June 2009 Archives

If you have a problem of some sort with them, then I'd like you to comment on this.

The person who made this telephone call should get a reward.

If you went through the Lord Overpass this afternoon you probably saw that Middlesex Street is closed at the overpass by a police cruiser. There's a one-alarm fire at Crow Electrical, 590 Middlesex St., but no reports of injuries.
I went down to the scene and it looked to be mostly under control, they already had fans up to get smoke out of the building.

A few years back here in Lowell, I covered an incident in which a girl was shot while standing at her bus stop.

Well, as much as I do to document the terrible things that happen here in Lowell, the world has once again proved that it can be way more depraved and terrible than it is here in Lowell.

By JEFF KAROUB
Associated Press Writer
DETROIT (AP) -- Gunmen in a green minivan opened fire on a group of teenagers waiting at a bus stop near a Detroit school on Tuesday, wounding at least seven including two who were in critical condition, authorities said.
At least five of the teens had just gotten out of summer classes at Cody Ninth Grade Academy when they were shot at the nearby bus stop, said Detroit Public Schools Police Chief Roderick Grimes.
Two gunmen, possibly three, emerged from the green minivan and "asked for a person by name" before they "opened fire at the crowd," Grimes said.
The students' names and ages weren't immediately released.
"We have confirmed the name of several of the students, but we have to make sure we talk with the parents," Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb said at the scene of the shooting on Detroit's west side.
Bria Wilson, 15, was standing at the bus stop when she heard the gunfire. Wilson said she was facing away from the shooters and ran away after the shots were fired. She said she saw a 16-year-old male friend lying on the ground, bleeding.
"They were so close -- it almost hit me," said Wilson, who was heading home from summer school classes at Cody Academy.
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Associated Press writers Ben Leubsdorf and David N. Goodman contributed to this report.

Well, apparently my story about police being on the lookout for them, and about the trouble they have caused in the past and in some other communities did little to slow them down.

City police tell me that tonight about 7 p.m., they got a report of two guys selling magazines door to door in the Gilmore Street area. Officers got a call from a concerned resident, and arrived to find two guys trying to sell magazines to a person in the doorway of a home on Gilmore Street.

There was no further trouble, but neither man had a permit from the city, so both were arrested for violating city ordinances.

Anthony Edwards, 24, of Illinois, and Robert Gordon, 19, of Solana Beach, Calif., were both released on bail after being booked for violation of city ordinances (solication).

Keep your eyes out for these guys, and read my story that's linked above if you want more information and missed it earlier.

I spoke to Marty Barrett, of California tonight, and he tells me his brother, Andrew Barrett, of Lowell, who was severely hurt in Saturday night's motorcycle crash in Chelmsford, is showing signs of improvement at Lahey Clinic in Burlington.

Andrew Barrett has been a mailman for almost three decades, delivering mail for the last five years along Route 110 in Chelmsford, where most folks on his route know him by first name, Marty Barrett tells me.

Yesterday, he opened his eyes, moved his fingers and recognized some people at his bedside, so the family is hopeful for a good recovery. I'm sure the family would still appreciate it if everyone still keeps Andrew Barrett in their prayers, though.

From what a witness told me, it sounds like one of two very speedy bikers got banged up pretty good tonight on Bridge Street, after one of them clipped a telephone pole while trying to pass a car on the right.

I went over to Bridge Street about 9:45 p.m., after hearing Lowell Police dispatch to a reported motorcycle crash with injury. I arrived and parked near Fourth Street, and started seeing debris from a motorcycle right away.

About 100 feet down the street, I finally found the rider laying in a doorway being tended to by EMTs.

Another 50-feet down the street was his motorcycle, laying in the middle of Bridge Street, south of Third.

The location of the bike is noteworthy, because Luis Cardona, of Lowell, told me he had been pulling onto Bridge Street from Fourth when two motorcycles passed him, one on each side of his car.
The one that passed Cardona on the passenger side clipped a telephone pole.
Cardona watched as the driver flew about 50 feet down the street before coming to rest under a Nissan that was parked along Bridge Street.
"The other biker just kept going," Cardona said.

Cardona helped the rider out from under the car, and then the rider walked about another 50 feet down the street and laid down in a doorway, where he was when I arrived, according to Cardona.

Police couldn't ID the driver yet, but told me he was taken to Lowell General Hospital. Apparently, and incredibly, he wasn't hurt too awful bad.

He might have to answer some questions, though. As I was leaving the scene, I heard dispatchers tell officers at the scene that the motorcycle, a green, 2004 Kawasaki, had been reported stolen from Tyngsboro on Sunday.

UPDATE: Joseph Shelzi, 21, of 31 South Shore Drive, Pelham, will be summoned to court to face charges of receiving stolen motor vehicle, operating to endanger, and speeding. Police estimate he was going about 80 mph as he drove down Bridge Street prior to the crash. Three officers saw him fly past Tedeschi, at Bridge and West Sixth, just before the crash, according to reports.

There was a lot of police, and a lot of concern in Back Central tonight, when a 5-year-old boy went missing from 781 Lawrence St., wearing no shoes, Transformers PJ bottoms and a red shirt.
His mother called police right away. Officers searched for him for over an hour after he went missing at about 7:15 p.m., and called in a canine unit from Billerica, at least a half-dozen cruisers, and a state police helicopter.
There was great concern the boy had wandered across the street and into the Concord River, so a fire department was in the process of putting a boat in the water too.

The little fella, pictured below in his mother's arms, with his Godmother too, was found safe and sound, as he sped down a hallway in his multi-unit apartment building a little before 9 p.m.
He said he was hiding in a closet and behind a chair, but police had checked those spots, and all over the building, so they think he was moving around, and possibly even outside.

The little guy is going to be incredible at hide and seek.

Little dude, we're glad you're okay. The city of Lowell has your back.

I forgot to mention in an earlier post that leaving your driver's license on the counter of a store you just robbed is entry number 2 on this list.

Entry number 3 comes to us courtesy Nathan Marquez, 26, of Lowell.

Lowell Police say Officer Charles Pappaconstantinou was helping a detail officer disperse a large crowd inside the Train View Pub on Gorham Street at closing time about 1:30 Sunday morning, when he felt someone grab and pull on his holstered gun.

Pappaconstantinou wheeled around and saw Marquez pull his hand away, police say. That's when police say Marquez pushed Pappaconstantinou and tried to get away.

He failed.

He's now charged with assault and battery on a police officer, and attempting to commit a crime (larceny of a firearm). He was held over the weekend, and will be arraigned Monday. No word in the police report on how much he had to drink.

The utter failure of his brilliant idea is one thing, but also factor in that Charlie is a huge dude, possibly even bigger in person than his name is in print, and that police holsters are specifically designed so that some random jerk can't just yank the gun out.

(There's a trick to pulling the gun, but I feel no need to provide gun-theft tips in this blog).

UPDATE: Chief Murphy replied to my e-mail as soon as he got to work this morning and confirmed the driver was Andrew Barrett, 50, of Lowell, who is the man identified by the commenter in my previous post.
According to his brother, Barrett is a well-known mailman in Chelmsford.

His family is asking that anyone who prays say a prayer for him. He remains in critical condition.

---------------------------

I'll shorten this, cause I hate complaining. There was no update on the crash on Sunday because Chelmsford Police refused to release any information. That's the long and short of it. The information released Monday is above. Barrett is at Lahey Clinic in Burlington. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Another face has appeared in dominion over downtown Lowell, this time just to the side of the Cox Bridge on Bridge Street, under the highly intelligent "Con is Gay" graffiti that's on the side of the abandoned portion of the Mass Mills building.

