City Homicide

Today we're rolling out some improvements to our map of city homicides. The changes include: -- A larger map. Screens have changed size since we last updated the interface -- A new map color scheme that allows users to more easily locate homicides -- Addition of table-style listings, including the option of seeing the last hundred homicides -- Implementation of Google's street view feature All existing features remain on the...

A seven-month-old boy died after being hospitalized Dec. 31 with rib fractures and other injuries, making the infant Baltimore's first homicide victim of 2013. On Monday night, homicide detectives charged the child's father, 29-year-old Francois Browne, with first-degree murder, police said. Child protective services had contacted police on New Year's Eve, saying the child, Kendell Browne, was in the University of Maryland's pediatric center with multiple injuries and was unlikely to survive.

Baltimore police released yesterday the names of three men killed in apparently unrelated slayings in recent days, but added two more killings last night to a growing city homicide toll in the new year. Detectives also were investigating another man's death as a homicide after he was found last week in woods in North Baltimore, reportedly bound with duct tape. The steady pace of violence that closed out last year with 275 homicides in Baltimore -- six more than in 2005 -- shows no sign of abating in 2007.

Today we're rolling out some improvements to our map of city homicides. The changes include: -- A larger map. Screens have changed size since we last updated the interface -- A new map color scheme that allows users to more easily locate homicides -- Addition of table-style listings, including the option of seeing the last hundred homicides -- Implementation of Google's street view feature All existing features remain on the...

Baltimore police say they will continue heightened patrols of crime-riddled corners until the first of the new year. Despite their efforts, the number of homicides continues to rise, with the 306th recorded yesterday.Police spokesman Robert W. Weinhold Jr. said no decision has been made on whether the initiative should continue deep into next month.This month, police had hopes of holding the annual city homicide count below 300 by placing extra officers, called in on overtime and plucked from desk jobs, in crime-troubled spots.

This year, a Baltimore trash collector was immortalized in the television series "Roc." Next season, it may be the city homicide unit's turn.Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Levinson has optioned the rights to David Simon's recent book "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets," which chronicles a year in the life of 18 city homicide detectives, and plans to turn it into a series for NBC.Mr. Levinson said yesterday he planned to begin shooting episodes of the hourlong series in Baltimore late next summer and that "if all goes well" the show would "probably be a midseason replacement" in the 1992-'93 season.

City homicide detectives yesterday continued investigating two separate weekend slayings of two East Baltimore teens. In the first, residents called police to the 3300 block of Elgin Ave. in West Baltimore about 10:30 p.m. Friday after hearing gunshots. Police found 16-year-old Michael King of the 1000 block of Patterson Park Ave. on a porch on the 3300 block of Elgin Ave. with multiple gunshot wounds. Frances Bowman said she had just gone to sleep when she heard several shots. She then heard the sounds of someone stumbling and crashing into her living room window.

Not more than 24 hours after suspects in two separate drug slayings were arrested by Baltimore homicide detectives this month, they were returned to the street -- released on bail by District Court judges.Within days:* Witnesses and potential witnesses in the two cases became uncooperative, with some backing away from prior statements and others demanding police protection in a city that has little or no money to spend to ensure the safety of witnesses, police said.* One defendant apparently managed to remove as many as four semiautomatic weapons from his and his girlfriend's town house before detectives could obtain and execute a search warrant.

A 59-year-old Armistead Gardens resident involved in a bitter battle over his father's estate -- valued in excess of $1 million -- has been charged with soliciting a man to murder the Baltimore County Circuit Court judge who the suspect felt made unfavorable rulings in the case, according to city police.John T. Klauenberg was arrested Tuesday at his home in the 1000 block of Rodman Way and charged with soliciting to murder and conspiracy to commit murder, police said.He was being held without bail last night at the Eastern District lockup, police said.

