Thursday, February 3rd: Help the baby monkey!

"I feel bad for the monkey most of all because the monkey is who is gonna suffer," says Judie Harrison of the baby Capuchin monkeys stolen this week from a Glen Burnie home. Yes, stolen monkeys. They eat three times a day and if they're not fed, become quite unpredictable. A $1000 reward is offered for the return of the monkeys. Please, if you have information, call (410) 222-8610.

Marcus Byrd was arrested for the murder of Terry Street. Byrd is 20 years old. Street was 23 at the time of his death.

Welcome to Baltimore, now get over it! The story, from the godforsaken Washington Times, reads: "The killing of a Hopkins senior Jan. 23 has underscored the sense of vulnerability students feel in a city where there has been virtually a murder a day since the beginning of the new year." OK, please. One Hopkins student suddenly made the Rev. Moon aware of the murders happening all over town? Yeah, okay, you're gonna get killed while waiting for your triple latte chai at Xando. Ugh. Hopkins students. Go to East Baltimore sometime, willya? Then you can complain.

Elsewhere:

Police in Frederick say that a skull found in the middle of the street was probably stolen from a nearby cemetery.

In White Marsh, a woman was sexually assaulted at gunpoint. So much for being safe in the county.

Tuesday February 1

The murders of two teenagers in West Baltimore bring the year's homicide toll to 31.

The Sun picked up the story of the graffiti on the Arena, and tells us who the mysterious Tyrone Knox is.

An 80-year-old man (left) has pled guilty to defrauding the city school system.

The city is trying to figure out how to deal with officers injured in the line of duty.

The IRS is after the NAACP, and the Baltimore-based nonprofit is refusing to open its books.

Robbery and drug arrests in the blotter.

Elsewhere,

Witness intimidation is on the rise in Baltimore County. I wish the assistant Baltimore County state's attorney hadn't quoted Bob Dylan.

Charles Sealover, a suspect in a Baltimore County murder, has turned himself in.

A Baltimorean is under arrest for the murder of a mom and her daughter in Binghamton, NY.

Police are looking for the guy who robbed a Wachovia bank branch in Milford Mill.

A man in Easton was arrested for ramming the minivan of two moms who he thought were taking too long to order at the McDonald's drive-thru.

In Carroll County, a man and woman were arrested for stealing hillbilly heroin and other perscription drugs from the pharmacy where they worked.

The Hopkins student murder has hit the wire and has been covered from Georgia to California. The school announced plans to spend $2 million to improve security.

Monday January 31

Graffiti on the the wall of the Baltimore Arena

Trial will start tomorrow in the case of Dwayne Gibson, 20, alleged to have murdered Wayne Rideout, 43, by setting him on fire in the backyard of Gibson's home on Grantley Avenue on September 28 of 2003.

An alleged pot dealer and bad driver fleeing the law was arrested in St. Pauls North Carolina, population 2,137 (it's in the southeastern part of the state).

Shootings, stolen cars and burglary in today's blotter.

Kevin Clark's suit against the city can go on, says judge.

After a cameo in the "Stop Snitching" video, Denver Nugget Carmelo Anthony will now be shooting PSAs for the government. "He is a very nice young man," says the Governor's office.

Elsewhere,

Trial continues in the case of Ronald Deondre Evans, who at age 16 was allegedly involved in murdering 18-year-old Kozar Goode during a mugging in Parkville.

Police are looking for whoever keeps robbing hotels in PG County.

Trial starts today in the murder of a Jessup deli owner.

St. Mary's County cops had a "busy weekend", what with a catfight over a television set and a disroderly drunk at the Burger King.

Sunday January 30

Two homicides and two nonfatal shootings in the city yesterday.

Elsewhere...

fatal shootings in Towson and Camp Springs in the city/county digest.

Annapolis residents are concerned about violent assaults in the Eastport area.

The BMW involved in a fatal hit and run in Towson has been found.

The 17-year-old girl who claimed to have been assaulted near Woodbridge Elementary is now accused of filing a false report.

Friday January 28

Police are looking for 24-year-old Lamont Maurice Better, left, accused of stabbing his neighbor and who is also wanted for another assault.

A 41-year-old mom has pled guilty to killing her 18-month-old daughter.

And trial starts today in the stomach-turning case of a Pasadena teenager alledged to have beaten his girlfriend's daughter to death.

The usual crimes in today's Police Blotter.

