Police say Ramon Cruz, 31, of Moody Street, pictured below, took off when Officer Chad Collins approached him on foot somewhere around Middlesex or Appleton Street Sunday night about 9 p.m.
Collins gave chase and caught Cruz just across the Hamilton Canal near the old Freudenburg Building. Police say Cruz had several bags of heroin and coke on him, and was wanted on a default warrant.
Here is a picture of Officer Robert Rayne searching Cruz at the scene.
Cruz was booked for disorderly conduct, and possession of heroin and cocaine.
Collins is a fairly new officer. He came to Lowell PD in late 2007 on a lateral transfer from Marblehead Police; one of four officers Superintendent Lavallee brought in to boost the department's ranks.
He was on a downtown walking patrol when he tried to talk to Cruz, only to have Cruz take off running.
Collins still had his hat on at the scene, which I had to ask him about later. How did he chase this guy down without even losing his hat? He said his shaved head just stuck to the leather band on the inside.
Just a couple hours after my first post, another tree has run amok in Greater Lowell, this time in Chelmsford.
A tree branch, although I use that term lightly since this branch was bigger than many trees I've seen, got blown down on Golden Cove Road right next to the I-495 overpass.
It knocked down a high tension power line as it came down, cut power to at least 240 people, and made a big enough mess that firefighters and police had to close part of Golden Cove, and more importantly part of Route 110 (Chelmsford Street) where Golden Cove Road intersects with it, right before the I-495 onramp.
Dennis Greenwood, of Chelmsford DPW, showed up with a front-end loader and once he got word that there were no live wires in the mess, needed four minutes flat to clear the tree from the road. This video is under four minutes because I trimmed it some.
Police were still on scene with the road closed Sunday night, though, because National Grid needed quite a bit longer to get those wires back in place. I think Comcast was at the scene too.
UPDATE National Grid earlier estimated power would be restored by 10 p.m., but it is now 10 p.m., and that estimate has been pushed back past midnight.
There doesn't seem to be much else going on so far today, but the quick storm that blew through Lowell about 4 p.m., managed to knock this tree down on upper Merrimack Street, right in front of 686.
Police closed the street for a bit while they waited for a tree crew.
It appears Boston.com, and several Boston news channels tonight reported on a terrifying new crime wave in Beacon Hill, where ruthless thugs have residents living in fear.
There have been four robberies and one larceny there already this year, several sources report. There were 8 last year.
I checked and double-checked, and apparently all these reports were made with a straight face.
Meanwhile, there were 261 robberies in Lowell last year, and 2,290 larcenies. Thanks to budget cuts, made by people on Beacon Hill, local police in Lowell are facing massive layoffs.
I decline to comment further. Leave your thoughts in the comments section.
A 54-year-old man was pulled from the Concord River behind the Lower Locks Garage this afternoon about 4 p.m. I didn't make it down there cause they were clearing the scene just as I sat down at work.
He was found in the water, struggling, and screaming for help, police said.
Officers Michael Kandrotas, Erin Byrne, Christopher Bomil and Brian Keefe teamed up to pull the guy out. He was taken to Lowell General with minor injuries.
Sounds like he fell off a ledge a little ways up from where he was rescued.
Police came downtown in numbers twice tonight, which I'm sure got the attention of the neighbors.
First was about 8:30, for an attempted unarmed robbery at Middle and Palmer streets. I'm not sure what went down between the bad guy and his intended victim, but the suspect was described as a white male, tall, skinny, wearing jeans and a black sweatshirt. He had some scruff on his face, and dark hair.
Police stopped a possible suspect on Market Street, but he checked out and soon walked away.
It sounded like everyone was unharmed, though. The victim later rejoined his friends at the Smokehouse to eat.
About 10:50, the downtown portable unit (that's a patrolman who's on foot, or a bike) started chasing someone, though I never did pickup on why. A white Chevrolet Monte Carlo took off on him and then the driver bailed out and ran toward Dutton Street but disappeared.
Tons of backup came to join the search, but the guy never turned up.
Police did find the car's owner, but since the guy who ran was described as white, in his early 20's, wearing a dark-colored shirt and a hat, the young lady who owns the car was definitely not a suspect.
Police did arrest someone with five warrants inside 256 Market St., during the search, but told me he wasn't the guy who ran. Wrong place, wrong time, I guess.
Nothing huge, but in a neighborhood where everything is close together and neighbors really keep their eyes on things, I'm sure folks noticed all the blue lights.
I was briefly concerned I was gonna get shaken down this afternoon as I drove over the Bridge Street bridge and listened to Vice radio in for backup to make a traffic stop on a car going the same direction, on the same street, in the same place that was driving.
I wasn't even looking for a story. I was on my way back to the office from quick trip to my apartment.
I've gotta admit they're good at being undercover. Once I realized they were making a stop darn close to where I was I started looking and couldn't spot em to save my life.
As I turned onto French Street, Car 8 swerved at me from the opposite direction, just missed me, and stopped the white car right behind me. It was kind of a nice move. I sure as hell would have been stopped if he was looking for me instead of the car behind me.
I'm a reporter, though. I had to find a parking spot and go and see if they were going to make an arrest, but after a K9 sweep of the car detectives cut everyone loose.
I can't complain about the commotion though. It's a very slow night on the bad news front, so I've got no other real updates.
Things seem a little quiet so far. We're hearing reports that a car struck a house in Dracut, but we have no details. The deputy chief hadn't been notified of it, so I'm hoping that's a sign it was no big deal.
There was also just a minor pedestrian accident on Central Street in Lowell, but no serious injuries.
I'll be at the City Council meeting tonight for a public hearing on the proposed weapons ordinance that would ban knives with blades over 2 1/2 inches long unless there is a legitimate reason to carry them. It would also ban some other items.
Here's some video I shot at an earlier subcommittee meeting on the ordinance. It was processed by some of our video people, so it's not as raw as usual.
Harry Wolf, 33, of Chelmsford, was arrested on Westford Street late Sunday night, after lasting all of about 30 seconds in a police chase.
Police say Wolf refused to stop for officers who spotted him speeding in front of the Hong Kong in Cupples Square. The officers broadcast a description of his red Ford Mustang, but had barely finished before reporting that the suspect had crashed.
