Homicide Detectives

After speaking privately with homicide detectives investigating the death of the girlfriend of a man charged with dealing heroin, a judge ordered that the man be released to a Baltimore halfway house while awaiting trial on federal drug charges. But federal prosecutors immediately appealed the ruling, effectively blocking the release of Jermarl A. Jones before a U.S. district judge conducts another hearing next week. The decision came at the end of a detention hearing during which a deputy U.S. marshal detailed his nearly seven-month search for Jones and the ways he believed Jones and his girlfriend attempted to evade authorities hunting for him. Jones, 31, of Hyattsville was arrested last month on a year-old federal indictment that charged him with conspiring to sell heroin.

The Baltimore Police Department is poised to shake up its homicide unit for the first time in 50 years and assign detectives to geographic beats, hoping to reduce the murder toll in the nation's fourth-deadliest city.Under the plan, which significantly alters the way the homicide unit has worked since it was formed after World War II, detectives will answer to a new commander who will also oversee nonfatal shooting investigations and a task force that targets youth violence.The changes are part of a departmentwide overhaul that makes district lieutenants responsible for groups of neighborhoods on a 24-hour basis, turning the lieutenants into mini-chiefs with discretion over officer deployment and money.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- I was a stranger in this town. A 22-year-old punk from Baltimore with some newspaper experience and an English literature background, I managed to land a reporting gig with the city's big paper four years ago. I knew not a soul here, save for the people who hired me at the Providence Journal.At the time, Providence reminded me of Baltimore, but maybe because I wanted it that way.I missed home.So every Friday night, I tuned in at 10 p.m. to get that shot in the arm that would take me through the next week.

"Homicide: Life on the Street" becomes "Homicide: Death in Cyberspace" tonight in a new twist on the old trick of crossover episodes.We've already seen "Homicide" cross over with another prime-time NBC series, "Law & Order," in an effort to boost ratings. The crossovers involved detectives from both series working on the same case, often with the New York cops coming to Baltimore and the "Homicide" crew going to New York.But tonight, the crossover is between two media, as "Homicide" joins forces with its online sister production, "Homicide: Second Shift," which can be found on the Web at http: //www.

A man killed by a police officer Thursday evening in East Baltimore was shot in the back of the head -- a revelation that raises questions about a shooting that has enraged residents in the Barclay Street neighborhood.Homicide detectives are sorting through two distinct versions of what happened when two officers confronted Larry J. Hubbard, 21, after he ran from an Oldsmobile that was reported stolen from Montgomery County on Tuesday.The officers describe a violent struggle with Hubbard before the fatal shooting on a street near the city school headquarters.

A man in his 20s was found shot to death yesterday afternoon in a Northwest Baltimore alley, city police reported.Homicide detectives said they had not confirmed the identity of the victim, and that they did not know whether he had been shot at the scene in the 2600 block of W. Cold Spring Lane or dumped there. The body was found shortly past 1: 30 p.m.Police said it was the 27th homicide in the city this year -- a rate of nearly one a day.Pub Date: 1/31/99

It was a brazen slaughter on an east-side street. Baltimore prosecutor Nancy Beth Pollack told the jurors she knew who pulled the trigger and that by the end of the trial, so would they. The evidence homicide detectives pieced together pointed to one man.Antoine Jerome Pettiford."I'm confident, because of this evidence," she said, "you will find this defendant guilty."What jurors didn't know that day in Baltimore Circuit Court was that evidence had been kept secret -- material that pinned the slaying on other suspects.

Troubled by Baltimore's homicide rate, City Council members are calling for an end to a controversial police department policy of rotating veteran homicide detectives into other jobs.In a resolution passed during last night's meeting, the council said it "demands that the [Mayor Kurt L.] Schmoke administration halt its policy."The resolution's sponsor, Councilman Martin O'Malley, called the policy "foolish" because officers with minimal homicide investigative experience would be responsible for solving some of the city's toughest crimes.

Homicide detectives are searching for suspects in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old East Baltimore boy during an argument at a craps game Wednesday night in the 700 block of E. 20th St.Steven A. Johnson, a ninth-grader at Lake Clifton-Eastern High School, was pronounced dead of gunshots to the chest and stomach after being rushed to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.Johnson left his home on East 21st Street shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday, telling his mother he would be back. Neighbors heard shots in front of a boarded-up rowhouse a block away and called police.

Baltimore's police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier is exempting homicide detectives and bomb technicians from his controversial rotation policy for up to a year, and may consider doing the same for other specialized squads.The partial delay is to ensure that some units are not depleted by a large shift of officers at one time. And a decision on moving other officers has been delayed because of a contract dispute that erupted last week.Union officials are upset that the Police Department wants language governing the rotation policy excluded from the contract, which was agreed to in January and was to be signed last week.

