Category Archives: US crime

Urgent manhunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect enters second day

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Bullet casings with the words ‘deny’, ‘defend’ and ‘depose’ found at scene where Brian Thompson was killed

An urgent manhunt continued on Thursday in New York City as police combed through a vast network of private and public surveillance cameras and pursued leads in search of the person who shot and killed the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, the previous morning.

Investigators deployed drones and dogs as well as sifting through data related to public-use electric bikes from the company Citi Bike, as the suspect remained at large after what police chiefs said was a targeted killing.

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Many Americans’ cellphone data being hacked by China, official says

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Cyber-espionage group ‘Salt Typhoon’ targeting ‘at least’ eight US telecom and telecom infrastructure firms

A large number of Americans’ metadata has been stolen in the sweeping cyber-espionage campaign carried out by a Chinese hacking group dubbed “Salt Typhoon”, a senior US official told journalists on Wednesday.

The official declined to provide specific figures but noted that China’s access to America’s telecommunications infrastructure was broad and that the hacking was ongoing.

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New York police search for person suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO in ‘brazen’ attack

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Police look for suspect who shot and killed Brian Thompson, 50, outside Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan

The CEO of UnitedHealthcare, one of the US’s largest health insurers, was shot dead on Wednesday in midtown Manhattan, police confirmed in a press conference.

Brian Thompson, 50, was shot outside the Hilton hotel at 1335 Avenue of the Americas just after 6.45am after arriving early for the company’s annual investor conference. A man wearing a mask approached him and fired at him repeatedly, police said.

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Retired New Orleans priest pleads guilty to kidnapping and raping boy in 1970s

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Lawrence Hecker, 93, is set to receive a life sentence after admitting to attacking boy in church bell tower

Shortly before a jury was supposed to be chosen for his trial on criminal charges of kidnapping and raping a boy in the mid-1970s, the self-acknowledged serial child molester and retired Roman Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker pleaded guilty on Tuesday morning.

The 93-year-old is scheduled to receive a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment on 18 December in New Orleans’s state criminal courthouse, where it has been rare for a Catholic clergyman to be charged – much less convicted – in connection with the church’s decades-old clerical molestation scandal.

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Indiana man finds two missing babies in ditch outside his home in 27F weather

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The four- and five-month-year-old girls were in a car when it was stolen earlier that day and are now safe

A man was shocked to discover two babies abandoned in a ditch when he went outside to collect a package in front of his Indianapolis home.

Robert Deane had only walked a few steps outside the front door of his home when he noticed two car seats in a ditch. As he got closer to investigate, he found two baby girls who were kidnapped earlier on Monday morning while inside of a stolen vehicle.

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After 50 years of mystery, siblings claim hijacker DB Cooper was their father

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Cooper’s whereabouts after he jumped from a plane with $200,000 stumped investigators. Has the case been solved?

It is one of the biggest mysteries in US criminal history: just what happened to DB Cooper, the man who hijacked an airplane before leaping out in mid-air with $200,000 in cash?

Now, more than 50 years later, the infamous crime may have been solved, after a pair of siblings came forward to claim they had found the parachute used in the hijacking, in their mother’s shed, and that Cooper was their father.

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Catholic priest accused of sexual assault fathered children of victims, court hears

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Revelation emerges at hearing for Anthony Odiong, 55, charged with several counts and held in Texas on $5.5m bail

A Roman Catholic priest with links to Texas and Louisiana who is facing criminal charges for allegedly abusing his position of authority within the church to pursue sex with vulnerable women fathered at least two children with victims of his behavior, authorities have alleged.

The stunning information about Anthony Odiong surfaced at a bail hearing on Tuesday in Waco, Texas, where prosecutors have charged him with several counts of sexually assaulting women to whom he ministered.

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Couple accused of stealing nearly $1m of Lululemon products from stores

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Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on 14 November in Minneapolis-St Paul

A couple has been accused of stealing nearly $1m worth of Lululemon products from its stores across the US.

Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on 14 November in Minneapolis-St Paul and have each been charged with one count of organized retail theft, according to a criminal complaint filed in Minnesota and reviewed by multiple outlets.

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Dartmouth sorority and two fraternity members charged over death of student

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Won Jang drowned in Connecticut River in July after party where alcohol was supplied by his fraternity

A sorority at Dartmouth College and two members of a fraternity are facing charges related to the death of a student who drowned after attending an off-campus party this summer.

Won Jang, 20, of Middletown, Delaware, had been reported missing in July after the party. State and local emergency responders searched the Connecticut River and found his body.

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Jury convicts two for smuggling Indian family who froze to death crossing US-Canada border

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Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Shand were part of operation bringing increasing numbers of Indians into US

A jury has convicted two men of human smuggling charges after an Indian family froze to death attempting to cross the Canada-US border.

After a brief deliberation on Friday, a jury in Fergus Falls, Minnesota delivered the verdict in the case against Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national who used the alias “Dirty Harry”, and Steve Shand, 50, an American from Florida. Prosecutors say the pair were part of a broader criminal enterprise that helped migrants cross from Canada into the United States.

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Man charged with murder after three stabbed in New York City rampage

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Suspect in custody as investigators work to understand what propelled random attacks in Manhattan

A man has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbings of three people in random attacks across Manhattan, police said on Tuesday.

