Aberdeen Police

Aberdeen police have charged two city residents with second-degree assault in an attempted attack on Mayor S. Fred Simmons, authorities said yesterday. Dravine I. Henderson, 18, threatened Simmons with a baseball bat and used abusive language, police said. A 17-year-old boy, who was egging on Henderson during the incident on East Bel Air Avenue at noon Wednesday, was also arrested, authorities said. "They approached the mayor aggressively with Henderson holding a bat," said Sgt. Fred Budnick, police spokesman.

A Harford County man has been arrested in the armed robbery of a Dollar General store in Aberdeen, police said. Cornelius Alexander, 40, of the 700 block of Pulaski Highway was arrested Saturday and charged with robbery, assault and use of a handgun in the commission of a felony. Police said a man used a BB gun to take more than $500 from the store in Aberdeen Plaza near West Bel Air Avenue on Saturday morning. Aberdeen police officers were near the shopping center about 11:30 a.m. when they received a call about the robbery.

As he raised the claw of a backhoe over the tiny downtown Aberdeen home, Mayor S. Fred Simmons was reminded of the suspected drug dealers who once drifted through its doors and the angry pit bulls chained to trees in the front yard. With one violent jerk downward, Simmons sunk the claw into a front corner of the Washington Street home and tore it off, to the cheers of pastors and a gospel choir. Along with the controlled burns of two other houses, city leaders called yesterday's events a symbolic step forward in the effort to revitalize Aberdeen, a growing military outpost.

Two female employees were fatally shot during an attempted robbery of a convenience store last night, Aberdeen police said.Aberdeen police, county sheriff's deputies, Havre de Grace police and state troopers were searching early today for one man, possibly two.The women were killed about 8: 10 p.m. in a Wawa Food Market in the 200 block of N. Philadelphia Blvd., said Detective Sgt. Fred Budnick of Aberdeen City Police.One of the victims died at the scene; the other was pronounced dead at Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace, said a spokesman for the Harford County Fire Board.

Aberdeen police said yesterday that they had obtained photos from surveillance videotape at a Wawa convenience store where two employees were killed Monday night in what police continue to investigate as a botched attempted robbery.Capt. Kenneth Cox, spokesman for the Aberdeen Police Department, said that the tape had been sent to Aberdeen Proving Ground for enhancement but that investigators had decided not to make the photos public.Melissa Pennington, 18, and Nancy Atkinson, 31, both of Aberdeen were killed after a gunman opened fire in the store in the 200 block of N. Philadelphia Blvd.

When Aberdeen police sought help investigating Monday's double homicide at a convenience store, they sped to a nondescript facility tucked away at Aberdeen Proving Ground.In a small beige building, investigators began the meticulous, frame-by-frame process of enhancing the surveillance video taken from the store, using Army technology so sophisticated it could easily freeze-frame the image of a rocket as it hits a target.Officials will say only that the image of a gunman was retrieved from the tape at the Aberdeen Wawa, where Melissa Pennington, 18, and Nancy A. Atkinson, 31, both of Aberdeen, were killed in what police are investigating as a botched robbery attempt.

Harford County authorities have charged a Bel Air man as an accessory to murder in the aftermath of the March 1 killings of two Wawa convenience store workers in Aberdeen, saying he helped a man who has yet to be charged in the case.Laidley Elphic, 23, was being held without bail in the Harford County Detention Center yesterday on charges that authorities say are related to the fatal shootings of Melissa Pennington, 18, and Nancy Atkinson, 31, both of Aberdeen.Elphic is accused of aiding and abetting Waylon Tenoco Wesley, 26, of Havre de Grace, who is named in Elphic's indictment but has not been charged in the Wawa deaths.

A 27-year veteran with the Maryland State Police has been selected as the new chief of the Aberdeen Police Department.Capt. Randy M. Rudy, an assistant commander with the criminal enforcement command, will be sworn in Jan. 24 as the replacement for Michael Zotos, who retired Oct. 1.In his current job, Rudy oversees the technical investigative unit that includes homicide investigations, computer crimes and the Maryland Center for Missing Children.Rudy, 50, said he was attracted to Aberdeen for several reasons, including the opportunity to interact more with the public.

A body found in the parking lot of a convenience store Sunday was identified yesterday by Aberdeen police.Stephen Eugene Heintz, 30, whose address is not known, died of blunt trauma injuries, police said.The death, which has been ruled a homicide, remains under investigation by Aberdeen police. Police said they have no suspects.Pub Date: 3/09/99

Terrence G. Johnson, paroled amid controversy in 1995 after serving nearly 17 years in the slayings of two Prince George's County police officers, shot himself to death yesterday moments after robbing an Aberdeen bank with his brother, police said.The shooting, which came as police closed in near the NationsBank branch at Beards Hill Plaza, shocked those who knew Johnson as a model former prisoner. And it brought tears at the University of the District of Columbia law school, where, until recently, he had been a second-year student.

