Crime Briefs

Police probe 2 shootings that left five people injured

Baltimore police are investigating two separate shootings. One man was shot in the face and another in the foot about 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the 200 block of S. Dallas Court in the Perkins Homes public housing complex in East Baltimore, police said. No further information was available. About an hour later, three men were shot in the 3700 block of Glenmore Ave. in Northeast Baltimore, police said. Officers responding to reports of gunfire found the first victim, 19, with gunshot wounds to his back and foot. The second victim, 17, was shot in the back of his right leg. The third victim, 19, was found at Glenmore and Fairdel avenues with gunshot wounds to his lower back and right leg. All three were taken to nearby hospitals and were reported in stable condition, police said.

-Liz F. Kay

Va. court upholds sniper capital murder conviction

A federal appeals court in Virginia has affirmed the capital murder conviction and death sentence of D.C.-area sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its unanimous ruling Friday. The panel rejected several claims by Muhammad, including that he never should have been allowed to act as his own lawyer for part of his 2003 trial because he was too mentally impaired. The 2002 shootings by Muhammad and teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo terrorized the Washington, D.C., area. In all, 10 people were killed in four states, including Alabama and Louisiana before the pair moved on to Virginia, Maryland and D.C.

- Associated Press