Park Police

GREENBELT - A federal grand jury indicted a Silver Spring woman yesterday on murder charges in the death of a U.S. Park Police officer who was struck and killed Aug. 10 at the scene of an earlier fatal accident on Baltimore-Washington Parkway. Jovada P. Welch, 20, was indicted on charges of second-degree murder and related traffic offenses, including driving under the influence. She was charged in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt because the victim, Hakim Farthing, was a federal officer and the incident occurred on federal land.

One man was killed and two were injured in three separate shootings in Baltimore on Sunday, according to city police. Officers responded about 3:38 p.m. to the 3000 block of Wolcott Avenue for a report of a shooting and found a man with at least one gunshot wound to the upper body, said Detective Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman. The man was transported to an area hospital, where he died, Silbert said. Police had not released the man's name as of late Sunday. An investigation led police to believe the shooting occurred in the 3900 block of Woodhaven Avenue, on the edge of the Forest Park neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore.

Convictions in more than 600 cases involving everything from drunken driving to murder are at risk because a flawed county law left police with no arrest power, a Prince George's County defense attorney charges.The claim by Suitland lawyer G. Richard Collins is now under review by a district court judge."Any jurisdiction that made the same mistake that was made here in P.G. County would have the same problem," Mr. Collins said. "You could have lawyers asking for all kinds of convictions to be overturned."

A Hagerstown toddler is expected to recover from a gunshot wound to the chest suffered when a handgun he found in a parking lot discharged, family members said. Police said the 3-year-old boy, who was not identified, was playing with his 7-year-old sister Friday morning in a parking lot on West Franklin Street in Hagerstown when they found the gun, a .22-caliber Beretta, in the weeds. The gun fired and the young girl ran to alert her parents, police said. The boy was taken to Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, police said, adding that the extent of his injuries were not known.

A 24-year Takoma Park police department veteran admitted yesterday to helping cover up unprovoked attacks, one involving a Prince George's County police dog, on two homeless burglary suspects. Sgt. Dennis Bonn pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to being an accessory after the fact in the 1995 incident. Bonn, who retired from the police force Nov. 1, also agreed to cooperate with related federal civil rights prosecutions. Two Prince George's County officers and a former Takoma Park officer face charges in the case.

Convictions in more than 600 cases involving everything from drunken driving to murder are at risk because a flawed county law left police with no arrest power, a Prince George's County defense attorney charges.The claim by Suitland lawyer G. Richard Collins now is under review by a District Court judge."Any jurisdiction that made the same mistake that was made here in PG County would have the same problem," Mr. Collins said. "You could have lawyers asking for all kinds of convictions to be overturned."

MARYLAND CITY -- A driver was killed yesterday when a vehicle left the northbound Baltimore-Washington Parkway near Route 198, entered the median strip, struck a bridge abutment and burst into flames, U.S. Park Police in Washington reported.Park Police said the driver, whose body was severely burned, was transported by an Anne Arundel County ambulance to Laurel Regional Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival shortly after the accident at 10 a.m.It was not immediately known if the victim was male or female.

A 19-year-old Baltimore man was killed early yesterday and two other people were critically injured when their van hit a tree on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, U.S. Park Police reported.Police said the green Chevrolet Gladiator van was headed south at about 6: 30 a.m. when it left the road and crashed into a tree on the west side of the parkway just south of Route 175, said Park Police Lt. Jackie Burks.Rescuers from the Anne Arundel County fire department and Park Police freed the driver, Bridget Yolanda Wilson, 31, of Baltimore and her two passengers, Donovan Edward Brooks, 15, and Rafael Monroe Jones, 19, from the wreckage.

WASHINGTON -- FBI agents interviewed White House staff members Thursday afternoon about a delay in the handling of a torn-up note written by Vincent W. Foster Jr., the White House aide who was found dead July 20, a Justice Department spokesman said yesterday.The FBI lent some agents to the U.S. Park Police to try to learn why the note, found Monday in Mr. Foster's briefcase by a colleague, was not given to the Park Police until Tuesday night, said Carl Stern, the spokesman.The Park Police are investigating the circumstances of Mr. Foster's death from a gunshot wound in a roadside park in suburban Virginia.

Two teen-agers died in a fiery car crash on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway early yesterday after being chased for five miles by U.S. Park Police, authorities said. A 17-year-old passenger in the Dodge Neon survived the accident near Route 32, where the car sped out of control and hit a tree before igniting, police said. The crash closed the northbound lanes of the parkway between Routes 198 and 32 for five hours. The pursuit began about 3 a.m. near the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, police officials said.

