Gunmen

A delivery driver in a truck was hijacked by two masked gunmen yesterday afternoon on northbound U.S. 1 between Patuxent Range Road and Route 175 in Howard County.Howard County police said the victim was forced to drive to an unknown, secluded location. There, a pillowcase was placed over his head and he was held at gunpoint while the gunmen removed money and food products from the truck.The victim was released unharmed somewhere near Route 100 in Anne Arundel County a short time later, where he phoned police.

Three men with handguns robbed an armored-car guard and stole her weapon yesterday afternoon after she made a pickup at a Middle River shopping center, Baltimore County police said.The unidentified Dunbar guard was approached from behind by the gunmen moments after she left a McDonald's at the Martin Plaza Shopping Center in the 1300 block of Martin Blvd., said county police spokesman Bill Toohey.He said the guard was accosted after she entered the back of her truck with money from the restaurant shortly before 3 p.m. The men ordered the woman to lie on the floor of the truck and then fled with the undisclosed sum and the woman's gun, Toohey said.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityCentral DistrictBurglary: Someone entered the city Police Department's PAL Center in the 1600 block of Madison Ave. on Monday, stole an undisclosed sum of cash and damaged two gum ball machines.Southwestern DistrictTheft: After a man cut the hair of a male occupant of a house in the 1700 block of Poplar Grove St. on July 3, he allegedly stole $240 the occupant hid under a living room carpet. The victim reported the theft Tuesday after failing to locate the suspect.

A man was shot by off-duty city sheriff's deputies in East Baltimore last night during a holdup that took place a block from a Fraternal Order of Police union meeting on Pulaski Highway near Clinton Street.Police said three armed robbers entered the Me Too bar in the 3200 block of Pulaski Highway about 8: 50 p.m. and announced a holdup. In the tavern were three customers and two bar employees. All of them fled. The employees ran to a nearby tavern -- Looney's Santa Fe -- where about a dozen off-duty deputies from the Baltimore sheriff's office were holding an FOP meeting.

LITTLETON, Colo. -- The two teen-age gunmen who went on a murderous rampage at a suburban high school here wanted to kill 500 classmates and neighbors, then hijack a plane and crash it into New York City, authorities said yesterday.The details were discovered among hundreds of pages of diary entries found in a ledger in the bedroom of Eric Harris, 18. Police say he and Dylan Klebold, 17, apparently planned the attack at Columbine High School more than a year ago.Yesterday, investigators finished interviewing an acquaintance of Klebold -- an 18-year-old woman who is suspected of buying an assault weapon used in last Tuesday's attack.

Two masked gunmen robbed the Babe Ruth Museum yesterday, making off with an undisclosed amount of money -- the third time the museum has been robbed in the past two weeks.Police said two men between the ages of 16 and 20 entered the museum, in the 200 block of Emory St., about 5: 00 p.m. They waved a revolver at employees and demanded cash. Police believe that the same men have committed all three robberies.

LITTLETON, Colo. -- An 18-year-old woman who attended the senior prom with one of the killers at Columbine High School bought at least two of the firearms used in the attack, authorities confirmed yesterday as they announced that 51 pipe bombs -- nearly twice as many as first mentioned -- had been found.The woman, Robyn Anderson, who did not respond to requests for comment, was interviewed by the police Monday and released.She bought two shotguns at a local gun show she attended recently with the two gunmen, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, her prom date, and is being considered a witness, not a suspect.

Two masked gunmen robbed a McDonald's restaurant on Route 140 in Westminster early yesterdayand forced five employees into a walk-in freezer, state police said.The restaurant manager, who was not identified in police reports, was beaten during the 12: 20 a.m. incident at 520 Baltimore Blvd., according to state police at the Westminster barracks.He suffered several cuts to the head and was taken by state MedEvac helicopter to the Maryland Shock Trauma center in Baltimore, where he was treated and released, police said.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CitySoutheastern DistrictStolen handgun: A .357-caliber Magnum handgun of unknown value was stolen Monday from a house in the 3400 block of Esther Place.Southern DistrictBurglary: Stereo equipment and a television, all valued at nearly $2,000, were stolen from a house in the 1800 block of W. Lombard St. between Sunday and Tuesday.Eastern DistrictShootings: Two gunmen got out of a dark-colored car in the 2400 block of E. Oliver St. about 12: 20 a.m. yesterday and fired several shots, hitting a man, 36, in the right leg and right side, and another man in the left hand.