I have no idea who this one is. I think it's a woman, but I don't know her. I'm going to e-mail the previous victim to make sure he doesn't know her. I hope it's not another case of vandalism, the last face ended up not being very funny.

Here's a closer shot.

And a link to a much larger version.

Unfortunately, the camera I carry at work is not very powerful, and the real photographers are too busy shooting serious news to get me a closeup.

Do we know who this is though? Has anyone noticed other faces? Has anyone spotted more vandalized billboards?

I think this is now clearly an ambitious plot, but is it a conspiracy to commit a prank, or just a conspiracy to be really stupid?

Here is a link to the previous blog entry on this saga.

I just got back from what appeared to be a very bad motorcycle crash in Chelmsford, just over the Lowell line on Carlisle Street, just a few yards from the bridge over 495.

It was called in at 11:42 p.m., and the first Chelmsford officer at the scene immediately called for MedFlight and said the male victim had severe head injuries and was unconscious.
MedFlight was grounded due to weather.

Police were waiting for a state police reconstruction guy to come to the scene. The motorcycle was on its side in the middle of the street, and there was a very large trail of blood leading downhill from where it sat.

No word on the rider or his condition, but it looked extremely bad.

I didn't even ask for any identifying information on the guy so soon. I'll try to track it all down on Sunday. Police had their hands full enough at the scene.

At precisely 8 p.m., police got a call from a man saying that his brother had been shot in front of a small gray house at 30 W. Sixth St., in Centralville, two houses down from Tadeschi and about a half-block down from Bridge Street.

I overheard dispatchers telling the caller to put direct pressure on the wound as another dipatcher told officers to lookout for two Hispanic males, both wearing white T-shirts, and both wearing Nike shoes. One of the men had jeans.

Police said the victim was in his mid-30's, and had been shot once in the side by a small-caliber handgun. One casing was found at the scene.

Minutes after police arrived, a boy reported that a man fitting the description of one of the shooting suspects stole his bike a block away on Jewett Street and fled toward Lakeview Avenue.
The boy further described the bike thief as being 5'7 to 5'10, heavyset, and dark-skinned. Police were quite anxious to catch that guy last night since they were uncertain whether he was involved in the shooting. He stole a silver Mongoose bike with black stickers.

This is the house and driveway where the shooting took place.

Police at shooting scenes don't have much time to give press conferences, so I've got no word on a motive or anything like that, but it sounded to me like the victim is expected to survive. I'll update with additional information as I get it.
This one is very much still in progress, though, so I'm not sure if I'll get more tonight or not.
I'll be steaming out the newsroom door if I hear anything that sounds like an arrest.

Anyone with information on this shooting should call police 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.

Here's a video of the victim.

I forget whether I blogged about the guy who tried to rob Ornella's Liquors on Gorham Street last week, only to leave his driver's license on the counter as he fled. We had a story about it late last week, though.

The guy managed to elude police, until tonight. They picked him up on a warrant a couple hours ago. It sounds like the address on his license was old. It listed an Aiken Street address, but Richard Sturtevant, 23, was found at his home, 15 Walnut St., second floor, police said.
The warrant charges him with larceny from a person.

The day shift was all over a shooting on South Street this afternoon, and Jon Hill even got a slideshow. You should definitely check it out here.

The slideshow is at the bottom of the page, but you can also go directly to it here.

If you recall my previous post about door to door salesman in Lowell, my story on these guys is done and will appear in tomorrow's paper.

I highly recommend you check it out.

These guys are apparently from a company called Paragon Sales, and other people from this company have been charged with rape after previous incidents in Plymouth, Mass., and Chicago.
One was also arrested for assaulting two police officers in Lowell last year, and already this year one has been charged with vandalizing 15 cars downtown and causing a false fire alarm.

My story will explain all this in further detail, but the moral of the story is that police are very strongly advising people to call officers immediately if a door to door salesman comes to your home and won't show a permit.

To get a permit, you have to undergo a background check by police, and some of these salesmen have been found to have long criminal records in the past, according to police. No one in Lowell has gotten a permit for door to door sales recently, according to the City Clerk's Office.

Police have been watching these guys since this weekend.

Unlike my previous entry on a police standoff in Lowell, the man in Tuesday evening's incident was unarmed, so there are no pictures of officers with AR-15's.

Police first went to 75 Fremont St., atop Christian Hill just off Sixth Street, because Chelmsford Police asked Lowell officers to find and arrest Jeffrey Difulvio, 47, of Lowell, for domestic assault and threatening to commit a crime in connection with an incident in Chelmsford.

Police say that when Lowell officers went to Difulvio's front door about 7 p.m., he attacked them. Officers hit Difulvio in the face with pepper spray, but he still escaped back into his apartment, police say. When officers tried to get in through a window, Difulvio slammed a window shut on one of them, police said.

Officers soon learned Difulvio's 15-year-old son was inside the home, so instead of forcing entry, they surrounded the house, and that's when the video below took place.

Before he comes out, you can hear Difulvio say "I'm not a bad person. I didn't do nothing wrong."

Police then warned Difulvio that they were getting ready to send a dog into the apartment since Officer Brian Kinney was at the scene with his German Shephard Bruno.

In a masterfull stroke of timing, I just blogged about Kinney and Bruno winning an award for their ability to find suspects yesterday .

Anyway, Difulvio gave up peacefully a short time later, and was charged with assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (door) and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (window).

Here's a picture of him moments after he surrendered on the porch of his apartment.

And here is one of him once officers walked him down to the sidewalk. Note how red his face is from the pepper spray.

Difulvio was still being held Tuesday night because a bail commissioner had not yet set bail for him.

I'm not sure arrests really get much better than this.

Tuesday morning at 1:40 a.m., police took a report that a man had been robbed outside River Place in the downtown. A 20-year-old man told police three men had approached him, one punched him in the face and another immediately stuck a gun in his face and demanded money.
The victim showed the three men his empty wallet, so the bad guys took his Blackberry instead. They fled.

As an officer was writing a report about that heist, at 1:55 a.m., police were called to White Hen Pantry at Wood Street and Princeton Boulevard. Three men came into the store, walked behind the counter with masks on, showed a handgun, and stole cash, lottery tickets and Newport cigarettes.
The clerk who called police provided a description of the men and of a white car they fled in.

This is where police say things fall apart for the sticky-handed trio.

Sgt. Steven Coyle spots a white car on Middlesex Street by Hadley Park while officers are still en route to White Hen Pantry. Coyle stops the car, and police say that inside he finds three men, with masks, a bunch of Newport cigarettes, cash, and a bunch of lottery tickets.

Meanwhile, police say there's an officer writing a report at the station who realizes the three men in the car fit the description of the three men who just robbed someone at River Place.
Police say they eventually find a Blackberry in the car as well.

Witnesses would later identify the three men in the car as the perpetrators of both heists, police say.

Stedman Tucker, 17, Rafael Santana, 19, and Christopher Maldonado, 17, all of Lowell, were all three charged with armed robbery for the River Place heists, and armed robbery while masked for White Hen Pantry.

I didn't find out about this until tonight, so I wasn't able to find out what happened at their arraignments on Tuesday in Lowell District Court.

And you're really running, and these two dogs pictured below are after you.

I don't envy you.

At left Lowell Officer Todd Donaldson, and his German Shephard Falco, who joined the Lowell Police force about a year ago. At right is Officer Brian Kinney, and his German Shephard Bruno, who joined the force about 6 months ago.
Donaldson has been on the force since 1997, and handling dogs for 8 years. Kinney has been on the force since 2001, and handing dogs since 2006.

I bring you this picture because of the trophy's in between.

