Man Struck

An 87-year-old Pennsylvania man retrieving mail from his mailbox only yards north of the Maryland line near Lineboro was struck Monday by a pickup truck and died a short time later, Pennsylvania State Police said.John Kuchtiak of Glen Rock, Pa., was taken by helicopter to a trauma center in York, Pa., where he died soon after the 4: 14 p.m. accident.According to Pennsylvania troopers, a 1986 Chevrolet pickup truck driven by Steven C. McElrath, 55, of Brodbecks, Pa., was traveling west on Glenville Road east of Black Rock Road when the driver said he was blinded by the setting sun.The truck driver braked and swerved when he saw Kuchtiak, but was unable to avoid striking the man, who was standing in the road in front of his mailbox.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityEastern DistrictShooting: Moments after a man, 30, left a pickup in the 1000 block of N. Bond St. about 5 p.m. Friday and walked a short distance down the street, he was shot in the back and left leg by an unknown assailant. Police said the victim re-entered the vehicle, which was occupied by another man, and drove himself to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was treated and released. Police knew of no motive for the shooting.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityWestern DistrictShooting: A man, 34, was shot in the right knee about 7: 30 p.m. Sunday in the 500 block of N. Arlington Ave. The gunman fled. The victim was in good condition yesterday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Police knew of no motive for the shooting.Robbery: A man, 42, was walking in the 1600 block of Lorman Court about 2 a.m. yesterday when another man struck him with his fists and robbed him of his coat and watch.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityEastern DistrictShooting: Moments after a man, 30, left a pickup in the 1000 block of N. Bond St. about 5 p.m. Friday and walked a short distance down the street, he was shot in the back and left leg by an unknown assailant. Police said the victim re-entered the vehicle, which was occupied by another man, and drove himself to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was treated and released. Police knew of no motive for the shooting.

A Northwest Baltimore man struck by a city firetruck Friday night near Lexington Market was listed in critical condition yesterday at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, authorities said.The victim was identified yesterday as Leon Collins, 43, of the 4100 block of Reisterstown Road.Battalion Chief Hector L. Torres, a fire department spokesman, said Collins was trying to cross the street when he stepped between two firetrucks en route, with sirens and emergency lights on, to the scene of a house fire.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore and Baltimore County.Western DistrictRobbery: A gunman robbed a man of $60 about 10: 30 p.m. Sunday in the 800 block of N. Fremont Ave.Assault: A woman was in the 2000 block of Harlem Ave. on Sunday when a man struck her in the head with a bottle. She was treated at Bon Secours Hospital.Northwestern DistrictBurglary: Jewelry valued at more than $1,700 was stolen Sunday from an apartment in the 2500 block of Gatehouse Drive.Burglary: Someone stole $400 from an apartment in the 2800 block of Gatehouse Drive on Saturday or Sunday.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore and Baltimore County.Central DistrictTheft: While a 39-year-old woman was inside a liquor store in the first block of E. Preston St. yesterday, a man who had given her a ride drove off with her purse, containing three money orders worth nearly $150.Theft: Police were seeking a man who stole nearly $500 from Apex Cleaners in the first block of E. Redwood St. between Friday and yesterday.Theft from vehicle: A guitar, three suitcases containing several pieces of clothing, two jackets and a backpack, all valued at nearly $1,000, were stolen Sunday from a 1993 Plymouth van parked in the first block of N. Charles St. Police recovered nearly $500 worth of the property.

Howard County police were still looking yesterday for a man who attempted to rob a Columbia High's Dairy Store Wednesday night, using a large stick he pulled from a flower bed outside the store as a weapon.One of two employees working at the store in the 5400 block of Lynx Lane in Wilde Lake suffered minor injuries when the man struck him several times with the stick, police said. The employee did not require medical treatment.The man entered the store about 9 p.m. carrying the stick and demanding money.

A Westminster man could be arrested as early as tomorrow on a charge of attempted first-degree murder stemming from the Jan. 21 beating of a 7-Eleven clerk in Taylorsville.State police filed documents in Carroll County District Court on Friday alleging that Michael Walter Jones, 22, beat the clerk, Linda Sue Thompson, with the wooden handle of a shovel during a holdup at the convenience store at the corner of Routes 27 and 26.Mr. Jones, who is in an unspecified jail on an unrelated theft charge, is also charged with battery, robbery and assault with intent to maim in the Jan. 21 incident.

After a manhunt of several hours, Harford County sheriff's deputies yesterday arrested a man wanted on charges of breaking and entering, attempted murder and fatally shooting a dog in Fallston.Eugene James O'Hara Jr., 43, of the 100 block of E. Broadway in Bel Air was arrested yesterday afternoon at an undisclosed location and held overnight at the county Detention Center in lieu of $150,000 bond, the sheriff's department said.Witnesses told investigators a man broke into their residence, in the 400 block of Mountain Road, at 4:45 a.m. and threatened an RTC 11-year-old girl and 18-year-old man with a small-caliber, chrome-plated pistol after awakening them.

