Four dead in 16 days as boating season begins

With four people dead in boating accidents over the past 16 days, state and federal officials Friday called 2018 the deadliest start to the boating season in the past six years. Representatives from the Maryland Natural Resources Police and the U.S. Coast Guard gathered at Sandy Point State Park and urged boaters to wear proper life vests and pay attention to water temperatures that can prove deadly during spring boating. Col. Ken Ziegler, Natural Resources Police superintendent, said the state has already recorded nearly half the deaths it saw in 2017. Ziegler said officials are concerned because temperatures are still relatively cold. Many boaters have yet to cast off for the first time this year. Of the four deaths, one was Jose Loza Ramirez, a 21-year-old Annapolis man who fell out of a kayak on the Severn River earlier this month. His body has yet to be found. All of those who died were not wearing life jackets, according to Lt. Cmdr. Sara Wallace, spokeswoman for the Coast Guard. In only one instance did those who died have life jackets on their vessel.

Pregnant teacher carjacked in Parkville

A pregnant Baltimore County teacher was carjacked outside a Parkville elementary school Friday, police said. Baltimore County police said four teenage girls came to Villa Cresta Elementary School under the guise of enrolling a child, and when they left they approached a teacher walking to her car in the parking lot. They knocked her cellphone from her hand, and when the teacher turned to run, she fell, police said. She dropped her purse, and the girls took her purse and then her car after retrieving the keys, police said. The car was a 2013 Kia Sportage. The teacher was uninjured but went to an area hospital to be checked because she is pregnant.