site.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

City police confirm that they have detained a "person of interest" in the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Jhoma Blackwell, a Coppin State nursing student found dead inside her Remington home last month.

But Anthony Guglielmi, the department's chief spokesman, said no charges had been filed and that the case remains ongoing.

Word comes after Joan Floyd, president of the Remington Neighborhood Association, told The Sun she had spoken with a detective on the case who notified her of an arrest. Last night, Floyd told residents at the community association meeting that detectives told her they were closing in on a suspect, which a commander from the Northern District confirmed.

We'll post updates as they become available. 

The arrest in the stabbing death of Blackwell comes as residents in the Remington neighborhood mount an effort to try to spark tips in another stabbing death of a woman inside her home - the 2008 killing of 74-year-old Nancy Schmidt. 

Earlier today, we posted a YouTube video uploaded by a woman identifying herself as Blackwell's older sister, in which she addressed the killer: “You may be pondering if you are going to get away with this…You may be even trying to rationalize in your head that she deserved this for whatever reason and you may even elude the authorities, but let me tell you something, you can’t elude God.”

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking news, North Baltimore
        

Baltimore police officers quickly arrested two men suspected of holding up a bank in a Giant Supermarket in Northwest Baltimore. The robbery occurred Tuesday about about 11 a.m. when two men approached the teller at a PNC Bank inthe 6600 block of Reisterstown Road.

Police said that at least one of the men displayed a handgun and demanded that the teller give them money. After getting un undermined amount of money police said they ran out of the supermarket.

Officers from the Northwest District located two men matching the description of the suspects. One suspect was caught in the 4000 block of Boarman Avenue\, the other hiding under a porch near the supermarket.

Both suspects are being charged with robbery, assault, and theft. They are identified as Torre Johnson, 34 (left) and Otis Nelson, 46. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

At Tuesday night's Remington community association meeting, president Joan Floyd told residents that detectives have told her they have strong evidence and are closing in on a suspect in the killing of 18-year-old college student Jhoma Blackwell, who was found fatally stabbed inside her home on the afternoon of March 29. "They are not asking us to do anything on this one," Floyd told attendees. "They even used the phrase, 'proceding rapidly."

Floyd pointed residents to this YouTube video posted by Blackwell's family, in which an older sister pleads with people to come forward with tips. It's a rare self-produced look at a family's grief.

"I understand that in times like this, people do want to get involved, they're afraid, they feel its not their business," says a woman who identifies herself as Blackwell's older sister. "Whatever it may be, we strongly implore you ... no matter how trivial you think it is, we encourage you to come forward with the information."

She concludes by saying the family is praying for the people responsible.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: North Baltimore
        

City prosecutors just issued this press release on the accident that critically injured Johns Hopkins student Nathan Krasnopoler:

The State's Attorney's Office for Baltimore City and the Baltimore City Police Department announced today that two traffic citations have been issued to Jeannette Marie Walke, 83, arising from an incident on February 26, 2011 near Johns Hopkins University in which she struck student Nathan Krasnopoler, 20, while operating her motor vehicle.

Walke was cited for negligent driving and failure to yield right-of-way to a bicyclist in a designated bike lane prior to crossing the lane. Maryland defines negligent driving as the 'careless of imprudent' operation of a vehicle 'that endangers any property or the life or person of any individual.' Each violation that Walke received carries a maximum fine of $500 and three points.

'In conjunction with the Baltimore City Police Department, we have conducted a careful and thorough investigation, and concluded that these charges were appropriate based on the circumstances. Our combined investigation found no evidence of gross negligence, which is required to support a charge of vehicular manslaughter,' said State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein. 'This was a terrible tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Krasnopoler family.'

The Baltimore Police Department and the State's Attorney's Office take seriously all incidents involving bicyclists and motorists. 'We will prosecute drivers who harm cyclists to the fullest extent of the law,' Bernstein said.

The attorney for the family, who have filed a $10 million lawsuit against Walke, said they agree that manslaughter charges were not appropriate. "The family understands that this was not an intentional act, and that is was an 'accident' and recognizes therefore that she should be cited with traffic citations as opposed to being charged with manslaughter," said attorney Andrew Slutkin.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, North Baltimore
        

[This post has been updated]

Baltimore State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein will try his first case as the city’s top prosecutor this week when three city officers go on trial for misconduct allegations, his office confirmed.

The case involves three city officers – Tyrone S. Francis, Milton G. Smith III, and Gregory Hellen – who are accused of picking up a teenager in West Baltimore in May 2009 and dropping him off in Patapsco Valley State Park in Howard County, without shoes or a cell phone. A second teen was dropped off in East Baltimore.

The officers were indicted last March on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment, second-degree assault and misconduct in office, among other charges.

During his campaign last year, Bernstein, a former federal prosecutor and defense attorney, had criticized predecessor Patricia Jessamy as being out of touch and said he planned to try cases alongside his assistants. Jessamy saw trying cases as outside her responsibilities as the office’s administrator.

“I'm not going to cherry-pick high-profile cases. That's not what this is about,” Bernstein said in a television interview last fall. “What I'm suggesting is that, as the state's attorney, it's important to show leadership, and you show leadership by being in the courtroom prosecuting whatever cases need to be prosecuted.”

Through a spokesman, Bernstein declined to comment on why this week’s case was picked, but it appears both a logical and a symbolic choice.

Bernstein’s replacement for former police misconduct prosecutor Doug Ludwig doesn’t start until May 1. Meanwhile, Bernstein has faced questions over his relationship with police after he was endorsed by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. Jessamy said Bernstein would be a “rubber stamp” for police.

Bernstein was supported by the Fraternal Order of Police, which is paying legal dues for Francis, Smith and Hellen. Last year, union president Robert F. Cherry called the allegations “trumped-up charges” and said “the facts will show the officers were doing their jobs.”

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had called attention to the case, and the teen and his family filed a $100 million lawsuit against the officers.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

A Baltimore man was sentenced on Monday to life in prison with all but 35 years suspended for his role in an armed robbery at a Waverly carryout last April in which a 72-year-old man was shot to death.

The victim, Charles Bowman, was a veteran of the Vietnam War and was blind in one eye. He had stopped by the carryout to get dinner on his way to job as an overnight security guard at the Afro-American newspaper. His shooting and another one a week later just up the street (photo by Karl Merton Ferron) prompted a community walk and heightened police patrols.

Troy Taylor, 19, of the 2700 block of Fenwick Ave. pleaded guilty in Baltimore City Circuit Court to first-degree murder, the use of a handgun in the commission of a crime, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and other charges in the holdup that took place about midnight at the Yau Bros. carryout at 29th Street and Greenmount Avenue.

His co-defendant, Michael Hunter, 20, of the 300 block of E. Belvedere Ave. is scheduled to stand trial in June.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: North Baltimore
        

After the verdict was read, two detectives in the front row hung their heads and buried them in their hands. Friends and relatives reached out to each other for comfort, eyes welling up and staring forward in disbelief.

Jurors had found 26-year-old Sian James guilty in the killing of off-duty Baltimore Police Det. Brian Stevenson — but the charge fell far short of their expectations.

“We’re completely unhappy,” Stevenson’s partner, Det. Thomas Jackson, fumed after the verdict. “In the blink of an eye, he took the life of this great individual, and now all that we’re left with are memories.”

James, a former Jiffy Lube manager, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for hurling a piece of concrete at Stevenson’s head during an argument over a parking spot in Canton last October. Prosecutors said James ratcheted up an argument into a deadly assault. His defense attorney said James had been threatened and feared for his life.

