May 8

Post: "Gov. Martin O'Malley said he is considering whether to sign a bill that would put Maryland among the states seeking to reverse a long trend toward more severe punishment for some drug crimes."

"Detectives may walk beat in Baltimore" sounds like an encouraging headline, but ... "detectives" includes the city's mere 42 (?!?!?!) homicide detectives, who, in addition to the corpses du jour spend one week a month working on some of the 1,065 unsolved murder cases (according to Janis) that remain unsolved from the past nine years.
Meanwhile, in case you missed it, the homicide closure rate for 2007 is 23.4 percent so far.

The aptly named, Robert Looney, wanted by authorities on an attempted-murder charge, was arrested at about 8 a.m. today after he barricaded himself inside a house on the 2800 block of Gatehouse Drive in West Baltimore.

A reader at the U of MD downtown wrote to ask, "Have you heard anything about a group of teens knocking on doors in Ridgley’s Delight on Monday morning around 10 a.m.? Supposedly, someone in the group shot at the front door of one home, hitting the occupant." Later today she forwarded this warning from the police:

This morning (Monday), there was an attempted home invasion on Fremont Street near South Paca Street. The suspects were seen earlier knocking on doors in the area. It is also believed that they were involved in a shooting on Scott Street in Barre Circle last week.

What can you do?
If somebody knocks on your door, do not open it before checking to see who is there [gee, rilly?!]. If you see people matching the following descriptions knocking on doors, please call 911 immediately and tell the operator that you see suspects matching the description of the shooting in Ridgely's Delight.

Suspect #1
Age: 16 - 19
Race: African American
Skin Tone: Brown/Medium
Sex: Male.
Build: Medium
Height: 5'6"
Hair: Dread locks (shoulder length)
Clothing: Blue and red polo shirt with grey sweatpants

Suspect #2
Age: 16 - 19
Race: African American
Skin tone: Dark
Sex: Male
Build: Medium
Height: 5"6"
Hair: Short curly hair
Clothing: Dark colored hooded sweat shirt
Suspect(s) are known to be armed with a long barreled handgun, possibly a [.]22 caliber. Suspect fled on foot across MLK toward Pigtown. The University of Maryland police are also assisting with the investigation.

Attorney for Roland Park's local perv, Kenneth Barnes (left): let my pervert go!

WJZ: illegal dirt bikes and ATVs are wild on the streets and police won't chase them down, creating a "real stew of trouble."

In the County, John Gaumer's trial for the murder of Hampden's Josie Brown began. The Sun's Jennifer McMenamin has details about the process of the investigation, but Broadwater at the Examiner lets loose with the horrific details that will have you groping for a puke bucket. As reports of horrific murders should, right?

Jamaal K. Abeokuto's death sentence was reduced today to life without parole for the 2002 kidnapping and death of eight-year-old Marciana Ringo.

Better late than never dept: the Gov. signed a bill apologizing for slavery in Maryland. On that note, quote of the day from former slave about mealtime at Hampton Mansion up in Towson:

There was a trough out in the yard where the poured in mush and milk, and us children and the dogs would all crowd 'round and eat it together. We children had homemade wooden paddles to eat with, and we sure had to be in a hurry about it, because the dogs would get it all if we didn't.

And a recollection by a man who'd seen his sister beaten for accidentally breaking a clock:

My old marster took her and tied a rope around her neck-- just long enough to keep it from choking her-- and tied her up in the back yard and whipped her I don't know how long. There stood mother, there stood father, and there stood all the children and none could come to her rescue."

(from James Loewen's excellent Lies Across America, quoting slave narratives collected in the 1930s). Overseers, including the Ridgelys of Hampton, were also known to rub salt into whip wounds, castrate males who ran away, and sell parents of young children to farway plantations, never to be seen again. Gone With the Wind it wasn't!

April 27

HoCo's second murder of the year -- 40-year-old Alevtina Y. Zhilina, a clerk at a 7-11 store -- is making Columbia residents nervous. Running Brook Elementary was on lockdown yesterday due to the killing.

Kirk Fonseca and Lewis Edward Rich are in custody for fatally stabbing 18-year-old Ernest Buchanan in a downtown McDonald's yesterday. The killing is making Baltimore workers nervous. In breaking news, the city of Baltimore will be put on indefinite lockdown. (Only kidding. Sorry. Not funny.)

Sintia Mesa's family is upset because there has been no justice for her murder. Welcome to Baltimore, hon.

Two women and a man were shot on the corner of N. Luzerne and E. Preston in East Baltimore yesterday, and an officer was injured in an accident while on the way to the scene. A neighbor was quoted as saying, "We’ve lived here one year, and we’ve already seen three or four shootings... This is no way to live." In yesterday's comments, Supreme gives his take on the getaway: "the shooters probably headed right up the street to a liquor store on N. Milton or Orleans and then walked directly back to the crime scene and laughed about it!!!"

The 14-year-old boy who brought papa's 9mm to school earlier this week was trying to protect himself after he was jumped when he got off the bus on his way home from school. In addition to regular beatdowns, he is now facing expulsion.

A juror in the sentencing trial of Jamaal Abeokuto, the convicted murderer of 8-year-old Marciana Ringo in 2002, "just can't do this."

Three Molotov cocktails were thrown at a house in the 2000 block of Ellsworth Ave early Wednesday morning.

Some victims and convicted criminals are meeting face-to-face.

Perv du jour: MoCo middle school math teacher Charles Robert Bouma allegedly pulled down his pants while driving a convertible and showed his goods to a school bus full of Catholic schoolgirls.

March 8

A teenager was shot in the face in the 3200 block of Phelps Lane in the Southwest last night.

Steve Carr, 38, of the 3800 block of Hillsdale Avenue in Baltimore, will be arraigned Friday, March 9 at 9:30 a.m. before Judge Martin P. Welch. Carr is charged with Armed Robbery and Assault on A. Robert Kauffman on December 6, 2006, in his home in the 2000 block of N. Hilton Street in Baltimore. Court documents allege that Carr assaulted A. Robert Kauffman on his head with a brick, and then took his wallet with more than $100 in cash.

Police are looking for Jose Elder Montufar, 28, of Parkville, friend of the victim's uncle, wanted for the kidnapping and rape of a 13-year-old girl in Govans who only habla español.

Eighteen years for Steven Lee, 20, from Judge John Glynn after Lee pled guilty to second-degree murder for shooting and killing Edward Brown in the 1300 block of Mosher Street during an argument on January 5, 2006.

Thomas Harris, 33, turned himself in for the first-degree murder of Karim Cross, whom he allegedly stabbed in the Rush Hour Bar on Liberty Road in Randallstown.

Immediately after being "tied up in court this week" with client Ameer Taylor, Warren Brown zipped up to Bosely Avenue to take the stand at a motions hearing for his former client, Jamaal K. Abeokuto, who has a second death sentence-related hearing next month.

William Wright, 37, got 15 years after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

"Baltimore County police shot a woman who charged an officer yesterday while she was holding knives in a house in Essex."

Not Baltimore but makes for Good reading anyway Dept.:
CA's vague medical marijuana laws have local police in a bind.
(MD allows medical marijuana, but I've never heard of anyone atempting to use MD's law as a defense)

Headline of the week : "Man boasts he had sex with mayor"
No, it's not about Baltimore (sadly) but about SF's much-stalked Gavin Newsom.