Penn, who was working for the Obama administration as a staffer until he quit in April to film another Harold and Kumar flick, earned himself some D.C. street cred when he was robbed at gunpoint later that month. The White House recently announced he'd be returning to the Office of Public Engagement as an associate director.

But is Penn glad to be back? He was sauntering the 1500 block of S Street NW at around 1:30 a.m. one night last spring, when, according to a police report, he was stripped of his valuables, including a BlackBerry and iPhone. City Desk asked him about the mugging via e-mail, and the celebrity shot back a message that indicated he couldn't talk about it. But he also seemed a little frustrated. "In terms of the robbery, my understanding is that since it’s an ongoing (albeit absurdly slow) investigation, I can’t comment on anything related to it at the moment," Penn wrote.

The "absurdly slow" investigation Penn is lamenting is being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office. In June, City Desk has discovered, the Metropolitan Police Department arrested Marcellus Chambers for the mugging.

According to an arrest warrant,  the alleged stick-up man used Penn's bank card at "numerous locations along the Georgia Ave. NW corridor approximately an hour after the robbery." At one of those locations Chambers was caught on video. His license plate was also captured.

Later, cops tracked a signal from Penn's stolen iPhone to the "area of Warder and Otis Streets NW." But "due to a weak signal," they were unable to pinpoint the phone's exact location. It was in the proximity of Chambers' address in the 700 block of Quincy Street NW, however. Responding to a disorderly conduct call on that block several days later, cops happened upon Chambers, who was sitting in a Toyota Camry. They busted him.

About a month later, Penn was asked to identify Chambers in a photo array. But he couldn't be sure Chambers was the guy. "After viewing the array C1 stated, number 4 resembles the person who robbed me, without 100% certain[t]y," the MPD report says.

Arrested for robbery while armed, Chambers has been released on high-intensity supervision. No word yet on whether Penn ever got his iPhone back.

Update: U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson William Miller says he declines comment on the specifics of the case because it remains pending and the investigation is continuing, but says his office "has missed no deadlines and is well within legal timelines."

Photo by SAITOR, Creative Commons Attribution License

D.C. police union chief  Kristopher Baumann has had a tough time getting through dinner of late. Just last Wednesday, members of a news outlet Baumann declines to name called him six times as he tried to scoop his vittles. If it's not reporters coming at him, it's residents: "I tried to buy a soda at the store, and I got caught for twenty minutes." Each time Baumann is asked to give up the vital information he's being pestered about, he tells the truth—he has no idea what the future holds for Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier.

Though Baumann has started asking people to stop asking him about Lanier, that doesn't stop folks from passing plenty of rumors along to him.

Today, for example, he was told by some "political" sources that the chief would be resigning at a 12:00 p.m. press conference. Just in case you're wondering... that didn't happen. Asked about the scuttlebutt, Lt. Nicholas Breul of MPD says he hasn't heard anything about Lanier "leaving anytime soon."

But that kind of sounds like another rumor, and as many times as Baumann has heard Lanier is on her way out, he's heard that incoming mayor, Vincent Gray, has decided to ask the popular police chief to stay on.

If that happens, even though Baumann and Lanier have butted heads on many occasions, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) head is prepared to deal with it. "If he decides to keep her, we will proceed accordingly," Baumann says.

Another rumor that's been flung Baumann's way is that the chief and mayor-elect are conducting "secret meetings" about whether she should stay. Baumann doesn't put much stock in the gossip: "There's no way to track that down." But it would kind of make sense.

The departure of nationally adored and locally criticized schools chancellor Michelle Rhee in the wake of Gray's primary victory likely has those who have been wondering about Lanier on pins and needles now that the general election is over. The Washington Post says business interest will pressure Gray to keep the chief, but Gray also owes a debt to the FOP for supporting his candidacy. (The rank and file officers that make up that organization are said not to think very highly of Lanier. They haven't gotten a raise since she started her post, after all)

A few secret meetings might help Gray to find the best way out of  his dilemma. Also, it might be a good idea for him to figure out if Lanier actually wants the job. Cops say Lanier's position means grueling hours and lots of stress, and as City Desk previously reported, Lanier has an extremely sweet retirement package that kicks in the moment she's either fired or decides to walk.