James had faced charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and carrying a dangerous weapon. He was convicted only of involuntary manslaughter. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years at sentencing in July.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

View Larger Map

Police say a man who stole a handgun from a bank security guard at Cross Street in Federal Hill was shot by police several blocks south after pulling the weapon on officers, a city police spokesman said.

Anthony Guglielmi, the police department's chief spokesman, said preliminarily that it did not appear that the man attempted to rob the bank. He took the guard's gun and tried to carjack a woman, but was unsuccessful. Guglielmi said the man fled south, discarding clothing, but was chased by citizens who were calling police and relaying his location. He was eventually located in the 1800 block of Light St., west of Riverside Park in South Baltimore. 

"We received tremendous help from the community," Guglielmi told reporters at the scene. "We have them to thank for his capture. He was shedding clothing, trying to change his appearance, and people kept telling us, ‘He went this way, he’s wearing that.’”"

There, Guglielmi said the man pulled the handgun and was shot by officers multiple times. He was taken to an area hospital, where he was reported to be conscious and breathing.

Taking a jog through Federal Hill, Lisa Morabito was in front of the bank when she saw the suspect bolt out the front door. The silver handgun glimmered in the sun. She said a male security officer exited next, saying, “He took her gun!” Morabito said she saw the suspect dart into the Cross Street Market.

“It took me a couple seconds to process it,” said Morabito, a Sykesville resident who was on a break from her job at a nearby animal shelter.

Justin Winn, 27, a subcontractor with BGE, was working in an alley between off Barney St. and was taking a break when he saw a man come out of a convenience store on the southeast corner of Barney and Light.

“I saw the guy come out of the market. He turned around and pulled out what looked like a gun. Two police officers came up and unloaded on him," Winn said.

Winn said the suspect stumbled 10 feet then fell onto into a gutter behind a parked car.

The shooting occurred near an elementary school that was letting out. Margaret Fleming was there picking up her 4 year old grandson and said school officials held the children inside for a brief period of time "just to keep everyone inside for a moment to keep everyone safe,” she said.

"I saw a lady out here with a stroller with her children, and she was backing up. I asked her what was going on and she said, the police just shot somebody."

The security guard was unharmed, and was being debriefed by detectives at police headquarters. Guglielmi said police recovered the stolen handgun.

-Peter Hermann and Justin Fenton

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Police shootings, South Baltimore
        

City police are asking for help identifying two men who they believe committed 10 armed robberies over a span of a few hours Sunday morning. The addresses are all over the map, sweeping through West Baltimore, Mount Vernon and East Baltimore, and Lt. Scott Serio said the suspects were making quick work. Some of the robberies occurred in the vestibules of businesses such as a liquor store and a carryout, while others were street robberies, including stickups of two Sun newspaper hawkers. Police believe the suspects were getting around in a green, four-door Buick LeSabre. If you recognize the men pictured below, police are asking you to call the citywide robbery unit at 410-366-6341.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Downtown, East Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

Two men were killed overnight in separate attacks in South and East Baltimore, police said.

The slayings pushed the number of people killed to 52, statistics show – 13 percent more than at this time last year, when the city went on to record its lowest murder rate in two decades. The increase appears fueled in part by a jump in the number of fatal stabbings, with 12 people killed in stabbings compared with six at this time last year, according to statistics maintained by The Sun.

In the first incident, an unidentified man died early Monday of injuries suffered during an attack Sunday night in Baltimore’s Brooklyn neighborhood, police said.

About 11:50 p.m. Sunday, police called to the 3800 block of S. Hanover St. in Brooklyn found a man with multiple stab or sharp-force wounds to his neck and torso. The victim died at Harbor Hospital about 12:45 a.m. Monday, and police said he may have been attacked by more than one person.

At about 1:30 a.m. in East Baltimore’s Broadway East neighborhood, an officer on patrol was dispatched to the 1700 block of Crystal Ave. for a report of an unconscious man sitting in a grey vehicle. Police found an unconscious man bleeding from the head, and he was determined to have been shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene by medics, police said.

Police could not immediately identify the victim.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore, South Baltimore
        

The FBI's vault of documents released to the public is utterly fascinating, providing access to (though sometimes heavily redacted) internal reports on topics such as UFOs, organized crime, and political and pop culture figures (from John Denver to Tupac Shakur). Though Baltimore appears in quite a few reports, my digging didn't reveal much of significance. There was a reported UFO sighting in Glen Burnie; there's a report noting the creation of a Nazi group that held a meeting in a suburban Baltimore shopping mall but fizzled out a few years later, and the investigation of a tip that a Baltimore man was going to send a bomb to Prince Charles and Princess Diana disguised as a wedding gift.

I took interest in a file of documents on legendary Sun journalist H.L. Mencken, who apparently traded letters with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover once wrote Mencken to compliment an article entitled, "Reflections on Homicide," ("Your keen analysis of this topic indicates a clear understanding of this particular phase of crime, and I am sure that your readers enjoyed your discussion.") and offered him a tour of the bureau's facilities. Later, when Mencken was writing a book on speech and language, he wrote to Hoover personally to inquire about the origins of the term, "G-Men," referring to federal agents.

Here's Mencken's letter

Feb 10, 1944:

"I am engaged at the moment upon a somewhat elaborate supplement to my old book, "The American Language." and I get into it a great deal of accumulated material about words and speechways that have arisen since my last edition. In particular, I'd like to have a really accurate note on G-man. Do you happen to know where and by whom it was invented, and at what time precisely? Also what is its derivation and is it used officially? My most abject apologies for bothering a busy man with such questions."

Hoover wrote back, describing how G-man stood for "government man" and was apparently first uttered by fugitive "Machine Gun" Kelly during his apprehension in Tennessee. "If you will recall the case, Machine Gun Kelly made numerous boasts that he would never be taken alive and that whoever apprehended him would find it rather difficult facing his machine gun," Hoover wrote. He said that when agents rushed in to take Kelly into custody, they expected gunfire but instead found Kelly standing in the corner with his hands in the air saying, "Don't shoot, G-man!"

Posted by Justin Fenton at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

View Larger Map

A 23-year-old man is in critical condition after he was stabbed during a fight with two men at a Fells Point store early Sunday, Baltimore police said.

Police said the victim bumped into one of two men while entering a Royal Farms store at about 2:25 a.m. in the 2000 block of Fleet Street, and then they all exchanged words and started fighting. One of the men stabbed the victim and both fled the scene, but patrol officers found and arrested the suspects, police said.

Police said criminal charges are pending.

-Gus Sentementes

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

People watch the FBI raid a house but it takes two years for prosecutors to file charges. It's only then they learn the target was charged with viewing child pornography.

A bus driver is arrested on the same charge, but had been suspected 10 months earlier when police raided his house and seized his computer.

Both cases have left people wondering why the suspects were left on the streets. It's become an outrage in Montgomery County, where an unsuspecting school system allowed the bus driver to continue making rounds with students.

Police and prosecutors say the cases are tougher then many people think, and they can't go around naming people before formal charges are filed, potentially ruining the lives of innocent people. I explore these tough cases in today's Crime Scenes.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Baltimore County, Crime elsewhere
        

When we last left John Robert Skelton last year, he had just been charged with purloining the identity of a dead aide to a U.S. senator. The story was that he met someone while visiting America and didn't want to return to Great Britain.

Now, we learn that the suspect has confessed and pleaded guilty, though his attorney says he really wanted to stay here because he was diagnosed with HIV and the treatment offered in American hospitals could not be found in the mid-1990s in Britain.

