Many readers responded to Ryan Jones' memorial letter about his slain student, Jason Mattison Jr., and it was that letter that prompted colleague Brent Jones and I to do more with this case and write a fuller profile. Jason was found dead in a closet of his aunt's house and police charged a family friend, who had just gotten out of prison for murder, with his death.

A big unanswered question, even after two days of reporting, remains: where did Jason actually live and how did he come to be with his aunt and the suspect, Dante Parrish? His paternal grandmother suggests he somehow left his mother's (we can only speculate it had something to do with Jason being gay, which his family was struggling to accept).

The family in the Llewellyn Avenue house insisted Jason was just visiting when he was killed; police will only say he was "staying" there. But the cops also say that he had "forced sexual relationship" with the suspect; both statements suggest Jason was in the Llewellyn Avenue house as more than a part-time visitor. It was in that house he met up with Dante, and his grandmother questions how they could have allowed a man with a violent criminal past be so cose to a young boy (pics of police taking Dante Parrish to Central Booking).

Police declined to be more specific about Jason's living situation; too bad, because that could clear up a lot and answer some questions, not just for us but for the family, which seems at odds about how Jason was treated.

Everyone at his school told me Jason talked nonstop, but not about how he lived. Was he in that Llewellyn Avenue house for months (Parrish was released in January) and in constant fear all this time? And if so, with so many friends at school, why didn't he say anything. His grandmother told Brent that Jason "didn't keep any secrets from me."

It appears he kept his biggest secret until his death.

His funeral is today at Unity United Methodist Church on Edmondson Avenue.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

It appears to be a quiet morning in the city, but Monday brought some grim crime news. Baltimore had 13 killings in 15 days, pushing the count past the 200 mark and toward the 2008 number of 234, which was a 20-year low.

In today's paper, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld addresses the numbers, saying he less worried about the monthly totals and more concered with patterns in the statistics. Several of the killings in November, he said, were premeditated. He's right, in that we've gone through several periods this year with a week or more without a killing, only to see a spike.

In other news, the opponents of Suite Ultralounge, the troublesome club at the Belvedere Hotel, could finally see a padlock. A hearing administrator agreed with police on Monday that the club is a public nuisance and the commissioner can now shut it down if he wants. Let's see if the owners come up with another last-minute plan to try and save the place, though they're facing a liquor board hearing (examiners have already shut the place once).

And not to be missed: feds charge three in a string of brazen robberies that netted them more than $300,000 and in which one business owner was left duct-taped to a chair. Here are the details of those crimes from the U.S. Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Murder and other mayhem" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Dante L. Parrish, charged in the brutal killing of a 15-year-old boy, confessed while being interviewed by homicide detectives, according to police. He's in the picture at left after leaving police headquarters, on his way to Central Booking. The picture was taken by The Sun's Kim Hairston. 

Recently released from prison on a murder conviction, Parrish is charged with gagging the youth in his East Baltimore rowhouse (owned by the victim's aunt), raping him and then stabbing him in the head and throat before stuffing him in a closet.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore police have released another sketch (at left) of a suspected rapist in East Baltimore. Authorities are investigating a series of rapes, and have said some may be linked.

This latest picture is of an attack that occurred about 2:45 a.m. on Oct. 31 in the 400 block of N. Colvin St., near Hillen Street. Police said a 55-year-old woman was leaving a late-night church event and was making her way to a bus stop when she was approached by a man who grabbed her by the throat. He brandished a shard of glass and dragged her to an abandoned parking lot, where she was raped.

Police said this sketch is based on information from a new witness. Police had released another sketch earlier this month of a suspect in connection with the attack on Covin Street and another one that occurred at a bus stop in the 1300 block of Harford Ave. A 19-year-old woman was dragged to North Central Avenue, where a man punched her in the face repeatedly, stripped her naked and sexually assaulted her. The woman, suffering from a head injury, flagged down patrol officers.

That sketch is here:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore police have identified the suspect in the brutal slaying of a 15-year-old boy who was found dead on Tuesday inside a closet of an East Baltimore rowhouse. Authorities are searching for the suspect, Dante Parrish, 35 and have put out a citywide alert for him. He is pictured at left.

Alert Message has been issued by the Baltimore Police Department:

Wednesday November 11, 2009 17:27 PM EST

BPD needs help in locating 35 yr old Dante Parrish for brutal sex assault & murder of 15 y/o boy. 410-396-2100

Dante Parrish is wanted in connection with the Nov 10 slaying of a 15 year old Baltimore boy. Parrish sexually assaulted and brutally murdered the victim before leaving him for dead in a bedroom closet. Please help BPD homicide. Contact us at 410-396-2100

This case is particularly gruesome. Police say the victim, Jason Madison Jr., was allegedly killed by a person he knows who had sexually assaulted him. Police said a pillow case had been stuffed in the victim's mouth, and that he had been repeatedly stabbed in the head and throat. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Three young men admitted in court this morning to stealing Cal Ripken Jr.'s Number 8 sculpture back in September from in front of Camden Yards. None said a word in court, other than to answer basic questions.

So we still don't know why they did it, other than a prank. It turned out to be an expensive one -- they all had to chip and write a check to the Orioles for $7,618. That's for the theft of a single digit!

That prompted the quote of the day from defense attorney John Grason Turnbull III, who told me he told his client, "You're lucky you didn't take the Number 33. It would've been twice as expensive."

Remember, this is the case in which Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld commented, "Don't come to Baltimore to be a moron." Three of the four defendants are from Essex.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore police have released a sketch of a possible suspect in at least two rapes that occurred last weekend in East Baltimore. These attacks may not be connected to a string of other sexual assaults, possibly seven more, that have occurred in the city, most on the eastside, since Oct. 20.

The person in this drawing may be connected to the following incidents:

The first occurred Friday just after 6 a.m. at a bus stop in the 1300 block of Harford Ave. A 19-year-old woman was dragged to North Central Avenue, where a man punched her in the face repeatedly, stripped her naked and sexually assaulted her. The woman, suffering from a head injury, flagged down patrol officers.

On Saturday, at 2:45 a.m. in the 400 block of Colvin St., a 55-year-old woman told police she was leaving a late-night church event and was making her way to a bus stop when she was approached by a man who grabbed her by the throat. He brandished a shard of glass and dragged her to an abandoned parking lot, where she was raped.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Baltimore Police Department's Sexual Assault unit at 410-396-2076. Here's a map of recent attacks.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The case of the Stolen Number 8 is one step closer to ending.

One of the four young men charged with stealing Cal Ripken Jr.'s statue from in front of Camden Yards back in September pleaded guilty this morning to theft. Jason Stoneburner, left, got a two year suspended jail sentence, probation, community service and will have to pay the Orioles $1904.50.

I guess that's how much the statues outside the ballpark are worth. Three others charged in the crime that left the city marveling at its brazenness and audacity have requested a jury trial that is scheduled to begin on Friday.

As you might remember, the statue was torn off its base, put in a pickup truck and driven around the city until the suspects got into an argument that prompted a resident near Patterson Park to dial 911. Cops came, found the statue and arrested them.

It prompted Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to proclaim on television: "Don't come to Baltimore to act like a moron."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Today's report on a string of rapes, mostly in East Baltimore, but also in some other areas, over the past two weeks is troubling in itself, but it also fits a pattern Baltimore police started last year -- they failed to inform the general public.

They did a bit better this time than in the Mount Vernon area last year, when they didn't even tell the residents in the neighborhood, even as detectives were putting up posters with sketches of possible suspects. This time, as Justin Fenton reports, police say commenders were informing residents. But the department failed to update the general public with postings on Twitter and Facebook, or through the news media.

They do a good job of notifying the public about shootings and slayings -- often with posts just moments after the first reports come into 911. But a serial rapist (or possibly two) that triggers a large-scale police operation (and rightfully so) in which women are targeted at bus stops and in one case walking home from church, requires a citywide alert.

Reading Justin Fenton's story in today's Baltimore Sun, the attacks are vicious, in some cases women were threatened with shards of glass and dragged into abandoned parking lots. Many occurred over the Halloween weekend.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Mark Hughes, our exchange reporter from London's The Independent newspaper, had just gotten off a train from Washington Sunday evening when crime reporter Justin Fenton and I took him to a shooting in McElderry Park in Southeast Baltimore.

What an introduction for a reporter who wants to see if Baltimore measures up to The Wire.

His first view of the city: heading south on St. Paul, east on Orleans to Milton Avenue where a man had been shot in the stomach. I pull up to the crime scene tape, his suitcases still rattling in the back, to find cops looking for a 9mm handgun. The victim survived. It was the first shooting in this neighborhood in a number of months, which for here is a good sign.

Crime scene tape blocked the street; overhead a neighborhood sign showed an image of a body outline and the words "Enough is enough." Up the street, blue light surveillance cameras blinked nonstop.

I want Mark to come away from Baltimore feeling the way I do: yes, there's violence, and more of it than in London and other American cities, but this is a vibrant, exciting and fun place to live, safe in most neighborhoods. We left Milton Avenue and had dinner in Federal Hill, where bars were packed with Ravens fans celebrating the victory, a world away from Milton Avenue and blue light police cameras.

In addition to updates here, we have a blog set up for Mark and Justin to talk about their experiences. Justin heads off to London on Wednesday and will be reporting back on what he sees there. Both reporters will be on the Ed Norris show on Tuesday. As soon as I get a time confirmed, I'll post here.

Meanwhile, welcome Mark to Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Timothy "Comedy Cop" Hall jokes about everything from marijuana to what he calls "raggedy --- police cars" in Baltimore. He's a city police officer, a 19-year veteran who grew up in Baltimore and when he's not catching criminals as part of a warrant task force, he's on stage making fun of them.

And he makes fun of his own police department.

Hall has been on HBO's Def Comedy Jam and done hundreds of shows at the Baltimore Comedy Factory. I saw him Friday night at the Havana Club where he peformed for a benefit for ReWired For Change, a group of actors from The Wire who help at risk youth to prevent violence.

There's more about Hall in today's Crime Scenes, but suffice it to say I couldn't quote many of his jokes (especially the ones from Def Comedy Jam). He says he's trying to give people a glimpse into the hard work of city cops and not exploit the violence that has made Baltimore a household name around the country.

But he still took shots at city criminals, as did the comedian who performed first and the host of the show, "Alabama," who works at the Baltimore Comedy Factory and said he told me, for the first time, his real name: DeShawn Alabama Frazier. He took a few shots at his new home (yes,' he's from Alabama), noting that you shouldn't go anyplace that has the word "Heights" in it.

First up was Justin Schlagel from Washington. He noted that Baltimore has some of the scariest homeless people he's ever seen. He said he used to live in Baltimore, but had to move -- "Stab me once ..." he noted, playing off the old slogan.

Justin also said that this city is the easiest city to navigate -- you either end up in the harbor or end up dead.

The event raised money for a good cause, even if it meant poking fun at the city's ills for a few hours.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The Baltimore Sun's Tricia Bishop's story today offers a terrifying timeline of a suspected drunk driver who might be responsible for the hit-and-run death of Johns Hopkins University student Miriam Frankl on St. Paul Street.

The suspect, Thomas L. Meighan Jr., has not been charged directly in her death but prosecutors say their investigation continues. For now, he's charged with a series of motor vehicle violations pieced together from what police describe was a wild night in which his pickup truck sped through red lights, went the wrong way down streets and veered across roadways. The photo at left, from WJZ-TV, shows a truck believed to be the one involved in the fatal accident

We also learned that the suspect has 21 convictions for motor vehicle violations, including six for driving while intoxicated and two for drivng under the influence. At the time of the deadly crash on Oct. 16, taking the life of the promising 20-year-old junior and molecular and cell biology major from the Chicago area, he was free on bail on another hit-and-run and DWI charge.

