Crime Time

Your Blotter: A carjacking; graffiti guilty plea; ball player's son not indicted

Crime news never seems to let up in North Texas. See what we mean with these headlines on the Crime and Safety Page on Star-Telegram.com:

Man shot during carjacking in Grand Prairie

Investigators said the suspect walked up to the victim and demanded the keys to his vehicle. The victim fled and the armed bandit opened fire.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4647823/man-shot-during-carjacking.html#storylink=cpy

Grand jury declines to indict Torii Hunter's son

The teenage son of the Detroit Tigers outfielder was accused in a sexual assault case in Prosper, north of Dallas.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/crime/#storylink=cpy

Teen gets probation in Arlington graffiti case

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4647998/teen-gets-probation-in-arlington.html#storylink=cpy

This is the case involving the painting of racial and anti-homosexual slurs on cars and homes in an Arlington neighborhood in June.

-- Compiled by Bill Miller from the works of Domingo Ramirez Jr. and The Associated Press.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4647998/teen-gets-probation-in-arlington.html#storylink=cpy

 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4647715/grand-jury-declines-to-indict.html#storylink=cpy

 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02/27/4647823/man-shot-during-carjacking.html#storylink=cpy

Child, 2, safe after thief steals family's SUV in Fort Worth

Here's a happy ending to a crime story.

Two-year-old Ricardo Calderon (shown here with his aunt, Jocelyn Lara) was returned to his family safely Thursday afternoon after a thief put him out of his mother's car a few blocks from where it was stolen in the Fairmount neighborhood.

Officers found the child and brought him back to his family. The thief was still on the loose Thursday evening.

"We're feeling better right now," said 11-year-old brother Ruben, "and thanking God that he helped us get back our little baby brother."

-- Bill Miller

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/01/24/4573430/fort-worth-todler-safe-after-thief.html#storylink=cpy

Man hit by truck that was reported stolen in East Fort Worth

A man was in a hospital late Tuesday with broken bones and internal injuries after being hit on Fort Worth’s east side by a pickup that had been reported stolen.

The man, whose name was not released, was struck about 9 p.m. at a bus stop in the 2200 block of Handley Drive, according to a police report. The area is northeast of the intersection of East Loop 820 and Meadowbrook Drive.

Witnesses said the pickup was a dark green Ford, Fort Worth police Capt. Kevin Rodricks said.

A pickup matching that description was later found disabled, about a quarter of a mile away, with a flat tire. a broken side mirror and missing parts that were found scattered at the bus stop, Rodricks said.

A man had reported to police that a similar truck was stolen earlier in a carjacking, Rodricks said.

The injured man’s condition could not be learned late Tuesday.

The investigation was continuing, Rodricks said. — Bill Miller

Man shot in leg, car stolen in Arlington

A man was shot in the leg and his car was stolen Friday in far east Arlington, a police spokeswoman said.

The man was taken by ambulance to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, but he was expected to survive, said Tiara Ellis Richard, the spokeswoman.

The incident was reported around 8 p.m. in the 2900 block of Berry Down. The man was attacked by two other men, Richard said.

Officers were still looking for the attackers late Friday, and police in Grand Prairie were notified because the crime scene was near the border with their city, Richard said.

-- Bill Miller

California carjacking suspect arrested after car ran out of gas

In another sign that gas prices have been rising through the roof, a man in California accused in a carjacking was arrested when he was found sitting in the car after it ran out of gas.

The Associated Press reports that Stephan Allen, 20, was found in the car about eight miles away from the scene of the carjacking in the parking lot of a pizza joint in Belmont.

A woman in the car was apparently waiting for her husband to come back with a pizza when she got out with her 5-year-old daughter.

Califnornia Highway Patrol troopers arrested Allen about two hours after the carjacking when the Civic went kaput on a highway overpass in nearby Burlingame, California.

Allen, who remains in the San Meteo County jail, has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of carjacking.

-Chance Welch

Suspect in chase is accused in other crimes

It's hard to know where to start with this suspect.

In Fort Worth, Michael Laurence Browne, 46, (right) is a suspect in a carjacking, attempted carjacking and purse snatching in July and August, police said.

In Dallas, he is accused of robbing a 77-year-old woman at knife point Thursday morning and is a suspect in four other robberies, including two carjackings, police said.

Earlier jail records show that Browne has been arrested on suspicion of theft several times in Dallas County.

And Denton County court records show that Browne spent four months in jail last year for theft under $1,500, with two or more previous convictions.

But Browne was in the news Thursday afternoon as TV helicopter cameras showed a stolen pickup crashing through a fence at the airport, with officers in pursuit.

A Dallas officer rammed a patrol car into the truck and stopped it in a grassy area beside a runway at Love Field.

Behind the wheel (but now in jail) was Browne, police said. His latest mugshot appears above.

Deanna Boyd reports.

Carjacker sexually assaults women; later crashes during chase

Two Houston women endured a harrowing experience early Monday when a man jumped into their Mustang convertible at a drive-thru, kidnapping them at gunpoint and sexually assaulting them during a terrifying four-hour ordeal, the Associated Press reported.

He forced them to drive around for several hours and sexually assaulted them during that time, police said.

One of the women was able to trick the man into going to an apartment complex where her brother lived.  She was able to call her brother on a cell phone and tell him was what was happening.

The brother, who had a concealed weapons permit, came out and confronted the man, allowing the other woman to escape, the AP reported.  The brother fired at the man, but missed him. The suspect then took off in the Mustang.

The man then led Houston police on a chase before crashing the Mustang into parked vehicles.  The suspect is in critical condition at a Houston area hospital, the AP reported.

-- Lance Murray

Girl, 4, killed in robber's zeal to steal

A carjacker may have been trying to steal an expensive set of custom rims Sunday in Houston.

At least that's what police suspected on Monday.

But this part is clear: the robber's zeal resulted in gunfire -- shots that killed a 4-year-old girl.

The Houston Chronicle reports.

-- Bill Miller

Bad move: Teens try to carjack police officer

If you were a carjacker, the last person you'd want to carjack would be a police officer.

But police in Pittsburgh, Pa., say that's exactly what happened Monday when an armed 14-year-old boy and his gang of friends tried to carjack Officer Caytlin Wood, who was sitting in her private vehicle preparing to go to work.

She got out of the car, the armed teen ran, and she caught him a block away.  Other members of the gang were caught by backup officers that Wood called.

-- Lance Murray

TV reporter held for four hours by carjacker

Reporters hate it when they become the subject of the news themselves. But that's just what happened to  TV reporter Eric James of KTRK/Channel 13 in Houston, who was held for four hours in a carjacking, the Houston Chronicle reports.

James told police that a man with a semiautomatic gun carjacked him about 3:30 a.m. and that he was released uninjured about four hours later.

-- Lance Murray