Violent Crime

Hagerstown City Police got their first chance Wednesday to speak with the New Jersey man who was shot Monday night on Jonathan Street. "The information he gave us was helpful," said Detective George Knight. He wouldn't elaborate. Kurrian Tyshon Grasty, 18, was listed in fair condition Wednesday at Washington County Hospital, recovering from bullet wounds from the navel down, police said. Eight shots were fired, including four that struck Grasty, according to Capt. Robert Voytko.

A Hagerstown man charged with first-degree assault and other crimes Aug. 1 after police pursued him in a high-speed chase through Washington County and Franklin County, Pa., was being held Monday night at the Washington County Detention Center in lieu of $200,000 bond. Anthony David Medeiros, 32, of 137 Fairground Ave., was taken into custody on Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania near the Marion exit about half an hour after police responded to a call for shots fired on Pope Avenue, Sgt. Dave Long of the Hagerstown Police Department told The Herald-Mail.

Sharing information is crucial for law enforcement agencies that work together to protect their communities from criminals, especially repeat offenders, according to Capt. Mark Holtzman, acting chief of the Hagerstown Police Department. “It's been said that no police department can do it alone, and working on these collaborative efforts really helps bridge the gap,” Holtzman said. As a way to combine efforts and share information, HPD recently became a member of an interagency program in Hagerstown and Washington County called the Safe Streets Coalition.

gregs@herald-mail.com Although there were two shooting incidents in two days this week, elected officials with the City of Hagerstown contacted Friday do not believe those shootings represent an increase in crime or any lack in crime fighting. "I don't think it's any kind of crime wave," Councilman N. Linn Hendershot said. What happened this week "appears to be a New York situation, and they've chosen our city as their OK Corral, if you will," he said. A New York City man was shot in the foot on Wednesday when several .45-caliber bullets were fired in his direction about 5:30 p.m. He was walking in an alley near Jonathan and West Washington streets.

By BRENDAN KIRBY Staff Writer Crime in Maryland took a nosedive during the first three months of 1997, but rose sharply in Washington County over the same period, according to statistics released Thursday by the Maryland State Police Uniform Crime Reporting System. There was a 6 percent drop in eight major categories of crime in Maryland in the first quarter of 1997 compared with the first three months of 1996, the statistics showed. Even more dramatic was a 14 percent statewide decrease in violent crime.

Protecting the Second Amendment is vital To the editor: I just could not resist responding to John Warner, who claims in his letter to the editor that the Second Amendment to our Constitution has outlived its utility (Saturday, July 24, page A4). Apparently, Warner is out of touch with America and just what that amendment is all about. If he hasn't heard, under the present administration, gun sales have skyrocketed. Another fact that he won't hear in the mainstream media is that violent crime is way down as a result.

2 Martinsburg men arraigned; warrant issued for third man By BOB PARTLOW / Staff Writer, Martinsburg MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Local law enforcement officers could point to no one reason Monday for the three apparent homicides and two shootings in Berkeley and Jefferson counties in the past two weeks. "They are totally unconnected acts of violence," said Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Games-Neeley. "It's unusual to see this many shootings in this period of time.

pepperb@herald-mail.com As police officers tape off violent crime scenes to protect evidence, Kathy Hall and Ann Holtzman protect the most fragile people at the scene - the victim's family. The two women - Hall, the wife of a retired Hagerstown Police Department lieutenant, and Holtzman, the mother of a city police sergeant - volunteer as the sole members of the victim assistance unit with the police department. Any time day or night that police or firefighters are called out for a violent crime or death, Hall, 54, or Holtzman, 60, are paged.

Authorities say violent acts in W.Va. counties 'unconnected' By BOB PARTLOW / Staff Writer, Martinsburg MARTINSBURG, W. Va. - Local law enforcement officers could point to no one reason Monday for the three apparent homicides and two shootings in Berkeley and Jefferson counties in the past two weeks. continued "They are totally unconnected acts of violence," said Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Games-Neeley. "It's unusual to see this many shootings in this period of time.

pepperb@herald-mail.com A summer night, a standoff between two groups over the use of a cell phone, a call for one of the men to get a gun. That was the picture painted for a Washington County Circuit judge Wednesday before he sentenced a 19-year-old man to prison for a June 24, 2003, shooting in Hagerstown. Judge Frederick C. Wright sentenced Marcus Jarod Chestnut to 20 years in state prison for the shooting on the 100 block of Franklin Street. Melissa Emilcar was wounded in the leg and Kelvin Baker was wounded in the arm and back in the shooting Chestnut, whose last known address was 129 E. Franklin St., pleaded guilty to one count each of attempted second-degree murder, second-degree assault and use of a handgun in the commission of a violent crime.