Twenty years ago today the last edition of Baltimore’s Evening Sun rolled off the presses after 85 years of publication. In its last front-page story, the paper wrote, “Today, The Evening Sun writes it’s own obituary. Baltimore’s last evening newspaper, which publishes its final editions today, is 85 and a victim of falling circulation.”
Baltimore police officers struggled to arrest a man who allegedly was “aggressively panhandling” downtown last month, court documents said. Photos and video by Baltimore Sun photographers captured the arrest, showing the suspect biting an officer as several officers tried to load him into a transport van.
Police were called to the unit block of N. Eutaw St. on August 13, after a 911 caller reported that a man was panhandling and “acting bizarre,” according to charging documents. The documents identified the suspect as Rominico Finacin Roland, 37, of Penhurst Ave.
A responding officer said Roland was “acting unusual, appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance, and may have been mentally ill,” the documents said. As officers ran his name to check for warrants, police said Roland “removed what appeared to be a marijuana cigar and started to lick it and stated ‘I gonna light this up.’” The officer took the cigar, and placed it beside Roland, who then attempted to light it, the documents said. Officers placed Roland in handcuffs, at which point they said he attempted to walk away. As officers tried to stop Roland, they said he bit one officer in the arm and spit on another.
When a transport van arrived, an officer tried to load him inside, and police said Roland bit the officer on his arm and leg. Roland eventually was placed in the van but refused to sit on a bench, and raised his leg at the door, acting as if he would kick it, police said. When a witness at the scene tried to tell him to sit on the bench Roland spit on her face and chest, police said.
Police said Roland later calmed down and sat on the bench in the van while an officer was able to strap him in. But at some point, police said, Roland unbuckled his seat belt, slid back onto the floor and began kicking the backdoor of the van, breaking the lock of the interior door, according to the documents.
He was placed in another van and taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Police said Roland caused $1,000 in damage to the van.
Roland is scheduled to appear in court this month for charges of destruction of property, disorderly conduct, and trespassing, online court records show.
No attorney is listed for Roland in online court records, and an attorney listed for him in a previous case could not be reached for comment.
Roland has a lengthy arrest record, including in 2005 when he was charged with attempted first-degree murder, a charge that was later dropped.
The Baltimore Sun newspaper has a rich history of photojournalism. The Sun has employed a long line of award winning photographers. To pay tribute to these photographers, The Darkroom will periodically take a look back at the body of work by some of these photographers whose love of their craft helped document the lives of people from the backstreets of Baltimore to the four corners of the globe. One of those photographers was Charles Edward Nolan.
The Oxford Bellevue Ferry, which began service in November of 1683, connects the eastern shore towns of Oxford and Bellevue and is believed to be the oldest privately owned ferry route in the United States. Captains Tom and Judy Bixler bought the ferry, “Talbot,” in January of 2002. The ferry runs 7 days a week from April through November (although only on weekends in November) making continuous crossings on a 3/4 mile stretch of the Tred Avon River every 15-20 minutes. The ferry can hold nine cars as well as foot passengers and bicycles, motorcycles and recreational vehicles. It runs from 9 in the morning until sunset.
The Darkroom went to the 2015 Maryland State Fair and asked folks young and old to show us their animals. There were a wide variety of creatures, but what is very evident is the pride they took in their companions.
In late January 2015, a Prince George’s County family narrowly escaped from their car before it was swallowed by a sinkhole caused by a water main break, according to the Associated Press.
To explore this geological phenomenon, we took a look at some of the more notable sinkholes to form worldwide, as well as a few that made headlines in Maryland in the last 10 years.
Ten years ago on Aug. 29, Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 storm, slammed into the Gulf Coast states causing massive destruction from Florida to Texas, with New Orleans taking the brunt of the blow. The Baltimore Sun photo staff was there from the beginning to document the devastation with photographers in New Orleans, Mississippi and Texas. Ten years later we take a look back at the images they captured and the impact this deadly storm had on the region.
Roosevelt Park in Hampden dates back to the early 1900’s and is now home to the Skatepark of Baltimore, which had it’s grand opening in May of 2014. An asphalt pad was built in Roosevelt Park by the city for skating in 2005 and it took nearly ten years to build Phase 1, which includes a state of the art 5000 square foot concrete skating bowl. The Skatepark of Baltimore is a non-profit organization with an all-volunteer staff. An estimated 35 thousand skaters use the park each year and it is free to all skaters.
Archery, beep baseball, and soccer. These are only a few of the sports available for visually impaired youth attending Camp Abilities. Each year, some forty kids, aged 9-17 come from all across the state of Maryland to attend the camp. The camp is run by volunteers from Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland, Fairfax Public Schools in Virginia and the Maryland School for the Blind (MSB) in Baltimore, Maryland.
This time of year the nation celebrates the birth of the United States of America. The country is awash in red, white and blue, the colors of the national flag. It has come to symbolize many things and has been used as both a means of celebration and protest. “We are unique in the extent and depth of our worship of the flag. There’s no nation on earth like us,” says Rick Shenkman, associate history professor at George Mason University.
Baltimore neighborhoods
Baltimore street photographers
Year in review
Freddie Gray: protests, aftermath
24 hours with...
A. Aubrey Bodine
Viewing Baltimore from above