Called Police

A 40-year-old East Baltimore man was found dead in the bathtub of his second-floor apartment in the 2400 block of E. Monument St. today after his downstairs neighbor had not seen him for more than a day.Larry D. Smith, who is the father of three young girls who did not live with him, worked a day job in a factory and an evening job as a janitor. He was found fully clothed, with his hands and feet tied, by an occupant of the first floor.The first-floor occupant told police he saw the victim Wednesday but did not see him yesterday though he called to him from downstairs and did not hear an answer.

Baltimore's spending panel approved a $63,000 payment Wednesday to settle a police brutality lawsuit filed by a woman shocked with a Taser in 2012. The lawsuit concerns the events of April 30, 2012, when Ashley Overbey called Baltimore police to report an attempted burglary at her home. According to documents presented to the Board of Estimates by the city solicitor's office, Overbey got into a "verbal confrontation" with one of the officers at her home. The officer accused her of pushing him, and attempted to arrest her. Overbey alleges the officer pulled her hair and began hitting her, the documents state.

County police arrested a Stevensville man and a Baltimore woman on drug charges Sunday in Jacobsville Park on Magothy Beach Road after an officer saw what he believed to be drug paraphernalia in their car.Richard Brian Warf, 33, of the 400 block of Sweet Briar Lane and Robin Sherwood Millsap, 27, of the 400 block of Patapsco Ave. were charged with possession and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine. Warf was being held without bail. Bail information on Millsap was not available.

Baltimore bus driver Craig Ray was killed in retribution for calling police on a neighbor who wouldn't turn down her music late at night, a police report released Tuesday said. Ray, 34, was fatally shot early Feb. 24 at his girlfriend's home in the 2400 block of Wilgrey Court in Westport. His mother had said she had been told that he was killed after asking a neighbor to turn her music down so he could get some sleep before work. Baltimore police offered few specifics on the incident before Kevin Barnell Carroll, 34, was charged Sunday with eight criminal counts — including first-degree murder, assault and handgun charges in the homicide.

Man charged in killing of next-door neighbor A Baltimore County man was charged with killing his next-door neighbor after breaking into her townhouse through a crawl space shared by their homes and several others, authorities said yesterday. Vaughn Lamont Garris, 36, of the first block of Heatherton Court near Woodlawn was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Chontae Waters, 31, court records show. Garris told police he broke into Waters' home to burglarize it, according to charging documents.

A 37-year-old woman was raped Saturday at knifepoint in a Severna Park home, county police said yesterday.The woman told police that a man drove her to a home in the 800 block of Manhattan Beach Road at 1:36 a.m. and raped her. She fled from the house and called police. Police said the woman was treated at North Arundel Hospital and released.Police have a suspect but have not made an arrest.

Baltimore County police investigated a report that a woman was heard yelling for help Sunday night on the street where a 52-year-old state worker was later found bludgeoned to death, officials said yesterday. But the officers apparently didn't knock on anyone's door. And they left the street in Randallstown where Linda Carol Brooks was found beaten with an axe and maul late Monday, saying they didn't notice any signs of distress. Police say they don't know if Brooks was killed Sunday night.

Police arrested a Baltimore man on drug charges Tuesday after a 7-Eleven clerk called police to complain about a trespasser, county police said.Tearen Clifton Melvin, 34, of the 2800 block of Seamon Ave. was charged with trespassing and possession of drug paraphernalia.An employee of the store in the 4000 block of Ritchie Highway called police shortly after 3 a.m. and told them a man in the store had refused to leave.When police arrived, the man was walking out of the store. An officer recognized him as someone who had been banned from the store previously.

A 500-pound man was arrested Sunday and charged with trying to kill a Columbia woman after they argued about his weight, police said.Bertram Womack, 39, was arrested early Sunday after allegedly binding the woman's hands and feet with an electrical cord, then beating her and cutting her with a kitchen knife, police said.Womack, of the 6700 block of Half Crown Court in Columbia, was charged with assault with intent to murder, false imprisonment and possession of cocaine. He was being held yesterday at the county detention center on $100,000 bond.

A 17-year-old Churchton youth was being held without bond at the county jail after being charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a 32-year-old Edgewater man.Roger Dewey Brown was charged as an adult in connection with the shooting that occurred about 9:40 p.m. Friday.According to police reports, a gunman ambushed Earl Spencer Lucas in the 300 block of Center St. and shot him four times in the arm and leg. Mr. Lucas ran into an apartment, where residents called police.Mr. Lucas was treated at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore and released.

