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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read on:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 234 murders recorded in 2008 was indeed a 20-year low, but is it or the next year's total, 238, considerably different than the 253 recorded in former Commissioner Edward T. Norris' last year? Overtime spending is half of what it was in 2007, but it's projected to be the same as it was in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Non-fatal shootings are down below Norris' tenure, as are arrests and total violent crime. but in between, under the watch of Kevin Clark and Leonard Hamm, all of these measures soared, and officials say it's taken renewed focus and targeted strategies to get it down to where it was.

"We're doing the same job with less," a spokesman said.

Now that the numbers have returned to whre they were in the early part of the last decade, Bealefeld thinks the systems and philosophies are in place for bigger things in the years to come: "We've just started. We really are at the tip of the iceberg at getting the full buy-in from the patrol forces. But if this city stays committed to this strategy over the long haul, you're going to see incredible results."

Baltimore prosecutors ruled the Hopkins student justified in killing the man, but sought and obtained an indictment charging the other two men with attempted first-degree murder, saying they beat the man beyond the point where he was a threat.

Read a full account of the back and forth here, but there some key yet subtle differences.

The Hopkins student, alerted by police to a possible intruder, grabbed the sword and went looking for the man. He found him, on the property he rented, near a garage. Backed against a garage door, he said the man advanced toward him and raised his hands. He couldn't tell whether the man was armed (he was not), and fearing for his life, slashed him once. It was a fatal blow. Prosecutors cleared the chemistry major without taking the case to a grand jury.

In the hotel case, a man armed with a Tec-9 shot a partier in the face and two of the victim's friends wrestled the gun away. One held the man in a sleeper hold while the other stood on a bed and beat him in the head with the gun. One man had to tell the other to stop; the gunman has been in grave condition for two months.  Prosecutors charged the two men, even though a judge released them on personal bail and they had stayed at the crime scene and cooperated with police.

Are these differences enough to warrant charges in one but not the other? Is the defense attorney in the hotel case correct in saying race and class played a role in the decision. By the way, the attorney agrees with clearing the Hopkins student, he just feels his client deserves the same consideration.

Here is a sampling from today's article:

"It's very clear that when the system perceives a defendant as someone who has a bright future, that they are given the benefit of the doubt," defense attorney Warren A. Brown said. "When you have people who are in the cross-hairs of the criminal justice system, such as African-American males, there is a knee-jerk ... feeling that they aren't good candidates and they aren't afforded the same consideration."

Both cases attracted national attention. The student, John Pontolillo, was lauded for defending his property near a prestigious university in a dangerous city where crime is perceived to be out of control. The shooting at the party in adjoining rooms on the eighth floor of the Fayette Street Sheraton reinforced Baltimore's reputation for violence that can intrude even in places thought to be safe, frequented by tourists and business executives.

"The system is more inclined to put themselves in the position of the Hopkins student then they are in the position of young inner-city kids," Brown said. "But the end result is a disparate dispensation of fair and equitable treatment. You can't not indict the Hopkins kid for killing a man who raises his hand with nothing in it, and then indict a man who disarms a machine gun-wielding thug."