We're still piecing together his long and complicated record to determine how he mananged to stay free and behind the wheel despite a record that should've barred him from the road.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Apparently, a Baltimore police sergeant tried to nap the killer in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but the cop is the one who ended up behind bars.

Baltimore County police tell me that the sergeant, Eric Michael Janik, 36, went through a haunted house at the Eastpoint Mall Sunday night and apparently didn't like or didn't understand that the massacre character chases after people at the end.

The man was dressed as "Leatherface" and was carrying a prop chainsaw, minus the blade, when police said the off-duty sergeant took out his gun and pointed it at the man. He immediately put his hands in the air to surrender, words were exchanged and the cop was later arrested.

Janik was charged with one count of first-degree assault and promptly suspended.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore's police commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III just finished singing Whitney Houston's I'm Every Woman on 98 Rock, paying off a bet to the mayor's office after his all male police team lost a marathon relay to an all-women's team headed by an official from City Hall.

I posted this under the "Breaking Crime" category because that's what it was -- a crime. Even the 98 Rock announcer couldn't contain himself: "I have a lot of respect for you but not for the singing, that was horrific." Another chimbed in that complaints are flooding 911 for dogs howling because of the song and another added, "Every drug dealer in town is thinking, the police commissioner is really nuts."

For those of you who listened but couldn't for the life of you figure out what the commissioner was singing, here's what he was trying to sing:

"Whatever you want; Whatever you need; Anything you want done baby; I´ll do it naturally; Cause I´m every woman; It´s all in me; It´s all in me; I´m every woman; It´s all in me; Anything you want done baby; I do it naturally"

The commish lost to a team called Criminal Justice Chicks led by Sheryl Goldstein, who heads the mayor's criminal justice office. Reporter Justin Fenton and a photographer were in the studio. Bealefeld keeps talking about people "staying in their lanes." He should take that advice before launching his next career. Here's the video from WBAL and posted on YouTube:

Continue reading "Bealefeld sings (if that's what you call it!)" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Ex-Baltimore Ravens linebacker Tony Fein's (left, in a picture by the Baltimore Sun's Amy Davis) trial had been scheduled for this morning on charges that he assaulted a Baltimore police officer over the summer at the Inner Harbor in a case that sparked a debate over racial profiling.

Fein, 27, died Tuesday morning in Port Orchard, Wash., his agent told The Baltimore Sun's Jamison Hensley. We still don't know details of how Fein, who was cut by the team before the start of the season, died. Fein was an Iraqi war veteran had been a linebacker.

He was with other players at a food stand when a security guard thought she saw someone in his group hand him a gun. The guard notified city police and Sgt. Joseph Donato, who is white, twice asked the black player to stand up and said in a report (read the report here) that the player refused. In the report, the officer said the player turned around and reached for silverware, and that's when the sergeant grabbed Fein by the sweat shirt, forced him to the ground and handcuffed the 6 foot 2, 245 pound linebacker.

Fein's agent said the player did not know at first the man behind him was a police officer and denied disobeying his orders. The arrest came shortly after a gang-related shooting in the same Light Street pavilion and other violence at the Harbor that scared tourists and visitors and prompted extra police and warnings from the mayor that cops would crack down on suspicious people.

Fein never publicly commented on his arrest, so we were awaiting his trial to hear his side of the story. His agent claimed Fein was a victim of racial profiling. We'll check later today with Fein's attorney to see if he got statements from other players who were there at the time.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Police are investigating the apparent abduction of a 14-month old boy from a Northeast Baltimore home. The toddler has been identified as Cory Dwight Green Jr., seen here in a picture given to us by city police.

Parents told authorities they heard a door closing about 2 a.m. and then discovered the boy missing. Cory was last seen wearing dark blue pajamas. Four other children in the home were not harmed. Anyone with any information is urged to call Baltimore police at 410-396-2100.

In another bit of breaking news, the suspect charged with killing his ex-girlfriend and hiding her body in a underground cable vault in North Baltimore was found dead in his jail cell Monday night at the Central Booking and Intake Center.

Police tell me hanged himself; we're awaiting official word from the Medical Examiner.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore police have made an arrest in the body in the manhole caper.

Two things come to mind while reading the police charging documents: people (at least homicide detectives) still read the paper and we are relevant; and suspected bad guys in Baltimore are the laziest in the country. At left, Baltimore Sun photographer Jed Kirschbaum inadvertently captures the suspect's house in a photo, which helps police make an arrest and shows that the suspect allegedly didn't travel very far to dispose of the body.

First, some background. On Friday, two Verizon workers checking wires in an underground vault open a manhole cover and see a body floating in about six feet of water on Benninghaus Road, just off York in mid-Govans. They call police who call the fire department who get the body out. It as of a white female floating face down wearing a black fleece hooded jacket and black pants. The hands were missing; the left foot had fallen off and was floating neaby with a shoe still on. Cops also found one small hoop earing. She was wearing her work uniform.

The body was taken to the Medical Examiner's Office for an autospy and to determine an ID. The vault is a confined space 12 feet deep and 21 feet wide, and if whoever threw the body down there thought it might float through the city sewer system, they were mistaken.

On Saturday morning, Howard County Police Detective Tom Lau was reading the Baltimore Sun and noticed the article. But more than that, city police charging documents state that he "observed what he believed to be a photo of the house where the missing girl's boyfriend was living at the time of her disappearance." He drove up to the city with his folder and met with the city homicide detective leading the investigation, Daniel T. Nicholoson IV.

As a result, the body (police now say she was strangled) has now been identified as that of Elda Vasquez (also spelled Vazquez), 30 who had been reported missing on Jan. 29, 2008. Her family lives in Mexico. A month earlier, the victim had sought a protective order against her boyfriend charging that he hit her, struck her in the head and tried to drag her into the woods. She also he had been stalking her and told authorities that he had threatened to kill her.

Colleagues at the Red Robin restaurant in Columbia, where Vasquez had worked, reported her missing when she didn't show up for work for two weeks. She also hadn't shown up at another job at Eggspectation in Ellicott City.

The boyfriend, in the country illegally since January 2001, was identified as a suspect in her disappearance but not charged. Police at the time seached his house at 543 Benninghaus Road, near the manhole cover, anf found the victim's property and a "Dear John" letter written to the victim "indicating displeasure with her and saying goodbye," according to the police charging documents.

Over the weekend, police showed photographs of the victim to her co-workers, along with a gold necklace with an eagle charm that was found on her body, and they positively identified her. Police also said that the suspect's house on Benninghaus Road is 15 yards from the manhole.

That brings me to the lazy side of criminals. Though the manhole cover weights more than 100 pounds, police allege the killer didn't go too far from his own living room to dump the body.

Victor Hernandez Cruz, 40, who now lives in Columbia, was arrested and charged over the weekend with first-degree murder.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

I spent the morning, and early part of the afternoon, off York Road in mid-Govans watching police and firefighters pull the decomposed body of a woman out of an underground Verizon cable vault. A Verizon worker discovered the body when he took off the manhole cover and looked inside (he was about to climb down to do some maintenance work).

Police got there about 10:15 a.m. but firefighters didn't pull out the body until about 1:35 p.m. Fire Lt. Scott Merbach told me that the steps leading 10 feet to the bottom of the hole were rusted and firefighters had to be lowered down into the hole using a pulley attached to a tripod. Pictures from the scene are by the Baltimore Sun's Jed Kirschbaum.

Merbach, who heads the Fire Department's Special Rescue Operations unit, said it took hours to get the body out because his team had to follow federal safety guidelines for confined rescues. That meant four fighters had to put on wet suits and air masks. They had to be attached to safety harnesses and two went down and the other two stood guard and were dressed to descend in an emergency.

Verizon workers, instead of splicing cables, pumped water out of the hole; police told me there was five feet of water in the 8 by 8-foot vault, and they all but a foot out before the firefighters went down. The body was that of a white female, fully dressed, but missing her feet and hands. One foot was found near the body, which was floating face down in the water, and still in a shoe.

Cops are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine how she died and whether the death is classified a homicide. She was too decomposed to make an immediate determination. The body parts could've become severed through decomposition, an animal or being cut off.

It was a scene just off York Road.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

I just returned from two back-to-back police incidents in Baltimore involving cops and guns. At first, they appeared related but it turns out they were separate acts of violence just 45 minutes apart.

In the first case, a man meeting with officers in the Western District ran out when releazed cops realized he was wanted in an arrest warrant. Police tell me he jumped into his car and drove five blocks, dragging an officer who had tried to grab his keys. The officer is at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in fair condition; cops tell me his bullet-resistant vest shredded as he was dragged. Another officer fired at the car and shattered the rear window; police are looking for either a red Acura or a Honda.

The suspect being sought, identified by police as Rickey Hughes, 27, is at left in a police photo.

That was noon. About 45 minutes later, police said a city officer on an FBI task force was making an undercover deal in Westport when the man took out a gun. Police said the officer fired several shot and hit him; he's also at Shock Trauma in serious condition. Police said they recovered the man's handgun.

Another busy afternoon in Baltimore. Almost forgot, as I was driving from the dragging incident on Edmondson Avenue south to Westport I drove by a building on fire with heavy smoke pouring out the roof. Ah, Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The overdose death of the postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and the drug charges filed against her boyfriend, also a research doctor at the hospital, is more like a novel then a litany of criminal charges.

And Baltimore police wrote it that way.

It started with a simple call to the emergency room for a DOA. About 6 p.m., Carrie John came in by ambulance and was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m. Her live-in boyfriend, Dr. Clinton Blaine McCracken, 32, (pictured at left) was at the hospital and told police his girlfriend had injected herself with a drug, burprenorphine, which is used to treat heroin addiction (See the Baltimore Sun series on use of the drug).

According to the charging documents, McCracken told homicide detectives that he used his computer to search for recreational drugs and had been buying from a place called the New Mikee Online Pharmacy. His most recent purchase was 20 bupe pills for $2 each. He directed police to the syringe his girlfriend used, which he left on a table in the living room of his house near the Baltimore university.

"McCracken stated that they had soaked the pills in water and filtered them before preparing two syringes each with a 1mg dose," the police charging documents state. "He stated that after they prepared the syrignes with the solution of burprenorphine the deceased injected herself with the 1 mg does and immediately began to have difficulty breathing at which time he got her to inhale which did not work, so he called 911 for paramedics.

"McCracken stated that he never got to inject himself with his own 1 mg dose due to the deceased medical crisis. He stated that the deceased had asthma, but no other health problems. He stated that over a 2-3 year period he used his computer to order various narcotics for recreational use to include burprenorphine, morphine, oxycotin and marijuana which was mailed to him in various forms from the New Mikee Online Pharmacy in the Phillipines.

"When asked why, the defendant stated he thought they could control the morphine and burprenorphine. He  also stated that he could sit here all day and tell me why marijuana should be legal. He said no one ever got hurt using those drugs, it must have been a batch of pills that were bad."

Both doctors have done extensive research on addiction and the university published a paper in a study of "compulsion and habit formation." Both have degrees in pharmacueticals.

What police said they found inside their house was even more astounding.

