Off Duty

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.

A Baltimore City firefighter is scheduled to stand trial Monday on charges that he hit another car while driving under the influence of alcohol, an off-duty crash that left a woman and her 10-year-old son hospitalized for several weeks this spring. Christopher Kyle Johnson, who will turn 30 on Christmas Day, was charged with five counts of second degree assault and charges related to causing injury while driving under the influence of alcohol. He has been on administrative duty since the April accident, pending the outcome of his trial.

A Baltimore grand jury has indicted Sian James on murder charges, alleging that the 25-year-old killed an off-duty city police officer last month. James, of the 2800 block of Dillon St., was scheduled to appear Tuesday in District Court for a preliminary hearing on the charges, but the indictment moves the case to Circuit Court, where James will be arraigned Dec. 10. According to the city state's attorney's office, James was arguing Oct....

An off-duty Baltimore police detective died Saturday night after he was assaulted in Southeast Baltimore, police said. Sources have identified the officer as Brian A. Stevenson, an 18-year department veteran. Stevenson, who police said was assigned to the Northeast District, was hit in the head with a rock or another hard object and may have been stabbed, said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. Police established a crime scene in the parking lot of the Mercy-Canton Family Care center in the 2800 block Hudson Street, near Streeper Street Saturday night.

An Annapolis police officer was involved in a Sunday night crash in Baltimore that left one passenger dead, Annapolis police said. Officer James Salyers, who joined the force August 26, remains on administrative duty, after his vehicle and another crashed, leaving a passenger in the second vehicle dead, said Major Scott Baker with Annapolis police. The unidentified passenger was ejected and later died, police said. The crash happened at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday night at the intersection of Patapsco Avenue and Potee Street.

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.

The owners of the Siberian husky shot to death by an off-duty federal police officer last week at a Severn dog park have retained an Annapolis attorney to explore a possible lawsuit. Charlotte Weinstein, hired last week by Rachel and Ryan Keegan Rettaliata, is looking into negligence by the officer in the Aug. 2 shooting of the dog, named Bear-Bear. "We're just conducting our investigation and making sure that county police did what they were supposed to do from the very beginning, and determining whether the gentleman had the authority to carry a gun," Weinstein said.

With regard to the story about the off-duty federal officer who shot the dog in the dog park (Arundel police to investigate dog's shooting," Aug.5), too bad he didn't shoot an off-duty police dog. Then the 'authorities' would be in a quandary on the death of 'one of their own', since shooting a police dog is by far a greater crime than shooting a civilian dog. It is unfortunate for the rest of us that the police's fascist training kicks in and the words "Always shoot the dog" come to the forefront.