Bel Air Police

Four people were killed in traffic accidents in Harford and Frederick counties during the weekend, including a 16-year-old Bel Air boy, authorities said.Bel Air police said Benjamin Tate Hibschman was killed about 11 p.m. Saturday when the 1990 Plymouth compact car in which he was a passenger ran a red light at Route 24 and Business U.S. 1 and was struck on the passenger side by a Chevrolet van carrying two adults and six children. Hibschman was wearing a seat belt but was partially ejected, police said.

Investigators from the Bel Air Police Department are searching for two men who attempted to rob the Del Mobil Service Center Wednesday in the 800 block of Conowingo Road.Witnesses said two men walked into the station about 9:15 p.m. As one bought a pack of gum, the second grabbed the attendant from behind and held a knife to the attendant's throat.Police said the first suspect could not open the cash register and ordered the attendant to open it.The attendant refused and the suspects fled.

A Bel Air woman has filed a $50 million libel suit against The Aegis, claiming the Harford County weekly newspaper defamed her by falsely portraying her as a criminal after she complained that a police officer harassed her for protesting.Ann M. Murtha of the 400 block of Linwood Ave. claimed two civil court summaries, printed Jan. 22 and 29, 1992, harmed her professional standing as founder and president of "The International Society for Citizens Against Dental and Medical Malpractice."Ms.

A new law passed April 6 sets a standard size for numbered addressesposted outside buildings and homes. It also requires that a second set of numbers be displayed on the back of commercial buildings.Deputy Chief John W. Harkins of the Bel Air Police Department, said thelaw was passed to help police, fire and emergency response teams easily locate an address in an emergency.The new law requires that Arabic numerals be used and does not permit letters at all unless they are part of the assigned address.

An accident at the Bel Air Auto Auction on U.S. 1 on Thursday injured two men, sending one of them to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.Police said the accident, which took place at about 12:30 p.m., occurred when a 1982 Chevrolet station wagon that was being driven to the auction block accelerated suddenly and struck the men, who were standing about 10 feet in front of it.Police said the driver in the car said the accelerator stuck.Halie Sadik, 32, of Washington and Donald Richardson, 53, of Street were thrown into the air by the collision.

John Charles Kahler, 24, of Abingdon was charged with attempted first-degree murder, and assault and battery in connection with the stabbing of a maid at the Lakeside Motel in Edgewood Thursday, police said.He is being held in the Harford County Detention Center.The victim was listed in stable condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center last week after being stabbed in the stomach, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said.The Sheriff's Officedid not identify the victim. Police said she was stabbed after a manshe identified as her ex-boyfriend forced her into the bathroom of an unoccupied room at the hotel.

A Bel Air man has been accused of harassment and racial harassment for allegedly sending packages of "hate mail" that railed against homosexuals and Martin Luther King Jr. and that contained veiled threats against President Bush.Robert Robusto, 67, was charged with four counts of harassment and one count of racial harassment by the Bel Air Police Department on Jan. 23, district court records show. Trial has been scheduled for April.Robusto is accused of sending three letters between Oct. 11 and Oct. 30 to the county's director of AIDS education, police said.

Police investigators say they believe the same man held up two Bel Air-area service stations within three days late last month.Officers from the county Sheriff's Department and the Bel Air Police Department are investigating robberies at the Moores Mill Citgo on Conowingo Road and the BP service station on Churchville Road.John W. Harkins, spokesman for Bel Air police, said investigatorsbelieve the robberies are connected because of the similar descriptions of the suspects and the similar way the businesses were robbed.

Detectives at the state police, the county Sheriff's Department and the Bel Air Police Department are investigating nearly 40 burglaries in the Bel Air area during the last 30 days.Bel Air police said 19 burglaries and attempted burglaries have been reported in the Majors Choice neighborhood in the northeast section of town last Sunday and Monday.The burglaries occurred during the night, police said. Some homeowners had been at home at the time, police noted.Cash -- $1,647 -- was stolen from purses, wallets and briefcases, police said.

A Baltimore County man has been charged with stealing a Bel Air resident's car and demanding that the owner pay him $200 to divulge wherethe car had been moved, Bel Air police said.Douglas E. Coyner, 26, of Middle River, is accused of having the car, a 1980 Subaru, towed from the 100 block of Hickory Avenue to the Edgewood Crown station on Pulaski Highway on Sept. 8, Harford District Court records say.The car's owner reported the vehicle stolen at 9:55 a.m. Thursday, police said. The owner reported to police that a few hours later, the suspect called the owner's son, demanding money in exchange for the location of the car.Police said they provided the owner with $200 to make the transaction.

