Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Enchantment of the Seize

Fox reports that cocaine and heroin were found again on Royal Caribbean's cruise ship at the port. More from the Sun

Two more murders

in CHuM and Harlem Park, no suspects, no motive

Teen Ronald Johnson arrested for murder of marine

A vigil for nightclub shooting victims, meanwhile Select Lounge has a lawyer, and he's got no comment

PG County has also had 10 homicides in 10 days

Legal farce* drags on

Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Paul A. Hackner has said he will not delay the capital murder trial of prison-guard killer Lee Stephens. A pre-trial appeal on evidence in that case is still waiting before the Court of Appeals, but five years after the crime Judge Hackner is tired of all the delays.

* note this does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the blog administrator

Monday, January 10, 2011

Worst. 48 hours. Ever.

Bealefeld says 41 shots were fired by police in the Select Lounge gun battle, and witnesses say the slain officer was shot by police as he lay on the ground.

And "Pistol" Pete Welch was sworn in after only three council members, James B, Kraft, Bill Henry and Mary Pat Clarke, voted against him.

.. so what story did WBAL lead off the 11 o'clock news with? A flashing wanker, of course!

Tweet, tweet with Pistol Pete

You can now "follow" parody Pistol Pete Welch on Twitter.

.. only three hours til we're officially stuck with this guy forever, if you're not thrilled about that write or call your city council rep!

Two more murders

Two men found shot dead in the laundry room of an apartment building in the 1700 block of Gwynns Falls Parkway

A suspiciously dead man in a car in the 1300 block of Bradford St

One of the brothers accused of setting fire to Phoenix the pit bull was arrested for attempted murder seven months after prosecutors dropped gun and drug charges

Relatives of the 22-year-old killed in the gun battle outside the Select Lounge say uniformed officers fired recklessly into the crowd

Phylicia Barnes is still missing, a prayer service was held and Nancy Grace put a little box on the bottom of her home page.

George Huguely to be arraigned on additional charges in Charlottesville today, by closed-circuit TV. Update: the Post reports the hearing was postponed

The NYT asks, "Is Law School a Losing Game?" (A: Yes. Yes it is.)

Page Croyder: "Bernstein should have picked his own spokesperson. He didn't need his wife to do it for him." Burn! .. for what it's worth, I do know Cheshire, I think he'll be committed to transparency and I don't see him caving into anybody. Though the SA being married to the mayor's liaison to the police is certainly a mighty cozy situation.

Gun-toting felon nominated

This is horrifying! On Friday, all but three city council members voted to nominate former gun-toting felon Pete Welch to his mom's old seat. The final vote is tonight, please take a few minutes to drop your city council rep a note letting him or her know what you think.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Two killed on N. Paca St., one on 33rd

Officer William H. Torbit Jr., 33, and 22-year-old Sean Gamble were killed and four others were shot in a melee outside of Select Nightclub at 415 N. Paca St.

A man was found shot almost-dead in a car on 33rd Street near Union Memorial, but was taken to Hopkins where he died.

29-year-old Marco Lomax and 28-year-old Ravanna Cornish were arrested after detectives saw them shoot an 18-year-old in the 2300 block of Harford Road.

Mighty strange details in the Glen Arm shooting: it sounds like the female homeowner fired at the alleged intruder and missed, then the guy retreated, drove his truck to the parking lot of Sanders' Corner Restaurant ("that dam place") and shot himself with an AK-47. (Reader comments [for what it's worth] identify the guy as "Scooby" and the woman as "lou the barbers wife" and his former employer)

Volunteers searched the ground for Phylicia Barnes yesterday; a prayer service is to be held at 6 p.m. tonight at Brown's Memorial Baptist Church, 3215 W. Belvedere Ave.

Also missing: the brother of Ravens safety Ed Reed, who jumped into the 40-degree waters of the Mississippi during a police chase.

Downtown shooting, police officer killed

multiple people shot and and some killed on Paca and Franklin streets downtown.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Party crasher, panty snatcher

Grab your junk, 2nd amendment fans: "A burglary suspect was shot by a homeowner in Parkville." Reports WBAL, the suspect dragged himself to his truck before expiring

Two men shot in city

Defrocked priest Laurence Brett, who taught at Calvert Hall & reportedly molested dozens of students, was found dead in Martinique. Said a victim, "He taught us a bunch of stuff that was way outside the box of Catholicism that I grew up with."

This just in: Nancy Grace is a big fat racist.

"Death penalty, gay marriage issues are back for Maryland lawmakers"

Crofton panty snatcher in custody

More on the barricade situation near UMBC yesterday

Pay cut for cops

Police officers not happy about a cut in pay deducted from their latest checks.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Avoid MLK & Howard

Word on the street is that area is also shut down as a suspicious package is under investigation at the Herbert O'Connor State office building at 201 W. Preston, though the building as not been evacuated. (update, the suspicious package was a box of laptop batteries)

4:28 p.m.: Fire trucks have also surrounded the Mitchell Courthouse and traffic is shut down on the west side of Calvert St. (update: the suspicious package was a box of toner cartridges)

4:45: Inside Charm City reports "Significant Police Activity on Linden Ave" as well (probably unrelated)-- update, a mere barricade situation

You can follow the Sun's story here

Mail bombs!

