Great Instincts Demonstrated By Anne Arundal County Officer!

Arundel Digest
Published 07/15/09

Officer shoots unruly husband in home

ARNOLD - A county police officer shot and wounded a man Sunday night after he allegedly threatened to strike another officer with a chair.
It was the fourth time this year officers have fired their weapons in the line of duty.
On Sunday, two officers arrived about 9 p.m. at a home in the 1000 block of Deep Creek Avenue at the request of Anne Arundel Medical Center. The man's wife left the emergency room without being treated for unspecified injuries earlier in the day.
The woman's husband told officer to leave. They tried to subdue the 51-year-old man with pepper spray and a Taser.
He then picked up a chair and raised it toward one of the officers, prompting Officer Dwayne Raiford, a four-year veteran, to shoot the man once, police said.
Michael Anthony Housley was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with serious but not life-threatening injuries. Both officers were treated at AAMC for minor injuries.
Housley was charged with second-degree assault, failing to obey a lawful order and resisting arrest.
Since April, police have shot and killed an armed man in a hostage situation in Hanover, wounded a 16-year-old boy who repeatedly backed an SUV into an officer's car near Maryland City and killed an man who pointed a rifle at police during a standoff.

BOUNTY HUNTED II - Police make 8th arrest in Bounty Hunters murder case

Another Excellent Job By Baltimore Homicide!


By Stephen Janis

Baltimore Police on Monday night arrested the eighth suspect in connection with the December 2008 slaying of a member of the powerful Bounty Hunters gang.

Dominique Boone, 18, was arrested near his home on the 1200 block of Northview Drive in northeast Baltimore and charged with first-degree murder. Police allege Boone was one of three members of the gang who beat Petro Taylor unconscious in room 312 of the Red Carpet Inn at 5810 Reisterstown Rd.

The arrest of Boone marks the end of an extensive investigation of the brutal slaying of Taylor, 20, who was allegedly lured to the motel room by other members of the Bounty Hunters – a powerful city gang with ties to the Bloods – after he failed to place money into a commissary account for another gang member incarcerated in Baltimore County.

Police allege that after the beating, the unconscious Taylor was placed in the trunk of a car and driven to a secluded area of Leakin Park, where he was stabbed more than 30 times, then doused with gasoline and set on fire.

The Medical Examiner’s office determined Taylor was alive when he was set on fire; leaves were found in his throat.

Last week police arrested Lawrence Walker, and charged him with first-degree murder.

Prior to Walker’s arrest, police charged Grechauna Rogers 16, Tanisha Lawson, 18, and Sierra Pyle, 19, for their alleged roles in Taylor's death. Police also charged Anthony Williams, Terrell Greg, and Devin Melton, an 18-year-old Edmondson High School student. All the suspects have been charged with first-degree murder.

sjanis@investigativevoice.com

Another Great Idea!

Considering All the water based activities in Maryland, This is a good Idea.

Police recruits learning swimming, rescue skills

By LISA BEISEL, Staff Writer

Published 03/23/09

Courtesy photo County police recruits need to learn water-rescue techniques because of the vast network of waterways in the area. Brian Arnold helps pretend victim Casey Hall get to the poolside safely.

They stood in two straight lines by the side of the pool. Then, one by one, they jumped in and tried to remember the instructor's directions.

But these students at the Arundel Olympic Swim Center on Riva Road weren't guppies, minnows or sharks. They were 27 police recruits training with the county Police Department.

In addition to other training, police recruits go through a 10-week course in water safety and rescue. Each Wednesday they spend about 2 1/2 hours in the Annapolis pool.

Sgt. Todd Powell, one of the supervisors at the training academy, said the swimming instruction has been part of recruit training for the past 18 years.

The county has 540 miles of tidal shoreline, more than most counties in the entire country, Powell said.

"At some point in their career, almost every officer has some involvement" with the water, he explained, whether bytaking part in a rescue or while in pursuit of someone who has jumped into a river or creek in an attempt to evade arrest.

It's important to get the recruits comfortable in the water and with their own swimming abilities, he said.

Last week, the students, four of whom are training to join the Bowie Police Department, practiced different towing techniques. On one side of the pool a "victim" jumped in, and a recruit rescuer jumped in on the other side. The rescuer swam the width of the pool, got the victim and guided him or her back to safety.

By the end of one rotation, the rescuers were clearly tired from swimming with the extra weight. Instructors would yell tips and advice to them as they completed their laps.

Standing by the side of the pool, Carl Doby cheered some recruits on and practiced techniques with others.

Doby, a recruit from Washington, D.C., is an experienced swimmer. He has been swimming since he was 7 and has coached others.

