School Police

I entertain a strange and ridiculous thought while sitting for a moment in the District Court of Maryland, Baltimore Division, listening to a handsome and well-tailored police detective describe a young man's botched attempt at murder by handgun last month in the city: Couldn't we get Dr. Benjamin Carson, the esteemed neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins, to rewire some brains? Wouldn't that help reduce the homicide rate? As I said, strange and ridiculous. ... Excuse me. Here we are in June, approaching the halfway point of the year and the edge of summer, and I must be going through my annual fed-up Baltimorean thing.

James McHenry Elementary School was placed on lockdown yesterday after gunshots were fired in the parking lot. Two or three shots were fired away from the school about 2:20 p.m., and a witness saw a male run away afterward, said Marshall "Toby" Goodwin, chief of the city school police. No one was injured, but students were locked in their classrooms for about 15 minutes while city and school police searched the area, Goodwin said. Police were unable to find the gunman, and school was dismissed under police supervision.

The specter of schoolhouse violence spread across Maryland yesterday as repeated bomb threats emptied 27 Baltimore area schools and government buildings, causing officials to worry that the once-childish prank was becoming an unsettling symptom of trouble in the classroom.The threats came a day after three students were arrested in Glen Burnie and accused of having bombs and bomb-making equipment. While no bombs were found yesterday, at least three students were detained by police and questioned.

Larry Burgan, the widely respected former chief of the Baltimore city school police and a gun control advocate, died of a heart attack Thursday at Franklin Square Hospital Center. He was 68 and lived in Perry Hall.Mr. Burgan, whose tenure coincided with a rise in school crime, was considered a national expert in his field. He argued that metal detectors were not an effective deterrent to school crime.He attributed school violence to the streets and neighborhoods around them."It is misleading to suggest that school problems with firearms can be considered apart from the very obvious problems in society," wrote Mr. Burgan in a 1986 newspaper article.

Five women were found shot to death in a Northeast Baltimore rowhouse last night, capping a violent weekend in which 10 people were killed by gunfire in the city, police reported.The women, believed to be related, died of multiple gunshot wounds at the home in the 3500 block of Elmley Ave. in Belair-Edison, police said. They were targeted and the shootings were not random, police said. Names of the five were not released last night.Witnesses saw a group of men leaving the neighborhood in a 1992 gold Nissan Maxima shortly before 7:30 p.m. Minutes later, police received a 911 call reporting a shooting in the house.

Despite progress Baltimore school officials have made in reducing the presence of drugs, weapons and fighting at schools last fall, they acknowledge that they haven't been able to keep the violence of the streets away.Wednesday was proof of that. At Southwestern High School, a student was shot just feet from the doors before school as 60 students brawled with baseball bats, screwdrivers and guns in a neighborhood rivalry. Eight girls in a car were arrested outside Lake Clifton High School at dismissal time.

A custodian at a Baltimore elementary school is accused of shooting at a co-worker during an argument about work while school was in session yesterday, police said.The bullet struck the floor of a "slop room" at Mount Royal Elementary School and did not injure anyone, police said. They said the "slop room" is in a second-floor alcove of the school and is not near classrooms.Police said the custodian charged in the shooting, Anthony J. Hopkins, 41, had been arrested 10 times and convicted twice since he was hired by the Baltimore school system in 1981.

The number of arrests in Baltimore schools dropped 45 percent from the first half to the second half of the school year, city school police say.Officers made 585 arrests in city schools in the four-month period ending Dec. 31, and 320 arrests from January to April, said School Police Chief Leonard Hamm.His report on school crime, released this week, also showed a 10.7 percent drop in school crime, including handgun possession, theft and property destruction.Hamm said no specific changes were made in disciplinary or arrest policies to caused the drop.

A custodian at a city elementary school is accused of shooting at a co-worker during an argument about work while school was in session yesterday, police said.The bullet struck the floor of a "slop room" at Mount Royal Elementary School and did not injure anyone, police said. They said the "slop room" is in a second-floor alcove of the school and is not anywhere near classrooms.Police said the custodian charged in the shooting, Anthony J. Hopkins, 41, had been arrested 10 times and convicted twice since he was hired by the Baltimore school system in 1981.

Lake Clifton senior basketball player Kevin Braswell was arrested by a school police officer Friday night, charged with drug possession and released on his own recognizance.An April 3 trial date in Eastside District Court has been set for Braswell, 18, who was charged as an adult.The arresting officer, Derrick S. Johns, said last night he could not comment on the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the 6-foot-1 guard who averaged 20.9 points during the regular season."It's true, but I can't go into it any further without talking to my superiors," Johns said last night.

