Chief to Retire; Successor Named

P. Thomas Shanahan, who began his law enforcement career as a 19-year-old Anne Arundel County police cadet and will end it as chief of the department, announced his retirement yesterday.

Shanahan's announcement came on the day that County Executive-elect John R. Leopold (R) announced a transition team that includes his pick for the next county police chief, James Teare Sr.

Teare, one of the department's two deputy chiefs and commander of the field operations bureau, is Shanahan's chosen successor.

"I recommended him to many people," Shanahan said. "I feel like it's a gift to the department."

Teare, 43, will start Dec. 4, overseeing a department with 684 sworn officers. Shanahan, 53, will officially retire Jan. 1. He said that he told County Executive Janet S. Owens (D) "some time ago that I was going to end my time at the end of the year."

Shanahan said that the biggest changes during his eight years as chief and 34 years with the department involved "the volume of people and the diversity of our population." The chief, who grew up in Glen Burnie, said that Anne Arundel is now home to the "very wealthy and very poor."

"While the crime rate has been dropping in Anne Arundel in recent years, it used to be unusual to get an armed robbery," he said, adding that it's not unusual now.

Shanahan's tenure has gone from a time when police officers were not needed in schools to an era in which laptops are standard in patrol cars. "Society's changed, and the complexity of policing's changed," he said. "And then you take 9/11. . . . We have to act like soldiers at times."

Police also reported yesterday that the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man in the Brooklyn Park area late Wednesday was the county's second homicide in a week and 14th of the year -- two more than in all of 2005.

The victim, whose identity had not been released, was found with multiple gunshot wounds in the street at Victory Avenue near 11th Avenue East about 9:50 p.m., said Lt. David Waltemeyer, a police spokesman. The victim died about 11 a.m. yesterday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Waltemeyer said.

Police think they recognize the victim, but because he did not have identification they were waiting for a fingerprint confirmation before releasing his name, Waltemeyer said.

Last year's total of 12 homicides was officially passed Sunday when the 39-year-old victim of a Nov. 6 assault at an Annapolis construction site died at the trauma center. The case was ruled a homicide after an autopsy Monday determined that Wayne Brantley Harris Jr. of Severn suffered "blunt force trauma to the head," Waltemeyer said.

"We believe he was assaulted, and his injuries were the result of the assault," Waltemeyer said. "No one's been charged. We're still interviewing potential witnesses."

Police identified the assailant only as "a business associate, a 30-year-old male from Edgewater." The victim "fell to the ground, striking his head" as a result of the assault, police said.

"It's wasn't a random fight," Waltemeyer said. "They knew each other. It was over a business deal."

The locations of the two homicides -- Brooklyn Park, an area that is an extension of Baltimore, and a construction site, part of a development boom in Annapolis -- illustrate the diverse landscape that will confront the new police chief.

"The nature of crime has changed," Shanahan said.