As soon as police entered, they said they were met with "an overpowering odor of hydro-marijuana. ... The defendant and the deceased had massed huge gardens of suspected marijuana which was planted in buckets on each floor of the home. Each area containing the suspected marijuana plants had its own lighting system which was prepared by a man-made design. Each area had several fans operating at once with a man-made venting system using the aluminum dryer hoses that hung about two to three feet from the floor directly over the area while venting upward to the roof. There are approximately twenty or more bongs in all shapes, sizes, and configurations strewn about the home. The home was unkept [sic] and trash was thrown about everywhere.

"The bags with pills were located in various areas to include the refrigerator, purses and countertops. Chemicals used on the suspected marijuana were found in various rear yard as well as stored in the basement closet where the largest concentration of suspected marijuana plants were located. Found inside of the large mason jars were several hundred bundles of suspected marijuana. A partial express mail package from EMS was found that was sent from the Phillipines with a postage date of 18 September 2009 with the item described as a wedding gift. The item weighed 80 grams in total."

Police said that at the hospital, McCracken was carrying a green backpack that contained a Canadian passport, letters from the U.S. Customs and Border Agency referencing shipments of narcotics and false manifests.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore County police are cautioning both the person who broke into a home and others that two grenades stolen from a Monkton home could be live an dangerous. Police released a photo of what the grenades look like.

From police:

Baltimore County Police are cautioning the public and the suspect who is responsible for the burglary of a home in the Monkton area of Baltimore County. The suspect stole several guns, and two dark military green “pineapple” Japanese-style WW II hand grenades. The caretaker of the weapons does not remember whether the grenades were disabled or are live. These grenades are DANGEROUS, and can cause injury or death.

Police are asking anyone who has seen these grenades, or knows of the suspect who took them to call police immediately. The department’s Hazardous Devices Unit (Bomb Squad) can retrieve them and safely dispose of them.

Detectives say that the burglary occurred sometime between 1 p.m. on September 23, and 9 p.m. the next day. Investigators are not releasing the exact location of the home, or any other information about the crime because of investigatory information they are working on.

Anyone with information about this crime or the location of the grenades is asked to call 911 or the Baltimore County Police Department at 410-307-2020.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The off-duty city police officer who was shot during an attempted robbey outside his Northwest Baltimore home was moved this morning from Sinai Hospital to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and has been downgraded from serious to critical condition.

Police tell me that Aaron Harris has now had at least five surgeries as he slowly recovers from a bullet wound to the stomach. On Monday, the two 16-year-old suspects were ordered held without bail on adult charges of attempted first-degree murder, armed robbery and a bunch of others.

They've been identified as Craig Tillett (above left) and Kevon Wilson (right). Charging documents filed in the case say that the officer was getting out of his personal car on Highgate Drive when the teens "began firing an unknown caliber handgun" at him. Harris was hit three times and returned fire, managing to hit Harris in the left leg.

Tillett walked in later to the emergeny room at Sinai, the same hospital where the officer was being treated, and police said he first gave a false story about being shot in Park Heights but then confessed and gave up the name of his accomplice.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

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

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

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

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

A bad day for police.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Cops shot, killed in crash, indicted" »

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They really were selling guns with their chips 

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Utz stall owner guilty for selling guns with chips" »

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

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

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

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

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

Here's the video:

Continue reading "Harbor cop who yelled at skateboarder gets suit dismissed" »

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The dead man has not yet been identified.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing is sacred in Baltimore when it comes to crime.

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

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

I'll have more as details become available.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I got duped.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon does not have a Twitter page and did not respond to Britain's Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling's rebuke of the city by referencing The Wire. It was a hoax, I learned this morning, and City Hall is trying to figure how a fake Internet page with the mayor's seal was born.

It all started earlier this week when Grayling made comments about the city of Manchester, the one across the Atlantic, and said a few dozen murders there made it just like way Baltimore is portrayed in The Wire. That got a whole bunch of people in Britain upset and set off a mini-media frenzy there.

Of course, the British media sought comment from Baltimore; I was contacted by a newspaper in Manchester and by the BBC. Then I got a call from a Baltimore official pointing out that Dixon had started a Twitter page and her very first comment defended Baltimore against the British pol.

I should've realized some of the only-in-Britain terms, and put a call into the mayor's office, but I went ahead and posted it. The mayor's spokesman, Scott Peterson, got a call from BBC at 4 a.m. hoping to get Dixon on television to repeat the statement she had purportedly Twittered.

"What statement?" Peterson replied, perplexed.

Turns out the Twitter page and mayorofbaltimore.org is fake, apparently set up by a guy known as Recess Monkey in Britain, who joked about what he had done on his web site this morning: "Churnalists made to look like monkeys."

The British Guardian posted a correction this morning on their web story that quoted the mayor's statement: "The mayor of Baltimore did not make the statements attributed to her in the story below -- we were caught by a hoax."

Peterson said he didn't bother to initially check the web sites because he's so used to fending off calls from reporters about the city and The Wire, which is playing in Britain and is a huge hit.

I got this e-mail (and confirmed it by talking with him) from the hoaxer, Alex Hilton:

Continue reading "Duped on mayoral Twitter" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection agents say they found cocaine in a bra. Here's the release (photo from U.S. Customs at left):

"Women throughout the ages have used various materials to enhance their profiles, but for one traveler returning from Jamaica, her insert of choice landed her behind bars this morning.
Sophia Williams, 35, of Washington, D.C., was arrested at about 1:45 a.m. today after Customs and Border Protection officers discovered about 2 pounds, 9 ounces of cocaine stuffed inside her bra late Monday night.

"The cocaine, divided into two packages, was designed to blend in with her bra material. Narcotics smugglers will go to great lengths to conceal their dangerous drugs, and this is another unique concealment method,” said James Swanson, CBP Port Director for the Port of Baltimore. “Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t so unique that it fooled our highly trained officers even for a second.

"Williams arrived to Baltimore Washington International Airport from Montego Bay, Jamaica at about 11 p.m. on Monday. Williams and the cocaine were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Anne Arundel County police have released some great pics of a robbery in Crofton and information on a man they are looking for:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore police have arrested two more suspects -- ages 16 and 17 -- in the brutal attack of a black fisherman at Fort Armistead Park in which a self-proclaimed white supremacist (left) has already been charged. Some in today's newspaper are suggesting there's a growing climate of anger amid the debate on health care reform, but it looks to me like this was an attack of opportunity.

The first suspect arrested, Calvin Lockner, has a tattoo of Hitler on his stomach and police said he told them the attack wouldn't have happened had the victim, 76-year-old James Privott, been white.

I did spend some time on the fishing pier at the park and was heartened to watch as three men of three different races helped each other real in a two-pound catfish. They helped each other without a second thought, a battle waged by men that transcended any and all differences.

Here is a copy of the police charging document outlining the state's case against Lockner (it contains some stronge language): 

Continue reading "Two more arrests; more details in hate attack" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The Baltimore Sun's court reporter Tricia Bishop reports today that a shooting caught on a police surveillance camera in 2007 has led to a conviction and a sentence of 18 years for the shooter. The victim in this case never came forward, so the video is all prosecutors had.

Police and prosecutors have debated the usefullness of the myraiad of cameras watching over us every day; often the cameras catch part of a crime but everything, and even then the images are sometimes dramatic but not very helpful in court. Rarely do the cameras catch a crime in progress.

Here's the video that got the conviction:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime, Confronting crime
        

Breaking news: Police say Michael Phelps was not at fault in Thursday night's accident in Baltimore's Mid-Town neighborhood.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says a woman driving a Honda Accord north on Calvert Street went through a red light and hit a Cadillac Escalade that Phelps was driving east on Biddle Street. The suffered minor injuries; it is unclear whether she will be charged with traffic offenses. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore police told me this morning that Michael Phelps was not given a Breathalyer test after the accident he was involved in Thursday night in Mid-Town Belvedere. "There as no need," spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. "He was completely coherent. He was cooperating with police. He gave a witness statement as to what had occurred."

But that hasn't stopped the paparazzi-like media from the Tabs and Web sites to jump on the latest Phelps story. One web site headlined the story Phelps' latest run-in with police. It's hardly that, it's just a traffic accident. And Gawker has a story up that is so full or errors it made my head spin.

It leads off with Phelps caught driving through Baltimore's Tranny district. Well, sorry to blow their story, but the transgendered prostitutes have moved north from the Mount Vernon area to lower Charles Village. And even if the problem still existed on Biddle and Calvert streets, the area is a main thoroughfare for thousands of citizens every day who have nothing to do with transgendered prostitution. The site shows Phelps in one of his see-through swim suits and mentions, falsely, that he's still on probation for a DUI case. He pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of driving while impaired in 2004 and has completed his probation years ago in 2005. The charge is no longer on his record.

I do like the fact that with all the instant news and technology, from Twitter to Facebook to instant text alerts on crime, it was our old-time old-fashion throwback-to-another-era of a police reporter Richard Irwin who called police spokesman Guglielmi and told him of the accident. I asked Guglielmi how the police commissioner learned of Phelps and he replied, "From Dick Irwin."

Now that's news reporting.

This is a good test for Guglielmi, who will find that his every utterance on Phelps will be closely scrutinized, parsed and repeated in media around the world. Already, he's complained about being stalked by the web site TMZ, a celebrity-gossip web site that broke the Michael Jackson death story (some say even before he had actually died). At least they got it right: their latest update says police have ruled out alcohol on the part of Phelps.

These types of stories test reporters who strive to be fair. We're now competing with other reporters who have far fewer standards in terms of reporting rumors and making stupid links, such as the one of Phelps driving through a tranny area, which raises absurd and unfair insinuations.

In an accident involving regular people, we wouldn't even ask whether the driver was drunk and report it if he wasn't even tested. It's like asking you if you beat your wife and then report you deny beating your wife. But in this case, given Phelps' history with alcohol and the picture of him with a bong, the question not only becomes legit it's the first thing on everyone's minds.

But sometimes, an accident is just an accident.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

It's not a crime, but we'll be closely following the Baltimore police investigation into Thursday night's accident involving Michael Phelps at North Calvert and East Biddle streets (The Sun's Amy Davis captures Phelps' damaged car at the scene).

Thus far, it appears that Phelp's Cadillac Escalade collided with a Honda Accord at the intersection, injuring its female driver. Phelps was not hurt. It appears one of the drivers went through a red light, though we'll have to await a police report to get more news.

Our local celebrity keeps making news both in and out of the water -- gold medals, a bong, a DUI arrest in 2004, not to mention the women.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The woman hit by a stray bullet inside her Cherry Hill home Tuesday night is a community activist and has headed the Cherry Hill Tenant Council for the past five years. She's well known in her community, and when I stopped by this morning, two police cars were parked out front and neighbors slowed as they drove by and waved and made sure she's ok.

"I'm blessed," Shirley Foulks (in photo next to the bullet hole) shouted back, pausing between conversations on the phone, with the officers and with me. A crime lab tech came to the house to photograph a bullet casing found on her walkway.

Shirley had spent most of Tuesday visiting businesses to make sure they will donate back-to-school items for a fair on Saturday at the community center on Spellman Road. It is the kind of work that Shirely does tirelessly for her community.

Jack Baker, the head of the Southern District Police Community Relations Council, sent me this e-mail:

The wonderful lady who was hit is Ms. Shirley Foulks, President of the Cherry Hill Homes Tenant Council. Shirley has worked tirelessly for many years for all of the tenants of Cherry Hill Homes but especially the children. I have worked with Shirley for over five years on safety issues along with my teammates, the Southern District Police officers. I have been blessed to know Shirley, but working with her is an even greater blessing. The woman gives not just her time, but anything she owns, especially her love, to anyone who needs it. Let's all pray for her speedy recovery.

