Crazy, man!

Stats say MD's crime rate hit a 35-year-low, and no one knows why. ... but it would seem to disprove once & for all a causal connection between crime and the economy, non? ... and already the DPP is using the stats to retroactively defend parole officers' massive caseloads.

John Wagner Convicted Of Killing Stephen Pitcairn

More on that from WBAL. .... and, apparently well aware that this is the case that got him elected, Gregg Bernstein held a rare Q&A session at about 9:30 tonight to take questions from the press.

Lunchtime Crime

Football players behaving badly: former Ravens player Jermaine Lewis (not to be confused with coke dealing former Raven Jamal Lewis or justice obstructing Raven Ray Lewis) was released on bail after getting tased and arrested. Cops came to Lewis's home after he was seen driving erratically.

Crime in Maryland is at its lowest level since 1975.

A guilty plea to first-degree from Michael Brooks. Prosecutors say they intend to ask for a 30-year sentence.

Alleged pervert and a burglar on the loose in Anne Arundel County.

Ralph Edward Thomas is in big trouble with the feds. He allegedly stole $800,000 from clients who included a child with birth injuries and a woman with dementia.

The commish defends the Baltimore PD on the Marc Steiner Show.

Cherice Ragins's family is still looking for her.

Drunk driving and illegal street racing are a deadly combination.

I'm not certain how I feel about this. City police will start taking crime reports by phone.

11 Days

Baltimore went a full 11 days without a homicide before two separate killings Sunday.

First a man who is officially unidentified at the moment was shot to death on the 2900 block of Edgecombe Circle North. WBAL is currently identifying him as 23-year-old Durrell Burrow, But there is no record of a man with that name anywhere I looked, and no other news sources are identifying him.

Shot on the 3400 block of Clifton Ave. was Catonsville resident Demetrius Lareese Sowers, 33.

An alleged police impersonator has been arrested. 24-year-old Lamel Pierce (Right) is suspected of having committed the first in a string of apparently un-related series of faux police operation robberies.

Two men were shot Friday night in two separate northeast Baltimore incidents.

Good 'ol Judge William D. Quarles has reversed the decision to release city police officer Daniel Redd, 41 on bail, citing "overwhelming" evidence.

Another arrest for weapons at BWI. This time it's Christopher Glen College, 44 who was charged with keeping a loaded .45-caliber gun in his carry on luggage.

A Brooklyn Park man is charged with stabbing his step-father and choking his mother in a late-night attack. Jesse Edward Chapman III was charged with a variety of serious crimes.

Apparent teenage "flash mob" hits a Montgomery County 7-11. Kids these days...

From play fighting with a buddy to stabbing him in the stomach... It apparently doesn't take much to set off 46-year-old John Murray, who is in custody facing attempted murder charges.

Ferndale resident Phyllis Marie Amonica, 38, has been charged with murdering her "boyfriend" 47-year-old James Gray Pfaff.

A case that is slowly unfolding into a very interesting series of seemingly very professional crimes get's new details. Craig Steven Brooks, 49, has been charged with robbery after impersonating a utility worker and robbing a woman who's gas pipe he was claiming to check. Mr. Brooks, mind you, had also been charged back in July alongside 46-year-old John F. Haston with impersonating Pepco workers during robbery turned homicide of a Bowie coin-operated laundry owner.
Craig Steven Brooks (Left)
John F. Hastons (Right)



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In International news:

Charges are expected to be laid against Gary Giordano in Aruba. Giordano, age 50, is currently the main suspect in the disappearance of Frederick resident Robyn Gardner. I'm very curious how a man with fairly recent arrests for shoplifting electronics can afford a 1.1 million dollar house.

In more sad news, Rockville resident Warren Weinstein has been abducted in Pakistan. Mr. Weinstein was in Pakistan to help develop their economy and fight poverty.