Police Headquarters

Baltimore police are seeking to padlock a city motel deemed to be a public nuisance, officials said. Police have asked the owners of the Executive Inn, in the 3600 block of Pulaski Highway in East Baltimore, to attend a hearing at police headquarters to address "repeated crimes of violence taking place at the business," according to a news release. In 2008, police made at least 16 drug-related arrests and responded to more than 30 calls about violent crimes there. A 35-year-old man was found dead in a room at the motel in May 2007.

R ay Lewis paid a visit to Baltimore police headquarters recently, but it's not what you're thinking. The Ravens linebacker, who beat a double-murder rap a few years back but pleaded guilty to obstructing justice, wants to be on the right side of the law. He showed up at HQ a few weeks ago - during the season - and asked what he could do to help the city fight gang violence. "Ray Lewis was in here ... asking, 'What can I do to help?' Police Commish Fred Bealefeld told The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton.

THE PROBLEM -- Cars parked illegally along Fayette Street in front of city police headquarters. THE BACKSTORY -- Even the city's most prolific and daring scofflaws would probably think twice about parking in a clearly marked no-parking zone in front of a police station. Try doing it in front of the Bishop L. Robinson Sr. Police Administration Building at 601 E. Fayette St. Most people would expect a ticket. Or worse. But one recent day, not just one person but several people decided that it was OK to park in front of the police headquarters.

A teenage inmate at the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County who, along with another teen, escaped July 31 and had eluded capture by area police on at least one occasion, was arrested last night in West Baltimore without incident, said a state police spokesman. Acting on information, police from the Regional Warrant Apprehension Task Force and state troopers assigned to the Fugitive Apprehension Unit based in Columbia, surrounded a rowhouse in the 600 block of N. Bentalou St. about 6:30 p.m., seeking Davon Julius, 16, of no fixed address, said Greg Shipley, the spokesman.

City police officers raided the Northwest Baltimore home of a convicted sex offender yesterday and seized 38 firearms - including two sawed-off shotguns, handguns, and a weapon described as an "Uzi-type machine gun," officials said. Police displayed the cache and ammunition on tables at a news conference yesterday in police headquarters. "These are the guns that are out there killing people on our streets today," said acting police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. "This is an incredibly deadly arsenal - not unlike weapons being used too frequently in this city."

Baltimore Crime Two homicides raise year's toll to 133 Baltimore police are investigating two homicides that brought this year's total to 133 -- 18 more than the tally this time last year. Just before 8 p.m. Friday, police responded to the 1900 block of Collington Ave. after receiving calls about a shooting. They found Craig A. Hunter, 29, bleeding under a car parked on the street. Authorities said he had been shot several times in the chest. He was transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital and was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m. Witnesses told police they saw two men shoot Hunter, who had more than 15 arrests over the past decade for drug charges, according to a public records check.

An off-duty Maryland Transit Administration police officer shot two juveniles yesterday morning after one pointed a gun at him in East Baltimore, according to police. The officer, an 11-year veteran of the force, was not injured in the incident. He is 47 years old, according to an MTA spokeswoman, but neither police nor the MTA officials named him. The officer, who was not in uniform, had just returned from a trip to a store about 3 a.m. and was smoking in front of his home in the 1600 block of N. Broadway when a green van drove by, said Agent Donny Moses, a Baltimore police spokesman.

Westminster Police Chief Sam R. Leppo, who died Wednesday in a three-vehicle crash in Frederick County, was remembered yesterday as a firm and compassionate leader, committed to the safety of his officers and the citizens he served.The state flag flown at half-staff and black bunting outside the entrance to police headquarters served as a silent tribute to the memory of the 53-year-old chief who lived in Union Bridge. He joined the Westminster force 32 years ago and was appointed chief in 1976.

A laborer at a Woodlawn apartment complex was fatally stabbed yesterday during an argument with another man, Baltimore County police said.Derrick Shelton Dorkins, 41, of the 4300 block of Liberty Heights Ave. in Northwest Baltimore died of a chest wound at Sinai Hospital shortly after the 2 p.m. incident, police said.According to Cpl. Vickie Warehime, a police spokeswoman, Dorkins and another man were hired by a subcontractor who encountered them sitting on the steps of a temporary employment agency and offered them work at the Security Park apartment complex in the 7400 block of Fairbrook Road.

