State Troopers

Two state troopers were injured on the side of Interstate 95 in Laurel early Friday morning when their patrol car was struck by another vehicle being driven by a drunken driver, Maryland State Police said. Shortly after midnight, troopers Manuel Moreno, 42, and John Cabrera, 34, had just activated flares warning oncoming traffic of an unrelated accident on the highway near Sandy Springs Road when they returned to their patrol car - which had its lights flashing - to complete paperwork.

An Allegany County man shot Thursday night by state troopers as he opened fire on members of his family has died of his wounds, police said Friday. Samuel E. George was pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, according to police. Internal and criminal investigations have been launched into the incident, which started with a bizarre standoff in a mobile home park and ended when the revolver-wielding man was shot twice in the torso. Troopers took cover behind trees at a nearby residence as George, 53, of the 15000 block of Meadow Dale Drive in Rawlings, cocked the hammer of his revolver and began walking toward them, according to police.

Baltimore police have enlisted state troopers to help with patrols as the city confronts a spike in crime, a move that puts to an end years of disagreement between the two agencies over the state force's role in local law enforcement. With the Maryland State Police now led by a former Baltimore police commander, the agencies began talking about the new arrangement over the summer, and new Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts has pushed it forward as part of his plans to get more officers on foot deployments.

Minutes after being pulled over by a state trooper on the side of Interstate 95 in White Marsh this week, 23-year-old Bel Air resident Scott Kampes was slumped over in the driver's seat of the car he was driving — fatally wounded from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, according to Maryland State Police. Police said the shot, from a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun found in Kampes' lap, was not heard by the two state troopers at the scene or by his uncle, who was also there.

Maryland State Police said they shot and killed a Cecil County man Friday night after he confronted troopers, pulling out a sword and carrying what appeared to be a rifle and a handgun. According to a police news release, Jason E. Honaker, 25, of the 700 block of W. Pulaski Highway in Elkton, was pronounced dead after undergoing surgery at Christiana Hospital in Wilmington, Del. State police said the man pulled a short, curved martial arts-type sword while he was less than 10 feet from troopers, and one officer, fearing for his life, shot him with a handgun.

A 37-year-old man wanted on an arrest warrant was shot and wounded by a Maryland State trooper Tuesday morning after authorities said he refused commands to drop the weapon, pointed it at his own head and then aimed it at officers. Police said they later learned that revolver was a replica. The wounded man was identified as Christopher B. Thomas, of Pine Cone Drive in North East. Police said he was being treated for a gunshot wound to both legs at Christiana Hospital. He was being sought on a warrant charging him with assault and burglary.

From The Aegis dated July 16, 1987: The man driving the tractor trailer that slammed into a Maryland State Police cruiser and killed the two troopers in it was convicted 25 years ago this week of two counts of manslaughter. The North Carolina man, who admitted to drinking and driving after having only slept 45 minutes in a 28-hour period, was also convicted of driving while intoxicated after a four-day trial in Harford County Circuit Court. The trial wrapped up just a few months after the March 10 crash on I-95 near the Havre de Grace exit, where Troopers John E. Sawa, 40, and Larry E. Small, 21, were killed.

An electronic ticketing system that will allow state troopers to issue and track traffic citations is being tested in Baltimore, Carroll and Harford counties and is scheduled to expand within a month to barracks throughout Maryland, state police officials said yesterday. Authorities said that by next spring, the system could include other agencies, such as the Carroll County Sheriff's Office and municipal police departments. "If all goes well, Carroll County will probably be the first county to be fully outfitted with the system," Cpl. Doug Baralo of the state police information and technology bureau told the county commissioners yesterday.

Maryland State Police will be dropping some duties later this year but paying additional attention to white-collar crime and other investigative work, Superintendent Larry W. Tolliver announced yesterday.State troopers will continue their role in policing interstate and other major highways in Maryland -- particularly targeting drunken drivers and drug traffickers, Colonel Tolliver said.But the top state cop said his troopers' involvement will be reduced in everyday activities in larger counties that have their own police departments, including Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

Carroll County could receive five new state troopers by July 1, the county commissioners were told yesterday by Robert A. "Max" Bair, the county's director of administrative services.Mr. Bair said Col. Larry W. Tolliver, the state police superintendent, has told county officials he will add at least one resident trooper to the 40 already working in Carroll.Mr. Bair told the commissioners that four additional troopers, currently in training at the state police academy in Pikesville, are expected to be assigned to the Westminster barracks as replacements for those who have retired, transferred or left for other reasons.

