Housing Authority Police

Sen. Joan Carter Conway temporarily halted consideration yesterday of her bill to merge the Baltimore Housing Authority Police with the Baltimore Police Department amid questions about the proposal's cost to the city. Conway, a Northeast Baltimore Democrat, told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee she is waiting to learn whether the federal government would continue to pay for the housing officers if they became part of the city force. If federal authorities do not respond within the next few weeks, Conway said she will ask the committee to postpone consideration of the merger until next year.

Residents of Baltimore's public housing high-rises say they feel less secure because of a drop in the number of building monitors, who are supposed to watch who comes and goes at the facilities. Since last week, about half of the high-rises have not had monitors for eight hours a day. There are 18 developments, with 21 entrances normally monitored. Eleven of them have been unguarded from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. "Anyone and everyone can come through that door," said Esther Hall, president of the tenant council at Wyman House, a 16-story, 192-unit building in Wyman Park.

A white police officer for the Baltimore Housing Authority filed a $3.2 million discrimination suit against the city government and Housing Authority officials yesterday, claiming that black officers are being promoted over whites without regard to qualifications.Paul Benson claims that although he was hired in 1988 for the No. 2 position in the Housing Authority police force, a less qualified black officer later was given responsibility for much of his staff and received a salary higher than Mr. Benson's.

The police force that patrols Baltimore public housing got a boost from tenants and city law enforcement officials last night in its bid to retain its accreditation. About 15 people praised the Housing Authority of Baltimore City Police Force at a public hearing, part of a review being conducted by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. "They spoke highly of the chief and the department," said Fred Clauser, part of a three-member assessment team in the city for three days this week to evaluate the housing police.

A 25-year-old man was shot and killed in a run-and-gun shootout last night with four Housing Authority police officers in East Baltimore -- the second shooting involving Housing Authority police in as many days.Last night's shooting occurred about 8 p.m. when the four officers went to investigate a report of shots fired at the Somerset Court public housing complex and saw a man running in the 200 block of N. Aisquith St. with .44-caliber pistol in his hand, housing police said.The officers began chasing the man and he opened fire on them and then ran, said Zack Germroth, a spokesman for the Housing Authority of Baltimore City.

The housing authority police officers sensed danger on Monday as they prepared to enter a 12th-floor apartment in Flag House Courts, a troubled East Baltimore public housing complex.But when they burst into the room with pistols drawn, they discovered a trespasser sleeping on blankets in a corner of the room. A search of the room turned up a bag of syringes and other drug paraphernalia. The suspect, a homeless man, was charged with breaking and entering and trespassing.Last week, police evicted squatters from the same vacant unit and one across the hall.

An off-duty Baltimore Housing Authority police officer was shot twice last night apparently trying to stop a robbery at a Wendy's restaurant along Martin Luther King Boulevard, according to city police.The officer, who was working as a security guard at the restaurant, was in critical but stable condition last night at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, Sgt. Scott Rowe said. The officer's name was not released.An employee of the Wendy's on the 900 block of McCulloh St. walked out the back door of the restaurant to get some supplies about 8: 15 p.m. when he had "some kind of confrontation" with one or two suspects, Rowe said.

A 7-year-old girl was found slain early today in an apartment in a West Baltimore public housing high-rise, according to police.Police were withholding the name of the victim and were awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.Sam Ringgold, a police spokesman, said police were summoned to the Lexington Terrace Apartments at 8:20 this morning for a report of a dead person.When they went to the apartment on the 14th floor, they were met by the victim's mother, who led them to a bedroom where the 7-year-old girl, who was clothed in a nightgown, was found dead.

A 28-year-old man was shot and critically wounded yesterday afternoon as he fought with an undercover Housing Authority police officer at a West Baltimore public housing project, authorities said.Police said the victim, Barry Patrick Gardner, a resident of the Gilmor Homes in the 1400 block of Mountmor Court where the shooting occurred, was in surgery last night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. He had been shot once in the upper torso with the officer's 9 mm service pistol, said Zack Germroth, a Baltimore City Housing Authority spokesman.

