Man Down

An Alexandria, Va., woman and a cashier at an Arnold Exxon station fought off a knife-wielding thug who tried to rob both of them Tuesday night, county police said yesterday.Neither Delmis Alfaro-Rodriguez, 34, of Alexandria nor Sohail Imran, 27, of Severna Park was injured in the struggle.The thug had walked into the cashier's office of the station in the 300 block of Buschs Frontage Road about 11:30 p.m., brandishing a 4- to 6-inch knife in his right hand. He grabbed Ms. Alfaro-Rodriguez, who in turn seized his right arm and tried to push him out of the door, police said.

It wasn't until after Felicia Smith had chased the man down and helped pry her screaming son from his grip that she realized how close she had come to losing her 3-year-old boy."I thank God because he spared my child," Mrs. Smith said yesterday. "If [the man] had had a car, he would have been gone."Instead, Bruce Green, 29, of the 3900 block of Dudley Avenue, was being held last night on charges of kidnapping and assault at the Eastern District lockup. Bail was set by a Baltimore District Court commissioner at $7,000, and he is scheduled for a bail review hearing today, police said.

FOUR HOURS into Wednesday, April 16, a 37-year-old man with a history of schizophrenia abandoned his van on the Key Bridge, to the east of its high point of 185 feet, and stepped onto the 4-inch crown of a concrete wall that lines the main deck of the bridge. The man balanced himself on the wall, his back to the open air and the Patapsco River below, and stayed there for more than 15 hours, threatening to jump. Maryland Transportation Authority Police closed the bridge to traffic in both directions and thousands of rush-hour commuters were detoured through Baltimore's two harbor tunnels - all because of this one pathetic soul.

Reports of an intruder armed with a long-barreled gun forced officials to evacuate about 1,000 students from Hampstead Hill Middle School in East Baltimore yesterday.No gunshots or injuries were reported and it is unclear why the man -- who apparently escaped during the evacuation -- was wandering around the building."He didn't point [the weapon] at anybody, and he didn't apparently threaten anyone," said Kevin Harahan, principal of Hampstead Hill. At one point, a school police officer chased the man down a hallway but lost him.Students were dismissed nearly an hour early while a police quick-response team in full tactical uniforms climbed a fire escape to the roof, then did a floor-by-floor search of the five-story building at 101 S. Ellwood Ave.L The officers also combed a basement and a subbasement level.

Dr. William Howard rubs his hand through his stubbly crew cut and sighs. With his legs dangling over the examining table and his blue eyes darting around the room, he looks more like an anxious patient than a fearless surgeon. There's good reason: In between treating a stress fracture and scoliosis, he's spent the last three hours talking about himself -- his motivation, his ego, his competitive spirit, his drive. Say what you will about a life unexamined, the good doctor believes otherwise.

Robert Ethan Saylor didn't like to be touched, and suddenly an off-duty deputy had his hands on him. Within moments, two more deputies would grab him, the four men would fall in a heap on the floor, and Saylor, who had been shouting and resisting their attempts to restrain him, would grow quiet and still. More than two months after a man with Down syndrome died at the hands of three off-duty Frederick County sheriff's deputies, these details about his death emerged in an autopsy report released this week.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — He is a fraud, an imposter, a sheep in wolf's clothing. We are talking here about the player who wore the No. 7 shirt for Portugal on Tuesday night. The man who is the most expensive soccer player ever signed. We are talking about Cristiano Ronaldo. We are talking about why the Portuguese are not going to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, whereas the Spanish are. We are talking about why a man who earns tens of millions of dollars to run around a field and kick a ball couldn't be bothered to do either in the most important game his country has played in years.

A week before their prime-time showdown with Peyton Manning, the Ravens unmercifully shook his family tree. Unleashing a punishing pass rush on his younger brother, the Ravens rocked rookie quarterback Eli Manning to rout the New York Giants, 37-14, yesterday before 69,856 at M&T Bank Stadium. In an effort that elicited feelings of redemption and renewed confidence, the Ravens' defense tormented Manning into making half of his team's six turnovers, which tied a Ravens record and paved the way for 20 points yesterday.

A 21-year-old Severna Park man was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money Sunday morning by three men who pushed him down an embankment in the 500 block of Ritchie Highway, county police said.David Kokalis, who lives on Drexel Court, was not seriously injured in the incident, which happened shortly after midnight, .. police said. Mr. Kokalis told police he was walking on Ritchie Highway when he was approached by three men, one of whom had a semiautomatic handgun, police said. The men demanded money, grabbed his wallet and then pushed him down the embankment, police said.

A 42-year-old Baltimore man was charged yesterday with stabbing to death his former girlfriend and another man, three days after the suspect and the woman were in court facing assault charges they had filed against each other.Joseph Simms of the 1000 block of N. Stockton St. was arrested about 9 a.m. and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of Belinda Baynor, 38, and Peter Wendell Williams, 73, who were killed Wednesday in a house in the 500 block of Presstman St.Baltimore police were searching yesterday for suspects in two unrelated shootings Thursday night.