Man Escaped

A Union Bridge man escaped serious injury Sunday afternoon when he lost control of his car on a curve on Hooper Road, north of Taylorsville, and overturned.Maurice N. Black, 43, of North Main Street, was traveling north on Hooper Road, near Sams Creek Road, when his car struck a tree and shrubs and then flipped, state police said. The accident occurred about 4: 15 p.m.Black was taken to Carroll County General Hospital, where he was treated and released Sunday evening, a hospital spokeswoman said yesterday.

A man police were trying to take into custody in Harford County Circuit Court escaped Wednesday and led police on a brief foot chase. Alton Cumbo Jr., 19, who has addresses in the 1000 block of Waterside Court and the 1200 block of Valley Leaf Court, both in Edgewood, was late for a violation of probation hearing before Judge William Carr Wednesday morning, according to Aaron Stewart, a spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office. He showed up around lunchtime. Carr was not pleased the man was late, Stewart said, and told him he was going to hold him "for a little while.

A 22-year-old man who carried out a series of armed abductions last November in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Maryland has pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping and weapon violations.As part of a plea agreement Tuesday with Ellis Mosher, federal prosecutors in Baltimore agreed to drop one gun charge and recommend no more than 20 years in prison.Mosher's kidnappings began Nov. 10 in North Carolina, after a sheriff's deputy in Carteret County, N.C., tried to arrest him on a probation violation charge, according to court records.

A man who "managed to break free" from police custody in the parking lot of the Northeast District station near Morgan State University's campus caused university officials to issue multiple alerts to students Tuesday night, according to police. About 7 p.m., a man who had just been arrested on a warrant and was being transported by officers escaped their control in the 1900 block of Argonne Drive and ran off, according to Detective Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman. Officers immediately began searching for the man. Silbert said he did not know the man's name or why the warrant had been issued for his arrest.

A security guard at the Hecht's in Annapolis Mall tackled a man who tried to steal nearly $1,000 worth of jackets Friday night, but the man escaped, police said.The man ran to a black 1980 Chevrolet El Camino driven by a second man, and the two drove off, police said.The security guard recovered the eight jackets, each priced at $120. The security guard told police the men had pulled up to the curb outside the men's department about 8:30 p.m. One of them got out of the car, pulled the hood of his sweat shirt over his head and went into the store.

A Crofton man was arrested Tuesday morning on charges of setting off fireworks without a permit, county police said.Officer Daniel Sereboff went to the Crofton Golf Course near Eton Way and Crofton Parkway about 3 a.m. to investigate a complaint of disorderly juveniles. He reported he found two women holding sparklers and two men setting off bottle rockets.The men ran when Officer Sereboff identified himself. One man escaped.Douglas J. Stern, 23, of the 1400 block of Kensington Place, was arrested and charged after a brief chase.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore and Baltimore County.Southwestern DistrictBank robbery: A man escaped with cash from the NationsBank branch in the 3200 block of Washington Blvd. about noon yesterday after giving a teller a holdup note that implied he was armed. No weapon was displayed. The robber fit the description a man who robbed three other banks in the area Oct. 2, 9 and 15.Northeastern DistrictStabbing: A 44-year-old man who was stabbed by his wife during argument about 3: 30 p.m. Wednesday in their home in the 2500 block of Southern Ave. was in serious condition at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center yesterday.

Baltimore CityBURGLARY: Northwestern District -- A resident of the 3700 block of Parkview Ave. reported that someone broke into his home over the weekend and stole property valued at nearly $1,200. Police said entry was gained through a window on the east side of the dwelling.ROBBERY: Northwestern District -- Marian Slyar, of the 3800 block of Clarks Lane, reported she was walking in the 4000 block of Fallstaff Road early yesterday when a man wearing a dark jacket and gray sweat pants approached her from behind, knocked her to the ground and stole the purse she was carrying.