His story seems to have won over federal prosecutors and the judge. He pleaded guilty to making a false claim of citizenship, and was sentenced to the three days he had served in jail when he was arrested. He was immediately deported.

Read more details of this story here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: South Baltimore
        

City police and about 200 of their colleagues spent Saturday searching Patapsco Valley State Park for Phylicia Barnes, the 17-year-old who disappeared from her half-sister's Northwest Baltimore apartment in December.

Searchers found a body, but not of Barnes, and some assorted animal bones. All in all, it was a frustrating day that left police without any new clues in the girl's disappearance. "We are very much back at square one," a police spokesman said.

The search for Barnes has been one of the most extensive in years. A task force of six homicide detectives continues to work around the clock, and authorities are staffing a 24-hour hot line. But a flood of 200 tips that poured into the center in the first two months have slowed to just five in the past month.

The hot line number is 855-223-0033.

These photos of the today's search were taken by The Sun's Kim Hairston. Here's a list of some of the agencies that helped out on Saturday:

Baltimore City Office of Emergency Management

Baltimore Fire Department

Maryland Urban Search and Rescue

Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Chesapeake Foundation K-9 Dogs

The American Red Cross

The Civil Air Patrol

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Baltimore County Public Safety

Maryland State Police

Howard County Public Safety

Coppin State Students

Morgan State Students

Anne Arundel County Emergency Personnel

Baltimore County Emergency Personnel

Wicomico County Sheriffs

Maryland Park Service

Greater Gethsemane Baptist Church

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Howard County
        

[UPDATE, 10 a.m. Sunday: Police confirmed the identity of the victim, and it was the man whose name was given by the frantic women. Dwight Taylor, 27, was pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma Center at 6:10 p.m.] 

The two women came barreling down the street, wailing as they sprinted over the downtown light rail tracks and towards the crime scene in front of a barber shop.

“Please tell me he’s not shot,” one shouted, holding a cell phone. “Please tell me no.”

A gruff police commander walked over. “How do you know he’s been shot? We don’t even know who it is,” he said.

After catching her breath, the woman replied, “It was on Facebook.”

Just before 5 p.m., police found a man shot several times inside the Focal Point barber shop in the 200 block of W. Saratoga St. It was not clear whether the women in fact knew the victim, but, as another commander said after they transported the pair to police headquarters, “It doesn’t look good.”

The shooting was the second violent incident during the day in the downtown area since Friday, when a 46-year-old man was critically wounded in a stabbing across the street from Lexington Market, also just before 5 p.m. Police said they were looking for a male and female suspect in that case.

The barber shop shooting had bystanders rattled.

Mario Worrell, 65, was passing through the area and mused that if he had been there 15 minutes earlier, he might have found himself face to face with the gunman. “It’s just so bold – the place full of people, on a Saturday afternoon,” he said. “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

Another man, who lives in an apartment in the block and said he was too fearful to give his name, said he doesn’t personally feel unsafe but said there’s been a rash of what seems to be drug-related violence.

“It’s kind of unnerving,” he said, “but, it’s Baltimore.”

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Downtown
        

With more than 200 law enforcement officers from around the area combing through Patapsco Valley State Park, police were hopeful they might find clues in the disappearance of 17-year-old Phylicia Barnes.

Instead, they found a man's body in the Howard County nature preserve. At 12:30 p.m., a volunteer group assisting police with the search found a partially decomposing body of a man. State police say it was the body of a male, fully dressed in multiple layers of clothing and found in the area of Hilltop Place. Police said they did not find any obvious signs of foul play, and the cause and manner of death were pending an autopsy.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Despite the tragedy in Tucson and a rash of deadly shootings this year in Prince George’s County, almost every gun-control bill proposed in Maryland has died — again — in a committee controlled by a Washington area defense lawyer whose firm has become highly successful at helping clients avoid lengthy prison terms for alleged gun crimes, the Washington Post reported today.

Read more from the Post here. The Sun's Peter Hermann wrote a column last April about the city's frustrations with Vallario.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Baltimore police on Saturday closed part of Patapsco Valley State Park as they launched a new, intensive search for a teenage girl who went missing in December and whose disappearance has baffled detectives who have worked for months without finding any clues.

Authorities cautioned that they do not have any specific tips as to the whereabouts of Phylicia Barnes that led them to this sprawling, 16,000-acre park located in both Howard and Baltimore counties north of Ellicott City.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said only that their “investigation led them to the park,” a woodland and nature preserve that includes 32 miles of river and 170 miles of trails, attracting hikers, fishermen, nature enthusiasts and picnickers.

While a task force of six homicide detectives continues to work the case exclusively, Saturday’s search is the biggest public show of force since January, when police searched a well in a shed behind a Southwest Baltimore apartment building.

Police have said they have searched more than a dozen locations and interviewed associates and friends of Barnes, who turned 17 in January. The ex-boyfriend of Barnes’ half-sister was the last person to see her alive, reportedly sleeping on a couch in the sister’s apartment the afternoon of Dec. 28, wearing white slipper boots she had just bought.

Authorities have called this case one of the most perplexing and most comprehensive missing person investigations in years. Police have repeatedly gone on national television, encouraged family members to speak publicly and sought help from law enforcement agencies across the country.

Police have not ruled out that Barnes was the victim of a random abduction, or that she met someone in Baltimore. What concerns detectives the most is the stunning lack of physical evidence and that after four months, not a single person has come forward with a credible tip or sighting.

Barnes, who lived with her mother in North Carolina, was visiting her half-sister in Baltimore for the Christmas holidays. The track star and honors student had planned to graduate early from high school and attend Towson University.

Police said they found nothing in her background to indicate she would run away or become a victim of a domestic dispute. They said she had no psychological or legal troubles. “She was doing what any young person would do, visiting her family, and she vanished from the face of the earth,” Detective Daniel T. Nicholson IV, the lead homicide investigator on the case, said in an interview in February.

Even without new breaks or leads, the case has taken twists. City police have complained about a lack of national media attention, saying cable shows that thrive off reporting on missing person cases have shunned Baltimore because Phylicia is black.

The missing girl’s mother, Janice Sallis, has publicly denounced the half-sister, 27-year-old Deena, accusing her of condoning alcohol and allowing men to come and go from the Baltimore apartment.

Phylicia's father, Russell Barnes, has criticized his estranged wife for speaking out, saying exposing the family rift undercuts attempts to attract attention for the search. Police say they have interviewed several men who had access to the apartment, but have not named any of them suspects in the teen’s disappearance.

Several relatives, including Deena, have gone on Internet radio shows to talk about the case; several said they were willing to take lie detector tests and told interviewers that the ex-boyfriend had hired an attorney.

Deena, a pharmacy technician studying to be a midwife, has said she met Phylicia 10 years ago at a family reunion in Baltimore. They reconnected two years ago on Facebook, and Phylicia had visited Baltimore several times.

On Dec. 28, Deena said she left for work but texted and talked with Phylicia several times during the morning. Another sister, Kelly, had planned to pick Phylicia up in the afternoon. Deena also has said she spoke to her ex-boyfriend, who told her Phylicia was asleep on the couch when he left. Kelly tried to contact Phylicia between 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. but got no response.

Deena returned to the apartment about 6 p.m. that day and found her sister missing. She called Kelly, thinking they were together, and then called police.

Detectives have blanketed her neighborhood near Reisterstown Road Shopping Center with fliers and on Jan. 4 they searched a portion of Leakin Park, without finding anything. Police used dive teams to go into streams, cadaver dogs and military helicopters that can detect heat signatures from corpses. On Jan. 21, they drained a well behind a house in Southwest Baltimore associated with one of the people who had last seen Phylicia.

Guglielmi, the police spokesman, said detectives searched a small portion of Patapsco Valley State Park earlier this winter, but wanted to return for a more extensive look when the weather got warmed and the ground thawed.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime, Howard County, Northwest Baltimore
        

View Larger Map

City homicide detectives were investigating a stabbing across from Lexington Market in downtown Baltimore.

Police were called to the scene, at the intersection of West Lexington and North Paca streets, at about 4:50 p.m. Friday.

At the scene, crime scene tape blocked off a stretch of sidewalk in front of the Lexaco appliance store, across from one of the main entrances to the market. Blood could be seen on the sidewalk just outside the front door, while detectives stood over items marked for evidence inside the store.

Additional details were not immediately available.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Downtown
        

Sian James, the 26-year-old man accused of killing an off-duty Baltimore police officer during a dispute over a parking spot, took the stand Friday to try to convince a jury he was defending himself and his friends when he hit Detective Brian Stevenson in the head with a piece of concrete last October in a Canton lot.

But prosecutor Charles Blomquist questioned that claim, pointing out that James and his friends proceeded with their plans of going to a downtown club despite supposedly being in fear for their lives.

Under questioning from his attorney, John Denholm, James, a Jamaican immigrant who came to the United States in August 2005 and worked as a Jiffy Lube manager, said Friday that Stevenson eventually turned his attention away from Gibson and toward James, saying "I'll shoot you in your face." James added that Stevenson was fiddling with his waistband.

"I thought I was gonna die," James said on the stand, crying. "I thought he was going to shoot me, and shoot my friend."

Read more from The Sun's Yeganeh June Torbati.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, the drug dealer turned actress who was indicted last month in a wide-ranging drug conspiracy, will be released from the city jail after a hastily-called hearing this afternoon in Baltimore Circuit Court.

Pearson, who gained fame for her role on HBO's "The Wire," was among more than 60 people charged in a drug conspiracy case and had been ordered held without bond by Judge John Addison Howard at a hearing at which she did not have a lawyer present. Her initial attorney, Paul Gardner, launched a "Free Snoop" campaign on YouTube, then was replaced with attorney Benjamin Sutley, who said last week that the prospects of her release appeared dim.

Sutley said he negotiated with prosecutors into the night Thursday, and Pearson will be on electronic ankle bracelet monitoring through a Towson-based company. The terms of her release allow her to travel to Philadelphia to film a movie. 

"We had a lot of discussions, but mostly it was just about legitimizing that, if she gets out, she'll be working and she's not a flight risk," Sutley said. "We were able to get her before Judge Howard, and he agreed."

Pearson is charged with helping bankroll a heroin operation in the city, and the case involves wiretaps, according to prosecutors. Her arraignment is set for May 5.

[Associated Press photo]

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Anne Arundel County police say the victims of an attempted armed robbery in Pasadena turned the tables on their attackers.

Police officers responded at 8 p.m. Thursday to the 200 block of Mountain Road, where they saw a suspect being detained on the property. The victims told police that they were in a garage when two suspects approached, one of them displaying a handgun, and demanding money. A 38-year-old male relative and a 26-year-old female relative came from inside the residence and chased after the suspects, who were trying to flee. A "struggle" ensued, and they managed to hold down the suspect until police arrived. Officers detained a second suspect.

Charged are Delonte Preston Thomas, 20, of the 8900 block of Oakwood Way in Laurel, and Paul Rashon Atterberry, 17, of the 9200 block of Steeple Court in Laurel. Atterberry, who was charged as an adult, is pictured above, displaying what appear to be the after effects of the "struggle." Click to enlarge

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Anne Arundel County
        

An alleged member of a Baltimore drug organization tied to a rash of violence across the city has been charged with attempted murder after police say he dumped scalding hot water on a 71-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman to punish them for stealing drugs.

Police wrote in court papers that the victims were receiving free "testers" of heroin in exchange for allowing two men to stash drugs in their apartment in the Latrobe Homes projects, in Southeast Baltimore. On Feb. 17, the dealers, identified as 28-year-old Eric Rich and second man who has not been arrested, checked on the stash and believed the amount to be short.

The victims denied taking any of the drugs, but Rich and two other men began assaulting them with sticks and a glass ashtray, police say. The attackers then forced them to remove their clothing and sit in a bathtub, heating water on the stove until it was scalding and dumping on them, records show.

The victims did not seek medical attention because they were fearful for their lives, they told investigators. Officers noted in court papers that they had visible burns when they met with police weeks later on March 3.

Rich is alleged to be a member of an organization known as the "Chapel Hill Boys" that engaged in a high-profile feud with reputed drug kingpin Steven Blackwell, who is incarcerated as he awaits a trial on federal charges. Authorities have said the feud was touched off with the abduction of Blackwell's two younger brothers and included a quadruple shooting outside an appliance store and a shootout at a backyard cookout that injured 12 people, including Blackwell.

Several members of Blackwell's organization and the Chapel Hill Boys were killed during the outbreak of violence that stretched more than a year, while others were charged and convicted of weapons or drug offenses.

Police filed charges against Rich in the burning case in early March, and he was picked up on April 1 after an officer on patrol in the Monument Street area on the east side attempted a traffic stop on his 1997 BMW. Officers wrote that Rich took off at a high rate of speed and was observed dumping a baggie of brown powder - suspected heroin - out of the window. He was eventually stopped in the 400 block of Bouldin Street and taken into custody.

Rich is being held without bond, court records show, while the second suspect has not been arrested.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Southeast Baltimore
        

Three people were shot in Baltimore Thursday night and early today. All the victims survived their wounds.

The shooting occurred between 6:25 p.m. and 2:25 a.m. and were in three different parts of the city -- south, east and northeast. In two cases, the victims got themselves to a hospital before police arrived at the scenes.

Thus far, 48 people have been killed in Baltimore, five more than the 43 slain at this time last year. Here are details on the latest violence from Detective Kevin Brown, a police spokesman:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore, North Baltimore, South Baltimore
        

From The Sun's Andrea Siegel:

Maryland's highest court is scheduled to take its first look at the state's new death penalty law today, when lawyers for a prisoner accused of murdering a correctional officer argue that prosecutors should have to convince a judge that they have the evidence now required for a capital case.

The controversial 2009 changes to the death penalty law restrict prosecutors' authority to seek execution for first-degree murder convictions only in crimes in which there is DNA or other biological evidence, a videotaped confession or a video recording of the crime.

Lawyers for Lee Edward Stephens, 31, said Anne Arundel County prosecutors indicated that biological or DNA evidence ties Stephens to the July 2006 fatal stabbing of David McGuinn.

McGuinn was a 42-year-old correctional officer at the Maryland House of Correction, where Stephens and co-defendant Lamar Cornelius Harris, 41, were then serving life sentences. The prison has since been closed.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
        

View Larger Map

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

[This post has been updated]

The 32-year-old woman fatally shot early Wednesday in Baltimore’s Reservoir Hill neighborhood was remembered as a “tireless” and caring case manager for adults with disabilities, according to family and her employer.

Keenya Jordan was found shot multiple times by an unknown man at 1:15 a.m. in the 600 block of Lennox St. Detectives were exploring “possible domestic ties,” according to a spokesman.

Jordan, who lived in Gwynn Oak until moving to Reservoir Hill in November, had worked since 2000 for the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, working with youth and more recently as a case manager for adults with developmental disabilities that had been released from state hospitals.

