Police

Baltimore County police surrounded a house in Rosedale on Friday morning after a man was shot in the neck during a nearby home invasion. Roads were blocked, and five schools were alerted near the house in the 6600 block of Golden Ring Road. By early afternoon, roads were reopened and students at four middle and elementary schools were dismissed after a delay. Police said two men broke into a home in the first block of Tameron Place about 9:20 a.m. and demanded cash. A resident was shot and later taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center without serious injuries.

Detective Sgt. Allen Adkins and Detective Darryl Turner had two options yesterday: According to their investigation, the 48-year-old woman, a chronic drug user being sought on a warrant, might have been in one East Baltimore apartment. Or, maybe another, just three doors down. Adkins approached the first door, pounding loudly as a light snow fell on an otherwise still morning, while Turner went to the other. The occupants of both apartments, groggy and semiclothed, eventually answered and reported that they hadn't seen the woman in months.

Man, 23, fatally shot near Brooklyn club A 23-year-old man was shot and killed early yesterday near a club in South Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood. The victim, Ryan L. Holliman was hit once in the back, police said. Also yesterday, police identified the woman who was fatally shot Wednesday night as she and her boyfriend sat in a car in the 800 block of Hilton St. as Stephanie Stevens, 22, of Martinsburg, W.Va. Her 27-year-old boyfriend was shot in the right hand and was treated and released from Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.

Anne Arundel County police launched an internal investigation yesterday into a brawl at Meade High School that ended with 11 students arrested and officers and teenagers bruised and cut, but they also defended their actions. Police responded to complaints alleging excessive force, filed by parents of several of the students arrested in Friday's melee. "Based on the information that the department has at this time, the department believes the officers used great restraint and acted appropriately, preventing an escalation to what could have been a very dangerous situation," Cpl. Mark Shawkey, a department spokesman, said in a prepared statement.

A 32-year-old Annapolis man was shot twice in the Robinwood public housing complex after an apparent robbery attempt Friday night, an Annapolis police spokesman said. About 8:30, police received calls from people who reported seeing four or five men approach the victim in the 1300 block of Tyler Ave. and order him to the ground, Officer Kevin Freeman said. The victim, whom police did not identify, was taken by helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with gunshot wounds to the right thigh and left buttock, Freeman said.

Two young men were fatally shot in separate incidents early yesterday and Tuesday night, and a 17-year-old was arrested in one of them, as the pace of homicides in Baltimore reached an average of one a day in May. The latest reported killings brought to 124 the number of homicides in the city this year, compared with 111 for the same period in 2006, police said. Law enforcement officials attribute at least part of the violence to drug turf battles and an increase in gang rivalries. In many cases, police and prosecutors complain that victims and witnesses are reluctant to cooperate with investigators and instead settle scores outside the city's criminal justice system.

Baltimore police said they need the public's help searching for a driver who ran over and dragged a 65-year-old man about 40 feet last month on an East Baltimore street. After suffering a broken pelvis and other internal injuries, the man died six days later. Police said the victim, Charles R. Erdman, and the driver of a sport utility vehicle were involved in a minor accident on Erdman Avenue on March 3, in front of the auto parts store where Erdman worked. Police said Erdman tried to get insurance information from the SUV driver, but the driver accelerated and ran over Erdman.

The murders were occurring almost daily, but when the surge of violence claimed the lives of two innocents - a young mother and a high school band director - people rose up to say, "Enough!" From ministers to moving men to high-schoolers, they gathered by the hundreds until they marched on City Hall, 3,000 strong, to protest city officials' lack of urgency. This wasn't Baltimore; it was New Orleans. And while the emotion on display in the Big Easy recently wasn't unlike the anguish felt in Baltimore when an off-duty police officer was gunned down, the collective response was markedly different.

A 31-year-old man who police say hit the Baltimore mayor's vehicle over the weekend in a traffic mishap had an open warrant charging him with second-degree assault, but the driver was not arrested at the time of the accident because a computer was down. Matt Jablow, a police spokesman, said the statewide warrant-check computer system was not working for two hours Sunday. Police cited the driver for two infractions and then let him go. Officers usually check people for outstanding warrants.

Baltimore police said yesterday that two recent deaths have been classified as homicides and that investigations into both incidents are continuing. In the most recent case, police found a wounded man inside an apartment in the 2100 block of Crimea Road in Southwest Baltimore on Oct. 13. The victim, Martay Powell, 22, had been shot in the head and died later that day at Sinai Hospital, police said. Detectives determined that Powell and his girlfriend had been arguing and then fought for control of a gun, which went off during a struggle, according to Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman.

