Central District

Woman fatally stabbed in downtown Baltimore Baltimore detectives arrested a woman yesterday shortly after police staff monitoring crime cameras watched an attack and directed officers to a fleeing suspect, said Sterling Clifford, a Police Department spokesman. The camera monitors - many of whom are retired police officers - were watching live footage from the areas near The Block, the city's adult entertainment district, and noticed a fight among several women escalating about 2 a.m. yesterday.

Towson University officials said yesterday that the school will not house students as part of a development planned for downtown Towson, pleasing residents who don't want a dormitory in the heart of the county seat. Alan Leberknight, interim vice president and chief financial officer of Towson University, said the decision to reject a bid by Heritage Properties and the Cordish Co. to build a 600-bed dormitory in Towson was based on how much debt the public university system would have had to carry and not on the community's opposition.

Baltimore City Central District Robbery: A 62-year-old man was accosted by a gunman in the 2000 block of Mount Royal Terrace about 10 p.m. Monday and robbed him of his walletand $12. [

The renaissance of Bolton Hill has made it one of the city's most desirable neighborhoods, with tree-lined streets, a strong community association and stately 19th-century rowhouses that sell for an average price of nearly $240,000. Neighbors are friendly. Police consider it among the city's safest areas. But the comfort zone that Bolton Hill residents have grown accustomed to was attenuated this year when a man committed a string of offenses that escalated from simple burglaries to rape and attempted murder.

As a sign of how much is riding on the $350 million effort to revitalize the west side of downtown, Baltimore police plan to open a substation unlike any other in the city. The 12-officer substation is scheduled to open in November at Howard and Lexington streets, in the basement of the former Hecht's Co. department store building, which will be reborn as 173 apartments with rents of $752 to $1,990 a month. "You'll have almost a complete police station right there at the center of the development they're putting all this money into," said Lt. Col. Steven McMahon, who commanded the Central District for six years and is now nighttime duty commander citywide.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Central District Drug arrests: Operation Eastside/Westside, a two-day drug initiative over the weekend, resulted in the arrests of 77 people on various drug charges. Officers also seized large quantities of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and Ecstasy, nearly $5,200 and three vehicles. The initiative directed by Sgts. Bryant D. Moore and Burl A. Tuller took place Friday and Saturday nights and involved undercover drug enforcement unit officers from the nine police districts.

MANY CRIMINALS may be stupid, but they're not blind. They can see that Baltimore's crackdown on homicides has dangerously depleted routine patrols in many districts. The result is that while killings and assaults have dipped, business-related armed and unarmed robberies have soared in five of the nine police districts. The worst increase is in the Northeastern District, where such robberies are up 75 percent over the first quarter of last year. Southeastern reported a 56 percent increase, Northern 47 percent, Northwestern 21 percent and Southern 15 percent.

A Baltimore police officer accused of killing his wife's boyfriend has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder, said a spokeswoman for the city prosecutor's office. Officer Rodney Price, 34, a 13-year veteran, was indicted Monday by a city grand jury, said Joyce Jefferson Daniels, the spokeswoman. Price, a resident of the 5100 block of Windermere Circle in White Marsh, Baltimore County, is being held without bail at the city Detention Center. Price is charged in the March 15 slaying of Tristin Little Sr., 28, of the 5400 block of Cedonia Road in Northeast Baltimore, whom he suspected of having an affair with his wife, Charice Price.

Merging geographically divided plans and updating ideas for the future of downtown, Baltimore's economic development arm plans to present next week one big, new vision for the city's central business district to property owners. The plan is a revision to at least four urban renewal areas, plus additional land now considered the city's central business district. It was drafted by the Baltimore Development Corp., a quasi-governmental agency, based on their work and others. The unreleased document is expected to direct attention to preservation of the urban core's structures.