Ringgold

Police and firefighters responded to three bomb scares downtown and one in Southeast Baltimore yesterday. No bombs were found.Shortly after 8 p.m., a suitcase with wires protruding from it was discovered near light rail tracks at Howard and Saratoga streets downtown, said Sam Ringgold, a city police spokesman.The area was cleared and the suitcase was destroyed by the bomb squad.About noon, a caller told police a bomb would explode at the USF&G building in the 100 block of Light St., Ringgold said.

An elderly woman was killed and another critically injured yesterday afternoon in an accident in Baltimore County in which a pickup truck crashed into a car, knocking it into another car.County police spokesman Bill Toohey said Stella Josephine Boyd, 73, of the 11200 block of Sheradale Drive in Kingsville was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident in front of the Satyr Hill Shopping Center on East Joppa Road in Carney.Mary Ruth Collier, 80, of the 8400 block of Old Harford Road was in fair condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Toohey said.

A teen-ager was killed and a woman was shot in the head in separate shootings this weekend in Baltimore, police said.Harbus Coleman, 17, was sitting on a bicycle near his home in the 1900 block of W. Lafayette Ave. about 3 p.m. Friday when a man approached on another bicycle, drew a gun and fired at least one shot at the teen, city police spokesman Sam Ringgold said.The Coleman youth responded by pulling a gun and firing a shot into the right leg of Kevin Latham, 23, of the 4100 block of Park Heights Ave.The teen-ager was pronounced dead at the scene.

A traffic light is likely to be installed within two weeks on Reisterstown Road near where a 7-year-old boy was hit and killed by a police cruiser Saturday afternoon, Baltimore's Public Works Department director George G. Balog said last night."

Lillian M. Ringgold, 83, owned catering businessLillian M. Ringgold, a cook who created delicacies for church, Head Start and Bible school programs and private parties for about 50 years, died Monday of a heart attack at her West Baltimore home. She was 83.She was born in Lillian, Va., and moved to Baltimore when she was a small child. She graduated from the old Douglass High School at Baker and Calhoun streets.Mrs. Ringgold, who retired about 1980, cooked for private families before beginning a series of cooking jobs and starting her own catering business.

Waving signs and chanting "Justice For Preston, Stop Killer Cops" and "Jail For Pig-otto," about 100 people rallied yesterday at Kirk Avenue and Montpelier Street in Northeast Baltimore to protest the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man by a police sergeant half a block away on Feb. 7.Preston E. Barnes of the 3300 block of Cardenas Ave. was the fourth person killed by police this year. Sgt. Stephen Pagotto, 39, a 15-year veteran, shot Mr. Barnes in the 2600 block of Kirk Ave. as he attempted to flee during what police said was a traffic stop because the car had no rear license plate.

A police sergeant who fatally shot the driver of a car Wednesday night in Northeast Baltimore is under scrutiny by Police Department officials who say they find the incident "troubling."Sam Ringgold, the department's chief spokesman, said the officer who opened fire, Sgt. Stephen Pagotto, has refused to cooperate with investigators about the shooting, which left Preston E. Barnes, 22, dead.The spokesman also said the sergeant called in the shooting over his police radio, but did not tell dispatchers he had discharged his weapon.

A city police officer suffered a minor hip injury yesterday when he was struck by a bus while directing traffic in Northwest Baltimore, officials said.Officer Darryl Jackson, a nine-year veteran of the force, was directing traffic around his disabled cruiser when he was hit by the right rear of a Mass Transit Administration bus in the 5100 block of Park Heights Ave. about 6 p.m., police spokesman Sam Ringgold said.The officer was trapped briefly between the bus and his squad car and was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, Mr. Ringgold said.

An 82-year-old man, who neighbors said frequently showed affection toward his invalid wife, has been charged with first-degree murder after an autopsy showed that a catheter in the woman's throat had been cut, police said.William Campbell of the first block of S. Abington St. in the South Hilton area is accused of killing Marguerite Campbell, 79. He is being held at the Southwest District pending a bail hearing.Police spokesman Sam Ringgold said police and a medic crew found the woman dead about 4 a.m. Tuesday after they arrived at the couple's home in response to a report of a sick person.

A Baltimore reporter has sued the city's top Police Department spokesman, saying the spokesman had a private grudge against her and withheld public information in violation of her First Amendment rights.Terrie Snyder, a free-lance reporter for WBFF-TV and City Paper, filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday against Samuel J. Ringgold Jr., director of public information.News organizations often go to court to force officials to release information. But it is unusual for a journalist to sue an official without challenging the city or public agency involved, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington.