Security Guard

A clerk was killed and a security guard wounded at a Northeast Baltimore Giant Food store early yesterday as the guard tried to apprehend an ex-convict on probation who was suspected of shoplifting toothbrushes, police said.Twelve hours after the shooting, police arrested Charles Anthony Thomas, 28, who was released from prison in March after a drug conviction, according to corrections officials.A U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force said it found Thomas armed with a handgun and hiding in a closet in a house in the 1400 block of Edison Highway in East Baltimore.

A former security guard for Baltimore County schools was sentenced yesterday to serve 18 months in jail and ordered to repay more than $3,000 taken from the safes of several county schools last year. Barry Lee Pulliman, 44, of the 1500 block of Tunlaw Road in Baltimore rooted through desks and file cabinets to acquire the combinations to the safes of 23 county schools before being caught in a sting in December at Orems Elementary School in eastern Baltimore County, a prosecutor said during a court hearing yesterday.

ATLANTA -- Keven Brown walked out of the Cobalt Lounge on Super Bowl night apparently minding his own business. Within minutes, he was pulling an attacker off a dying victim and scattering people from a fracas on a Buckhead street. Now he is a key figure in the slaying case against Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and may even be the best witness for the NFL star's defense. Brown, a burly security guard from Decatur, Ga., has been a reluctant witness, refusing all requests for interviews by the news media.

A private security guard has been charged with assault, accused of pointing a handgun at the head of a shackled and unarmed suspect who was being escorted to the District Court building in Ellicott City. The guard, Mark A. Brown, 29, who was convicted in 1989 of a battery charge, could not be reached to comment on the November incident. Brown was employed by Wackenhut Corp., a worldwide private security firm that has been hired to take suspects from the Howard County police station to District Court in Ellicott City and the Detention Center in Jessup.

A fleeing shoe thief fired a gunshot at a department store security guard at Marley Station Mall yesterday, then escaped by staging a carjacking on the shopping center lot, Anne Arundel County police reported. The shot shortly before noon startled lunchtime shoppers. Injured in the incident was the guard, 22-year-old Joseph McNally of Millersville, who was hit by a car as he tried to flag down a police cruiser, authorities said. McNally was treated for a head injury and released at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.

Baltimore County police were still seeking leads today to a gunman who shot and killed a moonlighting security guard at the Ramada Inn in Baynesville.The security officer, John Harold Bowling, 43, attempted to draw his gun to thwart a robbery early yesterday and was shot twice in the chest, police said.Police say they have not identified a suspect.Witnesses told police that the gunman is a black male who wore a cap and a green or blue jogging suit.Mr. Bowling went to the motel lobby door about 12:05 a.m. and saw the man waiting to be admitted.

A security guard hired to watch over an upscale housing development under construction in Southern Maryland was arrested yesterday and charged with setting fires that damaged or destroyed 26 houses there, the U.S. attorney's office said. Waldorf resident Aaron Lee Speed, 21, an employee of Security Services of America, was charged with arson in the fires Dec. 6 that caused $10 million damage at the Hunters Brooke development in Indian Head in Charles County. Speed, described as someone who wanted to be a firefighter, is scheduled to appear this morning in federal court in Greenbelt.

This week, "The Amazing Race" gives us bushmen and scorpions in Africa, which is just what we all needed, right? The first clue tells teams that they must go to the city of Maun in the Kalahari desert. They have to find out what country they're headed for before a security guard will let them into a travel agency to buy tickets.  He has one job, let him do it! The travel agency is a small place and the doors are plate glass. Basically, people on the outside can see and hear people on the inside.  The Fearless Friends check a hotel computer and discover that they are headed to Botswana.

A security guard working an overnight shift at the Bank of America building in downtown Baltimore was shot and killed early Saturday when police said he tried to quell a dispute over a girl that erupted between a friend and several other men who had just left a nightclub. Police identified the guard as James Ball, 38, of Randallstown. He had worked for Wakenhut, a private security company hired by the building's owners. He died at Maryland Shock Trauma Center shortly after being shot twice, at least once in the chest, according to police.

The boisterous party at a Gambrills mansion that ended with a shooting was hosted by two NFL stars who had rented the home, including Washington Redskins star linebacker LaVar Arrington, Anne Arundel County police said yesterday. Police said neither Arrington nor San Francisco 49ers linebacker Julian Peterson, the co-host, was involved in the shooting early Sunday. A security guard was wounded when he intervened in a scuffle after Arrington had assured police that he was shutting down the 400-guest event, police said.