Police Officer

The identity of a Howard County police officer found dead Sunday at her Columbia home was released Monday. Jennifer Cree, 31, was discovered by a relative, said police, who do not believe there was any foul play. Police are investigating the possibility that a medical condition might have contributed to the death of the eight-year veteran. "The entire Police Department family is saddened by Jennifer's death," Police Chief William J. McMahon said in a statement. "We are grateful for her service and extend our condolences to her family."

A Baltimore City police officer has been suspended after officials were notified by the FBI that he is under investigation, a police spokesman confirmed. The notification came from the same public corruption squad that developed the case against the officers in last year's towing kickback scandal that ensnared more than 30 officers, though there is no indication that the case are related.The officers were suspended or charged after it was discovered they were encouraging motorists to use a select group of towing companies after an investigation began in 2011.

Philip T. Klima Sr., a retired Baltimore police officer who was on duty when an assassin tried to kill Mayor William Donald Schaefer during a 1976 shooting rampage, died Tuesday of a heart attack at his Locust Point home. He was 78. Mr. Klima, the son of a city police officer and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on East Monument Street. He was a 1949 graduate of Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School and played the bass drum in the Kenwood Drum & Bugle Corps.

John R. Duffy, a retired Baltimore police officer and Navy veteran who witnessed the Japanese surrender that ended World War II, died Wednesday of a heart attack at Ivy Hall nursing home in Middle River. The longtime Perry Hall resident was 87. The son of a Baltimore police officer and a homemaker, John Robert Duffy was born in Baltimore and raised on Linwood Avenue near Patterson Park. After graduating in 1944 from Patterson High School, Mr. Duffy entered the Navy. He was assigned to the battleship USS Missouri, where he was a gunner's mate and coxswain.

John Ellis "Bo" Blackwell, one of the first African-Americans to be appointed to the Baltimore Police Department, who overcame racism and enjoyed a 30-year career with the department, died Oct. 30 of respiratory failure at Sinai Hospital. The Ellicott City resident was 83. "John was a pioneering African-American officer and he kept us focused. We stand on his shoulders," said Edward V. Woods, who served as police commissioner from 1989 to 1993. "Thank God for people like John who always gave his all. We are a better community for it and the department is now a healthy and representative mixture of people," said Mr. Woods.

A Baltimore City police officer was arrested and charged Tuesday with leading a heroin distribution operation, including allegations that he arranged drug transactions while on duty and met conspirators in the parking lot of his district station, records show. The officer, Daniel G. Redd, 41, was taken into custody Tuesday at the Northwest District police station, officials said. Several law enforcement sources say Redd had been under suspicion for years, but within the past six months city police asked the FBI to investigate.

An off-duty District of Columbia police officer's service weapon was taken during a carjacking in East Baltimore on Monday night, city police confirmed. The 44-year-old officer told police he was driving home on Harford Road and East 25 t h Street at about 11:40 p.m. when a woman stepped in front of his car and a man armed with a handgun ordered him out of the vehicle, police said. The man and woman drove off in the car, a black Dodge Magnum, but were tracked down by city police in the 1200 block of E. Chase St. Officers initiated a pursuit and eventually located the car idling and unoccupied in the 1800 block of Collington Ave., police said.

Lawrence R. "Larry" Sibley, a retired Baltimore County police officer who had a second career in security and as an office manager, died Thursday from heart disease at his home in Shrewsbury, Pa. He was 64. The son of an Old Bay Line seaman and a homemaker, Mr. Sibley was born in Baltimore and raised on Frankford Avenue in Gardenville. After graduating in 1965 from City College, Mr. Sibley entered the police academy, from which he graduated the next year. He joined the Baltimore County Police Department in 1967 and had worked as a detective.

Baltimore police are mourning the death of a decorated officer who died last week after complications from surgery stemming from a Feb. 18 on-duty car accident. Officer Forrest "Dino" Taylor, 44, of Annapolis, died Aug. 29 after undergoing the latest in a series of medical procedures. He had been injured in a crash at a stoplight in Mount Vernon while responding to a call. "Each and every day Officer Forrest 'Dino' Taylor and his fellow officers place their lives on the line to make our neighborhoods safer," Police Commissioner-designee Anthony W. Batts said in a statement.

Police were still searching late Friday night for Baltimore police officer Gahiji A. Tshamba after obtaining a warrant charging him with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man outside a Mount Vernon club. The charges come seven days after police say a night of clubbing ended with Tshamba's shooting former Marine Tyrone Brown nine times at close range. On Friday afternoon, State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy met with senior prosecutors and authorized a warrant for his arrest.