Stoppers

On his way out the door of a Hamilton Street lunch spot the other day, a young man casually reached over the shoulder of a diner, grabbed her purse from the corner of a big picture window and ran for daylight.The victim's luncheon partner jumped to her feet and raced out the door in hot pursuit. She yelled for help and, by luck, construction workers were paving at the end of the block. One stepped forward and stripped the purse from the thief's arms.A cheer of sorts went up in the street.

An article in yesterday's editions about a robbery at an automated teller machine in Woodlawn listed an incorrect telephone number for Metro Crime Stoppers. The correct number is 410-276-8888.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 10/31/98

Police were searching yesterday for suspects in two unrelated attacks in which Baltimore men were fatally beaten. One of the victims died yesterday, 10 days after being assaulted.About 1: 15 a.m. April 9, several men assaulted Todd Whitney, 32, of the 4100 block of Frederick Ave., hitting him repeatedly on the head with an unknown blunt object. Whitney was pronounced dead yesterday afternoon at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.pTC The other attack occurred about 2: 50 p.m. Friday in the 700 block of E. Preston St., where Harold Hamilton, 34, was struck in the head with a baseball bat. Hamilton of the 1300 block of Glenwood Ave. died that day at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

WHENEVER my travels take me out Washington Boulevard, through Morrell Park on the southwestern edge of the city, over the B&O railroad tracks and past DeSoto Road, I think of Jimmy Reid and assume - because I've never heard otherwise - that his killer is still loose.This happened again just before Easter.For the first time in many months, I drove past the bar where Jimmy Reid had taken his last beer - it used to be called the Double B; for eight years, it's been the Purple Goose - and thought of him. I pictured the simple, clean, almost boyish face of a 45-year-old man, his hair short and wavy and combed in conservative postwar style; the last photographs of Jimmy Reid looked as though they could have been taken in 1947, instead of 1987.

Outraged by the Mike Donlan story -- good Samaritan beaten unconscious by thugs -- a well-known Baltimore businessman has set up an account to help Donlan pay medical bills and offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his assailants. The businessman, who wishes to remain anonymous, sent a check to Metro Crime Stoppers (276-8888) yesterday."Here's a guy [Donlan] who tried to help somebody and he gets his head beat in," the donor said by phone from his Pikesville office.

Howard County police are looking for a man who robbed a drive-through window clerk at a Taco Bell restaurant in Jessup Tuesday evening and fled with $175 in cash.About 6:45 p.m., a gunman on foot approached the Taco Bell window in the 8600 block of Washington Blvd. and pulled the window open. Brandishing a handgun, he ordered the clerk to turn over cash from the register, and then fled with the money.The suspect is described as a 19- to 25-year-old black male with a gold tooth. He was wearing a black hooded sweat shirt and black leather jacket.

The anger and the tears erupted like a sudden summer thunderstorm as Lynn Rollins recounted the death of her son on a hot July afternoon last year.Derrick Sutton, a maintenance man and chef, was 34 when someone came up behind him and shot him in the back in the 3200 block of Chelsea Terrace."

"First Knight," playing where it should -- at the Senator -- provides some of the best entertainment of the year. Big scenes with big music and awesome, spine-rattling sound; lots of action and lots of horses and lots of clanging swords, knights in armor glistening under moonlight, flaming arrows, Richard Gere doing Ninja warrior stunts, Sean Connery as the Lion King, Julia Ormond as the lady to die for, and a guy named Ben Cross as one of the baddest, ugliest mugs we've seen outside of Metro Crime Stoppers (and, at the Senator, his mug must be 20 feet high)

Being Bob Pivec, community do-gooder, is sometimes a dirty job. He's "more or less" the chairman of the board of Metro Crime Stoppers, the tip line that serves metropolitan Baltimore. In his role with that fine group, Pivec has found himself in some peculiar predicaments -- like the time he paid reward money to a guy in a Dumpster."This was, oh, four or five years ago," he says. "The man had called the hot line with a tip that worked out. He wanted his reward, but he wanted it paid to a Dumpster.

