MoCo Home invasion update 7/11/07

An invasion from earlier this month:

Gazette

Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Resident injured in home invasion, attempted robbery
— Chris Robinson |

A Gaithersburg man was hurt early Tuesday during an attempted armed robbery at his home in the unit block of State Court in east Gaithersburg, police said.

At about 4:20 a.m., three men armed with guns entered a home occupied by two residents and attempted to rob them, said Cpl. Jimmy Robinson, a spokesman for Montgomery County police.

Police did not know if property was stolen.

The residents, a 39-year-old man and 45-year-old woman, heard someone breaking into the house and the man went to investigate, according to a statement from police.

He encountered three black men, two with their faces covered. They began to struggle and one of the suspects fired his gun. No one was hit by the bullet, according to the police statement.

The woman looked out from a room, but one of the armed men forced her back into the room. She then called police, according to the statement.

The suspects fled on foot.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the police Robbery Section at 240-773-5100.

MoCo Home invasion update 7/18/07

In response to someone who once claimed that home invasions were a "myth," I have decided to start documenting the once-every-other-week home invasions that happen here in MoCo.

Due to the bad PR, it seems that local media black out these events. I really have to dig to get info on them. Whenever I find out about them, I will post an update under the "MoCo Home Invasions" tag.

Here are THREE over the past two weeks:

Gazette

Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Masked gunmen take property from White Oak home
Alexandra Hiatt |

Three masked gunmen forced their way Thursday into a White Oak home in the early morning hours, attacked two of the residents and took property.

The townhouse in the 2100 block of Harlequin Terrace was occupied at the time of the robbery — about 4:30 a.m. — by four males, ages 15, 17, 23, and one of an unknown age. Montgomery County Police said three of the victims were residents.

Two of the residents were assaulted. The 23-year-old man was transported to an area hospital where he was treated and released, and the victim of unknown age, who was not a resident of the townhouse, ran from the residence. The nature of the injuries was not disclosed, but county police said none was serious. The intruders left the scene on foot.

The gunmen were black. One had a dark complexion and was wearing a white tank top under a black button-up shirt that was opened. Another had a light complexion and was wearing all black, and the third had a dark complexion and was wearing all black. At least one of the men wore sunglasses.

Police said the incident is similar to a home invasion robbery that occurred 4:20 a.m. July 10 in the unit block of State Court in Gaithersburg, but do not have enough information to link the cases.

Anyone with information is asked to call 240-773-5100. Callers can remain anonymous.

Man robs, sexually assaults woman in home

A man Takoma Park police say robbed and sexually assaulted a woman in her home on Lincoln Avenue Friday was videotaped using the victim’s bank cards at three locations shortly after the incident.

Police have footage of the man and are urging residents to call the department with information that could lead to his identification and arrest.

‘‘We need the public’s help. In this case, we feel this individual was in the neighborhood for quite a long period of time before the crime occurred,” Police Chief Ronald Ricucci told the City Council Monday night.

Police responded to the call in the 400 block of Lincoln Avenue about 11:45 p.m. According to a police news release, the man demanded money from the woman before ordering her to undress, tying her up and sexually assaulting her. The man left her residence with $25 in cash, two bank cards, her personal identification number to access the cash at three area banks and a laptop computer.

The man entered the woman’s home through a rear door that was unlocked, according to the release.

About 45 minutes after he committed the crime, Ricucci said, the man used the woman’s bank cards at three local banks’ machines.

The man was black, in his 20s, about 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pounds.

Anyone with information should call the Takoma Park Police Criminal Investigations Division at 301-270-1100.

Man stabbed;police list no motive

A man was in critical condition Monday in an area hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries following a stabbing early Friday morning in the Peppertree Farm community of Silver Spring.

Montgomery County Police say the victim, a 34-year-old resident of a condominium in the 3300 block of Weeping Willow Court, was stabbed about 1:30 a.m. and flown to the hospital by helicopter.

