The billboard where the character from a beer brewed in NC & Ga proposes to the Pennsylvania chip character is gone http://t.co/yBq18ofOQK
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) May 19, 2014
(This was also my biggest gripe with the billboard — Scott)
Matt Billings, Flickr.com
Straight from the horses’ mouth at Citypaper.com: “We got down and dirty at the Preakness Stakes’ Infield Party. It was a glorious mess and we loved it. Check out our gallery of bros, horseheads, and wasted bridesmaids. Oh yeah, there’s some hats in there too.”
Photo by J. M. Giordano
Photo by J. M. Giordano
View the gallery at Baltimore City Paper.
Is God a Mentally Disturbed Haitian Immigrant with Drug Problems, a Paintbrush and a Twitter Account?
Police booking photo of Vladimir Baptise.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014 – Calling himself “God,” “Jesus Christ” and the reincarnation of King Tut, Vladimir Mehul Baptiste drove a stolen landscaping truck into the lobby of WMAR-TV’s ABC2 news station in Towson and then barricaded himself inside – all the while tweeting (“chillin@abc2news waiting and yawning”) and watching coverage of himself on the local news! – until he was apprehended by tactical police several hours later. Police stated that a “ranting and raving” Baptise suffered from some sort of mental illness. (Um, no kidding!) Following are accounts of the incident from local news and Baltimore County police reports. In a cruel twist of fate, ABC2 news wasn’t able to broadcast coverage right way, having had to evacuate their facility, which was on lockdown, and turned to social media like Twitter and Instagram to file reports. Their day-after surveillance videos are great, though; check their coverage out here. – (Tom Warner, BOL)
Police documents reflect WMAR suspect’s disturbed mental state
Vladimir Baptiste, 28, charged in Tuesday’s incident; Mom says he has mental health issues
By David Collins (WBALTV.com, May 14, 2014)
[WBAL-TV 11 News reporters Jennifer Franciotti and Kai Reed and WBALTV.com editor Katie Lange contributed to this article]
TOWSON, Md. —As police announce charges against an emotionally disturbed man who plowed a stolen landscaping truck into WMAR-TV‘s building in Towson on Tuesday, his mother says he’s been dealing with mental health issues for quite some time.
Police said the man, identified as Vladimir Baptiste, 28, of Parkville, crashed a stolen landscaping truck through the front doors of the television station at 6400 York Road just before noon Tuesday. It took five hours before authorities, including a SWAT team, were able to find him and take him into custody.
The truck stops here: Baptiste drove a landscaping truck into the lobby of WMAR-TV in Towson.
Watch truck crashing into WMAR-TV.
Watch ab2news’ raw video of the truck crashing into WMAR-TV/Channel 2.
Baptiste was charged early Wednesday with at least three counts of attempted second-degree murder and was being held at the Baltimore County Detention Center on $750,000 bail, but that bail was later denied by a judge.
On Wednesday, a prosecutor called Baptiste a significant threat to public safety and asked for the no-bail status. Judge Alexander Williams agreed with the prosecutor.
Baptiste waived his appearance before the judge on Wednesday. A preliminary hearing will be set, but the case is going to a grand jury for indictment.
Police said Baptiste was emotionally disturbed, and charging documents reflect that.
According to those documents, when Baptiste was asked why he targeted WMAR-TV, he said he woke up Tuesday and wanted to expose his parents because “they are running the multiverses.”
The word “multiverse” is commonly used when discussing theories about multiple universes.
In the charging documents, Baptist said he was a reincarnation of King Tut and Jesus Christ and lives in a world of multiverses where bad things happen to people, and they disappear because they are not real. He said the disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370 and the kidnapping of the Nigerian school girls were examples of multiverses in that they never actually happened.
Baptiste told police he walked Tuesday from his home to Interstate 695 and York Road, spotted a truck with the keys in it, took it and drove toward WMAR. As he got near the station, he told police he saw an opportunity to expose the multiverses that WMAR represented.
Baptiste told police he watched coverage of the incident as it was unfolding because he was waiting for the multiverses to close.
Charging documents show during the barricade, Baptiste taped several pieces of paper onto windows facing police personnel and medics who were outside. The papers read, “I am God almighty. I gave you everything. You never earned it. (Expletive) your multiverses. You have created to hurt my people. I’m here to save you all from the energies. You are in the wrong timeline. Everything is unfolding. I don’t have to do anything. Vladimir (God). Just wait (expletive). Let me know when you are in the present.”
The documents said Baptiste also told the security guard, “If you are going to let me in, I have something for you.”
After his arrest, Baptiste was taken to Greater Baltimore Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries. He said he didn’t intend to hurt anyone at WMAR.
Continue reading story at wbaltv.com.
Who’s that knocking at my door? Baptiste outside WMAR-TV lobby.