Two packages have exploded today in two state government buildings ... the Jeffrey Building on Francis Street in downtown Annapolis and another at the Maryland Department of Transportation building in Hanover.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

... one shouldn't laugh

Karla Porter said she wanted her husband "hit," not killed

Have you seen these 20-something white guys, wanted for holding up the Wise pharmacy & a Subway?

Tough times: attempted theft of Irish Spring & stolen terlit paper in your local blotters

Bernstein tells WBAL he plans to set up databases to let the public follow cases

Retired Episcopal priest Donald Belcher indicted on child sex abuse charges

Leave the guns, bring the coffee

The Ink recaps the murders of 2010 and notes that people under 30 made up the majority. The Single Carrot Theatre reading is tonight.

Ow! Man shot in the scrotum

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said this morning that he will call for a committee vote on death penalty regulation.

Shut the front door! Bernstein's new communications director is former Daily Record editor Mark Cheshire.

You still can't take your guns to town: MD's handgun law ruled compatible with the scope of the Second Amendment by the Court of Appeals

Ow! County robber uses a hot coffee facial as a weapon. Police are also ISO these guys who robbed a Domino's, who wisely took the money and left the pizza (what's on smurfhat guy's crotch? Looks like a rectangular codpiece..).

More on the search for Phylicia Barnes; Barnes' mom is understandably livid that "20 different guys" were in and out of the apartment on the night 16-year-old Phylicia went missing. .... so Cham was the one who had them searching Leakin Park, which is a little funny in a macabre waste-of-your-tax-dollars sort of way (is the FBI also digging up your basement, Cham?). Groused Peter Hermann, "It took more than 100 cops seven hours to thoroughly search just the area that the poster directed them too. (sic) ... the written word is powerful, and shouldn't be written in haste."

The 2011 mayor's race is getting crowded

Another candidate looking to challenge SRB

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

...condemned to repeat it

The FBI has joined the search for missing NC teen Phylicia Simone Barnes, and detectives are searching Leakin Park. UPDATE: the search proved fruitless

Senator tells WBAL executions in MD won't resume any time soon

More on the mysterious murder of Hezikah Wilson III

Prosecutor tries, fails to keep renegade Shomrim member Eliyahu Eliezer Werdesheim from visiting Isreal

WTF? Douglas Lee Patrick, 39, posed online as an 18-year-old cancer-stricken lesbian named "Leah" to entice teenage girls into sending him crotch shots .. and it worked

SRB wants tougher gun laws, including a minimum 18-month sentence for illegal firearms.

Campaign finance report sheds light on the law's many, many loopholes

Former JZ reporter arrested again (!), this time for violating a protective order

Tort-ure: Writer & blogger Bruce Goldfarb fires an opening salvo in la guerre de les Hons, meanwhile, a third anti-hon protest is in the works for next Saturday. They are starting to scare me a little.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Sun: Bernstein's being was sworn in

The Sun queerly reports: "Baltimore's new state's attorney was being officially sworn in Monday morning at the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse. Gregg L. Bernstein was scheduled to be sworn in about 7:45 a.m." .. here's a more readable story from the BBJ. Bernstein also announced some new staff members, including an executive state’s attorney for administration. And more details from the oddly age-obsessed Daily Record.

Ya think? Report says missing N.C. teen Phylicia Barnes "may have been abducted"

Shooting in Woodlawn last night & the 32-year-old victim left clothes behind. A witness reports the shooter was driving a white SUV.
Wilson
Homicide victim #3 was ID'd as Hezikah Wilson, 38. Guy was out walking his damn dog. UPDATE: Fox reports that Wilson, left, was autistic and found shot around 6:30 p.m. last night on his front porch in the 1500 block of Plymouth Road.

Woman's body found on side of road in PGC

Who knew? "Baltimore Immigration Court is among the nation’s best"

Another attempted robbery stopped by a bad-ass officer at the right place at the right time, this one a U.S. Marshal in AAC who disarmed an 18-year-old about to rob the E Z Bee.

Retired bomb-sniffing dog & his Papillon pal are missing from Dundalk

Srsly? Hardcore hon-haters held a second protest at Roland & 36th (the story doesn't say when)

Says Anna Ditkoff, "Single Carrot Theatre is doing their annual reading of Murder Ink on Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. It will be outside their theater (120 W. North Avenue)." Bundle up, because that reading takes a long, long time...

Police Dept. press conference at 2 today to talk crime stats, you can watch it here

John Pontollilo invoked in Slate article entitled "Nerd Violence"

Three days, three homicides

The city's third murder victim of the year is a 38-year-old man who was shot on Sunday evening.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

#2

.... a 16-year-old boy shot to death in the 500 block of N. Lakewood Ave.
Update: Id'd as Marquise Hall.


Baltimore City Councilman James B. Kraft has asked Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III for a response to TDR's "wrong Shapiro" story, to no avail

Bernstein to be sworn in tomorrow, no news on where, what time or by whom. .. odd that I was invited to O'Malley's inauguration (considering I didn't vote for him) but not Bernstein's, no?