Shooting

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore and Baltimore County. Baltimore Northwestern Arrest -- Troy Gross, 25, of the 4700 block of Pimlico Road was arrested Friday in the 700 block of Cherry Blossom Court by members of the Regional Warrant Apprehension Task Force on a warrant charging him with armed robbery. Gross is charged with robbing a man in the 3300 block of Gwynns Falls Parkway on Jan. 18. Shooting -- A man, 42, was walking in the 3500 block of Reisterstown Road about 2:40 a.m. yesterday when he was shot in the groin and stomach during an argument with two other men. The victim was treated at Sinai Hospital.

A man wanted by authorities in a shooting death in Boston has been arrested in Baltimore after the popular television show America's Most Wanted highlighted the case. Earnest E. Ferguson, 34, who apparently had been working construction jobs in Baltimore and had been wanted for nearly two years, was arrested by the Regional Warrant Apprehension Task Force about noon April 16 on Furrow Street in Southwest Baltimore. Two viewers from Baltimore called the TV show's tip line the day after the program aired April 14 with detailed information that placed Ferguson on Furrow Street working in construction, said Michelle Sigona, who is based in Bethesda as the national correspondent for America's Most Wanted.

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.

All they heard were the gunshots, and the first thing that Chanel Lee and her husband Donte Bond tried to do was protect their children. The family had just returned home from shopping, and Bond hurriedly tried to unlock the front door to his Northeast Baltimore house. Lee stood behind him with their 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. When they finally made it inside yesterday, Bond told Lee, "Check the kids." They took off one of their son's shoes and saw blood - and a bullet hole near his heel.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore and Baltimore County. Baltimore Southwestern Shooting -- A man, 44, and a woman, 30, were seated in the man's car parked in the 3100 block of Baker St. about 10 p.m. Saturday when someone threw a brick through the car's window that struck the man in the head. Police said when the woman got out of the car, she yelled out, "The money is in the console!" With that, the injured driver attempted to flee and was shot in the left arm. Police said the woman, who apparently set up the incident, joined several men and was being sought.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore and Baltimore County. Baltimore Northwestern Shootings -- Two 22-year-old men were shot about 4 p.m. yesterday in the 2700 block of Boarman Ave. near Park Heights Avenue. Lionel Joyner was shot in the lower back and Randolph Gray Jr. was shot in the right hand and right forearm. One victim was taken to Sinai Hospital by ambulance and the other drove himself there, police said. Central Shooting -- Several young males were standing outside the Shake and Bake Family Fun Center in the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Ave. about 11 p.m. Monday when another youth approached and said, "Where's the weed?"

The case against a Baltimore man accused of shooting a 17-year-old boy in Harper's Choice in September was thrown into uncertainty yesterday when the victim failed to appear in court.Maurice Green's trial on a charge of attempted murder was scheduled to begin yesterday, but prosecutors were granted a postponement until July because nobody seemed to know the whereabouts of Raymond T. Lawson.Lawson "is an essential witness," said Assistant State's Attorney Debra Saltz.Last week, a Howard County circuit judge issued an order to detain Lawson for trial after prosecutors expressed concern that he might not appear to testify.

After five hours of late-night deliberation, a Howard Circuit Court jury acquitted a Baltimore man early yesterday of charges of attempted murder in the second of two shootings in September that shocked Harper's Choice Village in Columbia.Robert Joseph Manning, 18, who has been in custody at the county Detention Center since his arrest in September, was found not guilty at 1: 45 a.m. of five charges, including attempted first- and second-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault.

On approach, the massiveness of his 7-foot-7 body screams intimidation. When he extends his right hand -- with a grasp so wide he can grip the top and bottom of a soda can between his thumb and index finger -- you wonder if a handshake is really a good idea.Then you watch him on the court just left of the foul line, demanding the ball, catching and shooting in one fluid motion. You can close your eyes and listen to the nets snap -- pop, pop, pop -- and remember his skilled, feathery shooting touch.

Scott Yinger stands in front of a video screen firing off three rounds at the chubby man with the comb-over.He is no video-crazed teen squandering his allowance in the arcade. Yinger, 38, is a Maryland state trooper sharpening his shooting skills on the video simulator in the basement of state police headquarters in Pikesville.Police and military trainers use high-tech video to reproduce shoot-or-be-shot scenarios. By shooting at make-believe bad guys in realistic scenes, officers can hone their marksmanship and improve their reaction time.

