Police Dog

Carroll County public schools officials plan more random drug searches of cars, lockers and gymnasiums, with aid from the sheriff's newest police dog, authorities said yesterday.Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning said Kurt, a 2-year-old German shepherd trained to sniff out narcotics, will begin routine patrol next month with Deputy 1st Class Jay Prise, the dog's handler.Purchased from Europe with about $4,000 donated by Union National Bank of Westminster, the dog will be available anytime school officials need more resources to help monitor their buildings and parking lots, Tregoning said.

Carroll County public schools officials plan more random drug searches of cars, lockers and gymnasiums, with aid from the sheriff's newest police dog, authorities said yesterday.Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning said Kurt, a 2-year-old German shepherd trained to sniff out narcotics, will begin routine patrol next month with Deputy 1st Class Jay Prise, the dog's handler.Purchased from Europe with about $4,000 donated by Union National Bank of Westminster, the dog will be available anytime school officials need more resources to help monitor their buildings and parking lots, Tregoning said.

A Silver Spring man who was shot Saturday shortly after a supermarket robbery died yesterday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, said a Montgomery County police spokeswoman.Ann Evans said Louis Sequeira, 46, of the 10000 block of Markham St. in the Four Corners section of Silver Spring died about 6: 30 p.m. He was shot in the chest with a semiautomatic handgun while walking his dog near his home a few blocks from the scene of the robbery, she said.According to Evans, a gunman robbed the Safeway supermarket in the 100 block of E. University Blvd.

ESSEX -- Five teams of students from Eastern Technical High School and one team from Perry Hall High School will compete in the Baltimore-Washington finals of the Build Your Dream Vehicle contest today at Union Station in Washington.The two schools have produced six of the eight finalists in the contest, which calls for teams of students to develop, design and market a concept car.The students will be competing for a first-place prize of $3,000 in the contest, sponsored by Chrysler Corp.Officers hurt when cars hit while responding to pursuitTOWSONTOWSON -- Two police officers were slightly injured when their vehicles collided as they rushed to help a third officer pursue a suspected drunken driver early yesterday morning, police said.

A county police dog tracked down a burglary suspect in the woods south of Crofton late Sunday, county police said yesterday.Officers arrested Warren Lee Suite, 25, of the 300 block of Lindera Court in Glen Burnie in the burglary of the Nite Hawk Golf Center on Route 3 in South Crofton.Police said Suite identified Tracy Paul Ogdon, 34, of an unknown address, as his alleged accomplice and gave them the description of the car he was driving. Ogdon was arrested a short time later.Officers responded to an alarm at the golf center about 11: 05 p.m. Sunday and found one of the rear glass doors broken.

NORTH EAST -- A 52-year-old woman was found stabbed to death in her rural home early yesterday morning, and Maryland State Police investigators said they have no motive and no suspects in the slaying.Beulah G. Honaker, of the 700 block of Bethel Church Road, was found in the living room by her boyfriend when he came home from work at 2 a.m., said Capt. Greg Shipley, state police spokesman.Honaker, who was a maintenance worker at a truck stop, did not show up for work Tuesday night, Shipley said.

25 years ago: Police dog officer Robinson asked for and got permission to buy a fingerprinting kit for under $75. His request that the town send him to canine school in Baltimore County for 14 weeks with his 9-month-old dog received mixed reaction. Officer Robinson said Baltimore County would provide the training free of charge. Insurance would be $10-$12 a year and equipment such as collars and leashes would run another $35. A cage in the police car could run between $50 and $250. Councilman Raver said that he liked the idea of a police dog for Hampstead but that if the town bore the expense of training the animal, the town should own the dog. The council agreed that a dog would "beef up" the town force a lot cheaper than another man and should help "clean up a lot of these punks in town."

FROSTBURG -- Gunfire is a sound you hear in the woods around here when deer season opens, not on the streets of this college town.But in the early hours of last Sunday, as the many parties of Homecoming Weekend reached their boozy conclusions, someone ended a fight with six shots from a 9 mm handgun.Only one person was struck, and his injuries were not serious, but the repercussions are still ricocheting among the changing leaves that color the surrounding mountains, bringing out longtime tensions between the town of 8,000, not counting students, and its main industry -- Frostburg State University -- this time with the added complexity of race.

An intensive three-day search near Westminster ended yesterday when police apprehended an 18-year-old man accused of setting fire to the home of his ex-girlfriend and their son, authorities said.Chris Lee Myers of the Westminster area was captured about 2: 30 p.m. yesterday in a wooded area west of Carroll County Farm Museum, several miles from the fire scene.jTC He was charged with five counts of first-degree assault, five counts of reckless endangerment and burglary.The search -- which included state police helicopters and dogs -- began late Monday after witnesses saw a man leaving the area on a bicycle after a blaze broke out in a garage attached to the home of David Hommerbocker in the 2800 block of Graybill Court in New Windsor.

