West Baltimore

Orchard Market & Cafe 8815 Orchard Tree Lane -- Towson -- 410-339-7700 Zella's Pizzeria 1145 Hollins St. -- West Baltimore -- 410-685-6999 Entrees $7-$11 -- zellaspizzeria.com For less than $12, you can feast on an enormous meatball calzone or a 10-inch pizza topped with ingredients like caramelized onions, artichokes and prosciutto at this new casual restaurant across from Hollins Market. The restaurant's blond wood accents, brightly painted walls and shiny-new stamped tin ceiling make the place particularly welcoming, as does the delicious smell of garlic that greets you at the door.

Shouting, "Stop the killing, end the violence," activists marched along Dolphin Street near the McCulloh Homes complex yesterday, pleading for residents of the West Baltimore neighborhood to join the fight to end the city's recent spate of bloodshed. "Twenty-four murders in 24 days is unacceptable," said Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president of the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "When are we going to get upset about this?" he roared into a bullhorn.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore and Baltimore County. Baltimore Western Shooting -- A 24-year-old man who was shot last week was shot a second time about 3 a.m. Thursday while walking down a street in West Baltimore. The man was walking in the 1200 block of Clendenin St. when he heard a gunshot and felt pain in his left forearm. The man was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was treated and released. No arrest had been made. Information on the first shooting was unavailable.

Baltimore man sentenced to 16 years on heroin charge A Baltimore man was sentenced this week to more than 16 years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiring to distribute more than a kilogram of heroin, the U.S. attorney's office said. Javon Brewer, 26, was part of a drug organization that included Samuel "Mook" Price, Michael "Mike-Mike" Frasier, Steven "Beans" or "Bino" Boyd, Eric "E" Davis, James "E-Bay" Stewart, Lamont "L" Jones and Katie Eggleston, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein's office said in a statement.

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 221 THE VICTIMS Tyrone Jones, 26, was fatally shot about 11:35 p.m. Saturday in the 1500 block of N. Woodyear St. in West Baltimore. About 4:30 p.m. yesterday, two males, whose names and ages were not available, were shot in the 3400 block of Belair Road in the Belair-Edison neighborhood. They were pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Hospital. LAST YEAR: Baltimore had recorded 193 homicides as of Sept. 16, 2006. ONLINE: Details and locations of this year's city homicides at baltimoresun.

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 202 THE VICTIM An unidentified man was shot shortly after midnight while at the wheel of a Jeep Cherokee, which ended up in a backyard pool in West Baltimore. Police said he was an apparent robbery victim. LAST YEAR: Baltimore had recorded 176 homicides as of Aug. 25, 2006. ONLINE: Details and locations of this year's city homicides at baltimoresun.com/homicidemap.

When police officers burst into a West Baltimore Street rowhouse on a hot August afternoon, their target was a suspected drug dealer, and the raid yielded a stash of cocaine, heroin gel caps and marijuana. But they found much more: a loaded revolver as well as two pit bull terriers and the weights, chains, homemade harness and other equipment that are telltale signs of dogfighting. That volatile mix - drugs, guns and dogfighting - has fueled a deadly subculture that is tearing at some city neighborhoods, police, animal enforcement and health officials say. Pit bulls, or "pits" as they are commonly called, are prized by drug dealers and other criminals for their loyalty, muscular beauty and aggressive nature, a characteristic that can be manipulated to sadistic extremes.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon called yesterday for a review of all properties owned by the Department of Housing and Community Development after the failed structural and health inspections that closed a temporary home for more than 50 horses in West Baltimore. The closing of the stable, which was being used by produce vendors known as "Arabbers," pits the horse owners against the city, which discovered structural problems, filth, rodent infestation and trash blocking exits. State records show the stable, at 1908 Retreat St., is owned by the city.

He was a little boy with an old soul. A preschooler who liked to help family members cook. A kid who tooled around his block on his training wheel-less bike. Yesterday, 3-year-old Charles Murrell was killed when two cars collided in a West Baltimore intersection and careened onto a street corner, striking him and an unidentified female, police said. A cousin and a family friend were taking the boy to a pool, relatives said. Charles, called Chuck, died on impact about 3:30 p.m., a few blocks from his home in the 1900 block of W. Lanvale St. Baltimore police said a man in a silver Chrysler Sebring traveling west in the 1800 block of W. Lanvale St. ran a red light and collided with a black Chevrolet Malibu traveling south in the 800 block of Fulton Ave. The female victim was treated at University of Maryland Medical Center for nonlife-threatening injuries.

The Rev. Robert Joseph O'Connell, a Josephite priest who served two West Baltimore parishes, died Nov. 24 of complications from old age at St. Joseph Manor in North Baltimore. He was 101. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., he entered the Josephite Order at its Epiphany Apostolic College in Newburgh, N.Y., in 1929. He was ordained a priest in 1941 and later returned to Epiphany as its novice master. Father O'Connell served as pastor and associate pastor at parishes in Maryland, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida and New York.

