Howard Police

An Anne Arundel County man died yesterday as Howard County police attempted to arrest him for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend in her Scaggsville home, police said. Howard police said the man was resisting as officers were taking him out of the woman's home in the 8500 block of Murphy Road when he stopped breathing. After police attempted to revive him, he was taken to Howard County General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy was scheduled for today. His name was not released last night.

A Howard County police dispatcher received an eerie call Wednesday morning: "I think I may have killed someone last night, and I've done this before in Texas," the man said, according to court documents. Police found Kevin Watkins, 37, of the 3400 block of Old Crown Road in Pasadena at a pay phone at the Taco Bell in the 6200 block of Washington Blvd. in Elkridge. He was arrested Wednesday and later charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.

Howard County police charged a Baltimore man yesterday with first-degree murder in the robbery and fatal shooting of a Jessup deli owner who was returning Wednesday morning from a bank and holding a bag containing $125,000. A second suspect was hospitalized after being shot by a Baltimore County police officer after a chase that ended with an auto crash in Baltimore. Police found the money bag - containing the amount of cash reported missing and bank deposit slips with the deli's name - and two handguns in the car, charging documents show.

Three suspects in an armed robbery were injured yesterday when their car struck a telephone pole near Clarksville during a Montgomery County police chase that spilled into Howard County, police said. The single-vehicle accident occurred about 2 a.m. on eastbound Route 108 at Prestwick Drive. Howard police said the vehicle's driver, Dale Eugene Simpson, 42, was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore along with his two passengers, Alan Richardson, 29, and Charles Hawkins, 36. Howard County police listed Hawkins' address as the 6800 block of Furman Parkway in Riverdale.

A Columbia man's three roommates have been arrested on charges they beat him to death during a drunken fight last month, Howard County police said yesterday. Detectives tracked Donis Maldonado, 25, and Marcos Escalante, 30, to Clayton County, Ga., where they were arrested June 22. They also face fraud charges in Georgia, Howard police said. The third suspect, Reyes Cruz Escalante, 20, was arrested Thursday in Charlotte, N.C., police said. The men lived with 33-year- old Antonio Ayala in the Tor apartment complex in the 5700 block of Stevens Forest Road.

IT SEEMS as though Howard County is never going to get rid of sleazy massage parlors. The problem goes back at least a decade. There were raids twice in 1992 to shut down massage parlors and spas that were fronts for prostitution rings.By 1994, the County Council was ready to pass what it thought was a tough law regulating massage parlors. But three years later, it said the law wasn't tough enough and enacted a stronger one.Two massage parlor operators have filed suit in federal court against the law, alleging its prohibition against most massages by members of the opposite sex is unconstitutional.

Although homicides in Howard County rose from two to four last year, the relatively low violent-crime levels declined, according to police statistics that mainly covered the first 11 months of the year. Rapes were down from 43 to 34 for the entire year, a 20 percent decline, according to police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn. She added that although the number of homicides rose, all four cases last year involved domestic violence. Howard typically has a half-dozen or fewer homicides in a year.

Howard County police released preliminary data on traffic stops by county police yesterday that they said indicate that they do not racially profile drivers. But the numbers show that blacks who are stopped by Howard police are more likely to be arrested or searched than whites who are stopped, and some critics said the early numbers signal racial profiling. Police agencies are required by state law to release 2002 traffic-stop data by March next year. Howard County officials released a portion of their statistics, complied between Jan. 1 and April 30, so the public could "see what we're doing," said police Chief Wayne Livesay.

The estranged husband of a 31-year-old Mount Airy woman apparently killed her with a shotgun at her Howard County home then shot himself to death at an entrance to Patapsco Valley State Park in Baltimore County, police said yesterday.Howard police went to Vera Case's home in the 1100 block of St. Michael's Road west of Lisbon shortly after 8 a.m. yesterday to check on her after co-workers reported that she had not been seen or heard from for two days.Police found Case's body in a first-floor bedroom of her newly purchased home.

A Howard County police dispatcher received an eerie call Wednesday morning: "I think I may have killed someone last night, and I've done this before in Texas," the man said, according to court documents. Police found Kevin Watkins, 37, of the 3400 block of Old Crown Road in Pasadena at a pay phone at the Taco Bell in the 6200 block of Washington Blvd. in Elkridge. He was arrested Wednesday and later charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment.