Northeast Baltimore -Police investigate a possible
abduction. 5500 block Bowley's Lane. Two juveniles ages 9 & 12 last
seen in a blue van.
... hoping it's a non-custodial parent thing, and not a gang-retaliation thing like those Blackwell brothers...
Dropped by the CJCC meeting this afternoon, as I was in the neighborhood and had a notion to scope out new commissioner Batts. Batts apparently won't be on the grind until the end of September (Deputy Commissioner Skinner was there instead), but there were sandwiches, and here's some other interesting stuff I done learnded:
According to Sam Abed of the Department of Juvenile Services, the "VPI" is why the juvenile homicide rate is down so much-- 58% since 2008. Statewide 994 youths are in the VPI program and 276 in the city. The program apparently involves cherry-picking the exceptionally naughty children and GPSing their little ankles and/or making them report to someone three times a week.
Reporting for the Attorney General's office was one Brian Kleinbord, chief of the criminal appeals division, who recapped four Fourth-Circuit cases to watch in the near future, all of which might find their way to SCOTUS:
Maryland v King, aka "the cheek swab case." He said MD filed its "cert" in August and will find out in late October or early November if SCOTUS will grant it.
Woollard, et al., v Gallagher et al, aka the "concealed carry case." The appeal will be argued October 24. Merzbacher v. Shearin, which he called "as notorious and salacious as any case we've seen." This involves a Catholic-school child rapist (Merzbacher), convicted by a city jury and sentenced to four life terms. After Merzbacher was convicted, he appealed, claiming that he hadn't been informed of a plea deal. Said plea was heard by dear departed Judge Prevas, who found that Merzbacher's lawyer was lying, considering he found it unlikely they'd never talked plea bargaining and furthermore, as it turned out, said lawyer was also a convicted criminal who lied on her bar application. Merzbacher appealed Prevas' decision, District Court Judge Andre Davis agreed with Merzbacher, and so now the 4th C will deal with that mess October 23 in Richmond.
And some other fascinating facts:
Crime is down in almost every category over this time last year, though homicides are up (by less than one percent) over this time last year, and "larceny from auto" is up 6 percent.
So far in 2012, 55,717 people have been arrested in Maryland's "Central Region" (which appears to mean Baltimore City, since other stats in the same handout refer to city courthouses). 88% of these detainees were black, 90% were male. The average daily population of detainees is 3,320, and the most common "dominant offense" = drug-related. So far this year there have been two suicide deaths and two deaths from natural causes.
Remember that guy, Christopher Sharp, who took pictures of police beating up his female friend at Preakness? Police seized his camera and deleted the pictures, along with other personal photos and videos of his. So Sharp, with some help from the ACLU, sued the department, considering that taking pictures of the police in public is thoroughly legal, so long as you aren't all up in their business and whatnot. Then the DOJ chimed in as well, with a 10-page letter to the BPD telling them to quit being hosers. Buuut rather than settling the case and quietly moving on, as most flagrantly-in-the-wrong plaintiffs usually do, the department is now using your tax dollars to dig up dirt on Sharp, including talking to his ex-wife, his ex-wife's boyfriend and his former employers,* and subpoenaing his medical records, including the results of a court-ordered hair follicle test in 2007.
....But the city can afford it, because guess how much it made from speed cameras last year? Here's a hint: Xerox's windfall was $18.4 million, it averages out to about $57 per Baltimorean, and it also happens to be about the same amount the city paid out in police lawsuits last year. Note to self, buy Xerox stock.
An incident at Stemmers Run Middle School in Essex: WJZ says a student "road to school" with a hunting knife and a gun, pointed the gun at another student and then at himself before being restrained by his teacher.
In Pikesville, an elderly couple was found murdered in their home in the 800 block of Olmstead Road with no signs of forced entry. Tweeter @chrisinbmore says "Neighbors say a younger man had been living with them; he's nowhere to be found"
Oh, way to give the vote-suppressers more ammo, Wendy Rosen! The prospective Democrat challenger to Andy Harris has dropped out of the race following reports that in 2006 and 2008 she voted in both MD and FL. Obviously now all citizens should now have implanted, bar-coded microchips in order to be able to vote.
