Motorized scooter to MedFlight

I might be getting a little rusty here. There was a very serious moped crash about a block from my house today at Hildreth and Coburn streets in Lowell and I was busy cleaning and totally oblivious to it.

Sarah picked up on this one during the day shift, and city police now tell me the driver was a 42-year-old Lowell man who is in critical but stable condition after being flown to New England Medical Center in Boston by a MedFlight helicopter.

Police say the 42-year-old was wearing a helmet as he drove his 50CC motorized scooter eastbound (toward Bridge Street) on Hildreth Street around noon. The 42-year-old, for an unknown reason, drove directly into a telephone pole near 107 Hildreth Street.

He suffered serious head and chest injuries.

Lowell Police are reconstructing what happened. So far there is no indication that another vehicle was involved. No charges have been filed.

Why you should read my blog

I took two photographs of Ricardo Colon as he was getting arrested tonight. He asked who that “geek” and *expletive deleted* taking pictures was.

If only he had known.

Last night, about two hours after the Country Farms at 56 Aiken Avenue in Lowell was robbed at gunpoint, I identified Mr. Colon, who is 24, as a suspect police said was arrestable for armed robbery while masked.

Here’s a link to the entry if you don’t recall.

If Colon read the good ole blog, perhaps he would have known multiple detectives, armed with an arrest warrant, would be showing up at his home this evening. I guess he’s not a fan.

Sixteen people were helped

That’s an unofficial tally that I put together on my own, but the fire department made at least a dozen rescues during Easter morning’s fire at 333 First Street Boulevard, and I got a tip tonight that police officers helped four other people out of the building.

Here is the story Joyce Tsai and I did on the fire for Monday’s paper. Anyone effected by this fire should go to the Lowell Senior Center, on Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. The American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts will be on hand again to provide assistance to residents.

Residents who can’t make it to the Senior Center should call 800-564-1234.

By Robert Mills
rmills@lowellsun.com
LOWELL — Police Officer Matthew McCabe was still blocks away on Christian Street when he saw flames shooting up the side of the Walkway Condominiums on First Street Boulevard early Sunday morning.
McCabe arrived at the fire moments later and was told people were still inside, according to a police report. The bulk of the fire was right next to the building’s main entrance.
In the minutes that followed, firefighters used ladders to rescue a dozen people trapped on balconies, while McCabe, Officer Paul Paradise and Sgt. Matthew Penrose helped four people get out of the smoke-filled building.
An unofficial tally based on reports from the fire show that at least 16 people were rescued from the flames by firefighters and police.
McCabe immediately saw several people trapped on a balcony, according to a police report. The crew of Ladder 4, Lt. Frank Kelly and firefighters Oscar Torres and George Rowe rescued those people with a ladder.
McCabe went into a side door of the building with Sgt. Matthew Penrose and Officer Paul Paradise, and heard a woman screaming in a second-floor hallway. Smoke was so thick police couldn’t see the woman until they were about two feet away from her. She was having difficulty breathing.
The woman was with an elderly man who was walking with a cane. Penrose lifted the man over his shoulder and carried him to a stairwell while Paradise and Penrose led the woman to safety.
Then all three went back inside and located two women in the hallway, including one who was in a wheelchair, according to a police report. Penrose and McCabe carried the woman — wheelchair and all — to safety. Paradise continued knocking on doors despite thick smoke.
Meanwhile, Deputy Fire Chief John Dowling said Kelly, Torres and Rowe rescued a family of four — two adults and two children — from a third-floor balcony at the front of the building, and two more people from a second floor balcony.
A short time later, Dowling said, crews of Ladder 4, Ladder 3 and Ladder 2 rescued six more people from balconies in the back of the building. All while crews from engine companies battled flames that were shooting through three stories of the building.
“The ladder companies did a great job and the first engine company put a line on the fire and knocked it down,” Dowling said.
Thick smoke prevented McCabe, Penrose or Paradise from continuing to go through the building, but Dowling said the crew of the city’s rescue truck went door to door through the 36-unit apartment building to make sure no one else was inside.
“They did a great job going inside in high heat and heavy smoke and going apartment to apartment,” Dowling said. “It’s a 36-unit apartment building and I think we had them checked pretty quick.”
No one was seriously injured in the fire.

As a resident of Lowell, I’d like to say thanks to Kelly, Torres, Rowe, Penrose, McCabe, Paradise, and all the firefighters at this fire who I didn’t get a chance to name.

One in the chamber

Officer Michael Daigle, who came to Lowell Police from Marblehead Police on a lateral transfer about a year ago, was on a walking patrol route in Lower Centralville about 1:53 a.m., Sunday, when he saw a fight in front of the C-Spot Bar & Grill at Coburn Street and Lakeview Avenue.

Police say Daigle broke up the fight, and then broke up another scuffle further up Coburn Street as other officers arrived.

Daigle then saw two men running from West L Street onto Coburn Street, and one of the men appeared to reach behind his back and pull out an object that Daigle believed was a gun. Police say Daigle recognized the man as someone involved in the previous fight.

Lisa Redmond filed this photo of Ross (on the right) at his arraignment on Monday.

Daigle ordered the man to stop, and the man turned and fled up Coburn Street, tossing an object into a  yard as he ran, according to police.

Daigle caught the man near Coburn and West Sixth streets, and identified him as Abdiel Ross, 29, who has no known address.

Police say that when officers searched the yard where Daigle saw Ross throw an item, they recovered a .380 caliber handgun that was loaded with four rounds, including a round the chamber.

Ross was charged with carrying a loaded firearm, possession of a firearm with an altered ID during a felony, unlawfully carrying a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, disturbing the peace while armed, and assault with a dangerous weapon (firearm).

He was held over the weekend and will be arraigned Monday.

As for what I think about people having guns and fighting at this particular intersection: I’ve written about such things before, back in 2006. You tell me whether it’s a good idea.

Glad that gun is off the streets.

UPDATE: Lisa Redmond snapped the photo of Ross at his arraignment today that’s posted above. Ross is at right in the picture. He was ordered held on $4,000 cash. His attorney, Jeffrey Higgins, requested lower bail and argued that Ross was “overcharged.”