Cops Shoot Mayor's Dogs in Bad Drug Bust

Could get 4 years for fit of anger fatal to dog

(AP) - A Maryland man who tossed a stranger's Chihuahua off a bridge in a fit of anger faces up to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty yesterday to theft and aggravated animal cruelty. David Beers, 35, snatched the 4-pound Zoey after her owners ordered him off their property, and threw her out his car window driving over a bridge last June. Beers, mistaking the couple's quarter-mile-long driveway for a utility road, had stopped to make a cell phone call, the AP reports. More»

(NEWSER) - The Boston police officer suspended for referring to Henry Louis Gates as a “banana-eating jungle monkey” is suing the city and the department for violating his civil rights, the Globe reports. The BPD, police commissioner, and mayor are “conspiring to intentionally inflict emotional distress” and interfering with Justin Barrett’s “property rights, due process rights, and civil rights,” the suit claims. More»

(NEWSER) - Police discovered five bodies in a Maryland house today after a man apparently butchered his family and killed himself, the Frederick News Post reports. Few details are known, but police in Middletown, Md., say Christopher Alan Wood, 34, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the AP reports. His wife, two boys, and girl died after "traumatic cuts." Family members found the bodies this morning and led police to the scene. More»

Striking similarities causing cops 'great concern'

(NEWSER) - Police are hunting for possible links between the grisly murders of a pair of mothers and daughters in the Washington DC area, reports the Washington Post. Both cases could "possibly" be the work of a serial killer, said a police official. Both moms were in their 40s and were killed with their teenage daughters. They were murdered within a half mile of each other in Prince George County, and both cases appear to be linked to a burglary. More»

3-year probe yields 12 state counts

(NEWSER) - The mayor of Baltimore was indicted today on 12 charges related to alleged corruption and influence peddling in her current job and during her tenure as city council president, the Sun reports. Sheila Dixon, the first woman to hold the job, faces charges of perjury, theft, fraudulent misappropriation, and misconduct but will not step down. A 3-year state investigation has already taken down two associates of Dixon's; her ex-boyfriend, a prominent developer, was indicted Wednesday. More»