In that case, as a spry 43-year-old retiree, Lanier would pull down a salary that exceeds $100,000 a year plus benefits. Which doesn't sound like a bad situation—and might even inspire her to tell Gray to look elsewhere.

Just moments ago, appearing on the Kojo Nnamdi show, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced that Washington City Paper had gotten something wrong. In an article about the fact that D.C. cops refuse to name potentially warring crews in Petworth, and that Lanier has asked media not to report the names of criminal crews, we mentioned that sources told us two of the Petworth groups cops have had trouble with are called CRT and Taylor Street. Lanier told Nnamdi that we had gotten those names wrong.

That might be. When we attempted to confirm that those were two crews MPD had their eye on, we couldn't get a straight answer. The brass wouldn't talk. 4-D commander Kimberly Chisley-Missouri, for instance, refused to say anything, as did MPD spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump. "We do not identify the names of gangs and crews in the media," Crump emailed. If cops wouldn't tell us, we figured a public official might, but we were mistaken. Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser also refused to say. "I stand by the chief's request," she said.

It seems Lanier has the media over a barrel. While she won't confirm the names of the crews she believes are responsible for wreaking havoc in places like Petworth, when it's advantageous, she's suddenly willing to say who they're not.That seems to fly in the face of the idea that the blackout on crew names has some kind of ethical utility as opposed to a political one.

UPDATE 4:38 P.M. — Unspecified City Paper Error Was Non-Erroneous, Source Says

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

At a D.C. Council committee hearing on Friday concerning D.C. retirement legislation some believe would lead to a golden parachute for police brass, police and fire union leaders asked why the bill was necessary in the first place.

"A: It's not good for morale," said Kris Baumann, head of D.C.'s Fraternal Order of Police. "B: It doesn't make any financial sense." Baumann argued that the legislation would benefit those who had been promoted to the top echelons of Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier's command structure during her tenure. Some of those who were promoted didn't technically meet the requirements of their new rank. As a result, if Lanier is removed as chief, they could be bumped back to their previous rank. The bill might allow those who find themselves in that precarious situation to retire immediately, and at their current pay. Fire department union chief Ray Sneed agreed with Baumann: "What I see the bill doing is basically rewarding all the management."

Presiding over the hearing as chairman of the Public Safety Committee, At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson said the bill, which would make it so cops receive "an annuity of no more than 80 percent of his or her average pay, or 80 percent of his or her basic salary at the time of retirement, whichever is higher," wouldn't just benefit Lanier's top aides. "I understand the officers of the lowest rank will not benefit from this," the councilmember said, but, he pointed out that a lieutenant being downgraded to sergeant could. (Mendelson said in an earlier interview that the bill won't permit high-ranking cops who serve at the chief's pleasure to retire immediately, but will instead allow them to factor their current salaries into their retirement somehow. )

Baumann hammered back that he believed the bill was not only unfair to police rank and file, but to taxpayers as well. He said the bill would cost taxpayers a bundle and that he failed "to see what the benefit is to the public."

Several times during the back and forth, Mendelson implied that he thought Baumann had the wrong version of the bill on hand. But Mendelson also later said that all versions of the bill were identical. Adding to the confusion, when Baumann read from a declaration attached to one version of the bill, the councilmember insinuated he'd never encountered its language. That seems odd, as Mendelson's office sent a copy of the declaration to City Desk via e-mail about a week ago.

Chief Lanier appeared at the hearing to assure the public that there was no funny business going on. A study had been done by the Retirement Board that showed that the city could manage the costs involved. She also guaranteed that her favored cops wouldn't be receiving any golden parachutes: "There's no special carve out for anyone here."

Photo of Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier by Darrow Montgomery

It's not unheard of for new mayors to fire the police chief that served the previous administration. So, though she's got an 80 percent approval rating, after this year's general election and transfer of  administration, Metropolitan Police Department boss Cathy Lanier could be out. But don't feel sorry for her yet.

Following her unconventional rise to power in 2007 (she was bumped straight  from commander to chief by a reform-touting mayor) the District's first female police chief  signed a winsome contract.

The five-year agreement allowed Lanier to start at $175,000 a year, with yearly pay increases of 3 percent. New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly makes $205,000, but he oversees 50,000 officers and staff compared to Washington's 4,400, so it would seem Lanier got a decent deal.