“She was a wonderful, untiring advocate for our clients,” said Herbert Hoelter, chief executive officer and co-founder of the center. “It’s very somber here today. Keenya was well-loved, and was just a great spirit.”

Her mother, Sidney Washington, said Jordan cooked Thanksgiving dinners for her clients and had arranged trips to Las Vegas and Disney World.

“She treated them with dignity and respect, and she did for them like she would want somebody to do for her,” said Washington, 52.

Washington said Jordan “changed the atmosphere when she walked into a room.” “What she brought to this world, nobody can ever take away,” she said.

Court records show she had filed assault charges and two peace orders against a 30-year-old man, most recently in December. Homicide detectives asked anyone with information to call 410-396-2100.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

Private defense attorney Janice Bledsoe will leave her firm to join the Baltimore prosecutors’ office as head of the new Police Integrity Unit, State’s Attorney Gregg Bernstein announced Thursday.

The division replaces a Police Misconduct Unit created a decade ago under his predecessor, Patricia Jessamy, and is the result of a “comprehensive review and reorganization,” according to a statement.

“It is vital to maintaining public trust in our criminal justice system that the state’s attorney’s office acts vigilantly to ensure that allegations of police misconduct are thoroughly investigated and, where appropriate, prosecuted,” Bernstein said in the statement. “This is why I immediately focused my attention on reviewing the unit and developing a plan to improve its performance.”

City officers have recently been implicated in a towing company extortion scheme, and payouts in civil misconduct cases cost Baltimore about a million dollars each year, said City Solicitor George Nilson.

Bernstein, who took office in January, had previously declined to say whether he intended to maintain a separate police-prosecution unit or try another model.

-Tricia Bishop 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Baltimore police are urging city residents to be wary of a series of confidence schemes that have bilked several people out of thousands of dollars and are leading some to be “duped” into participating in illegal enterprises.

Detectives Robert Elkner and Sarah Connelly of the fraud unit described several variations of the scheme and urged people to not divulge personal information such as bank account and social security numbers and dates of birth on the Internet.

One scheme is called “re-mailing,” in which unsuspecting victims become “middlemen” in a shipping enterprise. They answer ads on the Internet and agree to receive packages at home, and then repackage them and send them overseas.

For more details:

The victims pay shipping and receiving costs, and sometimes up-front fees, out of their own pocket, in exchange for checks up to $25,000. Elkner said the checks turn out to be fake, but the victims get penalized by the banks when they bounce. In addition, police said the items being shipped typically involve stolen electronic equipment.

“They get caught up being part of a criminal enterprise and don’t even know it,” Elkner said.
Another variant is an email saying you’ve won a contest. The sender typically requests that the “winner” send a check for $1,500 or some other amount and in return will get their reward, between $15,000 and $25,000. The victim also has to fill out a detailed form containing personal information such as social security numbers and marital status.

Connelly said people who fall for this came get victimized twice. They lose the money they sent while either never receiving their promised winnings or getting a check drawn on a fake bank. And they’ve given up enough information to become victims of identity theft.

The detectives said one Baltimore woman as recently as Wednesday filed a complaint involving a fake contest. She had been directed to send $1,500 to an address in Turkey.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore police are planning what they describe as a “mass search” on Saturday for Phylicia Barnes, the North Carolina teenager and track star who vanished while visiting Baltimore in December. The new search will involve more than 200 law enforcement officials.

In addition, city police are seeking volunteers to help distribute fliers in the Northwest Baltimore neighborhood where Barnes had been staying with her half-sister. Anyone interested in helping out should call the Public Affairs unit at 410-396-2012.

Anthony Guglielmi, the chief spokesman for the city Police Department, would not identify the precise area to be searched or what is prompting detectives to concentrate there.

He said only that they linked a person associated with Barnes to the area.

More details will be released Saturday morning when police begin the dawn-to-dusk search. “It will be an extensive effort,” Guglielmi said.

Barnes went missing the afternoon of Dec. 28. The then-16-year-old had planned to graduate early from high school and move to Baltimore to attend Towson University. She was last seen sleeping on a couch by her half-sister’s ex-boyfriend.

Six homicide detectives worked the case for six months but reported few leads. They’ve questioned up to 30 people who knew Phylicia or who had been among the last to see her alive. Police have conducted more than a dozen searches, including a stream bed in Leakin Park and a well behind an apartment in Southwest Baltimore. Authorities have also conducted an extensive media campaign and gone on national cable television stations.

But tips have recently slowed to a telephone line still staffed 24-hours a day exclusively for the Barnes case, which police describe as one of the most extensive and complex missing persons investigations undertaken by the department in years.

Guglielmi said that only five tips have been called in to the line in the past two weeks, compared to 180 to 200 in the two months prior to that. “We know there are people out there who know more than what they’ve shared with police,” the spokesman said, urging anyone with information to call. “We’re trying to generate as many leads as possible.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The trial of a man charged with killing an off-duty Baltimore police officer using a chunk of concrete during a dispute over a Canton parking space is scheduled to begin this morning. Check back for updates on opening statements.

The Sun's Jessica Anderson reports: Police said Sian James struck Detective Brian Stevenson, an 18-year veteran and married father of three, in the left temple with a "fist-sized" concrete fragment, just an hour before the officer's 38th birthday last October. James is charged with first-degree murder.

The altercation happened in a private parking lot in the 2800 block of Hudson St. about 10 p.m. Oct. 16. Police said Stevenson was out having dinner with a longtime friend near Canton Square, and the argument broke out in the parking lot of an eye care clinic. The detective suffered "massive head injuries" and was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, where he died.

Read a tribute to the the officer. The photo above from the funeral was taken in October by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, Southeast Baltimore
        

The mother of a 27-year-old motorcycle driver killed during a high-speed police chase last year filed a $40-million lawsuit Wednesday against the city and the officer who struck her son, alleging the man ignored orders to abort the pursuit and lied about how the crash occurred, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

The lawsuit comes after a lengthy investigation report, prepared by the Maryland State Police, concluded that Baltimore Officer Timothy Everett Beall was "told to end the chase" and that he acknowledged the command, turning "off his lights and siren." Yet he still followed the driver, Haines Holloway-Lilliston, onto an Interstate-695 exit ramp, ramming into the back of the motorcycle while distracted by his telephone and radio communications, the report said.

Beall, 32, told investigators that Holloway-Lilliston "crashed out in front of him" and that the cruiser never collided with the bike. But Maryland State Police Sgt. John McGee concluded that such an "account of the collision could not have occurred as it would defy the laws of physics."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Courts and the justice system
        

The Baltimore Board of Estimates on Wednesday morning approved $45,000 that the Police Department spent on the funeral of Officer William Torbit, as well as $75,000 requested for the commission appointed to investigate his death.

Torbit was fatally shot by fellow officers in January after responding in plainclothes to a disturbance outside the Select Lounge. Torbit was said to have been overcome by an unruly crowd, and fired his service weapon, killing civilian Sean Gamble. Other officers in the area instinctively returned fire, killing Torbit, according to reports.

[Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron]

Police officials initially said the investigation into the shooting would take three weeks, but it dragged on for about two months. A police spokesman said a final report was handed to Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III last week, and a task force of experts appointed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has begun reviewing the findings and will make recommendations.

The Sun's City Hall reporter, Julie Scharper, asked Rawlings-Blake about the expenditures:

Asked whether she was comfortable with the investigation into Torbit's death, Rawlings-Blake said, "I'm satisfied that the investigation is thorough."

She said the independent task force was focused on an expedient yet thorough investigation.