Vlad’s Twitterverse Tweets
“chillin @ abc2 news waiting and yawning”
Following are some of the tweets Baptiste posted to his Twitter account (https://twitter.com/VlaDziuBaptiste) during Tuesday’s incident. Earlier tweets reference the “multiverse” (e.g., “Commiting Crimes, Genocide and War in the Multiverses and using me to make them REAL in the PRESENT. It Shall never WORK.NEVER EVER!”) and incoherent ravings like “Thoughts of Destroying the World I’m in SHALL NEVER PREMEDITATE IN MY MIND TO get DESTROY!”
ALL these millenniums of petyness and “just for Fun” Bullshit, you will not be forgiving by me! just waitYOU DONT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ME RIGHT NOW, THE PEOPLE YOU ALL HAVE HURT ARE GOING TO DEAL WITH YOU! WATCHBody Hosting my people to make them do and say things, that’s truly not from their hearts….JUST WAIIIIIIT!can you all see me the days of the negative energies hurting you are OVER!chillin @ abc2 news waiting and yawning
Vlad’s Art Portfolio
Baptiste’s Twitter account is fascinating. Going by his posts and pics, he appears to be a fan of Michael Jackson, Snoop Dog, DMX, Keith Richards, Julia Roberts and Walt Disney (he posted a clip of Uncle Walt’s appearance on “What’s My Line?”), to name but a few. And it looks like he is an artist. A pretty good one. One that the American Visionary Art Museum might want to consider exhibiting. Samples follow:
Baptiste’s Keith Richards painting. On Dec. 18, 2011, he tweeted: “Happy Birthday this is a painting of you i recently made .”
Vladimir’s Natty Boh: “Oh Boy What a Race!”
Self-portrait: Vlad Age 20.
Baptiste’s “Beast Jesus.”
Family portrait? Baptiste tweeted, “Not what I imagine it would turn out like, but it’s a stepping stone 🙂 love you sis.”
“Guess who this is,” Baptiste tweeted. Julia Roberts, of course.
“SOLD!! Marchande de Port-au-Prince”
Related Links:
“Round-up: WMAR-TV truck crash, barricade coverage” (abc2news.com)
“RAW VIDEO: Truck Crashes into WMAR-TV Channel 2” (abc2news.com)
There was also good coverage of the incident under the “Police and Fire News” section of the Baltimore County Government’s web site (www.baltimorecountymd.gov): “Suspect in Custody After Barricade at ABC2 News.”
Full Frontal Assault: The Many (Disfigured) Faces of Tom Warner
By Tom Warner (Baltimore Or Less)
Over the years, a number of artists have tried to capture your trusty Baltimore Or Less scribe’s image in various mediums: an attempt, perhaps, to soften the harsh reality my blunt, in-your-face features project in photographic renditions – to wit, my signature scary bird-like eyes (with their slightly askew “space-gaze”); my pronounced proboscis; and, my ever-shedding, ever-thinning straw-broom hair. Here are some images, in various formats, over the years.
2006 portrait of TW by Library Dude. Oil on canvas.
A local artist and library regular who went by the name “Library Dude” liked me so much that he painted this portrait of me, with a complimentary note, and dropped it off at my workplace. It scared me so much (though I did like the broad shoulders he gave me) that I gifted it to a co-worker to replace his dart board. The accompanying note read:
“Tom –
Your (sic) a kind and humble dude! I’ve seen how you’ve treated a variety of people with great respect and patience. When people are treated with kindness, they go home and kiss their wives and take their kids out for ice cream. Drunk people crack jokes and sing songs instead of losing the (sic) tempers. Appreciate they (sic) way you take time out For (sic) people dude So here’s a picture. Hope you like it
– Library Dude”
Abandon HOPE, all ye who gaze upon this Shepard Fairy-styled poster, created by an online software program:
Scott Huffines commissioned this Simpsons drawing from a Vietnamese girl on the internet. “The best $5 dollars I ever spent!” Scott later commented, clearly pleased with his investment.
The Simpsonized AvaTom avatar.
My MICA professor friend Laurence Arcadias made a stop-motion animated film for French TV about a sexually frustrated married man who discovers he’s been on the “down-low” for years and really prefers les jeune garcons to les filles. My face inspired her for this character (how flattering!), and she used the following drawings of me for her film, Tempest in the Bedroom.
Tom has “Bi-focal” down-low vision in “Tempest in a Bedroom.”
I even drew a self-portrait of myself one day. Here I am frantically manning the phone at work:
Of course, the only decent photo ever taken of me was by the late, great Sam Holden, who took the pic below for a City Paper article (“Splice World,” January 3, 2007) on one of my film programs at the Enoch Pratt Central Library.
Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-Aged Film Hack (Photo by Sam Holden for City Paper, January, 2007)
I remember Sam prompting me with the words, “Hold those reels really close to you like you love them, like you wanna hug ’em and make love to them!” Reel love, indeed. And it took a real pro to make my mug look less zany than Lon Chaney! (Thanks Sam!)
