Western District

In Baltimore CitySchaefer's donation helps establish Snoops scholarshipWith a donation of $350,000 from state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, the University of Maryland School of Nursing in Baltimore recently established the Hilda Mae Snoops Memorial Scholarship Fund in honor of the longtime friend and companion of the former governor and Baltimore mayor.Snoops, who died in June, graduated from the Church Home and Hospital School of Nursing and was a health care analyst for the federal Health Care Financing Administration before serving as the official State House hostess during Schaefer's years as governor.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore and Baltimore County.Eastern DistrictCarjacking/arrest: A suspect was arrested in the carjacking of a Sedan Service cab Friday in the 2400 block of Mura St. Terrance Boyd, 26, of the 3800 block of Lyndale Ave. was charged with armed robbery and related offenses.Shooting: A 33-year-old man was shot in the left leg Saturday while standing in the doorway of his home in the 1900 block of Presstman St. The victim was in stable condition at Johns Hopkins Hospital yesterday.

A 25-year-old Baltimore police officer was arrested early yesterday and charged with repeatedly hitting his wife in the neck, face and arms during a dispute in their Northwest Baltimore home.Officer Daniel T. Nicholson, who is assigned to the Western District and has been on the force for 2 1/2 years, is scheduled for an administrative hearing Monday. He could be suspended from the force.Police said the incident occurred about 1: 45 a.m. in the couple's house in the 6600 block of Eberle Drive.

Anne Arundel County Police Chief Robert A. Beck promoted seven police officers and four corporals to sergeant yesterday, filling the last of the positions left without permanent appointments since last fall because of a dispute over the promotions exam.With 11 new permanent sergeants, some of whom had been acting sergeants, no vacancies exist at that rank, said Sgt. Jeff Kelly, a department spokesman.Two sergeants who had been serving as acting lieutenants also were promoted permanently in the ceremony at Snyders Willow Grove in Linthicum, leaving two lieutenant positions without permanent appointments.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore city and county.Central DistrictBurglary: A fax machine, drill and a camera, all valued at more than $500, were stolen between Saturday and yesterday from a construction trailer parked in the 200 block of E. Madison St.Theft from auto: A lap-top computer valued at more than $2,000 was stolen yesterday from a 1995 Jeep parked in the 300 block of Cathedral St.Northeastern DistrictTheft from vehicle: A...

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Southeastern DistrictTheft: A man visiting occupants of a house in the 100 block of N. Decker Ave. on Tuesday left after stealing a wallet containing $50 and credit cards. A suspect was being sought.Northeastern DistrictTheft: Shoplifting/arrest: Police arrested a woman who attempted to leave the Rite Aid pharmacy at Northwood Shopping Center in the 1500 block of Havenwood Road on Tuesday without paying for cigars valued at $1.69.

On the morning after the news about violent crime in Baltimore vanishing at the flick of a statistic, it was wonderful to drop in at the Wabash Avenue District Courthouse, where street crime comes to pay its dues, to see what peace in our time might actually look like.And there it was, big as life:Courtroom No. 1, Southwest District: 44 criminal cases waiting to be heard on this routine Thursday morning.Courtroom No. 2, Northern District: 35 cases waiting to be heard.Courtroom No. 3, the so-called Accelerated Case Docket, which is mainly for violation of probation: 80 cases.

Baltimore CityABDUCTION/CARJACKING: Northern District -- A resident of the 1700 block of Homestead St. was standing in the 3000 block of Greenmount Ave. Sunday night when a man approached and ordered him into his car, which was parked nearby. Two other men got into the back seat. After forcing the victim to drive them to his home, the four entered the house. There, the robbers demanded the victim's money. When told he had none, the men stole the victim's leather jacket, stereo equipment and a microwave oven before ordering him outside and back into his car. The victim was driven to the 1700 block of Lakeside Ave., where he was forced out of his car unharmed.

BALTIMORE CITY* ROBBERY: Western District -- A resident of the 1600 block of Franklin St. was in the 1900 block of Harlem Ave. Thursday when two men, one with a handgun, robbed him of $20.* ROBBERY: Northern District -- A 14-year-old resident of the 3800 block of Park Heights Ave. was in the 4700 block of Greenspring Ave. Thursday when two men, one with a handgun, robbed him of his tennis shoes valued at $60.* PURSE SNATCH: Northern District -- A man stole...

Baltimore CityCARJACKING: Western District -- A motorist from the 1200 block of Cochran Ave. reported he was stopped in the 1800 block of Gwynns Falls Parkway Friday night when three men, one with a semiautomatic handgun, forced their way into his car and ordered him to drive. After entering Baltimore County and driving toward Reisterstown, the men forced the driver out of his red 1993 Ford Tempo with tags BGC 586 and drove away. Police said the man made his way home and didn't report the incident until Sunday.