Second of two parts The different-colored uniforms tell the story. They converge at Mondawmin Mall from Frederick Douglass High School, just a few blocks away and connected with a walkway built over the Gwynns Falls Parkway. They come from Carver, 10 blocks farther south, and from high schools from northwest to northeast and south to north. It's a transit hub for 11 bus lines and the subway, and a daily afternoon meeting spot for teens heading home from school, their competing white, green, blue and orange shirts filling the parking lot and the bus depots, many milling about waiting for the mall's afternoon curfew to end at 4 p.m. The place also is a meeting spot for officers from three agencies - the Maryland Transit Administration and city and school police - who try to keep the kids moving while watching for trouble.

A 13-year-old boy was shot in the ankle after a school police officer's gun discharged through the officer's pants leg early Tuesday morning while officers were checking an alarm inside a school complex, city police said. School police and city police were responding to a triggered alarm about 12:15 a.m. at the Harlem Park complex, which houses three schools and a day care center in the 1500 block of Harlem Ave. in West Baltimore. The officers spotted four juveniles in the building and apprehended them, according to a city schools spokeswoman.

The mayor's public schedule looked like her very own police blotter yesterday. She talked about crime to high school students, honored cops who helped reduce homicides and tried to get people to stop leaving valuables in their cars to keep them from being broken into. In the span of three hours at three separate events in West Baltimore and downtown, Sheila Dixon addressed one of the most serious ills of a violent city and one of the most aggravating nuisance crimes in a place some people are afraid to visit, and found herself in front of audiences both broken by disorder and governed by order.

Man pleads guilty in toddler's hit-run death A 23-year-old man has pleaded guilty in the 2006 hit-and-run death of a 2-year-old girl who had darted into traffic, the city state's attorney's office says. Donte Spencer of Burleith Avenue pleaded guilty Monday to leaving the scene of a fatal accident and received a suspended five-year prison sentence and three years' probation. Spencer must write an apology to the family of Taemier Forrester and pay a fine. According to prosecutors, Taemier and her family were having a cookout May 20, 2006, in the 2300 block of Lauretta Ave. when the girl darted between two parked vehicles and was hit by a car. The girl suffered massive head injuries and died the next day. The identity of the car's driver was unknown for more than 18 months.

Chemical bombs explode at Patterson High School Patterson High School in Southeast Baltimore was closed early yesterday after two bottles containing chemicals exploded, leading to the arrest of one student and the pursuit of another. The first device detonated in a locker shortly after 11 a.m., leading to the evacuation of the school at 100 Kane St. As students were leaving, a second bottle exploded in the cafeteria. A school police officer who was sickened by the fumes was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, according to school system spokeswoman Edie House.

A staff member at Calverton Elementary/Middle was putting in extra hours at the West Baltimore school Sunday afternoon when two 13-year-old boys broke into the building and one tried to rape her, police confirmed yesterday. Realizing that her attacker was unarmed, police said, the woman fought back, and both the boys - identified as students at the school - fled. When they returned for class Monday, they were arrested and charged as juveniles with attempted first-degree rape, attempted robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and trespassing, police said.

After being shot, man hails cab A man who was shot several times in South Baltimore did not call an ambulance. Instead he hailed a cab whose driver took him several blocks to a 7-Eleven store, city police said. The shooting occurred shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday, when, police said, a 32-year-old man was wounded near Heath and Patapsco streets. Police said the man, suffering from injuries to his neck, arm and body, jumped into a taxi and rode a half-mile to the convenience store at South Hanover and Hamburg streets, on the border of Federal Hill and Sharp Leadenhall.

No expense was spared for Gwendolyn Burgess' 32nd birthday party in March at Maceo's Lounge in West Baltimore. A band played downstairs, while a DJ spun records upstairs before a group of about 40 people, including at least five Baltimore City school police officers. About 11:30 p.m., the party for Burgess, a school police dispatcher, erupted in gunfire. Panicked guests took cover or rushed for the narrow exits, knocking over snacks and tables. Lamont Thomas Harrell, 23, had opened fire on Allen Coates, 36, shooting him nine times.

This was supposed to be an exciting week at Maritime Industries Academy, with students preparing for a Jan. 9 visit from the secretary of the Navy. Instead, the little Baltimore high school - in a strip mall in the 700 block of W. North Ave. - is in turmoil, railing over the sudden departure of the principal and the assistant principal. Dozens of parents and students marched about 10 blocks to school system headquarters yesterday morning in support of Principal Marco T. Clark, who has resigned, and Assistant Principal Kevin Brooks, who was placed on paid administrative leave.

James McHenry Elementary School was placed on lockdown yesterday after gunshots were fired in the parking lot. Two or three shots were fired away from the school about 2:20 p.m., and a witness saw a male run away afterward, said Marshall "Toby" Goodwin, chief of the city school police. No one was injured, but students were locked in their classrooms for about 15 minutes while city and school police searched the area, Goodwin said. Police were unable to find the gunman, and school was dismissed under police supervision.