Daniel V. Leftridge, a retired veteran Harford County police officer who was later a deputy sheriff, died of cancer June 24 at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. The Street resident was 65. Born in Havre de Grace, he was raised on a Forest Hill farm and graduated from Bel Air High School in 1961. He initially worked on his family's farm. After the death of his parents, he joined the Bel Air Police Department. He also worked at times for his brother in a cinder block-laying business.

City policeman, charged in assault, is suspended Anthony M. Stevenson, a Baltimore police officer who lives in Abingdon, has been charged with second-degree assault and reckless endangerment and suspended from the force after a man was struck in a Bel Air bar a week ago. The man was conversing with friends at Looney's Pub sometime after 1 a.m. Feb. 7, Bel Air police said, when Stevenson, who was off-duty, made a series of unwelcome remarks to two women...

A 23-year-old Bel Air man was killed yesterday in a stabbing that occurred after an altercation between two motorists, the first homicide here in more than 20 years, police said. Bel Air police identified the victim as Patrick John Walker of the 800 block of Benjamin Road, who was stabbed about 2:10 p.m. in front of the Harford County Health Department. Michael R. Simmons, 19, of the 2900 block of Nelson Lane in Fallston was charged with first-degree murder. Simmons was arrested within minutes of the incident after witnesses spotted someone in blood-stained clothes, said Bel Air police Chief Leo F. Matrangola.

"Stop, or I'll scoot!" Aiming to bolster foot patrols, the Bel Air Police Department has purchased two Segway transporters, the futuristic self-balancing scooters that have been a dud with consumers but are becoming increasingly popular with law enforcement and security officers. Officers will be able to use their new $4,500 rides for the first time today at the parade honoring 16-year-old Olympian Kimmie Meissner of Bel Air before officially rolling them out April 1 as part of an initiative to police the after-hours bar crowd on Main Street.

Thomas Price Broumel, a former Bel Air police chief, town commissioner and deputy commander of the Harford County Sheriff's Office, died of a heart attack Saturday at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park. He was 65. Mr. Broumel, who had held many state and county positions over the years, suffered the heart attack outside Byrd Stadium in College Park after watching the football team of his alma mater, University of Maryland, end its season with a victory over Wake Forest. "His favorite pastime was Maryland football.

On one of those chilly early October mornings when it's impossible to tell if the temperature will stay that way or change, Cpl. John W. Baker begins his 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift with coffee and a Slim Jim at the 7-Eleven on Belair Road. The Slim Jim is not for Baker, but for Millie, a chocolate Labrador who follows him inside waiting for her morning treat, which she gobbles up. Baker appreciates the morning routine because this is the last day he will do it with a uniform and a badge. At 58, Baker is heading into retirement, and although he will leave an occupation he has enjoyed for more than three decades, he expects to be busy with activities he has loved for many years but could have only limited involvement with because of his occupation.

Robert Pfarr was in a slump. The 25-year-old officer first class with the Bel Air Police Department, who had the county's most drunken-driving arrests last year, had not made such an arrest in more than three weeks. Pulling away from the police barracks in his unmarked 2001 white Chevrolet Impala to begin his 11 p.m.-to-7 a.m. shift on a recent Thursday night, Pfarr was hopeful. He keeps a careful watch over the several late night bars within his three square miles of jurisdiction. Pfarr glides through Bel Air, undetected by other motorists.

A Lansdowne man and his stepbrother have been arrested and charged with hijacking a delivery truck from a Parkville convenience store this week, Baltimore County police said yesterday. Patrick Percy Johnson Jr., 28, of the 3000 block of Janice Ave. in Lansdowne and Tobias Preston, 21, of the 800 block of Whitelock St. in Baltimore were charged early yesterday with kidnapping, armed robbery, a handgun violation and grand theft in the Wednesday morning abduction of a driver for Triple C Wholesalers, said Officer Shawn Vinson, a county police spokesman.

When Dennis Shifflett of Forest Hill dialed 911 on his cell phone, he expected help quickly, but it took police 22 minutes after his first call to arrive, he said. Shifflett, 53, an executive in an investment firm, and three youths were in a confrontation that led to a fight at a shopping center on Route 24 and Rock Spring Road. "Something doesn't seem right," he said, adding that he doesn't understand why it took police so long to get to the scene. Shifflett said he is concerned about the efficiency of the 911 system.

BEL AIR -- On an urban scale, Bel Air's population of about 10,400 might make it sound like a sleepy town, but don't be fooled. The county's shopping and government hub is surrounded by about 10 times as many people, many of whom moved here to enjoy the good schools and small-town feeling. People who live here say it's that charm and community pride that put Bel Air in the center of the county's hottest growth area. The profusion of people has brought with it traffic problems and school crowding, but in a town where police say the biggest crime problem is shoplifting, many residents seem willing to endure a few growing pains.