The date for National Night Out was incorrectly reported in Wednesday's Howard County Sun. The date is Tuesday. The Howard County Sun regrets the error.Police seek robber of Columbia storePolice have released a composite drawing of a man wanted in connection with a Columbia convenience store robbery two weeks ago.Police say a man entered the High's store at the 5400 block of Harpers Farm Road at 10:55 p.m. July 13 and displayed a handgun, pushing an employee to the rear of the store.Police say he got an undisclosed sum of money and fled on foot toward Old Tucker Row.Police describe the suspect as a light-skinned black man about 6 feet, 2 inches tall, 18 to 24 years old. The suspect was wearing a red shirt, blue shorts and a black-knit stocking cap.Metro Crime Stoppers (276-8888)

Police are searching for two youths who robbed two teenagers at knifepoint in Glen Burnie on July 23. The victims, ages 16 and 17, were walking on Parke West Drive near Covington Avenue about 3:15 p.m. when two youths who appeared to be about their age approached them, demanded that they empty their pockets and threatened them with a knife, Anne Arundel County police said. One of them had a bicycle. The robbers fled on Covington Avenue toward Quarterfield Elementary School. Police are asking anyone with information to contact Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-756-2587 or text to Crimes, 274637.

Motorcyclist dies in SHA truck collision 3 A Baltimore County motorcyclist was killed early Sunday after he crashed into the rear of a State Highway Administration truck while attempting to enter the Baltimore Beltway's outer loop from Belair Road in Fullerton, according to state police. Timothy R. Williamson, 47, of the 4100 block of Taylor Ave. in Overlea, was operating a 2000 Honda motorcycle north on Belair Road about 8:30 a.m. when he drove onto the ramp to enter the outer loop, police said.

An arrest warrant has been issued for a 19-year-old man charged with attempted first-degree murder in a shooting in Essex last month, Baltimore County police said yesterday. Police said they are looking for Jonathan Duvon Lowe, 19, who frequents the Essex area, in the wounding of an 18-year-old man during a robbery attempt on the Southeastern Terrace footbridge over Route 702 about 6:30 a.m. July 13. The victim, who was not identified, was treated at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.

A man was fatally shot yesterday afternoon near Forest Park High School, and city police do not know his identity or a motive for the killing. About 3 p.m., Northwestern District police responding to a 911 call reporting shots fired in the 4100 block of Barrington Road found the victim on the ground, bleeding from at least one gunshot wound. A Fire Department dispatcher said that medics pronounced the man dead at the scene and that city homicide detectives were investigating. Metro Crime Stoppers at 410-276-8888 is offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information leading to an arrest and an indictment in the slaying.

An 18-year-old woman said she was raped Saturday night while walking near Glyndon Drive and Shirley Manor Road, Baltimore County police said yesterday. The woman told police that a man forced her into a grassy area on the side of a home in the 400 block of Homevale Court about 9 p.m. She said he produced a handgun, forced her to engage in a sex act, then raped her. The man tried to rob the woman, but she told him she had only a few dollars, and he threw her pocketbook back at her, police said.

A man was shot multiple times last night at a West Baltimore intersection and died a short time later at a hospital, police said. About 10:30 p.m., Western District police responding to a report of a man shot at Clifton Avenue and North Monroe Street found the man lying in the street suffering from gunshot wounds to the back of the head and a leg, police said. The victim, whose name was withheld pending notification of family members, was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died.

Two men were shot last night, one of them fatally, while they sat on the front porch of a house in West Baltimore, police said. No arrest had been made, and police knew of no motive. The victims, both in their early 20s, were on the porch of a house in the 3100 block of Clifton Ave. about 8:30 p.m. when a man approached and opened fire with handgun, police said. One man was shot in the chest and the other in the groin, police said. Both were taken by Fire Department ambulances to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where the man with the chest wound died a short time later.

Police released yesterday the name of the man fatally shot Thursday outside an East Baltimore store. Shortly after 6 p.m, Tony Allen, 52, was standing outside AFA Family Appliances in the 2300 block of E. North Ave. with three other men when two assailants approached with handguns and fired at least 20 rounds, police said, hitting all four men. Allen died that day at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The others survived. Metro Crime Stoppers at 410-276-8888 is offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information leading to arrests and indictments.

Baltimore County police have released the identity of a man found shot to death early Thursday in Pikesville. Joseph Edward Brown, 22, of the 4400 block of Evamay Road in Baltimore died of gunshot wounds to the upper body, police said yesterday. Officers found his body in the 8200 block of Vosges Road about 6 a.m. Thursday. Police are investigating and ask that anyone with information call Metro Crime Stoppers at 866-756-2587.

Homicide detectives are investigating the fatal shooting Sunday night of a man less than a dozen blocks from his Northwest Baltimore home - the city's 82nd homicide this year. About 9:20 p.m., Northwestern District officers responding to a shooting in the 3500 block of Woodland Ave. found Damon Dubose, 23, of the 3500 block of W. Garrison Ave. lying face down on the sidewalk and bleeding from multiple wounds, said Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman. Dubose was pronounced dead at Sinai Hospital shortly before 10 p.m. Metro Crime Stoppers at 410-276-8888 is offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment in the slaying.