Police said Wolf lost control of the car, fishtailed, and struck two parked cars along Westford Street, between Gates and Bellevue, resulting in this.
Handcuffed, face down on the sidewalk at the scene, Wolf said he hadn't done anything wrong, and just lost control of his car. Police didn't seem to buy it, though they did agree to loosen his handcuffs since he said they were hurting him.
Wolf was booked for failure to stop for police, operating to endanger, resisting arrest, speeding, harsh and objectionable noise and marked lanes violation.
The spectacularly unsuccessful nature of this incident seems a bit more striking in light of 52-year-old Barbara Davis' high speed flight through four towns and two states earlier in the day.
If not, then you should call police if you know anyone who's dark-colored Ford Explorer has some heavy new front-end damage on the driver's side as of Sunday night.
It was a little before 9 Sunday night when police were called to Lawrence Street, under the railroad bridge near Billerica Street, for a reported hit & run.
An Explorer like the one I described above had smashed into the driver's side of a silver minivan that was carrying two adults and four children. The brunt of the impact was on the rear driver's side door, which is probably where the 9-year-old girl who had to be taken to Saints was sitting.
Police didn't have any reports yet Sunday night, so I can't identify those involved. I'm not sure how the girl was doing, but there was no reconstruction or anything so her injuries were apparently not severe.
That's my definition of severe though. I'd imagine the definition employed by a 9-year-old girl who just took an impact from an SUV would likely be significantly different.
If your friend or co-worker's Explorer has some newfound issues with it's front end, do that girl a favor and call Lowell Police at (978) 937-3200. You don't have to tell them your name, just fill em in on the vehicle in question.
So, police are saying that Barbara Davis, at a rowdy 52-years-old, managed to get her car up to 89 mph on the Sagamore Bridge in Hudson Sunday morning. That's fine, but she didn't get away with it, and also didn't get away with the fake name she gave to a Hudson Police officer who stopped her.
Just as the Hudson Officer was figuring out Davis' real name, that she had a suspended license, and was wanted on a bench warrant, she took off, fleeing south on Lowell Road.
Hudson broke off the chase for safety, so Tyngsboro tried to stop her in their town. They gave up in Chelmsford. Chelmsford tried too, but gave up in Lowell.
That's some serious driving for a 52-year-old. She got away.
Now, maybe I'm just a little cynical, but if I had just led police on a chase through two states and four towns, knowing full well they knew who I was, I would have gone to a friend's house, maybe out of town for the day.
But Davis? She went home.
Which is where she was arrested by Nashua Police.
She's being held on $2,000 cash bail as I write this.
I had a little trouble reaching him earlier today, and he called me back tonight at 10:15 p.m., with news on the investigation into that scrap of a report on the Choeun murder that was released to the public even though it contained sensitive information.
He said the investigation has preliminarily found that the scrap was released by a civilian detention clerk who was just trying to protect the bank card so that no one could see it as she released it to the son of a man being held in lockup.
He declined to name the employee, but said she was very apologetic, and that she understands the gravity of the mistake. He won't decide whether she will be disciplined until the investigation is complete.
Police are still trying to figure out why a report on the homicide was in the booking area to begin with.
Nevertheless, Lavallee said he has already restricted access to any reports on homicides to supervisors and officers directly involved. I forgot to ask him who had access previously, but my understanding from sources is that anyone could access the reports. Access was policed, though, because a record is created anytime a report is printed, showing who printed it, when and where.
That's basically the same way CORI checks are policed by the state, to prevent people from using them to snoop or dig up dirt when an official investigation is not underway.
We also discussed the city's crackdown on drunken drivers, which will be the subject of a story I just finished, and which will run in the coming days.
I won't spoil the whole thing here, but suffice to say the story addresses the fact that drunken drivers in Lowell, and across the state, have been getting picked off like crazy lately.
Joanne Leone, manager of Sea World Pet Center, in Salem, NH, e-mailed Tuesday night because one of her employee's pets was stolen from the store earlier this month.
Charlie a roughly 6-inch tall Lovebird was stolen from the store on May 7, about 5 p.m.
Yes, a Lovebird is a real type of bird -- a type of small Parrot, in fact.
Charlie wasn't for sale, though, so this is no simple case of shoplifting.
Leone had raised Charlie and gave him to another employee, Lisa Holmes, of Derry, NH, about four years ago as a birthday present. Holmes and Charlie had been inseperable ever since, and Holmes even took Charlie to work with her whenever she was there.
Charlie would hang around the store, in a cage when need be, but usually just roaming free, sticking mostly around the bird department.
On May 7, Lisa started calling out Charlie's name and got no response. She knew something was wrong, because while Charlie can't talk like some Parrots can, he would always, always respond with chirps and noises when he heard his name.
Leone eventually discovered store video that shows a man and a woman believed to have taken Charlie. Leone wants the public's help in identifying these two and figuring out where Charlie was taken.
In the video below, they are the man in the black hoodie and the woman in the red hoodie.
Charlie stands about 6 inches tall, and is bright yellow with orange, rosey patches on his cheeks.
If he is returned, no questions will be asked. Leone isn't interested in prosecuting anyone, but Holmes is broken-hearted over the loss of her pet and friend.
Police know about the theft, and have told Leone she can release the video publically.
If anyone knows where Charlie is, or wants to return him, they should call Leone at (978) 808-4421.
Long after deadline, I saw news early Wednesday morning that Paul Blanchette, of Dracut, was missing after a dive on a ship wreck off Gloucester.
We've confirmed that his body was found today.
It's tough news. Blanchette was a remarkable guy.
I drove out to his house off Merrimack Avenue in Dracut, behind Lenzi's, in early October last year. We had heard he was one of several divers who had reached the SS Portland, a large passenger ship that sank off Cape Ann in 1898. Blanchette was with the first team of men to ever reach her, about 460 feet beneath the waves.
Diving to that depth is no small feat, so I was hopeful, but not optimistic, that Blanchette would talk.
I knocked on his door, wondering if he would be someone else who was just annoyed to see a reporter, and he was anything but. He invited me in right away.
Diving to those kinds of depths takes what is called a "technical diver." Blanchette spent quite a while explaining to me the details of the mix of air divers must breathe at those depths.
