Young Man

EVEN SEAN FREELAND's mother will admit that her 23-year-old son, shot and killed Saturday night by police, had a history of trouble with the law. But maybe neighbors who violently protested the shooting that night weren't ignoring his record. Their actions, in a sense, acknowledged his criminal record and served as recognition that Mr. Freeland was like a lot of other young men they know in West Baltimore -- sons, brothers and fathers who easily could have been in his place.That fact is as tragic as Mr. Freeland's death.

He is a young man, only 25, although there's no way of knowing this from his appearance. Fire has excavated almost to the bone both his face and body. Still, even in his blunted features, agony has found a way to express itself. The young man's suffering is captured in the flickering black-and-white images of a grainy tape filmed in a Texas hospital 25 years ago.Once, Donald Cowart was an Air Force pilot who flew jets in and out of Vietnam; a handsome, strong-willed man with a passion for driving fast in his Alfa Romeo.

Everyone wants to meet the new guy. And so as Benjamin Todd Jealous works the room at Baltimore's Annie E. Casey Foundation, there is a receiving line of sorts that forms everywhere he turns. Roslyn M. Brock, vice chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's National Board of Directors, squires the 35-year-old Californian around the reception on the second day of his new job. He is the 17th CEO and president of the NAACP, "the youngest in our history, and THAT is something," she says as applause fills the room.

The Jason Altman who picks up his diploma today at Johns Hopkins University is not the same young man who arrived in Baltimore four years ago. So much has happened since then, so much to change him from a potential scientist to an artist with a job waiting for him in New York City."

Inside Odells nightclub, gigantic speakers blast music by performers like Doo Doo Brown and Kriss Kross. Party folks, who call themselves "live" people, gyrate on a two-level dance floor.Outside, a video camera pans the first block of E. North Ave. as music blares from cars cruising in front of the club and groups of people dot the street. Suddenly, pandemonium erupts as gunfire crackles. Bystanders scatter in all directions. One young man draws a handgun from his waistband as he flees.These scenes show the two faces of Odells.

The first time I saw Audie Mickens, he had just turned 19 and he'd been arrested as the shooter in an attempted murder in Northwest Baltimore. He appeared at a hearing in District Court, and as I listened to the prosecutor detail the charges against him, I wondered how his life would turn out. Would the young fool go to prison? Would he die an early death? Was there any hope for a better outcome? Police alleged that, on the afternoon of May 3, 2007, Mickens had slipped a paintball mask over his face and stepped out of a Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a .45-caliber handgun.

THE CRUNCH of metal, the shattering of glass; soon the flashing of lights and the wail of police car and ambulance sirens.One minute I was driving along feeling safe and confident. A few minutes later, I was being carried on a stretcher to a hospital emergency room.With the loss of my car, as with any loss, there were emotional stages: shock, anger, sadness, finally acceptance. I am left, too, with a renewed sense of vulnerability. If this could happen once, so unexpectedly, it could happen any time.

NEW YORK -- With a newsboy's apron strapped around his massive girth, new owner Robert Maxwell began his first full day on the job at the Daily News yesterday hawking the paper on a midtown street corner, bringing traffic at a major intersection to a halt and attracting hundreds, perhaps thousands, of amused New Yorkers.A four-month strike kept the paper off of most stands, leaving only a desperate, rag-tag distribution force of homeless men who were handed the bundles for free. But Mr. Maxwell has already reached an accord with the unions and seemed pleased to spearhead the sales effort and sign up new peddlers.

Patrick Dolan was stabbed in November 2010 after getting off a bus in Belair-Edison. His killing remains unsolved. The 19-year-old was the city's 200th murder victim of that year, a number that at the time startled Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb . Dolan had been a huge football fan and before his death he had splurged on a Lardarius Webb jersey. His family buried him wearing the No. 21, and Webb was so taken by the tribute that he and other players signed a ball for the grieving family.

The commander of the Military District of Washington has ordered a court-martial for Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, the former intelligence analyst accused of giving hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. Maj. Gen. Michael S. Linnington made the decision Friday after reviewing testimony and arguments from a preliminary hearing at Fort Meade in December, officials said. There was no word on whether the as-yet-unscheduled court-martial would also be held at Fort Meade, one of three installations within the military district equipped to host such a proceeding.