The mother of an abused woman who was fatally stabbed by her husband in 2008 has sued the Baltimore Police Department, alleging a police commander who was friendly with the husband "allowed him to remain free to commit his crimes."

The suit was filed this week in Baltimore Circuit Court by Carlin Robinson and Eunice Graves, the cousin and mother, respectively, of Veronica Williams, who was stabbed outside the North Avenue District Courthouse by husband Cleaven Williams after she had appeared at a hearing seeking protection from him.

The suit names former Eastern District Deputy Maj. Dan Lioi as a defendant; The Sun in 2009 reported that Lioi had been suspended by the department after investigators learned that he had exchanged text messages with Cleaven Williams, then the president of the Greater Greenmount Community Association, trying to arrange a time for him to turn himself in. At one point, he visited the Eastern District station to do so, but officers could not locate the warrant.

According to testimony at Williams' trial, on Nov. 17, Williams told Lioi by phone that he was on his way to his lawyer's office and that he would "get back" to him, according to the police commander. About an hour after that, Lioi learned that Williams had been arrested in the stabbing of his wife of almost 10 years, as well as resulting in a miscarriage of the child she was carrying.

"The misconduct of the Baltimore City Police Department and its officers rises above mere complacency," the lawsuit says. "Officers actively warned Mr. Williams and refused to arrest him despite the warrant ... This was done with the full knowledge that a judge had already determined Williams to be a threat to the life and safety of the deceased."

The suit further claims that Veronica Williams had been in hiding prior to the court appearance, and had Cleaven Williams been arrested that day, he would have missed his only opportunity to commit the murder. "The defendants placed Mrs. Williams in a police-created zone of danger by intentionally conspiring with Mr. Williams to permit him to remain free despite ample opportunity to arrest him," the suit says.

Lioi, a popular commander both in the Police Department and among East Baltimore residents, was suspended for a few months but cleared of wrongdoing. He was recently moved from the Eastern District and oversees the department's District Detective Units, and could not be immediately reached for comment.

Though the lawsuit does not appear in the state's case search database, a copy was obtained and posted online by the Courthouse News Service website. An employee at the law firm of Cary Hansel, a Greenbelt attorney for the plaintiffs, verified its authenticity.

Here's a longer piece about Veronica and Cleaven Williams, written by The Sun's Melissa Harris in December 2008.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Marquis Jones’ family can rest a bit easier.

Police have made an arrest in the slaying of the 19-year-old, whose family held a vigil after his death that was interruptedwhen a man approached and made a gun gesture with his hand, sending mourners scrambling with fear.

“Everybody's already tense, because the person who did it is still out here,” uncle Brandon Jones said at the time.

On Nov. 8, police charged Antwon Lee, a 19-year-old from Brooklyn, and he was arrested the next day. Hand-written court documents don’t provide a motive for the crime, only saying that witnesses identified Lee as the shooter. Relatives said they were told that Marquis Jones had been involved in an altercation hours before he was shot Oct. 16 in the 200 block of Aiken St.

After the murder but before Lee’s arrest, Jones’ mother, Tonya, said she was unsure whether an arrest would bring closure.

“As far as [the suspect], he’s already in his own personal jail,” she said. “I want the police to apprehend him and make him serve his time, [but] it won’t bring my son back.”

The arrest comes in a year where homicide detectives have been struggling with a declining rate of cases solved. The unit’s longtime commander was replaced last month.

Lee is being held without bond. His criminal record consists of a handful of drug possession cases and a trespassing charge, all of which were dropped by prosecutors. Court records do not list an attorney for his case.

Jones was one of four children, whose mother had to leave the family after witnessing the death of a relative. He got into trouble with the law, but at his funeral family members recalled his positive traits and decried the city’s culture of acceptance toward violence.

Violence has continued in the East Baltimore-Midway neighborhood where Jones was killed – on Saturday, 18-year-old Kevin Lofland was fatally shot in the 2300 block of Aiken St. It was not clear if the cases were connected.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Baltimore police are investigating the fatal shooing of a man this afternoon in Heritage Crossing community in West Baltimore. It's the second shooting this month in a section of town houses built years ago to replace a highrise public housing complex.

Police said the victim was shot in the chest about 4:50 p.m. and was pronounced dead a short time later. It occurred in the 1000 block of Pennsylvania Ave. On Nov. 8, two men were shot in Heritage Crossing, which was built to replace the Murphy Homes highrises.

Baltimore police are also reporting several other shootings since Friday. Here is a statement from a department spokesman (not included is a double shooting Friday afternoon in North Baltimore's Harwood, which Justin Fenton covered):

Continue reading "Man shot, killed in city is latest casualty in violent weekend" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

Police just announced an arrest in the killing last year of a church caretaker in East Baltimore. James Johnson, 18, was arrested Wednesday and charged with murder in the death of Milton Hill.

The 70-year-old victim tended the grounds at the Ark Church in the 1200 block of East North Ave. He was found on the morning of July 30 2010 slumped against a fence in a pool of blood behind his home next to the church.

His death came five days after Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn was fatally stabbed while walking home in Charles Village, a killing that motivated the city's political establishment and helped Gregg Bernstein upset Patricia C. Jessamy as state's attorney. Pitcairn's killer was just sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison.

City councilmen held vigils for Hill amid concern that Pitcarn's death was dominating the news. At a community cleanup a month after Hill's slaying, The Sun's Jessica Anderson reported that officials talked about a new playground.

Earlier, Jessica had talked with Hill's eldest daughter, Lennoria Hill-Joseph, who said her father had been active and took pride in his job. Police did not release a motive but authorities at the time said they believed Hill's scooter had been stolen.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, East Baltimore
        

A 13-year-old girl walking through East Baltimore last night was grabbed and taken into a vacant home, where she was beaten and sexually assaulted, police confirmed.

The attack occurred in the 800 block of N. Caroline St. at around 9 p.m., police said. The victim suffered scrapes and bruises and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

The suspect is described as a black, between 45 and 50 years old, 5-foot-3, and 180 pounds. He was wearing a black skull hat, a grey sweatshirt, black boots, and had a mustache. 

Police spokesman Kevin brown said detectives were "investigating vigorously, and canvassing the area for possible surveillance footage and/or witnesses." He said police were working up a sketch of the suspect and hoped to release it later today.

Anyone with information was asked to call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP.

The 800 block of N. Caroline St. is about a block west of Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

City police were investigating the shooting death of a man early Monday near the North Avenue District Court building.

An officer in the area of Harford Road and Bonaparte Ave. at about 1:30 a.m. and heard gunshots, then saw a vehicle drive past that was riddled with bullet holes, said a police spokesman. The vehicle came to a stop, and the officer saw the driver inside suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:30 a.m.

Police believe the shooting occurred at the intersection of Harford Rd and North Ave, when a man on foot approached the victim's vehicle and opened fire. 

The shooting was the second over the weekend in that area, after 20-year-old Marquis Jones was fatally shot in the 2200 block of Aiken St. just a few blocks over. There hasn't been any additional information released on Jones' killing, including any possible link between the cases.

There have been 165 people killed in Baltimore this year, compared with 174 at this time last year. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Baltimore Police are seeking a man who they say escaped custody on the way to the Eastern District station house. A police spokesman had no details on how the man got away:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

In this corner of East Baltimore, where vacant houses outnumber occupied residences, the customers at the nearby methadone clinic buzzed about the police activity down the street. Women hustled up to the crime scene tape blocking off the intersection of North Port and East Lafayette streets, demanding to know if the victim was a relative.

The victim's legs and feet peeked out from underneath a sheet as detectives surveyed the scene. Later, with onlookers still watching from a distance, emergency personnel picked his lifeless body up by the arms and legs and put it on a gurney. "He looks light-skinned," one woman said to a group of people. "I think he had braids."

Official information was scant. A police spokesman said an unidentified man was shot at about 11:30 a.m. and pronounced dead at the scene. That much, anyone could've told you.

Residents shook their heads. "Always something around here,' they say.

Around the corner, 48-year-old Yul Henderson is trying to keep the block looking clean. He constructed a sidewalk garden - a shrine, he calls it - consisting of bricks, tiles and broken pieces of mirror, all gathered from around the neighborhood, with a tiger statue in the middle.

"For all the people around here, I want them to have something nice," he explains. "If I can't have something nice, then there ain't no sense in doing it."

Nearby is a large pile of trash, which he says he collected from around the area. As quickly as he can pick it up, more gathers. But he's pleased that the city will take it from where he piles it up.

"When you see stuff like this, it's not a trash can. This is art. This is gifted," he says. "When the tornado came, it blew down my fence, but it never touched this."

Like so much in the city's troubled neighborhoods, there's a link to crime here: Henderson created the shrine in memory of his son, also named Yul, who was shot and killed in a robbery in 2007. He was 21 years old.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Baltimore police say a man has died after exchanging gunfire with a police officer responding to a domestic violence call.

Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says police responded to a call Saturday morning around 1:40 a.m. reporting that a man had shot his wife in East Baltimore. When officers arrived in the 1800 block of Hope St. they found the man armed with a gun.

Guglielmi says the man was combative with police and confronted officers. He says it appears several shots were fired from both sides. It was not clear if the man died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound or a shot fired by a police officer.

The condition of the man's wife was not clear. Police expected to have more information Saturday afternoon.

The shooting appears to be the second fatal police-involved incident this week. On Sunday, a 52-year-old musician was fatally shot in Brooklyn after police say he did not comply with officers' orders to put down a weapon. This year, city police have been involved in seven shooting incidents, killing four.

-With AP

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore, Police shootings
        

Remember Gerard Mungo Jr.?

He's the 7-year-old who was arrested four years ago while sitting on an idling dirt bike in front of his East Baltimore rowhouse. Police cuffed the child, took him to a station and shackled him to a bench before taking him to juvenile detention.

The case attracted national attention, was debated in the media, earned a rebuke and an apology to the family from the mayor and a hefty lawsuit by the boy's family. A jury last year awarded the parents nothing, even though the judge found two officers had illegally arrested the boy because they didn't witness the incident.

Gerard is at left with his mother in this picture taken by The Sun's Kenneth K. Lam.

The family appealed arguing a Baltimore judge improperly moved the trial out of the city, citing negative publicity against the police officers, and that they couldn't get a fair trial in Howard County because the racial mix is far lower than in the city.

Maryland's second-highest court, the Court of Special Appeals, rejected both arguments in an opinion issued Friday. The court ruled that moving the proceedings to Howard was proper, and that the family got a fair trial.

Read the court's full opinion here.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Howard County
        

Two men were killed early Sunday in a shooting on Dolfield Avenue in Northwest Baltimore according to city police.

Police said both men were walking in the street in Pimlico when they were shot -- one in the head, the other in the face -- shortly before 4 in the morning. Names of the victims have not yet been released; this morning police said they were both "John Does."

On Saturday, a woman was shot in the back in East Baltimore, in the 700 block of Broadway. The victim, in her 20s, was walking along the street when she was shot for an unknown reason, according to police. She was treated at an area hospital.

Police also identified two recent homicide victims:

-Robert James, 30, was the man shot while sitting in his vehicle at the intersection of E. 34th St. and Ellerslie Ave., near Waverly Elementary and the former Memorial Stadium site. Police haven't given a motive and the case remains open. James was from the 3400 block of Ravenwood Ave. and spent two months in jail late last year after being arrested on robbery and kidnapping charges. Prosecutors dropped the charges in December.

-Thomas Powell, 20, was identified as the man shot in the 400 block of N. East Ave. on Sept. 19. Police haven't released details about the case, which remains open. The shooting occurred in the Ellwood Park neighborhood, one of a few city neighborhoods where the Safe Streets anti-violence group does work. Powell's last known address was in the 5700 block of White Ave., in the Frankford neighborhood.

-Peter Hermann and Justin Fenton

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore
        

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court today, federal prosecutors say a convicted felon robbed two women at gunpoint, then pushed a child off a bicycle in an attempt to get away. It happened in May, in East Baltimore, and this week prosecutors charged John Steven Thomas with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

I've posted the document below. Skip to the fifth paragraph for the narrative:

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

A city jury has convicted a man in a September 2009 daylight killing in Northwest Baltimore, and in another case, a judge sentenced a man to 90 years in prison in a double shooting in East Baltimore in 2008 that left one victim dead.

In the first case, prosecutors said Charles Thomas was found guilty of first-degree murder for approaching Alvin Terry Alston, 45, from behind and shooting him in the head. The attack occurred about noon on a Sunday at the busy intersection of Cold Spring Lane and Reisterstown Road. Thomas, 47, faces life in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 8.

In the second case, Baltimore Circuit Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon sentenced James Fortune to nearly a century behind bars for shooting Sidney Millner and Natavien Henry at the D&N Liquor Store on North Stricker St. in January 2008. Millner died from his injuries; prosecutors said Henry was paralyzed from the neck down. Fortune, 36, was convicted of second degree murder. 

The Sun's Justin Fenton wrote more about Fortune and of his previous murder conviction:

Continue reading "Man convicted of murder; another sentenced to 90 years in killing" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore
        

This post has been updated.

Baltimore police have identified the man fatally shot Sunday near Johns Hopkins Hospital as 31-year-old Antonio Laws, who was apparently shot while sleeping in his home.

An officer on patrol in the area of the 500 block of N. Chester St., in the city's Middle East community, was flagged down at about 12:10 p.m. by someone who said a woman was outside screaming and crying, said police spokesman Detective Donny Moses. When the officer arrived on the scene, the woman said, "He's dead upstairs." 

The officer entered the home and found Laws upstairs in a second floor bedroom unresponsive and bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds, Moses said. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:30 p.m.

Moses said it appeared Laws was sleeping when he was shot. Police did not provide a motive and the case remains open.

Relatives said Laws, who was known as "Tony," was a grandson of the late Bea Gaddy, the former City Councilwoman and advocate for the poor.

"He was a very good young man, a smart young man," said Sandra Chandler, 54, one of Gaddy's daughters. "He had a rough life at the beginning, but was getting back on the right track."

Court records show he had been sentenced to six years in prison on drugs charges in 2003, and had recently been held on sexual assault charges, which were dropped two months later. Chandler said Laws had been working at a downtown restaurant and was awaiting the birth of his first child. 

The family is struggling to come up with money for his funeral, she said, and relatives are fearful for their safety because the killing happened so close to their Bea Gaddy Women and Children for Center, which is in the 400 block of N. Chester St.

Police also identified two homicide victims from last week who had not been initially identified pending notification of their next of kin.

-Janice Drayton, 51, was the woman killed in the 900 block of Leadenhall St. on Friday; police say her boyfriend Gary Allmond has been charged in her death.

-Police say the man killed Aug. 28 in the 2800 block of Round Rd. was identified as Dewayne Jones. That case remains open.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

City police say a man who is charged with sexually assaulting a woman in East Baltimore had flashed a police badge and claimed to be an officer.

Antoine Jones, 33, is being sought on charges of fourth-degree sex offense after police say the victim picked him out of a lineup. She told officers that on Aug. 11, Jones gave her a ride from the area of Harford Ave. and Bonaparte St. to her East Baltimore home, and made several sexual advances toward her.

She said that she told him to stop touching her, and he pulled over the vehicle at the intersection of North Avenue and Rutland Avenue and locked the doors, forcibly touching her. He told her he was a police officer and that she could trust him, records show. He made subsequent attempts until she escaped from the vehicle when he stopped at an intersection.

According to police, the victim told detectives that her attacker had told her his name and given a day of birth, which they used to identify Jones and include his picture in a photo lineup. The woman picked Jones out from that lineup. 

Police say Jones is not a former or current officer. 

The crime is the latest to involve people claiming to be police officers, including a series of home invasions in which residents were bound and robbed. 

Police publicized this incident after receiving an inquiry from The Sun on Wednesday. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Two men were shot - at least one who was seriously wounded - in Baltimore in the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake that hit the East Coast.

The first shooting was reported to police at 1:59 p.m., just moments after the quake hit. As stunned residents were trying to figure out whether the region had actually been hit by an earthquake, police were being dispatched to the 400 block of N. Gay St. at the east end of Oldtown Mall for a shooting.

Few details were immediately available, but crime scene technicians had marked evidence on the street in front of a barber shop. The victim's condition was not immediately known, but police said homicide detectives were notified due to the severity of his injuries.

The scene is across the street from an apartment complex for the elderly, and residents say by the time they got escorted out of the building for safety because of the earthquake, police were already on the scene. Col. Jesse Oden, the police department's criminal investigations chief, visited the scene but declined to speak to a reporter.

Then, at 4 p.m., police reported another shooting in the Sandtown Winchester community of West Baltimore. No details were available for that incident. 

Separately, a serious crash shut down traffic in both directions on Orleans Street just south of Johns Hopkins Hospital. A van had been flipped over, and it was not clear if anyone was injured or how severely. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: East Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

City police were working to identify a man who was fatally shot last night at the intersection of N. Milton Ave. and E. Chast St., the Sun's Liz F. Kay reports.

The fatal shooting is just the third in a stretch of 18 days, which, in a city that averages 23 homicides each August, is rather notable. Since Irene Logan was found fatally stabbed in her home on Aug. 3, there had been just two other homicides before - both on Aug. 14 - until last night's fatal shooting. The city has not been violence-free, however, with several other shootings and a triple stabbing reported over the weekend.