One-hundred state troopers reported for work yesterday at the realigned Special Operations Division in Waterloo -- a "one-stop shop" police officials say will provide quick response to large-scale crimes, emergencies or disasters anywhere in Maryland.The centrally located barracks in Howard County will be headquarters for a strike force, a police dog unit, the commando-like Special Tactical Assault Team Element (STATE), a motorcycle unit and soon, a crash investigative team.Before the realignment, some of the units were part time, scattered around the state.

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.

A Baltimore police dog was shot Sunday evening by a police officer during a foot pursuit of a motorist who drove through a speed checkpoint in South Baltimore, said a Police Department spokesman. About 6 p.m., police were manning the checkpoint in the 2600 block of Wegworth Lane near Hollins Ferry Road, near Wegworth Park, when a male motorist failed to stop when ordered and drove through the stop, said Anthony Guglielmi, chief spokesman for the Police Department. Guglielmi said the motorist got out of the car a few moments later and was fleeing on foot when officers at the checkpoint enlisted the aid of a K-9 unit to chase the man down.

Cpl. John Seilback ran Sabre, his German shepherd, through an outdoor agility course. As Seilback called out commands in German, Sabre effortlessly leaped over hurdles, climbed walls and sped through a tunnel. "I give Sabre commands in German so he will only listen to me and no one else when we are on the street," Seilback said. "He can do this course with ease. He already knows what to do." Seilback was talking about Sabre's familiarity with a course that is part of the Harford County Sheriff's Office's new police dog training facility.

It's a common injury but often goes unnoticed. And the pinched nerve that kept Ken, a 5-year-old German shepherd, from getting into a cruiser, using stairs or moving his tail could have abruptly ended his career as a drug-sniffing police dog. That is, until he went under the knife. Compression of the nerve roots in the lower back - a pinched nerve - is not uncommon among dogs. But the condition is difficult to diagnose unless the owner notices a change in the animal's behavior, said Dr. William Bush, the veterinarian who performed the surgery on Ken. In younger dogs, pinched nerves cause pain and can prevent them from using their tails and engaging in other forms of common activity.

A veteran Baltimore County police officer and the longtime commander of the department's tactical unit died Monday of a stroke he suffered a day earlier after leading the investigation into a murder-suicide in Randallstown. Lt. Michael Howe spent Sunday morning at the home of a man who called police to say he had killed his wife and was about to shoot himself. There, the 55-year-old commander ordered his officers to enter the house of an armed man, just as he had done hundreds of times before.

Baltimore: Federal court Man gets 12 years in Fells Point drug case A 33-year-old Baltimore man received a 12 1/2 -year prison sentence in federal court yesterday for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Randall L. Williams Jr. after he pleaded guilty Sept. 19. Federal drug law enforcement agents said they recorded Williams selling more than 50 grams of cocaine in the Fells Point area of Baltimore last year, according to court documents submitted by prosecutors.

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.

A Baltimore County police dog that had been found to have a brain tumor was euthanized yesterday, bringing to four the number of animals from the department's canine unit that have died since February. The dog was one of three whose medical condition was referred to in September when police closed the canine facility for environmental testing. Two other dogs that had been found to have cancer were euthanized earlier this year. The body of another police dog, who died Dec. 2, has been sent to the University of Maryland for a necropsy to determine the cause of death.

He might have been bored, lonely or just plain mischievous. Only Leo, a Baltimore County police dog, knows why he unlatched his kennel Monday night, pushed open a door at the county canine facility and trotted off into the streets. His escape prompted a five-hour search that included officers from a nearby precinct, officers from the special operations division and a helicopter, county police said yesterday. And had it not been for a woman who specializes in tracking down missing dogs, Leo might still be on the lam. Around 6:30 p.m. Monday, an alarm went off at the Baltimore County Police Department's K-9 Unit on Park Drive in the Baltimore Highlands area.

A 24-year-old Lansdowne man was injured yesterday in a shooting that prompted officials to lock the doors at Lansdowne-area schools, Baltimore County police said. Police said the shooting, at the victim's Lansdowne home, does not appear to be a random act. After the gunman fled, a police dog followed a trail close to several schools. As a precaution, police asked administrators of Lansdowne Middle, Lansdowne Elementary and Riverview Elementary schools to lock their doors for a short time, said Officer Shawn Vinson, a county police spokesman.