Police released 911 dispatch tapes Monday that reveal how residents in a Germantown neighborhood tried to draw attention to a bizarre scene where police say two toddlers were killed by their mother and another woman in an exorcism last week. "The mother came out, she reported that she had something going on and she didn't want her baby to be in danger in the house," a man who had called 911 at 10:14 p.m. on Thursday told a dispatcher. The man could be heard talking to two women he said were attacking him as he reported the incident.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Douglas F. Gansler denied Tuesday reports that he routinely told his state police drivers to speed and run red lights, calling the head of the unit that protects high-ranking officials a "henchman" of Gov. Martin O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown. Gansler, who as attorney general is the state's highest-ranking law enforcement official, called a Washington Post article based on Maryland State Police documents "100 percent, completely untrue.

Annapolis Mayor Joshua Cohen filed a police complaint Tuesday after catching a 68-year-old man, pants at his ankles, urinating off the third floor parking deck of a garage behind City Hall. "If it would have been three in the morning, I might have looked the other way," Cohen said. "But it was three in the afternoon, in broad daylight. " The man told the mayor he was "following the call of the wild" when confronted mid-stream and then cursed at Cohen's recommendation of using public restrooms nearby, according to the police report.

Two men were killed and an unidentified woman was critically wounded in a shooting late Wednesday in Southwest Baltimore, police said. Police said officers were first called to the 600 block of Linnard St. about 9 p.m. for reports of shots fired but did not find anything suspicious. Later, around midnight, officers received a call from a man who said he was inside a home where people had been shot. When police arrived, the caller was gone and officers found the victims inside.

What would you do if, while sitting behind the wheel of your car at a traffic light, you see a man with a handgun in a shoulder holster approach your vehicle, pound his fist against the driver-side window and release a profane tirade? Would you: a. Lower the window and fire back some expletives; b. Look for an emergency route through the busy intersection in front of you; c. Remain calm and ignore the man until he goes away; d. Call the cops as soon as possible? When this happened to him in Harford County last week, Francesco Grasso chose "c" and "d. " Dr. Grasso is a surgeon with a practice in Baltimore, Towson and Bel Air. He was shaken enough by this display of road rage to contact me and to submit his account as a cautionary tale for other drivers.

The guilty verdict against one of two brothers accused of beating a Northwest Baltimore teen cuts through the conflicting accounts of what happened on Fallstaff Road nearly 18 months ago and arrives at an essential truth: When Eliyahu Werdesheim stepped out of his car and confronted Corey Ausby, he stopped being a volunteer on neighborhood patrol and became a vigilante. No matter whose account of the incident you believe, it is clear that he overstepped his bounds. Neighborhood patrols serve a valuable purpose, and Shomrim, the organization to which Eliyahu Werdesheim belonged at the time, has long been lauded for its efforts in Northwest Baltimore.

A 40-year-old Ellicott City woman leaving an Ellicott City shopping center was robbed and forced to drive to Baltimore after she was threatened by a man hiding in the back seat of her car Tuesday night, Howard County police said.The woman, who was not injured, called police after the man fled.According to her report to police, the woman left the Normandy Shopping Center in the 8400 block of Route 40 at 7:40 p.m. Tuesday and entered her parked car.When she was inside, a man in the back seat put a metal object -- possibly a gun -- to her neck and ordered her to drive to Baltimore City.

Bel Air police are releasing few details about a woman who said she delivered a stillborn baby at a home in the town and then threw the body away. The unidentified woman contacted police Tuesday to say she had wrapped the infant's body in a plastic bag and placed it in a trash bin just outside the downtown area of the Harford County seat. Police escorted the woman to the 900 block of Sablewood Road, where she pointed out the exact location of the refuse container. Harford County Sheriff's Department deputies assisted the town police at the scene and recovered the body at about 6 p.m. The woman was taken to Upper Chesapeake Medical Center for treatment.

Maryland State Police are searching for a man who they said rear-ended a woman's vehicle on Interstate 83 in Parkton, offered her money to not call police and then violently attacked her when she dialed 911 on her cell phone. The incident occurred about 10 p.m. Friday south of the Pennsylvania line, in the northbound lanes near Exit 33. Police said a man driving a dark-colored Jeep Wrangler with a soft top, possibly with Pennsylvania license plates, hit the back of the woman's car. Both drivers pulled over and police said the man "pleaded with her, offering her money to settle the incident.