September 2009 Archives

It sounds like Billerica Fire did some nice work on a fire at 34 Elsie Ave., this afternoon.

Police and fire got the call about 5:57 p.m.

Police were on scene at 5:59 p.m., and reported heavy smoke showing and everyone out of the home.

Fire got to the scene two minutes later at 6:01 p.m., and reported smoke and fire showing.

I started driving that way since fire showing on arrival often means a pretty bad fire is underway, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear a Deputy Chief radio in at 6:06 p.m., to report the main body of the fire was knocked down.

Crews are still checking for extension and overhauling, but it sounds like this one is well in hand.

I'll seek some more details once crews are all back in their stations. Police radio broadcasts indicated the fire started in the kitchen.

While typing this, I just heard the call "fire is out" here at 6:23 p.m.

Police and firefighters pulled an apparently suicidal man out of the Eastern Canal along Bridge Street this afternoon about 3:30 p.m.

He was taken to the hospital for an evaluation, so I don't think we'll be able to identify him, but Jon Hill got some incredible photos of the rescue and the man being pulled from the water.

Stay tuned for that in tomorrow's paper.

Here at 5:35 p.m., fire got a call to 341 Lakeview Ave., and struck a first alarm on what ended up being a fire on a stove. It was just called under control at 5:41, though, so apparently nothing too big.

Police had to call for help from the fire department to get into a professional building at 134 Middle St., tonight about 8 p.m., and as soon as officers got inside it sounded like they found something bad.

"We're going to need a boss here," said Officer Caz Czarnionka, as a woman's screams could be heard in the background. It was 8:09 p.m.

A street supervisor and Capt. Kelly Richardson both went to the scene, and within minutes detectives were called in.
Detective Capt. Jack Webb and Detective Lt. Dan Laroque were at the scene before too long, and a full-blown investigation appeared to be underway.

Here is a photo of officers working inside the second-floor office. Most activity was around where Detective Alexander is standing in a blue shirt on the left of the photo in the back room.

Before anyone panics, multiple sources, and most importantly Superintendent Lavallee have all told me this is NOT a homicide. Beyond that, no one can comment.
The deceased was an unidentified male.

Police will continue to investigate until they're positive this was not a homicide, but I'm writing about it anyway due to location and the commotion it caused. An investigation like this is standard procedure for any death where the cause is not witnessed.

The building at Middle and Palmer streets, which houses Cafe Paradiso on the first floor, is home to offices for doctors, lawyers and at least one engineering firm on the upper floors.

No one working in the area or passing by had heard or seen anything.

It's been a very quiet Saturday and Sunday night, but I just ran out to Pawtucket and Fletcher streets to check out an accident.

It didn't look like the accident was anything deadly, but I heard from police at the scene that a utility pole fire had led to a heck of an explosion a little earlier in the night when a pole with three transformers on it caught fire on Pawtucket between Merrimack Street and University Avenue.

I guess all three of them burst and threw of a bunch of sparks.

The power outage that resulted seems pretty localized. The light is out at Pawtucket and University, and the houses around that area are out, but that appears to be just about it.

National Grid's website says they've got 84 customers currently without power in Lowell.

Not a ton of crime news to reporter here in Greater Lowell tonight, but I hate to go a night without an update, so I'll post this Associated Press story that is sure to generate some headlines over the next few days.