An Anne Arundel County police surveillance team has charged two men with drug possession in a Brooklyn Park neighborhood. Kevin Charles Brown, 32, of the 6000 block of Amberwood Court in the city's Frankford neighborhood, faces two counts of heroin possession and one count of intent to distribute. Dale Charles Edge, 30, of the 100 block of Lincoln Ave. in Glen Burnie, was charged with possession of heroin. Officers, responding to numerous residents' complaints of drug activity, set up surveillance Tuesday in the area near First Avenue and Ritchie Highway.

A person was fatally shot Wednesday night in the 4700 block of Windsor Mill Road, in Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park, police said. Police were notified of the shooting at 9:05 p.m. No other information, including the sex or age of the victim, was immediately available from police. steve.kilar@baltsun.com twitter.com/stevekilar

Police reported four nonfatal shootings Wednesday evening in Baltimore. At about 5:45 p.m., a 22-year-old man was shot multiple times while sitting on the steps outside a McElderry Park home, police said. The shooting took place in the 500 block of Montford Ave, when an unknown person approached the victim and began firing at him. The victim was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital and was in serious condition at 10:30 p.m. At 7:20 p.m., another shooting occurred in the 400 block of E. Patapsco Ave in Brooklyn.

Anne Arundel police spent much of Friday morning investigating reports of slashed tires in Brooklyn Park. Neighbors of several streets in the Arundel Village area, near the city line, began realizing their tires had been slashed at about 8 a.m. Officers found more than 30 vehicles damaged during the overnight hours in the 500 block of Taney Avenue, the 5200 block of Kramme Avenue, the 5200 block of Ballman Avenue, the 5000 and 5100 blocks of...

Authorities are looking for Clarence Terrell Randall III, 30, in connection with a sexual assault that took place Monday, police said. An arrest warrant has been issued for Randall stemming from an incident in Brooklyn Park, according to a statement Wednesday by the Anne Arundel County Police Department. A 22-year-old woman told officers that at about 2:45 a.m. a man she didn't know picked her up near the intersection of Belle Grove Road and Ritchie Highway, police said. He drove her to the 5600 block of Ritchie Highway where he sexually assaulted her, the statement said.

Prince George's County State's Attorney Angela D. Alsobrooks was right to bring criminal charges this week against two county police officers accused of savagely beating University of Maryland student John McKenna last year, but it appears she hasn't yet gotten to the bottom of this case. There's reason to believe that many others beyond the two indicted officers may have been involved in the incident and its aftermath, and Ms. Alsobrooks, who took office in January, needs to bring all of those responsible to account if she is to convince the public that serious police misconduct will not be tolerated on her watch.

Three juvenile offenders who escaped from the District of Columbia's Oak Hill/Forest Haven youth detention complex near Laurel yesterday afternoon were recaptured within two hours, U.S. Park Police said, though another remained at large.It is unclear why the youths, whom Park Police said were from Oak Hill, the maximum-security part of the facility, were able to walk away from Forest Haven, which is minimum-security.U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., criticized district officials for not acting in accordance with an early warning agreement to notify community officials about escapes.

Two teen-agers died in a fiery car crash on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway early yesterday after being chased for five miles by U.S. Park Police, authorities said. A 17-year-old passenger in the Dodge Neon survived the accident near Route 32, where the car sped out of control and hit a tree before igniting, police said. The crash closed the northbound lanes of the parkway between Routes 198 and 32 for five hours. The pursuit began about 3 a.m. near the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, police officials said.

Anne Arundel County Police are searching for five people who they say picked up a lost credit card and used it to make purchases. In August, a woman dropped her credit card in the parking lot of the CVS store at 28 Magothy Beach Road, police said. Video surveillance shows five people associated with using the card, police said. The people in the video are four men and a woman in their early twenties or late teens, police said. The investigation is ongoing and police ask that anyone with information about the incident contact Anne Arundel County Police at 410-222-6145 or Metro Crime Stoppers.

A man has been charged with attempted murder after a stabbing early Saturday in an Ellicott City parking lot, police said. Howard County Police said they were called at about 2:30 a.m. to the 8300 block of Main Street in Ellicott City where they found 29-year-old Brian Black Jr. suffering from multiple stab wounds Christopher Thomas Hecker, 23, of Columbia was arrested and charged with first- and second-degree attempted murder and first- and...