A 59-year-old Armistead Gardens resident involved in a bitter court dispute over his father's estate has been charged with soliciting a man to murder a Baltimore County judge.The suspect felt that the Circuit Court judge made unfavorable rulings in the case, according to city police. The estate is valued at more than $1 million.John T. Klauenberg was arrested Tuesday at his home in the 1000 block of Rodman Way and charged with soliciting to murder and conspiracy to commit murder.He was being held without bail last night at the Eastern District lockup, police said.

City police made arrests in two recent killings in city neighborhoods rarely in the news for crime, charging a group of men in connection with a home invasion killing in Waverly and charging the father of a Waltherson woman's children in her death. In the most recent case, Tavon Frederick, 35, was fatally shot during a home invasion May 23 in the 3300 block of Westerwald Ave. in Waverly. Two men ­ - Dontre Mitchell, 21, and Donta Dorsey, 23 - were charged in connection with the killing, and police said two others had been identified as suspects.

A Baltimore city homicide detective has been accused by prosecutors shooting himself in a downtown parking garage last year and then lying about it, according to court records unsealed this week - a charge that conflicts with the police investigation. Anthony N. Fata, a 14-year veteran, has been charged with perjury, misconduct in office, and making false claims, records show [ Click here to view the document ]. He was shot Jan. 18, 2011 in a city-owned parking garage near police headquarters.

City police are investigating two killings that occurred Monday, including the death of a 37-year-old woman who was found beaten in her home in the Waltherson neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore, according to authorities. Police identified the woman as Somchanh Sipayboun, who lived in the 5400 block of Hillburn Ave., just off Frankford Avenue. Det. Jeremy Silbert, a city police spokesman, said she suffered from trauma but a cause of death was pending a ruling from the medical examiner.

Nearly two decades after he was shot and paralyzed in an East Baltimore carryout, James Fields Jr. has died of complications from the shooting, making him the city's 26th homicide victim of 2011. Fields, 47, of Gwynn Oak, died Jan. 5 at Northwest Hospital in Randallstown, said Detective Donny Moses, a city police spokesman. A medical examiner concluded that Fields died of pneumonia brought on by a prolonged stay in bed — a direct result of the shooting 19 years ago — and on Tuesday ruled his death a homicide.

One of the two men killed in Baltimore in the new year was identified Sunday as 16-year-old Marquise Hall, said Det. Kevin Brown, a city police spokesman. Hall was found Saturday, just before 5 p.m., with multiple gunshot wounds in the 500 block of N. Lakewood Ave. in East Baltimore. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Hall was the second homicide of 2011. Police have not identified a 21-year-old man who died from an early Saturday morning stabbing in South Baltimore's Curtis Bay neighborhood, marking the city's first homicide.

Jessie Snead's house is the one at the corner, the only one with the porch light on and the door open in a long, dark block of walkups on Reisterstown Road. Inside, there's a warm, bright gathering of women — a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner for a sisterhood of survivors, the mothers of young men who were killed during the bloodiest part of Baltimore's epoch of violence. Their grief — and their friendship — goes back several years, to a terrible time in the city.

The owner of a Harford County plumbing company was arrested and charged with attempted murder after offering to pay an associate $20,000 to beat and kill his wife, city police said yesterday. Homicide detectives arrested George Thompson, 37, on Thursday night, said Agent Donny Moses, a Baltimore police spokesman. Thompson was charged with first-degree attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He is being held without bail.

Baltimore police have arrested a 19-year-old in the Saturday homicide on the 200 block of N. Kenwood Ave., the department has reported on Twitter. Arrested Saturday was Jermaine Holley. Earlier, police reported an adult male had suffered a "severe head inury" during an aggravated assault at 2:25 a.m. Saturday in the 200 block of N. Kenwood Ave. Homicide detectives were notified.

City police have identified several recent homicide victims in killings dating back to May 8. All of the cases remain unsolved and motives were not available, though each victim had recent drug arrests and convictions. The killings bring the city's total to 68 for the year, down 16 percent from this time last year. •Mark Crockett, 34, of the 200 block of S. Herring Court was found lying on the ground in the 200 block of S. Spring Court about 9:25 p.m. Monday. He was near a basketball court, suffering from several gunshot wounds to the upper body.