He showed me china in his cabinets that he had gotten from the wreck of the SS Andrea Doria, another famous shipwreck he had dived on. He talked of plenty of other dives too, including one on the USS Monitor, the Civil War ironclad off Cape Hattaras, N.C.
He obviously loved this stuff. It cost thousands of dollars to do it.
"You have to love it to get into it this deep."
This is a photo we ran with the story in October, as the team prepared to dive on the Portland. Blanchette is in the middle.
I asked Blanchette about the dangers of diving so deep, and he had plenty to say. He talked about the months of preparation such a dive required.
He wasn't overly dramatic about the dangers the divers had faced, but he was very clear about the fact that at those depths, mistakes turn fatal.
He talked at length about all the safety precautions the divers take, and about how every system has a backup.
So what happened to him? He was diving on the Chester Poling, a large tanker that sank in 1977 off Gloucester. It is only in about 110 feet of water, though part of the ship is in deeper waters, about 190 feet, nearby.
A story in tomorrow's paper should explore that more. I'm just saddened to hear the news.
Here is an excerpt from my Oct. 8 story.
So why do it? Why risk life and limb, and spend thousands of dollars?
"The history, and the exploration," Blanchette said.
New England is rife with shipping history, and visiting the depths can be like visiting the moon, according to Blanchette.
"Going underwater is the closest you or I can get to being an astronaut," he said.
In the days after I watched police and firefighters trying to save Tavaryna Choeun, 17, as she lay dying along a Suffolk Street curb last week, several social service agencies found out they're losing funding for the Lowell Teen Coalition.
The coalition tries to get youths into after school programs, activities, and anti-gang and anti-violence programs. It's a collaborative effort between the Lowell Community Health Center, the United Teen Equity Center, The Boys & Girls Club, the YWCA, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Greater Lowell.
The cut in Department of Public Health funding for the coalition, about $200,000, is small change in the overall state budget, and won't end the agencies that contribute to it. It will likely mean the disintegration of the coalition, though.
UTEC director Gregg Croteau said collaboration on these types of efforts is incredibly important, so this is no small matter.
Intead of Croteau and other agency leaders organizing a protest, though, the teens who take part in the coalition did it.
They held a rally on the steps of city hall that drew Ken Lavallee, Mayor Caulfield, Bernie Lynch, Jackie Doherty, Rodney Elliott and the leaders of at least two city neighborhood associations. Not a bad draw at all for a group of teenagers with a cause.
Unfortunately, I saw no state legislators in attendance.
I'm uploading some videos of the march, and of one of the organizers, Nisa Kuy, 18, of Lowell, speaking to the crowd. I'll also upload two pieces of spoken word poetry performed by youths.
Here is the first spoken word piece.
Croteau and the teens said they understand the legislature's dilemma, and credited Sen. Steve Panagiotakos with getting them funding to start the program several years ago. But they're still hoping for at least some funding this year instead of nothing.
After some words at city hall, everyone started a silent march.
At Suffolk and Dublin streets, where Choeun was found, all those participating gathered in a circle, and Choeun's family, including her mother, father and boyfriend, bent down to leave flowers on the sidewalk, as her mother burst into tears.
Sophal Bau told me she was touched so many people from Lowell came out to honor her daughter even though she had grown up in Lawrence, and that so many people were willing to help.
This entire thing reminded me of another story I covered, especially when Lavallee told me groups like the coalition are a key to preventing violence since police cannot do it alone.
"It disgusts me," Lowell High School Headmaster William Samaras told me on the telephone one night a while back, just after a 17-year-old Lowell girl had been shot while standing at a bus stop.
Hours earlier, I had spoken to a student on the sidewalk of Westford Street, while his young classmate's blood was drying on his hands. He had rushed to help the girl, and put direct pressure on her leg wound.
The girl was as innocent as Choeun, though she at least survived.
This is what I wrote after talking to Samaras that night, March 16, 2007.
Samaras said he knows police have done all they can, and so have the schools, but that the answer to gang violence has to be bigger than that. Families need help, and the entire community must get involved.
"It's a larger issue," Samaras said. "It's unfortunate, but sometimes it's an incident like this that makes people ask 'what are we going to do about it?'"
They're debating budget amendments at the statehouse this week, and rally organizers are still hoping some funding might get restored.
Here's a second spoken word piece done at the rally.
I got a phone call Sunday afternoon that led to a story that caused some debate in the newsroom.
A man from Back Central had gone into the police station to bail out his father on Sunday afternoon, but first he needed to get his father's bank card. The guy and his father both signed paperwork to have the bank card released from the property police had taken off the father.
A police department employee wrapped the card in a piece of scrap paper and turned it over.
As the guy from Back Central got in his car, he noticed "murder" was written on the scrap paper.
He went to the bank, got money, bailed his dad out and went home.
It wasn't until he got home that a friend recognized that the scrap paper was a part of a report on last Tuesday's killing of Tavaryna Choeum.
He called the paper about 5 p.m.
I went and took a look at the paper and a photograph of it, and called police as soon as I believed it was legitimate.
I ended up getting the scrap of paper from the guy and returning it to the police station at the request of a shift commander.
We held the story for a day so we could figure out how to handle this story responsibly.
Despite what you've probably read about "the media," we don't get stars in our eyes when we smell a story and just rush to print without thinking through the consequences.
It was tough to balance our duty to report on a serious error by police with the need to do so without seriously harming an incredibly important investigation.
After much discussion today, my boss, with my full support, decided we would withhold the exact contents of the scrap. Suffice to say those contents were confidential, and described as "very critical."
There is no doubt this piece of paper never should have been given out to the public.
After all the hard work police put into investigating the Choeum killing, that such a stupid error could potentially cause so many problems could not have been easy for some people to swallow.
Police are still investigating exactly how this happened, but from what I understand of the PD's computer systems, I'm confident they'll eventually get some answers.
I'm not sure everyone will be happy to see the story in print, but that's my job. It's a good reminder that even though I may see the police a lot, and work with some of them fairly closely, it will always be my job to report when they make mistakes, as well as when they do good work.
I hope I did a fair job, and I hope we reported the seriousness of this incident without needlessly damaging any investigations.
