POST Local

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the death of a Marine found dead in his barracks room Wednesday afternoon at Fort Meade in Maryland.

The Marine’s identity will not be released until 24 hours after his next of kin has been notified, said Marine spokesman, Col. Sean D. Gibson.

The Marines also did not release additional information about the circumstances in which the body was found. The Marine was assigned to the student training detachment, which according to a Fort Meade Web site, includes a school to train military personnel from across the services in public affairs and visual information.

Montgomery County police said tracking software from a stolen iPad led officers to a 14-year-old from Bethesda who is accused of burglarizing four houses.

The string of burglaries began in early May and the culprit typically entered the homes through a basement window, police said. In a May 9 burglary, an iPad was taken. Police said the tracking software led them to the teenager’s house.

Police said the youth, who they said was riding a stolen bicycle when he was arrested, “admitted to committing four burglaries and one attempted burglary.”

In all, police said, the teenager has been charged in four burglaries and two attempted burglaries that occurred between May 1 and May 10. He also was charged with bicycle theft, police said.

In the context of getting guns off the streets, it’s probably a good thing the jaywalker ran from the police.

What could have been the most routine of stops, according to Montgomery County police, turned into a footchase Wednesday afternoon that yielded a loaded, Jennings 9 mm handgun. The suspect, identified by police as Foday Abdulai Gassama, 21, was charged with several firearms-related charges and failing to comply with the lawful order of a police officer, officials said Thursday. He was being held on a $5,000 bond.

The incident unfolded about 3:50 p.m. Wednesday, when officers saw three males and a female jaywalking on Bel Pre Road in Aspen Hill. When one of the officers tried to stop them to ask questions, Gassama took off into a nearby neighborhood, according to police. That officer gave chase and a second officer eventually apprehended Gassama.

The officers noticed he was no longer carrying a red-and-black backpack. They retraced his route, and found the backpack in the trash can along a residential driveway on Manor Park Court.

“It falls under the category of abandoned property at that point,” said Officer Janelle Smith, a Montgomery police spokeswoman.

The officers had a look inside — and found the gun. There were two children playing nearby, police said.

Gassama has pending assault and robbery charges and is scheduled to appear in court on June 11, according to online court records.

While in jail, perhaps Gassama is second-guessing his decision to flee. The officer may have just told him not to jaywalk or issued a citation, neither of which would have necessarily meant a backpack search.

“If he would have stopped and listened to him [the officer], he likely would have been sent on his way,” Smith said.

Octavius Toppin (Courtesy Virginia State Police.) Twin brothers wanted for allegedly gunning a man down as he stood in his Palm Bay, Fla. driveway were captured in Stafford County early Thursday, Virginia State Police said.

Obadiah and Octavius Toppin, 34, were arrested just before 4 a.m. after a Virginia State Police officer pulled over the pair’s white SUV on I-95 south of Quantico, police said.

Palm Bay police had put out a bulletin that the brothers were wanted in the killing and Virginia State Police positioned themselves on I-95 to intercept them, police said. The twins were arrested without incident.

A Pennsylvania Mennonite dairy farmer and two of his sons were found dead in a deep manure pit in Kent County Thursday morning in an apparent farm accident that remains under investigation by Maryland State Police.

The three from Lancaster County worked at the farm in Kennedyville every day, state police said. They pumped liquid manure from a 20-foot deep and sloping pit through large augers to ready the fertilizer for use on fields.

Glen W. Nolt, 48, Kelvin R. Nolt, 18, and Cleason S. Nolt, 14, of Peach Bottom in Lancaster County were last seen by other farm workers at about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, state police said.

When the Nolts did not return by about 5 p.m. to milk cows at their own farm, family members became worried and drove to Maryland where they found a tractor and the father’s pickup truck parked and idling beside the 2-million gallon manure pond.

Local sheriffs and state police were called, and more than 45 fire and rescue workers from nearby small towns in Maryland and Delaware eventually were brought to the farm on Vansant Corner Road. Kennedyville is on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay between Elkton and Chestertown.