"It's very important to me to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again," said Rawlings-Blake. "That's what Officer Torbit's mother asked of me."

Rawlings-Blake said the task force had requested staff support in a meeting with her and Bealefeld, which represents the bulk of the $75,000 commitment. Commission members will also be reimbursed for expenses, officials have said.

The funeral costs, meanwhile, far exceed the average costs of a traditional service, which are typically pegged at around $10,000. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said he did not know how much previous officer funerals had cost the department, though the cost for Torbit's service was increased when his family requested features such as a horse-drawn carriage.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: City Hall, Downtown, Police shootings, Top brass
        

From the Associated Press:

Maryland's prison agency says it has revised its policy of asking prospective correctional officers about their use of Facebook and other social media.

The agency said Wednesday that the revisions make it clear that any participation by job applicants in a review of their social media use is voluntary.

The revisions follow an American Civil Liberties Union complaint in January that an officer seeking to return to work after taking personal leave was directed to divulge his Facebook username and password as an employment requirement.

The prison agency says participation was always voluntary and that the policy revision makes that clear.

Here's the department's full news release on the topic from today:

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Prisons
        

Three Baltimore police officers and a Baltimore County firefighter will be honored next month at the annual Fallen Heroes Day ceremony at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. The event is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Friday, May 6.

A procession of 25 honor guards will open the ceremony at the Timonium cemetery, which is to include an address by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

At left is a photo from Fallen Heroes day in 2009, taken by The Sun's Lloyd Fox.

Here is a list of police and firefighters being honored, from a statement issued by organizers:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, Confronting crime, Crime elsewhere, Police shootings
        

Baltimore police are investigating the fatal shooting of a woman early this morning in Reservoir Hill. Few details have been made available of the city's latest slaying, which occurred about 12:15 a.m. in the 600 block of Lennox St.

This comes after a spate of shootings early Tuesday that left two people dead and six others injured, all within an hour. Track Baltimore homicides here. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: West Baltimore
        

A jewelry store robbery in Howard County may be linked to others in Baltimore and Annapolis, as well as to the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old who was killed a day after his car was identified as the getaway vehicle in a robbery at the Columbia Mall.

Howard County detectives on Monday arrested three Baltimore men and charged them in an armed robbery last week that netted more than $300,000 in high-end watches. Mall security officers saw the license plate of the getaway car, a Mitsubishi Diamante that was traced to Derek Jones, an aspiring rapper seen at right from this picture on his web site.

But the day after the robbery, Jones was fatally shot in the head as he left a barber shop in West Baltimore in the 1200 block of Winchester St. It was just hours after he had been questioned by county detectives, officials confirmed.

County police announced the robbery arrests Tuesday, but there was no mention in charging documents of Jones beyond describing his vehicle. Sherry Llewellyn, a spokeswoman for the Howard County police, said county detectives had been investigating Jones’ possible involvement in the robbery but said that police were not prepared to charge him at the time of his death.

City homicide detectives were “not prepared to comment” on how the robbery might play into the murder investigation, Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

Jones was a rapper named “Nu-Boy” and “D. Jones,” and had produced an album in late 2008 that was sold at local Best Buy stores. Street life was prominent in his music – album covers are splashed with images of guns and bullets. A song released last fall featured the chorus, “Air ‘em out” with the sounds of guns firing and the clinking of bullet casings hitting the ground.

But a follow-up album, his site promised, was to be called “American Dream,” and discussed “his emergence from the bitter realities” of life in Baltimore that comprised his first album. “It was his wish to give the world more of himself as a person, and less of the tragic images he experienced day to day living in Baltimore,” it reads.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Howard County, West Baltimore
        

Because we need some levity on the crime blog from time to time, let's have a caption contest for this photo posted to Twitter by state Sen. Bill Ferguson, showing Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and City Council President Bernard "Jack" Young at Monday's home opener for the Orioles. As you might recall, Young, who used to head the council's public safety committee, was once the closest thing to a critic that Bealefeld had on the city council, and he openly questioned whether there was a cover-up regarding the city's murder rate. [Edit] They've enjoyed a rosier relationship since Young became council president.

Keep it clean!

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: City Hall, Top brass
        

Baltimore County police have just posted a video of a robbery and shooting of a gas station attendant who was held up on Feb. 17 at the Carroll Fuel shop on Baltimore National Pike. Police are trying to identify two suspects.

During the robbery, the clerk was shot in the head and money was taken from the cash register. The two men are approximately 17-25 years-old, and were wearing all black clothing at the time. Watch the video here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County
        

UPDATE: One of the men injured in the Mulberry St. shooting has died, police say. He was identified as Roosevelt Tillman, and court records show he was from the 1500 block of W. Fayette St, where another shooting occurred about 20 minutes later. It was not clear if there was a connection.

Baltimore police are reporting one person dead and six others in injured in a series of shootings scattered across the city. All occurred within one hour early Tuesday.

The Sun's Yeganeh June Torbai reports that the sudden outbreak in violence occurred mostly in Northwest, West and Southwest Baltimore.

Here are some details:

Just before 1 a.m., officers called to the 2800 block of W. Mulberry St., near Western Cemetery in Southwest Baltimore, for a reported shooting found a 20-year-old man lying in an alley, suffering from gunshot wounds to his torso and limbs. He was taken to a hospital and was in critical condition, police said.

A second victim of that shooting, a man wounded in the left hand, walked into a nearby hospital for treatment, according to police.

About 1:25 a.m., police said a man was shot near the 1500 block of W. Fayette St., in the Franklin Square neighborhood. Investigators believe the man was shot while standing in the street. The man's condition was unknown.

At 1:46 a.m., police responded to the 200 block of Harmison St., in the Carrollton Ridge neighborhood in South Baltimore, and found three men suffering from gunshot wounds. Police believe a crowd had gathered at the site when someone began shooting. The men were taken to area hospitals, but their conditions were also unknown.

And about 1:50 a.m., a man was shot twice near the 3400 block of Powhatan Ave., near Hanlon Park in Northwest Baltimore. According to their preliminary investigation, police said the man died of his injuries and homicide detectives were notified.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

A former Baltimore police officer has been charged with killing his neighbor on Kent Island in an argument over a dog, according to news reports and Maryland State Police.

Ther suspect is identified as Charles E. "Pete" Richter, 66, who reports say was a city officer from 1965 to 1978. The victim was identified as Mark Xander, 55. The Associated Press is reporting:

The statement says the neighbor was shot during an altercation after Xander's dog went on his property. Authorities say arriving deputies and paramedics founder Xander with a gunshot wound laying in his yard with his dog, a Rottweiler, beside him. They say relatives took charge of the Rottweiler so authorities could approach.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Crime elsewhere
        

Newly disclosed documents show that federal authorities searched a home and business at the center of a corruption investigation involving Baltimore police who allegedly steered accident victims to a towing company.

The documents show that agents are particularly interested in documents related to insurance. Authorities have already charged 17 city officers, along with the owner of the Rosedale towing company and an employee. Those charges are related to alleged kickbacks.

In previously filed court documents, the FBI referenced several insurance issues -- alleging officers told victims to allow the towing agency to talk to insurance agents, inflicted more damage on cars than they had sustained in accidents and may have overbilled for towing and storage.

Read complete coverage of the case. Some more details on the latest developments are below:

One court document written by FBI Special Agent Robert E. Guynn shows what authorities were seeking from Majestic. It lists cash, logs, accounting ledgers, real estate records balance sheets, bank account statements, safe-deposit keys and receipts "related to the purchase of parts or other items used to repair automobiles."