Media blabber: the Abell Foundation still wants to buy the Sun. Also Justin Fenton has a web page now, which can only mean he's trying to escape like Bykowicz and Hermann. Those selfish bastards, wanting fripperies like "sane hours" and "decent working conditions." And the Police Copter is Tweeting (location: ALL UP IN YOUR SHIT).
Ps., local news reported that Roland Park Elementary/Middle went on lockdown at around 8 a.m. today as police pursued a car thief on foot, but a student there tells me that's not true, though there were a lot of helicopters overhead. (Said thief was reportedly eventually apprehended à pied on Elmwood Ave)
But hey, every once in a while sexism works in your favor, amirite, ladies? Lutherville mom/convicted drug distributor Jennifer Debois Dickerson, left, got sentenced to time served for selling an "AK-style machine gun" to an ATF agent. (Though on the other hand, if she was a dude the story probably wouldn't have made the papers.) (note she's also in the JIS as DuBois, DeBois is correct.)
Correction: Rodney Pridget's alleged killers were members of the Black Guerilla Family,* not the Black Gorilla Family, Tyler Waldmann. (There is no Black Gorilla Family that I have heard of, though there is a Young Gorilla Family. Please make a note of it.)
One dead, another wounded in shootings Tuesday, bringing the toll up to 147.
A first-degree murder conviction for Timothy L. Kittrel for the death of Isaiah Roane, shot at a red light last year.
Ugh, what a kick in the boobs: Justin Fenton Tweets that Larella Amos's*
"one-year old son 'keeps asking for his
mother. No one has figured out a way to tell him what happened.'" Amos
was class president, an honor roll student and worked at the Essex
branch of SunTrust.
"Baltimore police on Wednesday identified the two officers who fired their service weapons* at a man who'd allegedly threatened them with a
gun Saturday as Detectives Christopher Icenroad and Donta Williams. ... Police also identified the man shot by the officers as Leontey Kiah, 36,
whose last known address is the 4000 block of W. Rogers Avenue. Kiah
sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the altercation with police."
In the Southeast, a man stabbed in the stomach for no discernible reason, a guy hit in the head with a shovel over spilled paint, a shop clerk attacked with a baseball bat by a customer whose credit card was declined.
Teenagers Kahrl Retti, left, and Justin Trionfo were arrested trying to cook up some kind of stanky huffable substance
were arrested in Loch Raven Heights. Trionfo also posted musings on
Facebook about wanting to blow up Loch Raven and Parkville high schools.
Trionfo's mom says jail is "where he needs to be right now." His mom
adds that he idolizes the Columbine shooters. Superduper.
The jury deliberating the Towson Town Center murder case is still deliberating
County takes care a bidniz, though, already an arrest in the fatal stabbing of Darryl Wilson Lovellette Jr., who was shanked near the Sinix bar in Essex early Saturday morning-- one Christopher Michael Wolfe (right), age 21
Victim #141 was 22-year-old Larelle Amos of Leabars Court in Baltimore County, shot to death by a stray bullet on the Alameda during a yard party on Sunday.
Well, that doesn't bode well: on the FB reader JM points out that in the year before our new chief Anthony Batts left his post in Oakland, homicides, other violent crimes and property crimes all went up. Batts attributed the spike to scant resources (natch). (Though note Oakland's homicide rate is still lower than ours: Oakland had 110 homicides in 2011 w a population of 396k, Baltimore had 196 with 619,000 people.)
Jury deliberations start today in the murder trial of Black Gorilla Gang members Frank "Chiclet Teeth" Williams (left) and William Ward III for the murder of Rodney Pridget outside the Nordstrom Rack in Towson Town Center.