But the relatively quiet stretch has swung city crime statistics to put the city below last year's pace. Earlier in the month, homicides were up for the year. Now, they're down 6 percent compared with this time last year.

There's few details on Sunday's shooting, including the victim's identity or a possible motive.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Baltimore police are searching for a suspect in Monday night's fatal shooting of Sean Eames, who was killed on Darley Avenue. 

The suspect, Ottus Maximum Savoy, pleaded guilty to assault in August 2008 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with all but five years suspended. He is currently on probation, according to electronic court records.

Here is a statement from police:

"The Baltimore Police Department is seeking the whereabouts of 18 year-old Ottus Maximum Savoy for the fatal-shooting that occurred within the 1600 Blk of Darley Avenue.

On August 1, 2011, officers responded just after 11 pm to the 1600 Blk of Darley Avenue for report of a shooting.  Once they arrived they discovered the victim, 24 year-old Sean Eames, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.  He was transported to the Johns Hopkins Medical Facility and succumbed to his injuries just before 1:30 am.

Investigation has lead detectives to identify 18 year-old Ottus Savoy as the individual responsible for the homicide and we are now seeking the public's help in locating him.

To give police a tip:

Continue reading "Police seek suspect in fatal shooting" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

National Night Out has become a big community event, getting residents and cops together to take back the streets. Below is a list of events in the city and the counties, scheduled for today, Aug. 2

National Night outs:

Baltimore City

Baltimore County

Harford County

Anne Arundel County

Howard County

I could only find one in Carroll County, in Eldersburg. Here is a link to details. If anyone knows of more here, please let me know and I'll post.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, City Hall, Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Howard County, Neighborhoods, North Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore, South Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

Baltimore Police Officer Teresa Rigby broke down in tears.

Just five weeks after a crash on the JFX that sent over the side of the elevated highway and 30 feet to the pavement below, the officer met with youngsters in East Baltimore. They presented her with a mural, and the officer was overcome.

Here is a picture of Rigby from today's event, taken by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum.

 We'll have more from the event a bit later on line and in tomorrow's print edition. Rigby had been standing near a disabled car when another car crashed into the back of it, forcing the vehicle into her cruiser, and into her.

Here are more stories on the officer and tapes of police communications from the accident.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Remember this story from September 2009?:

Sitting in her car Tuesday night outside the Kennedy Krieger Institute as police investigated a shooting, Ana Matheus held up what may have spared her from serious injury: her Vera Bradley handbag.

She reached in and pulled out her pocketbook. Inside was a checkbook, a credit card and a $20 bill - all pierced by a bullet that narrowly missed striking her as she left work at Kennedy Krieger.

Matheus was not harmed, but a female co-worker was wounded when one of the stray bullets struck her in the hand about 6:30 p.m. Matheus said the woman was walking just a foot in front of her when the shots rang out. With the errant bullet piercing the bag that was slung over her shoulder, Matheus was inches away from being wounded herself.

 "I've always felt pretty safe with the security guards on the corners, but I don't know, it definitely feels less safe now," said Matheus, a 27-year-old social worker in the pediatric hospital at Kennedy Krieger. "It's pretty surreal."

The State's Attorney's Office announced today that the suspect charged in the case, 44-year-old Timothy Gaskins, was sentenced today to 54 years in prison for the shooting after being convicted during a six-day trial in May on two counts of attempted second-degree murder and 18 other charges. Prosecutors say Gaskins fired five shots - in addition to the bullet that traveled through Matheus' bag, one bullet pierced the intended victim's pants but missed his leg, and another struck the hand of Matheus' co-worker.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

For three years, the death of 25-year-old Dwayne Hawkins in a fire in East Baltimore has been listed as an accident.

But this week, Hawkins’ death was officially reclassified a homicide. Police say new information uncovered in March of this year sparked a new investigation that determined Hawkins was killed.

Hawkins was found on June 13, 2008 in the rear of a home in the 600 block of Cokesbury Lane, in the East Baltimore Midway neighborhood, and was rushed to Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital. He died three days later.

At the time, police now say, investigators smelled an “ignitable liquid” at the scene. But they also received reports that Hawkins had been drinking, and determined that an “open flame combined with combustibles” to spark an accidental fire, police said.

In March of this year, police received new information that Hawkins had actually been killed, police say. Detectives consulted with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the state medical examiner’s office, and re-examined the details of the case.

Continue reading "Three years after man's fire death, case reclassified as homicide" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

From Baltimore police:

The Baltimore Police Department is seeking information concerning an arson that occurred on Saturday, July 23, 2011, within the 2300 Blk of E. Fairmount Avenue.

Just after midnight, two possibly teenage suspects ignited what appears to be a tee-shirt and placed it near a wooden storage structure that is attached to the Lucky Corner Convenience Store. 

The resulting fire damaged the storage structure and items within, along with the brick wall of the business, causing approximately $4,000 is property damage. 

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Baltimore Police Department. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

From the U.S. Attorney's Office:

U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Raymond Moore, a/k/a “Money,” age 20, of Baltimore, today to 10 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute powder and crack cocaine.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Theresa R. Stoop of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - Baltimore Field Division; Baltimore City State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein; and  Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III.

“This investigation has significantly reduced the violence in the 4 X 4 area of Baltimore,” says ATF Special Agent in Charge Theresa Stoop, “ATF and the Baltimore Police Department have put several career offenders like Raymond Moore 'out of business,' where their next destination will be federal prison.”

According to Moore’s plea agreement, the indictment and other court documents, from at least June 2009 through August 2010, Moore was part of a drug distribution organization that operated in the Northeast Baltimore neighborhood known as the “4x4." The “4x4” is a small, relatively closed neighborhood consisting of four streets running north-south and four streets running east-west. Ravenwood, Elmora, Lyndale and Elmley Avenues all run east and west and are one-way streets. Greenview, St. Cloud, Highview and Longview Avenues all run north and south and are two-way streets. The area is bordered on the east and west ends by Edison Highway and Belair Road, respectively. 

According to his plea and other court documents, law enforcement overheard Moore and his co-conspirators discussing their drug activities.  Moore admits that during the time of the conspiracy he distributed crack and powder cocaine, collected money from drug customers and distributors, and cooperating with and furthered the drug trafficking activities of other members of the drug conspiracy.  Moore admits that he during the time of the conspiracy, he was responsible for the distribution of 280 grams or more of crack cocaine, and 5 kilograms or more of powder cocaine .

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Baltimore police had another bloody Sunday to contend with, as detectives investigate three slayings and five nonfatal shootings.

The violence raged from one end of the city to another -- with four assaults reported between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Sunday. Read full details here. A brief recap:

* 17-year-old shot several times at 10:42 p.m. in the 1300 block of Luzerne St. Two others were injured in the incident.

* Man shot in the chest near Greenmount Cemetery at 2:20 p.m.

* A 43-year-old woman was found dead about 11 a.m. with head trauma inside her home in the 200 block of N. Belnord Ave. 

* A 46-year-old man died after he was stabbed in the stomach in the 1700 block of Gorsuch Ave. about 2:30 a.m.

* A 22-year-old man wa shot in the abdomen about 2:30 a.m. inthe 1500 block of Lester Morton Court.

* A man walked into a South Baltimore hospital about 2:40 a.m. after being shot inthe 4100 block of Pascal AVe.

* A man was shot int he leg about 2 a.m. in the 3800 block of 8th St. in Brooklyn

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore, North Baltimore, South Baltimore
        

Baltimore police have been busy today investigating several violent incidents. Here are some details as they come in straight from a city police spokesman:

1500 Blk Lester Morton Court Homicide
 
July 10, 2011 / Baltimore, MD - The Baltimore Police Department is investigating a homicide that occurred this morning, just after 2:30 am, within the 1500 Blk of Lester Morton court.  Patrol officers responded to the location for report of a shooting and discovered 22 year-old Jerel McFadden suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso.  He was transported to John Hopkins Hospital and, despite medical treatment, died shortly after 3:10 am.

AT right is a picture of McFadden from his Facebook page. 

Homicide - 1700 Blk of Gorsuch Avenue
 
July 10, 2011 / Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Police homicide detectives are investigating a death that occurred this morning within the 1700 Blk of Gorsuch Avenue at 2:30 am.  Officers responded to discover the body of 46 year-old Richard Mills seated in a pick-up truck suffering from an apparent stab wound to the torso.  Mr. Mills was transported to John Hopkins Hospital where, despite best efforts, he was pronounced dead just before 3:30 am.

In addition, police say homicide detectives are investigating a woman's body that was found this morning in the 200 block of North Belnord Ave. in Southeast and a shooting of a man in the chest on the East side in the 400 block of Pitman Place.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore, North Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore
        

UPDATE: The violence from the weekend continued into Monday -- the body of a woman who was fatally stabbed was found early today near Patterson Park, and a man was shot in the head in North Baltimore.  