Eight Dundalk teenagers were arrested for a parking lot fight after a basketball game.

Also in Dundalk, a woman was shot to death during a drug raid. (anybody know what "black powder" referrs to?)

A newly released report about former police commish Kevin Clark's domestic dispute reveals that Clark's ex dropped off his kids two days late for visitation and beat him on the head with a telephone.

Thanks to the sweaty Dexters of Hopkins, technophile car thieves will now be able to do the job without breaking windows or messing up your steering column.

And finally, police report that they seized eight guns yesterday in various incidents. Says the Sun, "in one incident, a man was spotted limping Wednesday afternoon in the 2900 block of Charles St., police said. Officers stopped him, found a 12-gauge shotgun he was carrying was the cause of the limp, and arrested him."

Elsewhere...

There's been a crime alert issued by Towson U. after a mugging in the parking lot of St. Joseph's Medical Center.

In Towson yesterday 18-year-old Matthew McCullough was sentenced to 100 years in jail for the Randallstown High shooting.

The State's Attorney announced yesterday that Jamaal Walker, 27, was found guilty in the April 16, 2003 carjacking of Edward Hawkins. Sentencing will be April 15. Co-defendant Jeremiah Poole previously pled guilty to the carjacking and use orf a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.

In Annapolis two vigilantes tried to run a bad boyfriend over with a truck.

Here's the Washington Post crime blotter for PG county.

Thursday January 27

Anna Ditkoff reports on this week's seven murders in the CP column Murder Ink.

Robbery, shootings and thievery in today's police blotter, and in the digest a man pleads guilty to beating his infant son.

Stop the killing by attacking the drug trade, says this unoriginal and leaden Sun editoral.

Wednesday January 26

An arrest has been made in the shooting deaths of three men at a halfway house in Remington, and police are seeking a second accomplice.

Stop snitching

A few weeks ago, the house of a 59 year old outspoken anti-drug activist (whose name they haven't released) was firebombed. They've now charged four suspects: according to WBAL, "Jackie Brewington, 18, and Antonino Newsome, 18, Richard Royal, 20, all of Baltimore. A fourth suspect, Andre Wilkins, 31, is from Randallstown." This is two years after the horrible firebombing that killed the entire Dawson family, kids and all.

According to the AP, "The new incident comes about six weeks after a DVD titled "Stop Snitching" hit Baltimore streets, warning people they could "get a hole in their head" for telling police about illegal drug activity." "Stop Snitching" was produced by Rodney Bethea, owner of One Love Underground in Baltimore, and a guy named Skinny Suge, who appears to sell a lot of mix tapes online, usually with names like "Street Wars 6".

Evidently, the DVD was aimed at one particular Baltimore drug kingpin who rolled over. Still looking for details.

I think it's clear that some major upheaval is going on out there, what with the 27 murders this year so far and the new police commissioner saying the drug trade is being squeezed so hard, it's causing violence. I dunno what his logic is there. They haven't come out and said it's an all-out war, but come on.

Wednesday January 26

The murderers of Justin Gaglione were arrested on Thursday after a street robbery in the Patterson Park area. Gaglione was the fourth person murdered execution-style by a pair of street robbers; the pair has also been charged in the January 20 murders of Teresa Moore and Michael Joseph Mick, who were shot in their homes, and Penelope Medina, who was shot on the 2100 block of East Fayette Street.

This item from Dick Irwin's police blotter sounds like it has an interesting backstory:

Arrest: Sheldon Eubanks of the 2100 block of N. Smallwod St. was driving a car in the 1900 block of W. North Ave. about noon yesterday when he was stopped by members of the Warrant Apprehension Tasks Force and arrested on a charge of first-degree murder. Eubanks, 23, is charged in a warrant with shooting Alphonzo Harper, 26, in the 1000 block of Tiffany Court on Aug. 29, 2002. Members of the cold case squad assisted in the investigation of the homicide.

The CEO of the record label formerly known as Murder Inc. surrendered today to the FBI on money-laundering changes. The unsubtly nicknamed Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo is childhood friends with Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, a crack kingpin from Queens believed to have arranged the revenge killing of two witnesses in Baltimore.

And fittingly, the governor introduced legistlation yesterday to make witness intimidation a crime. Believe it or not, it's currently only a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of five years, which as this Swedish-based news site points out, "is a similar penalty to racing a horse under a false name."

Finally, if you live in Baltimore and want people to care if you get murdered, note that going to Johns Hopkins apparently guarantees celebrity-level coverage by local news media.

