Slain

The U.S. Census is a good bureau to work for, but on June 14, Spencer Williams was shot and killed while taking a coworker home. This young man worked for the U.S. census and was a team leader. It's sad that this happened to him, but crime is everywhere these days. People who live in Baltimore just don't say "B-more careful!" for no reason. My sympathy goes out to his family. He just celebrated his 23rd birthday a couple of days before he was gunned down. I hope police find the person or persons who did this and punish them to the full extent.

They remembered Mary-Marguerite Kohn's enthusiasm and service, even her style - one mourner recalled "a large, bright yellow brimmed hat, terrific dangling earrings. " There was hardly an empty seat Tuesday inside the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore, as family, friends, colleagues and congregants packed a memorial service for Kohn, who died from gunshot wounds sustained from a Thursday shooting at her church in Ellicott City. Kohn, 62, the church's co-rector, and Brenda Brewington, 59, the church's administrative assistant, were shot inside St. Peter's Episcopal Church offices.

Shaquille O'Neal paid for the funeral of a 5-year-old North Carolina girl after being moved by national news coverage of the case of Shaniya Davis , whom police say was kidnapped and killed. The Cavaliers center got in touch with the family to see what he could do to help, a spokeswoman for O'Neal said Thursday. More than 2,000 people attended the girl's funeral Sunday. Her body was found Nov. 16 beside a rural road. Her mother, Antionette Davis , who had reported the child missing six days earlier, is charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution.

Patrick Dolan was stabbed in November 2010 after getting off a bus in Belair-Edison. His killing remains unsolved. The 19-year-old was the city's 200th murder victim of that year, a number that at the time startled Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb . Dolan had been a huge football fan and before his death he had splurged on a Lardarius Webb jersey. His family buried him wearing the No. 21, and Webb was so taken by the tribute that he and other players signed a ball for the grieving family.

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Two men were fatally shot Sunday night in separate and apparently unrelated incidents in the city, police said. In another homicide, a man beaten Jan. 4 died days later at an area hospital. About 10:05 p.m., an Eastern District officer responded to a call in the 900 block of N. Glover St. in the Madison-Eastend neighborhood for a shooting and found a 38-year-old man slumped over the steering wheel of a 2000 Toyota Avalon. The passenger-side door was open, and police believe the shooter had been in the vehicle with the man. The victim's name was not released pending notification of next of kin. Last year, 25 people were slain inside vehicles, according to police statistics.

A Southwest Baltimore woman was found slain in her boarding house apartment yesterday afternoon, the apparent victim of strangulation, police said.Julia Felton, 31, was found about 12:30 p.m. in a closet of her second-floor apartment in the first block of S. Hilton St. Police said they believe she was strangled with an electrical cord.Ms. Felton, who handled calls for Automobile Club of Maryland's road service, hadn't reported to work Wednesday and Thursday, police said. Her sister went yesterday to the boarding house, where Ms. Felton lived alone, but didn't get an answer at the door, police said.

A retired Johns Hopkins Hospital surgeon and his wife were found slain in their Guilford mansion by police yesterday shortly after their daughter discovered that the back door of the home had been forced open.The victims were identified by Baltimore police as Walter E. Loch, 88, and his 81-year-old wife, Mary H. Loch.Officer Robert Weinhold, a city police spokesman, said the couple's bodies were found about 1 p.m. yesterday after an apparent break-in was reported by a family member.He was unable to say how long the couple had been dead and refused to comment on how they were killed or where in the house the bodies were found.

A 24-year-old man was found shot to death yesterday in Southwest Baltimore, according to police.Howard Martin of the 300 block of South Augusta Avenue was shot several times in the 4300 block of Parkton Street, police said.Mr. Martin stumbled to an apartment building in the 400 block of Yale Avenue, where he collapsed and died, they said.Police said they found a small bag of suspected rock cocaine next to the victim. They have no suspects.A total of 284 people have been slain in Baltimore this year, one more than for this time last year.

The 38-year-old manager of a Hyattsville fast-food restaurant was found slain in his office yesterday, according to Prince George's County police.Police found Thomas Scott McQuade dead at 5 a.m. when they went to check a burglar alarm at a Hardee's restaurant in the 6500 block of New Hampshire Avenue, said police spokesman Cpl. James H. Shaffer. The officers found the restaurant's front door open and Mr. McQuade lying on the floor in a back office, Corporal Shaffer said.Mr. McQuade, who lived in the 4800 block of Lauren Court in Ellicott City, had been stabbed several times in the upper torso.