Donaldson and Kinney went to the U.S. Police Canine Association's National Canine Competition in Goffstown, N.H., on June 12 and 13, and despite having fairly new dogs, both brought home some awards.
The competition came from as far away as the NYPD Transit police.

Neither of them had to go to this thing, both of their dogs are already certified by Boston Police and BPD's head instructor Troy Caisey. But Caisey convinced them this would be a good experience.

Up in Goffstown, everyone took part in a six part competition.
There was an agility course, an obedience test, a suspect search, an article search, where the dogs found a credit card and a matchbook in a 30x30 foot grassy area, just by smelling it, and then two criminal apprehension tests, where the dogs had to catch a suspect.
One of the tests was without live gunfire, the other was with it.

All the tests were conducted without leashes, using nothing but verbal commands by Donaldson and Kinney.

Donaldson finished second overall in the novice class, first in criminal apprehension, and third in evidence recovery. Kinney finished second in suspect search.

Neither guy did this for any glory though. Donaldson said attending the event and competition also got both dogs nationally certified, which can be an extra tool should the dog's abilities ever be questioned in court.
"We're just two police officers who love our jobs and love our dogs," Donaldson said.

Trying even harder to downplay the prizes, Donaldson and Kinney said Officer Eric Palmer, from Wilmington Police, also took home some prizes with his dog Kimo, and Billerica Officer Mark Tsoukalas, with his dog Barer, took home some prizes while competing in the even tougher open class.

Sorry I didn't update more than this tonight, but I've been very busy with my story on the magazine salesmen I mentioned in an earlier post here.

That story should be totally finished on Tuesday, and in the paper soon.

The number of serious accidents I've covered this weekend is starting to get ridiculous, and sad.

This one is by far the worst, even though it took us several days to hear about it from over 1,000 miles away.

After three crashes I reported on yesterday, there was another wreck this morning in Windham, H.H.
Police say Gilda Marinaro, 81, of Windham, was driving a Volvo S60 on Cobbetts Pond Road at Range Road about 10:15 a.m., when she was involved in a collision with Paul Chicklis, 71, of Dracut, who was riding a motorcycle on Range Road.
Marinaro was not hurt, but Chicklis had a serious leg injury and was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital by MedFlight.

The cause is under investigation, pending reconstruction. I'm still waiting to hear back from the hospital on how Chicklis is doing.

The weird thing is, I really like Lowell. Since moving to New England I've lived in Nashua, Dracut, Pepperell, Somerville and Lowell, and I like Lowell a lot more than anywhere else.

But when I head out in the rain to go check out a fight at a Broadway Street laundromat, in which an older man attacked several other folks who were washing their clothes, and then see a road-worn, middle-aged woman walking down Willie Street in a hoodie that says "snitches are a dying breed," I've just gotta shake my head.

Meanwhile, three blocks away, my girlfriend is perfectly safe, checking out an opening at a museum. Lowell really is an interesting place.

UPDATE: I might just be weird. I also love New York City, where so far this weekend a building has collapsed, and a drug suspect being transported to a police precinct for booking was shot when the transport van drove through an unrelated shootout.

Lowell just can't compete with that kind of ridiculousness.

If you trust me, even though at this point I can provide few sources and little background information, don't talk to any magazine salesman who come to your door without a permit this week or next.

Don't change your mind if they get a little aggressive, don't give them your name or personal information, and don't be afraid to call the cops.
If you want a magazine, make sure the salesman has a permit from the city.

If the salesman doesn't have a permit, call police.

I'll be working on a story about this over the next few days.

Here is something I wrote last year, though, and from what I heard tonight, the salesman are back.

Thursday, June 26, 2008
Robert Mills
rmills@lowellsun.com
LOWELL -- A young man said he was in the neighborhood selling magazines, but he had no permit to do so, and a neighbor called police after spotting the man lurking on the porch of a Belvidere house where no one was home.
Officers soon found the man, Keylon Andrews, 22, of Indianapolis on Rae Street about 7:10 p.m. Using expletives, he told officers he didn't need a permit to sell magazines, police said.
Officers corrected him on that point, and when they informed Andrews that he was under arrest, Andrews punched two officers in the head and continued to fight after he was pepper sprayed, police said.
He was eventually handcuffed and brought back to the station, but the incident has police reminding residents that anyone selling magazines or anything door to door should have identification and a permit.
"They have to be permitted, and they should display it upon demand," said Lt. Mark Buckley. "If they don't, call police."
Police did not release the address where the man was initially spotted lurking on the porch because it is the home of a police officer who was not home at the time.
Police said Andrews also was allegedly spotted going into the yards of two other homes despite the claim he was selling magazines. He is charged with two counts of assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, violation of bylaws or ordinances, peddling or hawking without a license, and giving a false name to police.
A bail commissioner had not yet set bail for him last night.

I'm already researching the arrest of Shawn Woodard, 26, of Chicago, who was booked early Saturday morning for disorderly conduct, malicious destruction of property, causing a false fire alarm, and giving a false name or address to police.

Not a lot of big crime news today. I'm looking into a story about a woman who is five months pregnant possibly being assaulted in Lowell, and was surprised to hear that a trespasser was just arrested at Ricardo's downtown, but other than that it's been quiet.

The roads were a mess today, though.

Things got started last night as I was sitting on my porch and heard a loud screech followed by a bang down the hill from where I live in Centralville about 1:30 a.m.
I thought it was probably just a run of the mill crash, so I didn't investigate, but it turns out Julio Faria, 23, of Lowell, was hurt very badly when his Honda hit a utility pole near 154 Hildreth Street.
Lt. Timothy Crowley tells me witnesses who say Faria drive past them reported that he was going pretty fast, but exactly what caused the crash will be determined by reconstruction, which will take a while to complete.
No charges have been filed. Faria is in critical condition at Brigham & Women's Hospital.

About 2 hours later, police say 32-year-old Megan Mooney, of Tewksbury, drove into the back of a state police cruiser along Interstate 93 north in Stoneham.
She caused no injuries, but got arrested for drunken driving. The cruiser had been parked along the highway because the trooper driving it was helping out at an earlier accident scene.

Then we get to sunrise, and roll around to 10 a.m.
That's when police say a Honda and a Toyota collided just south of Route 2 on Interstate 495 North. The Toyota left the road and hit a tree.
It's driver, Dioni Barriates, 28, of the Bronx, was flown to Boston Medical Center. A passenger, Luiz Ramirez, 27, and three unidentified children, were also hospitalized.
The driver of the Honda, 22-year-old Hannah Campbell, of Milford, was also taken to the hospital.

The northbound lanes were closed for about 2 hours and 40 minutes as police reconstructed the accident scene. No charges have been filed pending completion of reconstruction.

Buckle up if you go out tonight, and don't forget about the new move over law. I'm surprised Mooney wasn't cited for violating that.

If you don't know what it is, check out one of my very first blog entries Here.

UPDATE: It was Peter Ducharme, 37, of 201 Appleton St., who got arrested for trespassing at Ricardo's.
The pregnant woman was hit with a remote control, but wasn't hurt bad. It was actually the attacker who went to the hospital, because he had an anxiety attack. I think I'll leave that one be.

I just heard back from Todd Alperin, the Haverhill real estate agent who's face someone put atop the Freudenberg Building in downtown Lowell this weekend.

If you don't know about this, catch up here.

It turns out this is no prank, although it certainly is bizarre.

Alperin said the picture apparently is from a billboard his real estate firm, Discovery Real Estate, has in Haverhill. The billboard has been vandalized several times now, by idiots unknown, and replacing it has cost Alperin and his firm an estimated $3,000 to $4,000.