Officials have identified the man who shot and wounded a county police officer responding to a report of a domestic disturbance in Overlea. Edward Paul Boss, 47, then was slain by other officers responding to the distress call in the 6800 block of Highview Ave., where Boss lived, according to a spokesman for the Baltimore County Police Department. The wounded officer, who returned fire after being shot in the shoulder, was identified as Officer Parker, who has been a member of the Parkville force for 23 years and who is assigned to the Parkville precinct.

Man arrested in drug raid critical after suffering seizure An East Baltimore man taken into custody during a Friday morning drug raid is in critical condition after suffering a seizure after ingesting drugs, officials said. The 32-year-old man was identified as Bernard Harris. He was one of several people inside a home in the Oliver neighborhood in the 1400 block of N. Bond St., where police executed a search-and-seizure warrant on a suspected gang stash house early Friday looking for guns, police said.

A man whose car was hit by a train after it became stuck on the tracks in Harmans Saturday afternoon tried to steal several cars afterward, Anne Arundel County police said. A woman who lives in the 7400 block of Railroad Ave. told police that she went outside about 5:30 p.m. to see what caused a loud noise and saw a stranger in her vehicle. He ran when she yelled. She found the vehicle's steering column had been tampered with, police said. The loud noise that had drawn her attention was the sound of an Amtrak train hitting a vehicle.

Ex-UM researcher whose fiancee died is indicted A Baltimore grand jury indicted a former University of Maryland School of Medicine researcher Monday on 14 drug-related counts. The most serious charges against Clinton B. McCracken, 32, include possessing with intent to distribute marijuana and two prescription narcotics. McCracken was charged by police after the Sept. 27 death of his 29-year-old fiancee, Carrie John, a fellow doctoral lab researcher at Maryland. McCracken told police she injected herself at their Ridgely's Delight rowhouse with a liquid containing the narcotic buprenorphine and went into respiratory distress, court documents said.

16-year-old is sought in robbery at gunpoint Police in Baltimore County are looking for a 16-year-old boy who they say robbed a Halethorpe house at gunpoint last week and has since threatened to kill the home's residents. The teen, identified as Bryan Sheppard, of the 900 block of Seagull Ave. in Brooklyn, is considered to be armed and dangerous, police said. Police said Tuesday that a man forced his way into a house in the 2900 block of Lakebrook Circle in Halethorpe at about 3 p.m. on Oct. 12. He produced a handgun and took property from the people who were there at the time, a police statement said.

The owner of a truck believed to be involved in the hit-and-run death of a Johns Hopkins University student last week turned himself in early Tuesday morning and spoke with detectives, city police said. Police said the 39-year-old Sykesville man was released as detectives continued their investigation into the death of Miriam Frankl, 20, who was struck in the 3500 block of St. Paul St. at University Parkway on Friday afternoon. Spokesman Donny Moses said once the investigation is complete, police will turn over their findings to prosecutors, who will determine whether to pursue criminal charges.

Three shootings in 3 minutes leave 2 dead Three shootings over a three-minute span early Wednesday in separate sections of Baltimore left two men dead and a third suffering from a gunshot wound to his face, according to police. In the most recent incident, reported at 12:41 a.m., an unidentified man was shot in the 2400 block of Baker St. in West Baltimore, police said. He was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and pronounced dead about 40 minutes later. One minute before that shooting, police were called to the 3900 block of Elmora Ave. in Northeast Baltimore, where a 28-year-old man was found shot in the chest in a rear alley.

Ken Watts had a restless night and an eventful morning. He awoke about 4:30 a.m. to the sound of a motor running, looked out his window and saw a police vehicle outside his house on Wilke Avenue. "I knew something in my neighborhood was going on," he said. Watts returned to bed, got up at his usual time and walked to his car about 7:15 a.m. He saw yellow police tape draped around the front yard of a house three doors up the street in his Northeast Baltimore neighborhood. "I knew something really bad was going on," he said.

Baltimore police announced Friday that detectives have arrested suspects in two killings last month, including a fatal shooting during a robbery that netted $18, according to police and court documents. In the robbery case, police said Abron Scott, 42, of the 4500 block of Manor View Road was arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and gun offenses in the shooting Sept. 9 of Shelton Elliott in a house in the 500 block of N. Carey St. in West Baltimore. Police said the suspect walked into a third-story apartment through an unlocked door about 7:40 p.m. and threatened four occupants with a pistol.

Anne Arundel County police are seeking a man in connection with several recent burglaries of small businesses in Odenton, Pasadena and Glen Burnie. The break-ins took place over the summer, with the most recent last week, police said. Photos were taken of him at the Odenton Sunoco in the 1400 block of Annapolis Road, Odenton, where a burglary occurred about 1:40 a.m. July 22, police said. A garage door was forced open and there was extensive damage to the business, police said. Police describe the suspect as a white male with a thin build, long hair in a ponytail and a tattoo on his right forearm.