Off Duty

During a career spanning four decades, Baltimore police Officer Ron Starr says, he never really considered leaving the department's Southeastern District and moving up the chain of command. "I never wanted to," Starr said, a longtime foot patrol officer. "I'm not knocking what they do, because we need administrators, but when you put three stripes on, you're not out there working with street, and I've had a love affair with the street for 38 years. " Starr, who is single, flashed a silver band with a blue line that he wears on his ring finger.

During a career spanning four decades, Baltimore police Officer Ron Starr says, he never really considered leaving the department's Southeastern District and moving up the chain of command. "I never wanted to," Starr said, a longtime foot patrol officer. "I'm not knocking what they do, because we need administrators, but when you put three stripes on, you're not out there working with street, and I've had a love affair with the street for 38 years. " Starr, who is single, flashed a silver band with a blue line that he wears on his ring finger.

In the wake of the tragic incident involving the shooting of an Iraq war veteran by an off-duty Baltimore City Police officer outside of a nightclub, there are calls to review policies of the police department regarding off-duty officers and their weapons ("Fatal shooting by Baltimore police officer raises questions about off-duty weapons," June 8). I believe it is time to re-evaluate the policy of off-duty police officers carrying their service weapons. Currently, Baltimore City Police Officers are required to carry their service weapons at all times they are within city limits.

Annapolis resident Mike Greenhill is one of those rare guys who, even after he turned 50, could effortlessly sprint up and down a soccer field like he did as a much younger man. Until one evening last year, the 53-year-old took this ability for granted. Now, as Greenhill prepares to return to the game after an 11-month hiatus, he's happy to be alive. For this, he thanks a young woman whom he calls "his angel. " Last April Stephanie Andrews, a 22-year-old Howard County firefighter and emergency medical technician from Sykesville, agreed to play a soccer game on her friends' co-ed team because it was short a few players.

An off-duty District of Columbia police officer's service weapon was taken during a carjacking in East Baltimore on Monday night, city police confirmed. The 44-year-old officer told police he was driving home on Harford Road and East 25 t h Street at about 11:40 p.m. when a woman stepped in front of his car and a man armed with a handgun ordered him out of the vehicle, police said. The man and woman drove off in the car, a black Dodge Magnum, but were tracked down by city police in the 1200 block of E. Chase St. Officers initiated a pursuit and eventually located the car idling and unoccupied in the 1800 block of Collington Ave., police said.

An off-duty city police officer critically wounded a man who was holding up a Hampden liquor store Friday night. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said a customer at Hampden Liquors left the store as it was being robbed by two men about 8:20 p.m. The customer encountered an off-duty Northwestern District officer walking along the 3700 block of Falls Road. The officer went to the store and saw a 20-year-old man pointing a handgun at a clerk. Guglielmi said the officer, while on the street, "took a defensive position" and fired shots at the robber, wounding him in the upper torso.

Tyrone Brown, a 32-year-old former Marine from East Baltimore, was out with his sister and her friend enjoying the Mount Vernon club scene early Saturday when he may have taken one of his trademark jokes too far. Glancing at a woman in an alley off East Eager Street, he put his hands on her behind. Police said the woman's companion, an off-duty Baltimore police officer, got into an argument and physical confrontation with Brown after they left the club Eden's Lounge. His sister said there was no fight, and that her brother apologized and tried to walk away.

An off-duty Maryland state trooper who had planned to take a youth mentoring group to New York on Friday was ambushed and killed by a gunman early that morning after intervening in a dispute over a bill at a Forestville restaurant, authorities said. Wesley Brown, 24, was working as a part-time security guard at Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar on Donnell Drive when he was shot about 12:30 a.m. in the parking lot. Covered in blood, he stumbled into the crowded restaurant and collapsed as patrons called 911. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Baltimore County police have charged a second man in the stabbing of an off-duty Baltimore police officer last week at a strip club in the Dundalk area. Glenn Christopher Lansinger, 27, of the 8200 block of N. Boundary Road in Dundalk was charged with attempted first-degree murder and assault in the attack early Thursday against Eric Jansen, 42. Lansinger and Lucas James Baumeister, 23, of the 400 block of Marjeff Place in Overlea, stabbed Jansen in the neck and lower back about 2 a.m. Thursday as the officer was leaving Christina's Female Revue, in the 4500 block of North Point Blvd.