I'll have more on this shooting in Thursday's Crime Scene article.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime, Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

The suspect in the shooting earlier this year of a 5-year-old girl in Carrollton Ridge pleaded not guilty today but the real interesting part is video that shows the incident. A screen grab here shows the shooter opening fire (the victim has already run out of view)

It is a haunting video (we're not showing all of it, including one section that shows the little girl lying in the street after she'd been shot. It shows her all alone, before a mob of people race to help her). The video does show a man opening fire and chasing his target up the street.

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

Yes, Twitter was down for a while and that slowed up some breaking news posts from the Baltimore Police Department. So maybe that's why their Facebook page now looks like an unending list of shootings that had piled up.

We have a story on some of them here. The picture by Jed Kirschbaum is from the latest shooting, on Herring Court in the Perkins Homes public housing complex in Southeast Baltimore, between Harbor East and Fells Point.

Another busy and wild weekend in the city.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

What would you buy with a stolen debit card?

Here's how Maryland State Police say a 19-year-old teen splurged on a weekend in May: "The accused paid for a vehicle emissions test, bought two female wigs, obtained a meal at a popular restaurant, purchased a guitar, some underwear and finished up with a $650 tab at a nightclub where he had partied with friends."

I'm dying to know what the wigs are for. Maybe we'll ge an answer at trial.

The suspect was caught after a woman walked into the Forestville barrack in Prince George's County and complained that someone was using her debit card. The bank had called her to cancel the card after noticing a high number of unusual transactions.

A young trooper, Douglas Reiner, jumped on the case and found video surveillance tape that led him to a 19-year-old man named Rasheed A. Adedokum of Upshur Drive in Bladensburg. He's been charged with unlawful use of the card and theft.

But the trooper got more than thanks from the victim and her bank. He searched the suspect's house on Wednesday and police said he found a computer with a magnetic reader/writer, more than 80 credit cards and electronic files containing names, social security numbers and other personal information. Troopers also said they found other items they believe were purchased with other stolen cards, including a large flat-screen television, a DVD player, a Honda lawn mower and a weed-trimmer.

People walk into police stations all the time with complaints but this woman got help from a resourceful trooper whose hard work uncovered an alleged scheme that was far broader than one victim.

As state police spokesman Gregory M. Shipley told me, "We can see how much fun this guy had with one card over one weekend."

Here's the full state police press release:

Continue reading "Cops say teen splurged with stolen card: bought wigs, food" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

In the midst of reporting the 18 shootings that occurred Sunday in Baltimore, a colleague sent me a story I had written in 2000 and all but forgotten:

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's pledge to reclaim 10 drug-infested areas within six months of taking office has been largely fulfilled, police said yesterday, with crime down and fewer people complaining about dealers and addicts. Homicides and shootings also dropped on streets surrounding the designated drug markets, which police say shows they are not simply shuffling the drug trade from one block to another. "The liberation of Baltimore's neighborhoods has begun," O'Malley said yesterday while standing at North Rose Street and Ashland Avenue, ground zero for a band of frustrated residents who have confronted dealers.

Rose and Ashland is two blocks from Lakewood and Ashland, where a gunman opened fire on a backyard cookout and wounded a dozen people, the start of a wave of violence that ran into early Monday. So much for the liberation.

As my colleagues on the crime beat point out in today's paper in vivid and chilling detail, the story of what happened in the intervening years is familiar but complicated. It starts with warring drug families, who apparently worked well together until one group engineered a home invasion and kidnapped two members of the other group.

That's where law enforcement and the suspected criminals they are supposed to arrest got tangled in a still unexplained web. The cops treated the kidnapping seriously, perhaps more seriously than the abductors had thought, by putting up Amber alerts and flooding the area with police. But suspicions quickly grew when the family of the victims refused to cooperate, and police quickly suspected one rival drug gang had targeted another.

A backroom deal was made which guaranteed the safe return of the kidnapped brothers, who were paraded to a police station in Baltimore County to prove they were indeed unharmed, and then all would be quietly forgotten. No criminal charges. No apparent investigation. What was unsaid then but revealed in court documents published in today's Baltimore Sun -- a $500,000 ransom was paid out.

Even if police decided not to arrest anyone in the kidnappings, they now had a roadmap of two violent drug gangs in the city. The feds took over and court documents show they had made progress, arresting a couple people on gun charges after a shooting outside an Eastside store, finding a gun and even coming up with the names of the suspects who orchestrated the kidnappings.

But nothing was ever done. While law enforcement slept, the two gangs went at it, leaving behind a years worth of killings and shootings that at first appeared to be routine random violence we are all so used to but now shows a calculated drug war that somehow was left alone as body after body fell in East and Southeast Baltimore.

Now we have Baltimore's police commissioner and mayor questioning the pace of the federal probe. But there are even more questions to answer. One of the victims of the cookout shooting was a member of Operation Safe Streets, an innovative program that uses ex-offenders to mediate gang disputes to prevent violence. It was hailed a success for its first year when no murders took place in a violent city neighborhood, and the counselor being at the party is indeed part of his job. But why didn't police know about the party? And now that the counselor is a witness, and a victim, he has an obligation to step forward and tell police what he knows. The program works under a city agency, the health department, and we can't have cops pleading with people to help them while allowing someone under another city agency to keep quiet.

Operation Safe Streets works because the gang leaders who don't trust the cops do trust the workers. If a counselor goes to the cops, the gangs won't cooperate. So we sacrifice information for quiet. But it's not quiet anymore, and serious questions needs to be answered from the program's administrators as to what they knew about the party, the dispute and the gunmen.

Questions also have to be asked about how and why Baltimore County Police allowed kidnappers to go free without pursuing criminal charges? Even if at the time the deal was sound because no one was giving up any information at all, cops can't simply sit back and allow two drug groups to exchange money for prisoners and then say case closed and walk away. The case was indeed closed in the county, where the kidnappings occurred, but far from closed as members retaliated in deadly precision on city streets.

Now we're all left to pick up the pieces.
   

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime, Confronting crime
        

Maryland State Police announced this afternoon the arrests of a husband and wife on charges that they burglarized more than a dozen homes in Carroll County.

Police also recovered many stolen items but are having a difficult time locating the owners of some of them. These include, state police said, "currency issued by the Japanese during their occupation of the Philippines in World War II and a silver U.S. coin from 1877.

Police urge the owner of these items to call the Westminster Barracks Criminal Investigation Section at 410-386-3000.

Here is more information from the Maryland State Police: 

Continue reading "Cops search for owner of stolen historic coins " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

A Baltimore police officer on his way home from work this morning shot one of three men who authorities say tried to rob him at bus stop in South Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood. One man is in custody, the wounded suspect is undergoing surgery (he was hit in the forearm) and cops are searching for a third.

More details will emerge later today; I'm trying to figure out if the Southern District officer was still wearing his uniform when he was mugged at the stop in the 200 block of Cherry Hill Road.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

It was, unfortunately, another busy weekend on Baltimore's mean streets, with two police officers shot while dealing with one of the most dangerous calls they can get -- domestic violence.

In this case, one of the officer used the victim's cell phone to contact the suspect and convince him to return to the scene, only to end up getting shot. Then, police said the same suspect opened fire on the backup officer. As Julie Bykowitz points out today, the suspect had a history of arrest and domestic complaints (at left, The Sun's Kim Hairston captures the police car with shattered windows from bullets being towed away).

One of the wounded officers managed to shoot the suspect, identified as Shawn Sinclair, 34, and he's awaiting formal charges at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Officer Jerome Shaurette, 44, remains at the same hospital recovering from bullet wounds to the chest, abdomen and left arm. Officer Curtis McMillion, 42, was struck in the buttocks and released from the hospital Saturday night. At left, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III thanks Shock Trauma Doctor Richard Dutton for treating his officers (photo was taken by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum).

Just as we're learning painful details of how a 17-year-old escaped serious sanctions on a string of juvenile charges before he allegedly shot and critically wounded a 5-year-old girl, raising questions about how we monitor juvenile offenders, now we've got a man out on a string of adult charges that include allegations of domestic abuse, before he allegedly shot two city police officers.

The scenario is nothing new. That's the unfortunate part.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The mysterious raid on July 8 of the Fells Point bar cheerleaders was an unsuccessful search for four high-powered weapons that police say had been bought by the owner and may have been sent to the Phillipines.

The Baltimore County police report and search warrant application describes the guns as FN 5.7 mm, high-powered weapons that fire bullets capable of piericing body armor and made by a company in Belgium, FN Herstal. The repot says the owner of a Cockeysville gun shop got suspicious when a foreign national visiting on a visa came in with the bar owner to buy two of the weapons, followed by the bar owner's wife who came in later to buy two more.

What followed is an intriguing police drama in which agents watched the transaction be completed and followed a trail that led them to an airplane in Guam, luggage, a shipping containter rerouted to Baltimorre and then finally the search of the bar.

Agents never found the weapon and now it appears the bar owner and his wife have fled back to the Phillipines. Now the Baltimore liquor board may file a violation notice and hold a hearing even as it appears the bar has reopened upon getting its liquor license back from the cops.

Nobody has been arrested.

Here is the police report:

Continue reading "Fells Point Bar raid" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore police this afternoon charged a man with fatally shooting a woman in Fells Point early Tuesday. A few hours after Josephine Lewatowski was shot outside a rowhouse on South Regester Street, just south of Eastern Avenue, a police surveillance camera captured a man putting a shotgun into the trunk of a car.

Police said the car had stolen license plates and was being sought in connection with the shooting. Police had arrested the man on gun charges and then later charged him in the killing. A motive remains unknown.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

A woman who was shot in the head early Tuesday in Fells Point has died and police have a possible suspect in custody. This one of a several slayings and shootings in Baltimore over the past few days, and the one in the touristy waterfront area had the neighborhood talking.

For more details, read Justin Fenton's story.

I had gone down to Fells Point but could not find anyone with an idea of who the woman was. At that time, she was still alive and police had not released her name. But several people around Register Street and Eastern Avenue speculated by throwing out names. None seemed to match.

The woman victim has a long record and police located a person of interest based on video taken from surveillance cameras. We still don't know a motive, but details I'm sure will come fast. The video showed a man removing a shotgun from his car and putting it in his trunk. No charges have been filed in connection with the death.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

A man was fatally shot in the head Wednesday in Northwest Baltimore (picture at left by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor), another man was shot and killed on Divison Street Wednesday nigth and a third person was killed in a shooting on McElderry Street in East Baltimore early today.

The East Baltimore shooting is where Operation Safe Streets works. That's a group of street mediators who meet regularly with gangs and other violent groups in order to stop violence before it happens. They've been successful in keeping shooting down.

Then, just after 11 a.m., an adult male was shot in the shoulder on Park Heights Avenue, in front of the I Can't We Can drug rahab building. Activist and radio show host Anthony McCarthy, live live tweets as the police investigated:

Man just shot in the back by thugs outside our office door at ICWC on Park Heights Ave, police here in a flash! (They are always around!)

Wow! Police everywhere! They are handcuffing a lot of guys who were standing around watching! I guess they are trying to get witnesses!

There are at least three blue light cameras in this blocks of this shooting! Seems to me CCTV will help in giving cops info!

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

Early Sunday's deaths of two young people who were drag racing in Woodlawn makes me wonder if the street racing scene that was so popular in Southern Maryland until last year's tragic accident in Upper Marlboro as migrated north. In that case, eight people who had gathered to watch the race died in the February crash when they were hit by a car traveling about 110 mph without its headlights on.

In Sunday's accident, onn I-70 near the Park and Ride, one car hit at least one bystander and several other cars. At this writing, Maryland State Police are still trying to determine whether the driver was participating in the race or trying to leave.