By DEVLIN BARRETT and JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press Writers
MANCHESTER, Ky. (AP) -- A U.S. Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.
The law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, did not say what type of instrument was used to write the word on the chest of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and teacher. He was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.
The Census Bureau has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation. An autopsy report is pending.
Investigators have said little about the case. FBI spokesman David Beyer said the bureau is assisting state police and declined to confirm or discuss any details about the crime scene.
"Our job is to determine if there was foul play involved -- and that's part of the investigation -- and if there was foul play involved, whether that is related to his employment as a Census worker," said Beyer.
Attacking a federal worker during or because of his federal job is a federal crime.
Sparkman's mother, Henrie Sparkman of Inverness, Fla., told The Associated Press her son was an Eagle scout who moved to the area to be a local director for the Boy Scouts of America. She said he later became a substitute teacher in Laurel County and supplemented that income as a Census worker.
She said investigators have given her few details about her son's death -- they told her the body was decomposed -- and haven't yet released his body for burial. "I was told it would be better for him to be cremated," she said.
Henrie Sparkman said her son's death is a mystery to her.
"I have my own ideas, but I can't say them out loud. Not at this point," she said. "Right now, what I'm doing, I'm just waiting on the FBI to come to some conclusion."
Gilbert Acciardo, a retired Kentucky state trooper who directs an after-school program at the elementary school where Sparkman was a frequent substitute teacher, said he had warned Sparkman to be careful when he did his Census work.
"I told him on more than one occasion, based on my years in the state police, 'Mr. Sparkman, when you go into those counties, be careful because people are going to perceive you different than they do elsewhere,"' Acciardo said.
"Even though he was with the Census Bureau, sometimes people can view someone with any government agency as 'the government.' I just was afraid that he might meet the wrong character along the way up there," Acciardo said.
Acciardo said he became suspicious when Sparkman didn't show up for work at the after-school program for two days and went to police. Authorities immediately initiated an investigation, he said.
"He was such an innocent person," Acciardo said. "I hate to say that he was naive, but he saw the world as all good, and there's a lot of bad in the world."
Lucindia Scurry-Johnson, assistant director of the Census Bureau's southern office in Charlotte, N.C., said law enforcement officers have told the agency the matter is "an apparent homicide" but nothing else.
Census employees were told Sparkman's truck was found nearby, and a computer he was using for work was found inside it, she said. He worked part-time for the Census, usually conducting interviews once or twice a month.
Sparkman has worked for the Census since 2003, spanning five counties in the surrounding area. Much of his recent work had been in Clay County, officials said.
Door-to-door operations have been suspended in Clay County pending a resolution of the investigation, Scurry-Johnson said.
The Census Bureau has yet to begin door-to-door canvassing for the 2010 head count, but it has thousands of field workers doing smaller surveys on various demographic topics on behalf of federal agencies. Next year, the Census Bureau will dispatch up to 1.2 million temporary employees to locate hard-to-find residents.
The Census Bureau is overseen by the Commerce Department.
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with William Sparkman's son, other family and friends."
Locke called him "a shining example of the hardworking men and women employed by the Census Bureau."
Appalachia scholar Roy Silver, a New York City native now living in Harlan County, Ky., said he doesn't sense an outpouring of anti-government sentiment in the region as has been exhibited in town hall meetings in other parts of the country.
"I don't think distrust of government is any more or less here than anywhere else in the country," said Silver, a sociology professor at Southeast Community College.
The most deadly attack on federal workers came in 1995 when the federal building in Oklahoma City was devastated by a truck bomb, killing 168 and injuring more than 680. Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for the bombing, carried literature by modern, ultra-right-wing anti-government authors.
A private group called PEER, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, tracks violence against employees who enforce environmental regulations, but the group's executive director, Jeff Ruch, said it's hard to know about all of the cases because some agencies don't share data on instances of violence against employees.
From 1996 to 2006, according to the group's most recent data, violent incidents against federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service workers soared from 55 to 290.
Ruch said that after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, "we kept getting reports from employees that attacks and intimidation against federal employees had not diminished, and that's why we've been tracking them."
"Even as illustrated in town hall meetings today, there is a distinct hostility in a large segment of the population toward people who work for their government," Ruch said.
------
Barrett reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Roger Alford in Frankfort, Ky., Hope Yen in Washington and Dylan T. Lovan in Louisville contributed to this report.

Police are looking for a light-skinned Hispanic male with short hair, about 5'7, 140 pounds, who put a red bandana over his face and robbed Dominos on Bridge and 10th streets at gunpoint about 9:10 p.m.

He wore a gray sweatshirt with no logo over a long white T-shirt, blue jeans and black sneakers. He fled on foot down West 10th Street.

No one was hurt.

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.

As of 7:55 p.m., someone in Tewksbury just called 911 to report that they had a rat in their dishwasher, according to radio broadcasts.

I will be following this story closely.

I got a couple of interesting tidbits in a press release from police in Salem, New Hampshire today.

First is that there are 74 businesses in Salem with liquor licenses. There are just under 30,000 people living in Salem.

Second is that police say they did a compliance check at 60 of those 74 businesses on Friday night, with only two businesses failing by not carding an underage buyer.

What was one of those two stores?

The New Hampshire State Liquor Store on South Broadway.

A clerk at the store, Nancy Emery-Debaugh, 55, of Newburyport, will be summonsed to court for prohibited sales.

I'm betting she won't fare as well as the store itself, which will have it's information forwarded to the New Hampshire Bureau of Liquor Enforcement for "possible administrative action."

Can the state of New Hampshire really punish itself for this one?

The other store that police say failed, which also surprised me, was Kmart.

Apparently Kmart sells booze in Salem. Who knew?

Clerk Yohandris Ferrand, 32, of Lawrence, made the sale there, according to police, and she will also be summonsed to court for prohibited sales.

