Poplar Grove

Bunyan Tyrone "Ty" Thomas, a retired welding supervisor who also owned a Baltimore business that sold and repaired television sets, died of a heart attack Feb. 6 at Sinai Hospital. The West Baltimore resident was 82. Born and raised in Dothan, Ala., Mr. Thomas joined the Army's 92nd Infantry Division in 1941. He was honorably discharged in 1944 and moved to Baltimore to attend college. Mr. Thomas studied chemistry at Morgan State College and the Johns Hopkins University before going to work full time for the Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., where he was a welding supervisor.

Three people were fatally shot yesterday in separate incidents in Baltimore - one of them after being abducted from his home last night, police said. The victims also included a man found mortally wounded in an alley shortly before dawn and a man found dead in a car after a double shooting last night. About 5:30 a.m. yesterday, Western District officers responding to a report of a sick or injured person lying in an alley in the 2300 block of Whittier Ave. found an unidentified male shot in the back of the head.

On July 7, 2004, MILDRED ELIZABETH PETERSON; beloved wife of the late Charles Peterson and Raymond Tracey; loving mother of Raymond R. Tracey, Nancy L. Bosley, William A. Tracey, Charles H. Peterson Jr., Marlene C. Hale and Sharon R. Swank; aunt of Edna Janowitz; grandmother of 16. Also survived by 18 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great grandson. Friends may call at the family owned Peaceful Alternatives Funeral and Cremation Center, 2325 York Road, Timonium on Friday, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9, where Rev. Janice N. Meyer will officiate services on Saturday, July 10, at 10 A.M. Interment Poplar Grove Cemetery.

Baltimore police recovered four weapons Friday and arrested two men wanted in connection with a shooting Thursday that wounded a homicide suspect and a 12-year-old girl. Darnell Wade, 25, and Dartaniyan Barnes, 20, were charged with weapons possession and attempted first-degree murder Friday after the double shooting at noon Thursday in the 1200 block of Poplar Grove St. The 12-year-old girl was grazed by a bullet and taken to St. Agnes HealthCare, where she was treated and released. Police said the girl was accidentally hit when two gunman fired at Dennis Hamlin, 19. Hamlin, of the 3700 block of Bell Ave., was transported to an area hospital, where he underwent surgery to remove a bullet just above the knee, police said yesterday.

Residents of West Baltimore's Rosemont community, where a 14-year-old boy was shot several times Saturday evening, say such horrors have become commonplace."

On any given day, people at the corner of Edmondson Avenue and Poplar Grove Street in West Baltimore are more likely to hear the patter of a drug dealer than a schoolchild's song.Yesterday afternoon, however, a gaggle of youths sang and banged away on tumba drums there -- one of six city sites where young people tried to gain attention for Baltimore's new Safe and Sound Campaign."Even though we're surrounded by negatives, they are positive," Joyce Smith, executive director of the Franklin Square Community Organization, said of the children.

On any given day, people at the corner of Edmondson Avenue and Poplar Grove Street in West Baltimore are more likely to hear the patter of a drug dealer than a schoolchild's song.Yesterday afternoon, however, a gaggle of youths sang and banged away on tumba drums there -- one of six city sites where young people tried to gain attention for Baltimore's new Safe and Sound Campaign."Even though we're surrounded by negatives, they are positive," Joyce Smith, executive director of the Franklin Square Community Organization, said of the children.

If you're a kid and live in the Franklintown or Rosemont neighborhoods of West Baltimore and want to play a pickup baseball game, one of the few places you can go without getting scolded is here: a 1,000-foot-wide grassy meadow in Gwynns Falls-Leakin Park.Julian Thomas Jr. used to come here in the summer to play ball, fly kites and search for crawfish under rocks in the cool waters of Gwynns Falls.Now 44, Thomas still comes to the meadow occasionally to shoot baskets -- a little exercise to stave off the effects of middle age."

It happened this way.Around 2 a.m. on Friday, July 19, some girls came to Charlene Vandiver's door and said her son, Antonio Crossley, had been shot in the 700 block of Poplar Grove St."I jumped up and was on my way up there, but something said, 'Char, don't go up there.' God kept me back," Vandiver said Friday as she sat in a chair in the living room of her home in the 600 block of N.Dukeland St. A friend told her only a few minutes later that her oldest child, Tony, 18, was already dead.