I've been too busy to even update, but I'll have a few things later tonight as soon as I get some other work done. Stay tuned.
Also, earlier today police identified a father and daughter who suffered serious burns Sunday while filling a pipe with gunpowder in the garage of their Riverside Street home as Edwin Zapatka, 48, and Marissa Zapatka, 16.
Both were flown to Massachusetts General Hospital after the gunpowder exploded Sunday night about 7 p.m.
They both have third degree burns to their arms and upper bodies.
Police and fire investigators are still trying to figure out exactly why they were filling a pipe with gunpowder.
A deputy fire chief told me they had already done it once and ignited the gunpowder, before they began filling the pipe again. It exploded as they filled it the second time.
A small fire in the garage was put out by a neighbor, but it was too late for the Zapatka's to escape injury.
It sounds pretty bizarre no matter what was going on, and the deputy fire chief pointed out that it's more than obvious that no one should be doing anything like this. Stay tuned to find out if there will be charges. I've heard nothing so far.
Things have been pretty quiet in Lowell tonight. A 23-year-old woman is in custody for stabbing a family member in the arm during a domestic fight on Mount Washington Street, but it didn't sound like anything serious.
Jessica Lapan is charged with ABDW for stabbing a 17-year-old boy who was allegedly fighting back.
It sounds like police are watching a few parties, but that's standard fare for a Saturday night.
It was a pretty nasty week in terms of crime last week in Lowell, but I keep thinking at least we're not Oakland.
I was out there two weeks ago on vacation, and after going to a show in San Francisco I got on BART to get to a party in Oakland. The friend I was with jumped off downtown, and I headed on to the party alone.
I started talking to some guy.
When I told him I was going to MacArthur Station, he told me I was going to get mugged.
I wasn't really worried, and mentioned that, worst-case, I'd just fork over the pathetically small amount of cash I had on me.
"Yeah, but only some guys will mug ya cause they need something," he said.
"There's a lotta guys, they're just full of hate, and you ain't got anything they want."
Touche. I had to admit the guy had a point.
But after agreeing there's quite a bit worth hating in this world, I talked to the guy for a few more minutes, hopped off the train, and walked to the party.
Even Oakland isn't so bad if you just keep your head down. But ya know, I'm not sure I've ever heard of anyone getting mugged in Lowell just out of spite.
I'm still out of town, but Chris Scott is reporting that Ron Srey, 25, of 116 Walker St., is in custody charged with the murder of Tabaryna Choeun, 17, of Lowell. He is also charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, unlawful carrying of a firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition.
He was arrested Friday morning at 450 Westford St.
He'll almost certainly be held without bail after arraignment today, but watch The Sun's breaking news section and tomorrows paper, as more details of the slaying will likely come out in open court.
I'm off work and in New York City today, but I just got a cell phone call from a source and thought this news was worth an update since I have 10 free minutes before I go out for dinner.
Dennis King, 25, of Lowell, is now in custody on a warrant charging him with three counts of armed assault with intent to murder and aggravated assault on a pregnant female.
In case you forget, he is the man wanted in connection with the shooting a 39-year-old woman who was six months pregnant back in the middle of April. Police say she was shot in the chest and shoulder during an argument involving drugs at 696 Merrimack St.
Police had really been looking for this guy, and even went into a home on the Dracut line with rifles and about a dozen guys in the week after the shooting. I had lost track of this, but this is definitely a big arrest, and a man who was willing to shoot an obviously pregnant woman is off the streets of the Merrimack Valley.
UPDATE: I changed this a little because commenters were correct and court records indicate another man may have pulled the trigger. King is charged under the joint venture principal because he allegedly argued with the woman, slapped her, and later returned with a guy who shot her.
Joint venture principal allows someone with responsibility for an incident to be charged even if they didn't pull the trigger themselves.
It sounds like there's not an active search for another suspect, though no one else has been charged. Stay tuned for more news from the courts.
Assistant Managing Editor Kris Pisarik tried out for Chelmsford Stars Come 4th on Tuesday night, a local version of "American Idol." He played "Hearts on Their Sleeves," a song he wrote two years ago for Police Memorial Week. Coincidentally, May 10-16 marks that week this year.
To read Kris's column and hear the song, Click here
She is also the girl found virtually lifeless on Suffolk Street late Tuesday night, who I already blogged about yesterday. She is on life support at Lahey Clinic, and sources say she is brain dead.
Once doctors checked her out, they realized her head wound was from a gunshot.
Police, who began this investigation with virtually nothing to go on, are now treating the case as a homicide, the first in Lowell this year.
Tabaryna grew up in Lawrence before moving to Lowell five or six months ago, her sister told me tonight. She was not attending school.
Not being in school and moving to Lowell with your boyfriend when you're 17 might not seem terrific, but Tabaryna's family said she was never in any trouble with the law, and law enforcement sources confirmed that.
She had reportedly run away from home, but she didn't deserve this.
Investigators haven't said much more about their investigation, but I know they've worked around the clock since Tabaryna was found.
I saw some of the city's detectives still working the case at 11 p.m., on Wednesday over 24 hours after they started and with no more than a few hours sleep.
If you know anything about what happened, call them at (978) 937-3200 or call Crimestoppers at (978) 459-TIPS (8477). Callers may remain anonymous, but can receive up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.
UPDATE: Tabaryna was taken off life support. She is dead.
A 51-year-old Lowell man was seriously injured Wednesday afternoon when his motorcycle struck a parked car along Bridge Street between 12th and 13th streets.
I'm told he only had a tiny little helmet on, and suffered head and leg injuries.
He was taken to Gage Field on Christian Hill, where police and firefighters cleared a team getting ready for practice off a soccer field so a medical helicopter could land. Here is the landing and takeoff.
The man was said to be in critical condition at Massachusetts General Hospital last night. We'll try to update this with his name and condition tomorrow.
No one was hit though. Police went to the scene Wednesday night and investigated, and later broke up a disturbance there, but there were no injuries and no word of buildings being struck.
Officers were searching for shell casings Wednesday night.
I was too busy to get much more information on this.
It's cases like this that make me really glad I'm a reporter instead of a police officer.
Police were called to Suffolk and Dublin streets Tuesday night at 10:16 p.m. It was a fairly simple call for a woman down, not an uncommon type of call. They often end up being medical or drug-related.
