Acura

A Baltimore city employee was killed Tuesday afternoon after a man veered off an interstate and sped onto downtown streets, flipping the car he was driving in front of City Hall, according to police and the victim's family. Matthew Hersl, an employee of 28 years who worked in the finance department and was an avid Orioles fan, was struck and taken to Maryland Shock Trauma center, where he was pronounced dead. A Maryland State trooper first encountered the driver on Interstate 83 when the driver flew up behind him at speeds that may have exceed 100 miles per hour, according to Sgt. Marc Black, a department spokesman.

Baltimore police plan to reconstruct an accident Monday in Mount Vernon that claimed the life of a teen-age girl as they try to determine whether officers contributed to the crash by chasing a stolen Acura Legend.City police are forbidden from chasing cars because the behavior is deemed dangerous on congested streets.Officers involved in the incident Monday told investigators they broke off a two-block pursuit four blocks from Madison and Cathedral streets, where the crash occurred.Killed was Nayshea Monet Saunders, 17, of the 4600 block of Craddock Ave. She was a passenger in a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was broadsided by the Acura that witnesses said had been speeding at more than 80 mph. Seven people were injured.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Howard County.Ellicott City: 3000 block of Oak Green Circle: A thief stole a 1990 Acura Legend about 4: 40 a.m. yesterday.Elkridge: 6200 block of Washington Blvd.: Two robbers, brandishing handguns, entered a High's store and took an undetermined amount of cash from a female clerk about 10: 55 p.m. Monday. The two escaped in a car driven by an accomplice.Kings Contrivance: 7500 block of Weather Worn Way: A thief stole a 1993 Acura Vigor, license CKV840, about 8 a.m. Monday.

A carjacker jumped into an idling car in West Edmondale yesterday morning and sped off with two young children as their father tried frantically to intervene. The carjacking began about 6:50 a.m. when a Woodlawn man left his 1993 Acura unlocked and running with his sons, ages 2 and 4, in the back seat while he paid for gasoline inside the Shell station at 5317 Edmondson Ave., police said. The father "ran out and jumped on the car in an attempt to stop the suspect from stealing the car," said Cpl. Vickie Warehime of the Baltimore County police.

A man operating a motor scooter was injured last night when he was struck by a car driven by a suspected robber and being followed by police. The suspected robber got away, police said. Northwestern District officers were told during the 3:30 p.m. roll call about a car -- a black Acura -- that was seen shortly after 6 a.m. at an armed robbery of a Burger King in the 6600 block of Reisterstown Road, said Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman. Shortly after 6 p.m., the car was spotted in the Forest Park area by an officer who tailed it at a slow speed and requested backup, Moses said.

A Laurel man who was charged months ago with killing a pedestrian during an apparent car race on Route 198 in August turned himself in yesterday, Anne Arundel County police said. Police had been seeking Richard McHale II, 23, of the 9300 block of Steeple Court in the Aug. 10 incident near Red Clay Road. Police said McHale's white Acura Integra struck and killed Chelliah Johnson, 53, of Riverdale as the victim was crossing the six-lane state highway. Witnesses said the white Acura had been racing a blue one. Johnson, an employee at the Red Carpet Inn on Route 198 and the father of two young sons, had crossed more than half the highway when he was struck.

Amid the bluster over trade sanctions between the U.S. and Japanese governments, one panicky consumer decided to take real action yesterday: He called Frankel Acura in Cockeysville and bought a $30,000 car over the phone, before impending tariffs add tens of thousands of dollars to the sticker price.It was just one of a spate of phone calls to import dealers in the area yesterday as prospective customers sought to find out whether the escalating trade fight would interfere with their plans to buy an expensive car.The Clinton administration has targeted 13 Japanese luxury models for 100 percent tariffs -- sold under the Acura, Lexus, Infiniti, Mazda and Mitsubishi nameplates -- to persuade Japan to open its markets to U.S. automakers.

Craig R. Unruh, an advertising executive and avid waterfowl hunter, died Sept. 14 of colon cancer at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. He was 61. Mr. Unruh was born in Baltimore and raised on Tunbridge Road in Homeland. He was a 1969 graduate of St. Paul's School, where he had been an outstanding midfielder on the lacrosse team and a key player in the 1969 state championship game. As a student at the University of Maryland, he was a starting midfielder his freshman year, and after earning a bachelor's degree in 1973, continued playing the sport for the University, Chesapeake and Carling lacrosse clubs.

Investigators have pieced together this chronology of events in the murder of Yvette A. Beakes, a 26-year-old Glen Burnie pharmacist: Wednesday, Aug. 8 10:45-11:30 p.m: Beakes leaves Pickles Pub after visiting friends. Four attackers spot her on the Beltway or Arundel Expressway and follow the car to her apartment complex off East Ordnance Road in Glen Burnie. They ram her 2001 Acura with their 1990 Plymouth van in order to lure her out of the car. Three of the suspects force Beakes into the van at gunpoint and drive away.

Woman killed, 3 hurt in crash; racing suspected An accident during an apparent high-speed race on southbound Wabash Avenue left one woman dead and three people injured last night, police said. Police responded to the 5900 block of Wabash about 4:15 p.m. after a 1993 Acura struck a Ford Escort that was trying to turn left from Mount Hope Drive onto Wabash. After the initial impact, the Escort careered into the northbound lane, where it struck a Chevrolet Malibu, police said. Witnesses reported seeing the Acura and a white Corvette traveling at high speed before the accident, police said.