Two gunmen stormed into a Mobil gas station on Dorsey Hall Drive in Ellicott City early yesterday morning and robbed it of an unknown amount of cash, Howard County police said.The robbers were wearing ski masks and dark clothing when they entered the gas station, which is in Dorsey Search Village Center, shortly before 3 a.m.Armed with a gray handgun, the robbers forced the male clerk into a back room and then shoved him to the ground. One man emptied the cash register, police said.Pub Date: 10/03/99

Law enforcement investigators suspect that a series of crimes are linked in a chain of alliances and rivalries. April 1, 2008: Stephon Blackwell, then 16, and Sterling Blackwell, then 15, are kidnapped from their home in the 600 block of Plymouth Road, a few blocks west of the city line. Six masked gunmen burst into house and hold 10 people - including the brothers and their mother - hostage for eight hours before stealing a car. As the gunmen leave, they fire shots at Steven "JR" Blackwell Jr., the boys' older brother, as he arrives, police said.

Gunmen kill owner of Pen Lucy social hall The owner of a Pen Lucy social hall was shot and killed during an attempted robbery there early Sunday. Police said Joe Woah-Tee, 60, was standing behind the counter at Gaimei Nangbn Multi-Purpose Neighborhood Center in the 4300 block of York Road about 3:40 a.m. when a man entered and asked about renting the center. A witness told police that shortly after the man was told that a $10 holding fee was required, the man told Woah-Tee to give him money and reached through the opening in a security window.

MUMBAI, India - Coordinated terrorist attacks struck the heart of Mumbai, India's commercial capital, last night, killing more than 100 people in machine-gun and grenade assaults on at least two five-star hotels, the city's largest train station, a movie theater and a hospital. Even by the standards of terrorism in India, which has suffered a rising number of terrorist attacks this year, the assaults were particularly brazen and different in scale and execution. The attackers used boats to reach the urban peninsula where they hit, and their targets were sites popular with tourists.

Two men with handguns and bandannas over their faces burst into a Wendy's restaurant in the Dogwood Station shopping center in the 2300 block of N. Rolling Road about 12:30 p.m. yesterday, shot a store manager and fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of money, police said. The manager was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with life-threatening injuries and was immediately taken into surgery, said Cpl. Michael Hill, a Baltimore County police spokesman. He is listed in critical condition, Hill said.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - U.S. and Turkish investigators worked urgently yesterday to determine the motive and affiliation of gunmen who attacked the U.S. Consulate here, leaving three Turkish police officers and three assailants dead in a hail of bullets. Turkish news reports cited police sources as saying al-Qaida was suspected in the attack, the most serious assault on a foreign diplomatic mission in Turkey in five years. But there was no immediate confirmation of the report or claim of responsibility.

Police continued to search yesterday for two teenage brothers who were snatched from their Catonsville house after a home invasion that sources familiar with the investigation said was related to Baltimore's drug trade. Six masked gunmen forced their way into the house shortly before 3 a.m. on Tuesday, bound and gagged the home's 10 occupants and lingered for eight hours before taking off with the boys. One intruder fired a parting shot at a relative of the boys while fleeing in a BMW convertible.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- In separate deadly attacks yesterday, a suicide bomber killed the army's surgeon general and seven other people, and gunmen burst into the offices of a British-based aid group in northwest Pakistan, shooting four local staffers to death and burning down their building. The assaults, both blamed on Islamic militants, were the most serious outbreak of violence since parliamentary elections a week earlier, in which the ruling party affiliated with President Pervez Musharraf was routed by two main opposition parties.

Sometime this winter, the world may know if the last of the Romanov bones have been found. The skeletal remains of two young people were unearthed last summer near the Ural Mountain city of Yekaterinburg, just a short distance from the site where most of the Russian royal family was discovered nearly 30 years ago, and genetic testing now under way should prove conclusive. If these are indeed the bones of Alexis and his sister Maria, they will be laid to rest, finally, in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg, alongside those of their parents, Nicholas and Alexandra, and their sisters Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia.

Oct. 23 2002 Gunmen seized a crowded Moscow theater, taking hundreds hostage and threatening to kill them unless the Russian army pulled out of Chechnya.

BAGHDAD -- U.S. forces firing from helicopters pursued armed militants loyal to a radical anti-American Shiite cleric into a western Baghdad slum yesterday, killing at least 18 people, reportedly including some civilians. U.S.-led forces said the predawn raid yesterday on the capital's Shula district was in response to an insurgent attack on a U.S. patrol in the area. But residents said the U.S. helicopter attack caught many in the Shiite community controlled by Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army asleep on their roofs, where they go to escape the stifling heat of apartments.