Police Beat
Road rage?
A Bowie woman driving around the city, frightened by the behavior of a male driver who threatened and intimidated her in a road incident Sunday afternoon, called Bowie Police.
The woman was driving west on Route 450 when she found herself behind a silver Pontiac. On Kembridge Drive, the Pontiac sped up, then slammed on its brakes, causing her to almost rear-end it. The Pontiac then tailed her as she neared her home in the Kenilworth section. When she pulled into her driveway, the harassing driver stopped, got out and began yelling at her, while keeping his right hand behind his back. He got back in his car and drove off but the woman said he held up a silver semi-automatic handgun as he went away. He was described as about 5 feet 8 inches tall with a heavy build, wearing a gray jacket and jeans.
Robbery conviction
It took a Prince George's County jury less than an hour Friday to convict a man who robbed a woman after forcing himself into her home in Glenn Dale Sept. 14. According to a news release from the county Circuit Court, Donald Earl Tate, 42, of Takoma Park, was convicted of robbery and home invasion. He knocked at the victim's door that evening offering to mow her lawn. When she opened the door to hand him a piece of paper with her telephone number on it, ostensibly to tell him to come back later, he forced open the door, whipped out a handgun and pushed his way inside. Grabbing her arm and pointing the gun at her, he demanded her car keys, purse and cell phone. A few days later, county police saw Tate driving her car and he was arrested. He faces up to 40 years in prison at an upcoming sentencing hearing.
Unemployment rip-off
A Bowie man pled guilty April 15 to ripping off the federal government to the tune of more than $32,000 in federal worker's compensation he wasn't entitled to. Joseph Muhidin Mustafa, 41, injured himself on his job as a cable installer in the U.S. Capitol in 1989, according to a news release from U.S. District Court in Washington. He was receiving disability payments from the Labor Department even though he raced cars at racetracks in the mid-Atlantic states from 1995 to 2003. In 2004, he worked for Code 3 Security, which provides security services to companies in and around Bowie. Code 3 paid him more than $40,000 before terminating him, at which point he created a company called APS Security. That firm served the Annapolis area and paid him about $115,000 in 2005 and 2006. Mustafa received benefits until Feb. 8, 2006, a total of about 17 years. Now he faces up to five years behind bars and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced this summer.
Bus stop robbery
The Saturday morning mugging of a Bowie woman standing at a bus stop in south Bowie was quickly resolved with the capture of her alleged assailant shortly after the 8:43 a.m. incident, Bowie Police said. A man approached the woman and asked if he could use her cell phone; she agreed. After trying to make a call, he handed it back to her, then pushed her to the ground and took the phone and her purse. The police broadcast a lookout for the man, who two officers found walking in the 14900 block of Jenkins Ridge Road. Police said he lived in that block and had dropped off the phone and the purse at his residence. He agreed to let police search the residence and the items were recovered and given back to the victim, police said. He was identified as Darnell Maynard Blackeney, 18.
