Two charged after 11-mile police chase
Baltimore police charged two men yesterday with possession of marijuana after they led officers on an 11-mile car chase through the city on Tuesday evening.
The pursuit ended at Key Highway and Webster Street in South Baltimore. WBAL-TV broadcast live video from a helicopter, showing police officers, their guns drawn, converging on the car and arresting the driver and a passenger.
The driver, Darrell Wilson, 26, of the 2800 block of Ashland Ave., could face additional traffic charges related to the chase, police said. The passenger was identified as Hakeem Hester, 28, of the 4200 block of Sheldon Ave.
The chase started about 6:30 p.m. in East Baltimore when officers saw a silver Acura run a stop sign at Eager Street and Lakewood Avenue. Officers turned on their emergency lights and watched as the car accelerated -- running another stop sign two blocks away at Eager and Kenwood Avenue, police said.
The driver of the Acura went on several streets, heading the wrong way on a one-way street and crossing back and forth over double yellow lines on another. The car got onto southbound Interstate 895 and officers watched as the occupants threw suspected cocaine out the window, police said. At one point, officers were able to stop on the highway and recover some marijuana.
The car went though the Harbor Tunnel, took an exit at Hanover Street and stopped on Key Highway. There, officers ordered both men to get out of the car. The WBAL video shows one officer punching the passenger as he pulls him out of the car. Police said that the driver tried to get up and was pushed down. The men told police that they did not stop because they were scared since they had drugs in their car and because the driver did not have a license, police said.
Annie Linskey
Baltimore
: Census
Population growth slows in metro area
Population growth in the Baltimore region slowed between 2006 and 2007, following similar trends for the state as a whole, according to Census estimates released today.
The Census Bureau's estimate for the Baltimore metro area, which includes the city and the counties of Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Queen Anne's, was 2,668,056 as of July 2007, up 4,770 from 2,663,286 in July 2006. The region was ranked 20th of metro areas nationwide, a spot it has held for several years.
Many residents are moving out, seeking more affordable housing in exurban Maryland and Pennsylvania, said Mark Goldstein, an economist with the Maryland Department of Planning. The trend began at the start of the decade, Goldstein said.
In addition, the increase reflects a small population decline in Baltimore City. Last week, the bureau estimated that Baltimore's population decreased by 3,506 people between 2006 and 2007. For the past several years, city leaders have challenged Census estimates as being too low. The bureau has responded each year by revising the numbers upward. City leaders plan to challenge the figures again this year.
Kelly Brewington
Downtown
City Hall evacuated when fan overheats
Occupants were evacuated from Baltimore City Hall yesterday morning after a ventilation fan overheated and blew smoke into the 4th and 6th floors.
A city councilman's staff member suffered minor injuries when a door swung open and hit her foot as she was leaving, according to the city Fire Department. The woman was treated at the scene and was not taken to the hospital.
Smoke could be smelled as people walked out of the Board of Estimates meeting about 9:15 a.m. Mayor Sheila Dixon, who was at the meeting, was escorted out of the building to a parking garage and then to the plaza on Holliday Street.
Fire Capt. Roman Clark said the fan had been shut down and that the department blew smoke out of the building, which reopened shortly after 10 a.m.
John Fritze
Viaduct reopens on Russell Street
Baltimore officials announced yesterday the opening of the Russell Street viaduct after nearly three years of closures for a $30 million construction project.
Most work on the 1,042-foot bridge over Monroe Street near Annapolis Road was completed in October, but city transportation officials said lanes were often closed to add sensors to provide up-to-date weather conditions and cameras to monitor traffic flow. About 60,000 cars use the viaduct each day to get into the city while bypassing most local roads.
Prince George's
: Hyattsville
Man shot dead, three wounded
One man was killed and three others suffered life-threatening wounds after they were shot last night outside a dwelling in a Hyattsville neighborhood, a Prince George's County police spokesman said.
The names of the victims and details of the shootings were unavailable.
About 8:45 p.m., police responding to shots fired in the 3300 block of Manorwood Drive in the Queen's Chapel Manor community found four men bleeding from gunshot wounds, said Fire Department Battalion Chief Dennis Wood, who was also acting as a police spokesman.
Wood said one man was pronounced dead at the scene, two of the wounded were taken to Medstar in Washington, and the third was taken to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. All three were being treated for life-threatening wounds, he said.
Richard Irwin
Maryland
: Computer tapes
Service loses data on shareholders
A Pittsburgh-based shareholder services firm has notified about 3,500 individuals -- some of them Maryland residents -- that the company lost a box of computer data tapes last month storing personal information including names, Social Security numbers and possibly bank account numbers, a spokesman said yesterday.
BNY Mellon Shareowner Services, which assists clients such as MetLife, sent letters to affected shareholders of such clients offering them 12 months of free credit monitoring and other assistance, according to a letter received by one affected investor.
"We have received no indications that there's been any inappropriate use of the data on the tapes," said Ron Sommer, a spokesman for the Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
Liz F. Kay