City Police Officer

Along Pennsylvania Avenue and other drug-infested corners, they knew him as " Nike boots," "Black," and "Batman. " Nike boots for the shoes he wore when he chased suspects through alleys. Black because he was dark-skinned. Batman because he and his partner formed a "dynamic duo. " Most of all, they knew William H. Torbit Jr. -- the officer slain this week -- as a tough but fair officer who was active in the community even when he was off the clock. When he locked you up, you knew you had it coming, but he stayed in touch and built bonds.

A retired Baltimore City police officer shot and critically injured a man who tried to rob a carryout near Pimlico Race Course , city police said Wednesday night. A 25-year-old man walked into Judy's Island Grill & Bake Shop in the 5200 block of Park Heights Ave. and brandished a handgun, city police spokesman Kevin Brown said. The 63-year-old retired police officer, who was exiting the restaurant, shot the gunman once, Brown said. The unidentified man was taken to an area hospital and is not expected to survive his injuries, Brown said.

Police charged 20-year-old twins in a shooting at The Block, the city's hub of strip clubs on East Baltimore Street, that left one man in critical condition early Tuesday morning. Eric Daniel and Derrick Jeffory Crawford of the 900 block of Stoddard Court are charged with attempted first-degree murder and related charges in the double shooting that occurred at about 2 a.m. The shooting was the third violent incident in the heart of the city since Saturday. Officers were trying to control a crowd leaving clubs near City Hall and police headquarters downtown when the brothers approached a female dancer leaving one of the clubs with a man and opened fire, police said.

Police are calling a double shooting in downtown Baltimore that left a man in critical condition — the third violent incident in the heart of the city since Saturday — an "isolated and targeted" attack and stressed that the area remains safe. Anthony Guglielmi, the department's chief spokesman, said the shooting broke out at 2 a.m. Tuesday as officers were trying to control a crowd leaving The Block, the city's hub of strip clubs on East Baltimore Street near City Hall and police headquarters.

A Baltimore police officer was seriously wounded early Saturday after a man opened fire on him near the downtown nightlife hub, touching off a running gunbattle as tactical officers pursued the suspect up North Calvert Street. The suspect fled on foot, then sped away in a silver-colored Toyota Camry before crashing into a light pole near Calvert and Franklin streets. Police apprehended him at Mercy Medical Center, where he was seeking treatment for several gunshot wounds. A law enforcement source identified the suspect as Franklin James Gross, 29, of the 4200 block of Liberty Heights Ave. in Northwest Baltimore, who has an extensive criminal record.

The doctors told Detective Jermaine Cook that the injury to his left eye was like placing a grape in a bag, slicing it in half, and then smashing it flat. The beer mug slung at his face by a Joppa man in May had caused irreparable damage. Cook, a Baltimore police officer who patrolled the toughest parts of the city, is now legally blind and can't drive long distances or at night. He's had trouble taking care of his children without assistance and has seen his income — which used to include significant overtime pay — drop substantially.

A long-retired city police officer was convicted of assault, reckless endangerment and a handgun violation for shooting a man twice last year on the 2700 block of Boston St., the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office announced Tuesday. The victim was arguing with a friend of Daniel Marshall, 61, who intervened and ultimately shot the victim in his lower leg and hip, according to testimony from the five-day trial. Marshall, who retired from the police force in 1986, according to the state's attorney's office, claimed he was acting in self defense during the July 5, 2009 event.

A former Baltimore police officer was sentenced to five years in federal prison Wednesday for assaulting a 17-year-old and falsifying documents to cover up the attack, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. In May, a jury convicted Gregory Mussmacher, 35, of violating the young man's civil rights and obstructing justice by creating phony police reports. "The power that accompanies a police officer's badge does not give the officer the right to violate the civil rights of those in his or her custody," Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ's Civil rights Division, said in a statement.

A Baltimore City Schools Police officer shot a masked assailant suspected of robbing a store in East Baltimore Sunday night, and police were searching for two alleged accomplices who had apparently gotten away, police said. The unidentified suspect was shot once in the upper body and taken to an area hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, police said. Just before 8:30 p.m., someone approached the on-duty officer, who was at a restaurant in the 2000 block of Harford Road, and said a dollar store across the street was being robbed, said Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman.

A Harford County jury found James Aaron Kimble of Joppa guilty Tuesday of assaulting an off-duty Baltimore City police officer in May, leaving him without the use of one eye. But the panel also decided that the attack was not racially motivated, finding Kimble not guilty of first-degree assault based on race or color. Detective Jermaine Cook was struck in the face after Kimble approached Cook's vehicle at a stop sign and yelled at him about his driving. Kimble hit Cook in the face with a drinking glass.