City Police

An unidentified man was fatally shot early yesterday in West Baltimore in the latest homicide reported by city police. The victim was found about 2:30 a.m. with multiple wounds in the 1800 block of W. Baltimore St. and was pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, said Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman. Police also released yesterday the identity of a vendor who was shot to death Saturday night. Dwight Evans, 32, of no fixed address, was shot in his shop in the rear of Evans Temple Memorial Church of God in the 2400 block of E. Madison St. about 7 p.m. Saturday, Harris said.

City police were searching for a 15-year-old Hamilton girl reported missing by her mother after she failed to return home Sunday after attending church with her boyfriend, police said. Akir'e "Angel" Lane of the 2500 block of Hamilton Ave. was last seen Sunday evening at a friend's house in the 1600 block of Heathfield Ave. after attending Truth & Life Family Worship Center in the 6300 block of Sherwood Road in Northwood, said her mother, Erika Lane, who filed a missing-person report. Police interviewed the residents of the friend's house and the boyfriend's family.

With evidence missing in two cases of officers accused of rape, the Baltimore Police Department has asked the Maryland State Police to store all evidence in future police misconduct investigations. Greg Shipley, state police spokesman, said his agency has verbally agreed to the plan, and lawyers are reviewing a memorandum of understanding before it is made final. City prosecutors also are reviewing the proposal to ensure that no chain-of-custody issues would arise in court. The move comes after two incidents in which important items in the city Police Department's evidence control unit turned up missing.

A man was fatally shot in East Baltimore last night - hours after another man was stabbed to the death in the same section of the city, police said. About 7:30 p.m. yesterday, an unidentified man was shot in the 400 block of N. Bouldin St., police said. Officer Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman, said police found the victim suffering from a gunshot wound to the head and lying in the street. Monroe said the man was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. No arrest had been made and a motive was unknown, she said.

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 206 THE VICTIM A wounded man found early yesterday lying in the rear of a home in Southwest Baltimore died later from a bullet would to the head, city police said. The victim, whose identity was not released, had been shot about 2:45 a.m. in the 400 block of S. Payson St., police said. LAST YEAR: Baltimore had recorded 178 homicides as of Aug. 28, 2006. ONLINE: Details and locations of this year's city homicides at baltimoresun.com/homicidemap.

Baltimore homicide detectives are investigating two Christmas Eve slayings that occurred in Northwest Baltimore and one that was reported yesterday in East Baltimore, according to city police. The latest homicide occurred shortly after noon yesterday in the 1700 block of N. Dallas St., where police found the victim bleeding from multiple bullet wounds. The man, whose identity has been withheld until his relatives are notified, died a short time later at Johns Hopkins Hospital. About 1:45 a.m. Christmas Eve, police found a man lying in the 6600 block of Vincent Lane, suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.

Two men were arrested last night after leading city police and the crew of a police helicopter on a vehicle pursuit on and off the Jones Falls Expressway that ended when one man was arrested while hiding under the porch of a house near St. Mary's Seminary, police said. The other man was arrested when he bailed out of the car on the expressway. At one point, the suspect's 1997 Lexus was southbound in the northbound lanes of the expressway near 41st Street, but its driver turned around as he neared a police roadblock set up to prevent the car from colliding with northbound traffic.

MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen disguised as soldiers attacked two police stations and killed seven people in the resort city of Acapulco, apparently videotaping the killings as they carried them out, according to police and news reports. Police officials who asked not to be identified said the two stations had been at the center of a dispute between reform-minded state officials and city police suspected of ties to drug trafficking. The assailants simultaneously entered the police stations disguised as soldiers from a Mexican army unit, a police official said.

Man fatally shot by Baltimore officer A Baltimore police officer shot and killed a man who apparently tried to rob him and his girlfriend early yesterday outside a North Baltimore apartment building, a city police spokesman said. Sterling Clifford, a police spokesman, said a preliminary investigation revealed that the officer and a woman were sitting in his car in the 900 block of Belgian Ave. in the Pen Lucy neighborhood when a man approached about 4 a.m. The man, whose face was partially covered with a bandanna, came up to the passenger side of the car and pointed a handgun, first at the woman, next at the officer, and then again at the woman, Clifford said.

A man in his early 20s was shot yesterday in Baltimore's Remington neighborhood and died later at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, a city police spokesman said. The victim, who has not been identified, was found about 1 a.m. in the 2900 block of Miles Ave., near 29th Street. Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman, said the man had been shot several times. It was the city's 146th homicide this year, compared with 127 the same time last year, police said. Harris said police have no suspects and know of no motive.