Her contract also made her eligible for an annual performance bonus doled out by the mayor, and included  standard perks like a take-home vehicle, a cell phone, and moving expenses.

But there was one particularly sweet provision. One that would allow Lanier, in the event the crime fighter was asked to leave, not to  freak out about her financial future.

"Lanier's retirement pension shall be fully vested and fully payable and vested at the maximum level allowable by law, notwithstanding Lanier's age or term of service," her contract reads. That means if presumptive Mayor to-be Vince Gray decides to let her go, Lanier will be able to retire at the ripe-old-age of 43.

Under the agreement, she's entitled to either 71.5 percent of her average highest base pay over the last three years, or "the maximum retirement pension otherwise allowable to members of MPD."  That would leave her (a veteran of 18 years) with the sort of retirement benefits it normally takes at least a 25-year career in law enforcement to earn; 71.5 percent of $175,000, for instance, is $125,000, and since her base pay increased by 3 percent annually, her pension will be even higher. Adding a little cherry on top, if she's fired, she also gets the typical three months of severance pay.

Though that will cost the District a good sum, if anyone deserves a retirement package, it's a hard working police chief who's credited with getting the crime stats down. But is Lanier trying to get similar terms for her top aides?

Almost a year after  she succeeded outgoing Chief Charles Ramsey, Lanier shook things up. Calling it "restructuring," she changed the way the top of the department worked, and also infused it with new blood, rocketing cops she thought talented to high-ranking jobs.

"“Over the past nine months as Chief of Police, I have carefully reviewed the way the Department operates," Lanier said at the time, "always with an eye toward improving our efficiency and bettering the way we protect residents." This meant, for instance, installing six new assistant chiefs.

But for some of the chosen, their quick ascendancy came at a cost. They hadn't moved through the ranks in the standard way, so their positions weren't protected by civil service regulations. They were considered "excepted service," meaning they served at the pleasure of the chief. An incoming chief could bust them down to their previous rank the moment he or she came to power.

Now a new bill Lanier asked At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson to introduce seems aimed at protecting those who got streamlined into top positions. Exactly how is still up in the air. Some say it's a golden parachute for the favored cops; others contend it's merely a way to keep things fair.

While Mendelson introduced the most recent version of the emergency bill in September, Gray (who, after all, is still the D.C. Council chairman) submitted another version at the request of Mayor Adrian Fenty.

The proposed amendment: "The 'Public Safety Retirement Limit Amendment Act of 2010' seeks to declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to authorize a sworn member of the Metropolitan Police Department or the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department to receive an annuity of no more than eighty percent of his or her average pay, or eighty percent of his or her basic salary at the time of retirement, whichever is higher."

The bill explains:

"In the past, sworn public safety members have typically retired at the highest rank achieved during their career, meaning members could accept promotions with some certainty as to the level of compensation they would receive upon retirement.

In recent years, there has been a shift from appointing officials to command staff positions based on tenure and more of a focus on appointing the most talented and qualified individuals to these positions, regardless of whether or not those officials are retirement-eligible."

If the inclusion of the fire department seems to make things blurry, the bill goes on to home in on Lanier's command structure.

"Under the current retirement statute, all sworn members are limited to receiving no more than 80% of their basic salary at the time of retirement. However, in several possible scenarios, this provision would essentially nullify years of good service at an elevated rank and position for non-retirement eligible members of the command staff who hold those positions at the discretion of the Chief of Police."

Sent a copy of the legislation, Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Chairman  Kristopher Baumann is bowled over. He says it's a give-away. Baumann—who's butted heads with Lanier over many issues in the past—contends the wording of the bill would allow Lanier's brass to walk away with a huge chunk of their yearly salaries by locking down an 80 percent annuity.

"This is just plain plundering," says Baumann. "This could end up costing the District millions of dollars per individual." He says the high cost wouldn't just be because of the sweet percentage the officers would get. As the cops involved are younger, like Lanier, they'll collect retirement for a longer period.

Mendelson says there's no give-away involved. He says the bill may not be worded "accurately", but that it's really about making sure that Lanier's current brass can factor their current pay into an average when they retire—which won't be now, as there will still be an age requirement.

