Ritchie Highway

A Severna Park man was struck and killed Saturday night as he was attempting to cross Ritchie Highway, Anne Arundel County police said. James Howard Minnix, 50, of the 200 block of Arundel Beach Road, was struck about 10:20 p.m. as he was crossing the highway just north of Robinson Road and a short distance north of the marked crosswalk for the intersection, police said. He was hit by a southbound 1996 Plymouth Voyager minivan and thrown into the road, where a 2002 Ford F-150 pickup truck also struck him. Both vehicles stopped, police said.

A man, armed with a handgun, robbed a Glen Burnie restaurant Wednesday evening. Employees of the Kentucky Fried Chicken in the 6700 block of Ritchie Highway told police a man, in a black ski mask, entered the business at about 9:30 p.m., displayed the gun and demanded money. He left with an undisclosed amount of cash and was last seen running toward Furnace Branch Road, police said. Officers canvassed the area, but did not locate the suspect. Mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

It's just the start of the evening rush, and the cars are everywhere — and going fast — outside Clarence "Sonny" Jordan's house on Ritchie Highway in Arnold. The 87-year-old has lived here since 1932 — before Ritchie Highway was built — and has been trying for years to sell his property. But there's a problem, he says: No one wants to buy a piece of residentially zoned property along a busy thoroughfare. So he wants to get his 51/2 acres of land rezoned from low-density residential to commercial, increasing its value and allowing for a comfortable retirement.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, traffic was slow on U.S. 50 eastbound near Ritchie Highway, due to a disabled tractor-trailer blocking one lane. An accident was slowing traffic near Paca Street and Lexington Street in Baltimore City. Robert Street was closed between Madison Avenue and McCulloh Street in Baltimore due to fire department activity. Fire department activity was also obstructing traffic around Lombard Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. There were no major delays reported on mass transit systems.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, traffic was slow on U.S. 50 eastbound near Ritchie Highway, due to a disabled tractor-trailer blocking one lane. An accident was slowing traffic near Paca Street and Lexington Street in Baltimore City. Robert Street was closed between Madison Avenue and McCulloh Street in Baltimore due to fire department activity. Fire department activity was also obstructing traffic around Lombard Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. There were no major delays reported on mass transit systems.

A Glen Burnie store was robbed Tuesday by a man who wore a hooded sweat shirt and had a dirty yellow bandanna over his face.According to a county police report, a man walked into the Carpet Fair store in the 7100 block of Ritchie Highway at 5:20 p.m. and ordered the store manager to the floor. The manager complied, got up to open the cash drawer, then returned to the floor.After taking an undetermined amount of cash, the robber told the manager, "You better stay right there. If you follow me out, my partners are going to blow you away."

A Baltimore woman crossing a busy strip of Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie yesterday was struck and killed by a car, county police said.Helen McCracken of the 800 block of Cherry Hill Road was pronounced dead at the scene.The driver of the car, Kurt Victor Zimmerman, 19, of the 400 block of Westbury Drive in Riva, was not injured.About 2 p.m., McCracken got off the No. 14 bus in the 6700 block of Ritchie Highway in front of the Glen Burnie Mall, police said. She was carrying an iron in a bag from Montgomery Ward, which is directly across the street from the bus stop.

County police arrested two Glen Burnie men and five others Friday and Saturday night during a sting operation set up to combat prostitution along Ritchie Highway in Brooklyn Park.The men, identified as Theodore M. Wold, 40, of the 200 block of Plymouth Lane, and James E. Little, 39, of the 400 block of Fontana Court, both of Glen Burnie; Warren A. Harthausen Sr., 51, of the 500 block of Pontiac Ave.; Stanley N. Joyner-Bey, 42, of the 5300 block of Hamlin Ave.; John M. Kraft, 49, of the 600 block of Reisterstown Road, and Melvin J. Topa Jr., 47, of the 2300 block of Silver Lane, all of Baltimore, and Henry L. Washington, 33, of the 300 block of L. St. S.E., Washington, were charged with solicitation for prostitution.

