Police Commander

John Lloyd Bergbower, a Johns Hopkins Medicine security vice president who as a city police commander battled drug buyers in Southwest Baltimore, suffered a fall at his North Baltimore home Sunday and died later that day at Sinai Hospital. He was 60. "He didn't need to run into a burning building or take on an armed gunman to know that John Bergbower was a courageous man," said Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who served under him in the Southwestern District nearly 15 years ago. "He was a very smart, capable person with an air of confidence about him that made an impression on a young sergeant like myself.

Baltimore County police named an interim commander of the Franklin Precinct in Reisterstown Monday, after the former captain was charged with driving while intoxicated last month. Capt. James P. Monahan will leave the county's intelligence unit and move to Precinct 3 starting next Monday, according to a department statement. Before working in intelligence, he supervised the homicide unit and has been with the department since 1988. Lt. Sam Houston, who is currently in the intelligence unit and has been with the department since 2002, will take over that unit.

From the Baltimore Crime Beat blog: The Baltimore police commander who heads the homicide unit was suspended today after he abandoned his unmarked cruiser on the side of I-95 near Route 32 in Howard County, city police confirmed. Maj. Terrence P. McLarney apparently ran off an exit ramp in Sunday night's rain storm. State Police said his car went into a ditch and there was minor damage to the front bumper. Another motorists called police to report seeing the vehicle off the road.

For the third time in less than two months, the Baltimore Police Department is looking for a new director of training - but they say the current search was always part of their plan. After a shooting at an unauthorized training drill in February that seriously injured a recruit, the department suspended and removed the commander of the unit, Maj. Eric Russell. His replacement, Maj. Joe Smith, surprised the top brass by informing them that he was retiring just days later. Quickly, the agency announced it had moved Lt. Col. Ross Buzzuro into the position.  There's now a job posting for the position , uploaded today, on the website of website of the International Chiefs of Police.

Note: This blog post should have made it clear that Hite has been named interim chief until a final selection is made. Rick Hite spent more than three decades in the Baltimore Police Department, and many years as the voice of an association of black officers. Now, he has his own department to run, named chief of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department . He takes over after a scandal -- the former chief resigned on Tuesday after a blood sample taken from a suspended cop was mishandled . While in Baltimore, Hite was an outspoken advocate not only of his colleagues but of the city's youth.

A handgun reported stolen from a politically connected Southeast Baltimore businessman is registered to a top Baltimore police commander, and police are investigating how the business owner came into possession of the weapon, The Baltimore Sun has learned. On March 26, Nicolas Ramos, owner of Arcos Restaurant on South Broadway, called police to report that someone had rifled through his office and taken a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver from a storage case in a closet, according to a copy of the police report.

On a warm, breezy afternoon, as East Baltimoreans mourn the shooting death of the "little flower" of Darley Park, police Maj. Melvin T. Russell is right where he wants to be — smack in the middle of a crowd of children, teachers, parents and neighbors. It could be a scene fraught with tension. An officer under Russell's command has been suspended and is the subject of an intense police investigation, amid allegations that the rifle used to kill 13-year-old Monae Turnage was found in the officer's car. But Russell focuses on the vigil — he picks up a child and jokes with the mother, spreads handshakes and hugs.

Wilbert T. Hanley, a retired state police commander who helped establish its aviation division and held other positions during a 35-year career, died of Alzheimer's disease Monday at Franklin Square Hospital Center. The Perry Hall resident was 90. Mr. Hanley was born in Baltimore and raised near the Cross Street Market. He attended city schools and served during the 1930s on the old Baltimore Park Police Department. Appointed to the state police in 1941, Mr. Hanley spent his early years assigned to the Randallstown barracks and on motorcycle patrol.

William E. Armstrong, a retired Baltimore City police commander who earned a reputation for helping children through his work in the Police Boys Club, died of heart disease Friday at his home in Pasadena. He was 78.Born and raised on Streeper Street in East Baltimore, Mr. Armstrong earned a law degree by attending night classes at the University of Baltimore, graduating magna cum laude in 1963.He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in his 27 years with the city Police Department."The thing that I heard most along those years was that he was humane, that he made sure people got an even break," said his wife of 56 years, the former Helen Kroll.

Maj. Bessie R. Norris, a retired Baltimore police commander who was a trailblazer for women and blacks, died March 26 of Parkinson's disease at home in McBee, S.C. She was 65.Major Norris, a former Northwest Baltimore resident who had lived in McBee since the early 1990s, joined the Baltimore Police Department in 1964.During her career, Major Norris compiled a string of firsts: The first woman to be named a shift commander in a police district.The first black woman to earn the rank of major.

