Off Duty

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.

It's no secret that Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld IIIis a frequent diner at Miss Shirley's, a breakfast, brunch and lunch spot with locations in Roland Park and at the Inner Harbor. He's partial to the omelet margharita. So it should be no surprise that the soon-to-be retiring chief headed for the Pratt Street bistro Wednesday morning to catch a quick breakfast. There, according to a police source, he stumbled on two city officers drinking alcohol. They had just come off the midnight shift and were off duty, but were either dressed in partial uniform or had their guns and badges displayed, said the police source and another person affiliated with law enforcement who is familiar with the incident.

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.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Wednesday called allegations that a city police officer may have been involved in the aftermath of a fatal shooting of a 13-year-old girl "disgusting. " "As a mother, it's hard for me to describe what a tragedy this is," the mayor said, speaking after the weekly Board of Estimates meeting. "It's a tragedy made worse by allegations of police involvement. The thought of it is quite frankly disgusting. " Rawlings-Blake said she had spoken with relatives of the teen, Monae Turnage, to extend her sympathies.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Officer Jean Freund plans to return her take-home police cruiser to the Howard County Police Department July 1 because budget cuts will leave her without a key piece of safety equipment while she's off-duty -- a portable radio."

Bravo, fat lady. Or rather, bravo, "World of Opera," the public radio show that brought a measure of sanity to the drama surrounding Lisa Simeone, the Baltimore-based public radio host who landed in a controversy over media bias last week over her volunteer work with an Occupy Washington-related group. It says something about our current political climate that it was the world of Valkyries and suicidal geishas that eschewed the operatics and noted the obvious: What Simeone does on her own time has no bearing on her role as host of an arts show, so she can remain as its host.

A 20-year-old robbery suspect was in the hospital after being shot in the shoulder early Sunday, Baltimore police said. An off-duty security guard told police he exchanged gunfire with a man who robbed him in the 3600 block of Dolfield Avenue before 3 a.m. The robber fled in a vehicle, police said. Shortly afterward they located a man they identified as the robbery suspect in the 1900 block of Dukeland Street. The off-duty security guard was unharmed.

Ocean City Police have arrested and charged a female off-duty Prince George's County sheriff with felony assault after she allegedly pulled her weapon during an argument with another woman. Police said the deputy, Jennifer Nicole Douglas, 26, of Fort Washington, was involved in a dispute over car keys that escalated into a physical confrontation early Sunday morning. During the confrontation, police said Douglas allegedly brandished her badge and handgun and pointed the gun at the other woman's head.

As jurors began deliberating Friday in the case of a man accused of killing an off-duty Baltimore police officer, they faced two widely differing accounts of what happened in the deadly dispute over a Canton parking spot. Either Brian Stevenson, an 18-year veteran of the police force, and his friend Kitrick Stewart openly threatened a group of twenty-somethings with a shooting — as the defense claims. Or 26-year-old Sian James singlehandedly ratcheted up an argument into a deadly assault, striking Stevenson in the head with a concrete block — as argued by the prosecution.

An off-duty Howard County police officer was arrested early Sunday outside a bar in Southeast Baltimore after police say he punched a female city officer in the head, then yelled, "I'm a cop!" as he was handcuffed. According to a charging document, officers were attempting to disperse the closing-time crowd at Canton Square in the 2900 block of O'Donnell St. at 2 a.m. when someone yelled "[Expletive] the police!" A man named Kasy Williams claimed to be the person who made the profane statement, and a city officer told him to leave the area.

An off-duty city police officer discharged his weapon after he was approached by another man while sitting in his car in North Baltimore, a police spokesman said. The officer was sitting in his vehicle in the 500 block of Harwood Ave. near York Road with his pregnant girlfriend at about 8 p.m. when a man entered the car, said police spokesman Det. Kevin Brown. The officer and the other man got into a scuffle and, at some point, the off-duty officer fired his weapon. Brown did not know how many shots were fired or whether the other man had a gun. The suspect is in custody and cooperating, but police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said he had not been charged.

A Baltimore City Police officer was shot in the leg about a block away from the Central District office Tuesday night. The officer was shot in a parking garage in the unit block of South Frederick Street, police spokesman Donny Moses said. The unidentified officer was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. His condition was not immediately available. The garage is open to the public but police officers in the Central District often use the garage, which is a block from the station, to park their off-duty vehicles.