Ramon Rivera, 51, was taken into custody after he was found with blood on his clothes and the two kitchen knives, authorities said.

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Colorado victims sue over attack at LGBTQ+ nightclub that killed five

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Suit accuses Club Q of lax security and says authorities’ ‘deliberate inaction’ enabled shooter to carry out attack

Two days shy of the second anniversary of a hate-fueled mass shooting at a queer nightclub in Colorado Springs, victims and mothers of those killed have filed lawsuits against the club for lax security and against the sheriff’s office for failing to trigger the state’s red flag law to disarm the shooter and ensure they could not purchase any more weapons.

“Club Q advertised itself as a ‘safe place’ for LGBTQIA+ individuals. But that was a facade,” read the two complaints, which contain allegations of negligence.

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GM’s Cruise admits submitting false report to robotaxi safety investigation

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General Motors unit to pay $500,000 fine after failing to disclose key details of 2023 San Francisco crash to NHTSA

General Motors’ self-driving car unit, Cruise, admitted on Thursday to submitting a false report to influence a federal investigation and will pay a $500,000 criminal fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, the justice department said.

The department said Cruise failed to disclose key details of an October 2023 crash to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in which one of its robotaxis in San Francisco struck a pedestrian after she was hit by another vehicle and dragged her 20ft (6.1 meters).

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New Orleans priest accused of child abuse competent to proceed with trial

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Lawrence Hecker, 93, self-admitted serial child molester, grapples with Alzheimer’s dementia and had trial delayed

With less than a month to go before his latest scheduled trial date, a self-admitted serial child molester and retired Roman Catholic priest from New Orleans remains competent to proceed with his oft-delayed rape and kidnapping case – albeit marginally as the 93-year-old grapples with Alzheimer’s dementia, according to his most recent medical evaluation.

A pair of doctors who evaluated Lawrence Hecker on 6 November made it a point to note that his illness is “a chronic and progressive disease”, suggesting additional delays beyond several already seen in the case create a risk that the clergyman declines into a state of legal incompetence preventing him from ever standing trial given his advanced age.

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Man who allegedly disguised killing as bear attack captured in South Carolina

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Nicholas Wayne Hamlett arrested almost one month after police found body of Steven Lloyd of Tennessee

Authorities in South Carolina have captured a man who allegedly murdered a hiker in woodlands in Tennessee then attempted to disguise the killing as a bear attack.

Nicholas Wayne Hamlett was arrested in Columbia on Sunday night almost one month after police found the body of the hiker, Steven Lloyd of Knoxville, Tennessee, close to the Cherahola Skyway in Monroe county, 80 miles north-east of Chattanooga.

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US tourist killed while on vacation in Hungary as suspect taken into custody

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Mackenzie Michalski, 31, from Portland, Oregon, met 37-year-old man from Ireland at nightclub in Budapest

Family members of a 31-year-old American tourist who was killed while on vacation in Hungary’s capital mourned their loss while a 37-year-old suspect was in custody Saturday.

The victim, Mackenzie Michalski from Portland, Oregon, was reported missing on 5 November after she was last seen at a nightclub in central Budapest. Police launched a missing person investigation and reviewed security footage from local nightclubs, where they observed Michalski with a man later identified as the suspect in several of the clubs the night of her disappearance.

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US justice department files charges over alleged Iranian plot to kill Trump

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Trump campaign said US officials warned him in September about suspected Iranian assassination plot

The US justice department is bringing criminal charges over an Iranian plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump that was thwarted by the FBI, the government said.

The federal government has unsealed criminal charges in what the justice department said was a murder-for-hire plan to take out Trump before this week’s presidential election, which he won decisively over his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.

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Drugs and weapons seized in sweep of jail where Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is held

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Brooklyn detention center holding 1,200 has been under scrutiny since two fatal stabbings this summer

Federal authorities have confirmed that they seized drugs, homemade weapons and electronic devices during a sweep of the jail where Sean “Diddy” Combs is being held on sex trafficking conspiracy charges ahead of a trial next year.

The Bureau of Prisons, which headed up the interagency sweep of the Metropolitan detention center (MDC) in Brooklyn that began on Monday, said the action was not related to Combs’s detention but was “preplanned and coordinated to ensure the safety and security” of staff and inmates.

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US army soldier charged with murder of female sergeant found dead in trash bin

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Wooster Rancy, 21, accused in death of Sgt Sarah Roque, 23, whose body was found at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri

A US army soldier has been charged with murder in the death of a fellow service member at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, the military announced Thursday.

The army office of Special Trial Counsel charged the 21-year-old specialist Wooster Rancy on Wednesday with murder and obstructing justice in the death of 23-year-old Sgt Sarah Roque.

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Florida woman found guilty of murder after zipping boyfriend in suitcase

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Sarah Boone was accused of leaving Jorge Torres to die at their home in Winter Park in 2020

A woman accused of leaving her boyfriend to die after he was zipped into a suitcase in their home was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in central Florida.

Four years after Sarah Boone was arrested over the death of Jorge Torres, jurors handed down the verdict against her on Friday evening after deliberating for about 90 minutes. Boone had pleaded not guilty.

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