1 killed, 12 robbed in violent city spree


           
         5 people held in series of holdups, carjackings 



                    By Peter Hermann 
                    Sun Staff 


                    A group of men and a woman went on a 5 1/2-hour crime spree
                    described by Baltimore police as "random and reckless" that ended
                    early yesterday with one person dead, four others carjacked and 12
                    people held up at gunpoint.

                    Police took five suspects -- four men and a woman -- into custody at
                    a $55-a-night Pikesville motel room after a Baltimore County police
                    officer found two stolen cars parked outside. Detectives said they
                    found two 9mm handguns in the room.

                    Also in the room were two teen-age boys who, according to
                    Baltimore Police Detective Irvin Bradley, face only narcotics
                    charges. Bradley said all the suspects live in Baltimore.

                    "It was a spree of havoc," said Col. John E. Gavrilis, chief of the
                    Criminal Investigation Bureau. "This seems to be a very
                    well-coordinated effort, and very well planned."

                    The person who was killed was identified as Tacy Raino Ranta, 50,
                    of the 4500 block of Parkside Drive in Belair Edison. Police said
                    Ranta was shot in the chest near his home.

                    "It's really scary that a homeowner can be gunned down a block
                    from your own home," said the Rev. David Smith, the victim's pastor
                    at Memorial Community Church. "I guess this proves things like this
                    can happen anywhere."

                    Investigators said they planned to charge four of the suspects with
                    Ranta's killing early today, but they had not filed charges or had
                    warrants issued as of last night because detectives continued to
                    interview the suspects, victims and witnesses.

                    Besides murder, the five were expected to be charged with
                    carjacking, armed robbery and deadly weapon violations.

                    The attacks occurred between 6: 45 p.m. Monday and minutes after
                    midnight and were scattered about North and Northeast Baltimore --
                    from York Road near Belvedere Avenue south to Harford Road
                    near Clifton Park.

                    Police said the robberies had a cascading effect. An Oldsmobile
                    stolen from York Road at 8: 45 p.m. was used in a carjacking of a
                    Chrysler at 9: 30 p.m. That Chrysler was used in two robberies and
                    another carjacking, police said.

                    Victims ranged from people coming home from work, such as Giant
                    Foods manager Charles Humen, to a Morgan State University
                    student whose car was stolen after the robbers rammed it with
                    another car.

                    Most of the people were held up at gunpoint, but one man reported
                    being hit repeatedly in the head with a baseball bat before having $35
                    stolen from his pants pocket.

                    Scary experience

                    "It was very scary," said Humen, 38, who has lived in the Hamilton
                    neighborhood for 13 years and said he had never before been a
                    victim of a crime.

                    Humen told police he had arrived home from work about 9: 30 p.m.
                    when a red Oldsmobile Achieva pulled up behind him and two men
                    got out. A man with a black handgun ordered him to his knees,
                    robbed him and his passenger of $570 and stole his car.

                    Police said they are trying to build an evidence trail that links the
                    people in custody -- two of them juveniles -- to the crimes.

                    Investigators said the suspects knew each other, but police are not
                    sure how or why the alleged spree was carried out.

                    Maj. Jeffrey R. Rosen, commander of the homicide unit, said it is
                    unclear whether anything was stolen from the slain man or why he
                    was killed. Most victims reported being threatened with a phrase
                    similar to: "Give me your money or I'll kill you."

                    Rosen would say only that detectives "believe there is a connection
                    between the guns, the suspects and the homicide."

                    Ranta, a former Baltimore schoolteacher, was active in the
                    transsexual community and was a leader of Tranquility, the Gay and
                    Lesbian Community Center for people interested in changing their
                    gender. Police said they have no evidence to suggest a motive other
                    than attempted robbery.

                    "As far as the work [Ranta] did for the transgendered community,
                    [he] was a true community activist," said Michael Linnemann, a friend
                    of the victim and the center's coordinator. "It will definitely be a loss,
                    but hopefully people will come forward to finish the work that [he]
                    started."

                    Ranta also had lobbied in Annapolis on hate crime bills and fought
                    for the legal right for people to change their names and gender
                    designation on driver's licenses.

                    Smith said Ranta, wearing women's clothing, was attacked as he
                    walked home from the European Union, a bar he frequented in the
                    4200 block of Belair Road.

                    Time line of crime spree

                    The first attack -- with the baseball bat -- occurred about 6: 45 p.m.
                    in the 2500 block of Harford Road near Clifton Park. That was
                    followed almost two hours later by a holdup in the 2600 block of
                    Erdman Ave., in which a man was robbed at gunpoint of $60 and his
                    Pittsburgh Steelers jersey.

                    A few minutes later, in the 6000 block of York Road, outside an
                    apartment complex, a woman who had just returned from the
                    grocery store was held up.

                    According to the police report, a man pointed a handgun at her and
                    said, "You know what time it is." She said the man drove off in her
                    1998 Oldsmobile Achieva.

                    A half-hour after that, a man was robbed of $8 in the 3600 block of
                    The Alameda. He told police his two assailants, one of whom had a
                    handgun, knocked him down and kicked him.

                    A few minutes later, police said, two men in the Oldsmobile pulled
                    up next to the Giant employee, Humen, in the 3000 block of Royston
                    Ave. in Hamilton, about two miles away. He was robbed at gunpoint
                    of his Chrysler.

                    Police said the Chrysler was used in a 10 p.m. robbery of two
                    people in Govans, a 10: 15 p.m. robbery of three people near
                    Herring Run Park, and an 11: 30 p.m. carjacking just north of
                    Morgan State University.

                    In that case, a red Toyota Corolla was stolen by a man with a black
                    German Ruger handgun.

                    The final carjacking occurred shortly after midnight in the 1600 block
                    of Northbourne Road, just off Hillen Road, when a Morgan State
                    student making a U-turn was broadsided by a red Corolla.

                    Police said the woman's white 1999 Honda Accord was recovered
                    15 minutes later, abandoned in woods off the 5000 block of Loch
                    Raven Blvd.

                    Rosen said robbery detectives quickly linked the series of
                    carjackings to the same perpetrators. About 4: 30 a.m., a Baltimore
                    County officer found the stolen Oldsmobile and the red Toyota
                    Corolla outside the Econo Lodge Inn in the 400 block of
                    Reisterstown Road.

                    Police would say only that they found two guns in the room; they
                    would not comment on whether they recovered any of the money
                    reported stolen.

                    Sun staff writers Kurt Streeter and Tim Craig contributed to this
                    article.

                    Originally published on Nov 24 1999