In case you missed it over the weekend, several people fell victim to gunfire in Baltimore this weekend, in addition to the 15-year-old who was accidentally shot by an 11-year-old boy.

Map city homicides here.

Here is a list of weekend shootings from Baltimore police:

Continue reading "Weekend shootings in city" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, Downtown, East Baltimore, North Baltimore, South Baltimore
        

The Sun's Erica L. Green reports:

An East Baltimore church was destroyed in an early morning blaze Sunday after a burglar stole sound equipment from the building, according to police.

No injuries were reported in the fire and burglary, which occurred shortly after 4 a.m. at the Paradise Christian Center, located in the 3000 block of E. Oliver Street, according to police spokesman Kevin Brown.

Brown said the fire started when a burglar attempted to steal the sound equipment, and eventually consumed the entire building. No further details were immediately available.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Tired of the heroin and crime surrounding his Northeast Baltimore church and treatment center, the Rev. Milton Williams said Thursday that he plans to open the city's first "open access" clinic, which will hand out methadone within 15 minutes to any addict who walks through the door, The Sun's Meredith Cohn reports.

Williams said defiantly that he will open the doors of his Turning Point clinic on North Avenue on July 5 to possibly 100-150 addicts a night — though he still lacks approval from state and federal regulators.

But he has the support of at least one city agency - The Baltimore Police Department, which sent a high-ranking commander and a member of the public affairs office, who said this about the agency's evolving view of drugs:

Detective Donny Moses, now a spokesman for the department, said he spent five years in the narcotics division and during that time "had a change of heart" about arresting addicts.

"I must have arrested a million and one people addicted to heroin, and I thought there had to be a better way," he said. "I was thinking this was someone's daughter or son and someone was praying for you. … The Police Department is no longer interested in locking up all the addicts."

Lt. Col. Ross Buzzuro from the police commissioner's office, added, "We can't arrest ourselves out of this problem. We're seeking those wreaking the most havoc on the city. Our mission has changed somewhat."

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

City police were investigating an afternoon shooting along Greenmount Avenue that left a man dead.

Officers were called to the scene at about 1 p.m. for a report of a man in his 30s or 40s who had been shot at least once in the head in the 2400 block of Greenmount Ave. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later, police said.

The shooting occurred on the sidewalk in front of a strip of homes that appeared to be mostly vacant, and homicide detectives and commanders from the Eastern District stood over the crime scene with Greenmount Avenue traffic blocked both ways. Police did not immediately have a motive or description of the suspect. The killing is the seventh so far in June, as the city remains ahead of last year's pace for homicides.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Here's a look at unofficial Baltimore city crime statistics through June 4, as they are presented each week at the department's Comstat meetings. Notably, rapes are up 64 percent (though this is likely more reflective of new classification procedures than an uptick in actual incidents), though rape arrests are also up to the tune of 138 percent (69 arrests this year compared with 29 at this time last year). Shootings, meanwhile, are up 13 percent, particularly in the Eastern District, which has been hammered with 36 shootings this year compared with only 13 last year. 

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore, Top brass
        

That near-record low in homicides in Baltimore for May wasn't what it seemed, as police failed to disclose two homicides late in the month - including one case in which they even made an arrest.

The two victims are:

-Anthony Sherman, 27, of the 2600 block of E. Hoffman St., was shot in the head just after midnight on May 25th in the 1600 block of Ward Ct. in East Baltimore. He was found lying on the sidewalk and taken to a local hospital, where he was not expected to survive. Police spokesman Kevin Brown said Sherman died the next day, May 26.

-Kevin Jones, 57, of the 2700 block of Maryland Ave., was stabbed in the chest at 10:50 a.m. May 26 in the 1200 block of W. Ostend St. in Pigtown. Jones was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he died at about 5 p.m. that day.

Police arrested Corey Arnell Crosby, a 40-year-old man, on May 27. Brown said the motive was an argument. The murder arrest was the fourth time Crosby has been arrested this year; now, he is being held without bond on the murder charges.

Attempts to learn more about the victims were not immediately successful. Court records show Jones in August received a 15 year prison sentence for drug distribution, but the entire sentence was suspended except for time served.

The killings are two more than police had previously disclosed, though the revised 15 killings for the month is still the first time the city has recorded less than 20 in the month of May since 1998 and only the second time since 1989.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore, South Baltimore
        

A 25-year old Elkton woman pleaded guilty Thursday in Baltimore's U.S. District Court to conspiring to launder more than $400,000 in heroin proceeds, trading the drug funds for clean cash at Las Vegas casinos and other people's winning state lottery tickets, The Sun's Tricia Bishop reports.

Joy Edison, who was originally indicted in August on drug charges alongside Steven Blackwell and Tahirah Carter, has also agreed to forfeit at least a half dozen Baltimore properties she bought using drug money. Sentencing is set for August 12.

Read more here.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

You can feel the pain in Camille Bell's words. She's the principal at Montebello Elementary/Middle School, and this is her sad ritual:

"Every morning, I hope and pray that I don't see their pictures, that I don't hear any homicides, that I hear nothing about [the] Northeast community, because I know it's going to affect the school community in some way. We always pray that every day will be a good day, and nobody was prepared for this."

On Wednesday, she awoke to news that one of her students, 12-year-old Sean Johnson, had been struck in the chest by a bullet. He was with three friends sitting on a porch on Cliftview Avenue in Northeast Baltimore, watching a basketball game on TV.

His three friends also were wounded, but police say Johnson is not expected to survive. Bell described him as a good student and none of the four who were injured had gotten into trouble. One had a scholarship to college. Read the compelling story of the violent night by The Sun's Erica L. Green and Justin Fenton.

More violence erupted last night:

Continue reading "Wounded boy still clings to life; more people shot" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore
        

Four people were shot, three in one incident, Tuesday night in Northeast Baltimore, and sources say two of the victims were juveniles. At least one was shot in the head. Another man was fatally shot early Wednesday in West Baltimore.

[Read Justin Fenton's story about crime in Northeast Baltimore]. More details of the latest shootings can be found here.

The shootings kept detectives busy from one end of the city to the other. The first shooting occurred about 9 p.m. in the 1700 block of Montpelier St., just off Harford Road, when a man was shot in the arm and leg.

About an hour later, three people were shot in the 2500 block of Cliftview Ave., just a few blocks away near Lake Clifton Park, including two apparent juveniles. There was no immediate word on their conditions this morning, but homicide detectives were investigating because police said one wa shot in the head.

The Sun's Jessica Anderson reported from the scene that neighbors heard the shots and looked around for their own children before seeing the victims taken away in ambulances. "It's all too common," said one 27-year-old resident of nearby 25th Street who declined to give his name. "We just had this police shooting on Harford Road."

A second man, 53, who also said he was a lifelong resident of the neighborhood, said he has a 17-year-old and 18-year-old at home. "First you look around for your kids" when you hear shots fired. He emphasized that not all youths in the area were troubled. "A lot of the kids are going to college around here," he said. "We need to find some jobs for them."

Hours later, The Sun's Yeganeh June Torbati reported that another man was shot shortly before 3 a.m. in the 1500 block of North Monroe St. in West Baltimore. A police officer found the victim in a vacant lot and he was pronounced dead on the scene.

Track the city's homicides with the The Sun's interactive map. And check back to learn more about these shootings.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore
        

Baltimore police are investigating two shootings that occurred Sunday -- one on the eastside, the other on the westside.

One man was reported shot in the foot about 7 p.m. on Westwood Avenue. Another man was shot multiple times about 7:40 p.m. on North Montford Avenue. Those two shootings follows a violent Friday and Saturday, in which eight people were shot, including one fatally.

That occurred early Saturday on Marble Hall Road in North Baltimore. The victim has not yet been identified. City police plan to provide updates on the violence, and their plans for staffing Saturday's Preakness, early this afternoon.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore, North Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

"In this disorder, there is order."

That's Peter Moskos, a sociologist and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who worked for 14 months between 1999 and 2001 as a police officer patrolling the Eastern District. In this post from his blog, which shares the same name as his 2008 book "Cop in the Hood," he takes us on a photo tour of a crack house - now torn down - that he had used to conduct surveillance.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

The Sun's Nick Madigan reports:

In the mind of Cleaven L. Williams Jr., the stabbing death of his wife on a Baltimore street was a tragedy that took place outside his control. The event, he said in court Friday, rendered him a victim, too, although whether of circumstance or fate he did not make clear.

In sentencing the 35-year-old defendant to life in prison, Baltimore Circuit Judge Timothy J. Doory admonished him to “accept 100 percent responsibility” for killing Veronica Graves Williams on Nov. 17, 2008, something he avoided doing during his trial in February and in his long statement to the court on Friday.

Above, Carlin Robinson, a cousin of the victim, joins friends and relatives outside the courthouse, in a photo by The Sun's Lloyd Fox.

Read past coverage of Williams, including how the judicial system failed the victim.

Read a letter the suspect sent to The Sun.

The judge, in declining to impose a no-parole sentence, called him an intelligent man who might still make something of his life once he is released, which could occur in about 25 years. Doory also gave Williams an additional three-year term, which he will serve consecutively, on a dangerous-weapon charge.

The murder of Veronica Williams, with whom Cleaven Williams had three children and was expecting a fourth, was a stunningly public act, witnessed by several people on a North Avenue sidewalk. The stabbing ended only when a police officer who happened to be nearby fired his gun twice at the knife-wielding suspect.

“He actually calls himself a victim,” prosecutor Kevin Wiggins told the court. “It’s his wife’s fault. She made him do it.”

Continue reading "Community activist sentenced for killing wife" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

Baltimore police have released this video of an armed robbery at an East Baltimore grocery store last month. It occurred about 3:45 p.m. on April 13 when two men about 30 years old ran into the store and held up an employee and a customer.

The police report says the owner chased the gunmen from the store in the 3100 block of East Baltimore St. north on Elwood Street and through several alleys. The men escaped. The video, pulled from a store surveillance camera, shows the men with the gun and taking cash.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Police in Baltimore City and County are investigating separate shootings overnight. A report from Baltimore:

A 24-year-old man was found shot multiple times around 11:30 p.m. in the 1200 block N. Luzerne Ave. in East Baltimore, according to Det. Kevin Brown, the city police spokesman. Police found the victim, who was not identified, sitting on steps with wounds to the chest and leg. He was taken to an area hospital, where he was listed in serious condition, the spokesman said. The victim told police he heard gunshots as he was walking along Luzerne and realized he was hit. Police have no suspects or motives, Brown said.

Around 3:15 p.m., a man was shot multiple times near the corner of Rogers and Elderon avenues in Northwest Baltimore. The victim told police he was leaving an address near there when an unknown male began following him, pulled a handgun and started shooting before fleeing. The victim, whose identity was not released, was taken to an area hospital, where his condition was unknown.

BREAKING NEWS: Police are at this hour are investigating a suspicious death at a home inthe 2700 block of Matthews St. North Baltimore. An adult female was found face down at that location.

Baltimore County incidents:

Three people were stabbed and a man was shot in separate incidents Saturday night and early Sunday in Baltimore County, a police spokesman said.

The stabbings occurred around 11:30 p.m. in the 3600 block of Florida Road off Liberty Heights Avenue, after a disturbance broke out at a carnival being held at Security Square Mall. All three stabbing victims were taken to local hospitals with nonfatal wounds, the police spokesman said. The spokesman provided no information on the victims' identities, and said police had no suspects.

A man was shot around 12:30 a.m. Sunday at the Windsor Inn in the 7200 block of Windsor Mill Road, police said. The victim, also not identified, was taken to a local hospital. Police have no suspects in that incident, the spokesman said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County, East Baltimore
        

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Upper Fells Point stabbing, man found on fire in vacant swell city murder total" »

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

The Sun's Jessica Anderson reports:

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

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

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

Continue reading "Two dead, two wounded in daylight East Baltimore shootings" »

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Lottery used to launder drug money, federal authorities say" »

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

This post has been updated 

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

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

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

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

Here are addition details from city police:

Continue reading "Five shot in Baltimore" »

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

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

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

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

Details on other weekend shootings:

Continue reading "Man found injured in car accident had been shot " »

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Overnight killings push total up 13 percent over last year" »

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Baltimore police investigate overnight shootings" »

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

A woman and her son have been charged in the killing of a 46-year-old man whose body was found in an alley in the Barclay community last week, police announced Thursday.

Homicide detectives allege that Patricia Tucker and Reginald Wragg were arguing in her apartment in the 2100 block of Barclay St. when Tucker stabbed Wragg several times. Police say she then asked her son, Gavin Jenkins, to help her move the body out of the home. Wragg's body was found at about 7:30 a.m. in a rear alley in the 2100 block of Barclay St., police said last week.

Tucker, 52, is charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail. Jenkins, 22, was charged with accessory after the fact and was being held on $75,000.

Neither has a prior criminal record Tucker's prior criminal record consists of only a few trespassing and open container violations, while Jenkins does not appear to have a record in the state, according to court records. The victim, meanwhile, was arrested and charged with assault four times in 2010 and was convicted in one case, receiving five years in prison with all but four years suspended.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Driving back from an interview in Northeast Baltimore, I noticed a memorial for slaying victim Mary Williams and decided to pull over and snap some pictures.

The memorial is at the spot in the 2000 block of E. Oliver St. where police say Williams, 48, was fatally stabbed during an argument by boyfriend Shakarian Frazier, 31. Court records show there was a long history of domestic violence, though they never sought intervention from police and the court system. Williams struggled with drugs, while her daughter said Frazier had grown increasingly violent towards her since returning home from a jail term for a gun charge. Frazier's trial on murder charges is pending in Circuit Court.

Click to enlarge:

Posted by Justin Fenton at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Many city transportation workers arrested on Friday and charged with gambling and drinking while on the clock have extensive criminal records. Just how they got hired or whether background checks were done will have to be determined after the weekend is over.

A review of electronic court records shows that six of the employees have been convicted of serious criminal offenses, and one person is on probation in a gun possession case. Six workers have clean records, and a seventh has been arrested twice on assault charges but not convicted.

Three workers have extensive records, including one who has been convicted seven times between 1995 and 2009 on drug possession or drug distribution charges. He has served prison or jail time ranging from one day to four years, the records show.

Another worker has been convicted six times of drug offenses and twice of possessing a handgun, all between 2002 and 2009, according to the records. That worker served between two years and four years in prison. Yet another employee has been convicted five times of drug offenses between 1997 and 2004, serving between one year and five years in prison.

One employee has one conviction and was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2001 for drug distribution.

Continue reading "City workers arrested in gambling probe have extensive records" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Top brass
        

Homicide detectives have identified the man found stabbed to death in an East Baltimore alley on Friday as 46-year-old Reginald Leon Wragg, whose last known address was on the westside, police said today.

Wragg was found shortly before 7:30 a.m. on Friday in the 2100 block of Barclay St. Police said he had suffered multiple stab wounds and lacerations to his body and neck. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

Police said Wragg last lived in the 1400 block of Mosher St. in West Baltimore. He has an extensive arrest record; he was convicted of second-degree assault last year and sentenced to a year in jail.

Wragg’s body was found just blocks from a vacant rowhouse where another man was found stabbed to death on Tuesday. Andre Drummond, 48, was found with stab wounds in the 500 block of east North Ave. Police have not said if there is a connection to Friday killing.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, East Baltimore
        

Baltimore authorities on Friday broke up what they described as a regular “payday” gambling game involving more than a dozen city transportation workers who police said were arrested after being caught drinking champagne and playing dice in a city office.

The roundup occurred in a Department of Transportation building on East Madison Street and was sparked by a tip to city officials, who contacted the Inspector General, which investigates corruption, fraud and waste in city offices.

Agents from the inspector’s office went unannounced to the building Friday afternoon and then called police when it became apparent there was criminal activity. A city police spokesman said several workers scattered when agents arrived and one was charged with assaulting an investigator.

“Although these are not violent crimes, it’s particularly egregious because it’s a violation of the public trust,” said the Baltimore Police Department’s chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. “These are city employees who are paid by the taxpayers and they are expected to work. They shouldn’t be gambling and drinking on the city’s dime.”

More information and a list of employees arrested:

Continue reading "City workers caught gambling, drinking on duty" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

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City police are investigating the morning discovery of a body in an alley in the Barclay community in the Eastern police district. Police say the unidentified man was found in the 2100 block of Barclay Street, and appears to have been stabbed. Though police were working to confirm his identity, they believe he is in his 40s.

The killing continues an uptick in fatal stabbings that we discussed on the blog yesterday; a man was found on Tuesday fatally stabbed inside a vacant home not far from there, in the 500 block of North Avenue. Anyone with information was asked to call homicide detectives 410-396-2100.

Police were also investigating two overnight non-fatal shootings, in Northeast and East Baltimore.

Posted by Justin Fenton at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

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Police are still working to identify a stabbing victim found inside a vacant home near Greenmount cemetery Tuesday night. Officials say police received an anonymous call at about 9:45 p.m. that there was a body in a vacant home. Officers made entry through the rear of the home and discovered the body of a black male inside. Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said police have a tentative identification but have not confirmed the information.