Police reports in Baltimore city and county: Northern Baltimore Body found: Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a man whose decomposed body was found Wednesday afternoon in a Charles Village garage behind the 2700 block of St. Paul St. Police said there were no obvious signs of foul play. . Anyone with information is asked to call homicide detectives at 410-396-2100. Eastern Baltimore Assault: A woman, 18, was sitting on a couch in her home in the 2400 block of Barclay St. about 6 p.m. Tuesday when another woman entered her home and assaulted her before fleeing.

Baltimore prosecutors have dropped attempted murder charges against a 28-year-old man accused of initiating a movie-worthy shootout and car chase with three detectives in August in East Baltimore. Prosecutors never sought an indictment. Instead, on May 5, they offered Wayne Brown of the 4100 block of Chatford Ave. a plea to time served for stealing a car, a misdemeanor, after homicide detectives and prosecutors uncovered a host of problems, according to Brown's attorney. According to charging documents, three undercover detectives in the Violent Crimes Impact Division noticed a 1991 Lincoln Town Car in the 1700 block of Bradford St. that "appeared to get their attention."

The Baltimore Police Department's head of criminal investigations is stepping down, the latest shake-up of the agency's top leadership. Officials confirmed that Col. John M. Bevilacqua - who oversees high-profile investigative units, including the homicide, district detective and sex offense divisions, as well as the crime lab - has decided to retire after 29 years with the Police Department, expressing a desire to spend more time with his family....

Baltimore homicide detectives, who have been under scrutiny for a decline in the rate at which they solved murders in recent years, closed six cases Tuesday and made seven arrests, mostly by serving warrants on suspects being held on other charges. Though killings are up to start the year, police have made more arrests and have a higher clearance rate - 63 percent - than at this point last year, when 53 percent of cases had been closed. "Over the 20 years I've been in the unit, we've had some wild weekends with so many murders that we've arrested a lot of people, but to have this happen during a relatively quiet stretch, it's unusual," said Maj. Terrence McLarney, the homicide division commander.

A city councilman is demanding that the Police Department take action against three city officers - including the brother of Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III - who have yet to be disciplined for internal violations in connection with a federal race discrimination complaint. Councilman Bernard C. "Jack" Young sent a letter last week to several high-ranking city officials asking why no action has been taken since charges were sustained early last year against three former homicide detectives - Lt. James W. Hagin Jr., Detective Paul A. Kidd and former Detective Charles E. Bealefeld - stemming from an incident in which a black homicide detective said he was ordered to look at Ku Klux Klan Web sites.

City police and homicide detectives were called to East Baltimore early yesterday for a man suffering from serious gunshot wounds, police said. Details were not immediately available about the victim, said Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman. Police went to the 700 block of N. Luzerne Ave. about 12:55 a.m. and found a man bleeding. He was taken to a hospital and was on life support late yesterday.

A woman who proved to be unarmed was shot by police in Cherry Hill yesterday morning after she refused to show her hands to an officer, police said. About 9:30 a.m., police received a call about an armed person selling drugs in the 1700 block of Cherry Hill Road, in an industrial area of South Baltimore near a bus stop and the Cherry Hill light rail stop, said Sterling Clifford, a police spokesman. A patrol sergeant observed a woman who fit the description of the suspect and who had her hands behind her back, Clifford said.

The owner of a Harford County plumbing company was arrested and charged with attempted murder after offering to pay an associate $20,000 to beat and kill his wife, city police said yesterday. Homicide detectives arrested George Thompson, 37, on Thursday night, said Agent Donny Moses, a Baltimore police spokesman. Thompson was charged with first-degree attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He is being held without bail. A message left with Thompson's attorney was not answered yesterday.

The family began to worry in April 2006. That is when Ria Reshma-Ramkissoon left home with her 18-month-old son, Javon Thompson, cut off access to relatives and moved in with a tiny religious group based in East Baltimore, said Colleen Khadan, a sister. This week, relatives learned that the child might have been killed -- his remains left in a suitcase in a Philadelphia house. Those remains have not been positively identified, and the family, while holding out hope, fears that the child's death could be connected to the group that Reshma-Ramkissoon joined.

A 25-year-old woman fatally shot in her Bolton Hill apartment was identified yesterday as Kermia Hair, and city police said homicide detectives were continuing their investigation but had made no arrests. No other details of the shooting were released. Hair was found about 3 p.m. Thursday by her young son and his cousins, when they returned home from school. Police said she had been shot in the upper body and died in a first-floor room in her house in the 1800 block of Bolton St.