A motive for the stabbing remains under investigation and no suspect information was available from police, according to Cpl. Jimmy Robinson, a spokesman for county police.

Call police at 240-773-5530.

Dist39 Senate Seat drama

It seems that the D39 senate seat lost a contender. That King lady dropped out. Ali is definitely in. It looks like it will a bruiser between him and Barkley.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/072707/polinew223948_32355.shtml

King stays put

Del. Nancy King of Montgomery Village said she decided over the weekend not to seek Hogan’s Senate seat.

‘‘I love where I am in the House,” King said Tuesday. ‘‘The time’s not right for me to go to the Senate, so I decided not to.”

King said the fact that she was recently named House chairwoman for the Joint Committee on Children, Youth and Families influenced her decision to stay put.

Her decision leaves District 39 House colleagues Saqib Ali and Charlie Barkley and former delegate and Montgomery College trustee Gene Counihan in the running.

The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee will pick a name to submit to Gov. Martin O’Malley based on a majority vote of its 23 members at an Aug. 14 meeting. The governor has 15 days to make the appointment.

Stay tuned!

Biden = few fries short

of a happy meal. Anyone see his BS last night in response to the guy from Michigan? Or the reaction of the loser Gen Zero audience to his asshattery? That is the best that bread and circuses can buy, folks. Let's hope the audience members are all busy obsessing over Big Brother or some other crap come next election day.

We need a good Parker decision, yesterday.

Busy weekend ahead

This weekend I will attempt my most ambitious home project yet - replanking our arsenic laden deck with Trex boards. I am hoping it should go fairly smoothly as long as I take my time.

I have researched the heck out of the work. I had a load of 68 Trex boards delivered this morning, and will borrow my bud's miter saw later today.

Foreseen problems: wild two year old who wants to help daddy do everything; blazing hot sun; unknown condition of the underlying joists.

I'll try to post pics when done.

More in MoCO

According to the Gazette, Hogan's vacancy is already being fought over like crabs in a barrel.

It looks like the District 39 Delegates are fighting over the Senate seat:

All three District 39 delegates, all Democrats — veterans Charles E. Barkley and Nancy J. King and freshman Saqib Ali — are thought to be interested in Hogan’s Senate seat.

King said Monday that she and Barkley have met with Senate leadership recently to discuss a suitable successor.

‘‘I think it really boils down to Charlie Barkley and me,” King said, adding that she hopes the three delegates can come to agreement on Hogan’s successor. The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee will seek applications for the vacancy, before forwarding a name within 30 days to Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) who then has 15 days to approve or reject the nomination. . . .

Ali said Monday that he will decide soon whether he will throw his name into the mix. ‘‘It’s a great opportunity for Montgomery County to send a progressive to the state Senate, someone who will represent all our diverse communities with energy and enthusiasm,” he said.

Experience should not be the sole factor in choosing Hogan’s successor, Barkley said Monday. ‘‘When you have two delegates with a lot of experience, I think you look at them first.”

It looks like it will get pretty ugly. I will a have to research Rice and Barkley, but I can tel you for a fact that Ali, though generally a good legislator on other issues (except for the smoking ban and his apparent misunderstanding of the concept of the separation of church and state, viz. the "Jewish divorce bill"), will be a disaster for the MD 2A community. See

Assault Weapons Ban
Assault-type weapons are appearing in greater numbers in many Montgomery County communities. Well-armed criminals and gangs threaten the safety of all voters and their families, as well as the safety of our law enforcement personnel, who increasing find themselves facing military-grade firearms. We must ban the sale, ownership and use of the types of assault-type weapons used in the commission of crimes. I strongly support HB 1367 - The Maryland Assault Weapons Ban of 2006, sponsored by Delegate Neil Quinter (D-13), which is now before the legislature. With the lapse of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 2004, Maryland's citizns and law enforcement agencies need protection.

Eager-beaver ambition + misguided good intentions = road to hell.

