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In the wake of public outcry over three recent homicides allegedly committed by illegal immigrants, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John J. McCarthy, the county police chief and other county leaders are looking closely at stricter guidelines for handling suspects of serious crimes who are in the country illegally.

The 16-year-old Clarksburg boy charged as an adult with first-degree assault after striking a police officer with his sports utility vehicle last week abandoned the vehicle after the incident and told his mother it had a flat tire, according to police charging documents filed in court.

The off-duty county officer who was directing traffic outside a church service on Nov. 26 fired his gun at Joseph W. Nelson, who was driving erratically in the parking lot, after he didn’t heed two calls to stop and hit the officer.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt in April, stems from an October 2006 incident in which Melissa Dent of Lea Pond Place, a 40-year-old mother of two, says that three or four officers kicked, beat and stunned her with a Taser in her living room after she was handcuffed.

The officers — Adam Siegelbaum, Kimberly Wilson, John Mullaney and Jennifer Phoenix — have been sued for $1.5 million each. Siegelbaum is the officer accused of hitting a man with a bottle in the Nov. 15 incident at Bailey’s Bar & Grille in Germantown, according to a police report.

A Gaithersburg teen pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment for his role in the death of a man who was beaten, left lying in the road and then fatally struck by a car in January.

The teen was charged as a juvenile and sentenced to community service in connection with the death of Manuel Antonio Ramirez-Gavarete, 38, of Gaithersburg. The teen, now 18, was 17 at the time, according to Assistant State’s Attorney George Simms.

After a six-day search by county police, a 58-year-old Gaithersburg man who had threatened suicide was found dead Nov. 26 on Fieldcrest Road, barely more than a mile from his home, according to county police.

A woman walking her dog just before 9 a.m. found Timothy Houston Neal’s body on the ground next to his 1988 Chevrolet Blazer, which had been pulled off Fieldcrest Road about a half-mile east of Woodfield Road, according to a Montgomery County Police statement.

A Gaithersburg man faces more than 100 years in prison after a jury convicted him in a shooting that left a Germantown man paralyzed from the waist down during a home invasion robbery.

Court documents say three Gaithersburg men, including Arthur A. Phillips, 28, were looking for cocaine when they entered the Crystal Rock Drive apartment on Sept. 28, 2007, and accosted three victims.

The three Wheaton residents charged in connection with the death of an 83-year-old woman last week are suspected illegal immigrants, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said today.

ICE officials filed detainers this week for Jose Antonio Alvarado, 37, his wife, Ana Lilian Rodas, 33, and his cousin, Ramon Alberto Alvarado, 32, all of the 12300 block of Downer Drive in Wheaton.

Gaithersburg City Manager Angel Jones is working with the city’s human resources department to overhaul internal procedures, and create and revise personnel rules and regulations, including the city’s first clearly delineated discrimination and sexual harassment policy.

An expert panel last week called on Maryland to review its medevac program, which could lead to a smaller helicopter fleet with fewer flights at a time when Montgomery County still lacks a helicopter at the Maryland State Police hangar in Norwood.

As county leaders gear up for another round of budget talks and possible renegotiations with the county’s employee unions, frustrated County Council members Tuesday reviewed their role in those negotiations.

Several dozen rescue workers worked for 90 minutes in the rain Sunday evening to excavate a Montgomery Village woman trapped in a construction ditch near her home, according to rescue officials.

The 47-year-old woman was walking her dog with family in the 19400 block of Brassie Place near the Thomas Choice Gardens Condominiums complex when she lost her footing, stepped off the sidewalk and fell six to eight feet, according to Pete Piringer, a spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services.

After 13 years in Gaithersburg, bookstore operator Borders Group is closing its Borders Books and Music store at Gaithersburg Square, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Police are warning county residents they’d better watch out, but it’s not Santa’s eyes they should be mindful of.

Thefts from automobiles are already the most prevalent crime in the county and the potential for thieves to shakedown a sleigh for goodies inside may increase with the arrival of the holiday season, especially if gifts are in the car said Lucille Baur, a police spokeswoman.