Saturday, November 18, 2006

November 18th

In Metro Digest (after the food bank story), a guy was shot to death in Upton and another guy was shot a bunch of times and may or may not be dead or dying in Ellwood Park.

One of the four people believed to be responsible for the stabbing death of a 17-year-old girl at a light rail stop has been apprehended.

Here are a few more details in the other day's murder-suicide in Sparks.

A woman in Glen Burnie was convicted of shaking her 15 day old baby to death last year.

Kids in Annapolis just can't get enough of fighting in school.

Brian Doyle, the Homeland Security internet pervert, has been sentenced to 5 years in Florida.

Another Maryland pervert has been arrested down south, this one for murder.

Good old ABC7 doesn't realize that there are Caroline Counties in both Maryland and Virginia. This incident obviously took place in Virginia, and even has "Va." in the headline, but when you click on the "Maryland" tab on their front news page, this article is listed in there.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

More November 16th

A fatal shooting in Brooklyn Park last night brings Anne Arundel County's murder total for the year up to 16 (I think). Please note this does not include Annapolis, since they have their own police force that handles its own murder investigations, or any of the prisoners/prison guards that have been killed in Jessup this year, since that's state property.

Also, a double shooting at a business park in Sparks, north of Hunt Valley. WJZ is calling it a "double homicide," but WBAL and The Sun only say "double shooting" and don't know the conditions of the victims. So far, the Baltimore County Police Dept.'s press releases page has nothing about it.

UPDATE: Less than ten minutes after I posted that, WJZ changed their article from "double homicide" to "murder/suicide." Still the same link, though.

Last night during a robbery in West Baltimore, a cab driver was shot in the balls.

I always forget to check the Examiner. Galt brought this article about the undetermined deaths thing to my attention. It's not very in-depth or anything, but it's at least interesting for the breakdown of the causes of death in these cases.

November 16th

Donta Allen surprised everybody yesterday by pleading guilty to the murder of Linda Trinh.

The owner of Club Malibu is sick of the cops and the liquor board constantly harassing him over trivial matters like having too much dried blood on the dancefloor and his patrons engaging in 200-person brawls, and he hilariously suggests that some rival bar is behind it. Matt Jablow: "I don't even want to dignify that remark."

Crime is up in the County.

OK, everybody, now you can start running stories about the fourth body found in Harford County being ID'd.

Our oldest murder suspect this year has died in jail before ever coming close to making it to trial.

Today's rather bare-boned police blotter details the closing of two of this year's other murder cases.

Resident reaction to Tuesday's murder in Salisbury. I'm pretty much only including this because it very briefly mentions Baltimore, and I found it interesting that this year Salisbury has tied its previous record for most murders in a year ever.

In Calvert County, crime consists of drunk driving, smoking weed, stealing beer, and throwing pumpkins at mailboxes.

Good news, homeless sex offenders! You don't have to register!

Why wasn't it like this when I was a kid?

Once again, this is DC news, not Maryland news, but when I read it, I thought I was losing my mind.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

November 15th

So, The Sun's murder count was (sort of) right, there was another murder that was never reported until today, even though it happened a week and a half ago. The catch is that it wasn't until more recently that anybody realized that the victim was wanted for a shooting in Columbia. Nobody cares if another person dies in Baltimore, but everyone cares about Howard County!

Other than that one, according to Murder Ink the Sun got all the other ones. Anna Ditkoff points out that her records indicate that there have been 240 official murders this year, but the police (and The Sun) say 238. For a minute I thought she was counting the two people killed by police that are listed this week, but I just checked my own spreadsheet and she's right. Hmm.

UPDATE: Wait, I take it back, she's wrong. Two of the murders in my spreadsheet that I was counting were people getting shivved at the City Detention Center, meaning they were wards of the state at the time of death, so it's not within the city police's jurisdiction. And, I just noticed that she had the right number last week, so she DID count the two people shot by cops (one incident it wasn't even a city cop, it was an MTA cop). Doesn't she know, after 2+ years of doing Murder Ink, that isn't how it works? Why isn't she including the other four people that have been killed by police in the city this year?

In today's blotter, a weird burglary in Roland Park and a shooting in CHM, among other things. Yesterday's blotter has the identity of Saturday's murder in Mount Holly (you say Walbrook, the Baltimore Dept. of Planning says "to-mah-to"), shootings in Poppleton and Milton-Montford and a lot of robberies and stuff.

Salisbury had its sixth murder of the year last night. They had one last year.

That's all for now. I'm definitely going to do at least one more update today, I just thought I should throw something up here real quick since I didn't post anything yesterday.

Monday, November 13, 2006

WTF was that?

So I was on Coldspring Lane going east a few minutes ago, coming off of 83, waiting at the light on Falls Road with Grandma Cybrarian on the passenger side, and the lady in the car next to me, which was a gold Chevy of some kind started leaning on the horn. I was like, "Mom! No! Don't roll down the window!" but she's from Georgia so she did, and the lady driving held out (what looked like but who knows, from 15 feet away in the dark) a police badge and motioned for us to pull over. I was like, "sorry, no, I'll follow you to the Northern back there, but I'm not going to pull over." And she said, "okay, well, you need to slow it down on the driving," and I said okay, and she sped off.

So was it really an undercover cop in an unmarked car, or did we almost get jacked?!
I don't know, but either way ... know where your local police stations are and don't pull over for anyone in the city if you're not sure who they are!

November 13th, evening edition

Mrs. Cybrarian forwarded me some press releases today from the State's Attorney's Office:

Baltimore, MD - November 13, 2006 - The murder trial of Donta Maurice Allen, 28, of the 3000 block of Matthews Street, is scheduled for 9:30 AM tomorrow before Judge Roger W. Brown, 406 Mitchell Courthouse East, 110 North Calvert Street. Jury selection is expected to begin at that time followed by pre trial motions. Opening statements are expected to begin 2:00PM Wednesday.