The Baltimore Police Department plans to review its rules regarding officers carrying of firearms while off-duty in the wake of a fatal shooting involving an officer out for a night on the town. The internal review is being undertaken as a matter of course and not because the rules "aren't strict enough," Anthony Guglielmi, the department's chief spokesman, said Monday. Of particular interest is whether off-duty officers should be permitted to carry guns when they expect to be drinking alcohol.

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.

An off-duty Baltimore police cadet was arrested in Glen Burnie after police said he hit a woman with a car in a domestic incident Thursday, the day before he was set to graduate from the academy. Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the cadet, Zachary Michael Mitchell, 24, has been suspended from Friday's graduation ceremonies and police expect he will be terminated. Anne Arundel County police said they were told by a witness in the 100 block of Plymouth Lane about 4:30 p.m. that a man and woman had been fighting in the parking lot of an apartment building and that the man struck the woman with a car. The couple later went inside an apartment in the complex, where Mitchell lives, according to police.

A bullet lodged in an off-duty Baltimore County police officer's wallet became a key piece of evidence as investigators tracked down a suspect in his shooting, according to charging documents. Police said Friday that they had arrested Michael Jabateh, 18, charging him with the attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of Officer Carlos Moorer. Jabateh, who lives in the 100 block of Commodore Drive in Essex, is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. In the charging documents, detectives wrote that Jabateh fired at Moorer four times, wounding him twice.

Baltimore County police have arrested an 18-year-old Essex man, charging him with the attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of an off-duty police officer. Michael Jabateh, 18, of the 100 block of Commodore Drive, faces eight charges and is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center in connection with the shooting of Officer Moorer on Dec. 9 outside an Overlea party. Officials did not release Moorer's first name. Jabateh was arrested on Thursday after police conducted a surveillance operation in the 100 block of Orville Road in Essex.

An off-duty Baltimore County police officer's weapon fired twice outside an Overlea party earlier this month, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. The officer had stopped near the intersection of Dale Avenue and Danville Road when he encountered a large group of people blocking the street and attempted to drive past when he himself was shot, police said. "We still have not determined the context in which the weapon was fired," said Elise Armacost, a police spokeswoman. She said the officer was not shot with his own weapon, and that police could not say if the officer fired his own weapon.

Neighbors described a large, raucous party that spilled into the front and back yards of an Overlea home, causing an off-duty Baltimore County police officer to stop his car before he was shot early Sunday morning. "We heard a bunch of laughing. It was a whole party down there," said Zach Tawney, who lives several doors down from a home in the 700 block of Dale Avenue, where he and other residents said they spotted boisterous guests gather. Tawney said he ignored the noise until he awoke to gunshots about 3:20 a.m., and called 911. Police said the officer was struck twice by a man from the crowd who fired into the officer's vehicle.

An off-duty Baltimore County police officer was shot in Overlea early this morning as he attempted to disperse a large group of people blocking traffic on a residential street, police said. Police said the incident began as the officer was driving near Dale Avenue and Danville Road around 3:20 a.m. There, the officer encountered a large group of people blocking the street, according to police. "He stopped his vehicle and asked them to move so he could pass," police said.  A man emerged from the crowd with a gun and fired several shots into the officer's car, striking him twice, officers said.

Two Baltimore police officers have been charged with assaulting a man last year after he fled a drug arrest and tried to hide in one of the officers' girlfriend's home. Sgt. Marinos N. Gialamas and Officer Anthony Williams, who was off duty at the time, are charged with the second-degree assault of a 32-year-old man inside the East Baltimore home of Williams' girlfriend. Gialamas, 40, an 18-year veteran, is also accused of three counts of misconduct, while Williams, 37, a five-year veteran, was charged with obstructing and hindering an investigation.