Police Dog

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.

An article in the Feb. 22, 1913, edition of The Argus the return of an unwanted visitor. The dog poisoner who has been causing considerable alarm among the owners of valuable canines in Catonsville for some time is again at work. The pretty collie dog of Patrolman August Peters , living on Mellor avenue, was found Thursday morning the victim of poison in her master's yard. The dog was considered the prettiest of its kind in this part of Baltimore county. ***** After keeping their wedding a secret for eight months, Miss Ethel Dykes , of Oella, daughter of James Dykes, and Benjamin Peters , eldest son of Patrolman August Peters , announced to their friends several days ago their wedding which took place in Wilmington, Del., on June 19 last.

100 Years Ago Visitations Miss Annie Pickett left Saturday for Staunton, Virginia, where she will spend several months. Mr. Edwin HB. Cromwell spent last week in West Virginia and Western Maryland. Mr. Charles Hobbs was in Mt. Airy last week. Mr. Frank Hobbs was in Baltimore Tuesday. And, break out the band, roll out the red carpet, Ellicott City had a treat that week as the Times reported that lo, and behold: "Mr. W. Harvey Davis was in Ellicott City Tuesday.

A Baltimore police officer shot a man during a foot chase Wednesday, marking the second time in two days that a Northeast district officer fired a gun while in pursuit of a suspect. Just one person was injured in the separate shootings — the man shot Wednesday was struck in the hand. He was being treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital. A foot chase Tuesday in the Frankford and Cedonia neighborhoods ended with an officer shooting and killing a dog. In Wednesday's shooting, police said a man flashed a gun while being chased.

To understand the sometimes perilous work of being a police dog, it's helpful to remember that the animals react to danger far differently than humans do. "We see somebody with a gun or a weapon ... we will get out of the way," said Officer Steven W. Sturm, a dog trainer with the Baltimore Police Department. "Dogs react totally the opposite. They go. No matter what they see, they're going to be going unless we call them off." That partly explains how a city police officer armed with a .40-caliber Glock handgun shot Blade, a German shepherd, during a pursuit Sunday evening in South Baltimore.

State and local police are searching for a Baltimore City police dog lost in the Manchester area Sunday.Baltimore Officer David Gobin said he let the German shepherd, Rex, out for exercise about 11:30 p.m. and apparently the dog chased an animal into nearby woods.The 9-year-old black and tan dog failed to respond to the calls of the officer and disappeared. Anyone with information about Rex should call 848-3111.

A police dog shot by a city officer during a foot pursuit of a motorist who authorities say drove through a speed checkpoint was expected to make a full recovery after undergoing surgery Monday, according to staff at the Baltimore animal hospital where the German shepherd was being treated. The dog, named Blade, should be released this week from Falls Road Animal Hospital in Mount Washington, said Dr. Keisha Adkins, who performed the surgery. The dog faces four weeks to six weeks of restricted movement but should be able to comfortably walk after that, according to Adkins.

When a stranger called and offered her talents to help the Montgomery County canine unit find their police dog, the cops were skeptical.But they were also missing one 2-year-old Hungarian shepherd named Vader, who had given chase to a rabbit on Saturday and just kept on going.After three days' search and a helicopter equipped with an infrared heat-seeking device failed to turn up the $2,500 dog, Officer Lee Marsh and Officer Timothy Carroll of the canine unit were willing to try anything.

Cisco works for the state Division of Correction. He barks to intimidate unruly inmates, and he bites them if they persist in their bad behavior.But on Jan. 22 Cisco suffered the ultimate indignity for a police dog. He was attacked by three inmates who thought his bark was worse than his bite. The inmates attacked Cisco during a fracas at the Maryland House of Correction Annex in Jessup. The German shepherd suffered a fractured skull, bruises and a cut above the eye.Correctional officers were surprised when the inmates attacked Cisco with their fists after he was sent into a segregation unit in the newly constructed, maximum-security lockup.

Bubba, a county police dog, sniffed out two suspects in separate incidents over the weekend, police said yesterday.Saturday, Officer Lawrence O'Connor was on patrol shortly before 2 a.m. when he saw a 1976 Oldsmobile speeding south on Telegraph Road. He followed and found the car on the shoulder of the road.Bubba led the officer into the woods to a man who was then arrested.John Morris Brady, Jr., 27, of the 8300 block of Deer Run Court was charged with driving without a license and fleeing police.

The Exxon gas station was robbed by a man with a knife early Tuesday morning. A man holding what looked like a kitchen knife walked into the gas station at the intersection of Route 924 and Singer Road in Abingdon shortly after midnight Monday. He demanded cash from the clerk, who handed over an undisclosed amount of cash, then ran out of the store and down Singer Road, Maryland State Police TFC Michael Bonczewski said Thursday. The robber is described as a white man who was wearing black pants and a gray hooded sweat shirt with the hood covering most of his face.

