City Police

A man claiming to be selling watches, coins and other items on Craigslist - the Internet version of classified ads - has lured four people to a residential street in Northwest Baltimore and robbed them at gunpoint, according to city police. Two attacks occurred last year, in August and November, but two others were reported to police this month. Police said they believe all the hold-ups are linked - they're occurring in mid-afternoon in the same block on Callaway Avenue, lined with single family homes and green lawns near Ashburton.

A man suspected in a rash of recent Craigslist robberies was taken into custody at a downtown library, where police say he was using a computer - possibly to set up more attacks. David E. Brown, 26, is accused of orchestrating at least four robberies that took place in the 3500 block of Callaway Avenue, a residential street in Northwest Baltimore. Two attacks occurred last year, in August and November, but two others were reported to police this month. Detectives were interviewing Brown to determine if he was involved in any other incidents, and charges were pending.

[This post has been updated. The original version remains intact below] A 22-year-old woman was killed and her infant daughter injured Monday night after a man eluding city police ran a red light and plowed into her vehicle in West Baltimore, authorities said. The accident occurred two weeks before Jordasha Rollins was to celebrate her daughter's first birthday, and, in a twist of fate, she knew the driver of the vehicle that took her life. But as family and friends hung balloons and flowers Tuesday at the site where the accident occurred, their anger was not directed at the driver but at police.

A Baltimore police sergeant who claimed he was never treated for post-traumatic stress disorder after he fatally shot a man in 2005 has settled a lawsuit against the city, in a deal that allows him to retire with his pension, according to court documents and his attorney. Under terms of the settlement, Richard A. Willard, 45, dropped the federal suit and a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; the Police Department canceled an administrative hearing that could have led to his termination.

When a relative of accused druglord Robert G. Moore was stabbed and killed during a robbery, authorities say, Moore vowed to avenge the death. Over the next eight months, Moore and members of his East Baltimore drug syndicate picked off the man they suspected of killing the relative, former standout high school wrestler Darian Kess, and shot five more people, police and prosecutors say. On Friday, Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein...

Baltimore police issued a formal report Thursday agreeing to carry out recommendations from an independent commission that gave a stinging assessment of last year's Select Lounge shooting, in which a plainclothes officer was mistakenly shot and killed by his colleagues. The 102-page response details promises made by the police commissioner in November to prevent another shooting like the one that killed Officer William H. Torbit and a civilian, and wounded several bystanders in the midst of a chaotic, unruly crowd.

Man's remaining sentence to be in rehab A Columbia man who served 19 months of a four-year jail sentence for assaulting a Howard County police officer three years ago will have the remainder of his sentence suspended upon his admission to an in-patient drug addiction program. Phelton Hall of the 5400 block of Ring Dove Lane will finish his term in a halfway house. Prosecutors had asked retired Circuit Court Judge Dennis M. Sweeney to keep Hall at the Brockbridge Correctional Institute in Jessup.

A 19-year-old student from Baltimore Polytechnic High School told police he was beaten by two separate groups of juveniles from a rival school in downtown Baltimore on Thursday afternoon, an attack that comes amid a pitched debate over downtown safety. According to police, the student was walking in the 200 block of W. Fayette St., a block north of the First Mariner Arena, before 4:20 p.m. when he said he was attacked from behind by an unknown male. Nine other juveniles joined in as he tried to defend himself, and his phone was taken during the attack, he told police.  Moments later, police say, an MTA bus stopped in the block and a juvenile male wearing a Digital Harbor High School shirt "forced open the door and got off the bus," followed by 19 other juveniles wearing Digital Harbor shirts, who again assaulted the victim, police said.  Anthony Guglielmi, a city police spokesman, said the victim told the police he was attacked because of a rivalry between the two schools.

Police in Prince George's and Baltimore counties believe a man found Thursday in the trunk of a car in Greenbelt is the second victim of what is possibly a drug-related double murder.Baltimore County police had been looking for Darwin Milburn, 20, for the past week. They wanted to question him about the slaying of his 19-year-old girlfriend, Edna Coates. She was found March 4 in the couple's Randallstown apartment, dead from several gunshots to the head.The search ended when Mr. Milburn was found Thursday morning.

A man walked into Good Samaritan Hospital early Friday morning with gunshot wounds, according to Baltimore Police. The man, 24, had been shot in the right hand and the buttock, police said. He came in at 2:49 a.m., according to police, who had no further information, including where the shooting took place. Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts

A man claiming to be selling watches, coins and other items on Craigslist - the Internet version of classified ads - has lured four people to a residential street in Northwest Baltimore and robbed them at gunpoint, according to city police. Two attacks occurred last year, in August and November, but two others were reported to police this month. Police said they believe all the hold-ups are linked - they're occurring in mid-afternoon in the same block on Callaway Avenue, lined with single family homes and green lawns near Ashburton.