Two of the Baltimore Police Department's top commanders have notified the department that they intend to retire, moves that come as Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts prepares to reshape the agency in coming weeks. The commanders are Col. Jesse Oden, the chief of criminal investigations, and Maj. John Hess, who lead the Violent Crimes Impact Section. One of the commanders is Col. Jesse Oden, the chief of criminal investigations, who filed retirement paperwork around the time Batts took over, then was talked into staying . He told superiors this week that he will retire after all, ending a 33-year career.

Rick Hite, who retired from the Baltimore Police Department in 2010, will be named the chief of the Indianapolis Police Department, the Indianapolis Star is reporting .  Hite left Baltimore while holding a position of a community and youth liaison, and for years had been active in the department's Vanguard Justice Society, an organization representing the agency's black officers.  Hite became interim chief in Indianapolis eight months ago....

With a series of shootings occuring in the Northern District in close proximity, police leaders asked Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper whether she had a handle on the problem. It was not unlike what she and other district commanders face weekly at police strategy meetings, called Comstat. But for Thursday night's meeting, the public for the first time was also looking on, in-person and over computer screens. Tapp-Harper expressed confidence that her district was on top of it, noting that a known gang member had been released from prison Wednesday night and officers had already paid him a visit.

Baltimore homicide detectives have charged 25-year-old James Berry in a 2011 triple shooting in Bolton Hill that killed a 21-year-old man.  Berry, described by one police commander as a "high roller" because of his suspected connection to violence, was taken into custody in the 1100 block of E. 33rd St. on Wednesday and booked on charges of murder and attempted murder.  The shooting killed 21-year-old Angelo Fitzgerald and injured two others....

A 51-year-old federal office worker was jumped and beaten by up to five juveniles Thursday morning in downtown Baltimore's Hopkins Plaza - an apparent random attack and the latest in a series of assaults in the heart of the city. Police are also investigating a fight that occurred at Charles and Lombard streets Wednesday morning and involved youths who may have been wearing school uniforms. Eight days ago, a group of youths stole candy and attacked the owner of a convenience store on Light Street.

A group of youths attacked a federal office worker and a BGE employee Thursday morning in downtown Baltimore in random assaults that police said were related. The workers suffered injuries described as minor in the latest in a series of violent incidents in the heart of the city. Police are also investigating a fight that occurred at Charles and Lombard streets about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday involving youths who may have been wearing school uniforms. Police said they believe that incident is unrelated to Thursday's attacks, and they are looking at video surveillance to identify those involved.

Maj. Harry A. Sizelove, a decorated Baltimore police commander who helped steer the department through troubled fiscal times in the 1980s, died Saturday at Sinai Hospital of cardiac arrest. He was 52. At the time of his death, Major Sizelove was deputy commissioner of the state Division of Pretrial Detention and Services, and a pivotal figure in the modernization of Baltimore's city jail. "The Harry Sizeloves of the world cannot be replaced," said LaMont Flanagan, commissioner of the division.

A Baltimore police commander accused of sitting in his patrol car while officers under his command were being assaulted has been exonerated of any wrongdoing, a department spokesman said yesterday.Maj. James L. Hawkins Jr., commander of Eastern District station, was not derelict for failing to help his colleagues during the scuffle in which three officers were injured, detectives with the Internal Investigation Division concluded."There is no indication that Major Hawkins' inaction impacted any issues of officer safety," said Robert W. Weinhold, the department's chief spokesman.

As an unseasonably warm St. Patrick's Day drew to a close in Baltimore, teens by the hundreds swarmed downtown, keeping one step ahead of police while battling from corner to corner, mostly with fists, sometimes with knives. As authorities watched from a helicopter and on video from surveillance cameras, youths marched seemingly at will through the Inner Harbor and streets north and west, frequently clashing that Saturday night. Dozens of officers called in from across the city scrambled to keep up with the attacks, shutting key intersections and trying to push the youths away from the center of tourism.

A Baltimore police major who heads the Northern District station participated in a domestic violence workshop sponsored by the White House this week. Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper joined the lieutenant governor and others, including the mother of Yeardley Love, whose daughter from Cockeysville was killed by her boyfriend at the University of Virginia . The meeting, opened by Vice President Joe Biden, came just before the Senate is to vote on a bill that contains funds for the Violence Against Women act. It would allocate money to local law enforcement agencies to combat domestic violence and to shelters for battered women and rape crisis centers.