Medical Examiner S Office

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 164 THE VICTIMS The State Medical Examiner's Office ruled as a homicide the death of a man who was found unconscious June 27 in the 3000 block of Rosekemp Ave. in Northeast Baltimore. Police said yesterday the autopsy found the man had been assaulted with an unknown weapon.

An autopsy report released yesterday by the state medical examiner's office said a West Baltimore man who died last month was a homicide victim, police said.Police said William Franklin Davis, 42, of the 400 block of Oxford Court in the McCulloh Homes public housing complex was found April 18 on his apartment floor, bleeding from head injuries.They said the man was in critical condition at a local hospital until he died Dec. 9. report did not say which hospitalPolice said the medical examiner's office ruled that Davis died from blunt force trauma injuries suffered in a beating.

The body of a 54-year-old man was found yesterday evening on the shore of the Patapsco River at the border of Howard and Carroll counties, authorities reported.The fully clothed body of Hugh William Price, believed to have been a Sykesville resident, was found by two residents of the town about 5:45 p.m.Police said there was no obvious cause of death, and the body was taken to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy.

Following the advice of police-union lawyers, four city police officers have declined to cooperate with investigators who are probing the death of a 29-year-old drug suspect who died Monday night from internal injuries in the back of a Southeastern District paddy wagon, according to sources close to the investigation.The cause of death of Robert E. Privett was still officially listed yesterday as "pending" by the state medical examiner's office. Mr. Privett had been subdued by at least three officers following his arrest at Jefferson and Port streets, an area noted for drug transactions.

Preliminary autopsy results have yet to pinpoint the cause of LTC death of a University of Maryland student who died on the College Park campus Saturday, but no signs of a communicable disease were found, the state medical examiner's office said yesterday.Donald Gene Castleberry, 21, a junior from Millersville in Anne Arundel County, was found dead in bed at 4 p.m. by his roommate in the Delta Tau Delta house on Fraternity Row, campus police said.Fire officials estimated that Castleberry had been dead about 12 hours.

Because of inaccurate information from Baltimore County police, an incorrect name and address for an inmate who died Thursday after suffering a heart attack at the Baltimore County Detention Center appeared in yesterday's editions.Edwin C. Colwell, 46, of the 1900 block of Denbury Drive in Dundalk was the man who died. The state medical examiner's office confirmed yesterday that he died of a heart attack.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 7/26/97

A 24-year-old man was shot and killed early yesterday as he was driving on Ellerslie Avenue in North Baltimore's Better Waverly neighborhood, city police said. The victim, George Wilson, of the 700 block of Gorsuch Ave., was pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Hospital about 90 minutes after the 12:20 a.m. shooting, police said. The shooting occurred in the 3100 block of Ellerslie Ave., a few blocks from Greenmount Avenue and East 33rd Street. Police said Wilson, driving a late-model blue Cadillac, had just turned right onto Ellerslie Avenue from Gorsuch Avenue when an occupant of a dark sedan fired into the car, striking him in the head.

Family members of a detainee who fell ill and died at the state-run Central Booking and Intake Center on Monday said yesterday that they were stunned by the death and are awaiting further information from state prison officials. James Pugh Jr., 41, of West Baltimore was pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He passed out while waiting to be booked after his arrest on a warrant for violating terms of his probation. He had been there about four hours. Mark Vernarelli, a public safety spokesman, said that an investigation is in progress.

A 39-year-old man shot by a Baltimore police officer earlier this year died last month, and the state medical examiner's office ruled yesterday that his death resulted from his shooting injuries, police said. William J. Burch, who lived in the 3100 block of Strickland St. in Southwest Baltimore, was shot Feb. 11 by an officer who went to the house because of a 911 hangup call, police said. Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman, said officers found the front door open, went inside and discovered Burch in the kitchen with a steak knife.

A 3-year-old child died yesterday from injuries received in a fatal fire this week in East Baltimore, bringing the death toll in the arson to six children, city homicide detectives said.Deon Cook died yesterday at 3:29 p.m., a Johns Hopkins Hospital spokesman said. The child had been in critical condition at the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit since Tuesday morning's fire.The fire was ignited shortly before 8:30 a.m. after someone poured a flammable liquid on the first floor, police said.