In addition, Guynn wrote that agents were seeking "any and all documents related to insurance claims, including but not limited to tow receipts, parts receipts, estimates, supplemental estimates, notes, correspondence, invoices and pictures." The agent also wrote that among items sought were "records of bribe payments."

An FBI agent listed 27 items seized from Majestic, including a "box of insurance documents and invoices," an "envelope containing estimates" and numerous customer files, towing receipts and logbooks, along with financial records of customers. The agent also listed seizing a computer, a cellphone and an iPhone

From the house on Wilhelm Avenue, the FBI reported seizing a "manila folder with documents from Majestic," along with two computers, a box of receipts and business cards, and a list of cash deposits and email confirmations of cashier's checks from the "City of Baltimore."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system
        

Howard County police announced the arrests of three men who robbed a jewelry store at the Columbia Mall, taking $300,000 worth of high-end watches. Police are investigating whether the same suspects are responsible for other holdups at malls in Baltimore and in Annapolis.

Police are crediting a tipster with helping lead detectives in the case.

In September, armed men held up jewelry stores at Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore in a series of attacks. In March, two armed men robbed a jewelry store at Westfield Annapolis Mall, getting awa with more than $100,000 in watches and necklaces.

Here are more details from Howard County Police:

Howard County police have charged three men for an armed robbery at a jewelry store last week, thanks to a tip from a citizen.

Police responded to Edward Arthur Jewelers in the 10300 block of Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia on March 30 at approximately 12:47 p.m. for a reported armed robbery. Employees reported that three unknown men entered the store, displayed a gun and demanded jewelry from a case. The employees complied, and the suspects fled the store with approximately $300,000 worth of high-end watches. No one was injured in the robbery.

Police distributed surveillance photos of the suspects on March 31 and asked the public’s help in
identifying them. That evening, a citizen who recognized the suspects called police and provided
information. Police will be issuing a reward to the citizen. After further investigation, police arrested the men.

Suspect 1 was identified as Deontaye Derrick Harvey, 20, of 1112 N. Parrish Street in Baltimore. Suspect 2 was identified as Gary Donnell Braxton Jr., 25, of 703 Lexington Street in Baltimore. Suspect 3 was identified as Aaron Pratt, 19, of 2008 Wylie Avenue in Baltimore.

All three men were charged with armed robbery, robbery, first- and second-degree assault, use of a handgun in the commission of a felony, reckless endangerment and theft. The suspects were arrested over the weekend with assistance from Baltimore Police Department and are being held at Howard County Detention Center. Harvey is being held without bond. Braxton and Pratt are
being held on $250,000 bond.

Howard County police are working with surrounding jurisdictions to determine if the suspects may have been involved in other similar cases.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Howard County
        

When three men attacked and punched and robbed a man of his cell phone near downtown this weekend, the muggers apparently forgot about the hundreds of surveillance cameras watching over many of Baltimore’s street corners. At left, The Sun's Lloyd Fox captures officers monitoring surveillance cameras

One of the cameras captured the mugging, and police quickly arrested two men and recovered the stolen cell phone from one of the suspect’s pants pocket. Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told this story at a budget presentation on Monday, in part to showcase the necessity of the program.

The attack occurred shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday on Park Avenue, near Liberty Street, about two blocks west of Charles Street and near a major city hotel. The victim and friends had just left an apartment on West Fayette Street when a man approached and said, “Give me everything in your pockets.”

For more details:

A police report says that one of the men then punched the victim in face, knocking him to the ground and causing a cut to his left eye and chin. Another man took the victim’s $400 Droid cell phone from his pants pocket.

The victim’s friend called police and officers staffing the CitiWatch Center on North Howard Street found the mugging on videotape. They quickly broadcast a description and within minutes officers had detained two suspects on Light Street. Police said in the report that the Droid cell phone was in one of the suspect’s pants pocket.

Police declined to release the video because it is evidence in a pending case

Davontay Thompson, 19, of the 3200 block of Kelox St., in Gwynn Oak, was charged with robbery and assault and was ordered held on Monday on $100,000 bail. Kareem Colvin, 21, of the 2600 block of Purnell Drive, also in Gwynn Oak, also was charged with robbery and assault. He was being held on $250,000 bail.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Crime humor, Downtown, Top brass
        

For those of you about to enjoy the first pitch of Opening Day at Camden Yards, remember that inmates helped make the park look pretty.

That's right, prisoners from the Eastern Shore Correctional Institution "stripped, sanded, re-stained and re-varnished players' lockers," according to a news release from the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

And inmates from the Patuxent Institution in Jessup made signs and decals.

It's all part of Maryland Correctional Enterprises, which employees more than 2,000 inmates doing $50 million in business around the state. Inmates have planted trees at Antietam Battlefield and helped restore the shoreline along the Chesapeake Bay. Yes, they also make license plates, but they also sew every flag flown at state buildings.

In the past, inmates worked to shovel snow out of the M&T Bank Stadium, "allowing the Ravens to play within hours of a blizzard," and planted flower beds and shrubbery. The inmates are in the pre-release program, meaning they are nearing freedom and the program is designed to help them enter the real world.

For more details, read the statement from prison officials:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Prisons
        

The Baltimore Police Department uses Twitter to promote gun arrests and to alert residents to breaking crime. They also Tweet out historical info, such as anniversaries of the founding of the k-9 unit, or of the tactical team.

A few minutes ago, the department Tweeted out another historical fact in its "A look back" feature -- a salary chart for 1968. It's fun to look at, but I couldn't help noticing the timing -- shortly after the mayor attended a preliminary budget presentation for police and fire (details on the budget can be found here).

Unions for both agencies have been fighting against cutbacks in raises and pensions, while city officials say they've kept the departments funded without wholesale cuts or layoffs. But do city officials really want to compare salaries today to 1968? Is it an attempt to make the current conditions of cops seem generous, compared to their colleagues more than four decades ago?

The head of the city police union, Robert F. Cherry, had this to say: "Anyone with an sense looking at a comparison of salaries today to something in 1968 --  I mean, come on. If that's what the mayor wants to do, we can Tweet right back, 'Great, but here's where we stand in 2011.'"

UPDATE: Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the Twitter of the salary chart right after the budget hearing was pure coincidence, and that the person in his office who posted it didn't know about the hearing. "It's done to change the monotony of arrest, shooting, arrest posts," he said.

For the record, a city police officer today starts at $42,290 (up from about $28,000 in the mid-1990s). A city police sergeant makes about $60,000, and a lieutenant $68,000. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III earns $193,800.

Here is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's assessment of the budget:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Top brass
        

Baltimore police are reminding people headed to this afternoon's home opener at Camden Yards to expect heavy traffic and parking restrictions. Remember, it's still a work day, meaning garages will be full.

But let's hope this is the worst thing city cops and fans have to deal with on what's expected to be a warm spring day at the park. Here are some photos of opening day preparation (the one at left is by The Sun's Algerina Perna). A look at anticipation for today's game, and a report from the Maryland Weather blog -- yes, temperature in 70s! And if that isn't enough, here's a video of getting ready for the big game.

Here's some advice from the cops:

TRAFFIC ADVISORY: Orioles opening day festivities will bring increased traffic and road closures. Plan accordingly.

The Baltimore Orioles will play their home opening game against the Detroit Tigers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards today, Monday, April 4, starting at 3:05 p.m.

Since the season opener is being held on a weekday afternoon, area garages will be full with monthly permit holders and downtown parking will be limited. Patrons who do not have a parking permit for any of the stadium lots are strongly encouraged to use public transportation.