The Patch has conveniently put links to all of the Baltimore metro crime blotters on one page. Stolen silverware! Purloined boots! Literally everything but the kitchen sink in Perry Hall! Oh, you crackheads are just the living end. And from the Southeast, another generous serving of a-hole boyfriends (what is it about the SE?): a guy left his kids in the car to go spray his girlfriend in the face with Mace®, a guy held a knife to his ex-ladyfriend's neck, a drunkard hit his gf in the face with a case of beer. And a female fiancee also brandished a knife at a guy.
Police are ISO a white guy with a neck tattoo (and cheekbones to die for!) who's been robbing Fell's Point businesses. (Chris Rock: "Every neck tattoo should read 'I'm not getting the job, am I?'") He really looks like the guy who held his cougar girlfriend hostage... gotta dig up that picture.
Jeff Hager on the bust at Victoria Spa on York Road: "Long before a website appeared advertising Chinese massage parlors in Timonium with happy endings, neighboring businesses already suspected the sad reality behind the services they had to offer." But don't worry, lonely mens, there are still plenty of other places offering sad reality ... and wait, does this mean a County cop got paid to get a squeezer? Eww
And four men were indicted in the city for murdering a witness. "Derius Duncan, 22, conspired with Keyon Beads, 30, Clifford Butler Jr., 21, and David Johnson, 23, to attempt to bribe and later to kill Ronald Givens, 55, who had been a potential witness in a firearms and narcotics case pending against Duncan in Baltimore City Circuit Court."
The Patch has the backstory of the shooting of Rodney Pridget outside the Towson Nordstrom, courtesy of a snitch informant; apparently it was a gang hit, ordered by a higher-up in the Black Gorilla Family whose cousin Pridget had allegedly shot. Yesterday jurors got to see video of the last moments of Pridget's life, courtesy of Towson Town Center's 268+ cameras.
Robert "Bobby" Wayne Gladden Jr., 15, will be charged as adult with attempted first-degree murder and assault in the Perry Hall High shooting. For what it's worth, Gladden's father has a criminal history on the JIS that includes assault with attempt to murder, battery, malicious destruction of property, theft, "marihuana" possession and "not marihuana" possession. County police say bullying was *not* an issue, and that Gladden had brought a disassembled 40-year-old shotgun, 27 rounds of ammo and a bottle of vodka to school on the bus that morning. His victim is out of surgery, still in critical condition, and apparently has Down syndrome.
.. and police have ID'd the owner of the Rottweiler that mauled a woman near the Waverly farmer's market as Omar McDee of McKewin St., who, curiously, has no Internet footprint whatsoever. (But there's an Omar McGee with a long resume...)
Fenton reports that 11 people have been killed over the past 9 days and the current homicide toll for this year is 139.* Sorry but I don't have the time to update our toll on the right, maybe TAB or another volunteer could pitch in? The death of the woman in Charles Village, Kristie Hufnagel, 41, has been ruled a homicide. You may recall her neighbor was living in her apartment with her body; police say she was asphyxiated. A victim on Thursday was ID'd as Terrance Gough, 26, who rapped under the name "Twitty Sparks" (video right). And yesterday Lindale Carrington was stabbed to death in the 600 block of Brisbane Road, Fenton says by his teenage daughter's boyfriend, WBAL reports Carrington was 33. Uhm, whut?
Three career drug dealers, Marvin Jackson, Derick Fallin and Johnnie Davis, got 15 years in the federal hoosegow for racketeering and trying to kill an "Omar" who robbed them: "In 2008, two individuals stole $250,000 from one of the stash houses. After learning the identity of the robbers, Fallin entered into a conspiracy to murder them, initially for $10,000 and gradually increasing the bounty over time. Davis conspired with Fallin to look for and kill the robbers, but they were ultimately unsuccessful."
Could've sworn a few years ago the police dept. was so broke they were thinking of getting rid of the helicopters. But now they've got four spankin' new ghettobirds-- actually they're ghetto oiseaux , assembled in Marignane, France with various parts made in China, Singapore and Australia.
Alleged pimp Daniel O'Brien Burton, left, was arrested in SC. "Police say they searched Burton and his car and found a total of $14,888.04, both on his person and hidden in a purple Hennessy box in his trunk."