Police also said that the I-70 section is commonly used for drag racing and that they make frequent checks. It's got a long straight piece of asphalt and plenty of parking. But we've now had two multiple fatal accidents from drag racing in Maryland in the past 16 months, a dangerous not to mention illegal hobby.

Here is the statement from Maryland State Police:

Continue reading "Drag racing deaths" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Search warrant records from the FBI show that agents found a 100 rounds of hollow-point bullets and many other items in the Annapolis apartment used by James von Brunn, who has been charged with killing a security officer at Washington's Holocaust Museum.

The white supremacist had, among other things, checks from his son, the ammunition, notes from various bank accounts, a handwritten will (the records do not disclose its contents), a calendar and Veterans Affairs letter, an unopened envelope addressed to him from the Ronald Reagan Library, three books (stuffed with five letters) and a painting of what appears to be Hitler and Jesus.

The list begs more questions than it answers, but it provides some additional insight into the suspect's character. What it doesn't answer is the underlying motive, beyond hate, that compelled him to allegedly take such drastic action.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

With the arrest of a suspected gang member -- Dead Man Inc. -- Anne Arundel County police have acknowledged that a gang dispute was at the heart of an attack in the May death of 14-year-old Christopher Jones.

The suspect, seen here, was identified as Jonathan Richard Myers, 22, charged with several arson counts and reckless endangerment.

While there is no evidence that Christopher was in a gang -- in fact his parents took him out of one school and put him in another to get him away from gangs that were harassing him -- it appears he was attacked anyway. Police say he was beaten while riding his bicycle and then fell and hit his head. Authorities have charged two in his death.

What is most disturbing about this case is that two rival gangs, whose members started out playing sports together, split and became criminal enterprises, may have been involved in Christoper's death, only to have that be avenged by yet another group, Dead Man Inc., a white-hate group that started in Maryland prisons and is now nationwide.

The History Channel's Gangland recently profiled the group in chilling detail. Anne Arundel Police said one member, who apparently has tried to get out of the gang, and others firebombed an Odenton townhouse they thought was owned by people connected to Christopher's death. Police say they got the wrong house.

It takes a long time for authorities to admit they have gangs, but this case solidifies it in Anne Arundel County. It's even more frightening that the gangs -- the New Threat and the Eastside Diamonds -- are now warring over a kid who wasn't even a part of them. And just when does a neighborhood group become a full-fledged gang?

Here is the statement from Anne Arundel County Police:

Continue reading "Gangs in Anne Arundel County" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

The pit bull named Phoenix who was doused with gasoline and set on fire may have been involved in a dogfighting ring. Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told the Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton that the fighting operation may be at the core of the case.

On Tuesday, police announced the arrest of two juveniles but released few other details. The dog had to be put down but the case has gone national.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore police are announcing a "major development" in the case of the pit bull that was burned last month when someone poured gasoline on it and set it on fire. I can only guess that the cops have made an arrest.

This case got nationwide attention. Last week, the police commissioner and mayor honored the officer (Officer Syreeta Teel is congratulated by Commissioner Frederic H. Bealefeld at left) who came across the dog burning on Presbury Street in West Baltimore and put out the flames with her sweater. Unfortunately, the dog had to be put down several days later. A reward climbed to $23,000.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the day.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Breaking crime, Heroes
        

It's now official. Baltimore Sun police reporter Justin Fenton just got a call back from the Detroit Police Department, and they've adjusted the stats they sent to the FBI: instead of 306 murders, as they had reported, the real number is 339.

That puts detroit's per-capita murder rate at 37.5 per 100,000. Baltimore, with a rate of 36.9, falls from number 1 to number 2 for cities with populations above 500,000.

Not that this means anything to the victims or makes the city any more safe, but certainly a relief for those who view statistics with reverence.  

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Monday's attack on a nanny in Bolton Hill is scary for many reasons -- it happened in broad daylight, a woman was approached by two men, one of whom put her in a choke hold, the other separated her from the 8-month-old girl she was watching and rifled through the baby carriage, and the police response was questionable.

I spoke with the victim, Siwei Yao, on Tuesday and wrote about her experience in today's paper. The Chineses national has only been in this country for six months, and what struck me was when I asked her what she told her friends and family back home about what had happened.

It was that her neighbors flocked to the home after the attack, offered to help her and invited her to joint their group as they took babies for walks. That wouldn't happen in China, the 25-year nanny told me, and that, was the message she sent home.

Last night, the baby's father, Travis Hardaway, sent me this summary of events. It's long, but I think important to hear from people directly impacted by crime:

Continue reading "Nanny mugged in Bolton Hill" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Breaking crime, Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Impressions are everything, and for Garry Dell'Abate, the producer for the Howard Stern show, what he thinks about Baltimore isn't too good.

We just had this conversation with Baltimore's police commissioner, who is frustrated that people don't recognize the statistical drop in crime. He was reacting to reports of random violence targeting visitors and residents.

That's not easy to do if you or someone you know is a victim of crime. If you're at the Inner Harbor and the police tell you that you can't walk the waterfront because of a disturbance, even if you didn't see it or weren't a part of it, that's your lasting impression of the city. Prosecutors visited recently and were shocked to see police pulling a body out of the harbor. Violence? Probably not, but the scene made a lasting impression and probably reinforced the notion that Baltimore is dangerous.

Last night, this went out on the Bolton Hill e-mail network (I removed the name of the victim):

Around 2:30pm, this afternoon, our 24 year old caregiver, was walking our 8 month daughter in her stroller. As she came down Bolton Street to cross Lafayette into the 1300 block of Bolton, she was attacked by two young African-American men. One man grabbed the stroller, the other man got her in choke-hold, so tight she was unable to scream. He beat her on her back until she stopped struggling and she nearly loss consciousness from the hold on her throat.  After searching the woman and the stroller, the men ran off toward Eutaw Street with an Ipod, leaving her lying on the sidewalk.

The woman and my 8 month daughter are both physically fine. She came back to our home and called 911 - they took a description over the phone. The officers came to our home 1.5 hours later, after driving around looking for the attackers. They returned a second time this evening and said they would be patrolling "full force" tonight. The officers encouraged us to report any suspicious activity or person in the neighborhood, and not to approach anyone suspicious.

If anyone is interested in walking/strolling in a group, let me know as the woman no longer feels safe in our neighborhood, even during the day. 

None of this helps. Gary Dell’Abate is the producer for the Howard Stern show on SIRIUS Satellite radio. He’s the one called “Bababooey.”  Robin Quivers, the newswoman and sidekick, is from Baltimore. Gary taped an appearance on FOX’s “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” show and this is where this conversation picks up; Gary says that someone watching the show on FOX calls him while he’s in Baltimore.

This recap is from MarksFriggin.com, a daily recap of the Stern show.

Gary said they got it right and he moved on to the next song which was a Genesis song. Gary said he had no clue what the lyrics were for that song. He said he was down in Baltimore for a baseball game when the show was airing and he got a call from someone about it. Howard cut him off and asked what he was doing down there and asked if he drove all the way down there. Gary said Baltimore is a weird town. He said the harbor is really nice but as soon as you leave you're in a bad area.

Gary said the sirens down in Baltimore were going 24/7. He said the cops there told him that they should take a cab anywhere they went and there were 8 of them. Howard said he didn't know it was so bad down there. Robin said it really is. She said that you're okay walking around the school but if you have to walk anywhere else you need escorts. Gary said they're very nice down there though.

Gary said there were proms going on down there so they were watching some of the girls getting out of the limos and checking out the wild outfits. He said it was more like Halloween than a prom.

More from the show:

Continue reading "Howard Stern producer calls Baltimore dangerous" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (46)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

With all the talk of youth gangs and violence in and around downtown Baltimore, we can easily forget that the problem is not confined to the city lines. Over the weekend, a 14-year-old Crofton boy was beaten by other teens and left for dead on a suburban road, near his toppled bike.

Sunday night, Anne Arundel County police charged two youths with manslaughter in Christopher David Jones' death -- one, 16-year-old Javel Marqueth George, was charged with manslaughter; another youth was charged as a juvenile.

Police weren't saying anything about motive but I hope court documents that should be available later today will shed some light on the attack and whether it was part of a fight or unprovoked. Police did say that up to seven youths participated, meaning they ganged up on this kid.

We're obviously having problems with youth and gang violence, and not just at the Inner Harbor. Check back here or to the Baltimore Sun for more updates on this case today.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Back in October 1999, a Baltimore Sun reporter had the most routine of assignments -- the government gave 2,000 Maryland sixth-graders scholarship money to help them with their education. "I'm very excited because it means I have a better chance to go to college," Sirlilar Stokes, then 10, told reporter Howard Libit. "It's something I want to do."

In May of this year, a different reporter, Jacques Kelly, wrote this about that same little girl, again, a routine story: "A 20-year-old Baltimore woman has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder in a pair of shootings in 2008."

Now, that routine May story has taken a different twist -- a series of raids on Thursday by Baltimore police and federal authorities to bring down a Bloods gang started with Stokes, who went on a shooting spree to avenge the death of a rival gang member involved in abudcting another gang member from The Block and killing him (at left, in a photo of Baltimore Sun staffer Amy Davis, Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy addresses a news conference about Thursday's sweep. Behind her is Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein).

I've tried to reach out to Stokes' family but through her lawyer they declined my request. Back in 1999, she made the news simply because she gave the perfect quote for a feel-good story. Now she's in the news for an entirely different reason, and it raises questions about whether she ever took advantage of the opportunity given to her 10 years ago. I also want to know what happened to the other 2,000 kids who had the same offer. It could be that 1,999 are successful now.

Authorities in Baltimore have conducted several raids on gangs that are now part of the city's violent culture -- we've seen connections to Maryland prisons (in this latest case, cops even raided jaill cells) and now the cops have make links to California, another troubling sign that maybe the gangs in Baltimore aren't just former street crews adapting more threatening names, but actually are strongly linked to their West Coast cousins.

For more on Stokes, here is Jacques Kelly's May 11 story:

Continue reading "From 6th grade to Baltimore gang member" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

To follow today's raids by federal authorities and Baltimore police targeting gangs, you need a cheat sheet. And the feds, in their indictment make public this afternoon, provide a neat glossery of terms to help you follow along.

For the complete indictment, go here. Otherwise, have fun with the terms and the nicknames of the people indicted from the Pasadena Denver Lanes gang straight from the court documents:

Continue reading "Gang code deciphered" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Details are still coming in with regards to a sweeping series of raids targeting Baltimore gang members, but we just got word that once again there is a connection to prison cell phones. The state prison system sent out a news released just a few minutes ago with this detail:

Today's indictment alleges that monitored cell phone conversations indicated that Bloods members were attempting to send money from street drug deals to imprisoned gang members to help them pay attorney fees and buy minutes for cell phones smuggled into the prisons. A contraband smuggling plan was also discussed.

Just two weeks ago, Division of Correction (DOC) intelligence officers teamed with law enforcement to use an inmate's modified cell phone in prison to connect two people to a 2008 murder in Baltimore City, and to record conversations implicating at least five other violent criminals who are believed to have committed a dozen other killings.

Calling that project "Operation Dial a Cell," federal prosecutors hailed DOC and DPSCS' work as "bold and creative undercover investigating" and say more charges are likely. In addition to the two people indicted on the Baltimore home invasion and murder, federal authorities say five other violent criminals responsible for at least 12 murders, have also been identified thanks to the cell phone recording effort.