Visitors to Baltimore's downtown on summer weekends will see up to 50 additional police officers, a show of force aimed at preventing a repeat of St. Patrick's Day, when hundreds of youths battled and a tourist was beaten — scenes the mayor described as "a black eye for the city. " Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake toured the streets around the Inner Harbor and downtown for two hours Friday, the first night of increased police presence. During the late-night walk, she made her first public comments since reports that the disturbances on March 17 were far more extensive and more violent than police had initially described.

When a relative of accused druglord Robert G. Moore was stabbed and killed during a robbery, authorities say, Moore vowed to avenge the death. Over the next eight months, Moore and members of his East Baltimore drug syndicate picked off the man they suspected of killing the relative, former standout high school wrestler Darian Kess, and shot five more people, police and prosecutors say. On Friday, Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein...

A 19-year-old student from Baltimore Polytechnic High School told police he was beaten by two separate groups of juveniles from a rival school in downtown Baltimore on Thursday afternoon, an attack that comes amid a pitched debate over downtown safety. According to police, the student was walking in the 200 block of W. Fayette St., a block north of the First Mariner Arena, before 4:20 p.m. when he said he was attacked from behind by an unknown male. Nine other juveniles joined in as he tried to defend himself, and his phone was taken during the attack, he told police.  Moments later, police say, an MTA bus stopped in the block and a juvenile male wearing a Digital Harbor High School shirt "forced open the door and got off the bus," followed by 19 other juveniles wearing Digital Harbor shirts, who again assaulted the victim, police said.  Anthony Guglielmi, a city police spokesman, said the victim told the police he was attacked because of a rivalry between the two schools.

State Del. Pat McDonough, who stirred controversy this week when he said "roving mobs of black youth" terrorize Baltimore, shrugged off criticism Friday that he is using shock tactics to raise his political profile. McDonough, a Republican who represents Baltimore and Harford counties, refused to apologize for his comments. He has called for Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, to assign the Maryland State Police to fight the "consistent and dangerous attacks" in the city. McDonough has hosted a conservative talk show on WCBM for 20 years.

A man was shot and killed in East Baltimore Monday night — marking the 74th homicide of the year, city police said. At 11:26 p.m., police responded to the 1100 block of N. Milton Ave. in the Biddle Street neighborhood. When officers arrived, they found the victim lying in the intersection of N. Milton Avenue and E. Chase Street, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at 11:35 p.m. Police did not immediately identify the man and said that no arrests had been made in the case.

I read the article "City police shuffle ranks, seek national accreditation" (Dec. 31) with a vested interest as a retired Baltimore City police officer. The awarding of "accreditation" for police agencies is not a new concept and existed well before my own retirement, some 16 years ago. The process of being certified as an accredited agency is exhaustive and covers literally every function within the department. To prepare the agency for this certification is a labor- and time-intensive undertaking, involving participation at all levels.

A Baltimore police officer who said in an interview that he had received no counseling after he shot and killed two people nine months apart in 2006 and 2007 has been suspended from the force, and stripped of his gun and badge. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the eight-year veteran, Andrew W. Gotwols Jr., made comments that concerned commanders about his fitness to serve. He described the 36-year-old as being "medically suspended. " Gotwols told The Baltimore Sun that he has nightmares that "guys are trying to shoot and kill me, and that I'm trying to shoot and kill them.

Baltimore police are investigating three shootings in the city on Friday night and early Saturday morning, including one that involved a female victim who says she was shot several times inside her vehicle while waiting at a red light. Detective Jeremy Silbert said the 36-year-old woman, who is expected to survive, was shot multiple times in her upper body around 2:42 a.m. in the 3200 block of E. Northern Parkway in Northeast Baltimore. The victim told police that she was stopped at a traffic light when a person pulled up next to her in an unknown vehicle and fired several shots.

A man was shot in Woodlawn in Baltimore County on Friday night, according to police. City police first responded at about 7:30 p.m. to reports of a man shot near the intersection of Liberty Heights Avenue and Powder Mill Lane, which is near Powder Mill Park and just inside the city line, according to Det. Jeremy Silbert, a city police spokesman. After determining the man had actually been shot nearby in Baltimore County, they turned the case over to county police, Silbert said.