Baltimore County police were conducting a man hunt in Essex late Friday after a man headed to jail after a bail hearing at the Essex District Courthouse broke free from the private security officers, "took off running" and escaped custody shortly after 8 p.m., according to police. The unidentified man had been arrested on a charge of attempted felony theft, said Det. Cathy Batton, a police spokeswoman. He had just been before a commissioner in the courthouse in the 8900 block of Kelso Drive, and was outside about to be taken to the Baltimore County Detention Center when he escaped from security officers, Batton said.

Reports of shots fired brought police to a Glen Burnie neighborhood Wednesday evening. Two assailants had fired repeatedly at a 22-year-old man as he ran from the 400 block of Secluded Post Circle to a nearby park. Anne Arundel County officers arrived at about 10:40 p.m. and found the victim had been struck by a handgun. The victim told police two men confronted him as he exited his car, chased him and fired at him several times, but missed him. The suspects caught him at the park and struck him with the gun, police said.

A 25-year-old man charged in North Carolina with kidnapping and attempted rape who escaped Thursday afternoon from a cell in Annapolis District Court was arrested shortly before midnight, county police said. Officers with the Anne Arundel County police, Annapolis police, Maryland State police, and the county sheriff's office were involved in the search for Bonrick Lee Barksdale since his escape about noon, said Anne Arundel police Lt. Francis Tewey. Barksdale was apprehended before midnight near the intersection of Dewey Drive and Sumner Road in the Admiral Heights community, Tewey said in an email.

Four people, including two children, died early Saturday in a mobile home fire in Earleville in Cecil County, the state fire marshal's office reports. The fire at 645 Knights Island Road was reported about 2 a.m., said Bruce D. Bouch, deputy fire marshal. The identities of the victims were not released. One of the children was believed to be 8 years old, and the other 4 months old, Bouch said. About 40 firefighters from Cecilton, Galena, Millington, Betterton, Chesapeake City, Hack's Point and Middletown, Del., brought the fire under control in about an hour, according to the fire marshal's office.

US Airways Flight 1549 out of New York's LaGuardia Airport had been in the air for just 90 seconds when a collision with a flock of birds forced Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger to make a dramatic landing in the Hudson River. Corporate attorney Jim Hanks, 65, a partner in the Baltimore office of Venable LLP, prefers to sit at the front of the plane when he flies. But for the Airbus A320 flight to Charlotte, N.C., the Federal Hill resident found himself in an aisle seat three rows from the back.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly provides an ecstatic lift for movielovers, despite the tragic subject. The diving bell stands for the physical state of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby: A devastating stroke, at age 43, sends this smart, chic Parisian into "locked-in syndrome," which leaves thoughts and feelings intact within an inert body. Bauby can see and hear (though with increasing difficulty), but his sole means of expressing himself comes from blinking his left eyelid. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax)

A 35-year-old woman died and one of her roommates leapt to safety from a second-floor window as a fire swept through their southern Baltimore home yesterday morning. The woman, Carla Milo, nearly escaped but was unable to squeeze through her bedroom window, where she screamed for help until she died. "She was a girl with a big heart and would do anything for anyone," said her boyfriend, William Dorsey, who left for work before the fire started about 7:15 a.m. Fire officials said they were investigating the cause of the blaze, which caused about $40,000 in damage to the rowhouse in the 3900 block of Brooklyn Ave. Tony Conway, 29, who lived in the house with Milo and Dorsey, said he awoke about 7:20 a.m. When he opened his bedroom door, he was confronted by a curtain of black smoke.

Two men, once classmates at a Towson high school, arrive independently at Two World Trade Center on the morning of Sept. 11. Michael Fitz-Patrick, 28, a new employee still in training at the Morgan Stanley financial services firm, gets off the elevator at the 61st floor. Daniel McNeal, 29, climbs higher, to his office at an investment banking firm on the 104th. When the fireballs hit, first the adjacent tower, then his, Fitz-Patrick, who knew McNeal at Loyola Blakefield, a Jesuit prep school, has time to scramble down the stairs to safety.