The Western District officer said he was responding to a drug complaint, but the man being stopped insisted he was being harassed. "Happens every day," the 22-year-old suspect complained after Thursday morning's encounter on Lafayette Avenue that ended with no drugs and no arrest. The two men, officer and suspect, did, however, agree on this: The officer using his BlackBerry loaded with a new PocketCop program sped through the name check and, finding no outstanding warrants, climbed back into his patrol car and drove away.

Baltimore will end 2008 tonight with its fewest homicides in two decades, fighting through a late-year spike to mark one of its biggest year-to-year drops. The decline - a drop of almost 50 killings, from 282 to 234 as of midnight - continues a trend that began in late 2007 when Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III took command of the Police Department. It restores the city's homicide total to levels not seen since the late 1980s, before an infusion of crack cocaine routinely drove the annual body count above 300. But the improvement has been tempered by several confounding factors.

I attended my first felon "call-in" the other night, and came away thinking: Why haven't we been doing this, once a month in every Baltimore police district, for the last 20 years? If you've never heard the term before, don't feel bad. When I asked an officer at the front desk of the Western District where the "call-in" was being held, he didn't seem to know what I was talking about. He directed me to what he called a "community meeting" through doors and down a hall. But this was like no community meeting I've ever seen.

JAMES WATKINS went to his grave this week with his secrets locked away forever. The Baltimore Police Department once made him a deputy chief, but the state's attorney's office called him a criminal. The courts haltingly gave Watkins legal vindication, and maybe even peace of mind. But, a quarter-century after his ordeal, only the Bear knew the final truth of things. They called him the Bear for his bulk and his larger-than-life persona. One summer afternoon -- this goes back to 1971, before we had 14-year-olds running crack cocaine and Stop Snitching DVDs all over town, when people still had naive delusions about controlling drug traffic -- Watkins led his Tactical Division's Stop Squad onto Pennsylvania Avenue and randomly arrested 35 people for the crime of standing on a sidewalk in America.

A city police officer shot early yesterday by one of two men he was questioning in West Baltimore has been placed on medical leave, while the men remained at large, authorities said. Officer Mark Korman, 29, assigned to the Western District since 2000, was patrolling the 1400 block of Braddish Ave. about 1 a.m. when he spotted two men sitting on construction piping and stopped to question them, said Officer Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman. When Korman asked for identifications, one of the men pulled out a handgun and shot Korman in the left side - the bullet lodging in Korman's body armor, sparing him more serious injury, Monroe said.

Northern District 939 Hammonds Lane, Brooklyn Park 410-222-6135 Eastern District 3700 Mountain Road, Pasadena 410-222-6145 Western District 8273 Telegraph Road, Odenton 410-222-6155 Southern District 2972 Solomons Island Road, Edgewater 410-222-1961 Headquarters 8495 Veterans Highway, Millersville 21108

Three young children were found abandoned yesterday in a filthy West Baltimore rowhouse that had no heat, electricity or running water, and where they apparently had endured at least three days alone amid the coldest weather in recent years, police said. Police said the children - girls ages 3 and 6, and a 5-year-old boy - were taken to the pediatric unit at University of Maryland Medical Center where physical examinations determined they were in good health despite the conditions in the frigid three-story house.

Fighting to keep the city's homicide toll below last year's mark of 256, Baltimore police are stepping up anti-crime work: saturating heavy drug areas, stopping more motorists and increasing street interviews. They're also following up on arrest warrants, cracking down on illegal taxi drivers who often are targets of violent crime and posing as drug dealers and prostitutes. It might cost the city a lot more in overtime pay, but the police efforts seem to be working. As of yesterday, the city had one less homicide in the current year than on Nov. 7 last year -- 218 compared with 219. That's a substantial turnaround since Oct. 1, when the homicide toll was 13 higher than on the same date a year ago, said Col. Robert Biemiller, chief of the patrol division.

Baltimore City Southern District Stolen vehicle: A 1989 Jeep Cherokee with tags M693269 was taken between 8 p.m. Tuesday and 8 a.m. Wednesday from the 1300 block of Race St. Stolen vehicle: A red 1990 Suzuki mo-ped was taken from the 1800 block of W. Fayette St. about noon Wednesday. Southwestern District Stolen vehicle: A white 1975 GMC truck with tags 75G843 was reported stolen Wednesday morning from the 200 block of Caton Ave. Western District Stolen vehicle: A man reported at 7 a.m. Wednesday that his teal 1990 Plymouth Sundance with tags JHZ 192 was taken overnight from outside his home in the 2600 block of W. Lafayette Ave. North Point Precinct Car theft: A brown 1990 Jeep Wagoneer was stolen from the 700 block of Aldworth Road between 11 p.m. Wednesday and 6:30 am. yesterday.

Attempting to halt a wave of violence that has left 24 dead in less than a month, Baltimore police have authorized more than 2,000 hours of overtime this weekend so that twice as many officers will be on nighttime patrol in the city's most violent police districts. Through extended shifts, an additional 20 officers each will be on the streets this weekend in the Eastern, Western and Southwestern districts during high-crime hours -- generally between 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. Those districts have seen drastic increases in crime this year, particularly in the past month.