Arundel Digest

Boy: Man fired gunshots at him

The boy told police he was outside his apartment at about 7 p.m. when a man he knows, but not by name, accosted him. The man banged the boy's head against the wall, and then the boy ran into his own apartment.

The boy then heard the man outside, screaming that he was going to kill him. The boy looked out the window and saw the man with two handguns, police said.

Then the boy ducked and heard several gunshots. His mother looked out the window after the shots stopped and she saw the man running away, police said.

Officers weren't able to find the man but they did find spent bullets and shell casings in the area, police said.

No description of the alleged shooter was available.

Boy is injured after struck by vehicle

BROOKLYN pARK - A boy was critically injured after being struck by a vehicle on a Brooklyn Park roadway Saturday evening, county Fire Department officials said.

The 7-year-old was walking in the 200 block of Hilltop Road near Levin Road at just after 6:05 p.m. when he was struck, said Division Chief Michael Cox, a county Fire Department spokesman.

He was taken to John's Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore with life-threatening injuries. Details about the incident were not available this morning.

NSA worker guilty of faking time sheets

Baltimore - An NSA employee lied on his time sheets in late 2006 and early 2007, wrongly taking a full salary even though he skipped work almost 40 percent of the time.

Robert W. Lucas, 50, of Pasadena, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Baltimore to making false statements on his time sheets.

According to the plea agreement, Lucas worked at the NSA's headquarters near Fort George G. Meade as a computer scientist earning about $100,000 a year.

Between March 2006 and March 2007, Lucas submitted false time sheets to his supervisors, claiming he worked 786 hours more than he actually did. That's equivalent to about $37,060, or 37 percent of his salary.

Prosecutors said Lucas served as a timekeeper or backup timekeeper at the NSA since 1996, allowing him to bypass security protocols designed to protect against such frauds.

Lucas faces up to five years in prison, followed by three years of supervised probation. He will be sentenced Aug. 1.

HoneyDipper to cast off this weekend

The HoneyDipper is expected to cast off Friday for the boating season.

The free boat holding-tank, pump-out service on the two rivers will run Fridays through Mondays, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. through September.

The service is aimed at reducing the pollutants from boats that might otherwise discharge their tanks in the rivers.

The HoneyDipper will even pump out a boat if the owners are not on board, but a waiver form has to be signed in advance.

For further information, or to download a waiver form, go online to www.westrhoderiver keeper.org and click on pump out boat.

Or to make an appointment for service call 410-940-3754 or hail HoneyDipper on VHF Channel 71.

- From staff reports