He does admit the legislation is meant to protect those officers in the event that a new police chief is installed. "They shouldn't be penalized because of a change in government," he says.

Ed Lazere, of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, says he can't tell whose interpretation of the legislation is correct at this point: "I'm not even sure why this is emergency legislation." Lazere finds it suspicious that the council isn't going through the typical legislative process, which isn't as accelerated. He also thinks legislators should be careful about changing police retirement plans at a time when the city is already in trouble fiscally. "You have to be setting aside the money," he says.

Hopefully, all this will be cleared up on Oct. 15, at which point there will be a hearing about the bill. Considering the city is looking at a hiring freeze, things could get complicated. In the meantime, whatever happens going forward, Lanier  herself is likely to do just fine.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Freeman's case explores a number of issues, among them, whether the D.C. police "muscled in" on a security contract former police officer Martin Freeman had set up—and whether the city's police force should be in the business of providing private protection at all—particularly when the city has the power to command some businesses to use its service.

According to court documents, after defense attorneys representing the D.C. government complained about City Paper's coverage potentially influencing jurors, Judge Franklin Burgess issued a gag order and also asked jurors not to read us. "The Plaintiffs were ordered not to discuss the case with the media. The jurors are present and the court gives the instruction not to read City Paper."

"One victim was a 16-year-old District youth and the other was a 36-year-old Clinton man. The shootings occurred within an hour and 10 minutes, one in the 5900 block of Georgia Avenue in the Brightwood section of Northwest and the other miles away in the 800 block of Yuma Street in the Washington Highlands section of Southeast."

One of three victims shot in Brightwood, Jamaal Bell of First Street NW, was killed at around 11:30 p.m. Bell had just left a nearby go-go concert. The concert ended early due to fights.

"A group of young people, many of them described as teenagers, began walking away from the scene of the concert, heading south along Georgia Avenue. Just below Peabody Street, near Missouri Avenue NW, they encountered a larger group of about 50 people who had gathered there, police said. According to a preliminary investigation, shots were fired toward the smaller group. Bell was hit in the head. He was taken to a hospital, where he died, police said."

Cops were likely at the scene pretty quickly, as the concert had been included in MPD's somewhat enigmatic "go-go report". The internal report tracks scheduled go-go concerts, which cops the monitor in hopes of heading-off trouble between beefing gangs that decide to attend. Some District politicians and residents have long maintained that D.C.'s homegrown musical form attracts violence. No one seems to know what methods the cops use to keep abreast of the events. Chief Cathy Lanier tells City Desk via email that the Georgia Avenue corridor concert Bell was attending included three bands and had been discussed Friday morning in an "a.m. crime brief." There were five officers and a sergeant working the event, Lanier reports.

But his testimony stalled out before it even began, as defense attorney David Schertler immediately challenged Deedrick's qualifications, as well as the area of forensic science upon which his supposed expert opinion in the case would be based.

Schertler pointed to a report by the National Academy of Sciences, challenging the soundness of "fabric imprint identification" methods, citing a lack of standardized protocols.

Deedrick defended the practice: "Fabric is so versatile it would be difficult to build in a standard," he said.

Deedrick, now an independent consultant who worked for the FBI from 1972 until 2004, followed by a stint in the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department's crime lab, has worked on close to 6,000 cases, he said. But can recollect only two, including the Simpson trial, that involved fabric imprint identification.

Schertler questioned whether Deedrick was even officially qualified to testify in the Simpson case 15 years ago.

"Were you formally qualified by the court in the O.J. Simpson case?" he asked.

Deedrick said he didn't know.

"So you don't remember if Judge Ito qualified you?" Schertler continued.

"No, I don't," Deedrick said.

Schertler also pointed to Deedrick's testimony in another case, involving the murder of a Columbia University student, in which the supposed expert had misidentified the victim on the stand.

Judge Lynn Leibovitz indicated she was leaning toward letting Deedrick's testimony proceed. First, she said she wanted to read the Academy of Sciences report.

Video footage of police interrogations shows Kasul kicking into bad cop mode shortly after another detective left the room to fetch suspect Victor Zaborsky a glass of water. Zaborsky and housemates Joe Price and Dylan Ward stand accused of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence in connection to Wone's killing.