Five men were shot in three separate incidents over a four-hour span late Wednesday and into early Thursday on Baltimore's west and east sides, according to police. None of the shootings was fatal. Officers patrolling the 2300 block of Presbury St. in West Baltimore about 10:25 p.m. Wednesday asked a group of men standing on a corner to move, and a short time later, as the men were walking toward Baker Street, a man shot two people, police said. An 18-year-old found in the 1600 block of Moreland Ave. suffered a gunshot wound to his right leg and was taken by paramedics to an area hospital, where police said he was in critical condition.

Hearing the terrifying stories in my childhood about the 1918 influenza epidemic that took the lives of about 5,160 Marylanders propelled me as an adult to learn more. While both of my grandmothers told me their versions of the agony, it was Sister Mary Stephanie Hanley, my fifth-grade teacher, who knew how to capture the mind of a 10-year-old. She described Flu Hill, a little rise at New Cathedral Cemetery in West Baltimore near Old Frederick Road and Augusta Avenue.

Three shootings in 3 minutes leave 2 dead Three shootings over a three-minute span early Wednesday in separate sections of Baltimore left two men dead and a third suffering from a gunshot wound to his face, according to police. In the most recent incident, reported at 12:41 a.m., an unidentified man was shot in the 2400 block of Baker St. in West Baltimore, police said. He was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and pronounced dead about 40 minutes later. One minute before that shooting, police were called to the 3900 block of Elmora Ave. in Northeast Baltimore, where a 28-year-old man was found shot in the chest in a rear alley.

Police reports in Baltimore city and county: Southwestern Baltimore Shooting: A boy, 16, was shot in the upper right leg about 9:20 p.m. Saturday as he was about to enter a car after he and another youth argued during a football game at the Leon Day Field in the 1200 block of N. Franklintown Road. There were no arrests. The victim was attending a Pop Warner football game when he became involved in an argument with another youth. Police said the victim walked away and was about to enter a car many yards from the field away when he was shot.

Four people hospitalized after shooting in West Baltimore Four people were hospitalized after being injured in a drive-by shooting early Friday in West Baltimore, police said. The victims - a 21-year-old woman and three men, ages 38, 31 and 29 - were sitting on the front steps of a home in the 1700 block of N. Warwick Ave. about 12:30 a.m. when a white, four-door Acura pulled up and the front and backseat passengers opened fire, police said. The woman was struck in the right ankle, while the men were struck in the left thigh, right thigh and left shin, respectively, according to police.

A rowhouse fire claimed the life of an elderly man Thursday morning in West Baltimore, according to a city Fire Department spokesman. The blaze broke out about 5 a.m. in the middle-of-group home in the 2000 block of N. Smallwood St. in the Mondawmin neighborhood, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, the spokesman. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, which was confined to two rooms on the second floor of the two-story brick house, he said. A search-and-rescue team found the man's body.

Bertha I. Dix, a homemaker and longtime member of Enon Baptist Church who became a role model for her children while working for racial harmony in her West Baltimore neighborhood, died of a heart attack Sept. 9 in the West Fayette Street home where she had lived for more than 50 years. She was 89. Bertha Iola Andrews, the daughter of a stevedore and a housekeeper, was born in Baltimore and raised on West Saratoga Street. After graduating from Douglass High School in 1938, she attended what is now Morgan State University on a scholarship for several years before dropping out to help support her family.

The eight men sat quietly on folding chairs in the basement of a West Baltimore church as police and federal prosecutors delivered a sobering message: We know who you are, and we're prepared to bring everything we've got against you. At the front of the room were three posters with the word "EXILED" in large black letters, each displaying mug shots of city men sentenced to hard federal time for possession of as little as two grams of powder cocaine -...

Man charged after truck hits car, bursts into flames Anne Arundel County police charged a driver with leaving the scene of an accident and other traffic violations Sunday after authorities said his pickup truck hit a car and burst into flames in Pasadena. James Arthur Keedy III, 20, of the 100 block of Litton Dale Lane in Pasadena was driving a 1999 Chevrolet Silverado that ran a stop sign shortly before 6:45 p.m. and collided with a Toyota Avalon at Armstrong Drive and Ullman Road, police said.

Baltimore's City Council president wants the fire chief to defend a budget-saving strategy that sidelines firetrucks and engines throughout the city on a rotating basis and introduced a resolution Monday evening that requests a public briefing on the plan. "It is an issue that keeps bubbling to the surface," said City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake. "I'm not saying it was a good decision or a bad decision. ... It is important to take a step back and assess the effectiveness."