The suspended commander of the Baltimore Police Department's Southeastern District is being investigated for content on his office computer, police sources said. Police said Maj. Roger Bergeron was stripped of his gun and badge and sent home Sept. 30 with pay, but no reason was disclosed. Multiple sources say agency leaders heard rumblings that Bergeron spent significant time in his office rather than on the street, and decided to inspect his work computer. It was unclear what investigators found, but one source said the majority of Web sites he had visited were social networking sites.

Former priest accused of child sex abuse A former Catholic priest from North Carolina has been accused of sexually abusing a child in Ocean City more than 30 years ago. Ocean City police say 64-year-old Michael Barnes of Haywood, N.C., has been arrested in his home state and is being held there. Police say they got a complaint about the abuse this spring and that the incidents took place between 1977 and 1982. A Baltimore County man in his 40s filed a lawsuit against Barnes in Delaware in June.

Laurel brothers charged with attempted murder A pair of teenage brothers from Laurel have been charged in the attempted murder of a Washington taxi driver, who told police they had called him to give them a ride from the Greenbelt Metro station. Jeremiah Bridges, 17, and Justin Bridges, 16, of the 9200 block of Van Fleet Court, were also charged by Howard County police in the robbery and assault of Getachew Lima on Sept. 13. Lima reported that after driving the teens to their destination, they began choking and beating him. Police found Lima in his car in the 9100 block of Bourbon Court in Laurel.

City police were investigating four shooting incidents that occurred over the weekend, one of them a double shooting. None was fatal, and no arrests had been made. The latest occurred about 1:35 a.m. Sunday in the 2500 block of Hollins St. Southwestern District police arriving at St. Agnes Hospital said a man, 28, was shot in the back in an apartment on Hollins Street but refused to cooperate with investigators. He was expected to survive. About 8 p.m. Saturday, a man, 26, was sitting on the front porch of a house in the 2800 block of Boarman Ave. in northwest Baltimore with other men when someone fired a shot hitting him in the shoulder.

A Baltimore County man is accused of eluding police in two counties early Saturday before turning up at a city hospital, seeking treatment for gunshot wounds inflicted by an Anne Arundel officer he tried to run over, police said. Police said the episode began at 1:18 a.m., when Arundel officers on patrol in Glen Burnie noticed a Nissan Maxima with suspended Maryland plates. Police said they also learned that the car's owner had a suspended driver's license. Eastern District officers pulled the car over on Crain Highway just north of Hospital Drive.

City officials say an unusually high concentration of ethanol in the city's gasoline supply contributed to the breakdown of more than 70 police cars over the weekend, most of which had been repaired and returned to service Tuesday. More than 200 police cars fueled up at a 24-hour, city-run gas pump by the Fallsway before cars started showing problems, and nearly one-third of the Police Department's patrol contingent was sidelined with engine trouble. Police doubled up in cars before activating a reserve and shifting administrative vehicles into service.

City police respond to 9 shootings, 2 of them fatal Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III huddled with commanders on Saturday to plot a strategy in response to at least nine shootings in a 24-hour period. Two of the shootings were deadly, police said. Detectives are trying to determine if any are linked, city police spokesman Anthony J. Guglielmi said. A man was shot in the leg in the 4800 block of Yellowwood Ave. on Friday afternoon. Shortly after, a man was shot and killed in the 600 block of Ashburton St. Police did not immediately provide information on the victim.

Man charged after truck hits car, bursts into flames Anne Arundel County police charged a driver with leaving the scene of an accident and other traffic violations Sunday after authorities said his pickup truck hit a car and burst into flames in Pasadena. James Arthur Keedy III, 20, of the 100 block of Litton Dale Lane in Pasadena was driving a 1999 Chevrolet Silverado that ran a stop sign shortly before 6:45 p.m. and collided with a Toyota Avalon at Armstrong Drive and Ullman Road, police said.

Baltimore police officers who ordered several peace protesters to disperse Friday from a city park across from the Inner Harbor "were clearly wrong" and "uneducated on public demonstration laws," according to the Police Department's chief spokesman. That official, Anthony Guglielmi, said the five women had a legal right to protest at McKeldin Park, a triangular median bordered by Calvert, Light and Pratt streets. He said Maj. Dennis Smith, the commander of the Central District, has ordered the officers "to be retrained."

City police fire on car; woman is found wounded At least one Northeastern District police officer fired shots late Wednesday night at the driver of a car who attempted to run him down. Minutes later, police found the car, in which they discovered a woman suffering from a bullet wound to the shoulder, a few blocks away. Police were attempting to find the driver of the car, who fled on foot. It was not known if he also was shot. Shortly before midnight, district officers were at Whitby and Silverbell roads when they were nearly struck by a silver Chevrolet Malibu, police said.