Baltimore police arrested a 20-year-old Middle River man yesterday and charged him in the killing of a grocery store employee during a robbery Saturday in which the store's owner was also beaten.Jamal Anthony Sells of the first block of Aquia Place was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault and use of a handgun in the armed robbery of Kim's Grocery in the 300 block of E. 24th St., said Sgt. Scott Rowe, a police spokesman.Store employee En Suk Oh, 39, was shot several times and pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

A 14-year-old boy was in critical condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center after he was shot Wednesday night by a city police officer during an attempted robbery of a University of Maryland medical student not far from the school, said a city police spokesman. The boy's name was withheld pending notification of family members, and he has not been formally charged, said Detective Kevin Hagan, the spokesman. A BB pistol believed used by the youth was recovered at the scene. Hagan said the Western District officer, whose name was not released, was in uniform and driving a marked police car to police headquarters in the 600 block of E. Fayette St. about 7:50 p.m. when he saw an armed robbery in progress in the 700 block of W. Lexington St. near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

City police have made an arrest in the strangling of a 51-year-old woman found dead in her apartment early Tuesday morning. Richard Kenneth Howard, 42, was charged with first-degree murder after a friend he accompanied to police headquarters told detectives Howard had been in the dead woman's apartment. Police were dispatched to the residence, in the 2200 block of Tucker Lane, at about 4:30 a.m. after receiving a call of an aggravated assault in progress, according to police spokesman Detective Nicole Monroe.

The replacement late last week of the two top police commanders in the city's Central District, which covers the Inner Harbor and downtown area, is an encouraging sign that Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III is taking his department's problems seriously. A recent rash of intimidating behavior and assaults involving roving groups of unsupervised teenagers had raised troubling questions about the department's ability to keep a lid on things, especially after police assurances that more officers would be patrolling the streets failed to stop several well-publicized incidents of violence.

The Howard County Police Department will take public comment Monday about the agency's performance as part of the process to gain accreditation. The session is part of an assessment of the department by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Inc. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the James N. Robey Public Service Training Center, 2200 Scott Wheeler Drive. A team of assessors consisting of law enforcement officers from around the country will be visiting the department throughout April.

Inside Prince George's County police headquarters yesterday, a squad of homicide detectives and nearly a dozen other senior investigators moved into a separate office and began poring over two recent cases that were suddenly the department's top priority. Not far away, in a quiet neighborhood near FedEx Field, all anyone talked about was the possibility that the cases - two double homicides - were connected, that someone is killing mothers and their daughters. The Loftons, Karen and Karissa, were the first, shot in late January in their Largo home.

Baltimore police are seeking to padlock a city motel deemed to be a public nuisance, officials said. Police have asked the owners of the Executive Inn, in the 3600 block of Pulaski Highway in East Baltimore, to attend a hearing at police headquarters to address "repeated crimes of violence taking place at the business," according to a news release. In 2008, police made at least 16 drug-related arrests and responded to more than 30 calls about violent crimes there. A 35-year-old man was found dead in a room at the motel in May 2007.

R ay Lewis paid a visit to Baltimore police headquarters recently, but it's not what you're thinking. The Ravens linebacker, who beat a double-murder rap a few years back but pleaded guilty to obstructing justice, wants to be on the right side of the law. He showed up at HQ a few weeks ago - during the season - and asked what he could do to help the city fight gang violence. "Ray Lewis was in here ... asking, 'What can I do to help?' Police Commish Fred Bealefeld told The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton.

A 16-year-old boy is the latest of seven suspects, ranging in age from 12 to 18, to be arrested and charged in a beating that critically injured a homeless man last week in Annapolis, police said. The 16-year-old suspect, Charles Richard Mason of the first block of Monument St. in Annapolis, surrendered at police headquarters this week, police spokesman Officer Hal Dalton said. Dalton said investigators had obtained a warrant charging him as an adult with assault, robbery and other related offenses.

City police arrested a 15-year-old girl yesterday and charged her with stabbing three people in two attacks in May, including one near a light rail stop in downtown Baltimore that snarled traffic for hours as authorities investigated. Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman, said Sharee Carter of the 800 block of Montpelier St. in Better Waverly was charged as an adult with one count of attempted first-degree murder and four counts of first-degree assault, with assault and weapons violations.

Gunfire yesterday evening in the Brooklyn Homes section of Baltimore killed a female driver and wounded her male passenger and a woman sitting on a porch, police said. Names of the victims were not released and no arrests had been made, police said. Shortly before 6 p.m., a woman was driving a Toyota sedan in the 4100 block of Mariban Court and was being followed by a white Cadillac, said Sterling Clifford, a city police spokesman. Near the intersection of 10th Street, Clifford said, someone in the Cadillac fired several shots into the Toyota, striking the driver and passenger.