I've been pretty amused by this little mystery so far, but I've gotta tell you, once my bill hit four digits I'd stop laughing pretty darn quick.

Alperin was very nice about all this, especially considering what it's cost him, but he sounds like he definitely wants to find out who's been doing this.

I advised him to file a report with Haverhill Police, and maybe Lowell Police too.

So now the question is, who did this, and for God's sake, why?
It almost made sense as a prank, but if you don't even know the guy, and the guy doesn't even do much business in Lowell, what's up?
I mean, if you look at this thing, it looks like it took some serious effort to cut it off a billboard, get it to the top of the building, and in some way attach it there.

It turns out this thing really is appropriate for the crime blog, though.

I'm told Alperin is a good guy, and he sounded like it on the telephone too. Lets help him find out who did it.

That's how long police spent looking for Geovanni Rivera-Sosa, 26, of Lowell, last Fall, after they got information that he was responsible for a pair of incidents in which gunshots were fired.
The first was at 750 Merrimack St., where a Ford Taurus parked along the street was shot several times on September 13. You can see two of the bullet holes here.

Police began looking for Rivera-Sosa almost immediately. Then on Oct. 17, someone fired several shots and hit the windshield of a car on Butterfield Street while a 16-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother sat inside. No one was hurt. Police again said they believed Rivera-Sosa was responsible.

After that, detectives in Lowell were really hunting for Rivera-Sosa, but they couldn't find him.
On one afternoon in late October, they got word he was in a specific car, and searched the entire city for the car, eventually finding it, empty, near Clemente Park.

For over an hour several detectives watched the car, and marked cruisers patrolled the neighborhood, but Rivera-Sosa never turned up. They gave up and towed the car.
A couple days later, Detective Sgt. Joseph Murray finally found Rivera-Sosa on 10th Street in Lowell, and arrested him on warrants.

It was a nice arrest after such a long hunt, and I'd imagine the kind of arrest that enabled a few detectives to go home that night feeling good.

The next day, Rivera-Sosa was freed from Lowell District Court on $1,000 bail.

It's not immediately clear if those criminal charges are still pending against Rivera-Sosa, but on Wednesday afternoon, police say he was apparently relaxed enough to take a stroll down Suffolk Street with a 12 ounce bottle of Heineken is his hand.

Officer Jose Lorenzi spotted him and approached. Police say Rivera-Sosa told Lorenzi that he was just drinking a beer, which he proceeded to voluntarily pour out onto the ground, splashing the beer on Lorenzi's boots.

Rivera-Sosa was arrested for public drinking, and released about four hours later.

I'm not sure how serious the injuries were, except that they were not believed to be life-threatening, but this accident on Littleton Road in Chelmsford was pretty nasty this afternoon.

Six people were hurt in all, but police were so busy helping them they didn't exactly have time to stop and ask for ID. They'll be identified later tonight. I'll try to get that information if I can.
Both cars are Toyota Corollas.

I was surprised neither car spun around. It takes a pretty precise hit for cars to not spin in a head-on collision, but police said the fact that the cars are the same make and model, and therefore weight, may have also contributed.

Four people were taken to Lowell General Hospital, and two were taken to Saints Medical Center. Police had to close Littleton Road from the town center to Hunt Road for about an hour, from 4:12 p.m., to 5:21 p.m.

I had to walk about a mile to get to this scene, but I can't complain on a day like today. I just hope all these folks are alright.

Salem Police are asking for the public's help in locating this character pictured below, because they say he got in a fight at the Tokyo Steakhouse, 291 S. Broadway, punched another guy in the head, choked him, and then smashed several beer bottles and a glass mug over his head.
He also used a bottle to cut an unidentified woman who tried to break up the fight. She was cut in the shoulder.

John R. Fabiano Jr., 23, is wanted for 1st degree assault. Police already have a warrant, but haven't been able to find Fabiano, and think he's hiding. They didn't say where he's from, but he obviously isn't home anyway.
He has the following tattoos: skull on left forearm, panther on right forearm, star on right forearm, star on right shoulder, chinese symbol on back, tribal on right neck area.

The victim had several severe cuts to his face, and one almost severed his ear.

If you have information that could help police find Fabiano, call Salem Police at (603) 893-1911.

I've checked with police, some neighbors, and all the gossipers in the newsroom, and we still have no answers regarding the huge face that appeared on top the Freudenberg Building in downtown Lowell this weekend.

Who is this man? Who plastered a gigantic image of his face on top of this building? Why? How does this man feel about his new godlike status in Lowell?

So far, all I've learned is that apparently some workers have been doing work inside the building, so maybe they're responsible, or know something. Maybe it's one of them? I have no clue who they are, though.

Join us in this investigation.

UPDATE: Kathleen Marcin from the Lowell Downtown Neighborhood Association has joined our quest, and pitched in with an even better photograph of the huge man who now peers out over the city.
See her photo skills here, and please don't notice that they're better than mine.

ANOTHER UPDATE: We have a suspect! Read the comments to find out who he is.

I read some stuff today about police recently getting surplus military weapons so I thought I'd post a bit tonight about the weapons Lowell Police have on the streets.

Lowell Police have had semi-automatic AR-15 rifles deployed in the cruisers of trained officers for about a decade now, ever since a police/gang shootout in Los Angeles in the late 90's, and Columbine.
They were deployed with little fanfare around 1999 or so, but police have made no effort to hide them since. I've photographed officers with them several times just this year, including here, at a standoff on 18th Street in April.

For those who aren't into guns, the AR-15 is essentially a semi-automatic version of the military's M-16 rifle. The weapons Lowell uses are made by Colt, and are referred to as a patrol rifle.
I'm not sure if this is the exact model Lowell has, but here is a picture of an AR-15 made by Colt. I've seen Lowell's weapons plenty, and this is what they look like, give or take a bit of wear and tear.
(I've never taken a closeup myself. In incidents where officers deploy these, I tend to stay back a bit, for obvious reasons).

Superintendent Lavallee told me tonight that about six officers per shift carry these weapons in their cruisers, but they can only do so after getting extensive training on this particular rifle. They also have to remain certified on it.
All officers on the force are trained to have a basic knowledge of the AR-15 in case they need to pick it up in a critical incident, but only those with more extensive training are allowed to carry and use the weapon.
"Everyone has familiarity training with the weapon, in the event that there's a need to take it from another officer who is somehow disabled," Lavallee said.

It's worth noting that most of the officers I know who carry them are military veterans who have also been trained to use the military versions of these rifles, which are capable of automatic fire.

I've only ever seen them taken out during standoffs, and other incidents where suspects are believed to be armed and dangerous. In other words, very rarely.

I didn't have a chance to check tonight, but I believe several other local departments also arm some of their officers with rifles, though I'm not sure what they use.

It's worth noting that I've covered at least five incidents in the last few years where drug dealers or gang members were found with semi-automatic rifles, including a Soviet-made SKS rifle, a TEC 9, and an AR-15 that was found in an alley off Prescott Street just last week to name just a few.
The bad guys around Lowell certainly do have access to these kind of weapons, and the ammunition to use them.

The stuff I read today in another paper and in a blog regarded Lowell receiving 25 M-14 rifles from the U.S. military, which gives the surplus rifles to law enforcement agencies. The M-14 is an older and larger caliber weapon that the military used mainly in the Vietnam-era. They're more accurate at long range than an AR-15s, and can penetrate more. They're still sometimes used by military marksmen.

Here's a generic picture of a basic M-14, though they can be modified in plenty of ways.