Wouldn't ordinarily care about a boat crash in Anne Arundel county, but this particular boat was the Legislator, crashed by hardcore homohater Del. Don Dwyer, who was drunk as a mutharfrackin skunk with a .20 -- more than twice the legal limit. The crash injured six, including four children, one who suffered a fractured skull. Dwyer is perhaps best known for trying to impeach Doug Gansler when he said he'd recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere and chestnuts like "if a law's not in concert with the laws of nature and of nature of God, and I would hold that, therefore, it is no law at all."
Speaking of old chestnuts, sounds like home invaders are using that "BGE worker" ruse again. Needless to say, get a peephole, use it, and don't open the door for anyone you aren't expecting.
Mitchell Courthouse employees protested unsanitary conditions today, which included "a dead rodent that was trapped between a window and Plexiglas in the office area ... their complaints to remove the rat were ignored until protestors took action ... someone finally removed it and put it in an employee's nearby trash can."
Two more murders, both of sexagenarians*: Fenton reports Sterling Parker, 61, and his wife agreed to babysit two small children; the kids' parents never returned and after a few weeks the Parkers called CPS. Parker was assaulted in the 1900 block of Walbook Ave on the 4th and died on the 20th. And 65-year-old Charles Canty was found suspiciously dead in his home in the 1700 block of N. Carey St.
Police Tweet that a man was shot to death in the 1700 block of North Carey Street.
Ten years for one Chauncey Harris for possessing a firearm, and here's an odd excerpt from the press release: "Baltimore City Police officers responded to a residence on Edgewood Street in Baltimore for a report of a rape, where they found Harris and a female. The report of rape was subsequently determined to be unfounded." I mean, if it was rape-y enough for her to call ... must have been one of those non-"legitimate rapes" we've heard so much about this week...
The BPD Tweeted: "Detectives make arrest in Bloom street triple shooting from Sunday which injured 9 year old boy. Donte White DOB 4/11/1989." They're also ISO a suspect in the car crash that killed Officer Morris in the PGC and have posted a picture (of a picture)
The BBC (via the Brew): "Baltimore invites immigrants - no questions asked"
Oo, oo! Ballot questions!! Should the city borrow more money for museums and community colleges? Should convicted felons be removed from office? Should undocumented residents get in-state tuition? And do we care about the bar status of orphan's court judges?
Remember "writer turned warrior" Matthew VanDyke, who went to Libya as a journalist, decided to become a gun-toting insurgent? Well, he's off to kill some more people for freedom, this time in Syria, and this time to make a film, he says.
An upsetting story online from a guy named Matt Fisher, whose sister was killed in a car accident in our fair city, then had her own insurance company, Progressive, hire a lawyer to represent the guy who hit her so as not to have to pay the claim. Tsk!
A woman in the NE was killed in the 4200 block of Hamilton Avenue-- she was the mother of the suspect who killed two brothers* (127 & 127) in the 600 block of Linnard on Wednesday.
The Baltimorean shot in Columbia in a police standoff August 9 was ID'd as Percy Holland of Preston Street; Holland broke into his girlfriend's house on Exeter street and kidnapped their daughter, fortunately neither the ex or daughter was harmed.
Two men, possibly brothers, shot to death on the 600 block of Linnard St.* in the SW last night. Reports Fenton, "officers were first called to the 600 block of Linnard St. about 9 p.m. for reports of shots fired but did not find anything suspicious. Later, around midnight, officers received a call from a man who said he was inside a home where people had been shot. When police arrived, the caller was gone and officers found the victims inside."
147 years for 50(!)-year-old Aaron Graham, who went on a robbery spree of five businesses with the help of his 49-year-old getaway driver in February last year. Fast-food peons were pistol-whipped, various clerks were in threat of their lives and $1,163.53 was absconded with, but a quick-thinking employee of a shop on West Franklin Street took a video of Graham's getaway car; so ends this sorry tale.