"You have a drug debt. I have a problem. Let's solve this together." That, an Anne Arundel County prosecutor told a jury, is how two Waldorf men made an agreement that would erase one man's $400 drug debt in exchange for shooting the married dealer's pregnant girlfriend. But the girlfriend survived being shot in the head in her Crofton home, Assistant State's Attorney Anastasia Prigge said in her closing arguments. And Jerold R. Burks, now on trial on attempted murder, conspiracy and related charges, feared the woman, Jodi Torok, might recognize him, Prigge said.

The death this year of a Baltimore man who was shot and paralyzed more than 20 years ago has been added to this year's homicide tally, after the state medical examiner determined that he died from medical complications stemming from the shooting. Michael A. Chase was 26 years old on Aug. 20, 1988, when he was shot in the neck as he walked in the 1500 block of Hopewell Court. He became a paraplegic and died May 19 of this year, at age 47. In a twist, police say a suspect in the shooting died in 2004.

Sitting in her car Tuesday night outside the Kennedy Krieger Institute as police investigated a shooting, Ana Matheus held up what may have spared her from serious injury: her Vera Bradley handbag. She reached in and pulled out her pocketbook. Inside was a checkbook, a credit card and a $20 bill - all pierced by a bullet that narrowly missed striking her as she left work at Kennedy Krieger. Matheus was not harmed, but a female co-worker was wounded when one of the stray bullets struck her in the hand about 6:30 p.m. Matheus said the woman was walking just a foot in front of her when the shots rang out. With the errant bullet piercing the bag that was slung over her shoulder, Mathus was inches away from being wounded herself.

The same day that police arrested a man in a double shooting in Hampden over the weekend, residents and business owners along The Avenue said they do not expect a lingering impact from the incident. William Hyle, 18, of the 1700 block of Yorkland Road in Carroll County was detained Tuesday in North Carolina by city police's warrant apprehension force and U.S. marshals. He is accused of shooting a man and a woman who is sixth months' pregnant on Saturday in the 1000 block of W. 36th St., a block dotted with some of the most notable restaurants and eclectic stores in the city.

Stephen "J.R." Blackwell Jr. is apparently getting tired of the extra police attention. Blackwell, 25, who police say is a major drug kingpin on the city's east side but who has not been arrested since age 17, was charged with disorderly conduct Monday night in East Baltimore after being approached by police for a field interview. According to court records, Blackwell became "loud and belligerent" and yelled, "[Expletive] you all. I'm going to make it very hard on the police around here."

Two men were killed and another was critically injured in three separate shootings over an eight-hour span in Baltimore, police said Monday. About 10:25 p.m. Sunday, an officer responded to a call for a shooting in the 600 block of Cherry Hill Road, said Detective Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman. Police found Charles Gregory Pratt, 18, of the 8700 block of Church Lane in Randallstown lying in the parking lot of the Cherry Hill shopping center. He had been shot several times, according to Monroe.

Police identify Reservoir Hill man found dead Sunday Baltimore police identified Monday a Reservoir Hill man whose stabbing death is being investigated as a homicide. Police were called about 11 a.m. Sunday to a residence in the 900 block of Brooks Lane to check on the well-being of Dana Richardson, 44, who had not been answering his door, said Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman. Richardson was declared dead at the scene, police said. His body was taken to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy.

The Photographer's Guide to Washington, D.C. Countryman Press, $14.95 Because Washington is one of the most photographed cities in the world, it is understandable why some visitors might think it difficult to find a fresh perspective while shooting the town's landmarks. After all, the Washington Monument is the Washington Monument. How many ways can you shoot it? But authors Lee Foster and Ann F. Purcell take a different view. "Remember," they say, "no one will ever see it in exactly the light in which you see this iconic place."

Doreatha Wright is dead, another victim of another shooting in the city. Her son, Bobby Beasley, 20, sits on the couch in his mother's house on North Bond Street, his girlfriend's hands on his lap, and matter-of-factly contemplates how a life could end so abruptly. "She was out enjoying a beautiful day, and she got shot." In Baltimore, death can be that simple. Doreatha was shot Sunday afternoon, about 4:30, in Upper Fells Point while driving her white Toyota Camry packed with family east on Gough Street.

Calling an uptick in police shootings troubling, two state delegates and the head of the local NAACP called on the federal government yesterday to investigate a recent fatal shooting by a Baltimore police officer who has shot three people since June 2007. Dels. Jill Carter and Curtis S. Anderson and Marvin L. "Doc" Cheatham, president of the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, did not raise specific concerns about Friday's shooting in Northwest Baltimore, in which 30-year-old Shawn Cannady later died.