Oh Shane Carney, we hardly knew ya.

In 1988, at the tender age of roughly 12, police tell me you pushed another young boy into the Pawtucket Canal near the Francis Gatehouse. That other boy drowned, and according to police you were convincted of murder.

Since you were so young, you were eventually released from custody.

And it was 2002 before you were arrested for assaulting a police officer, destroying property, making threats and disorderly conduct.

It was 2004 when you were arrested for assault with a dangerous weapon.

It was 2006 when you were once again arrested for assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, assaulting someone else, and disorderly conduct.

I'm not sure you were ever convicted after those arrests, so I won't assume you were guilty.

But on July 18, 2008, when a combination of city, state and federal agencies arrested you for selling a handgun and 84 rounds of ammunition to a cooperating federal witness, you really got yourself in some trouble.

You pled guilty in June to being a felon in possession of ammunition, and today you were sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

We barely got a chance to enjoy your company here in Lowell.

Farewell, Shane Carney, 32, formerly of 549 Pine St.

I do my best to be fair to those who have not yet been convicted, since surely police arrest the innocent at least every once and a while, but you went and got yourself convicted.

The City Lowell, and all your associates in TRG - Gray will surely miss you.

There is no such thing as parole when it's federal prison that you call home.

So, after serving his country in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Afghanistan again, Army Reserve Master Sgt. John Rondeau has been living in West Sixth Street in Lowell for less than a year.

In that short time, his new pickup truck has twice been demolished by errant drivers while parked in front of his home near West Street, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

This is the damage done when it happened for the second time on Saturday, about 11:40 p.m.

This time was extra low, because police say the driver of the Chevy Tahoe, Renne Milinazzo, 38, of 132 Hampshire St., admitted to having a few beers, and was slurring her speech so badly she could barely finish sentences.

She had also tried to run from the scene, police said.

Rondeau told me his wife saw the driver take off, though, so he chased her down.

"This was the second time," he said. "I wasn't letting this one go."

Police found Rondeau and Milinazzo on West Street, nearby. Milinazzo complained of minor injuries so she was taken to Saints Medical Center instead of being booked.

She will be charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of a property damage accident, and marked lanes violation.

Lets all slow down on West Sixth Street there for a while eh? I think Mr. Rondeau deserves better than a third wrecked truck for his service.

LOWELL -- National Grid was reporting Tuesday night that more than nearly 3,000 homes and businesses in Lowell were without power, in an outage that appeared to be effecting the upper Merrimack Street area and parts of UMass-Lowell.
The utility's website said 2,834 structures were without power as of 7:40 p.m., and that they were expected to have power restored by 10 p.m. Another 104 homes and businesses were without power in Dracut, according to the website.
A spokesman said the outage was caused by a problem with some circuits in a substation, and that the outage lasted about a half hour.

Chelmsford Police reported tonight that an officer responding to a domestic assault right in the heart of the town center between Bartlett Street and Boston Road shot a 37-year-old woman in the leg after she fled the scene, and then made the officer fear for his safety tonight.

Details are few, which is not unusual when an investigation this touchy is just getting started, but Chief James Murphy said officers went to the home at 6:33 p.m., learned a domestic assault had taken place and that a suspect had fled.

Officers soon found that suspect in a small stand of trees between 4 Bartlett St., and the town library, and the woman did something to make the officer fear for her safety. He fired his service weapon at least once, hitting her in the leg.

The woman was taken to Lowell General Hospital with what were said to be non life-threatening injuries.

Here is the only picture I could get of officers investigating at the scene. All my other shots came out blurry.

Murphy said it's standard proceedure that the officer involved was placed on paid administrative leave, as police and the DA's office investigates. Town Manager Paul Cohen said tonight that his understanding is that a second officer, who did not fire a weapon, was also placed on paid leave because he or she was at the scene.

For those who want to read about the incident in Murphy's own words, here is a link to the press release.

Keep an eye out for more on this in the coming days.

UPDATE: Chief Murphy has identified the officer involved as Officer Timothy Bourke, 38, who is a twelve year veteran of the force.

The updated press release is available for download here.

We also talked to several folks who live or work around the center today, and two of them said they heard three gunshots.

Remember my earlier entry on the nearly fatal shooting that took place on Moody Street on Aug. 1, and my subsequent blog entry about a suspect police were searching for?

Well, it turns out Otty Ortiz turned himself in at Lowell District Court on Friday on a warrant charging him with armed assault with intent to murder.

At his arraignment, prosecutors asked that he be held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing, which was scheduled for this Friday.

