Robbery

Anne Arundel County Police arrested a man who they said walked out of a department store in Laurel with about $800 in merchandise on Saturday, then brandished a knife upon being asked to return to the store with the items. Police said that at approximately 6:40 p.m. they responded to a report of a robbery attempt at a Kohl's department store in Laurel. Police said a loss-prevention officer at the store reported having seen a man conceal numerous beauty products, including fragrances, on his person and leave the store.

A man was shot in the buttocks during an attempted robbery early Wednesday morning in Northeast Baltimore, city police reported. Based on preliminary information, the man who was held up was shot at 3:39 a.m. in the 6800 block of Laurelton Avenue, in the Hamilton Hills neighborhood, police said. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment. Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts

A second suspect in a 2005 Howard County homicide has been arrested and is awaiting extradition from Washington state. Alvaro Ramirez, 29, who was arrested Monday in Yakima County, faces charges of first- and second-degree murder, armed robbery and theft of Juan Miguel Gonzales, a 51-year-old West Friendship man who was found Oct. 19, 2005, fatally stabbed in his home in the 13000 block of Frederick Road. Joel Nunez Valles, 36, formerly of Columbia, was recently extradited from Mexico and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault and armed robbery in Gonzales' death.

Anne Arundel County police arrested four teenagers Thursday and charged them in connection with the armed robbery of a man Wednesday night in the Pumphrey area. According to police, the victim told them he was near Gibbons and Bishop avenues about 10:30 p.m. when three men and a woman - two of them carrying handguns - approached him and took his money. Police arrested four people, all of the 200 block of Berlin Ave. in Brooklyn Park, and charged them with armed robbery and related counts.

Baltimore County Police are investigating a mid-afternoon robbery in Catonsville Tuesday where a woman was injured. About 3:35 p.m., police were called to the 100 block of Nunnery Lane after a report of a burglary, said Lt. Robert McCullough. The officers found a female victim with wounds to her hands and arms, and she was treated by paramedics. Three men were seen fleeing the scene. Police believed they may have taken some items from the residence but had not identified them.

Annapolis police have arrested two teenagers and charged them as adults in the armed robbery last week of a man who was walking his dogs. Joshua Sack, 16, of the 1000 block of Spa Road in Annapolis was charged with armed robbery, first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and theft after investigators searched his home Saturday, seizing a handgun and finding property that belonged to the victim, police said. On Monday, police arrested Erik A. Kleis,17, of no fixed address and charged him with armed robbery, first- and second-degree assault, use of a handgun in connection with a violent crime and theft, police said.

A Pikesville man shot two men who were apparently trying to rob his house Tuesday night, according to Baltimore County police. Both were expected to survive. One man was taken from the house to an area hospital for treatment, and police said they later found the other at a hospital after he fled the shooting scene in the 9000 block of Saracen Drive. The resident told police that he and another man were entering the house about 10:20 p.m. when they were attacked. The suspects and the resident knew each other, according to police, but the extent of their relationship was unknown.

State Police in Harford County are looking for a middle-aged man suspected in at least four robberies in Edgewood last week, with the most recent incident occurring Friday evening at the Walgreen's Pharmacy on Pulaski Highway. Police said the same man robbed the CVS Pharmacy and twice robbed Friendly's Restaurant, both of which are also on the highway. Baltimore County police said they have connected the same suspect to several robberies in the western part of that county. In all four Edgewood incidents, witnesses have described a man in his 40s wearing a khaki-colored, hooded jacket that hides his features.

Baltimore prosecutors have dropped all charges against two men accused of holding up a couple at gunpoint this past weekend in South Baltimore. The move comes after authorities confirmed that the man identified as the gun man was eating at Federal Hill restaurant at the time of the attack. Mark Cheshire, a spokesman for the city State's Attorney's Office, said the fact that one suspect's alibi turned out to be true tainted the victim's identification of the second suspect, so he too is being freed.

The daunting challenge for the city's police commissioner can be seen in the seemingly contradictory dispatches that sometimes show up on the agency's very own Twitter page. On Monday at 10:15 a.m., police used the online message board to announce that an adult male had been shot in the leg on Norfolk Avenue. Forty minutes later, they tweeted a "CRIME FIGHT UPDATE" proclaiming, as if quoting from a stock ticker, that first-quarter numbers "show Baltimore homicides & shootings @ 33-year low."