Robbery Attempt

A 32-year-old Annapolis man was shot twice in the Robinwood public housing complex after an apparent robbery attempt Friday night, an Annapolis police spokesman said. About 8:30, police received calls from people who reported seeing four or five men approach the victim in the 1300 block of Tyler Ave. and order him to the ground, Officer Kevin Freeman said. The victim, whom police did not identify, was taken by helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with gunshot wounds to the right thigh and left buttock, Freeman said.

Man fatally shot by Baltimore officer A Baltimore police officer shot and killed a man who apparently tried to rob him and his girlfriend early yesterday outside a North Baltimore apartment building, a city police spokesman said. Sterling Clifford, a police spokesman, said a preliminary investigation revealed that the officer and a woman were sitting in his car in the 900 block of Belgian Ave. in the Pen Lucy neighborhood when a man approached about 4 a.m. The man, whose face was partially covered with a bandanna, came up to the passenger side of the car and pointed a handgun, first at the woman, next at the officer, and then again at the woman, Clifford said.

State police are looking for five youths 16 to 20 years old in a robbery attempt Sunday in Hampstead.The suspects are described as two white males and three black males, traveling in a light blue, late 1980s four-door sedan, possibly a Pontiac.The driver, who was white, has blond hair and is about 17 years old, police said.Police said the incident began about 12: 30 a.m. when a man and woman walking north along Route 30 in Hampstead were approached by five youths in a car. After demanding money at gunpoint and receiving none, the youths assaulted the man before driving away.

Patricia Cloud had been back at work at the Amber Lounge less than a week after recovering from being shot during a robbery attempt in October when she stepped out of the bar, into a coin-operated laundry two doors down and saw the man she said shot her, doing his wash.Cloud, a barmaid at the lounge in the 500 block of Eastern Blvd., told Baltimore County detectives that she went into the laundry Sunday to use the change machine and saw the man almost immediately.According to arrest documents, she told police she and the man exchanged "a long look" in the laundry.

A 62-year-old man who sold snowballs to neighborhood youngsters was fatally shot yesterday morning on a West Baltimore street during what police believe was a robbery attempt.The 10: 30 a.m. shooting of David Smith occurred outside his rowhouse in the 1000 block of N. Carey St. in the Sandtown neighborhood. Police said Smith had been shot three times and was pronounced dead at 11 a.m. at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.Police released few details of the case but a spokeswoman, Agent Ragina L. Cooper, said detectives believe Smith may have been shot during a robbery attempt.

The manager of a Waverly furniture and appliance rental store was in serious condition last night at Johns Hopkins Hospital after being shot in the abdomen during a robbery attempt, police said.The man, a 41-year-old Baltimore resident whose identity was not released, was shot during a struggle with a gunman who tried to rob Aaron's Rental, in the 400 block of E. 33rd St., about 6: 30 p.m., police said.Pub Date: 9/20/97

A 70-year-old cabdriver shot in the head Friday during an apparent robbery attempt in Southwest Baltimore died yesterday, the third city cabdriver slain in the past four weeks.Gorman Summerfield Johnson of the 1500 block of Matthews Town Road in Harmans, Anne Arundel County, died about 3 p.m. at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, city police said.Police are looking into whether the three shootings are related, said Lt. Ben Lieu of the city homicide unit.Lieu said the shootings might be related, but that descriptions of the suspects provided to police so far do not match.

A Baltimore couple were charged yesterday in the shooting death of a Glen Burnie restaurant supervisor Sunday that police say occurred during a botched robbery attempt at the business.Shelton Lamont Wood, 22, of the 2400 block of E. Oliver St. and restaurant employee Tia Moique Evans, 18, of the 3000 block of Southwind Ave. were charged with murder.Betty Lou Johnson, 48, of the 7900 block of Telegraph Road, died on the kitchen floor of the Old Country Buffet. She had been shot once in the chest.

A man tried to rob an Elkridge furniture store Wednesday evening but fled when an employee showed him there was no money in the store's safe, Howard County police said.No one was injured in the robbery attempt.Police said a man posing as a customer walked into the Bedroom Outlet in the 7500 block of U.S. 1 at 5: 30 p.m. and asked an employee about buying furniture. After the employee answered him, the man pulled a Glock 9 mm handgun and demanded money from the store safe, police said.The employee led the man to the safe, but no money was inside.

A Laurel hotel clerk foiled a robbery attempt Tuesday when he ran from a gunman and locked himself in a rear office, county police said.A man with a silver handgun walked into the Laurel East Hotel, in the 3400 block of Fort Meade Road, shortly after 8 p.m. and demanded money from a clerk, police said.The clerk, whom police did not identify, went to a rear office, locked himself inside and waited about five minutes. When he left the office, the gunman was gone.No money or property was taken from the hotel, police said.