Homicides are down as of today, with 36 people killed compared with 37 at this time last year. Stabbings have comprised 20 percent of this year's killings, continuing a downward trend of the proportion of deaths attributable to gun violence. While shootings have fallen dramatically in recent years, the percentage of deaths by gun - which had held steady at about 80 percent amid those declines - has started to fall. It fell to 76 percent in 2010, and right now is at 69 percent (a small sample size, for sure).

Posted by Justin Fenton at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

A 16-year-old boy was fatally shot on Tuesday in Baltimore County, the result of a dispute among a group of youths, according to police. The shooting occurred about 2:30 p.m. in a townhouse development in Lansdowne-Baltimore Highlands.

Lt. Robert McCullough, a Baltimore County police spokesman told The Sun's Nick Madigan that only one gun had been fired and that it had not yet been recovered. A bystander said she saw three young men in separate police cars; McCullough said "a few" persons of interest had been taken in for questioning.

Meanwhile, in Baltimore City, police were investigating yet another killing, that of a man who was fatally stabbed about 9:45 Tuesday night in the 500 block of East North Ave. We're awaiting more details on this case.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore County, East Baltimore
        

Detectives Michael Rice and Michael J. Cowdery Jr. confronted gunmen on the same desolate stretch of Harford Road. Cowdery was killed in March 2001; Rice was shot this past Friday, and is slowly recovering at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

The street remains much the same now as it did a decade ago -- vacant storefronts and ragged shops along a dingy, dangerous street.

Police sent Rice and his colleagues there because of its notorious reputation, one that sadly hasn't changed since police sent Cowdery there, again because of its notorious reputation.

Crime Scenes takes a brief look at Harford Road then and now, amid another spasm of violence that claimed 18 casualties over the weekend and four more on Monday.

At left, The Sun's Kim Hairston captures a scene from Cowdery's funeral in 2001 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.

Cowdery interrupted a drug deal and was fatally shot in the 2300 block of Harford Road on March 12, 2001. The gunman pumped a bullet into his leg, stood over his prone body and pumped another round into his head. Rice was shot and wounded in the 2300 block of Harford Road on Friday, when he approached a man riding a bicycle and holding a revolver.

Continue reading "Two cops shot on same street -- 10 years apart" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

The man accused of shooting police Officer Michael Rice on Friday night had increasingly dangerous interactions with police, court records show. 

In 2008, according to court records, 23-year-old Gerry Gough was stopped in North Baltimore and struggled with officers, who eventually recovered baggies of marijuana. A year later, he was at a Northwest Baltimore bus stop when detectives saw the outline of a handgun in his pants and chased him.

Gough told police in a debriefing after that arrest that he carried a weapon for protection and knew how to get more – his cell phone wallpaper even displayed an image of him clutching a weapon, court records show. But he received just six months in jail from a District Court judge.

District Court Judge Barbara Waxman sentenced Gough to six months in that case, and ordered him to pay a $300 fine. He never paid and was ordered to serve another three days in jail. We've placed a call to Waxman to find out more about the case.

Police say on Friday, Gough didn’t wait for police to approach him.

Continue reading "Man's interactions with police increasingly became dangerous" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore
        

It was another one of those violent weekends in Baltimore -- at least 18 wounded, several dead, including a 4-year-old boy who apparently got hold of a gun and fatally shot himself in the head. The latest in this spate of violence occurred Sunday night in Northwest Baltimore, when three people were shot.

Baltimore police officials have called a news conference for late this morning to discuss the violence; hopefully we'll learn whether any of it is connected. It came in two spurts -- Friday night, which included the wounding a city police officer, and throughout the day and night on Sunday.

The violence included, but is not limited to, a fatal shooting on Frankford Avenue, a man fatally stabbed at a West Baltimore gas station, and a fatal shooting in Pigtown. Check back for more details later today.

Meanwhile, a Maryland State Police trooper shot a New Jersey man in the hand after a chase Sunday night that started with a stolen car spotted in the Fort McHenry Tunnel and ended up further south on I-95 in Prince George's County. See more details.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Crime elsewhere, East Baltimore, Top brass
        

In addition to the shooting of a Baltimore police officer Friday night, and the wounding of the gunman [read complete coverage and watch video from Jessica Anderson, Justin Fenton and Jerry Jackson], city police reported a spate of other shootings, injuring 11 people total from Friday afternoon to early Saturday. Here is a list from Baltimore police spokesman Jeremy Silbert:

On 3/18 at 8:35pm, two men were shot in the 2300 block of E Hoffman Street. A 20 year old man was shot in the foot and another man was shot in the wrist. I don't have any additional info at this time on suspect/motive.

On 3/18 at 10:50pm, two 18 year old men walked into a downtown hospital after being shot.  The victims told Detectives that they were walking in the 2200 block of Orem Avenue and heard gunshots. They began to run and were shot. 1st victim shot in the arm and shoulder. 2nd victim shot in the leg. The victims obtained a ride to the hospital to be treated.

On 3/19 at 1:55am, officers responded to a call for a shooting in the 300 block of McMechen Street. Officers found a 21 year old man suffering from multiple gun shot wounds. He was transported to Shock Trauma where he died from his injuries at 2:30am.

Officers also found two other men suffering from gun shot wounds in the block. The 2nd victim was shot in the torso and the 3rd victim was shot in the leg. They were both transported to local hospitals for treatment. Preliminary info is that all three victims were in the block when 2 unknown suspects began to shoot at them. No suspect/motive at this time.

Earlier Friday, between 2:05 p.m. and 2:15 p.m., two men were shot in incidents believed to be related along Mosher Street, at the intersections of Pennsylvania Ave and North Mount Street.

(photo of the police shooting is by The Sun's Jerry Jackson)

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, East Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

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This post has been updated.

A city police officer has been shot and injured in East Baltimore by a man who was critically wounded when officers returned fire. 

The incident occurred near North Avenue East 25th Street and Harford Road. A police spokesman confirmed that an officer was shot in the neck after his vehicle pulled up behind a man on a bike. The man opened fire as an officer approached, police said. Two sources said the officer is assigned to the Violent Crimes Impact Section, a plainclothes unit, and police said he is a 30 year old with six years on the force. 

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said he and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake have been challenging officers to concentrate on violent areas and that police are risking their lives to make the city safer.

The suspect was wounded when the officer's two partners returned fire, and police said the suspect was in critical condition at a local hospital, correcting an earlier statement that he had been killed. His name was not immediately released.

When the shooting occurred, officers could be overheard on the police radio calling for a medic, then making the decision to transport the injured officer to Maryland Shock Trauma Center themselves after determining the ambulance was taking too long. They could be heard arranging to have officers block traffic to clear a path.

Sun reporter Jessica Anderson reports from the scene that there's an overturned bicycle and a white vehicle that appears to be an unmarked police car.

As police were investigating the police-involving shooting, a double shooting was reported near Collington Square park in the area of 1300 Patterson Park. The crime scene reportedly covered a broad swath of the block, and at least one of the victims was transported by citizens to the Johns Hopkins Hospital emergency room.

Continue reading "City officer shot, man critically wounded in Eastern District" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

A 26-year-old convicted by a  jury on Friday of killing two 17-year-olds in a Baltimore park in 2008 is to be sentenced in May and faces two consecutive life terms in prison, according to the city State’s Attorney’s Office.

Timothy Crockett had been released from a federal penitentiary in Illinois, where he was serving time for a gun charge, two weeks before he gunned down Darrius Harrison and Djuan Anderson in Easterwood Park in June three years ago.

Witnesses told police at the time that they heard Crockett and an accomplice “plan and arrange” the shootings and then retrieve a gun. Prosecutors said that both victims had been shot in the head in the 3 a.m. attack.

More cases:

Continue reading "Man convicted in double murder" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore
        

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, the high-profile capture from Thursday's sweeping drug bust, battled with a Baltimore judge today in her first court appearance since being charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin.

[Read about Pearson's troubled history]

Here's one exchanged with Judge John Addison Howard, after a prosecutor accused her of helping to bankroll the suspected drug organization (photo of Pearson at left is by The Sun's Kim Hairston).

“I have no money,” she told Judge John Addison Howard. “Check my bank account. I have no money.”

When the prosecutor argued that Pearson travels frequently for her job, the 30-year-old actress angrily shot back, “How can I go anywhere? Everybody knows my name.”

Howard answered that is the precise reason for holding her without bail. “You are a good actress. … Everybody knows your name. People change names. They also can …”

Pearson interrupted: “I can’t change my face.”

“Well, you can change your appearance,” the judge responded. “I’ve seen the episodes of The Wire in which you appear. You look very different than you do here today, and I’m not talking about the jumpsuit, I’m talking about your general appearance.”

More details, and the response from her lawyer, Paul W. Gardner:

Continue reading "The Wire's Snoop spars with judge, gets no bail" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

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City police executing a search warrant in a high-crime area of East Baltimore found five illegal handguns and arrested four people, including one who had been charged with illegal handgun possession in January.