Operation "Dial a Cell" refers to an initiative in which cops gave an imprisoned informant a cell phone that allowed him to record conversations of people he was talking to, and conversations of people around him. It to two arrests in several shootings and murders. That came weeks after another raid showed that imprisoned gang members were using smuggled cell phones to order lobster and champagne.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

I'm all for instant crime alerts -- though it seems the Baltimore Police Department has cut back in recent days -- but what the leaders at Loyola College did this morning is downright dangerous. They sent out an alert that shots had been fired on campus, that an "active shooter" was on the loose and urged people to barricade themselves inside.

That came out at 10:56 a.m. At 10:59 a.m. and 11:03 a.m., the college sent out another alert saying the one about the shooter had been a test. A spokeswoman told the Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton that the school had warned students earlier, as part of a broad e-mail of daily news, that the public safety department would be be holding a public safety exercise.

That just isn't good enough to justify scaring everyone (though school is out for the year). What were they testing? If it was whether alerts were being received, there are other ways instead of saying a shooter is on campus. If it was to measure how police and students react, there are other ways to do that as well.

Too often, police and other agencies are criticized about notifying people too slowly or not at all about events they need to know about, only to send out frightening alerts that aren't needed at all.

I'd love to hear what people think about this. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Just when you thought the crooks in this city had stolen everything they possibly could, the ante gets upped: overnight, someone stole four teddy bears that were among 80 put on display at the city's NAACP office to honor victims of homicide.

I had written a column on the artist, Faith Bocian, a student at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, and blogged about the ceremony. I headed up to the building  to see what happened. At left, Officer Michael Gordon of the Northern District looks at the display with Joseph Armstead of the NAACP. "Who could have the indeciency to do somthing like this," Gordon said (I'll have a fuller story on this issue in tomorrow's column).

Armstead told me that one of the executive committee members noticed this morning that a tarp put over the display had been torn and that four plastic links securing the bears to a railing had been cut. Each bear had a nametag on it with the name of a person who had been killed this year.

Just why would anyone steal a bear that honors a murder victim?

"It's a real touching memorial," Armstead told me. "Times are hard. Maybe a junkie would figure he could get a bag of dope for four teeddy bears. A parent with some crazy thinking might think her babdy might like this. Or maybe someone anti-establishment wanted to destroy the piece. Who knows?”

At 1 p.m., Armstead was headed back into the city to call police -- "For the statistic, I guess" -- he told me. Meanwhile, the "I Can't, We Can" drug rehab group has vowed to help Faith keep the project going so that by the end of the year there is a bear for every person killed in Baltimore.

Faith told me she might move the exhibit to a museum or even to a rolling display so that everyone in the city could see it. I was touched that one of the city police officer's who responded to investigate the theft took the time to actually look at the display and find names of victims from cases he investigated.

In that way, Faith's idea to provoke thought worked, even it if took something bad to get it going. Armstead said he thinks students from nearby Margaret Brent Elementary School took the bears and he told me the vice principal is going to make an announcement tomorrow to get the bears returned. Armstead said he wouldn't press charges if a child took them; he even agreed to help mentor kids and to take 50 of them to an Orioles game.

Maybe something good can from this after all.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime, Neighborhoods
        

Baltimore Sun's Brent Jones reports today that another body has been found in the Inner Harbor. That makes five or six this year (I've actually lost count), with still only one in Leakin Park, our most famous body dumping ground.

Few details were immediately available on the latest find; most of the bodies are not crime victims, and some could've been under water for months or even years before finally making their way to the surface.

Back in April I wrote about four of the bodies that were found there and my colleague Laura Vozzella mentioned in her column how visiting prosecutors stumbled upon police retrieving one of them.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Want to know how many burglaries have occurred in your Baltimore County neighborhood? Or parking complaints? Now you can know with the Baltimore Sun's new crime map for Baltimore County, launched today.

It took a while, but now we have crime maps on line for Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties, along with a homicide map for the city. We hope to add more in the near future. It should be a great help in figuring out what is occurring where you live. Play around with it for a while and let us know what you think.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime, Mapping crime, Neighborhoods
        

When I visited Michelle Ha's convenience store on East Biddle Street last year, she told me she never had any problems inside, despite the dangerous neighborhood. Michelle is one of the most involved people in her neighborhood, and both the cops and the residents made sure she and her shop were protected (the video above is from the November interview).

This morning, about 8:30 a.m., the violence from the street finally invaded her corner store. A man was shot in the leg and thigh; Michelle was inside her shop but behind her bullet-resistant glass at the time. The gunman escaped. "All I could tell the victim was to hold still, the ambulance is coming," Michelle told me this morning.

Michelle is a fixture on her corner and in East Baltimore. She helps the cops by putting on crab feasts and raising money; she helps the elderly by working to turn a vacant rowhouse into a clubhouse to get them off the dangerous corner. She's not afraid to call police and proudly hangs pictures of cops on her walls. In return, when she dials 911 or calls a cop on his cell phone, they come quickly. Her husband lives down south so their young son can play golf; Michelle prefers living above the corner shop.

"It's Baltimore, I feel alive," she told me.

So I was dismayed to hear that someone had been shot in her store. "It happened so fast," Michelle told me when she called. "I was behind the glass." She told me the victim was a longtime customer but she didn't recognize the gunman, who got away. She said police are reviewing video tapes that might have captured the shooting, but she had no idea why it happened.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Bodies found in city parks tend to end up being the type of killing this city is, sadly, used to -- the dumped body of a drug dealer or addict or a domestic gone bad. But city cops today announced arrests in two cases -- the deaths of a blind and mentally disabled man found in Leakin Park and of a college student found dead in Herring Run Park.

Opposite sides of the city and two completely different murders. One might be implicated in another murder; the other police say might be the work of a counselor involved in an elaborate insurance scheme. One thing is clear, neither is your typical back alley, late night drug deal gone bad.

We have a team of reporters working both cases; check back here and with our Saturday newspaper for more.

I'll start first with the death of Lemeul Wallace, whose body was found Feb. 4 in West Baltimore's Leakin Park, a notorious and historic graveyard for killers. Police have charged Kevin J. Pushia, a 32-year-old pastor and counselor who worked at home for mentally ill, with hiring a hitman to kill him.

The victim was found lying face down in a bathroom and had been shot in the head and back. Less than a month later, police said an agent for Globe Life Insurance Co. contacted homicide detectives to make sure the "beneficiary was not a suspect in his death." The beneficiary was Pushia, who according to court charging documents, had taken out a $200,000 life insurance policy on the victim and claimed to be his brother.

Police then searched Pushia's Northeast Baltimore home and said they found "numerous life insurance policies in the name of Lemuel Wallace." In the counselor's day planner, police said an entry the day Wallace was killed read, "L.W. project completed."

Police said that Pushia took out as many as six life insurance policies in Wallace's name with an estimated value of $1 million. He worked as the operations manager for ARC of Baltimore and got to know the victim "while entrusted to his care."

According to police, "Mr. Pushia explained that he had taken out numerous life insurance policies on mentally challenged individuals with limited life expectancies, based upon their health conditions." He told police that he paid someone $50,000 -- stolen from Greater Faith Tabernacle Church of Deliverance" -- to have Wallace killed.

Police do not say why Wallace was killed -- whether he lived beyond expectations or grew suspicious of him.

The second case involves the death of Kiuna Jackson, 19, a college student whose body was found Aug. 15 in Herring Run Park. Police charged Ronnie Winkler, 34, with her death and with raping another woman in September. He was in jail awaiting trial on that rape case when police charged him with murder; authorities also are looking at other cases that may be linked to the suspect.

Jackson's body was found about 7 a.m. under the Harford Road bridge, on the bank of a tributary. Police noted marks on her neck and her death was ruled homicide by strangulation. Police said Jackson had met Winkler through a mutual friend. A witness told police that she saw Winkler driving Jackson's 2003 GMC Yukon after her body had been found, according to court documents.

The earlier rape for which Winkler has been charged occurred on East 31st Street on Aug. 30. Police said the 16-year-old victim had been waiting for a bus on Harford Road when she approached Winkler sitting on rowhouse steps and said hello.

Police charging documents say she asked to go inside to use the bathroom, after which a man "pulled a black stocking around her neck and began to choke her." The victim told police she was forced into a bedroom and raped. "Don't say anything and I will give you some money," the man told her, according to the police charging documents.

Police said the girl was able leave after the attack, called police and picked Winkler from a photo lineup.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

New details of possible domestic abuse are emerging this morning as police in Elkton continue to investigate Monday's shooting of a man, apparently by his wife less than three weeks after they got married.

According to Lt. Bernard Chiominto of the Cecil County Sheriff's Office, investigators are now learning of "reports that there may have been some domestic violence issues in the past, but these are just coming to light." He had no other details, but the information does help shed some light as to what happened inside this home on Monday.

Police said Michael Schary, 45, was talking with his wife, Viktoria Albright, 34, whom he married April 3. Chiominto said they were "just sitting on the couch having a conversation when she went into the kitchen. The next thing he felt hit in the head. He staggered outside and he heard another gunshot."

Chiominto said Schary was able to tell this to police and neighbors who rushed to help. He remains in critical condition at Christiana Hospital in Delaware; his wife apparently killed herself in the kitchen using a .38 caliber handgun she had stolen from a relative's house. Chiominto said Schary told police the two had not been arguing, but he also said police are trying to determine whether they were ever called to that address.

But Chiominto told me this morning that investigators are learning of past abuse in the family. In July 2008, Schary was arrested by a Maryland State Police trooper and charged with second-degree assault. He pleaded guilty in February and was sentenced to two years' probation. I couldn't learn other details of the case but I have calls out to police, prosecutors and the public defender who represented Schary. What I don't know is whether the wife was the victim.

Viktoria Albright also was involved in a divorce proceeding that ended shortly before she got married and according to court records the couple was arguing over custody and child support issues. Chiominto said the wife had children from a previous relationship.

It's hard to imagine a shooting like this "just out of the blue" as police had originally stated. But these past few days have been filled with shocking violence. We learn today that the man who police say shot his wife and three children to death in Western Maryland -- putting two bullets into each of their heads and then slashing their throats, only to leave a note by each of the bodies -- might have been prompted by financial stress.

And we're still trying to figure out what happened inside a 10th floor hotel room in Towson where a family of four was slain, including a promising Loyola College student. We're grieving from Frederick to Towson to Elkton today, stymied by too many questions and not enough answers.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore County police are now calling the deaths of four people found in a room at the Sheraton Baltimore North Hotel in Towson a murder-suicide. Authorities released the names of the victims but have not yet said how they died.

And once again, a family tragedy has occurred on the 10th floor of a Baltimore area hotel room. In March 2008, three children were drowned in a bathtub in a 10th floor room at the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor and Camden Yards. The latest deaths on Monday also occurred in a 10th floor room. And just days after another family was slain Western Maryland, police say by a man who left notes by the bodies of his wife and three children before killing himself.

And in Elkton on Monday, police said a newlywed shot her husband, critically wounding him, and then took her own life in their home on East Philadelphia Road.

I've been covering cops a long time and I haven't seen this many families wiped out in such a short period of time. Maybe it's the economy, but I suspect that's too simple an answer, though stress has never been higher. I hope authorities in Frederick, Baltimore and Cecil counties come up with some answers, and I'm sure as in all these cases we'll learn of signs we missed that might've prevented these deaths.

We'll have more information after a news conference planned by Baltimore County police later this morning. Here is the latest from police:

Continue reading "Hotel murders" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

When Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told the City Council a few months ago that detectives had DNA evidence in the killing of one of their former colleagues, Kenneth N. Harris Sr., he pleaded for help in identifying a suspect that DNA evidence could be compared with.

