Maryland State Police

At least three people have been killed on Maryland highways since Friday evening, including a Virginia man who was thrown from his car and struck by another driver on Interstate 95 in Prince George's County, police reported.The other fatal accidents happened in Howard and Carroll counties.About 2: 30 a.m. yesterday, two men were traveling south on I-95 near Route 5 when the driver lost control of the 1985 Nissan 300 2X, Maryland State Police said. The car flipped, tossing the driver and passenger onto the highway.

On May 10, 2013, Aegis Managing Editor Allan Vought disagreed with my belief that expanding concealed carry permits is a viable defense to gun violence worth public debate. Although I respect Mr. Vought's opinion, "more guns won't do anything - but kill more people," I stand by my support that the best defense for a criminal armed with a gun is a police officer or a law abiding citizen with a firearm prepared to take appropriate action to protect life. In Newtown, Ct., we witnessed bravery beyond comprehension as teachers defended children with their own lives.

Silver Spring man arrested after chase A 21-year-old Silver Spring man was arrested after he stole a Mercedes, led police on a chase and jumped in the Chesapeake Bay in an attempt to escape, county police said. According to police, about 11 p.m. Wednesday, a Laurel man had parked his 2003 Mercedes in the lot of Crazy Otto's Sports Bar in the 1300 block of Defense Highway in Crofton. Another man walked up to the car, pointed a gun at the owner and told him to throw his keys on the ground, police said.

A Pennsylvania man known to frequent Harford County, where he works, has been missing from his home since last week and had not been found as of Tuesday afternoon Thomas Augustyniak, 53, of Glen Rock, Pa., works at a business in Belcamp and visits Harford County and other parts of Maryland regularly, according to a press release from Maryland State Police issued Friday Augustyniak is described as a white man, 6 feet, 1 inch tall and 175 pounds...

In response to parents' concern that they did not move quickly enough with an investigation into a student who allegedly threatened the lives of his classmates, Carroll County school officials said yesterday that they will involve police more quickly -- and more often -- on such cases in the future. "We handle these things administratively if that's the way we believe it should be handled, but from now on, I probably will involve the police in every single incident because of this one," said Larry Faries, the school system's coordinator of security.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland is suing the Maryland State Police to get records it believes may show local authorities aided the federal government in spying on peace activists during several annual protests outside the National Security Agency. Filed yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court, the lawsuit alleges that state police have refused to disclose a record related to the surveillance despite public information requests. Court papers state that a "Baltimore Intel Unit" had monitored many individual peace activists as they gathered at the American Friends Service Committee and prepared to protest in 2003 at the NSA, based at Fort Meade.

The Maryland State Police paramedic who successfully sued his bosses for bias for denying him parental leave has asked the agency to pay his lawyers' fees and expenses of $493,642.36.That would be in addition to the $375,000 a Baltimore federal court jury awarded Tfc. Howard Kevin Knussman last month after deciding that the state police illegally discriminated against him because he is a man.The 22-year trooper from Easton made the request for the payment of legal fees in a petition last week to U.S. District Judge Walter E. Black Jr., noting provisions of federal civil rights statutes that enable parties who prevail in lawsuits to recover their costs.

A day after human remains were uncovered in a landfill 25 miles north of Ocean City, Delaware's chief medical examiner told resort police yesterday that he could not determine whether the dismembered parts are those of a Virginia couple investigators believe were killed in a luxury beachfront penthouse Memorial Day weekend. Instead, DNA samples will be tested by forensics experts at the Maryland State Police Crime Laboratory in Pikesville to determine if the remains are those of Martha Crutchley, 51, and Joshua Ford, 32, who were reported missing by co-workers when they failed to return from vacation a week ago. Military officials revealed yesterday that a former Navy SEAL who police believe shot the Virginia couple and disposed of their bodies was court-martialed in October 2000 for being absent without leave, insubordination and other offenses, then given a bad-conduct discharge that was made final May 14. Officials in Delaware and Maryland declined yesterday to say why conventional identification methods such as fingerprints or dental records failed to identify body parts that were discovered in half-a-dozen black trash bags.

If it weren't so close to Baltimore - a city that charges admission to see its sewer pipes and boasts the world's largest collection of light bulbs - it might seem strange that the Maryland State Police have their own museum. Though you won't find it in any tour book, the three-room museum located next to state police headquarters on Reisterstown Road in Pikesville is one of Maryland's more entertaining shrines, largely because of its curator and tour guide, Peter Edge, whose sense of humor is legendary.

Truckers can be a wily bunch, loading up trucks with too much cargo, sometimes slipping by weigh stations on side roads, alerting each other over CB radios to "smokeys" on the highways. But Cpl. James T. Rosso of the Maryland State Police and other troopers are trying a new approach to combat dangerously overweight, overloaded and defective trucks: Attack them in "wolf packs." Since the project began in January, Rosso and 13 other troopers in the agency's commercial vehicle enforcement division have been patrolling the state's roads in groups of two or three.