Two gunmen robbed a News Center in the 6600 block of Ritchie Highway on Saturday of an undisclosed amount of money, county police said yesterday.Police said the men walked into the store just before 6 p.m. Each one took a magazine to the counter. After they paid for the magazines, they pulled guns and ordered the clerk to open the register, police said. They told her to sit on the floor while they took the money and ran.Witnesses said the men got into a small, light green, late-model car that headed north on Shelly Road.

It's always rush hour on Governor Ritchie Highway. At 8:30 a.m., morning commuters cram the road. In the afternoon, a steady stream of cars crisscross the roadway to get to the shops, car dealerships and other businesses that line both sides. Drivers run yellow lights and anticipate red ones about to turn green. Through it all, horns blast and tires screech as people lean on their brakes. It doesn't let up until the work day is done, and it will continue to be an obstacle during the Labor Day weekend.

Bright, blue-tinged pellets of glass from a shattered windshield remain trapped in twisted aluminum siding on a vacant house just above the makeshift shrine erected to 17-year-old Kala Austin, who was fatally injured near that spot this month. Mountain Road in Anne Arundel County, also known as state Route 177, has seen many such memorials in recent decades. At least 20 people — many in their teens or only a little older — have died along the 11-mile stretch since the early 1990s.

Authorities are looking for Clarence Terrell Randall III, 30, in connection with a sexual assault that took place Monday, police said. An arrest warrant has been issued for Randall stemming from an incident in Brooklyn Park, according to a statement Wednesday by the Anne Arundel County Police Department. A 22-year-old woman told officers that at about 2:45 a.m. a man she didn't know picked her up near the intersection of Belle Grove Road and Ritchie Highway, police said. He drove her to the 5600 block of Ritchie Highway where he sexually assaulted her, the statement said.

Anne Arundel County Police have released the description of the person who killed a bicyclist on Ritchie Highway near Bon Air Avenue, south of Brooklyn Park, on July 14. At about 8 a.m., the bicyclist was crossing the highway's northbound lanes and was hit by a small, dark-colored sport utility vehicle, police said in a statement Tuesday. The vehicle, which may have damage to the passenger-side headlight area, did not stop. The vehicle's driver was described a black woman who was less than 5-feet 6-inches tall, police said.

Carl H. Boehme, a retired machine shop foreman and longtime Millersville resident, died Friday from complications of Alzheimer's disease at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He was 89. Mr. Boehme was born and raised in Washington, where he graduated in 1940 from Central High School. Because of medical conditions, he was exempt from military service during World War II. He worked for 37 years for the Department of the Army as a machinist. At the time of his retirement in 1980, he was foreman of the Army's machine shop at Glen Echo.

Anne Arundel County Police have released the description of the person who killed a bicyclist on Ritchie Highway near Bon Air Avenue, south of Brooklyn Park, on July 14. At about 8 a.m, the bicyclist was crossing the highway's northbound lanes and was hit by a small, dark-colored sport utility vehicle, police said in a statement Tuesday. The vehicle, which may have damage to the passenger-side headlight area, did not stop. The vehicle's driver was described a black woman who was less than 5-feet 6-inches tall, police said.

Two teenagers were taken in separate helicopters to Maryland Shock Trauma Center after being hit by a vehicle near the Earleigh Heights Fire Station in Severna Park Tuesday night, said Fire Battalion Chief Steve Thompson. At about 8:45 p.m., a 17-year-old female and an 18-year-old male were hit in the 100 block of Ritchie Highway, Thompson said. The girl's injuries are life-threatening, the boy's are not, he said. It was not a hit and run, Thompson said. A carnival was taking place near the fire station, he said.

A 71-year-old woman died after the car she was riding in collided with a vehicle that ran a red light Tuesday night in Arnold, Anne Arundel County police said. Killed in the 11:07 p.m. crash was Lois Audrey Feick, 71, of the 700 block of Pine Trail, Arnold, according to police. The accident remained under investigation Wednesday. According to a preliminary investigation, police said a 2002 Honda Accord was northbound on Ritchie Highway and failed to stop for the red light at the intersection of Ritchie Highway and College Parkway.