Panel backs utility regulation The Senate Finance Committee has approved legislation to give Maryland regulators more authority to direct utilities to build new power plants. The 6-4 vote Tuesday sends the measure to the full Senate. The bill would restore some of the authority the state's Public Service Commission lost after the state decided to deregulate in 1999. High energy bills have caused many lawmakers to consider the 1999 decision a mistake, but industry representatives say markets have not had enough time to translate deregulation into cheaper electricity bills.

An Anne Arundel County jury has awarded $1.95 million to a man struck and injured by a cement-mixer truck in April 2005 while working on his disabled vehicle on the shoulder of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. The $1.83 million portion of the judgment awarded for pain and suffering will be capped at $650,000, the legal limit in Maryland at the time of the accident. The accident left Robert L. Howard, the driver of a truck for Goodwill Industries, with a severe injury to his arm and killed his assistant, Errol Johnson, 44. The pair were standing by their disabled vehicle on the northbound side of the parkway near the Baltimore Beltway when they were hit by a cement mixer driven by Richard Anthony Schulman for Lafarge Mid-Atlantic.

State police released the identity yesterday of a 26-year-old Prince George's County man whose remains were spread across Interstate 95 after being struck multiple times before dawn Monday, closing northbound lanes for seven hours. Investigators notified the relatives in Mexico of Antonio Orozco Martinez, of the 3400 block of Dodge Park Road in Landover. But they released no other details about Martinez, and it remained unclear how his remains came to rest on the interstate, said Maryland State Police 1st Sgt. Russell Newell.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore and Baltimore County. Baltimore Eastern Shooting -- Police responding to a report of a shooting in the 2000 block of N. Washington St. about 11 p.m. Monday found an 18-year-old man sitting on the front steps of a house, bleeding from wounds to his left arm and upper chest. The victim later told police that he and a friend were walking in the 2100 block of N. Wolfe St. when an unknown man shot at them. He was in good condition at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

A man was hospitalized after leading law enforcement officers on a chase from Dundalk to Anne Arundel County on Tuesday, crashing into four police vehicles along the way, authorities said yesterday. Police declined to release the name of the arrested man, who was being treated at an area hospital yesterday. Charges had not been filed as of late last night. At 7:20 p.m. Tuesday, the man wrote a check at T&A Mart in the 2000 block of Dundalk Ave., police said. According to Officer Shawn Vinson, a Baltimore County police spokesman, the clerk told the man she would not accept the check and refused to return it. A struggle ensued, during which the man assaulted the clerk and her husband, Vinson said, and then escaped.

An unidentified man was killed late Monday night as he tried to cross Route 32 in Gambrills, state police said. The man was hit near Burns Crossing Road about 10:30 p.m. by a 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier driven by William Ellison, 21, of the 2000 block of Brigadier Blvd. in Odenton. Ellison was not charged. Police think the victim was a Hispanic man about 30 years old. Before the collision, county police received reports of an intoxicated pedestrian in the area, state police said. Anyone with information is asked to call state police at 410-761-5130.

For 40 years, Bruce January says, he has been replaying the gruesome moment in 1963 when he watched his younger brother die. He says the shame of lying to police about what he saw that day as a 7-year-old haunted him emotionally during a life that saw the breakup of one marriage, the near-breakup of another and several suicide attempts. Worse yet, he said, he has known for years that the man who killed his brother was a convicted sex offender who still lived in his South Baltimore neighborhood.

The crime report is a sampling of crimes in Howard County compiled from police. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 410-313-3700. East Columbia Cradlerock Way: 6800 block, Owen Brown. Two men wearing masks and hoods and armed with knives entered the Cradlerock Mart yesterday and announced a robbery. After getting cash, the pair fled on foot. Murray Hill Road: 7600 block, Kings Contrivance. Someone entered the Highs Store yesterday and stole cigarettes and cash. Snowden River Parkway: 9000 block, Owen Brown.

The crime report is a sampling of crimes in Howard County compiled from police. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 410-313-3700. East Columbia Columbia Gateway Drive: 7000 block. Two laptop computers and a digital camera were stolen from Manekin Corp. between Friday and Monday. West Columbia Dorsey Hall Drive: 4700 block, Dorsey's Search. Two men dragged a man across a parking lot before robbing him Friday. The robbers threatened to kill the man and punched him several times before running off with the man's wallet.

Baltimore City Northeastern District Shooting: An unidentified man was shot in the 3000 block of Echodale Ave. about 8 p.m. yesterday and was taken by ambulance to Johns Hopkins Hospital. His condition was not known. Two men, one wearing a werewolf Halloween mask, were being sought. Northern District Theft from vehicle: A cellular phone, cash and credit cards were stolen Tuesday from a Chevrolet Blazer parked in the 2400 block of Cylburn Ave. Robbery: An 85-year-old woman was walking in the 4000 block of Seven Mile Lane about 6 p.m. Tuesday when a man struck her in the face and stole her purse containing cash and property - all valued at $45. The woman was treated at Sinai Hospital and released.