This one was a woman completely unconscious and bleeding from the head.
The first officers on scene immediately and urgently asked that Trinity Ambulance hurry up, and soon called a police supervisor to the scene.
The woman appeared to me to be 20 to 30-years-old, but she had no identification on her, so even police seemed to have no idea who she could be.
This appeared to be just about all the evidence police had to work with aside from the victim herself. There are two cellular phones there on the left, maybe they can identify her?
EMT's and paramedics were using a bag to keep her breathing, and at one point appeared to be doing chest compressions on her. She was taken to an ambulance and slowly driven away, which is sometimes not a good sign.
She went to Lahey Clinic, and last I heard she was still alive but in very bad condition with life-threatening injuries.
Police asked all officers to watch out for cars with front end or windsheild damage, in case it was a hit and run, but there were no witnesses and no car parts in the road like you would expect if she was hit by a car.
Since there were no signs it was a medical issue, investigators from District Attorney Gerry Leone's office were on their way to the scene early this morning.
I took a few pictures of the scene that I included below, but no pictures of the victim. Paramedics had removed some of the woman's clothes so they could care for her better, and that's one thing I will not take a picture of for the newspaper.
I might be getting soft. There was also no way I was going to take pictures of that two-month-old infant as she was loaded into an ambulance last Wednesday night, though I had plenty of opportunity.
I try to be very aggressive, but some things just don't need to be photographed. I hope all you readers don't mind.
There will definitely be updates on this story. Check back tomorrow.
I'm going to be tied up much of tonight as more information about Brian Ganley, 26, of Lowell, has been pouring in this afternoon.
For starters, he's being held without bail, and will face a dangerousness hearing Wednesday in Lowell District Court to determine if he will continue to be held without bail for allegedly beating his 2-month-old daugther, who remains in Tufts Medical Center with severe, but non life-threatening injuries.
In addition, a spokesman for Gerry Leone tells me Ganley will also be arraigned Wednesday on a new and more serious count of assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury.
The new count will increase his maximum potential jail time to 15 years. He was only facing five years on the previous count.
I'm also working on a story with a former foster parent who cared for Ganley's first child, a daughter who was placed in foster care at just two-weeks-old with a broken clavical and puncture wounds down her legs, according to the former foster mother.
The foster mother is livid that the state allowed Ganley to have custody of the two-month-old who was allegedly beaten Wednesday. The state has yet to return my calls about this.
I'll update this blog with more details if I get a chance tonight, but right now my first priority is to do the best possible job on the main story for tomorrow's paper.
Stay tuned to this one. You haven't heard the last of Mr. Ganley.
I see a lot of classy people in this job, but if what police accuse him of is true, Brian Ganley is one of the best.
I first saw Ganley Wednesday night, as police had him in handcuffs at Andover and Nesmith streets. The report was of a domestic, but that a child in the home also had a fat lip. I don't normally cover domestics, but I drove by the scene just in case there were more serious injuries to the child.
I saw Ganley as I drove by, but by the time I got parked he was already in a prisoner transport wagon, so I didn't get a chance to take his picture, and it's a shame. He weighs about 350 pounds, and it looked like his unkempt pants were about ready to fall right off him.
Though initial indications were that the kid, a 2-month-old girl, was alright on Wednesday night, doctors at Saints and Tufts later discovered the kid had a broken arm, a broken rib, and bleeding on her brain, according to a tip I got today.
Police didn't dispute that tip, but said the kid's injuries are not life-threatening. As soon as I found out how serious the injuries were I got a fuller report.
Apparently the child's mother noticed the fat lip as she was getting ready to give the little girl a bath on Wednesday night, but when she confronted Ganley about it he hit her and started choking her, telling her in some words I can't repeat that she shouldn't ask anymore questions.
She didn't, she called police.
Officers soon saw Ganley walking away from the house and grabbed him on the spot.
I didn't confirm all this until about 8 p.m., so I haven't been able to find out what happened to Ganley at his arraignment on Monday. He is charged with domestic assault and battery for hitting the mom, and assault and battery on a child causing bodily injury.
Police said District Attorney Leone's office will make the call on whether more serious charges will be filed. You can bet we'll be following this story to find out if they are.
I live on Christian Hill so I passed this accident on my way into work this afternoon. Car 2, the Centralville patrol car, was involved in a colission with another car at Bridge and Sixth Street.
I guess someone from the newsroom checked on this right after it happened about 2:30 p.m., and was told there were only minor injuries.
I'm still waiting for a call back about getting a report on it, but the Traffic Bureau was doing reconstruction, so that could take a while. Often when the bureau gets involved in a crash the report gets filed there and isn't available to a shift commander.
I'll learn as much as I can tonight and update later, though.
No real update here. No reports were available tonight, so I got nothing. From what I hear, injuries were believed to be minor, but that's mostly from word of mouth, nothing official. Recon may have been due to the damage done to the cruiser. Lets hope that's the case.
We'll definitely pursue this on Tuesday.
Pelham, NH Police Chief Joe Roark sent out a message this afternoon asking for help in spreading the word that a receipt may no longer be unassailable proof that a person has made a legitimate purchase at a local store.
Roark said police have identified a website that allows users to print out receipts from various stores that even, purportedly at least, contain a scannable bar code.
Though the website claims to be for "novelty" purposes Roark said the criminal possibilities are numerous.
Shoplifters could steal high-end merchandise, print a receipt and then return it for cash, employees could generate fake receipts for expense reports, and thieves could generate fake receipts to give themselves credibility while trying to sell items on eBay or Craigslist to name a few.
The shoplifting scam in particular seems troublesome, as I've read about many cases of shoplifters returning stuff for cash instead of just taking what they need recently. (There just aren't many locals stores where you can shoplift heroin).
Roark says local stores should pay close attention to receipts, and call police right away if they think they have a bogus one. Pelham Police can be reached at (603) 635-2411.
Roark didn't share the website's url, but a quick google turned up a few such sites. I'm not going to be the one to share, though.
I'm mostly amused by the website's claims that they're for novelty purposes only.
Is there seriously a segment of the population that sits around printing receipts to get their kicks? Am I missing out on all the fun here?