"It was appropriate at this point of the interview to change the tone to something more aggressive," Kasul testified.

The defendants have long maintained that an unknown intruder broke into the house and stabbed their friend to death.

Kasul told Zaborsky he didn't buy it: "With absolute certainty, based on scientific physical evidence, no one came into that house."

Throughout the interrogation, the video shows, Kasul tried various methods to get Zaborsky to change his story, even suggesting that fellow suspects Price and Ward had failed a polygraph test.

Zaborsky didn't budge: "I know for a fact that Joe, Dylan and I didn't do this," he says on the video.

"Look at you, you're sitting in front of me shaking...I'm reading your body language," the detective went on. 

"You would not last in D.C. jail," Kasul told Zaborsky. "Those boys will eat you alive."

Ironically, the detective intimated that the investigation, which authorities now describe as a mystery that might never be fully solved, was an open and shut case. "As far as murder cases go, this is one of the easier ones," he says on the video.

Zaborksy just sighed. "I'm telling the truth," he says on the video, "and I think I'm done."

Price, along with his two housemates and lovers, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward, stand accused of tampering with evidence and deceiving authorities in connection to the August 2006 murder of lawyer Robert Wone.

"Was Robert drinking with y'all that night?" asks one of Price's interrogators, Det. Milton Norris, in the potion of the video played this morning. Price, who occasionally takes a swig of a nearby soda or fiddles with the bottle, answers no: Though the trio drank most of a bottle of wine that night, Wone hadn't had a drop, he says. The cop also wants to know why Wone, who died of stab wounds when he spent the night at Price's 1509 Swann Street NW residence following a late night meeting he had in the District, was there in the first place. Wone is said to have asked to stay the night with Price, who was an old college buddy, to avoid travel.

 "Why didn't Rob just...Why didn't Rob just go home?" the investigator asks. Though Wone did have a meeting at 2025 M Street NW, and lived in Oakton, Virginia, his commute would have probably been reasonable, somewhere around 25 minutes.

After asking a few more questions, Milton, a large man with a shaved head who occasionally points at Price with a pen he's using to take notes, starts needling Price about Wone's sexuality, a subject that had come up earlier. Wone was reportedly heterosexual and happily married. Milton seems to suspect otherwise. Price bristles: "He's[Robert's] not even close to being gay." Price also calls the the detective's questions "inappropriate".

"Do you like him?" Milton asks Price a few ticks later.

Using a desk to lean on is left elbow, his left leg crossed, Price explains that he was never into Wone: "I don't find Robert physically attractive," says Price. When Milton asks whether fellow suspect Ward was ever attracted to Wone, Price switches his crossed legs, leans on his right elbow, and seems irritated. Price denies any such attraction. When pressed as to how he knows this, Price says, "I know Robert was not his cup of tea."

When Milton asks if maybe Zaborsky was attracted to Wone, Price switches back to the left elbow elbow and left leg and answers in the negative.

Charging papers filed today at the arraignment of alleged gunman Omare Ishmael Cotton, aka "Spade," 28, indicate the suspect and victim got into several fights prior to the murder.

A witness cited in the documents points to Cotton as the instigator. The witness says Cotton was angry with Sutton for denying him and his girlfriend a ride in his car.

Not satisfied with fisticuffs, Cotton went after his victim's vehicle, the charging papers say. On May 7, the witness saw Cotton slash Sutton's tires on two separate occasions. Following the slashings, Cotton pursued Sutton with a knife. But when Sutton flagged down a police car, Cotton slipped away. Sutton didn't report the altercation to police.

The next day, court papers show, Sutton tried to change the tires Cotton had ruined. Cotton "appeared suddenly  in the block and approached the decedent and again began to assault the decedent," according to the documents. Cotton then threatened to kill Sutton, indicating that he was angry with the young intern for getting him in trouble with police, as Cotton was on probation.

Following that incident, three witnesses say, a man loosely fitting Cotton's description chased Sutton into a wooded area in the 200 block of Newcomb Street SE. A few minutes later, the man emerged from the area alone.

A day later, cops discovered Sutton's bullet-ridden body.