Acting on a tip obtained by a patrol officer, police raided a home in the 1700 block of E. 25th St. at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, where they found the guns along with crack cocaine and $500 cash, a spokesman said.

The area, near the border of the Eastern and Northeast police districts, has seen nearly a dozen shootings in recent months, and police said they hope the guns will be linked to some of those cases.

Continue reading "Raid in area of violence nets 5 guns, 4 arrests for city police" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore
        

UPDATE: Baltimore police say patrol officers found the missing girl at 9:40 a.m. today in the 500 block of East 38th St. She was reported safe and unharmed.

Faith Seawell, a 12 year-old black female, was last seen yesterday, (Monday, March 11th) at 8:40 PM, within the 3700 Blk of Greenmount Avenue.

She is 5'5" tall and weighs 108 lbs. She was last seen wearing a black coat, pink shirt, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes.

Anyone with information in reference to the above runaway is asked to call the Missing Persons Unit at 443-984-7385 or 911.

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

A man shot and made a paraplegic at an East Baltimore carryout in 1992 died in January, and the state Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide this week, making the two-decade old case the city’s 26th slaying of 2011.

There are several so-called time-delayed deaths in Baltimore each year and they’re added to the city’s homicide count when ruled homicides. In this case, a suspect had been arrested at the scene but found not criminally responsible of attempted first-degree murder. If he’s still alive, he cannot be charged in the death.

Detective Donny Moses, a police spokesman, said James Fields, Jr., 47, of Gwynn Oak, died Jan. 5 at Northwest Medical Center. He said a medical examiner ruled Tuesday that he died of pneumonia brought by a prolonged stay in bed — a direct result of the shooting 19 years ago.

For more details:

Continue reading "Man shot in 92 becomes latest city homicide" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

A Baltimore police officer who was shot last year has been nominated as an All-Star by America's Most Wanted.

Officer Keith Romans and another officer were shot during a car stop in East Baltimore. The officers shot and killed the gunman during the encounter on McElderry Street. Here are some details from a Baltimore Sun story last year:

The shooting occurred shortly after midnight. Three plainclothes officers, including Moore and Romans, stopped a Chevrolet Caprice in the 2600 block of McElderry St. Police said the officers smelled marijuana, ordered the three occupants out and began to search the car.

[Police spokesman Anthony] Guglielmi said the driver broke free, jumped back into the car, grabbed a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun and opened fire on the officers. All three officers returned fire, police said.

The officers were part of a task force called the Monument Street Initiative that concentrates on the business corridor and neighborhoods along the thoroughfare east of Johns Hopkins Hospital.

People can vote once a day for a cop of their choice. Nominations are being accepted until April 2. Here are some more details on the shooting and on the officer from America's Most Wanted:

Continue reading "City cop nominated as America's Most Wanted All-Star" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

While wind-swept fires dominated the news, at least eight people were shot -- three of them fatally -- in a spate of violence this weekend in the city and Baltimore County. Two of the dead were in Parkville and in Lansdowne.

The Baltimore County slayings -- one early Sunday at a gas station -- were the county's third and fourth homicides of the year.

In Baltimore, six people were wounded by bullets, including a 15-year-old boy, in shootings that began Friday night. Two men were shot on Cliftview Avenue, in East Baltimore between Harford Road and Wolfe Street, on Sunday afternoon. One of the men died.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Baltimore County, East Baltimore
        

Michael J. Andrew retires Wednesday after spending 37 years as a city cop. His grandfather began his career in the city in 1921, the start of long line of family members on the city force. Andrew, who is close to 60, is perhaps one of the last cops left to remember call-box keys, and his departure will leave a void both in historic reference and old-time bravado.

But he was never afraid to say he was sorry. In the picture, he's visiting the home of a young boy who was struck by a police cruiser, putting him in a cast for the summer. Andrew was upset that no other cop or commander bothered to go, even if the accident was the child's fault.

Today's Crime Scene column goes into more detail of Andrew's career. He's known for his blunt, outspoken style, never afraid to speak his mind. And that got him into trouble, and endeared him to newspaper reporters.

Angry that cops stormed an apartment back in 2003 and shot and killed a man (who had killed someone else) without what Andrew thought was adequate negotiations, Andrew leaked a critical memo to a Baltimore Sun reporter. Commanders discovered the source, fired him and then reinstated him, but with banishment to the property division.

Andrew fought his discipline and for his lost pay all the way up the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in his favor. The city then gave up and last year Andrew got his money and a promotion to lead the tactical team. A year later, Andrew said the police commissioner called him into his office and asked if he was ready to retire.

Not many cops can boast of getting support in court from groups as varied as the police union, the ACLU and a committee for a free press. Most of the time, these groups are not exactly in agreement, especially when it comes to the release of information.

But Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, in a concurring opinion, offered one of the best defenses of whistle-blowers I've ever come across. He wrote, in part, that government scrutiny by the news media "is impossible without sources such as Michael Andrew" and that "it seems inimical to First Amendment principles to treat too summarily those who bring, often at some personal risk, its operations into public view."

The judge went on about how traditional media is losing ground and money as it struggles to deal with less revenue and a competing Internet, and said it's even more important now that people like Andrew step forward to help shine the light on government.

Wilkinson noted that Andrew was hardly passing along office gossip. "The matter about which Andrew spoke was not just an office quarrel or a routine personnel action," the judge wrote, "but a question of real public importance, namely whether a police shooting of a citizen was justified and whether the investigation of that shooting was less than forthcoming."

Andrew didn't just speak out to reporters. Here he is in some other moments:

Continue reading "Top police commander retires" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: East Baltimore, Top brass
        

The aftermath of the stabbing death of Veronica Williams outside a Baltimore court house -- for which her husband is now on trial -- allegations swirled that the suspect got special treatment from a top police commander.

Deputy Maj. Dan A. Lioli (left) was suspended after it was learned he had been in contact through text message with the suspect, well-known community activist named Cleaven L. Williams Jr.

Williams took the stand at his trial today and tearfully recounted problems with his wife. Williams has admitted to stabbing his wife but says it was not pre-meditated murder. He also has said he pleaded with the police officer who shot him twice to kill him, part of a plan for suicide by cop.

On Thursday, Lioi testified for the first time in public. The department had found no evidence of wrongdoing, though questions remained whether a warrant for Williams was not served as aggressively a it would've been for someone who did not have a cell phone number of top police officer.

The Baltimore Sun's Nick Madigan reports on Lioi's testimony:

Jurors heard from several members of the city police force, one of whom acknowledged under cross-examination that, four days before the killing, Williams had tried to turn himself in at the Eastern District precinct in response to a warrant charging him with assaulting his wife, but the warrant could not be located and Williams was told to leave.

“I knew him,” said Deputy Maj. Dan A. Lioi, recounting his history with Williams, a community activist. “We didn’t feel he was a flight risk.”

In the following days, after the warrant had been found, Lioi said he and Williams had been in touch several times by phone and text messages, trying to arrange a time for Williams to surrender. On Nov. 17, Williams told Lioi by phone that he was on his way to his lawyer’s office.

"’Let me get back to you,’” Williams said, and he hung up, according to Lioi.

About an hour after that, he learned that Williams had been arrested in the killing of his wife of almost 10 years. She was pregnant and had borne their three young children.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: East Baltimore, Top brass
        

A 45-year-old man was stabbed in the neck and killed Thursday afternoon after getting into an argument at a busy bus stop at North and Greenmount avenues.

The victim, who has not yet been identified, was waiting for the bus before 1 p.m. when he got into an argument with a young woman, said Detective Donny Moses, a police spokesman. The argument escalated and a man began fighting with the victim, he said.

He was stabbed in the neck, and ended up across the street at a Rite Aid store. Moses said a private medic in the area treated him, but he died a short time later at a local hospital.

Moses said police did not have a suspect but were reviewing camera footage and speaking to witnesses. The crime scene briefly shut down traffic both ways on North Avenue.

Delores Austin, who said she is a minister at a Northwest Baltimore church, said she picks up medications at the Rite Aid and was stranded at the store because her vehicle was behind the caution tape.

She said other bystanders were surprised at a stabbing occurring in broad daylight, but it didn’t alarm her. “What do they care? Don’t none of them care,” she said.

Austin said both of her sons were killed in violence, including son Titus Austin, who was sitting on the front steps of a house when he was killed by a stray bullet during a gunfight in 1991. She didn’t want to talk about their deaths, but said the persistent violence keeps driving residents away.

“A lot of people that moved out left because of this,” she said. “Crime isn’t down.”