Lavallee acknowledged that Lowell now has these rifles, but he said they are not being deployed.
You won't be seeing any Lowell Police Officers with them on the streets, though you might see the AR-15's. If that changes, I'll let you know.

Dracut Police, with help from two state police K9 units, are searching for a woman in the area of Robbins Avenue, but why isn't exactly clear.
Police aren't saying what the search is, but state police broadcasts indicate it might be a mental health situation. It doesn't appear to be a missing child or senior citizen.

UPDATE: She was found on Cheever Avenue about 10:15 p.m. She was taken to Saints Medical Center, and will not face charges.

This isn't crime-related, but for those who thought Stephen Colbert was the only reason to pay attention to the war in Iraq anymore.

Think again.

There are plenty of soldiers who still need your thoughts and prayers. And so does a family in Salem, N.H.

Superintendent Lavallee e-mailed me this weekend to say he was proud to have visited Quantico, Virginia on Friday for the graduation of Capt. Kevin Sullivan, who just completed a 10-week training session for law enforcement executives.

Sullivan, who serves as West Sector commander here in Lowell, overseeing operations in the Acre and the Highlands, graduated with the 237th session of the FBI National Academy.

Sullivan's father was the late Sgt. John F. Sullivan Jr.

Capt. Sullivan is a former gang-unit commander, who has also served as early night shift commander, and in several other posts. He's one of the best guy's around, and he sure is popular with the neighborhood groups in the Highlands, with whom he works pretty closely.

Contrary to what idiots like to suggest with their T-shirts.

To be more specific, The ATF is offering $2,500 to anyone who can provide them with information leading to the arrest of those responsible for stealing 16 guns from Barrows Trading Post, a Burlington, Vermont store in early June.
Wayne Barrows, the store's owner, will toss in another $500.

In case you forget, 7 of the 16 stolen guns were found by Salem Police, stashed in a duffel bag that had been tossed in a trash container near the Rockingham Mall at 99 Cluff Crossing Road on June 9.

This is the duffle bag they were found in.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Burlington, VT office of the ATF at (802) 865-4020, or Salem Police, who can be reached at (603) 893-1911, or the Southern New Hampshire Crimeline at (603) 893-6600.

Is this guy extremely short, or did he try to duck the booking photo?

He's Richard Noel, 43, of Manchester, N.H., who police say was arrested for theft by unauthorized taking after he was caught shoplifting at JC Penney, 310 Daniel Webster Highway in Nashua.
Police say he was caught leaving the store without paying for several dresses.

This one is terrific on several levels.

Noel faces up to 7 years in prison since police say he had prior theft convictions.

I don't often pick stuff up from Nashua, but today they tell me that Jessica King, 24, of 2 Hillside Drive, Nashua, is in custody for first degree assault.

Sunday night about 11:30 p.m., police were called to a Nashua hospital because a 15-year-old boy had shown up with knife wound. Police say they investigated, and determined King had attacked the boy with a knife while he was at her house earlier in the night.

King was arrested about 1:45 a.m., today, and she's being held on $10,000 cash bail. She's looking at up to 15 years in prison.

If they can do it in pro football, by God we can do it here.
I missed this one cause it happened on my day off, but I think it's worth a recap despite it's age.

It was about 10:30 on Thursday, June 4, when police got a call from someone who saw two men cover their faces with bandanas and walk up to the front door of P&S Convenience, at 35 Willie St.
One of the men pulled an object out of his pants as he approached the store.

Police were still en route at this point, but if these two guys were planning to rob P&S Convenience, they didn't exactly plan the heist like Ocean's 11.

P&S Convenience was closed.

Having discovered this, the men walked down the street toward King Liquors, the caller told police.
This is when an officer showed up, and found the two guys with their faces covered, looking at King Liquors. They took off.
Officer Jose Lorenzi immediately tackled one of the men, and Officer Niels Christiansen chased the second man down Broadway Street.
Police setup a perimeter, and Detective Sgt. Joe Murray soon grabbed the second guy as he tried to run across Willie Street.

Problem solved.

Interestingly, when Officer Lorenzi began to search the first suspect, he lifted his shirt and saw the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun. In the gun were two shells, and in the guy's pocket were five more shells.

So how old were these guys with the shotgun?

Fourteen and 15-years-old, according to police. Both reside in Billerica.

Both were charged with juvenile delinquent, to wit: illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number, and conspiracy to commit a felony (robbery).
Juvenile proceedings are closed, so that's all I can tell you.

Kudos to the person who called police on this. Who knows what they helped police prevent.

On a side note, I started using shotguns when I was about that age, a 12-gauge and a 20-gauge, but I was hunting squirrel and turkey, not variety stores. I also, having attained a perfect score in my hunter's safety course, had a policy against storing shotguns in my pants.

A couple weeks ago I posted about District Attorney Gerry Leone's Teen Dating Violence PSA Project, which saw 35 groups of high school students from around the region submit videos speaking out against dating violence.

You can find the previous entry here.

Well, over 1,000 teens from around the county have voted, and this video from Somerville High School students Mitch Freitas, Jason Corey, Aakash Sharma, Jerry Alphonse, Anthony Bohan, and Stefanie Vivian was chosen as the winner.

If you remember, two local schools also had videos that were selected as finalists.
Those videos were from Bedford High School students Kelly Sullivan and Christian Sullivan.

And from Shawsheen Valley Technical High School students Taylor Dube, Richie Carbone, Amy DeCelles, Sara Elwell, Samantha Gumtow, Kim Haley, Kasaey Hill, Nichole Layon, Evan Lord, Dan McCauley, Michael O'Connell, and Briana Wiley.

They deserve some congratulation too.

The winning video will soon be seen on local television.

A roughly 48-year-old woman was struck by a silver sedan while crossing Andover Street, just past High Street, tonight at 10 p.m.
She was down in the middle of the street and obviously in quite a bit of pain, but her injuries weren't believed to be critical. A young girl who looked to be a waitress on her way home from work was talking to police at the scene.

No word on charges or anything.

I'll check for a full report tomorrow.

Who's the guy in the picture I noticed tonight on top of the Freudenberg Building in downtown Lowell? What's the story with it?

Police weren't aware of it last night, so it sounds like no one took offense and called them. There's a theory in the newsroom, but I'm not going to share it.

If you noticed all the smoke in the sky over the area Saturday afternoon about 4:45 to 5 p.m., don't worry, it wasn't a house or a business. It was, however, a fairly large recreational vehicle that caught fire along I-495 north, just north of Route 133.

The fire was just over the Tewksbury line in Andover, but Tewksbury fire still went since their ambulance passed the fire while on another call. I heard in radio dispatches that Dracut Fire was also out investigating where all the smoke was coming from after a caller reported it to them.

It was quite a plume of smoke, and it was very black. I noticed it while heading into work from the ER at Lowell General Hospital. (My girlfriend was fine, have no fear).

State Police tell me they had to close two northbound lanes of the highway for about a half hour while crews took care of the fire. Channel 5 is reporting that the RV exploded after it caught fire, but I got no answer at Andover Fire so I can't confirm that.

No one was hurt. The RV was owned by Richard Leone, 57, of Tewksbury, police said.

Don't ask me what's up with people finding guns all over the place this week.

A day after Lowell Police recovered a Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and 119 rounds of ammunition in a duffel bag from an alley off Prescott Street, a man in Salem, N.H., found another duffel bag full of guns in a trash container not far from the mall.

In Salem, the seven handguns were found in a trash container outside an apartment building at 99 Cluff Crossing Road, not far from the Rockingham Mall, police say. There were also a few boxes of ammunition, as you can see here.