Parking restrictions will begun at 6 a.m. Monday:

Pratt Street from Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to Paca Street
East side of Greene Street from Lombard Street to Washington Boulevard
East side of Eutaw Street from Pratt to Lombard Streets
Camden Street from Howard to Russell Streets
North side of Conway Street from Charles to Sharp Streets
West side of Light Street from Baltimore to Lombard Streets

Street closures will begin at 10:00 a.m.:

Eutaw Street from Camden to Pratt Streets
Camden Street from Howard to Russell Streets
Lee Street from Ramp D to Russell Street
Washington Boulevard from Paca to Greene Streets
Hamburg Street from Russell to Leadenhall Streets

In addition to the road closures listed above, northbound 395 will be closed at Conway Street at approximately 4:00 p.m. on opening day. All traffic will be diverted onto Conway Street until baseball fans clear the stadium.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Downtown
        

UPDATE, 2 PM: County police sent out a statement from Howard County chief William J. McMahon: "Lechter has been a probationary officer since August 2010. ... Lechter has been suspended pending an investigation, which includes immediate suspension of his police powers and no contact with the public. No other HCPD officers were involved in the incident."

"The actions described in these charges, if accurate, do not meet the expectations set for members of the Howard County Police Department. As Chief of Police, I have been briefed and ordered an internal investigation immediately. I have reached out to Commissioner Bealefeld to express my concern about Lechter's alleged involvement in this incident."

A Howard County police officer was arrested early this morning in Southeast Baltimore after police say he punched a female officer in the head then yelled, "I'm a cop!" as officers placed him in handcuffs.

According to court records, officers were attempting to disperse a crowd at Canton Square in the 2900 block of ODonnell St. at 2 a.m. when someone yelled "[Expletive] the police," who the city officer believed to be Casey Robert Lechter, an off-duty Howard County police officer. Another man, Kary Williams, said he was the person who made the statement, and the city officer told him to leave the area, according to records.

Williams refused, and the city officer told him he was under arrest, records show. While she was placing handcuffs on him, Lechter punched her in the head from behind and pushed her away, records show. Police records say a private citizen grabbed Lechter and pinned him against a parked vehicle as additional officers arrived at the scene to help.

Police say Lechter yelled, "I'm a cop" but continued to resist arrest. Williams, meanwhile, suffered a cut to his head and was bleeding heavily, "covering both police officers in his blood," officers wrote in court documents. Medics were called, and Willliams "continued to flail and spray his blood in the area," records show.

Electronic court records indicate neither Lechter nor Williams had not been charged as 2 p.m. Sunday, though the police report said both were taken to a hospital and would be charged after they were released.

According to the Howard County police web site, Lechter served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and was deployed for a tour of duty in Afghanistan. His unit recovered thousands of pounds of heroin, and days later some of the unit's soldiers were injured or killed in a bombing.

Sunday morning's fight, which officials say happened outside Coburn's Tavern, was originally put out by the city firefighters union over Twitter as a stabbing, due to the large amount of blood from Williams. Police say no one was stabbed during the altercation.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Howard County, Southeast Baltimore
        

View Larger Map

UPDATE: The Sun's Jill Rosen interviewed witnesses, and her full report is here.

A 24-year-old man was killed and three others injured in a stabbing at a downtown club, police confirmed this morning.

A fight broke out inside Bourbon Street, a club in the 300 block of Guilford St. between The Sun's offices and City Hall. Police have not released any details, but witnesses describe the scene as grisly. The ballroom area was having a "Ladies Night" event, while there was a "zombie strippers" party in a different area according to the club's web site, making for what sounds like a bizarre crime scene for investigators.

David Adams, one of the club's managers, told The Sun's Jill Rosen that the violence erupted in the ballroom where ladies night was happening. He declined to elaborate on what happened, but said the bar was immediately discontinuing the popular promotion.

"Obviously we're pretty frustrated this morning," Adams said. "We've run that promotion for three years and it has not been a problem. The folks that have been coming to the event are going to end up punished because of some other idiot's behavior. But we have to protect our core business. It is what it is."

The three surviving victims had non-life-threatening injuries, police said. One of them was taken to police headquarters to be interviewed, and apparently neither the man nor police were aware he had been stabbed. When they realized his injuries, he was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Multiple clubgoers who were on Twitter at the time sent messages saying people were held inside the building for more than 30 minutes as police sorted through the chaos. A woman who tried to leave was tasered by police, they wrote. (Police denied that any officers deployed Tasers; spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said there was, however, a 911 call for a woman who was unconscious.)

In the messages, many expressed not shock but anger. "Still can't get over that fact that sum1 got killed n the club and I was [in there]," one person wrote. "Any tiny doubts about moving I had have vanished," another said, adding, "I want to say Bourbon St. is a great venue run by awesome people. This doesn't reflect them as a whole at all."

Bourbon Street is owned by some of the same people who ran the old Iguana Cantina, a club near the Power Plant Live complex that Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III made the poster child for pulling off-duty officers from working security at clubs throughout the city. A source said Bourbon Street employs off-duty sheriffs for security.

We'll post more as it becomes available. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Baltimore police have arrested a 47-year-old woman and charged her with robbing a Wachovia Bank branch in Northwest Baltimore on Friday afternoon.

The incident occurred about 4 p.m. in the bank in the 5700 block of Reisterstown Road.

Police said the woman handed a teller a note demanding money and then left. Police found the suspect four blocks away in the 5300 block of Reisterstown Road.

 Linda Leak-Parker, whose address was not given, has been charged in the robbery.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Northwest Baltimore
        

Four men were stabbed inside the Bourbon Street Night Club early this morning, one of them fatally, Baltimore police are reporting. The victim who died has been identified only as a 24-year-old male.

Details are sketchy at this point, but police said the altercation occurred about 1 a.m. inside the club in the 300 block of Guilford Ave. It's unclear what the fight was about. It's another example of the challenges police and security face at night spots around downtown, which have been under scrutiny over the past few years.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Downtown
        

Baltimore police are investigating an abduction and sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl in Brooklyn that occurred Thursday afternoon.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: South Baltimore
        

Students at Patterson High School are remembering classmate Steven Oglesby, a 17-year-old who was fatally shot Sunday night while sitting in a vehicle in Northeast Baltimore's Four-by-Four neighborhood.

A blog post from earlier this week that featured an image from Steven's Facebook page where he was showing off his tattoos caused some frustration from his friends and family, who said that wasn't a fair representation of him.

This picture, posted to Twitter by @Ekwaun, shows a glimpse of how they're grieving. [Click to enlarge it.]

Oglesby was one of two teens shot in the 3200 block of Elmley Ave. on Sunday night.

Police haven't made any arrests in the case.

Three juveniles have been slain this year in Baltimore.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Northeast Baltimore
        

From the Boston Globe:

When he was arrested, Philip Markoff, the so-called Craigslist killer, was wearing shoes stained with the blood of the woman he had killed, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

[snip]

The arrest of a man with no criminal record and a seemingly bright future shocked the city and law enforcement officials. The location of Brisman’s murder and one of the other assaults in two high-end Back Bay hotels opened a window into a lurid world, where people meet in posh locales to engage in sex acts for money, and led to withering criticism of Craigslist for offering advertising for erotic services.

Markoff's double life as a dangerous criminal and a run-of-the-mill medical student was highlighted by another revelation in the evidence released today: After his first robbery and before he killed Brisman, Markoff traveled to Baltimore, prosecutors said, to visit his grandparents for Passover.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Crime elsewhere