Two state troopers were injured on the side of Interstate 95 in Laurel early Friday morning when their patrol car was struck by another vehicle being driven by a drunken driver, Maryland State Police said. Shortly after midnight, troopers Manuel Moreno, 42, and John Cabrera, 34, had just activated flares warning oncoming traffic of an unrelated accident on the highway near Sandy Springs Road when they returned to their patrol car - which had its lights flashing - to complete paperwork.

Rush Limbaugh thinks John Lewis should have been armed. "If a lot of African-Americans back in the '60s had guns and the legal right to use them for self-defense, you think they would have needed Selma?" he said recently on his radio show, referencing the 1965 voting rights campaign in which Mr. Lewis, now a congressman from Georgia, had his skull fractured by Alabama state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. "If John Lewis had had a gun, would he have been beat upside the head on the bridge?"

Baltimore police have enlisted state troopers to help with patrols as the city confronts a spike in crime, a move that puts to an end years of disagreement between the two agencies over the state force's role in local law enforcement. With the Maryland State Police now led by a former Baltimore police commander, the agencies began talking about the new arrangement over the summer, and new Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts has pushed it forward as part of his plans to get more officers on foot deployments.

A state trooper pulled three people from a burning Lexus early Saturday morning, likely saving the life of one man, police said, while another man and a teenage girl died from their injuries. Police said the crash that set the vehicle ablaze on I-95 at Route 24 near Abingdon might have been caused by road rage. Around 2 a.m. a Lexus, driven by Veney B. Tanner Jr., 31, of Abingdon, was hit by a box truck traveling north on the highway. Off-duty Maryland State Police Cpl. Kevin Watkins came upon the accident just after it had occurred, pulling Tanner and his two passengers out of the car. Watkins performed CPR on an unresponsive Tanner, who was later pronounced dead at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, according to police.

Maryland and Baltimore are sending nearly 30 more employees, including 25 state troopers, to New Jersey and New York to assist in recovery efforts following Storm Sandy. The latest deployments bring to more than 50 the number of emergency medical providers and other "first responders" from Maryland who are helping other states hit by the storm. According to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, 25 state troopers and four Baltimore City employees will be following 23 emergency workers from around the state who previously left for northern New Jersey.

A motorcylist was killed in a crash near the York Road exit on I-83 in Parkton late Saturday afternoon after attempting to pass two cars by driving between them, according to the Maryland State Police. Troopers investigating the incident about 4:00 p.m. determined that the driver, 19-year-old Kareem Morsi of Woodbine, had been heading north on a white 2008 Suzuki GSX-R600 motorcycle when he tried to pass the two vehicles. Just north of Exit 33, the motorcycle struck the rear of one of the vehicles, police said, spun out of control, crossed the right shoulder and struck a guardrail.

Two Prince George's County men were charged yesterday with assaulting two Maryland state troopers with a pickup truck Friday night in the parking lot of a Lothian bingo parlor.According to state police, Troopers Michael Evans and Gregory Oresik were off duty when they noticed a fight going on in the Wayson's Bingo parking lot at the intersection of Route 408 and Route 4 in Wayson's Corner. The troopers walked up to the crowd that had gathered and identified themselves.They had begun to break up the disturbance, police said, when two men in the crowd jumped into a 1974 GMC pickup truck, gunned the engine and screeched toward the two officers.

ANNAPOLIS -- An Anne Arundel County grand jury yesterday indicted the two hitchhiking Canadian fugitives who allegedly fired on state troopers along U.S. 50 last month.The 23-member panel returned identical 15-count indictments that included assault and conspiracy charges against Eric W. Schumacher and Donald R. Nelson, both privates absent without leave from the Canadian army.The two men face possible life terms in prison if convicted on charges of assault with intent to murder, conspiracy, handgun violations and related offenses, said Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee.

Anne Arundel County police filled their void at the police chief position after just a few weeks. Baltimore should name the successor to Frederick H. Bealefeld within the new few weeks, if not days.  But for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police Department, their void at the top continues a year after Marcus Brown left to take control of the state police force. The lingering vacancy has raised questions over whether officials are contemplating a merger of the agency and other state law enforcement agencies into the state police.  State officials confirm that such a move is being contemplated, but said it has no bearing on the lack of movement on naming a permanent chief for the MdTA police.

From The Aegis dated July 16, 1987: The man driving the tractor trailer that slammed into a Maryland State Police cruiser and killed the two troopers in it was convicted 25 years ago this week of two counts of manslaughter. The North Carolina man, who admitted to drinking and driving after having only slept 45 minutes in a 28-hour period, was also convicted of driving while intoxicated after a four-day trial in Harford County Circuit Court. The trial wrapped up just a few months after the March 10 crash on I-95 near the Havre de Grace exit, where Troopers John E. Sawa, 40, and Larry E. Small, 21, were killed.