I haven't heard much about injuries, but Tyngsboro radio broadcasts are saying there is a bad accident at Wicassee and Lawndale roads, with at least one utility pole sheared and in the road, and at least two others damaged.
National Grid and Verizon are being called in, and an officer at the scene asked for detail officers for what he said would be an "all night job."
Curiously, the officer also asked for an arrest number, so it sounds like there could be an arrest involved.
All Tyngsboro officers, including the shift commander, are at the scene, so no real comment is available. We'll definitely be chasing this, though.
It sounds like those roads will be closed overnight though.
Sunday evening, Firefighters were called to a big, three-story, brick apartment building at 1939 Middlesex St., about 6:56 p.m., and found smoke showing from the third floor, and a lot of flames in the third floor hallway once they were inside.
They immediately called a second alarm, and somehow managed to contain the fire to the area around the third floor where it started, all on one side of the building. I heard a deputy radio that it was under control at 7:23 p.m.
Some residents told me they heard a fire alarm and ran out of their first floor apartment only to find a burning grocery bag inside of a grocery cart in the hallway. Marc Perry put that out with his hand, without burning his hand, but then ran upstairs and found a lot of flames. He said he saw a garbage bag burning upstairs around where all the flames were.
Perry, his sister Myranda Perry, Briana Racette, Jeffrey Hamilton, and Marc Lefebvre, instead of just bolting, first helped an elderly woman from her apartment across the hall from where they were on the first floor.
An unidentified firefighter was taken to Lowell General because he hurt his arm while fighting the blaze, but he was expected to be okay.
Deputy Chief Phil Lemire was in command, but he was still pretty busy when I caught up with him at the scene. He was hoping, and trying, to keep most of the building's residents at home tonight, but he still had a lot of things to check out before making that determination.
I talked to the deputy later in the night and firefighters were unable to keep everyone in the building, meaning 18 units, and roughly 30 people were displaced.
The Red Cross said not everyone had been home yet, so an exact number of those displaced wasn't available tonight.
This could have been a very bad fire. It was bad enough as is, but as I drove to the scene I really expected a disaster after hearing there was heavy fire on the third floor as soon as firefighters arrived.
There were also some tense moments because a pedestrian accident on Pawtucket Boulevard meant that when the second-alarm was struck on this fire, there were literally no free fire apparatus in the city.
Lemire put one unit that was on it's way to the fire on standby just in case something else happened before mutual aid arrived from other towns. That was quick thinking on his part, though.
The unit he put on standby was slated to be part of the RIT (Rapid Intervention Team) at the fire, but Lemire instead put another engine on RIT and improvised to make sure an engine was free. In the end, it worked out very well.
The cause remains under investigation. Just because residents saw some suspicious stuff doesn't always mean a fire is suspicious, though, so Lemire just said that fire investigation is working on a cause. He declined to term it "suspicious."
We'll keep checking on a cause as the week progresses.
There was also a one-alarm kitchen fire on Fletcher Street near Dutton that I'm sure lots of people saw, but a deputy chief tells me it was just a kitchen fire at Furey's Cafe.
A bartender put most of it out with an extinguisher, and firefighters finished off the blaze that damaged an oven, part of the wall and part of the ceiling. This is Lowell, though, and the kitchen was out back, so firefighters vented the smoke and the bar didn't even have to close. Good work by all involved.
No one was hurt.
Aside from that it's been pretty quiet. Police tell me they've been very busy tonight, but not with anything major. Some nights are just lots and lots of calls and work even though nothing earth-shattering happens.
A quiet few spring days and nights is apparently exactly the climate in which this one (or more?) pickup truck /Jeep stalker(s) in the Burlington Mall area likes to operate.
As he/they cruises around at all hours day and night, looking to pick off catalytic converters from the exhaust system in the vulnerable underbelly of higher wheel-base vehicles that have been left unattended.
Even in the Sears parking lot at the mall in daylight!
Here's the full story on a rash of catalytic converter thefts this week, with much thanks to Burlington Police officers John Lynch and Dan Hanafin:
By John Collins
jcollins@lowellsun.com
BURLINGTON -- Four thefts of catalytic converters in two days from three pickup trucks and a Jeep has prompted Burlington police to advise local owners of vehicles with high wheel-bases to be wary of suspicious activity surrounding their parked vehicle, Officer John Lynch told The Sun.
A catalytic converter is a loaf of bread-sized section of the exhaust system that is accessible from underneath a vehicle. It contains the precious metal platinum, which thieves often try to sell to scrap metal dealers. On Thursday, the closing market price for platinum was $1,147, according to platinumprice.org.
"We heard news that the Midwest has really been getting hit hard recently with this type of theft, and now it appears to be happening here," Lynch said.
The victims of the four catalytic converter thefts in Burlington this week include the owners of two 2009 Toyota Tacomas, a 1996 Toyota pickup, and a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The thefts occurred both during the day and overnight while the vehicles were parked outside the Sears store at the Burlington Mall, in an office park on Wayside Road, and in the parking lot of 6 New England Executive Park, off Burlington Mall Road, where two vehicles were hit a day apart, police say.
In each case, the thief apparently used a battery operated saw to hack off the catalytic converter, probably needing only in a few minutes to complete the job. "With cars, you'd have to jack it up to get to it, but pickups and SUVs, they just roll under it," Lynch said.
Besides the several hundred dollar-cost of replacing the catalytic converter, the part's hasty removal often causes damage to the vehicle's computer wiring or fuel line, mechanics say.
# #
In other words folks, if you happen to spot somebody laying on their back under a car using what sounds like a battery-operated saw (or even a hacksaw maybe?) in the mall parking lot, or at the commuter lot in Tyngsboro, don't automatically assume that person is working on their OWN vehicle.
You could be seeing a CC/platinum thief in action!
Nothing terribly exciting to report tonight, all the good stuff has been in politics, which is why you might have seen the Fox25 van parked at city hall for the school lunch discussion. See Jen Myers' story in tomorrow's paper for more on that.
Crime wise it's been silent. We couldn't get the name of the woman arrested in the standoff from Billerica Police today, so we'll be trying on that again tomorrow.
The shift isn't over yet, though. (knock on wood).
