Police Cruiser

Baltimore police are investigating an accident in which a police cruiser slammed into another car late Friday.Investigators said yesterday that Officer Michael Trail, 28, was responding to a call for backup when he apparently ran a red light at East Baltimore and North Wolfe streets.While traveling east on Baltimore at about 11: 15 p.m. Friday, Trail's cruiser struck a 1997 Pontiac Grand Am that was traveling south on Wolfe, said Police Agent Angelique Cook-Hayes, a department spokeswoman.

A teen-ager fired five gunshots at a city police cruiser outside an East Baltimore middle school yesterday afternoon, shattering a back window but missing the three occupants, authorities said.School police officers quickly arrested three students from Southern High School and a young adult. School officials said the four came to Lombard Middle School to confront another group of youths."It's a typical problem in all urban school districts, where high school students come onto the premises of other schools," said Savitri Belizaire, a spokeswoman for the city school system.

A 25-year-old woman was fatally injured early yesterday in Northeast Baltimore when a police officer on an emergency call ran a red light and collided with her vehicle, city police said. The crash, just after 2 a.m. at Northern Parkway and Leith Walk, remains under investigation, said Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman. Mary Jones of the 3200 block of Lawnview Ave. was driving north on Leith Walk when her 1990 Cadillac was struck broadside by the police cruiser, Harris said. She was pronounced dead at Sinai Hospital at 2:58 a.m. The officer, identified as Antonio Reyes, 31, of the Northeastern District, was responding to a stabbing and had his car's emergency lights on when he went through a red light, Harris said.

A Howard County police officer was the latest of 60 victims to have his car window shot out in the Ellicott City-Elkridge area. The front driver's-side window of a police cruiser was smashed with what police believe was a shot from either a BB or pellet gun Monday night. That night, four other vehicles in the area had their windows broken. The police cruiser was parked in front of the officer's home in the 5500 block of Hunting Horn Drive in Ellicott City when the incident occurred. According to police reports, 60 private vehicles in Elkridge and Ellicott City have had windows shot out since June 1. All of the shootings have occurred between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., on weeknights and weekends.

A 37-year-old Hampstead man was arrested yesterday, accused of a five-month vandalism spree that included the theft of two flags from Town Hall and smashing the windshield of a town police car, authorities said. Michael David Naylor of the 1000 block of Houcksville Road was being held on $2,500 bail at the Carroll County Detention Center after appearing before a Carroll District Court commissioner yesterday morning, and Baltimore police had filed a detainer on other charges, according to charging documents.

A traffic light is likely to be installed within two weeks on Reisterstown Road near where a 7-year-old boy was hit and killed by a police cruiser Saturday afternoon, Baltimore's Public Works Department director George G. Balog said last night."

A crash on Route 108 yesterday that left an Ellicott City woman in serious condition was the latest of five Howard County accidents in four days that involved public safety vehicles. One of the accidents killed a Columbia man early Saturday.Police said that the most recent accident occurred about 3 p.m. Monday when Howard County Police Officer Mark Hart, traveling east on Route 108 in Clarksville, slowed to make a left turn onto Sheppard Lane.A car driven by Elizabeth Godbout, 54, of the 8500 block of Harvest View Court in Ellicott City, slammed into the police cruiser from behind, police said.

Flipping through photographs of her smiling mother, Angel Casale tearfully recalled this week the horror she had witnessed 48 hours earlier: a Baltimore County police cruiser smashing into the side of her mother's car as she attempted to drive across a major highway. "The cop just came out of nowhere. No lights, no siren, no nothing on, and he just plowed into my mom's car," said Casale, 19, who was driving behind her mother when the accident happened Sunday night on Pulaski Highway in Rosedale.

A violent start to the year continued with three people shot on Baltimore's west side Tuesday morning, including a 17-year-old girl who died after she and a man were shot in an alley. Though the city started the year with almost 11 days without a gun homicide, it belied a string of nonfatal shootings that was higher than the beginning of 2012. Five people were killed last weekend, and the city has started off 2013 with a 65 percent increase in gun violence compared with the same time last year.

All it takes to get a driver to hit the brakes is a glimpse of a police car. And two University of Maryland police officers are banking on it. They have invested $7,000 in a sliver of police car -- full-length but but barelya foot wide -- that can be placed on highways medians to create the official illustion that a whole cruiser is lying in wait.The idea has so intrigued Maryland State Police that they began testing the slice of car Friday on Interstate 95 near the Route 100 interchange.