City Police

The Baltimore Police Department is asking the city for $285,000 to hire a Massachusetts-based consultant — the highest of five bidders — to recommend how the department should be run. But a city councilman is questioning the need for a consultant. And he says he's concerned that the department is bypassing lower bidders for a company with ties to former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton, an ally of Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts. "In these tough economic times, we have to think about saving taxpayer dollars," said Councilman Brandon Scott, who has called for a hearing on the contract.

Baltimore Police asked for the public's help Friday in identifying victims of a Dundalk man they say collected and traded child pornography. David Ralph Fisher, 42, of the 6500 block of St. Helena Street in Dundalk, was arrested Thursday after a sting operation by officers posing as a 14-year-old girl, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. He faces charges of possession and distribution of child pornography and sexual solicitation of a minor. Detectives began investigating Fisher in November after an associate reported that she had found photographs and videos on his computer that showed adults having sex with children as young as two years old, police said.

Police in Baltimore and Baltimore County were seeking the public's help in locating two teenagers, one pregnant, who were missing on Thursday night. City police were looking for Celine Marie Foster, 14, who was last seen leaving school about 9:40 a.m. Wednesday from Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy at 100 N. Calhoun St. She may be suicidal. The girl is black, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, and weighs about 135 pounds, police said. She was last seen wearing a blue jean jacket, black skinny pants and white Jordan tennis shoes.

City police say homicide detectives are investigating the death of a man found inside a home in Northwest Baltimore, and an assault in Curtis Bay that left a 19-year-old critically injured.  There were few details about the homicide case. Police said they were called to a home in the 4100 block of Groveland Ave. at about 8:10 p.m. for a report of a person not breathing, and found a man with "trauma to the body. " He was pronounced dead at the scene, and his identity and cause of death were pending, police said.  At 1:45 a.m. Tuesday, police said a 19-year-old man was sitting in front of a home in the 1600 block of Cypress St. with two other people when a man exchanged words with the group.

A man was in critical condition Friday night after he was shot in the head in the Waverly neighborhood of Baltimore, police said. The shooting occurred in the 3600 block of Old York Road, police spokesman Det. Vernon Davis said. The man, whose identity was not released, was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. City homicide detectives were investigating. Police were also investigating the shooting of a man in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore. The shooting occurred in the 900 block of North Mount Street, Davis said.

One man was killed and two others injured in separate shooting incidents overnight across the city, police said. The fatal shooting occurred about 6:45 a.m. Sunday in the 1600 block of E. 29th St. in the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore. Detective Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman, said the man was shot at least once and taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he died in the afternoon. Police identified the man Monday as Dwight Cook, 28, of the same block, but provided no additional information, including a possible motive in the shooting.

Baltimore police on Monday identified the officer who shot a man police said was firing guns in the backyard of a house Thursday night. The officer is Steven Angelini, a seven-year veteran of the department. Police said officers were called to the 6700 block of Danville Avenue, which is off Dundalk Avenue, about 8:30 p.m. Thursday for reports of gunfire. Officers found a man in the backyard of a home shooting weapons, and Angelini shot the man. The man was taken to a hospital for his injuries, and no officers were hurt.

As officers lingered outside his Northwest Baltimore home for three hours, Anthony Todd was busy inside trying to cover up evidence of a marijuana-growing operation, police say. His pants had fresh dirt on them from squeezing through a crawl space to hide what police say was a pound of loose marijuana, and he told officers he had spent the time before they entered the home tearing apart the marijuana plants and flushing them down the toilet....

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said Thursday that he is planning to change the way police get eyewitnesses to pick out suspects, citing research that shows current techniques can lead to cases of mistaken identity. Batts said he wants officers to show witnesses one picture of a possible suspect at a time, instead of in groups. He said the change, along with a few others. could significantly improve the reliability of the identifications that police use to make their cases.

A man died in a shooting reported in Southwest Baltimore about 4 a.m. Thursday, city police said. Officers were called to the 1300 block of Carroll Street in the Washington Village/Pigtown neighborhood, where they found a black man with a gunshot wound to the chest. Homicide detectives are investigating. The victim was taken to an area hospital, where he died, police said. No other information was immediately available. The shooting death is the first police have reported in the city in more than a week, after two shootings in West Baltimore left two women and two men dead March 19. A man and woman were shot while driving a pickup truck in West Baltimore on Monday but were expected to survive.