Tuesday January 25

Detective Jones of the Baltimore City Homicide Department reports that there has been an arrest made in the shooting death of Justin Gaglione (see Sun blotter item below), but could give no further information, though interested parties may be able to get more details from the detective on the case, Napoleon Maclane, at 410-396-2400.

Jones also reports that, contrary to what was previously reported by the Hampden Happenings, the highly suspect-sounding death of Nick Marsalek has still not been classified as a homicide, a decision which rests with the Medical Examiner's Office, and the case is not currently being handled by the homicide division.

in other news...
WBAL reports that a Hopkins student was found strangled in her Charles Village apartment on Sunday, the 27th homicide in Baltimore this month. The killing was six blocks from where another Hopkins student, Christopher Elser, 20, was stabbed nine months ago.

An article form the Afro-American about the Baltimore informant who's been forced out-of-state by drug gangs.

A story about the Thanksgiving-morning whodunit murder of 23-year-old Waldorfian Christopher Mader.

from the Sun city/county digest:

Police release names of four homicide victims
City police released the names yesterday of four victims of homicides over the past 10 days.

• Police said Michael Mick, 40, was the man found fatally shot Thursday along with Teresa F. Moore, 51, in their home in the 800 block of N. Bradford St. She had been named earlier.


• A woman found shot to death in a public park in the 5700 block of Chinquapin Parkway, also on Thursday, was identified as Reshawn Myers, 19, of the 700 block of Exeter Hall Ave.


• Kenneth Battle, 29, of the 2800 block of Echodale Ave. was fatally shot Wednesday in the 2900 block of Brighton St.


• The other victim, shot to death Jan. 14 in the 300 block of E. 20 1/2 St., was identified as Justin Gaglione, 29, of the 1200 block of St. Paul St. (see middle of the page for the obituary in the Annapolis Capitol).
  

...and there's rape, robbery, assult and other assorted crimes in today's blotter.

Three people have been arrested in Dudalk for shooting at a police officer carrying out a drug raid.

The Washington Times reports that the murder rate in Baltimore has caused a shake-up in the police department.

in surrounding areas...

A woman in Rockville has pled guilty to stabbing her father.

The whole world, including the British press, has picked up the story of a refugee from Myanmar accused of stabbing his wife in front of his two kids in Catonsville over the weekend who now faces deportment.

In Harford county a fight between girl gangs led to assault with scissors.

Monday January 24

This study by the Baltimore Chronicle seems to agree with me that "TV news in Baltimore under-reports both black and urban crime," but comes to the opposite conclusion that TV news ought to report less crime than it already does.

Anyway, in Baltimore crime news, a shooting and assault made the crime blotter today.

In surrounding areas...

The Sun reports than a man has been arrested in the beating of a college sophmore in Annapolis.

News Channel 8 reports that a guy has been arrested for killing his grandmother in Beltsville.

WBAL reports that two best Buy employees were stabbed on the job in Laurel.

Saturday January 22

CNN today picked up an AP story published in the Sun that belies election-year propaganda... city homicide rates are up, not down.

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- The city's homicide rate increased last year for the first time since 1998 as authorities said killings became more targeted, often in connection with the drug trade. As of Wednesday, the city had reported 271 killings in 2003, compared with 253 in 2002. It's a 7 percent increase and the highest homicide total during the four-year tenure of Mayor Martin O'Malley, who campaigned on a pledge to reduce annual homicide totals to 175.

The Baltimore City Paper's Anna Ditkoff didn't shy away from the story, getting right in there and asking lots of questions in Baltimore's East side murder mile, in this Wire-esque piece, The Toll.

The Sun, obsessed with various weather-disaster stories, had not much to report in local violent crime today:
A single story about how two Baltimore men were charged in double slaying
and an editorial (as opposed to research-based reportage) from Gregory Kane, seemingly the only Sun writer that discusses violent crime.


And speaking of slayings, the Hampden Happenings newsletter reports that city police are now investigating leads in the suspicious death of 26-year old son Nicholas Z. Marsalek, who was found dead under the bridge at the 3100 block of Remington avenue at 4:35 a.m. by a passerby on November 17. Marsalek was last seen at the 3100 block of Keswick road at 2:30 a.m. on the morning that he died. There is a $5,000 reward for information leading to an indictment in this case. The investigation is being handled by the northern district homicide division, 410-396-2100.

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