The Baltimore Grand Jury indicted Allen on April 15, 2005 for first-degree murder and first-degree burglary.

The indictment charges Allen with the murder of Linda Trinh, 21. Trinh, a Johns Hopkins University student, was found dead in her off campus apartment, 3333 North Charles Street, January 23, 2005.

Allen remains held at the Baltimore City Detention Center without bail. Assistant State's Attorney Matthew B. Fraling, III will prosecute this case.


[There have been several articles in the past few days about how this is almost definitely going to be postponed for a third time.]

Baltimore, MD - November 13, 2006 - Patricia C. Jessamy announced that the Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Renato Cawthorne, 38, unknown address, for first-degree murder and other counts.

Court documents allege on December 16, 2005 a witness identified Cawthorne as the person responsible for the death of Jonathan Dwight Coles, 24. Mr. Coles was robbed at gunpoint and fatally shot in the 1700 block of E. Preston Street. He succumbed to his injuries the following day at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

An arraignment is scheduled for December 5, 2006, Judge John P. Miller, Room 428 Mitchell Courthouse. Assistant State's Attorney Don Giblin will prosecute this case.

Baltimore, MD - November 13, 2006 - At a hearing today, Judge Althea Handy sentenced Malik Vandiver, 18, of the 2900 block of Parkwood Avenue, to 30 years in prison for second-degree murder and 20 years in prison, consecutive, for a handgun count.

A Baltimore City jury convicted Vandiver August 29, 2006 of second-degree murder and use of a handgun in the commission of a felony or crime of violence.

On January 8, 2005 Vandiver shot to death of Bayonna Cox, 29, of the 2500 block of Francis Street. Testimony at trial proved that witnesses heard gunfire early that morning and saw Vandiver leaving the Francis Street residence with a gun. The murder weapon was found later that morning at the home of the defendant's friend in the 4600 block of Homer Avenue.

Assistant State's Attorney Mary-Ann Burkhart prosecuted this case.


And lastly, I just want to call attention to the story about that body being identified in Harford County. Now WBAL suddenly has it as their top story, as if it's breaking news or something. And when I was watching the local news at 4 on WJZ they said something like "coming up: a body found in a Harford County field in September has been identified. Could the person responsible already be in custody?" YES! They're already in custody! We've known that since September! I was pissed off a few days ago when a cat stuck in a tree and a deer with a plastic jack-o-lantern stuck on its face were big stories, but this might be worse. Don't shove some old-ass news in my face and act like you've got a big scoop! Argh!

(Sorry, you said "no partisan rants," not "no rants of any kind.")

2008- You Heard it Here First!

Got an info tidbit y'all might be interested to know:
The 2008 democratic ticket will be Al Gore with Barack Obama as VP.
Thought Al was happy sporting the Paul Bunyan beard and harshing everyone's mellow with the global warming thing, but no-- he's going to make another go of it. It's supposed to be kind of a secret, but looks like someone forgot to tell his web desiger ... if you want to keep it quiet, dude, you might want to change the page title and icon!

Anyway off to catch a plane ... and I'm NOT taking the computer!
Toodles!

November 13th

People murdered this weekend:

-Donald Samuels (links to police blotter which also details three non-fatal shootings), shot to death Friday in Curtis Bay (Baltimore City #235, or #236 if you believe the Sun's last published count which would indicate that they failed to ever print anything about #234, which is totally believable)

-Shaun Tiller and an unidentified male, shot to death Saturday in Berea and Mount Holly, respectively (#'s 236 and 237 or 237 and 238)

-Muhammad Rafique Chaudhary, shot to death Sunday in a convenience store robbery in Parkville

-Reina Natosha Lynch, shot to death Saturday while on guard duty in Beltsville

-Devon Harold Jackson, shot to death Sunday in a robbery in Cheverly

-Donald Harrison, beaten to death Sunday by his son during an argument in Seat Pleasant

If anyone is counting, that makes it six murders in four days in Prince George's County. This includes last Thursday's double murder in Hillcrest Heights, the victims of which have finally been identified, and the shooting in Clinton that I never actually posted an article about (until now!).

Also, Abby Karoma was killed Saturday in Lanham in a hit-and-run involving a "silver, 1990's four-door sedan, possibly a Honda Accord or similar foreign make." Was there a woman in the trunk?

Lastly for PGC, cops shot two suspects after the car they were in pinned an officer against another car. Neither of them died, but if you're keeping track, PGCPD has killed 5 people this year. In this respect they are tied for #1 in the state with Baltimore PD.

A guy was arrested for stealing 40 (!) vans in MD, PA, and DE.

An unidentified male robbery suspect was shot to death Saturday by an MTA officer at the Reisterstown Plaza metro station.

Misleading Headlines Department:

-Yesterday's Sun article about the above-mentioned incident is titled "MTA officer kills robbery suspect in Reisterstown." Just because the metro station is called "Reisterstown Plaza" does not mean it's in Reisterstown. Ever heard of "Belair Road," "Harford Road," "York Road," or "Frederick Avenue?"

-"Fourth Woman Found Dead, Identified In Harford Co." (No, there haven't been any more IDs made since Friday, and there haven't been any more bodies discovered since September. One body is still unidentified.)

-Yes, this happened in DC and not MD, but the headline is so misleading I couldn't help but post it: "Youth Drives Metrobus after Driver Flees" makes it sound like this kid did something heroic, whereas "Youth Detained After Commandeering Metrobus Saturday Night" is way more accurate