Two more men were shot and killed over the weekend -- both right outside their houses on West Fayette Street and  in the Gardenville neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore. In the latest shooting Sunday night, police said a 26-year-old man answered his door bell and was shot as he stepped outside. Court records show the victim has been arrested arrested several times on drug and gun charges, but has  few convict ins. Read here for more details . On Saturday night, police said an 18-year-old man was fatally shot outside his home in the 800 block of West Fayette St. Court records show that the victim has been arrested once as an adult, on a minor trespassing charge that prosecutors dropped.

Baltimore police responded to another shooting Wednesday night, and reported this morning that the adult male victim had died. That continues a surge of violence in the city that began Friday afternoon. The Sun's crime reporter, Justin Fenton, recounts the violence in a story published today . He cited some statistics, which do not include shootings or other mayhem that occurred overnight: Because of a similar rash of shootings last year - 18 people were shot the weekend of March 20, 2011 - shootings are down compared with last year, with 72 shot this year compared to 76 at this time in 2011.

In the end, Monae Turnage, lying in a casket with a white beaded gown and purple bangle bracelets, could be a catalyst for change in her East Baltimore neighborhood, her pastor told a crowd of roughly 700 at her funeral Saturday. The Rev. Donte L. Hickman St., pastor of Southern Baptist Church, said he hoped Monae's killing would spur East Baltimore to return to its roots — to again become a place where neighbors sit on porches, watch over children, hold their hands when they cross the street and make sure they go to school "If you want something different, you've got to expect something different," Hickman said in a booming voice.

The children gathered to remember 13-year-old Monae Turnage as the rest of the city wonders what exactly an off-duty Baltimore police officer did to allegedly help the girl's classmates who are charged with involuntary manslaughter in her shooting. View a photo gallery of the vigil . Read complete coverage of case . Police officials have confirmed that the officer, identified by law enforcement sources as John A. Ward, 32, a four year veteran of the force who sometimes patrolled the very Darley Park neighborhood where Monae was shot, is part of an extensive criminal investigation.

A 31-year-old man convicted by a jury of manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of a 17-year-old boxing standout last year was sentenced Thursday to the maximum of 10 years in prison. Terrance Sims said he never meant to harm Ronald Gibbs, a nationally-ranked boxer with Olympic aspirations. Sims had given a ride on March 6, 2011 to a woman dating Gibbs' sister, and both Sims and Gibbs got involved in a fight between the two women. Though Gibbs, known as "Rock," was skilled with his hands, he was no match for the knife wielded by Sims.  Circuit Court Judge John Addison Howard noted that Sims had been convicted of manslaughter for a shooting exactly 10 years to the day before that Gibbs was stabbed, and that in 2009 Howard had sentenced Sims to three years in prison for heroin distribution.  "There's no question that there are a lot of people in your family who have a great deal of faith in your character," Howard told Sims.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Friday dedicated a street in Southwest Baltimore to William H. Torbit, the city police officer fatally shot by fellow officers last year outside a city club. The block was where Torbit's family resides; the date was picked because it would have been Torbit's 35th birthday. Dozens of family members and police officers packed the corner of Wildwood Parkway and Edmondson Avenue, wearing memorial t-shirts and holding signs. But the family made clear that they remain frustrated with the outcome of the investigation of the case.

Homicide investigators are seeking a male suspect and a car in the slaying of a woman who was found dead on a South Baltimore street early yesterday.Homicide Detective Ray Jones said passers-by found Georgia Ann Lilly, 26, of no fixed address, in the 3400 block of Seventh St. in Brooklyn about 2: 20 a.m. He declined to give the cause of death.Pub Date: 6/20/97

During a high school softball game 30 years ago, pitcher Jeannie Buchman kept scanning the crowd for her brother, Norman Fred Buchman. But her brother, a Baltimore police officer, never got there. On April 6, 1973, Buchman, 24, was killed in the line of duty. Family members and friends remembered him yesterday at the city's Northwestern District police station, where a memorial plaque was rededicated. About 30 people gathered around the slain officer's family, including his widow, daughter and sister, during the program.

The mother of a slain Columbia 3-year-old has been indicted on charges of child abuse and related counts stemming from what Howard County police allege was abuse of Elijah Izale LaJeuness that took place five months before his death. Joaquinia Marie LaJeuness, 28, of the 5900 block of Stevens Forest Road was arrested in Meridian, Mich., and returned Saturday to Howard County, where she has been jailed in lieu of $25,000 bond, county police said. Elijah was 2 years old when the county Department of Social Services received a report on Nov. 3, 2010, that the boy had facial marks and bruising.

Friends and family of Ellison McCall Jr., who was brutally beaten and set on fire after earlier intervening in a bar fight in Northeast Baltimore, held a vigil Sunday to celebrate his life and press for answers on the year anniversary of his death. "This was a good guy," said friend Floyd Benton Jr. "He had no enemies. " McCall, 30, was working as a bartender at the New Haven Lounge a year ago and got into an altercation with some patrons, friends told The Baltimore Sun at the time.