Off Duty

Off-duty officer shoots suspect in Hampden store holdup 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.

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.

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.

Kassi Buscher, owner of The Pearl Spa, randomly selected 10 military wives from Fort Meade to receive a day of pampering at her salon in Fulton. The ladies received the works in honor of their husbands' service.

Five Maryland police officers died in the line of duty this year, the seventh-highest count among the 50 states, according to a national report released Monday. Nationwide, 160 officers were killed in 2010, as police fatalities jumped 37 percent after two years of declines, according to preliminary figures released Monday by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Four of the Maryland officers died in traffic collisions, which matched a trend: Crashes accounted for almost half of the nationwide increase, according to the memorial fund, which produces an annual survey of police fatalities.

An off-duty police officer shot a Baltimore man who is alleged to have lunged at him with a pair of scissors after repeatedly stabbing a woman early yesterday.Police said Officer Leonard Baze, 44, was driving in the 5600 block of Park Ave. about 1:30 a.m. when he noticed a man chasing and stabbing a woman. The officer identified himself and ordered the man to drop the scissors, police said. When the man refused and moved toward him, Officer Baze fired twice, striking the man in the chest and right leg. Mario Paniaqua, 30, of the 3900 block of Clarks Lane was in critical condition yesterday at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

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.

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.

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 Harford County jury found James Aaron Kimble of Joppa guilty Tuesday of assaulting an off-duty Baltimore City police officer in May, leaving him without the use of one eye. But the panel also decided that the attack was not racially motivated, finding Kimble not guilty of first-degree assault based on race or color. Detective Jermaine Cook was struck in the face after Kimble approached Cook's vehicle at a stop sign and yelled at him about his driving. Kimble hit Cook in the face with a drinking glass.