I am thinking that Ali needs a sit down to explain why he is wrong on this position. Any other MoCo Democrats willing to hook up to approach him?

Bad Scene in MoCo

State Sen. Patrick Hogan (D) has quit the MD senate to take a lobbying job at the Univ. of MD. As some may remember, Hogan single handedly killed the MoCo attempt to get out of preemption to make its own gun laws - DC style NO DOUBT! As MoCo senate delegation leader, Hogan refused to have the MoCo senators vote on whether to endorse the bill, effectively killing it.

The MoCo Dem central commitee will get to pick Hogan's replacement. Who wants to bet it will be a Chris Van Hollen-esque "Take On The NRA" (whatever that means) tool?

Stay tuned, Marylanders. The new MoCo delegation leader could be Frosh or Garagiola. God forbid - even Lennett is possible.

Tiarht follies

Anyone notice that Bloomberg, et al., are dancing in the blood of Ofcrs. Yan and Timoshenko by claiming that the Tiahrt Amendment prevents law enforcement from tracing illegally-owned guns?

But didn't ATF trace the handgun used to shoot those officers?

Didn't ATF get info on the FFL and first purchaser within THREE HOURS of NYC's request? All the while with the Tiahrt Amendment in place?

Is it me?!

More nonsense that gets ignored

This "32" BS has been circulating around the interweb. None of the "32 events" seems to do anything more than piss people off because the sidewalk was blocked.

(anti-gunowners attempt to crash the NAACP presidential debate)

It sure sucks to be you when even the NAACP says your "protest" didn't have any impact.

registration, licensing, etc. . . .

One more data point to use against the pro-registration and pro-licensing drones.

Gee, the NYPD sure has funny timing:

NYPD pressuring me, sez rights lawyer

Thursday, July 12th 2007, 4:00 AM

A prominent civil rights lawyer is charging that the NYPD is yanking his gun license to force him to cooperate in a probe of alleged police brutality.

Total BS, and the law department obviously knows it, as evidenced by their mealy-mouth answer.

A win for legitimate law enforcement

It looks like the Tiahrt/Shelby Amendments passed both houses of Congress. Hear that? It's the flushing sound of the anti-gun-owner movement going down the can. They lose even with Pelosi and Hoyer in charge.

Too bad - there could have been a lot accomplished if they had at least tried to come to the table and compromise on their ban 'em all stand ( see "Pro-Gun-Owner Heresy" below).

A win for women

According to the WashPost, sales of Plan B have doubled to $80M.

This means less pregnancies and, by deduction, fewer abortions.

no links

Since I have to blog by Treo, it is pretty hard to link to stories. If anyone wants a link to something, let me know.

Another win!

Yet one more mayor ditches Bloomberg, from NJ no less.

More idiocy in PA

While Philly burns, the city pols want to sneak in DC-style gun control that would make it crime to have a loaded self-defense firearm in your own home. They also want to "fix" things so you can't carry on your valid PA CCW.

This is all under the guise of "a simple $10 yearly registration fee."

Meanwhile, the LEOs who try to pick us the mess are saying that repeat offenders are causing all the problems (with black market guns). See the title link to hear their desperate pleas for jail time for thugs.

Unfortunately, the Philly residents will get pie-in-the-sky instead of results. That is the best result that media disinformation can buy.

I'm looking at you Philly Daily News and Philly Enquirer ed boards. I hope you are proud of yourselves. People are dying because of your PC nonsense.

Libby fallout

I can't get any work done because if the loud discussion among three people two offices down. It's gonna be a long day . . .

Total DC crowd

This must be the only place outside Carnegie-Mellon where people think that khaki shorts, Teva sandals, and a dress shirt makes a "cool" date outfit.

Another win!

It looks like Tiahrt made it out of the Senate, with teeth this time. I would have preferred to see a criminal penalty for aynyone who publishes the information (NYC city counselors, this means YOU), but I will take what we got.

Anyone surprised?

Scooter Libby gets a walk. NO! I never saw that coming . . . never.