Four-alarm fire forces Cockeysville residents to flee
A 4-alarm fire late Thursday night extensively damaged at least one three-story garden-style Cockeysville apartment building and forced the evacuation of numerous residents, said a spokesman for the Baltimore County Fire Department. No injuries were reported. The fire, reported at 11:40 p.m. at the Milestone Manor Apartments in the 200 block of St. David Court, went to four alarms in a matter of minutes and brought firefighters from at least a dozen stations. At one point, the fire went through the building's roof, said a Fire Department communications officer. He said Maryland Transit Administration buses were dispatched to provide temporary shelter to the displaced residents and that apartment management was expected to provide shelter in unoccupied apartments. The cause and origin of the fire remained undetermined.
- Richard Irwin
Incarcerated Columbia man indicted in cold-case killing
A 26-year-old incarcerated man has been indicted for first-degree murder in the 2003 shooting of a Columbia man. Terrence Armstead, 34, was found dead, lying on the sidewalk near his home on the 9600 block of Basket Ring Road in Columbia on July 26, 2003. Clarence Michael Banks Jr. was indicted last week after a four-month grand jury investigation. The indictment was unsealed Thursday. Banks is serving a five-year sentence for the Dec. 12, 2005, armed robbery of a Columbia gas station. Many of the details of the killing are not available because the case originated with the grand jury. Banks had previously lived in the 5800 block of Stevens Forest Road in Columbia. Although the initial investigation of the killing failed to result in charges, the case was recently reopened by the Howard County Police Department's cold-case squad, which worked with the state's attorney's office to present evidence to the grand jury.
- John-John Williams IV
Woman gets 1-year term in $450,000 theft from UMB