A tip led police to one man and led them to Charles Y. McGaney. But the needed evidence, and when detective learned that McGaney had once been a suspect in a 2007 killing, they got their break. A detective wrote up a warrant naming McGaney in that old homicide and a judge signed off on the request to collect McGaney's DNA. For more details, see Baltimore Sun reporter's Melissa Harris' story today.

McGaney's DNA was found on a glove, coat and bandanna discarded at the Harris killing, and McGaney was promptly charged in that case. What about the other murder? No DNA link in that one, but it appears that police had decided month earlier that McGaney wasn't responsible, and the have charged another man in that case.

So the question becomes one for a judge: did the cops deceive the judge who signed the warrant to collect DNA evidence linking McGaney to one shooting when in fact cops really wanted the DNA for another shooting?

Depending on the ruling, it's going to be either great police work or a questionable investigation. Police use all the tools at their disposal, and they were not about to give up a chance to obtain McGaney's DNA. The suspect's attorneys plan to argue this in court; should be interesting to see what the judge has to say.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

I'm out with the British Broadcasting Corp. Monday and tomorrow looking for crime and of course Baltimore comes through. A man was fatally shot in Southwest Baltimore near a school this morning. This picture by Baltimore Sun reporter Gus Sentementes shows the gun in the alley, next to a yellow evidence marker put there by police (it is hard to see).

It was a typical Baltimore homicide -- a man shot on a street, a gun dropped in an alley, plenty of police tape hanging from door knobs and attached a school fence. At least city schools are closed this week so there were no kids at the adjacent playground. Still, a sad scene in a neighborhood that needs help. We did manage to find a heroin needle in the gutter near the shooting scene.

The BBC cameraman and the producer got a chance to watch crime lab technician bag a pair of pants and shoes and chat briefly with Baltimore Police Maj. Terrence McLarney, the commander of the homicide unit. A deputy police major also stopped by and noted with some disdain that lack of witnesses, another all-to-common part of a city crime scene.

We talked with a man named David Hamilton, who sells sodas from the sidewalk in front of his house across the street from the shooting. He told me he saw four men run out of the alley after the shooting but he also complained that police detectives pressed him for more information. He either refused to give it or insisted he had said all that he knew. As we left, he was taking down his stand, saying the cops warned him about not having a permit.

The shooting on Christian Street will help the BBC show city crime and I took them to a few neighborhoods. On Friday, they will meet some community leaders to talk about what's going on in their neighborhoods. We're filming downtown as well, so yes it's about crime but about the city as well; they're seeing what this city has to offer, and it's not all crime scene tape and shootings in all-but-forgotten parts of Baltimore.

The producer tells me this could run in a week or so, and I'll post a link to the finished product.

Later Monday night, in a steadily increasing rain, we headed to Milton and Monument in East Baltimore where a man had been shot in the back. There wasn't much there when we arrived, cops on the scene laughed as we walked to yellow tape blocking what was essentially a wet street. Police said a man had been shot a few blocks away and either drove was driving to the corner in a minivan, where he got out and collapsed. He had been hit in the back. BBC did get an arrest -- a woman driving south on Milton hit one of the marked police cruisers and was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

At first, even the cops thought a man had been shot in the head on Lancaster Street in the heart of Fells Point, on a narrow street lined with rowhouses. Then came the clarification -- shots were fired but no one was hit -- a man twisted his ankle, fell and hit his head on the pavement. But now residents are worried that the police are downplaying the incident.

First, police had said it occurred about 11 p.m. on Friday, but in fact it happened a few hours later, 1:50 a.m. on Saturday, just shy of closing times for the bars. Two groups of men were arguing after leaving nearby Moby's bar. Police officers told them to quiet down and moments later gunshots erupted. One man fell down bleeding.

That's all police would say about the shooting -- a woman was shot and killed on Sunday afternoon in Upper Fells Point, an unrelated attack, but the back-to-back shootings have enraged a neighbhorhood where residents are more used to battling tourists for parking spaces than gunmen.

Residents of Lancaster Street have bombarded my blog with vivid accounts of this shooting, which police don't classify as a shooting at all, but rather a discharging, or an aggravated assault. The major of the Southeastern District, Roger Bergeron, did post several items about the shootings on Southeast District's Community Relations Council blog, but they didn't go into a lot of detail. That has sparked accusations of a coverup.

Residents describe more than a gunshot fired into the air in anger, but an attack that makes you wonder how no one was actually hit:

The most easterly bullet hole circled with white-out is in the west lower stoop of 1604. This was found on Saturday morning at around 10am. The next bullet, going west is in the gray wood basement covering. The next one went throught the upper right corner of the door of 1602 and into the living room wall of that resident. Take the tour for the other bullets.

I'd like to clarify a few points about the early Saturday shooting in Fells Point.
The 1600 block of Lancaster St. has no bars. It is a residential side street with virtually no crime. At 1:50 am Saturday morning my neighbors and I were awoken to the sound of 10 rapid gun shots. The police conducted their investigation until 3:30. The next day we found eight bullets had pierced the houses on the north side of the street. One couple has a baby.  A bullet had gone through their door and was lodged in their hall wall. With the large amount of foot traffic on Lancaster St. on the weekends it is a miracle no one was killed. Minimizing the seriousness of the crime because the shooter missed his intended target only delays any real action by the city to protect one of it's last great neighborhoods (and tax bases). We need real resources and we need them now.

I have no idea why the Friday night incident on Lancaster Street should be downplayed as "not a shooting."  Someone was shooting a gun wildly while running down the street, endangering residents and visitors. That the shooter missed his intended target (and hit doors and a vehicle) doesn't make me feel much better about walking through the neighborhood late at night.

I talked with Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi this morning and he confirmed that 8 to 12 shots were fired but that no one was arrested. He also said Bergeron has redeployed officers to address concerns from both shootings. Here are two of Bergeron's blog postings:

Continue reading "Fells Point residents say police are downplaying gunfire" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

They steal everything in Baltimore. In the '90s, lawn furniture was all the rage -- police urged residents to tie down their plastic chairs and concrete urns. Put name tags on them even. One guy I interviewed back then had his metal fence taken, in sections, on successive days.

So I wasn't surprised when I learned that burglars broke into an old mansion in Charles Village and stole two antique marble fireplace mantels. They took one on one day; the other the next day. Jerry Dadds, the owner of the building and a well known illustrator, was flabergasted. He's renovating the huge, three-story brick building next to WYPR and already has dropped the price from $1.1 million to $500,000. Part of the allure of buying an old building is getting some old stuff.

Dadds has put out a wanted poster with pictures of the mantels which I have reproduced below. I got a copy of the police report, on the second break-in, which notes the thieves broke a lead-glass window pane, got into the vestibule and then forced open a two-inch thick wooden door. From there, they pried off the mantels and took them out a back door.

The Baltimore police officer who responded wrote a thorough report, noting he found scratches on the wood floors (they're original Georgia-pine) and scratches on the concrete sidewalk from where the mantels were probably dragged. Officer Matt Disimone even wrote that he found flecks of marble -- a virtual stone trail leading outside.

Here's the wanted poster:

Continue reading "Stealing everything but the kitchen sink" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Gregory M. Mussmacher is back in the news, to everyone's surprise. He's a Baltimore police officer who in June 2005 was sentenced to a suspended two-year prison term after being convicted of hitting a handcuffed and shackled 17-year-old juvenile in the face and back with an expandable baton in the Northwest District station.

At the time, Mussmacher was suspended without pay. On Wednesday, we got word from the U.S. Department of Justice that Mussmacher (described as a current officer) and two now-retired officers have been indicted in connection with the same case. Mussmacher, former Officer Guy Gerstel and and former Sgt. Wayne Thompson face civil rights and obstruction of justice charges.

Federal prosecutors took over the case after the Mussmacher's conviction was overturned on appeal. The U.S. Attorney's Office alleges that Mussmacher and Gerstel assaulted the youth with a pool stick and that Thompson wrote a false statement and "corruptly" persuaded the other officers "not to fill out required reports about the incident."

A spokesman told The Baltimore Sun that Mussmacher has been suspended with pay for the past five years.

We don't have a full explanation yet but typically the department waits until the criminal case, including appeals, is complete before moving forward with administrative sanctions. In this case, it is probable that they couldn't take disciplinary action until the feds had finished their work. Still, this seems an unusually long time.

The victim in the case sued the city in federal court and won a settlement that has not been disclosed. The complaint filed in the civil division says the youth, Benjamin Ruben Rowland, had an argument with his sister on April 27, 2004, in their apartment. The sister called police and Mussbacher was one of several who responded.

The complaint says Mussmacher found Rowland at a nearby street corner on Reisterstown Road in Northwest Baltimore and arrested him. After the young man complained that the handcuffs wree too tight and talked back to the officer, the complaint says "Mussmacher removed his handcuffs, removed his own gun belt, and offered to fight." The youth declined.

When the boy complained again, the civil complaint says Mussmacher "balled up his fist and violently and maliciously struck plaintiff in the face, as well as spraying mace in his face." At the station, the complaint says Mussmacher hit him again with his nightstick and that Gertsel hit him with a baton or pool cue, "causing even more injuries."

Here is the indictment from federal prosecutors:

Continue reading "Cop indicted" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Is Baltimore so dangerous that even the cops witness crime?

It happened yesterday in West Baltimore, according to an article by Baltimore Sun police reporter Justin Fenton. Plainclothes officers on West Fayette Street saw a man fire into a vehicle. One man died, another was injured and two men were arrested.

Back in 1995, a city police officer, in uniform and on routine patrol in a marked cruiser, saw a man shoot another from 30 feet away. Here's that old story:

Continue reading "Cops see shooting" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

It's become a sport to scrutinize, and to criticize, plea bargains, and it's easy until you look closely at the case and can sometimes conclude that the prosecutor did the best he or she could under the circumstances. We talk about a deal with the Devil -- how about a deal with God?

But promise a mother she will be cleared of a child abuse conviction if her dead 2-year-old son is resurrected, as 22-year-old Ria Ramkissoon believes? Seems a pretty safe bet that this young woman will serve her full term (of course, she first has to cooperate with other suspects and fellow cult members).

This is one of those cases that ranks among the unbelievable -- a group led by a woman named Queen Antoinette is accused of withholding food and water from Javon Thompson because he refused to say Amen after meals. He died, and members of the group danced around his body in an East Baltimore rowhouse and then put his remains in a green suitcase and took it with them to Philadelphia. Here's a statement of facts for the plea.

The trial for the three others in the case has been postponed -- one still refuses an attorney. The mother got a 20 year prison sentence, with all but time served suspended. Her attorney said she still believes her son will come back to life. The deal was important to her, he told the Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton, because she believes if she gives up hope her son will never return.

In other crime news, Monday was a day of wrappping up old news. Kevin Gary, a member of the Bloods gang profiled by the Baltimore Sun last year and sentenced in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Friday to 30 years in prison, got more time imposed by the state for violating the terms of his probation. We profiled Gary to put a face on the city's gang problem. He cooperated because he said he wanted to turn the Bloods into a boy's club; police and prosecutors say he never really changed his ways. A statement from State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy:

This afternoon, Kevin Gary, 27, received the maximum possible sentence after being found guilty of violation of probation in state cases 200334048 and 2003362013, and was sentenced by Judge Kaye Allison to 8 years in prison consecutive to the 30-year federal sentence he received Friday. The violation of probation was prosecuted by Mark Florsheimer and Nancy Olin in the State's Attorney's Collateral Division with support from the US Attorney's Office and state probation agent Valerie Simpson. The defendant was entitled to 386 days credit to his sentence which reduced his possible sentence of 9 years to 8 years.