Here's a link to a larger version if you want to see in detail

It looks like just .22 ammo, but the gun in the upper left is the only one that looks like a .22 to me. Police didn't release the make and caliber of all the gun's though, so I can't be sure.

The guns were in the duffel bag that appears below, and found in the trash container by a guy about 3:40 p.m., on Tuesday.

Police soon discovered the guns had been stolen earlier this month from Barons Trading Post in Hartford, Vermont, and Salem Police are working with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to determine who took them and how they ended up in Salem so close to the mall.
Anyone with information is asked to call Salem Police at (603) 893-1911, or the Southern New Hampshire Crimeline at (603) 893-6600.

There's not a lot to report on the crime front tonight, so here's a link to an extremely good Rita Savard story that ran today on a crime-related topic.

I wrote about a domestic, a drug arrest, and a guy from Westford who allegedly lied to the Departmen of Environmental Protection about some municipal water tests his company performed.
None of the phony tests were conducted for local towns. They were for Chicopee, Ashby, Harvard and Lawrence.

To be honest, when I heard a call on the scanner for a woman reporting that she found a rifle behind 19 Merrimack St., tonight about 7 p.m., I figured it was going to be some old rusty BB gun, but I wasn't busy with anything so I drove on downtown anyway.

This many folks don't come by to handle BB guns, though.

Turns out it was hardly a BB gun.
It was, in fact, an AR-15 Bushmaster; essentially the semi-automatic, civilian version of an M-16, and along with it inside a black duffle bag were two 30-round clips, and a total of 119 rounds of ammunition.

Here's a picture of an AR-15 that I found online. I'm sure you'll recognize the look

The gun was in a short alley behind The Sun Building, aka the Sunscraper, in Kearney Square. For those who, like me, have spent way too many hours of their life sitting in a car on Prescott Street waiting for the red light to change, I'm sure you'll recognize this alley.

Detective Chris Kelly came in to photograph the area where the bag was found, and Officer Anthony Webb, who responded to the call and found it, carried the bag away.
Police are investigating how it ended up there, and who it belongs too. I'm told there was nothing else in the bag.

Could be a very interesting story once they figure all that out. The gun itself would be legal in the hands of a licensed owner, but the 30-round clips are large capacity, so they're only legal if they were made before 1994, and in the hands of someone with a class A firearms license.
This is an update, as a commenter and an editor both corrected me on this.

UPDATE: Lisa Redmond confirmed they're going to check to see if the gun is related to a couple shots fired incidents in some senior housing on Fayette Street in late April.

An ordinance that would ban pit bulls from the city dog park, require them to wear muzzles whenever they're off their owner's property, and which would require owners to post a "Beware of pit bull" sign on their home, is back.

It was tabled in December after the Lowell Humane Society, the MSPCA, and some residents spoke out against it, but in light of last week's attack in which a pit bull bit a 5-year-old girl in the face on Chapel Street, the Council's Public Safety Subcommittee will be discussing the ordinance again on Tuesday night.

Here is a picture of Isabel, the pit bull I spent an evening with while on vacation in late April. See my comment on the previous pit bull attack post for more information on her.

Just for the record, Isabel has red eye in that photo, she's not actually a fiendish hell dog with glowing red eyes.

I've asked the police department for information on how many citations have been written under the existing dangerous dog ordinance the council approved late last year, but those requests usually take a bit of time so I haven't heard anything back yet.

The Public Safety Subcommittee could recommend that the full council enact the pit bull ordinance, so if you feel strongly either way on this issue, get yourself to the council chambers Tuesday night at 5:30 p.m.

The bike didn't make out too good, but no one was hurt in this crash about 6:30 p.m., in Gallagher Square in Lowell. That's the intersection of Central, Thorndike and Gorham streets for those who aren't sure where Gallagher Square is.

Plenty of traffic at that time of day though, so I thought I'd post this in case folks saw it.

If you caught my breaking news story and story in today's paper about all the Lowell kids getting busted for drinking in Salem, New Hampshire, let me add to your knowledge by providing a picture of the man and woman who police say hosted the party, Hilder Velez, 26, at left, and Gloria Tamayo, 48, at right.

Velez and Tamayo were so concerned about the Lowell kids being taken into custody, and about the count of facilitating an underage drinking party that they were both charged with, they continued partying, and were arrested again at 5 a.m., while swimming behind the house, police say.
In all, 18 Lowell kids, from 15 to 20, were caught at their house and either taken into protective custody or arrested.

Covered two crashes tonight, the first up in Pelham.

A 50-year-old man got struck by a Cadillac while riding his bike at Mammoth and Keyes Hill roads about 7:30 or so, and he was said to be seriously hurt. He was taken to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, but that's all they were saying at the scene.
Very minor dents to the Cadillac, but no other damage.

Here is a Pelham sergeant and a New Hampshire state trooper taking measurements for reconstruction at the scene.

As I was on my way back to the office I heard about a pedestrian being stuck on Lakeview Avenue in Lowell. No one knew how old she was, but she was described as a girl, so I think she was younger, maybe a teen.
LeeAnn Newman of Lowell told me she was on her way home from work when she saw the girl crossing the street with her dog. The girl bent down to pickup her dog when it stopped in the street, took one more step and got hit by what looked by a RAV4.

"The guy was flying," Newman said. "He was going wicked fast."

Newman said the girl's shoes flew in opposite directions, and the girl herself flew about 20 feet. Police said she suffered only minor injuries, though.

A couple of kids at the scene seemed to have some kind of problem with police, but I'm not sure what it was. Police got it under control and there were no arrests.
I'll upload a video in a bit where you can see the one kid causing trouble as the girl is loaded into the ambulance.

Apparently a worker in the restaurant across the lobby from the newsroom here in the American History Textile Museum on Dutton Avenue tripped the sprinkler system this afternoon, setting off the fire alarm a little after 4:30 p.m.

It wasn't a big deal, but I admit I was impressed to see an engine and a ladder pulling into our parking lot less than a minute later.

The fire alarm was reset and we're all back to work now. I'm probably a little too into my job, because I evacuated with my laptop, a camera, a video camera, and the scanner in hand. Had this been a real fire, I apparently would have covered it, sans office.

We still won't be making any campfires here in the newsroom, but it's nice to know response times to 491 Dutton St., are so quick.
A big thanks to the Lowell Fire Department from those of us on the Sunday shift in the newsroom.

I think I'll add to this as time goes on, but lets start with stealing a firefighter's helmet from inside an engine in the middle of a busy parking lot.

Such a theft occurred Thursday, about 4 p.m., while Engine 7 was parked at Market Basket on Wood Street, but almost as quickly as firefighters called police, John Farrell, 46, of Lowell, turned the helmet in at a fire station, saying he had found it, according to police.

The problem for Farrell was that a witness told police that Farrell was also the guy who took it, according to a report.
That led to charges of breaking and entering motor vehicle, hindering a firefighter, and larceny over $250, because firefighting helmets don't come cheap.

Those are some pretty serious charges for what sounds like an incredibly bad idea. Give it some thought next time you get the urge to boost something from a working fire truck.

Or, well, maybe seek help if you get those kinds of urges in the first place.

So I had plenty of time to get out of the office and into the sun long enough to snap a few photos of a minor crash on the Lord Overpass that took out a traffic light, again.

Another crash took out a light about 50 yards away last month.

No injuries in this one, which involved a Mazda 526 and a Ford F250. Plenty of people were gawking, though, and honking horns because the people in front of them were doing stupid crap, like gawking, instead of driving through the already harrowing intersections.

But then again, who am I to get down on people for gawking at accidents? I do it professionally.

I just heard that Tyngsboro police, with some help from four different K9 units from around the region, tracked down a pair of suspects in a burglary Thursday afternoon.