Judge Neil Walker scheduled the hearing, at which evidence will be presented to determine whether Ortiz is too much of a danger to the public to be released pending trial. He then released Ortiz on personal recognizance in the meantime.

Sorta makes you hope they don't go to court on Friday and realize this guy was too dangerous to be free eh?

Police and the DA's office declined to comment on this one even slightly on Monday, but several officers have privately voiced a lot of concern and frustration about this to me.

Police even took the rare step of issuing a press release about this guy before he was in custody, because they were that worried about him being out and about, and wanted to catch him that bad.

Go figure.

Ortiz will be back in court for his dangerousness hearing on Friday.

I'm not sure of all the details, but a domestic incident at 26 Wood St., in Lowell led to a chase tonight, and eventually an arrest.

Police say Stephen Picardi fled in a pickup truck just as officers were pulling into 26 Wood St., to investigate a fight about 11 p.m.

One cruiser followed Picardi's black pickup as other officers spoke to a victim who said Picardi assaulted her in violation of a restraining order at the scene, according to police radio broadcasts.

Lowell Police followed Picardi through Drum Hill in Chelmsford, but broke off the chase on Route 3 north.

State Police picked up the chase, and followed Picardi north to Route 113 in Tyngsboro, through Tyngsboro Center, over the bridge, and back south on Sherburne Avenue, before state, Lowell and Tyngsboro police got the truck stopped on Varnum Avenue just over the city line.

Which is where Picardi is laying in the middle of the street in this picture.

No report yet on the domestic incident that led to this, so that's about all I know. Picardi, 25, of 174 Trotting Park Road, Lowell, is charged with domestic assault and battery, restraining order violation, and failure to stop for police.

A 21-year-old Lowell man was stabbed during a fight at Gorham and Moore streets in Lowell Sunday morning about 2 a.m.

Non life-threatening injuries, no real description of suspects. It happened after a fight.

Not much to say about this one. Victim went to Lahey Clinic.

This terrific little incident began about 5:28 p.m., when Lowell Police got a report of an attempted robbery at the former Mobil Gas Station at 447 Bridge St.

The place is now called Moujaes Inc., as far as I can tell.

A suspect had fled in a blue Honda with New York plates, and Lowell Police had all surrounding towns keep an eye out for the vehicle.

It turns out that wasn't necessary, since the suspect returned to the store 20 to 30 minutes later. The clerk immediately called police, who rushed to the scene and arrested Juan Carrion, 31, of the Bronx, as seen below.

Police said it turned out there was no attempted robbery, and that Carrion had apparently just pulled a knife during an argument with the clerk during the initial incident. He told officers he had returned to apologize.

The apology didn't work, and Carrion was booked for assault with a dangerous weapon (knife), assault with a dangerous weapon (motor vehicle), and a violation of the city'd dangerous weapon ordinance.

Police and firefighters got the call to 220 Baldwin Road about 5:30 p.m. A man was trapped under a vehicle. Police arrived within about a minute but by then it was already too late.

The first office at the scene asked for a push on the ambulance and paramedics, and just a few seconds later requested a supervisor and detectives.

It looked like the man in his 60's who was under a Ford Windstar in the inclined driveway of 220 Baldwin St., was pronounced dead at the scene.

He was apparently working under the car when it rolled backward off a jack and landed on top of him. State Police detectives are on the way to the scene to make sure there was no foul play or anything else involved.

That's about all there is to tell about this one I think. I felt sorry for his wife, who was apparently home at the time, and several other family members showed up as well. They were crying a little too hard for me to try to approach them.

They didn't need that on a day like today. I'm sure they could use a few prayers.

First, the vice detectives conducting surveillance on West Street noticed what they believed was a drug deal.

When they moved in to make arrests, they also noticed that one of the men involved looked like a bank robbery suspect.

Thomas Kendall, 29, of 198 Pine St., unit 2L, Lowell, and Kevin McClarney, 45, of 20 Depot St., Westford, were both arrested on West Street about 11:30 a.m., by vice detectives who were conducting surveillance in response to complaints from neighbors, according to Capt. Jack Webb.

McClarney was charged with distribution of a class A substance, conspiracy to violate drug laws, possession of a class A substance with intent to distribute, possession of a class B substance and possession of a class C substance. Who knew that Westford guys dealt heroin in Lowell?

Kendall was charged with possession of a class A substance and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

Kendall was in bigger trouble, though.

Vice detectives, led by Detective Lt. James Hodgdon, noticed something.

"While they were making the arrest they recognized that (Kendall) closely fit the description of a guy who we wanted for the bank robbery," Webb said.