City man, 39, dies of gunshot wound to the head City police are investigating the shooting death of a 39-year-old man in North Baltimore's Better Waverly neighborhood. Calvin Taylor of the 2600 block of Barclay St. was shot in the head at 8:25 p.m. Monday in the 2600 block of Mathews St. after getting into an argument. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he remained in critical condition until he was taken off a respirator Tuesday. - Justin Fenton Man, 73, critically wounded in robbery attempt A 73-year-old man was in critical condition yesterday after being shot Wednesday night in an apparent armed robbery attempt in Glen Burnie, Anne Arundel County police said.

A jury will resume deliberating today the fate of a 19-year-old Owings Mills man accused of murder in what prosecutors called a gang-related killing in Columbia last year. Daymar Wimbish, the defendant, is an admitted Bloods gang member; his attorney argued he was merely present at a botched robbery attempt in the early hours of May 17, 2008, that ended in the shooting death of Jason Batts, 23. "The whole gang theme was a substitute for motive," Wimbish's attorney, Spencer Hecht, said in closing arguments to the jury on Tuesday.

A man charged with killing an off-duty Baltimore police officer was found not guilty yesterday of unrelated handgun counts. Brandon Grimes, 23, was accused of running from two police officers who had pulled him over on suspicion of speeding near his home in the 800 block of Caton Ave. Police said that as they chased him into his backyard, Grimes threw a .22-calber handgun over a fence. The jury found Grimes not guilty of all charges stemming from the April 13, 2006, incident, including possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

A 32-year-old Annapolis man was shot twice in the Robinwood public housing complex after an apparent robbery attempt Friday night, an Annapolis police spokesman said. About 8:30, police received calls from people who reported seeing four or five men approach the victim in the 1300 block of Tyler Ave. and order him to the ground, Officer Kevin Freeman said. The victim, whom police did not identify, was taken by helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with gunshot wounds to the right thigh and left buttock, Freeman said.

Man fatally shot by Baltimore officer A Baltimore police officer shot and killed a man who apparently tried to rob him and his girlfriend early yesterday outside a North Baltimore apartment building, a city police spokesman said. Sterling Clifford, a police spokesman, said a preliminary investigation revealed that the officer and a woman were sitting in his car in the 900 block of Belgian Ave. in the Pen Lucy neighborhood when a man approached about 4 a.m. The man, whose face was partially covered with a bandanna, came up to the passenger side of the car and pointed a handgun, first at the woman, next at the officer, and then again at the woman, Clifford said.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore and Baltimore County. Baltimore Central Bank robbery attempt -- Police were seeking a man in his mid-40s who tried to rob Wachovia Bank in the 1200 block of N. Charles St. about noon Wednesday. After saying to a bank teller that he wanted to make a withdrawal, the man told the teller not to put any dye packs among the cash and not to press the holdup alarm. Before the teller could comply, the man walked out of the bank.

In Baltimore City Off-duty officer fatally shoots man in robbery attempt An off-duty Baltimore police officer shot and killed an unidentified man early yesterday during an attempted robbery in Reservoir Hill, the department reported. Officer Althaniel Dailey, 39, who joined the department in February, had just driven with his brother to a house in the 800 block of Lennox St. to pick up a friend when two men suddenly appeared in the darkness, police said. One of the men put a gun to the brother's head in an apparent robbery attempt, according to police.

A man who police believe eluded capture after attempting to rob a Lansdowne Wendy's Sunday by hiding in the restaurant's ceiling was arrested yesterday when officers found him hiding in a bedroom in Pimlico. Bill Toohey, a Baltimore County police spokesman, said the Warrant Apprehension Task Force arrested Craig Eferm Lewis, 31, about 9 a.m. at a house in the 400 block of W. Garrison Ave. Toohey said police received a tip that Lewis, of the 2700 block of Pelham Ave. in Northeast Baltimore, had been staying at the Garrison Avenue address.

County police are investigating a holdup and a robbery attempt that occurred within less than four hours a short distance apart over the weekend on Laurel Fort Meade Road. The robbery occurred about 11 p.m. Friday when two men with bandanas over their faces entered an unlocked back door of Pizza Pride in the 3400 block of Laurel Fort Meade Road (Route 198), ordered two employees at gunpoint to lie on the floor and told the manager to open the cash register, police said. The robbers fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.

A gunman burst into a Southwest Baltimore apartment early yesterday and killed a 25-year-old man and critically wounded a 53-year-old woman during an apparent robbery attempt, city police said. The man, armed with a silver-colored handgun, entered an apartment in the 4900 block of Frederick Ave. about 2 a.m. and demanded money from the man and his girlfriend, who were in one of the bedrooms. The man went with the intruder into a hallway, where he was shot to death, police said. The gunman then entered another bedroom and shot Lardais Lemon, the mother of the man's girlfriend.