Officers were called to 358 Dunstable Road for a residential break about 12:42 p.m., and found the house ransacked. They found some property in a wooded area behind the house, and called for K9 backup.
Dogs from Acton, Billerica, Chelmsford and Concord all came in, and eventually tracked the suspected through a wooded area to a house one street over.
Police say a subsequent investigation led to the arrest of Sony Thang, 27; and Ghom Pock, 25, both of Lowell.
They were both booked for breaking and entering and larceny over property over $250.

Varnum Market, at 863 Varnum Ave., was held up at gunpoint at 9:06 p.m.

Police are looking for a white male, about 6 feet tall, with a slim build. He wore a red hoodie and white sneakers, and showed a black handgun.
Anyone with information is asked to call Lowell police at (978) 937-3200 or Crimestoppers at (978) 459-TIPS (8477). Callers may remain anonymous, but can receive up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.

That type of violent crime is rare in Pawtucketville. Police are still on scene getting evidence and looking around.

I probably shouldn't comment though. I grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

By PATRICK WALTERS
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A man sought for questioning in the rape of an 11-year-old girl was upgraded to stable condition Wednesday, a day after he was severely beaten by angry neighbors who recognized him from a photo distributed by police.
About a dozen residents of the city's West Kensington neighborhood pummeled Jose Carrasquillo, 26, for several minutes, police Lt. Frank Vanore said. Officers arrived and arrested him on an unrelated warrant.
Carrasquillo suffered head injuries and was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was upgraded from critical to stable condition Wednesday.
No one has been charged in the rape. Police described Carrasquillo as a "person of interest" in the case and asked the public for help in finding him.
The assault happened Tuesday after neighbors recognized Carrasquillo from a photo distributed by police. Surveillance video shows a man being chased by at least three people, one of whom hits him several times with what appears to be a bat or large stick. As they chase the man, a crowd gathers. A police officer arrives, and the video cuts off.
A neighbor who said he witnessed the assault outside a corner grocery store said the community had to take action. Louis Valentine, 47, said he had helped hand out pictures of Carrasquillo in the day before the crowd spotted him on the street Tuesday.
"I'm proud of the community for the first time," said Valentine, who moved to the neighborhood from New York two years ago. "You don't do that to a little angel."
Investigators have said they would look at whether to file charges against any of the neighbors. None had been filed as of Wednesday afternoon, Vanore said.
The girl had just dropped off a sibling at day care and was walking to school Monday when a man approached her, investigators said. He started to walk with her, threatened her and said he had a gun. He took her to a nearby backyard and raped her repeatedly, authorities said.
Vanore said police did the right thing in publicizing their desire to talk to Carrasquillo. He noted he was wanted on a bench warrant and had 17 prior arrests.
"We've got an 11-year-old viciously raped," Vanore said. "We factored in a lot of things and the biggest thing was to get this individual off the street."
University of Pennsylvania criminologist Lawrence Sherman said police did nothing wrong by releasing a detailed description and photo of a man who was not a suspect, saying, "I don't know that they had much option to get a hold of him in any other way."
Sherman, director of Penn's Jerry Lee Center for Criminology, said the beating was an example of citizens not trusting the legal system.
"We have a big enough problem of witness intimidation, let alone considering the risk we pose to persons of interest," he said.

Police are currently searching the city for a pit bull that apparently bit a roughly 5-year-old girl in the face this afternoon at an apartment on Chapel Street.

The girl was taken to Saints with what I'm told were some pretty serious facial injuries, though she's apparently not being taken to Boston, which I hope is a good sign.

Police were called to 173 Chapel St., at 4:53 p.m., where they found the girl, but not the dog.
This is the building where it happened.

UPDATE Lowell Animal Control and some detectives just met the owner at 173 Chapel St., and took the dog about 8:40 p.m. The owner isn't arrestable, though.
I can't identify him since he wasn't arrested, but from what I'm told police know him well. No charges have been filed, but police are still investigating.

Here is a video of the dog in the back of the Lowell Animal Control officer's van.

Here's a picture for those who can't view the video.

It happened again, but this time with a new, and pretty ridiculous twist.

From what I'm told, a man was backing out of a parking space at Burger King on Chelmsford Street yesterday afternoon about 5:30 p.m., when he hit the gas instead of the brakes on his big old Mercury Grand Marquis.

He must have had the wheel turned, though, because he shot out of the parking space, and into Chelmsford Street, turning, in reverse, in a big arc.
The guy clipped the rear bumper of a Jaguar that was driving inbound on Chelmsford, and careened toward Stansfield Tire, at 402 Chelmsford St., right next to Burger King.

That's where Mey Sao, who's worked at Stansfield for about 8-years, was standing when he heard a crash and saw the Grand Marquis coming at him.

Sao jumped out of the way, and the Grand Marquis, incredibly, sped right into the open door of the garage bay, took out a few boxes and tires along the wall, and struck a big blue hydraulic jack that picks up cars.

And that's where it stopped. As you can see here.

That's the driver sitting in the chair, signing paperwork to refuse treatment. He seemed a bit frazzled and asked me to leave him alone.

No one was hurt, and under the circumstances, damage seemed minimal, though the contents of the building took a beating, as you can see here.

This one might have been weirder than the crashes where cars end up inside of buildings. If there are any odds-makers out there who can give me the odds on that car going backwards into a garage bay, and an open garage bay at that, instead of hitting the building, please post a comment.

There wasn't a single black mark at the scene.

Does anyone who's knocking off a convenience store actually think that line is going to work?
It's what some guy said as he robbed Dusty's Citgo, 36 Pelham Road, in Salem, NH Tuesday night.

According to Salem Police, everything started about 7:30 p.m., when a white guy in his 30's "who appeared to be mentally challenged" came into the store and bought a soda, police said.

He went back outside to a blue pickup truck, but then another guy from the same pickup truck came inside, wearing sunglasses, and carrying this.

He immediately ran behind the counter and ordered the clerk to open the register. He eventually made off with a drop bag containing about $450, and another $100 from the register.
He got back in the pickup truck, and drove off with his mentally challenged friend, heading toward Interstate-93. Police soon stopped an older blue pickup truck on the interstate with their guns drawn, but determined it was not the suspect.

The guy with the gun is described as a white male, about 5'8, 160 pounds, with brown hair. He wore a tan baseball cap with brown trim, a dark-colored sweatshirt and jeans.

There were no cameras in the store, so that description is all we've got.

About 20 minutes after the robbery, police got a report from 2 Keewaydin Drive that a 2004 Dodge Ram pickup truck had been stolen from a parking lot.

On Wednesday, a little after midnight, police found that truck elsewhere in town, still running. Inside was a "very real looking" black pellet gun, which is pictured above.

And that's where things still stand.
If anyone has information on this robbery, or the men involved, you're asked to call Salem Police at (603) 893-1911, or the Southern New Hampshire Crimeline at (603) 893-6600.

The previous post just reminded me of something from about a year ago, a police story I never wrote.

It was about 11:30 one night when I was sitting in the newsroom listening to the scanner. Someone in Centralville called police because they had just heard a woman screaming for help in the middle of the street.
A man then drug the woman into a house.

I started toward the scene. A patrolman and a sergeant were there when I arrived. When I got a chance to, I talked to the sergeant.

Police had gone to the door of the home, and a man answered.

He said his wife wasn't home.

The sergeant told the guy he was lying, and suggested he had cause to search the house.

I forget whether police did the search, but what I do remember is that they ended up finding the wife.
She was in the garage, hidden under some old rugs, or blankets or something if I remember correctly.