The Maryland State Police and Harford County Sheriff's Office report: Aberdeen Willtronious Fene Gates, 21, of the 4500 block of Susquehanna Avenue of the Aberdeen Proving Ground, was charged Tuesday with failing to appear in court in a case in which he was charged with stealing another's credit card and making another charge on a credit card greater than $500. Contressa D. West, 33, of the 4400 block of Antrim Court, was charged Tuesday with possessing a drug other than marijuana, obtaining drugs by fraud, possessing drugs with intent to distribute and defrauding state health care.

Aberdeen Teresa Alfiea Gonzales, 44, of the 700 block of Custis Street, was charged Wednesday with second-degree escape. Lisa Marie Diban, 44, of the 300 block of Baltimore Street, was charged Thursday with failing to appear in court for a case in which she was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol, driving on the sidewalk and driving while impaired by alcohol. An SUV was driving over ball fields in the 600 block of Chelsea Road on Tuesday. Juveniles were playing with fire in the woods, near the 500 block of Plume Court, on Tuesday.

A car hurtled off the highway, fatally struck a pedestrian and overturned in front of City Hall and scores of downtown witnesses. A day later, police said the driver had walked free without charges. Despite anger and outrage from those who knew Matt Hersl, the longtime city worker and neighborhood volunteer killed Tuesday, Maryland State Police said they released the 43-year-old driver and left it to city prosecutors to decide whether to pursue charges. The decision met with criticism from a former leader of the state police, and City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young said he was "very disappointed.

It is with great disappointment that I read The Sun's article on the Maryland State Police's recent "dragnet" targeting trucks in Baltimore ("State police safety dragnet takes 114 trucks off the road," March 28). Maryland Motor Truck Association (MMTA) and its member trucking companies are committed to efforts that improve safety on our state's roadways. We have worked cooperatively with the Maryland State Police as they developed the most extensive state enforcement program for weighing and inspecting trucks in the country, and we have supported expanded use of technology to enhance their enforcement efforts.

A 62-year-old Baltimore County woman was killed in a hit-and-run on Interstate 695 on Thursday morning, Maryland State Police said. Police say the woman, identified as Judith A. Hill of the 2800 block of Manoff Road in Lansdowne, stopped her car on the highway at about 5 a.m. for reasons police were still investigating. Police are searching for the driver and vehicle that struck her, and ask that anyone with information call the Golden Ring Barrack at 410-780-2700. Hill was found in the center median near the Edmondson Avenue ramp in Catonsville at about 7:30 a.m. and pronounced dead at the scene.

Years after a multimillion-dollar contract to replace the state's fleet of aged medevac helicopters caused controversy in Annapolis, two newly purchased aircraft arrived Tuesday at the aviation command of the Maryland State Police. Four more are expected to fly into the police facility at Martin State Airport in Middle River this week, state police said — behind initial schedules for the new fleet's arrival. The four remaining AW139 helicopters of the 10 purchased by the state for $121.7 million also will arrive soon, said Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman.

A teenager survives a weekend car accident with little if any physical injuries, only to die in the crash of the Maryland State Police helicopter that was whisking her to a trauma center. Did the 17-year-old really need to be flown to the hospital, especially in such bad weather that night? The chopper transporting Ashley J. Younger and the driver of the car wasn't equipped with an electronic warning device that helps pilots fly in low visibility and avoid crashing into the ground. State police outfitted three other helicopters with the "early ground proximity warning system" during upgrades in recent years; why not the entire fleet?

A WITNESS said the trucker who killed my brother was white, between 40 and 50 years of age, with a black beard.Even now, when thoughts of my brother keep me awake, I picture this trucker in my mind. Always he's in some crummy bar with a beer and a shot in front of him. Sometimes he's buzzed and bragging to his buddies that he accidentally killed somebody on Interstate 95 in Maryland and got away with it. Sometimes he's alone and drinking to numb his conscience. That assumes he has one.On June 26, 1997, my brother, Carl J. Melone Jr., was killed by a tractor-trailer truck on southbound I-95 in Harford County, about 60 miles north of Baltimore, while he changed a flat tire on the shoulder.

A Baltimore man was killed on the inner loop of Interstate 695 in Pikesville early Friday morning after his vehicle collided with a tractor trailer, he was ejected and then struck by another vehicle, Maryland State Police said. A preliminary investigation showed at about 12:32 a.m., Jason Sukun Park was driving along the inner loop between Park Heights Avenue and Stevenson Road when his silver 2008 Honda veered into a tractor trailer driven by Brian David Olson, of California, police said.

A man was critically injured in Laurel on Friday morning when his car veered off Interstate 95 and crashed into the rear of a parked tractor trailer, Maryland State Police said. According to State Police Sgt. Anthony Riley, the driver was traveling northbound when his vehicle left the road, drifted onto the shoulder and struck the tractor trailer, which was parked on the shoulder. The driver's vehicle became trapped underneath the tractor trailer; fire and rescue officials removed the motorist from the vehicle with the Jaws of Life hydraulic rescue tool, Riley said.