The father of Eli McCoy, an unarmed teen-ager who was shot and killed Thanksgiving Day by a Housing Authority police officer, has filed a $125 million wrongful-death civil suit against the city. The lawsuit charges that the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, the Housing Authority Police Department and Officer Kenneth M. Dean III followed practices and policies that caused the officer to shoot McCoy several times as he was trying to surrender. "He gave up and did not have any weapon on him, so this was downright murder," Elton McCoysaid yesterday.

The Housing Authority of Baltimore City continues to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on private security at one senior high-rise building in the city, even while the cash-strapped agency is laying off police officers charged with patrolling public housing sites. The extensive security arrangement at the 203-unit Rosemont Towers elderly high-rise at 740 Poplar Grove St. is the last remnant of an old housing authority practice of paying private firms to patrol public housing developments.

The Housing Authority of Baltimore City continues to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on private security at one senior high-rise building in the city, even while the cash-strapped agency is laying off police officers charged with patrolling public housing sites. The extensive security arrangement at the 203-unit Rosemont Towers elderly high-rise at 740 Poplar Grove St. is the last remnant of an old housing authority practice of paying private firms to patrol public housing developments.

A Baltimore grand jury has decided that a Housing Authority police officer should not be charged in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy on Thanksgiving Day, city prosecutors announced yesterday. In a news release, Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said the grand jurors found that Officer Kenneth M. Dean III, 32, did not violate any laws when he shot Eli McCoy in an incident that prompted protests about police brutality. The grand jury heard testimony from 16 witnesses over three days this week, according to the release.

The father of Eli McCoy, an unarmed teen-ager who was shot and killed Thanksgiving Day by a Housing Authority police officer, has filed a $125 million wrongful-death civil suit against the city. The lawsuit charges that the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, the Housing Authority Police Department and Officer Kenneth M. Dean III followed practices and policies that caused the officer to shoot McCoy several times as he was trying to surrender. "He gave up and did not have any weapon on him, so this was downright murder," Elton McCoysaid yesterday.

Sen. Joan Carter Conway temporarily halted consideration yesterday of her bill to merge the Baltimore Housing Authority Police with the Baltimore Police Department amid questions about the proposal's cost to the city. Conway, a Northeast Baltimore Democrat, told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee she is waiting to learn whether the federal government would continue to pay for the housing officers if they became part of the city force. If federal authorities do not respond within the next few weeks, Conway said she will ask the committee to postpone consideration of the merger until next year.

A fourth suspect in the drug-related killings Dec. 5 of five women in a Belair-Edison rowhouse was arrested last night six blocks east of the scene of the shootings. The suspect, Robert Nay Bryant, 23, of the 1200 block of Cavendish Way in the O'Donnell Heights section of Southeast Baltimore, was found hiding under a living room couch at 3643 Dudley Ave. about 10: 20 p.m. by Housing Authority Police and uniformed Northeastern District police, and taken to police headquarters. Bryant, charged in five warrants with first-degree murder, took refuge under the couch as heavily armed police were about to enter the house that was occupied by three other people, said police spokesman Robert W. Weinhold Jr. He said that the fugitive was arrested without incident and that a tip led to the arrest.

A Baltimore grand jury has decided that a Housing Authority police officer should not be charged in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy on Thanksgiving Day, city prosecutors announced yesterday. In a news release, Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said the grand jurors found that Officer Kenneth M. Dean III, 32, did not violate any laws when he shot Eli McCoy in an incident that prompted protests about police brutality. The grand jury heard testimony from 16 witnesses over three days this week, according to the release.

Residents of Baltimore's public housing high-rises say they feel less secure because of a drop in the number of building monitors, who are supposed to watch who comes and goes at the facilities. Since last week, about half of the high-rises have not had monitors for eight hours a day. There are 18 developments, with 21 entrances normally monitored. Eleven of them have been unguarded from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. "Anyone and everyone can come through that door," said Esther Hall, president of the tenant council at Wyman House, a 16-story, 192-unit building in Wyman Park.