Traffic Stop

A Baltimore County police officer attempting a traffic stop yesterday instead became a witness to a shooting.As Officer Brian K. Brennan started to pull over a white Nissan weaving on North Rolling Road, the driver pulled out a silver-colored handgun and shot a woman in the front seat four times."

A routine traffic stop by a deputy sheriff in Woodbine early Friday led to the arrest of one man and has police looking for another in connection with a smash-and-grab burglary in West Virginia, authorities said yesterday.Deputy 1st Class Robert Cromwell stopped a Dodge van in the 6200 block of Woodbine Road after noticing a burned-out headlight, said Sgt. Charles Paulsen of the Carroll County sheriff's office.Two men got out of the van. The driver ran away, but Cromwell apprehended the passenger, Paulsen said.

A Baltimore Circuit Court jury has awarded $25,000 to a man who accused city police of battery and false arrest during a traffic stop three years ago.In a case before Circuit Judge Wanda K. Heard, jurors determined late Thursday that Stanley F. Shields of the 4600 block of Hawksbury Road in Pikesville was wrongfully arrested on charges of disorderly conduct Oct. 12, 1996.Police officials declined to comment because the department does not discuss cases in litigation.Shields had stopped his car in the 1700 block of N. Carey St. about 5 a.m. to ask two pedestrians for directions, according to court records and his attorney, Matthew Bennett.

In Baltimore CountyRetired firefighter dies from injuries caused by explosionWOODLAWN -- A retired Baltimore County firefighter whose house exploded Thursday night when he mixed chemicals to make fireworks died late Friday of injuries he suffered in the accident.Patrick W. Monaghan, 50, of the 2000 block of Hillside Drive had suffered second-degree burns over his entire body as a result of the chemical explosion. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, where he died.Because of extensive damage and chemical residue, Monaghan's one-story, single-family home was burned by firefighters as a safety precaution yesterday.

WITH A BANG of the gavel, Maryland's Special Court of Appeals has said that Preston Barnes died in a police shooting three years ago and that it was his own, stupid fault. The conviction of former Baltimore City Police Department Sgt. Stephen Pagotto for involuntary manslaughter was overturned."It was Preston Barnes' future criminality measured from that moment, the imminent implementation of his getaway plan, that became the independent intervening cause of his death," the judges said in their opinion reported Thursday in The Sun.Actually the cause of Barnes' death was a bullet fired into his left armpit from the gun of Pagotto.

A Baltimore man was jailed in Howard County yesterday after state police said he tried to run down a trooper during a traffic stop.State police said that about 3 a.m. yesterday, a man drove through radar operated by Cpl. James T. DeWees of the Waterloo barracks on Interstate 95 south of the Laurel rest area. DeWees clocked the driver at 83 mph in a 65 mph zone, police said.When DeWees tried to stop the driver, police said, the man stopped and then tried to run down DeWees. DeWees fired his pistol several times and jumped out of the way, but the man's van brushed his leg. A chase ensued and police arrested the man near Route 212.John B. Payne, 44, of the 100 block of S. Patterson Park Ave., was charged with assault and assault with intent to murder.

A 17-year-old Ellicott City boy, accused of trying to run over a police officer during a traffic stop, was arrested yesterday, Howard County police said.About 11: 15 p.m. Wednesday, Officer James Myers noticed a Jeep Wrangler being driven on Cornus Lane in Ellicott City with its headlights turned off, police said. Myers waved at the car to pull over, but the driver accelerated at him, police said.After running out of the way, Myers got the Jeep's license number and tracked down a suspect, police said.

During a traffic stop last night, a Baltimore County K-9 officer shot a man in a car, believing him to be armed, police said.Bill Toohey, a police spokesman, said Officer Michael Cortez stopped a Ford Tiempo with temporary Delaware tags for a traffic violation about 8: 25 p.m. at Pulaski Highway and Chesaco Avenue in Rosedale. Cortez saw what appeared to be a handgun near the front-seat passenger, Toohey said.Fearing for his safety, Toohey said, the officer drew his handgun and shot the passenger in the leg. The driver sped off, and, after a brief chase, the car was stopped on Rossville Boulevard near Pulaski Highway.

A traffic stop for erratic driving led to the arrest of a Laurel man on drunken driving and drug charges Tuesday, county police said.William Manning Jr. 29, of the 9700 block of Covered Wagon Drive was charged with driving while intoxicated, driving on a suspended license and possessing drug paraphernalia.Officer Rick Morris was headed west on the Baltimore Beltway shortly before 11 p.m. when he saw a man nearly crash his 1997 Saturn on the ramp to Route 648.He watched the driver slide through the stop sign at the end of the ramp, police said.