She told police she wanted to be there. Her husband hadn't hurt her one bit.

There was no probable cause for arrest, and believe me, police wished there was.

I'd love to be able to say that it shocks me this occurs, but it happened to friends of mine in high school too.
And then last week, Matt Grimard, Dracut High School's star quarterback, who I watched utterly flatten other guy's his size in last year's state championship game, was booked by Lowell Police for allegedly punching his girlfriend.

He allegedly told his girlfriend not to call police because they all know him, and he was probably right about that last part. I was glad to read how quickly Lowell Police showed him how much they cared.

This isn't just about Grimard though, and people need to remember that.

This happens every single day.

It happens so much it doesn't even make the paper unless the accused is someone prominent. And I think that's pretty sad, but we can't cover five cases a day, like the five I typed into Wednesday's arrest log.

So, Grimard's case made the paper because he's well known, and a role model, but it's how often this happens that's really the problem. And even if Grimard is innocent, it's not like the problem goes away.

So how do you address it when it happens with teens?

District Attorney Gerry Leone thinks having teens talk to their peers about it is a good way to go, and I wish I could have gotten to this blog entry yesterday when I first got the press release.

Leone, long before the Grimard incident made headlines, was working with some other agencies to run a contest that had over 200 students in Middlesex County create 35 videos speaking out against domestic violence.

Earlier this week, six finalists were chosen.

We reported on this, and I'm sure others did as well, but after all that hard work, how many reports showed the videos?
The winning video will appear on local television once it's selected in a vote among about 800 high school students.

I think all six are worth our time though.

They're short, and if you don't think it's worth the time to watch them, start watching how many domestics I put in the arrest log each day, or imagine your daughter being punched in the face.

Don't think that could happen?
Leone says 1 in 3 teenagers have reporting knowing a friend or peer that has been hit, punched, kicked, slapped, choked or physically hurt by their partner.
He says kids, 16 to 24, have the highest rate of intimate partner violence in the country.

I'm going to embed the videos from local schools, and the one I thought was the best, and will link to the rest.

This one is from Somerville High School.

This one is from students at Shawsheen Tech.

This one is from Bedford High School.

This one is from Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School.

Another video from a different group at Somerville High School.

Everett High School.

Leone also recommends these three sites if you want to learn more about teen dating violence.

http://www.reachma.org/pavene

http://www.loveisnotabuse.com

http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/topics/dateviolence.asp

Or, well, hot off my e-mail to be precise.

As you've probably heard, former Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi was indicted for fraud and conspiracy today, which you can read about if you follow this link.

For those that are interested, though, I thought I'd share the indictment and press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, which arrived about 30 seconds ago.

To read the full indictment, click this link and download the pdf.

To read the press release, click this link and download the pdf.

I'll be working with Matt Murphy to get reactions from local representatives who voted for DiMasi to be speaker again back in January, but don't expect more updates here. We'll have a big spread in the paper tomorrow I'm sure.

It turns out there is at least a tiny bit of a local flavor to the good news the FBI released yesterday when they announced that violent crime was down 2.5 percent and property crime was down 1.6 percent nationwide in 2008.
The Northeast was the only region of the country where property crimes, such as burglary and theft, were up in 2008. They were up 1.6 percent here.

Lowell saw increases in both categories of crime in 2008, but during the first three months of this year robbery and murder are both down. Burglary is up, but only slightly.

Superintendent Lavallee just forwarded me the numbers this afternoon. They're limited, but if you want to take a look at the excel spreadsheet just click this link.

There was a very young deer on the loose around downtown Lowell on Monday. It was spotted about 6 p.m., crossing East Merrimack Street, but hid in a wooded area near the Concord River when police went to look for him.
It was later spotted again on Hurd Street, where it was very calmly resting in the grass across from Lowell District Court for a good 20 minutes, before it got up and headed back toward the river.

It sounds like animal control is out looking for him now, but I'm not sure if he's been captured. I think the concern is that he could get hit by a car if he keeps roaming around like this.
Police were hoping he would just wander into the woods earlier.

I tried to get a picture of him in front of the court but it was just too dark out. My photos weren't usable.

About 9:55 p.m., police put out tones, which signal a priority call, and dispatched that a man inside the Village Smokehouse, 98 Middle St., had flashed a handgun.

At least a half dozen cruisers spend downtown at high speed, which probably created more commotion than the actual incident did. All the cruisers were worth it though. Charles Pappaconstantinou and James DiMaio from the gang unit soon found the suspect walking on Central Street, just before Warren, still carrying the gun.

It turns out it was a black BB gun, but it definitely looked real. It's in the bottom of the picture here.

The guy was identified as Eric Burke, 31, of Burlington, and he was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon (gun).

Police said Burke, who appeared drunk, flashed the gun inside the restaurant, though there wasn't a fight or anything. Employees got him out of the building and called police, which police said was the right thing to do.

Burke didn't seem pleased to be under arrest. Go figure.

This really surprised me. The FBI released their preliminary 2008 crime statistics this year from their Uniform Crime Report program, and the numbers suggest violent crime is down 2.5 percent nationwide. Violent crime includes murders, rapes, aggravated assaults, and that type of thing.
Perhaps even more surprisingly, the FBI says property crime, which is stuff like burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft, is down 1.6 percent.

The preliminary report only shows specific numbers for cities over 100,000 people, but the overall conclusions also incorporate unreleased numbers from smaller communities as well.

The only region in the country where either type of crime is up is here in the Northeast, where property crime is up 1.6 percent. That makes a little more sense to me, since I did a story on 2008 crime stats a couple months ago, and learned that property crime was up dramatically in almost every area community, especially Lowell.

Property crime in Lowell was up 17.7 percent last year. Violent crime was up 6.4 percent, and towns around the region all reported a similar trend on property crime. (It should be noted that those increases are under the incident-based reporting system though, which is slightly different than the FBI's UCR reports).

The economy was in the crapper all last year, so I'm shocked at these overall numbers. I can't really say I'm disappointed though. It's much better news than I expected.

I also hear that crime in Lowell is down so far this year.

If you want to take a look at all the numbers for yourself, go HERE.

If you want to download and look at the excel spreadsheet showing crime numbers for every city in the country with more than 100,000 people, including Lowell, go HERE

If you don't have Excel, use this link.

I didn't cover this since it was before I punched in, but it certainly deserves a mention here in the blog.

Alexandra Mayer-Hohdahl will have the story, and some good pictures, in tomorrow's paper.

13-year-old girl critically injured while riding her bike in Lowell.

An interesting difference between police in the Merrimack Valley and police just north of the border in New Hampshire, is that Granite State police have a tendency to send out press releases, along with mugshots, for a lot of their arrests.

What does this mean?

Well, it means that if you get accused of shoplifting, or of, say, hiding in a store at the mall and then stealing $10,000 worth of DVD's and stuff, that not only will it make the newspaper, your picture will make the paper too.

That almost never happens with folks who get caught stealing here in Massachusetts. Police and the DA's office here tend to be much more resistant to releasing mugshots, even when we ask them too.
In New Hampshire, they send the mugshots before we even request them.

Which is how Mitchell Camrol, 20, of Tyngsboro, came to appear here this afternoon.

He is accused of being one of four men involved in stealing $10,000 worth of DVD's, games and gadgets from FYE at the Pheasant Lane Mall on Dec. 16. He was arrested this weekend.

Angelique Johnson, 29, and Paula Goodwin, 32, both of Dracut, were likewise arrested in Salem, NH for allegedly shoplifting from Marshall's department store.

Had these three been arrested in Massachusetts, you likely never would have seen their pictures. Plus, it's not like you save on sales tax by stealing.