And in Baltimore County, police charged a man in the fatal beating of a long-time patron of Morsberger's Tavern in Catonsville. The suspect has a history of mental problems and apparently was angry that his date was flirting with another man. This story has got some wide attention, probably because the bar is so much of a neighborhood fixture -- one of those home-away-from-homes where people drink and argue and cuss but don't beat each other up too often.

From resurrection to a gang to a bar fight. And the week has just begun.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

I don't know if it's karma, but in what other town could I go to a neighborhood to talk to people about an unusual number of bodies surfacing in the harbor and run into a film crew shooting a pilot called Reincarnation (actually, that's a working title, the Fox show doesn't have an official name yet) -- described by blogger David Zurawik in Z on TV as a show about "investigators who use the concept of reincarnation to solve present-day problems."

They were shooting a scene in which a man and woman walked arm and arm up the Broadway pier in Fells Point. I didn't stop to ask whether they'd try to solve the real-life mysteries of the bodies, or even they knew that two had been pulled out near where they were filming. I couldn't help but notice some of the crew members sported the old Homicide: Life on the Street jackets and they were just feet from the building used as in the show for the Baltimore Police headquarters (the signs are still up!).

Bodies in the Inner Harbor aren't unusual, but four in a month? Two were found in Fells Point, a third near the paddle boats closer to downtown and a fourth over by Fort McHenry. And yes, talking to fire officials, it is true that as the weather warms, the bodies float.

I plan to write more about this in my column in coming days.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Back in December, I wrote about how Adrian McFadden pointed a six-shot revolver at Avon Ball Jr. and threatened to kill him. Ball's foster brother, George T. Johnson, pleaded for the gunman to shoot him instead.

The gunman complied.

In fact, the gunman shot both, fatally wounding Johnson and wounding McFadden, injuring him severely enough that his speech is permanently impaired. The killing was one of the most callous I'd encountered. After shooting them both on Payson Street in West Baltimore, McFadden walked up to Johnson and said, "Is he dead yet?" before walking back the other way, polishing his gun with his T-shirt.

On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Charles Bernstein sentenced McFadden to double-life plus 175 years in prison and a co-defendant, Anthony Davante Miles, to 65 years on an assault charge. Hefty sentences in any city, but this wasn't an ordinary crime.

Both victims got immersed in a dispute not of their making. They had driven onto a street blocked off for a vigil for a youngster killed in an earlier accident. The gunmen accused the victims of reckless driving and hunted them down, even as the two men tried to get away.

In the final confrontation, prosecutors said Johnson told the gunman, "Don't shoot him, shoot me."

The judge said the victims deserved a Medal of Honor for the way they acted and he admonished a witness who he said lied. According to prosecutors, Judge Bernstein "believes the State's Attorney's Office should use all the tools in our toolbox with respect to witnesses who lie and that HE FOUND as a matter of FACT and BEYOND a reasonable doubt that [the witness] committed perjury and that Coppin State should be notified of this student's testimony; She testified that she was pursuing nursing and that the State Nursing Licensing Board should be notified of the fact that she committed perjury, and that further if she receives any assistance interms of school loans they too should be notified."

Here is the news release from the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office:

Continue reading "Double life sentence in killing" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking crime
        

Baltimore Sun police reporter Justin Fenton tried but failed to gather more information on a city killing. Here's why as part of a guest blog, in his own words:

Crime reporters are often asked why every death in the city isn't probed and explored in greater detail than the few lines most receive in the paper. There are a variety of reasons, from unreliable information to a newspaper's resources on any given day, and my experience today is one example.

Martie Williams, 20, was shot Saturday night while waiting to play video games at a "hangout house" in Westport. He fits the basic description of the majority of the city's homicide victims: a male, between ages 18 and 25, African-American, with pending drug charges and prior armed robbery charges that were dropped. He was awaiting a May trial on seven counts of drug dealing. He was the 47th victim of a homicide this year, and No. 48 would be found two miles away just a few hours later on Sunday morning.

But the circumstances of Williams' death - playing video games - intrigued me, and someone's death is not always the result of their criminal history or activity. So I decided to hit the street to find out more.

Active court records list Williams' address in the 2400 block of Dumfries Court, in a public housing complex and just a block away from where the fatal shooting took place. That was my first stop. After knocking on the door, a woman stuck her head out of a second floor window and said I had the wrong address. She didn't know anyone by that name and said her family had moved in within the past few months.

Strike one. But there was still the crime scene to visit, in the 2600 block of Maisel St. Two police officers were already there, going door to door to hand out fliers about "Operation Crime Watch." (The outdated fliers, by the way, note "Mayor Martin O'Malley's determination to ... allow citizens to take action and provide the highest level of personal protection"). I wasn't sure which house exactly was the crime scene, so I stopped to make a few calls. By the time I determined the house number, the officers were gone.

The house is down the street from a youth center and across the street from Westport Elementary School. Compared to some of the other houses on the street, it looked welcoming, with children's toys stacked in the front yard. There was also a front door lying in the grass, and a new front door had been attached.

It was wide open.

"Hello?" I said after stepping just inside the metal gate that enclosed the front yard. No response. I stepped up to the porch and called again, then knocked on the door. That's when I saw the blood spatter against the wall in front of me. The front room, decorated with numerous framed photos, had a TV propped up on a tray, and to the right on the wall was apparent blood spatter. Police said Williams had been shot as he waited to play video games, so the blood made sense.

I called again, knocking and knocking. As I turned to leave, an older man down the street wearing a tool belt noticed me and became enraged.

"Hey!" he boomed. "What the [expletive] are you doing inside my house!"

This was a simple misunderstanding, I thought. I've covered a couple hundred murders and sometimes these things didn't always start off well.

"I wasn't inside the house, sir," I offered. "I'm with the Baltimore Sun, and I'm here to do a story on the young man who was killed." The man was incredulous. He refused to believe that I had not been inside his house. He screamed repeatedly, threatening me and reaching several times for a hammer in his tool belt. A few times he also seemed to be reaching into his waistband. I don't know whether he had a gun, but that's certainly where many who carry weapons will store them. I've covered enough homicides to know that a bullet to the head can result from much less than what I was going through with him at the moment. Just last week, a woman was arrested in connection with shooting and killing another woman, and injuring two others, who accidentally bumped into her on a dance floor. Maybe Williams' death, too, was related to something seemingly trivial, like butting in line to play the video game.

"You have no idea the pain I have," the man said.

"That's why I'm here, sir."

"Gimme two dollars," he said, lightening up for a moment. "Gimme whatever you got." But I wasn't going to give him any money. I pull out my wallet, and the wallet might be gone, I figured.

He came toward me, and people on the street started to take notice. A window at the elementary school opened up, and children chanted. As I walked away, my hands outstretched in a "surrender" pose, he followed, still hollering threats and saying he should hurt me. No degree of explanation that I didn't go into his house changed his mind.

And then I realized I've walked past my car. Oops.

I made a step towards it, offering that I need to get back that way in order to comply with his demands and leave. No, that's not happening, he said. Don't let me see you around here again. Perhaps that was for the best, as I'm pretty sure pointing out my car was a good way to either get my window smashed or get full-out carjacked. Maybe he was all talk, but I wasn't going to take the risk.

So I did something I haven't done yet in my experience as a police reporter: I called the police for help. I dialed 911. I needed someone to just come to the area and help me get back to my car, I said. I don't want any trouble, but I needed to get the heck out of there. Down the street I could see the man, still angry, and now standing with some associates.

It took about 10 minutes for a patrol car to respond, and of course it felt a lot longer. The two-man car pulled up, and they let me hop into the backseat and drove me the 200 yards to my car.

"You're a reporter for the Sun?" said the officer behind the wheel, a huge grin on his face. He was highly entertained by this. I don't blame him - most police think the media are out to get them and second-guessing everything they do, and here I was, begging for help. Not so easy, huh? Of course, I don't carry a gun or wear a vest, either, but that's neither here nor there. I climbed into my car and drove away, passing the man with the hammer as school let out at Westport Elementary.

Obviously, I was a tad shaken by this series of events. But I think more importantly, as my job as a crime reporter goes, perhaps this offers a bit more insight into why not every victim gets a full writeup. For every family that wants to share their pain or see the victim given a spotlight in the newspaper, there's the family that begs us not to write anything out of fear for its safety, or those so overcome by emotions that the mere presence of a reporter is enough to send them over the edge.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Baltimore police twittered their first shooting this morning.

About 9:15 a.m., 25 minutes after the first 911 call, city cops put this up on Twitter: "Baltimore Police SHOOTING: Police investigating @ RUTLAND @ OLIVER ST."

The author of the post was chief spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, who just recently created a Facebook page. "I've conquered Facebook, now I'm tackling Twitter,"  he told me.

Guglielmi said he's copying other police departments around the country, such as in Boston and San Antonio.  "San Antonio puts out all the accidents," he said. Boston police is very active, they're on there all the time. They put up a shooting on there yesterday, a robbery last week."

Guglielmi said he chose this particular shooting to highlight because it involved a 16-year-old seriously hurt. He and his counterparts around the country will have to decide how to use Twitter, and Facebook, to communicate. At least four major departments use Twitter, some to post breaking crime, others to issue news releases or highlight awards.

I certainly embrace this type of openness.

Here's an example from the Boston Police Department's Twitter page:

BANK ROBBERY: Brighton, 2000 Beacon St, Citizens Bank, bank robbery task force is responding. half a minute ago from TwitterBerry
PERSON SHOT: Roslindale, 27 Beechland St, detectives setting up crime scene, avoid the area. about 14 hours ago from web
Internal Memo From Police Commissioner Davis: A MESSAGE FROM THE POLICE COMMISSIONER I would like to take this o.. http://tinyurl.com/cgzx2a about 16 hours ago from twitterfeed
STABBING: Roxbury Crossing, 1400 Tremont St, man stabbed on MBTA platform, EMS and detectives on scene, expect delays. about 19 hours ago from TwitterBerry
DAILY INCIDENTS FOR THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2009: Suspect Arrested After Stealing Car, Attempted B&E

In trying to put up crime maps for Baltimore and suburbs, I've run into astonishing roadblocks from agencies that are reluctant to surrender the data, some saying outright it wouldn't be in their political interest to tell people how much crime is occurring and where it's happening. Other departments, such as Anne Arundel County and soon Baltimore County, are or are in the process of providing us information. We publish a crime map for Arundel and a homicide map for the city.

A great place to see what other departments are doing is on the FBI's Twitter site. Click to see who is following the FBI and more than 100 other departments come up. I clicked on a few and quickly learned that many of the Twitter sites are still in their infancy. The San Jose, Calif, department for example has a Twitter from March 13 that says only, "Drive Safely!"

The Anne Arundel County Police also twitter -- they put up daily press briefings and emergency road closures. Twitter seems to me an avenue to quickly report news snippets as they are happening. Police will have to decide whether that's the best way of imparting breaking crime news and updates.

It seems to me that Facebook might be best for releases and Twitter for news as it's happening now. That's not always easy given the fluididity of crime news. What goes out over a police scanner is often wrong, and departments don't want to publish information and then have to retract it later. Hence the vague Twitter on the East Baltimore shooting. It didn't give details that reporters could hear over the scanner -- that a 16-year-old had been shot in the shoulder and lung.

About the same time the Twitter came out, the Baltimore Sun had a short story published on the shooting. It's all part of the new technology.