It sounds like a SWAT Team from the North East Middlesex Law Enforcement Council is in Billerica, helping police deal with a woman who is inside a home somewhere in the area of Billerica Avenue with a long-barrel gun.
Police said earlier that they think the gun is a BB gun, but obviously no one can take any chances.
Radio broadcasts indicate she has been spotted through the windows with the gun multiple times. A staging area has been setup at DJ Reardons, 100 Billerica Ave., and the road is also closed at Mt. Pleasant St.
This has been ongoing since before 5:30 p.m., when Billerica Police setup a perimeter around the house. The woman isn't answering phone calls to the house.
At the same time, Billerica Police are investigating a report that someone broke into Iverson Ford to steal copper, and they're working on that case too.
It's a busy day in Billerica, but they seem on top of things so far.
UPDATE: After a roughly 5 hour standoff that closed Billerica Avenue from Town Farm Lane to Mount Pleasant St., a roughly 40-year-old woman was finally taken into custody about 10:30 p.m.
A NEMLEC SWAT Team tried to talk her out for hours, and loud bangs went through the neighborhood as they fired tear gas through the front windows of the home at 20 Billerica Ave., but the woman would not come out.
The SWAT Team finally went in about 10:30 p.m., and despite the woman throwing a knife at them, managed to arrest the woman without anyone getting hurt.
The woman was taken to Saints Medical Center in Lowell. Police did not immediately identify her since she had not yet been booked.
There was talk on police radio of trying to have her checked out by mental health professionals too, but police can almost never comment on that type of thing due to medical privacy laws.
Police hadn't touched anything inside because they were still photographing and processing the scene, so it's still not clear if it was a BB gun or a rifle.
When police first went to the house at 5:22 p.m., though, the woman answered the door and stuck the barrel of the gun in an officer's face, police said. Not a friendly way to greet someone.
It ended well, though. It's 12:18 a.m., now, and police are still at the house processing evidence and securing it. She'll face multiple counts of assault with a firearm, and one count each of assault and battery with a knife, and resisting arrest.
Five hours is a long time to wait, but not too long for a good ending where no one gets hurt.
Police are planning to put out a press release sometime early Wednesday morning, but it hasn't come yet and deadline is here. I'll provide and update, and maybe shorten all this, tomorrow once we have all the facts.
Oh and by the way, all while handling this standoff, Billerica Police also foiled a break in attempt at the former Iversen Ford on Route 3A, where some people were allegedly trying to steal copper, and investigated two house breaks. I'm told they had a suspect in both house breaks.
This is a department that's taken some heat for various things in recent years, but I'll tell you I certainly think it's worth everyone's attention that a department this size could successfully handle four incidents of that caliber all at the same time.
I never heard any panic or confusion on police radio either. It was all organized. Well done.
And all while Chief Rosa was at Town Meeting, which I'm sure was no easy assignment with the way town budgets look these days.
No one was hurt in this two-car crash on Thorndike Street at the onramp to the connector just before dark on Tuesday.
It looked like this minivan had struck the side of the Chevrolet Tahoe as the Tahoe was making a left turn onto the Connector onramp, but looks can be deceiving. I won't really know what happened or who was driving until I get a look at the report, which I haven't been able to do yet.
Here's a little video in case you've never seen a car get rolled over.
While city police were elsewhere in the city arresting a 45-year-old limousine driver for being drunk while taking kids home from the prom Friday night, state police were arresting 22 other people for drunken driving.
When David Procopio, a state police spokesman, e-mailed me the information this afternoon my eyes bulged out a little. Lowell checkpoints typically yield somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 or a dozen arrests.
The checkpoint only lasted for three hours, from midnight to 3 a.m., Saturday morning.
Procopio couldn't immediately get me the large list of names of those busted, but I might have it by sometime tomorrow, and I'll gladly share it with you.
We do know who one of the drivers was, though. James Clark, 56, of 192 Wilder St., caught the attention of our court reporter Lisa Redmond today, because he was arraigned for his sixth OUI.
Lisa reports that prosecutors said Clark was so drunk he couldn't even finish a sobriety test, and eventually blew a .27 on the breathalyzer, which is more than three times the legal limit.
He had previous convictions in 1984, 1987, 1994, 1998 and 2004. He's being held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing.
And he was just one of the 22.
Procopio wasn't sure if this was good or bad news. The good news is that 22 people, 23 if you count the limo driver, were caught drunken driving. The bad news, obviously, is that 23 people were driving drunk, or at least allegedly were.
Procopio is a realist though, so he said police were pleased.
"We like to say that the ideal checkpoint would be one with no arrests because no one is driving under the influence, but experience tells us that there will always be people driving who should not be. We will do everything we can to find those people and get them off the road before they hurt someone," he said.
I think he means it. About an hour after I got Procopio's e-mail, I got an e-mail from another state police spokesman.
This Saturday night, into Sunday morning, there will be another sobriety checkpoint somewhere in Middlesex County.
I think I can admit that since I was returning from vacation on a cross country flight, I had quite a few beers on Friday, and I was definitely tipsy when I got back to Lowell.
I took the T from Logan and walked from the Gallagher Terminal to my apartment in Centralville, and you know what? It wasn't too bad a walk.
Sometimes I can get a bit of an idea of how serious an incident is by the tone of officers' voices on police radio.
About 10:15 Sunday night, officers were called to 686 Bridge Street by a 911 call reporting a man had been stabbed.
Officers got to the scene in about a minute, and literally seconds later asked dispatchers to have the ambulance hurry. Their tone of voice was very clear.
The victim was stabbed multiple times, and no one was willing to say the wounds were non life-threatening.
Police initially thought they had a suspect on Second Street, in case you drove by and saw the commotion, but it turned out that guy was cleared.
The victim was never taken to a city hospital. He was rushed directly to Regatta Field and flown by MedFlight to Beth Israel in Boston. No word on his condition so far, but I heard he was conscious at the scene.
That's all I've got for now. I'll update this as soon as I learn more.
No pictures or anything either. Police, firefighters and EMT's were really in a hurry on this one so the victim was long gone when I got there.
I've gotta tell you I'm pretty quick, though. If the victim survives, the folks at the scene might deserve a lot of credit for how fast they worked.