Two men shot, one fatally, in Northwest Baltimore A man was fatally shot in the head Wednesday afternoon in Northwest Baltimore, according to city police. The man was pronounced dead about 1:20 p.m. at the scene of the shooting in the 3900 block of Fairfax Road, police said. About an hour earlier, a 42-year-old man was shot in the upper torso and knee in the 3800 block of Ayrdale Ave., police said. He was taken to an area hospital after staggering to a Walgreens drugstore in the 3800 block of Liberty Heights Ave., according to police.

Two to head U.S. attorney's team on violent crimes 3 Two men have been named heads of the Maryland U.S. attorney's office's Violent Crimes Section, which oversees prosecutions and investigations of violent repeat offenders and gangs. Michael Hanlon, deputy chief since the fall, is now chief of the section, replacing Jason Weinstein, who left the office to join the U.S. attorney general's office as a deputy assistant in the Criminal Division. Kwame Manley, who is a prosecutor in a federal death penalty trial that went to the jury Tuesday, will become deputy chief.

The Harford County Sheriff's Department said yesterday that it will investigate a loitering incident in Aberdeen last week that sparked a confrontation between police and several residents and led to the arrest of four people. The president of the NAACP's Harford chapter alleged that the arrests were racially motivated. Police have charged Troy Maye, 29, and his sister, Praschel Maye, 26, as well as siblings Deon Brooks-Anderson, 18, and Jasmin Brooks, 19, who are cousins of the Mayes, with resisting arrest, second-degree assault and disorderly conduct.

Man charged in several armed robberies A Better Waverly man has been arrested in connection with several armed robberies in Baltimore City and county, the most recent a Woodlawn pizzeria, city and county police spokesmen said yesterday. Baltimore County police took Gerald Charles-Purvis Williams, 25, of the 800 block of Exeter Hall Ave. into custody Wednesday on charges of armed robbery and using a handgun in a violent crime, according to court records. He was arrested after the robbery of a Woodlawn Papa Johns, said county police spokesman Bill Toohey.

Aberdeen police are investigating a robbery at Ripken Stadium and kidnapping of an employee there in early yesterday, authorities said. Baltimore County police said they found Brian Baynes, 30, an employee at the stadium's restaurant concession, about 2:30 a.m. in the area of Ebenezer Road and Pulaski Highway. He had been cut and was suffering from a serious arm injury, police said. Baynes told police that he was finishing up duties after a ballgame when a man armed with a handgun entered the stadium office and demanded money.

An 18-month-old boy was seriously injured when he was bitten by a pit bull yesterday, soon after he arrived at the home of an Aberdeen day care provider, police said. Aberdeen police officers, responding shortly after 8 a.m. to the incident in the 800 block of Edmund St., found the little boy bleeding from deep bites to his head, injuries that required surgery at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, police said. "Surgery was required to close the head injury," said Sgt. Fred Budnick, Aberdeen Police Department spokesman.

Aberdeen police honored by Guard Chief Randy M. Rudy of the Aberdeen Police Department recently was presented with an award for employer support of the National Guard and Reserve from the Maryland National Guard. The Police Department has had three officers deployed to active duty since the country went to war against Iraq. Sgt. James McGarvey and Officer First Class Timothy Helf have each been deployed twice to the Middle East. Officer First Class Christopher Bradley has done security details in the United States.

The town of Havre de Grace will be featured at 9 a.m. today on ABC (WMAR-TV) on "Maryland Living" with Steve Rouse. The show is about cultures, communities, people, food and destinations. While Rouse and his crew were visiting the town April 15, they ran into Mayor Wayne Dougherty, who gave a rundown of the happenings in Havre de Grace. Meeting to focus on road changes The Harford County Department of Public Works, Division of Highways and Water Resources, will hold a public meeting to discuss proposed modifications to Tabernacle Road at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Department of Public Works conference room, 212 S. Bond St., Bel Air. Anyone unable to attend the meeting, but who wants to make a comment, can send written comments to H. Hudson Myers III, Deputy Director of Public Works, 212 S. Bond St., Third Floor, Bel Air, Md. 21014, or by e-mail at hhmyers@harfordcountymd.

Another cabdriver robbed in Aberdeen For the second time in as many days, a cabdriver has been robbed at gunpoint in Aberdeen, police said yesterday. Two men, one of them armed with a silver handgun, demanded money from the driver, who had been dispatched to Defense Drive near East Bel Air Avenue about 3:30 a.m. yesterday, police said. Both men, who were wearing hooded coats, fled on foot with an undetermined amount of cash. A similar armed robbery occurred at about the same hour Tuesday in the same neighborhood, police said.

Aberdeen police are investigating the armed robbery of a cab driver early yesterday. Two people, one armed with a handgun, demanded money from the driver, who had been dispatched to the Magnolia Farms Apartments on East Bel Air Avenue about 3 a.m., police said. The suspects, described as possibly a man and a woman, were both wearing black hooded sweat shirts, police said. They fled on foot with an undetermined amount of cash. The cab driver was not injured.