It was Bobby Rydell who sang: "...every day's a holiday and every night is a Saturday night," and while he may have been talking about those Wildwood Days at the shore in New Jersey in his 1963 recording, the sentiment can be applied to many situations. For a teen spending the summer at the beach (Wildwood, N.J., in Bobby Rydell's case), every day is a holiday and every night is Saturday night because that's what they're apt to make of the situation. From a wider perspective, those who ponder the meanings of literature and lyrics can easily draw the broader conclusion that any situation is what you make of it. Such could be the case with events like last week's Harford County observances of the anti-crime National Night Out. This event, and others like it with themes like Take Back the Night, provide healthy and wholesome activities for children in neighborhoods where the temptation to engage in a criminal and antisocial activities, is great.

A routine traffic stop in Annapolis on Monday led to the discovery of a large stash of heroin and three arrests, police said in a Friday news release. The 80.3 grams of heroin seized, which would have been worth $16,000 on the street, were not found in the vehicle stopped but in a rental vehicle parked nearby, police said. The woman and two men arrested were all from Annapolis. According to police, officers first stopped a bright green Lincoln in the 1100 block of Medgar Evers Street for undisclosed traffic violations at about 4:40 p.m., and discovered the driver, Deon Matthews, 20, had a suspended license.

A 21-year-old mentally disabled man who was reported missing from his home Saturday morning has been found in Pennsylvania. It's unclear when Adam Stewart Walter was found, but Maryland State Police from the Bel Air Barrack said in a press release Sunday Walter was found in Pennsylvania unharmed and he was being returned to his Harford home. Around 11:15 a.m. Saturday, Earlynda Anderson notified Maryland State Police troopers at the Bel Air Barrack that her son, Walter, was missing.

100 Years Ago Visitations Miss Annie Pickett left Saturday for Staunton, Virginia, where she will spend several months. Mr. Edwin HB. Cromwell spent last week in West Virginia and Western Maryland. Mr. Charles Hobbs was in Mt. Airy last week. Mr. Frank Hobbs was in Baltimore Tuesday. And, break out the band, roll out the red carpet, Ellicott City had a treat that week as the Times reported that lo, and behold: "Mr. W. Harvey Davis was in Ellicott City Tuesday.

A Baltimore police officer out walking his department dog in Druid Hill Park Wednesday afternoon shot and killed a pit bull that he said was attacking him, according to a police report. Police said Officer Jake Corbett was near the department's K-9 headquarters near Swann Drive when he noticed a pit bull running off the leash. The police dog, Thoda, was wearing a harness with Baltimore police patches and a neon police identification tag on a six-foot leash. Corbett said in a report that a black dog stared down Thoda from atop a hill about 100 yards away.

The Baltimore County police union says it will pay for a necropsy for a retired police dog that was euthanized this week - the fifth animal that was stationed at the canine unit's now-closed facility and died this year. The 8-year-old German shepherd, named Geko, was euthanized Thursday after a veterinarian found signs of internal bleeding and determined the dog was suffering from a stomach tumor, said Cole B. Weston, president of the Baltimore County Fraternal Order of Police. Three other dogs that have died since February were found to have cancer, Weston said.

No drugs were found yesterday when a police dog trained to sniff out narcotics was used to scan lockers at East Middle School in Westminster, authorities said.Random drug scans by local police and investigators from the state's attorney's office are performed in cooperation with school administrators, police said.Students normally are in class and are not disrupted by the police operation, which generally takes about an hour, officials said.Students' cars at high schools also are randomly scanned for drugs, police said.

No drugs were found during a routine, random drug dog scan Friday at Patterson Mill Middle/High School. The scan, done as part of the school system's commitment to keeping illicit drugs out of the schools, was done using a police dog under the direction of the Harford County Sheriff's Office. The dog sniffed 250 lockers in 25 minutes (8:45 to 9:10 a.m.), alerting once. No controlled dangerous substances or tobacco products were found when the locker was searched. The scan was supervised by four Harford County Sheriff's Office deputies, one drug dog, four school administrators and the school system's coordinator of safety and security.

Joan Zellers says her granddaughters will forever remember this year's Christmas parade as the one when "Frosty got busted. " They were standing Saturday morning on High Street in Chestertown, watching the annual holiday parade march by, when the big fluffy snowman came their way. Lilly, 9, and Maddie, 11, dutifully posed as Grandma snapped a photo — one of the last taken of Frosty as a free man. Within minutes, two police officers had...