UPDATE: Just a little after midnight police put handcuffs on a guy named Todd Mitchell. He's 18, and lives in Lowell, and he is now charged with armed assault with intent to murder. Detective Sgt. Joe Murray arrested him at Liberty and Sagamore streets.
Don't ask me how police tracked him down so fast or what the motive was, but here is a picture of Mitchell being led into the prisoner transport wagon by Officer Caz Czarnionka.
But that's exactly where one ended up at 36 Park St., in Lowell, on Sunday afternoon. The building is owned by Princeton Properties, across from the Nesmith House, off Route 133 near Nesmith Street in Lowell.
Police had no immediate information on what happened, or on who was driving the car, except that it was a woman in her 70's.
What was clear, though, was that a gray sedan had crashed through a 6-unit apartment building near Nesmith and Andover streets, leaving a roughly 10-foot whole in the brick wall, and devastation inside Damaso Perez's bedroom.
I talked to Perez at the scene and he was remarkably calm, though obviously still aware how lucky he and the two 10-year-old sons that live with him were.
They were in the living room watching television when a car crashed completely into Perez's bedroom.
Upstairs neighbors Ryan Mosher and Alysha Boisvert said their entire apartment shook, things fell off the walls, and Boisvert said the impact even knocked her cat off the couch.
They, like Perez, ran outside to see the damage, which I've included pictures of below.
I'll update later once I learn the driver's name, and as much as I can about what happened.
Perez, Boisvert and Mosher were all being put up by Princeton Properties last night, because Building Commissioner Robert Camacho determined the first floor unit and both units above it were not safe for habitation.
Princeton Properties was going to provide the residents with another unit or a hotel room, though. The other three units on the other side of the building were still safe, Camacho said.
Here's some pictures from once the car was removed.
As soon as I heard the call I knew where it was, and it turns out I was right.
Remember 117 Grand Street?
Three weeks ago, I blogged about that address because five gunshots were fired outside, including two that went through windows, and yet no one called police. I thought it was pathetic.
Here's a picture of a bullet hole from that incident.
Well, someone DID call police late Saturday night, because at 11:49 p.m., at least five more shots were fired at the same address, except this time a man was shot in the lower leg.
Police didn't think his wounds were life-threatening, but they seemed to be investigating some gang-related stuff even moments after they arrived.
Here is a picture of the victim, who wasn't immediately identified. I'm sure no reports were filed by 1 a.m. I'll follow up on this Sunday.
I'll add a video in a bit. I've got to process it first.
I hate to say it but I'm not terribly surprised this happened.
Police couldn't immediately say if the incidents are related. I couldn't get terribly close this time since police had a crime scene set up, but I got close enough to notice the shell casings were certainly similar.
In the first incident they found five .25 caliber casings, one of which is pictured here.
Last night it looked to me like they were certainly picking up either .25 or .22 caliber.
There was a small fire in an abandoned triple-decker at 115 Salem St., tonight. Firefighters got called in for smoke showing from the third floor, but it turned out the fire was in the basement or first floor area, from what I picked up at the scene and on the scanner.
It started a little before 11, but as of a little before midnight everyone is still at the scene, so I have very little information. I know the building was empty, a boarded up place just down from the Lowell Housing Authority.
No immediate reports of injuries.
I'm back from vacation, and my first real reason to run out of the office was this guy, identified only as a roughly 40-year-old male, who was struck by a car while riding a scooter on Branch Street between the firehouse and Pailin Plaza Saturday about 6:15 p.m.
The injuries didn't seem too serious, but the accident drew quite a crowd on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I'll try to learn more details once reports are prepared.
Ah . . . remember the good old days when the KIDS got drunk at the prom? Like when some members of the Dracut High class of '93 got wasted and arrested at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire, ruining the "fun" for generations to come?
Well, times have changed. Kids, parents and schools have become more aware. There are assemblies about prom safety, mock drunken driving crashes staged at high schools, and school-sponsored after-prom parties.
A group of Lowell Catholic High School kids did the right thing. They hired a limo -- an immense stretch Cadillac Escalade number from Lynette's Limousine Service in Wilmington to make sure they got to their prom and back home again safely.
Think again.
While they were dancing the night away at the Westford Regency Friday night, the driver apparently had other plans.
When he picked them up at 11 p.m., the kids say he was slurring his words.
The students, including Bianca Crowley of Billerica and her date John Harris of Lawrence, said they saw him gulping out of a cup and noticed the smell of alcohol, likely rum, while he was driving.
Eventually, they convinced him to pull into the parking lot of the Showcase Cinema in Lowell. The kids got out of the car and called their parents and police. They also called two classmates, who arrived and parked the limo in so the driver could not leave before the police arrived. See, they produce some smart kids over there at Lowell Catholic.
They said the driver begged them not to call the police, got rid of the cup he was drinking from, smoked a cigar and threw-up.
The kids stood outside the cinema in their fancy clothes and watched the police administer a sobriety test and haul him away.
The kids are upset about what happened, what could have happened and that they paid $1195 for this "adventure."
I tried to call the General Manager of Lynette's, Marco Delgado, but he had "stepped out." I left a message, but have not heard from him yet. I am awaiting a press release from the LPD with more information.
This is not the first time a driver from Lynette's has found himself on the wrong side of the law . . . .
Check out Sunday's Sun for the full story.
Here is Mr. Brian Harrison, 45, of Tewksbury, as he was booked for OUI.
Who is taking pot shots at the elderly housing units on Fayette Street. These harmless folks are being terrorized by someone with a weapon who has no concern for the safety of the senior citizens living at the Mazur Park Apartments.
On Thursday afternoon, after reports police found three spent shell from an assault weapon near the riverbank near the apartments. There were more shots on Monday, at the same apartment complex.
This time, a resident in a third-floor bathroom, almost took one in the head as a stray bullet tore through a screened window and a hallway wall and came within inches of the man's head before lodging in the bathroom wall.
Who's behind this and what is this person's problem? The senior citizens who live there are afraid to look out the window. They're afraid to step foot outside the building. These folks are minding their own business, trying to live peaceable lives and don't cause anyone any trouble. Why have they become targets.
Here's hoping that the police can find the culprits, throw them behind bars and that our court system will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.