SOME PEOPLE USE dark sunglasses to avoid recognition. Some motorists use tinted windshields -- or dark covers over their license plates -- for the same reason.In a decision expanding police search powers, a federal appeals court ruled last week that government's interest in officer safety gave police the right to open the door of an automobile with tinted windows and search the passenger compartment during a traffic stop.The driver, Billy Howard Stanfield, had argued the bag of cocaine Baltimore City police found in the back of his sport utility vehicle should not have been used as evidence against him because officers had no probable cause for a search.

A U.S. Park Police officer was dragged about 40 feet when his cruiser was struck from behind during a traffic stop Tuesday on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in an accident that shut down the highway between Route 197 and Powder Mill Road for most of the morning rush, authorities said. According to police, the officer had stopped a southbound car about 7:37 a.m. half a mile south of Route 197. While the officer was standing at the driver's-side window, his cruiser was struck from behind on the right shoulder by a pickup truck that had left the roadway, said Lt. Dennis Maroney of the Park Police.

Driver sought in Carroll Co. hit-and-run incident Carroll County authorities are looking for the driver of a car that struck a 19-year-old Westminster man May 23 and fled the scene. The county sheriff's office said Corey Lee Aschemeier was hit about 3 a.m. by a northbound car in the 4600 block of Cherry Tree Lane near Sykesville and thrown several yards. Aschemeier suffered a significant loss of blood from injuries to his legs and a fractured knee and skull. He had surgery at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, where he continues to recover, the sheriff's office said.

Former Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson certainly hurt himself with his stupidity over the weekend when he was stopped by police for an alleged traffic violation that was compounded by a DUI charge. On top of that, Benson's second arrest in a little over a month creates even more cynicism concerning bad athlete behavior because there was a segment of fans who bought into Benson's contention that his boating incident back in May was a case of over-aggressive police conduct. In May, Benson was stopped on a Texas lake and cited for boating while intoxicated.

The driver of a city firetruck that hit a sport utility vehicle this month, killing its three occupants, and an officer on the truck at the time of the accident were both suspended without pay yesterday, fire officials said. The driver, Nathaniel D. Moore, and the officer, Lt. Thomas Moore, were suspended pending a hearing on administrative charges that will be held in the "very near future," said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a Fire Department spokesman. The two men are not related. Truck 27 was the third of four fire vehicles traveling north on Park Heights Avenue on Dec. 9 on their way to a reported fire.

Driver robbed at gunpoint Two men cut off a driver in Pasadena and robbed him at gunpoint, Anne Arundel County police said yesterday. The victim was heading east on Mountain Road near Lea Road in his company delivery truck at 3:30 a.m. Aug. 8 when a dark-colored car with no lights passed him and abruptly stopped in front of him. He slammed on the brakes to avoid a collision, and the passenger in the car got out and ran to the truck, pointed a...

Alabama legislators refused to debate and vote on a bill that would have granted the power to impose death sentences to juries, not elected judges. Alabama's approach to the death penalty is broken on so many levels that it's hard to single out one flaw as being worse than the others. But certainly one of the worst aspects, and one that's pretty much peculiar to Alabama, is a law allowing judges to impose death sentences even when juries recommend against it. This provision of the law puts the awesome power of life and death into the hands of elected judges who are subject to political pressure and can't afford to be labeled soft on crime.

Less than five months after suiting up for the University of Illinois football team, former Randallstown High star Melvin Alaeze made a brief appearance in Baltimore District Court yesterday, where his trial for misdemeanor weapons possession charges was postponed until Feb. 27. Those weapons charges are the result of a city traffic stop last month, but the 19-year-old Alaeze, who was once the top-rated defensive lineman recruit in the country, faces...

Was Mel Gibson an anti-Semite showing his true colors early Friday? Or was he just a drunk saying something offensive, as some observers suggested? Hollywood insiders and religious leaders speculated yesterday on how Gibson's career would be affected by his drunken tirade during a traffic stop, in which he reportedly blamed Jews for "all the wars in the world" and asked the arresting deputy, "Are you a Jew?" "When Mel Gibson gets pulled over by an officer ... and starts ranting about Jews around the world, it begins to look like a very dark character defect," says film historian Pat McGilligan, author of a forthcoming first biography of pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.

Howard County prosecutors dropped a handgun charge yesterday against NBA player and former University of Maryland basketball star Christopher Wilcox, saying police illegally detained him after an alcohol-related traffic stop in June. With his mother and other relatives in the courtroom, Wilcox, 22, stood before District Judge Alice P. Clark in a white, long-sleeved sweater and khaki pants for less than five minutes as the prosecutor explained that police should not have instructed a drug dog to sniff the car because Wilcox had already passed a sobriety test.

A 19-year-old Frederick woman allegedly abducted on Tuesday was found in Memphis, Texas, on Thursday during a routine traffic stop, Frederick police said. Investigators began searching for Delmy Beatriz Rivera after a witness said a man had struck and forced her into a green sport utility vehicle. Police arrested the man with her, identified as Hugo Aguilar-Mejia. They said he was being held as a fugitive.