Officer

It should have been routine. The parolee, on supervision after being released from prison, was buzzed into the New Jersey parole office on Mount Ephraim Avenue in Camden, there for a normal appointment with his parole officer, Mark Carozza. But the visit, just before Christmas, quickly turned dangerous - the kind of danger that Carozza worried about earlier this month when he and fellow officers received a policy e-mail that they believed prohibited them from wearing their guns during regular visits with the former inmates they supervise.

Last week and total box office in millions. Weeks    Per    Rank/Title/Studio Last Week   Total    Out   Location    1. 42 (Warner Bros.) $27.5   $27.5   1   $9,153    2. Scary Movie 5 (Weinstein) 14.2   14.2   1   4,161    3. The Croods (Fox) 13.1   142.4   4   3,555    4. G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Para.) 10.9   102.5   3   3,082    5. Evil Dead (Sony-Columbia) 9.5   41.5   2   3,137    6. Jurassic Park 3D (Universal)

NEW YORK - A New York City police officer shot her 1-year-old son, the baby's father, and herself in an apparent double murder-suicide at her home Monday morning, police said. The bodies were discovered after her 19-year-old son, who was sleeping in his bedroom, heard an argument between the two adults and saw his mother with a gun, said chief police spokesman Paul Browne. The young man escaped through a window and called 911, but by the time police arrived moments later, the three others were dead, Browne said.

Andre Boyer stands out in the Philadelphia Police Department, posting one of the highest arrest rates among the city's 6,600 officers year after year. Officer Boyer, assigned to North Philadelphia's 22d District, also holds the distinction of racking up the most civilian complaints - 21 - of anyone on the force, the city's Police Advisory Board says. Judges have questioned his tactics and his understanding of the law. There also was a 2008 confidential police investigation that found Boyer falsified dozens of arrest reports.

A veteran Philadelphia police officer has been named to a top job in the SEPTA police force. E. Teresa Peay-Clark, 49, of Northeast Philadelphia, will assume the newly created position of inspector of special operations. She will be one of two inspectors, who serve as the top deputies to recently hired Police Chief Thomas Nestel III. Peay-Clark, who will be paid $102,336 a year, will be in charge of investigations, SWAT teams, canine operations, and training. - Paul Nussbaum  

GROTON, Conn. - A former submarine commander who faked his death to end an extramarital affair should be honorably discharged from the Navy, a panel of officers recommended Friday after a daylong hearing in which the officer said he accepted "full and total accountability" for his behavior. Cmdr. Michael P. Ward II, a married 43-year-old, sent his mistress in Virginia an e-mail in July posing as a fictitious coworker named Bob and saying Ward had died unexpectedly. Ward was relieved of his duties aboard the USS Pittsburgh in August a week after he'd taken command and has received a letter of reprimand for adultery and other military violations.

GEORGE H. THOMPAS, retired Philadelphia police officer and federal agent, onetime boxer and Army Ranger, was a tough guy but with a soft heart for kids. "He was a man's man," said his daughter, Brandi Mapp. "He didn't show much emotion, and he could be stern at times, but he loved children. " And George had a lot of children to love. There were his six children, 21 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. And throw in some nieces and nephews. "George was a kid at heart," his family said in an obituary.

AS BOTH a lifelong resident and now sheriff of this wonderful city, I read with great interest several recent stories that addressed issues of housing and the Office of the Sheriff of Philadelphia City and County itself. The stories showed how complicated and complex each can be while illuminating the need for strict enforcement of laws already in existence, as well as more innovative ways to level the playing field for purchasing a home at a sheriff's sale, and clarifying the procedures for getting money owed from the sale of a property.

The 660-lawyer Drinker Biddle & Reath L.L.P. corporate law firm is expanding its New York branch and shrinking its Philadelphia headquarters space, but not its workforce here. The firm is doubling its Manhattan space at Silverstein Properties' 1177 Sixth Ave. tower to 31,000 square feet, even as it prepares to downsize its Philadelphia flagship office at Brandywine Property Trust's One Logan Square to 155,000 square feet in 2014. That will be down from 209,000 square feet, and to seven floors from the current 10. Drinker signed a 10-year lease at the New York tower, where listed rents run in the high $70s per square foot.