Family Man

When it happens - and relatives say it's rare for Franklin Williams to have a schizophrenic episode - he first starts to drink an inordinate amount of water. He takes baths and smokes cigarettes, anything to calm himself and quiet the voices in his head. Williams' family said that scenario was playing out last Sunday night when they called police to their Southwest Baltimore home, hoping he could be taken to a hospital for mental health treatment. Instead, the 37-year-old was taken for treatment of multiple gunshot wounds after police say he refused to drop a knife.

Relatives of the man who police say was killed by officers after he shot them said Tuesday that they know he had faults, and were offended that the city's police commissioner called him an idiot. Thomas Tavon Miller's mother, grandmother and cousin complained in an interview that the 31-year-old man's criminal conduct rarely included violence and did not fit the profile of someone who would pull a gun on police officers. "We know he's not perfect, but nobody is perfect in this world," said his cousin, Sherril Dawson.

Days after four journalists were released from captivity in Libya, a retired schoolteacher in South Baltimore waits anxiously for any word about her son, who went missing in the war-torn country in March. Sharon VanDyke and other family members enlisted the help of Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger on Monday to raise the profile of 31-year-old Matthew VanDyke's case — and demand that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi allow him to return home. "This is a major priority when you have an American being held captive, especially based on the situation occurring in Libya," Ruppersberger said during a news conference held in the VanDyke home.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Not so long ago, boxing had a happy home, a place to call its own.It was Miami Beach, the South Beach of Gleason and Godfrey and the Auditorium and the Fontainebleau. Of Clay and Liston and the 5th Street Gym. Of Ollie Burgers before the fights, coffee and drinks after.It was the Miami Beach of trainer Angelo Dundee and his circle of champions, present and future. And it was the Miami Beach of promoter Chris Dundee and his formidable stable of fighters once a thousand deep, some old-timers say."

The city's new police commissioner brought his top brass on Wednesday night to meet with the family of Anthony Anderson, the 46-year-old man whose death in police custody last week has raised tensions in East Baltimore , the family's attorney confirmed. J. Wyndal Gordon, an attorney who is representing Anderson's family, said that Anthony W. Batts and members of his command staff visited the Andersons "to extend his condolences. " "We repeated our desire for justice in this case, and got a commitment from him that he will do what he can to ensure justice is served," Gordon said.

Firefighters rescued an unconscious person during a two-alarm blaze late Tuesday in Northwest Baltimore, a spokesman said, but the victim later died. Though fire officials could not yet confirm the identity of the victim, relatives of Roger Weldon Carter said they believe he was the individual who died. They gathered outside the two-story wood frame house in Central Forest Park Wednesday morning and described Carter as a model father, skilled musician and recently published author who had just celebrated his 63rd birthday on March 12. "He was a brilliant man," said his wife, Joan Carter, who said the two have been legally separated since 1993.

A federal jury in Baltimore has awarded $2.45 million to the family of an Eastern Shore man killed in 1994 when the airplane he was riding in crashed in icy weather in Pottstown, Pa. The family of John Powell, who was 39 when the crash occurred, was awarded the settlement Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. A National Transportation Safety Board investigation showed the pilot of the Piper Aerostar, Frederick G. Erb, didn't de-ice the plane before taking off from Pottstown Limerick Airport.

June Giggard clutched her father-in-law's hand tightly as she learned of a memorial fund established in memory of her husband."Bill helps me with everything," she said softly.The State Police Troopers Association started the fund."We are donating $500 to initiate the memorial fund in memory of your husband," said Lt. Greg Shipley, public information officer for the Maryland State Police, at a news conference yesterday at the Westminster branch of Taneytown Bank & Trust Co."I hope this gets the word out. We know there are a lot of people in Carroll County who care and who want to help."

The family of Kent Leonard Cullison has filed a $20 million lawsuit against suspect Smith Harper Dean III and the estate of Sharon Lee Mechalske, Dean's former girlfriend.Cullison, 30, and Mechalske, 38, were shotgunned to death at her Hampstead home June 14, 1997. Dean, 39, was arrested in the front yard moments after a 911 dispatcher reported hearing gunshots as Mechalske frantically called for help.The civil lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Carroll County Circuit Court on behalf of Nancy L. Cullison, the mother and personal representative of her son's estate.