The robbery Webb was talking about had been at TD BankNorth, 350 Westford St., in Cupples Square, on Aug. 31, where an unarmed man had walked into the bank and passed a teller a note before making his escape.

After an investigation by detectives probing the bank heist, Kendall was charged with an additional count of unarmed robbery.

He was being held Tuesday afternoon, since bail had not yet been set. He will be arraigned Wednesday in Lowell District Court.

When he kicked in the front door at 16 Varney St., in Lowell, Sunday night about 11:45 p.m.

Police say the guy was looking for "Omar," who definitely did not live at 16 Varney St., and when the resident who does live at 16 Varney St., met the guy at the door, the guy swung and struck the roughly 40-year-old resident in the arm 6 or 7 times with the shovel.

What was left of the shovel is here.

The resident apparently fought back, because what's left of the guy is here.

Police say this guy, who I can't identify since he was taken to the hospital to get his face treated before being booked, also struggled with Officers Caz Czarnionka and Mindy Dower when they showed up and fairly quickly arrested him.

The resident was at the scene and seemed to be doing surprisingly well for having had a shovel broken over his arm. His arm was all bandaged up by the time I got there, and I heard him say he was going to head up to LGH to get checked out further.

Here is the accused being led to the wagon, on his way to being charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shovel).

There was some talk of other charges too, but I'm not sure what they were going to be. Apparently they can't get him for burglarly since initial indications were that the resident prevented him from entering the house.

Police have been hunting for 4-year-old Jordan Luciano since 10:56 a.m., which is when a foster parent called to report him missing from 110 Fayette St., in Lowell. He was last seen about 9:45 a.m.

Police initially thought Jordan, a dark-skinned Hispanic male, wearing Spiderman PJ's, had wandered off from the foster home on Fayette Street while a caregiver was sleeping.

Now they're saying he may have been abducted by his mother, who does not have custody of him, and say that the mother will likely face charges if she is located. Police have not identified the mother, though, and I didn't catch her name on the 29th.

Superintendent Lavallee says this incident does not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert.

TWO UPDATES: One, I had a mistaken confirmation on the ID in the picture that was up here earlier, in case you caught it. That was not Jordan. I apologize.

Two, Jordan has been found safe and sound on Cambridge Street in Boston, where his mother was arrested and charged with parental kidnapping about 9:15 p.m.

She'll be arraigned Tuesday in Lowell District Court.

I thought today was going to be a day of good news, a new positive ticketing program and a police precinct opening in Centralville, but it took a turn for the worse at 3:32 p.m.

Police and firefighters went to 23 Dane St., where a 5-year-old boy fell out a third-story window, from the couch in his living room to the rock-hard asphalt below.

The first police officer at the scene asked for an immediate push on the ambulance, and within minutes MedFlight was on the way too.

I'm told the boy was watching television with his mother when the mother stepped out of the room for just a second, and the kid stood up on the couch and either pushed or leaned against the screen in the window.

Both screen and boy fell. The boy was found laying at the base of the building, and the screen was a few feet away in the middle of the street. Here you can see the window, the boy and the screen.

Detectives, including a state police detective, were at the scene almost immediately to investigate, but initial word is that the mother did nothing wrong. It's just a tragic accident.

The owner of the triple-decker, Joe Labate, was too worried about the child to comment much, but he told me the mother is a great tenant who has lived in the building since before he bought it.

"She's just a working mom," he said.

UPDATE: I confirmed about 10:15 p.m., that this little boy has died.

I've covered a lot of deaths, but it's incidents like this one that bug me. I think everyone in the newsroom wishes we had one less story to report tonight.

I know some people find photos of this type of thing distasteful, but it's something I struggle with. I didn't take any direct photographs of the boy, but at the same time, it's not my job to sugar coat things.

I hope that when something like this happens, my stories and my blog make people just as sick to their stomachs as they should be when a 5-year-old dies. That's why I did take a few photos where you could see the boy's feet.

I hope it's enough to really make it hit home just what a tragedy this was. We should all feel a little sick today, not just sad for 5 seconds and then back to business.

If you want a more sanitary report on Lowell's reality, you're probably reading the wrong guy's blog.

Rest in peace little guy.

The state just got back to me and the mystery is solved, an error is corrected, and it turns out there wasn't an entire tire to blame.

A state police spokesman tells me Dorothy Lovenbury, 51, of Dunbarton, NH, was driving the white Kia pictured below on Interstate 495 near exit 33 in Chelmsford when the tread from a dump truck tire came off the tire and struck her car windshield.

As you can see, it did a fair amount of damage.

Lovenbury was taken to Lowell General Hospital with minor injuries to her hands.