Crowd

A large crowd of young people -- described by witnesses as rowdy, rude, fighting or "just hanging out" -- led to the closing of Harborplace shops an hour early Sunday night and prompted complaints yesterday about downtown security.The young people -- about 4,000 of them, according to a police estimate -- surged along nearby streets after leaving the Inner Harbor promenade, but authorities reported no resulting crime, damage or arrests."It's a traditional thing on Easter" for youngsters to gather there, said Lt. Robert F. Smith, head of the Baltimore Police Department's Inner Harbor unit, adding that the crowd may have been larger this year because the weather was pleasant.

Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" blared over the loudspeaker. Lisa Rothe of Greenbelt plunged into her plate of nachos. And then, just as the sun took a convenient dip, Her Majesty, the Queen of England, her most prim, her most proper, stepped into Memorial Stadium to mix it up at an O's game.She waved that little wavette of hers, and the crowd stood, whistled, cheered and, of course, pulled out cameras and binoculars that were more abundant last night than baseball caps."She looks kind of simple, not what I expected," said Pam Brown, a student at the Institute of Notre Dame.

Patches of grass went unclaimed in the vast infield and fewer broad-brimmed hats floated atop women's heads on Saturday as droves of fans steered clear of Pimlico Race Course and its new policy banning bring-your-own alcohol. The smallest crowd in more than a quarter-century was drawn to the Preakness Stakes, officials acknowledged, while those savoring the 134th running of the race watched an impressive victory by the first filly to seize the second Triple Crown leg in 85 years. Organizers had hoped to compensate for the alcohol change by adding a rock concert, beach volleyball and a bikini contest, and by dispensing $1 cups of beer during the morning.

MONROVIA - An unruly crowd of more than 1,000 people confronted police who responded to reports of fighting at the 75 & 80 Dragstrip about 10 p.m. Friday, authorities said yesterday. Deputies with the Frederick County Sheriff's Office arrested one woman at the scene. In a report about the fighting, Sgt. Gordon Geesey wrote that the crowd surrounded five deputies at one point and tried to "entice them" into a confrontation. Officers from the Frederick and Westminster barracks of the state police, a state police helicopter and a police dog were called to restore order and disperse the crowd, Geesey reported.

On a typical night, the crowd at Clyde's - and it is usually a crowd - includes families with young children, business people in shirts and ties gathered around an opened laptop, couples on dates and loud multigenerational gatherings. The stools around the long, handsome bar are all taken, and people are standing alongside, drinks in hand, talking. No wonder Clyde's was recently named by the Zagat guide as the most popular restaurant in the Baltimore region. This wood-paneled all-American restaurant, part of a chain with 13 locations from Northern Virginia to Maryland (including the next-door Tomato Palace, which opened in 1993)

One man was killed and three others wounded last night when two men with semiautomatic weapons sent a blaze of gunfire crackling into a crowd of people on a West Baltimore street corner, police said.Three of the victims were taken to St. Agnes Hospital with relatively minor wounds, but the fourth -- apparently shot in the neck -- was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.The incident occurred about 8:10 p.m. when two men walked up to a crowd in front of Grossman's Liquor store at the corner of Westwood Avenue and Bloomingdale Road, police said.

Ross Perot breezed into Maryland yesterday, charming hi followers at a rally in Catonsville but dropping no hints about whether he might run for president in 1996.Mr. Perot, who has been barnstorming the country as if he were running for something, brought his road show to the University of Maryland Baltimore County gymnasium, where for slightly longer than an hour, he preached his folksy sermon of government reform and balanced budgets.He whipped up enthusiasm among 2,500 of his faithful but failed to whip up on President Clinton, whom Mr. Perot recently said wasn't qualified for a job above middle management at a medium-sized company.

Fabulous weather, record crowds and good vibrations converged on Baltimore's Mount Royal Avenue yesterday as Artscape wound up its 15th year as the city's biggest and most visible celebration of the arts."

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The U.S. military is investigating the possibility that soldiers fired into a crowd of Afghans at the scene of a fatal traffic accident that set off a day of rioting this week. "There are indications, as part of our initial investigation, that coalition soldiers did in fact use their weapons in self-defense," Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for U.S. forces here, said yesterday. In a statement released Monday, Collins had said there were "indications that at least one coalition military vehicle fired warning shots over the crowd."

'At the recently completed Sydney Olympics, four American runners found themselves caught in a storm of criticism when their grandstanding following a victory in the 4x100-meter relay threatened to overshadow their accomplishment. One of those runners was Bernard Williams, 22, of Baltimore, a man some believe may be the next great American sprinter. Shortly after he returned home from Australia, Williams spoke with The Sun's Gary Dorsey about the uproar over his gold-medal moment: "That was overexaggerated.