For him, the swimming lessons are fun; he enjoys learning the new techniques, and he likes helping the other recruits when he can.

"Everyone helps everyone. We're one family here, we're one team," he said.

While the county Fire Department handles most water-rescue calls, the police are often the first to get to the scene. When time is of the essence, officers must act fast.

"A lot of times (the officers) don't have the time to wait for the Fire Department to get there," Powell said. "They need to take some kind of action."

The Maryland Training Commission requires that officers know some water rescue techniques, including those for swift-moving water rescues and ones involving ice. But the county training goes above and beyond those requirements, Powell said.

Besides learning basic swimming skills and towing techniques, recruits also learn how to use flotation devices, and how to safely use watercraft such as canoes and rowboats.

"It helps them help themselves, and potentially help someone else," Powell said.

But "there's only so much we can teach, because every situation is different and dynamic," Powell said.

Getting recruits to be confident in the water is one of the most important things, because it gets them over any initial fear they may have.

The future officers come into the water training with varying levels of experience. Some are marginal swimmers.

"Some of them are very scared in the beginning," he said.

For Erick Gonzalez, swimming was a foreign concept. Before he hit the pool with his classmates two weeks ago, it had been years since he'd dipped a toe in the water.

"It's new. I've never had formal swimming lessons before," the 23-year-old Lanham resident said. He dreaded the weekly classes in the beginning, but now feels a bit more comfortable in the water.

"You never know when you actually might need it," he said, noting that water rescue techniques could come in handy at home or on the job.

How Stupid Do You Have To Be!?

This guy has got to be the dumbest yet. Did he honestly think that he wouldn't get caught. Kudos to the Montgomery County officer who caught this moron.

Man Held In Slippery Roadway SabotagePaint, Oil Linked To Rockville Crashes
By Aaron C. DavisWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, March 15, 2009

Be careful driving toward the Maryland State Police barracks in Rockville. If the radar gun doesn't get you, the oil slick might.
State police said yesterday that a Rockville man's apparent vendetta against law enforcement might have caused several accidents in Montgomery County, including two involving police cruisers. An officer spotted the man Friday -- for the second time -- dumping oil on a hairpin highway exit ramp off Interstate 270, less than a mile from the barracks, police said.
In recent months, accidents have followed sudden appearances of oil and paint on the loop-shaped offramp from northbound I-270 toward westbound Montrose Road, police said. The ramp leads to the state police barracks, a county police station and the county's jail.
State police said they suspect that behind it all was Jonathan Crane, 34, a Rockville information technology consultant and former mechanic who found himself on the receiving end of a series of traffic tickets and a drunken driving charge last year.
"This, well, it's strange," said Lt. Clifford Hughes, commander of the Rockville state police barracks. "He's way above retaliation."
In October, after Crane had been ticketed six times in the preceding six months, he was charged with spreading oil on the ramp -- the exact spot where he received a $130 ticket in August for failing to control his speed.
At about 12:40 a.m. Friday, he was walking along the ramp with a container of chain oil when a Montgomery County officer drove by.
According to state police, the officer found a second container of chain oil farther down the ramp. Officers found Crane's 1989 Mercedes parked in the bushes. On the bumper, they said, was a splash of green paint that resembled a concrete sealer recently found on the ramp.
Samples were sent to the state police forensics lab, and Crane was charged with assault, reckless endangerment and dumping a hazardous substance on a highway.
Yesterday, he remained in the county jail awaiting a bond hearing tomorrow.
Crane's attorney, David Grover, declined to comment on the latest round of charges, saying he had not spoken with his client. Grover described Crane as a "very intelligent person." Of the repeat charge of dumping oil on a highway, Grover said, "it's different."
Crane, who owns a $400,000 condominium in the 600 block of Ivy League Lane, accepted a deal last month to settle charges stemming from the Oct. 1 incident. He pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and was placed on probation for two years. Prosecutors dropped charges of dumping a hazardous material that could endanger others and maliciously destroying property.
According to state police, the dumping contributed to several accidents, one of which involved a Montgomery police cruiser.
More than a month after that crash, a state police cruiser crashed in the same spot, and investigators found an oily substance on the road, Hughes said. After that incident, state police sent a memo to all law enforcement agencies in the area warning them that oil had been appearing on the ramp, he said.
Crane's October arrest on the ramp came less than a month after he was charged with driving while impaired and driving under the influence after a single-vehicle accident early Sept. 6. He was acquitted at trial.
Crane was fined $100 in April for having an expired registration; $90 in May for failing to obey a traffic control device; and $130 on Aug. 29 for failing to control vehicle speed to avoid a collision on the westbound Montrose exit ramp.
"Obviously, he likes that ramp," Hughes said.
Staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.