The Metropolitan Police Department just put out this press release:

"Twenty-one year old Jeffrey D. Best was arrested in Southeast, DC just before 9 am on Monday, April 26, 2010 by members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force pursuant to an arrest warrant charging him with four counts of Murder One While Armed and one count of Felony Murder While Armed.

The shooting incidents which occurred in the 4000 block of South Capitol Street, SE and in the unit block of Galveston Street, SW on the evening of March 30, 2010 resulted in four fatalities. A total of nine people were shot, six males and three females."

That's according to the official police report of the incident, obtained by City Desk.

Another tidbit you might not already know about Penn's hugely publicized mugging back on April 20:  the actor, 33, whom the report identifies by his given name, Kalpen Suresh Modi, not only handed over his iPhone and Blackberry (one reportedly owned by the U.S. government), $180 in cash, three credit/debit cards, his D.C. driver's license, and his federal I.D. card. He also relinquished a personal item listed under "purse, briefcase, wallet, backpack," bearing the label "Roots," which cops further described as black in color and made of "cloth & velcro."

City Desk presumes police are referring to "Canada’s leading lifestyle brand."

The investigation is ongoing.

Photo by SAITOR, Creative Commons Attribution License

UPDATE: Though it ended hours ago, D.C. police spokesperson Lieutenant Nicholas Breul tells City Desk it's still not quite clear what this morning's barricade situation was all about:

"As far as the barricade goes," he emails, "ERT [Emergency Response Team] made contact with four individuals in the house two women and two men, all adults and has begun an investigation into what happened.  Thus far no injuries reported and no charges.  One witness reported seeing a woman dragged into the house, while someone else reported hearing 'What they thought was a gunshot' no evidence of a weapon."

About an hour earlier, Williams says, he received a call from the U.S. Attorney's office: "I want to tell you something before you see it in the news," Williams recalls the caller saying, "they're releasing the 14 year old."

The news had been trickling out all day to Williams and parents of the other victims in a string of deadly shootings last month.

A case of "mistaken identity" is how detectives explained to Nardyne Jefferies, mother of fatally shot 16-year-old Brishell Jones, their decision to dismiss all charges against one of the suspects arrested in connection with deadly drive-by shooting in Washington Highlands on March 30. Police believe the killings occurred in response to another murder (that of Williams' son Howe) just eight days earlier.

According to WaPo, the cops may have cuffed the wrong kid after chasing a shooting suspect into a school building, where an evening program was underway:

When the boy saw the officers, the source said, he put his hands in the air. He did so, apparently, not because he had been involved in the shooting but because he was an absconder from the juvenile justice system in an earlier criminal case, and he assumed that police had come to arrest him, according to the source.

Outraged parents gathered outside the police building late Thursday afternoon awaiting Chief Cathy Lanier and Mayor Adrian Fenty's official announcement about the dropped charges. At first, the press conference was scheduled to take place outside police headquarters; later, the location moved inside. The continual shifting of the setting seemed to only rouse suspicion among the victims' families.

"They're stalling," Jefferies told City Desk. "They don't want to come out."

Standing alongside the victims' kin, Rev. Anthony Motley, a candidate for D.C. Council, told members of the media that any reporter entering the building would be barred from speaking with the families in the future. With reporters then refusing to go inside, officials moved the press conference back outside.

UPDATE: At about 5:45 p.m., Mayor Fenty, Chief Lanier and Attorney General Peter Nickles appeared outside to make the official announcement.

Fenty described the March 30 shooting as among the most violent in D.C. history. He commended the police for an "amazing" job on the case and indicated that detectives have made "significant progress" in their investigation.

Nickles criticized the media, pointing to the Examiner in particular (City Desk had reprinted the Examiner's reference), for releasing the name of the juvenile suspect, who he then identified as Malik Carter, 14. Nickles insisted that Carter was "not the driver of the vehicle" as previously believed.

Chief Lanier called Carter's prior arrest "well justified" given the "chaotic scene" of the crime, which involved a footchase in the dark. She added that fingerprints ultimately cleared the teen in the case.

Lanier also announced the arrest of two additional adult suspects in the case, without providing names, and added that police are on the lookout for yet another.

"We are looking for an individual and he knows we are looking for him," she says, further recommending that the suspect turn himself in.

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article misspelled Attorney General Peter Nickles' name. The editor regrets the error.–Chris Shott