Continue reading "Man, 45, fatally stabbed at busy North Ave bus stop" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, East Baltimore
        

The opening sentence to Tricia Bishop's story on the murder trial of the community activist:

The trial of Cleaven L. Williams Jr., who is charged with murder in his wife's stabbing death, opened Tuesday with the defense and prosecution agreeing on one thing: He did it.

The question is not whether Williams killed his wife outside a Baltimore courthouse, moments after she had been in court seeking a protective order against him, but whether the killing was premeditated or brought on by spontaneous rage.

It also was revealed at Tuesday's trial testimony that many believe Williams wanted to die after he stabbed his wife on East North Avenue, begging a police officer who shot him to finish the job.

Read Tricia's complete story here, and meanwhile look at the photos that were entered into evidence on Tuesday. Testimony in the trial continues today. Williams was a well-known community activist who marched in anti-crime walks with city leaders.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore
        

Police and city officials have to fight crime on two fronts -- reality and perception. It hardly matters if the crime declines statistically if residents feel unsafe.

And perception can come from various places, such as the media -- shows like The Wire -- or a particular experience. I hear every week from people who think the police helicopter flying over their neighborhood is evidence of decline. One holdup on the block can mean crime is out of control, even if holdups went down 80 percent.

That brings me to Chiara Mapelli, a 15-year-old from Italy. Her family was visiting DC and decided to come up to Baltimore for a few days. But wrong directions on their GPS led them to East Baltimore where she, her sister, mom and dad were, according to her e-mail, "frightened of everything they saw."

I'm presenting her email below, knowing it will spark plenty of debate. I have no idea how they missed the Inner Harbor and ended upon east Lafayette Avenue, or if they actually witnessed three purse snatchings, or a rampant drug trade, or even "prostitution everywhere."

But does it matter? This was this girl's perception of our city and it was enough to send her family speeding back to DC's Georgetown neighborhood. Whether or not her account is accurate, it's doubtful that her next trip to the U.S. will include Baltimore.

Here is her letter:

Continue reading "A wrong turn, and a visitor's dim view of the city" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: City Hall, Confronting crime, East Baltimore, Neighborhoods
        

The trial of Cleaven L. Williams, a community activist charged with killing his wife outside a Baltimore courthouse, is expected to get underway this morning with opening statements. But a hearing on Monday offered this bombshell, reported by Tricia Bishop:

Four days before Cleaven L. Williams Jr. stabbed his wife seven times on a Baltimore street, he wrote a letter outlining plans to kill her, according to testimony he gave in court Monday. "I figured that I had a [sexually transmitted disease] and I contracted it from my wife," Williams said, explaining that he wrote the undelivered letter because he was upset. "I write a lot, that's my vent."

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

From Baltimore Sun reporter Tricia Bishop:

The murder trial of Cleaven L. Williams Jr. — who's accused of fatally stabbing his pregnant wife outside a Baltimore courthouse in 2008 — began Friday morning with attorneys arguing whether the autopsy photos could be shown to jurors.

Veronica L. Williams was stabbed seven times in her face and neck, and the images taken by the medical examiner are described as graphic, showing wounds stretched wide to measure their depth.

"They're very shocking," said defense attorney Melissa Phinn. She contends that the photographs would prejudice jurors against her client, while prosecutor Kevin Wiggins said they are necessary to show "the extent of the injuries." The judge said he would allow them to be presented, with portions blocked out.

You may remember this case for another reason: the suspect was shot by a Baltimore police officer moments after the stabbing, and a witness urged the cop to fire again. The stabbing occurred just as the victim left court to obtain a protective order.

And later, a police commander was accused of sending text messages to the suspect, who was well known as a community activist and who went on police crime walks, as police were trying to serve an arrest warrant on him. The deputy major was later cleared but police studied whether the warrant for Williams had been handled outside normal procedures.

Reporter Melissa Harris, who is no longer at The Sun, wrote a long story on the Williams case.It includes this chilling account of the stabbing and the shooting of the suspect, picking up just as the victim was leaving court on East North Avenue:

Continue reading "Trial begins of community leader charged in wife's death" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system, East Baltimore, Neighborhoods
        

Baltimore police are searching for a man who held up a Family Dollar store at gunpoint in East Baltimore last month.

Police said the robbery occurred Jan. 6 about 12:30 p.m. The man walked into the story in the 1300 block of East Fayette St., threatened a clerk with a handgun and demanded money. He left with an undisclosed amount, walking south on Eden Street and then east on Lombard Street.

He then fled on foot southbound on Eden Street then eastbound on Lombard Street.  Anyone with information is asked to contact the Baltimore Police City-Wide Robbery Unit at 410-366-6341. Police say he is suspected in other robberies in the area.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

UPDATE: The camera position has been changed and now shows only highway traffic.

UPDATE 2: Kelly Melman, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transportation Authority, said a police officer for that agency first spotted the fire and trained the camera on the blaze because an exit ramp had to be shut down from I-95. The officer "was watching the fire to see if it growing and might involve closures along I-95," Melman said. When the fire died down, the officer turned the camera back to traffic along the highway, its normal location.

Baltimore firefighters are battling a 2-alarm blaze at the city's travel plaza, on O'Donnell Street and I-95. The fire is at the Roadway Inn, a three-story hotel.

Here's a link to a state transportation department camera so you can watch the fire live on your screen. Click on I-95 at O'Donnell Street.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore
        

Continue reading "Men stabbed, shot in Baltimore" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news, East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore
        

SNOWWWWWWWWWW! !

That's stating the obvious, I know, but it comes via Twitter, courtesy of the Baltimore Fire Department firefighters union #734. It's my way of passing along the latest public safety news!

Not to be outdone, Baltimore police put this up on Twitter: "DRIVING ADVISORY: Winter weather conditions are making area roads very slick. Please drive with care and consider staying home."

Of course, the rank and file firefighters and paramedics would be remiss if they didn't also remind you, again via Twitter, that the city continues to close fire companies to save money. So along with storm news, you get this:

Units closed to save money today are Engine 5 & Engine 8. Engine 43 is closed for maintenance. Use caution walking & driving in winter weather.

Engine 8 operates from a firehouse in the 1500 block of West LaFayette Avenue. The house also has a truck and a medic which are operational Engine 5 is out of the Roman Kaminski station in the 2100 block of Eastern Ave.

But enough politics. The last Twitter from Baltimore police was last night, with a man shot in the back in the 800 block of Lennox St. No word yet on his condition. Meanwhile, Liz F. Kay is reporting that the snow you see this morning is "just a teaser" of what we'll see later today and tonight.

Check out the rest of The Baltimore Sun for more snow news, including accidents and road conditions, and closing information. Or better yet, head to Frank Roylance's Maryland Weather blog, Let's see if the adage prove true -- more snow equals less crime.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Breaking news, Carroll County, Downtown, East Baltimore, Howard County, North Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, Northwest Baltimore, Southeast Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

A 36-year-old man was shot and killed Sunday night in East Baltimore when men began shooting from a white van that pulled up alongside him at a traffic light, and a 31-year-old man was killed Monday afternoon in Southwest Baltimore.

The killings mean the city, with 13 killings, has surpassed its total for all of last January, though the number is still below the average total for the month in previous years.

An officer found Antonio Lamont Lee, 36, in the driver’s seat of his vehicle, slumped over the passenger seat. Lee had been waiting at a stop light in a 2010 Acura sedan in the 1400 block of E. Monument St. when the van pulled up and suspects opened fire, police said.

The van turned northbound on Caroline Street then turned west on Madison Street. Lee was transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital, which is a block away from where the shooting took place, where he was pronounced dead at 11:20 p.m., police said.

Continue reading "Two killed in East, Southwest Baltimore" »

Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore, Southwest Baltimore
        

Separate shooting left two men dead in Northeast and West Baltimore, bringing to eight the number of slayings in the first 11 days of the year.

And that doesn't count the police officer and the man shot and killed during the melee outside a nightclub near downtown over the weekend. Details of that incident are still being sorted out, but appears the officer was shot and killed by friendly fire.

See The Sun's homicide map.

The latest shootings occurred Monday night -- the first about 9:12 p.m. inside a house in the 3000 block of Harford Road, in Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello. A 26-year-old man was killed. The second occurred about 11:40 p.m. in the 600 block of North Carrollton Ave., in Harlem Park. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: East Baltimore, West Baltimore
        

UPDATE: Word just came from Baltimore Police that the shooting near where the autistic man had been shot on Sunday was self-inflicted

Three people were shot and wounded overnight in Baltimore, including a man wounded just one street over from where a autistic man was shot and killed in while standing on his front porch with his dog.

No word yet on whether the shootings are related, but there's now been two in what has been described as a quiet neighborhood of Hamilton Hills in Northeast Baltimore.

Continue reading "Men shot in Baltimore, police seize more guns" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore, West Baltimore