Category Archives: US crime

Michigan couple arrested after groom allegedly kills groomsman hours after wedding

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James Shirah, 22, allegedly ran over groomsman with SUV, mortally wounding him, following argument on 30 August

A newly married couple from Michigan were arrested only hours after their wedding because the groom allegedly used a car to intentionally run over and kill one of his groomsmen, according to local police.

The groom, 22-year-old James Shirah of Flint, allegedly ran over his groomsman with an SUV, mortally wounding him, following an argument on 30 August, the Flint police department said on Facebook.

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Students and teachers in Georgia high school shooting praised for bravery

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Throughout shooting that killed four people, many attempted to stop attacker and were first to aid injured

Students and teachers at Georgia’s Apalachee high school – where a teenager carried out a deadly mass shooting on Wednesday – are being praised for the bravery they demonstrated when faced with unimaginable circumstances.

Meanwhile, more information is emerging about the 14-year-old shooter who allegedly thrust them into those circumstances.

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Pakistani man in Canada charged with planned mass shooting of Jewish New Yorkers

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Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, arrested near US border after allegedly planning attack with undercover agents

A Pakistani man living in Canada is facing federal criminal charges for allegedly planning to carry out a mass shooting in New York against Jewish people on the anniversary of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, the US justice department announced on Friday.

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, was arrested Wednesday in Canada and charged with attempting to provide material support as well as resources to a foreign terrorist organization – in this case, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

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Former hitman sentenced to 25 years in prison killing of gangster Whitey Bulger

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Ex-mafia associate Fotios ‘Freddy’ Geas convicted of fatally bludgeoning notorious Boston gangster in 2018

A former mafia hitman already serving life in prison was sentenced to 25 years on Friday in the 2018 fatal prison bludgeoning of notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.

Prosecutors said Fotios “Freddy” Geas used a lock attached to a belt to repeatedly hit the 89-year-old Bulger in the head hours after he arrived at Hazelton, a troubled US penitentiary, from another lockup in Florida in October 2018. Defense attorneys disputed that characterization on Friday, saying Geas hit Bulger with his fist.

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Georgia teacher was trying to protect his students when he was killed, witnesses say

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Students say that Richard Aspinwall left his classroom after the shooting started to try protect them

Richard Aspinwall, the mathematics teacher and football coach who was one of two teachers killed in Wednesday’s high school shooting in Georgia, was trying to protect the children in his classroom when he was killed.

His attempt to protect the teens in his care was one of new details that have emerged about the four victims killed in the gun rampage by a fellow student at Apalachee high school, in the small city of Winder.

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Georgia school shooting suspect makes first court appearance

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Colt Gray, 14, faces murder charges and his father has been charged over his alleged involvement in supplying the gun

The 14-year-old charged with killing two fellow students and two teachers at his Georgia high school made his first court appearance on Friday – with his father, who was arrested late on Thursday, set to appear shortly afterwards.

Colt Gray appeared in person, dressed in green prison scrubs and hands and ankles shackled to his waist at the hearing in Barrow county courthouse, having previously been understood to be planning to attend by video link. He traveled from the youth detention facility in which he is being held. He is being detained there as a juvenile, even though he is expected to be tried as an adult.

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Hunter Biden offers unusual guilty plea in tax case in surprise back-and-forth

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US president’s son, who previously pleaded not guilty, seeks new plea deal wherein he would not admit to allegations

Hunter Biden offered to plead guilty to federal tax charges but avoid admitting any wrongdoing, in an unusual, last-minute legal maneuver that federal prosecutors quickly opposed.

The surprise back-and-forth unfolded on Thursday morning as the president’s only surviving son entered a Los Angeles courthouse for the start of his tax-avoidance trial.

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Retired New Orleans priest accused of child rape found competent – but trial could be delayed

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Lawrence Hecker, 92 and diagnosed with dementia, will be evaluated again to see if he is capable of defending himself

A court-ordered psychiatrist evaluated self-acknowledged child molester and retired priest Lawrence Hecker for a third time on Thursday, declaring him “fragilely competent” to stand trial on rape and kidnapping charges.

New Orleans criminal court judge Benedict Willard stopped short of declaring Hecker competent to stand trial and assist in his own defense but kept a 24 September trial date in place.

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Boy, 11, charged with murder in deaths of former Louisiana mayor and his daughter

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Joe Cornelius Sr, 82, and Keisha Miles, 31, were found dead with multiple gunshot wounds on Sunday

An 11-year-old boy has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder after the fatal shootings of a former Louisiana mayor and his daughter.

In a press conference on Tuesday, police chief Jared McIver of Minden, a small town in north-west Louisiana, said that at about 6.30am on Sunday police responded to reports of a shooting inside a house on Austin Street, according to local reports.

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Georgia high school shooting: student charged with murder after four people killed in Apalachee

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Authorities say suspect, 14, also wounded nine others, with FBI later saying they had investigated him and his father a year ago

Two students and two teachers were killed at a Georgia high school on Wednesday in a mass shooting authorities say was committed by a 14-year-old male student at the school.

At least nine others were taken to the hospital following the incident at Apalachee high school in Winder, about 50 miles north-east of Atlanta.

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California man charged with murdering two neighbors in nudist community

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Michael Royce Sparks was arrested last week after he was found under a home at Olive Dell Ranch

A southern California man has been charged with the murder of two of his neighbors in a local nudist community.

Michael Royce Sparks, 62, was charged on Tuesday with two counts of murder with special circumstances in the deaths of Stephanie Menard, 73, and her husband, Daniel, 79, court records show.

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Dallas police officer killed and two wounded in apparent ambush

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Suspect, 30, killed in shootout with police after officials say he opened fire on officer sitting in patrol car

The Dallas police chief said on Friday that a man intentionally set out to shoot police when he killed an officer sitting in his patrol car and wounded two others in a late-night ambush that set off a highway chase and ended with officers fatally shooting the attacker.

The shooting on Thursday night brought fresh anguish and anger in a city where a gunman’s ambush on police in 2016 killed five officers.

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Man charged with murder of Colorado dog breeder as 10 puppies missing

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Sergio Ferrer, 36, charged over death of 57-year-old Paul Peavey, whose 10 doberman puppies have not been found

Authorities investigating the murder of a Colorado dog breeder believed searching for his 10 doberman puppies might lead them to the perpetrator. But on Friday, officials said, they had charged a suspect and are now hoping this development will also help them locate the missing dogs, which are still unaccounted for.

Paul Peavey, a 57-year-old resident of Idaho Springs, Colorado, was found shot to death on 24 August – days after he had been reported missing by friends and family – by a search party combing through his sprawling 110-acre property.

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Missing couple from nudist community in California presumed dead

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Neighbor, 62, held after disappearance of Stephanie and Daniel Menard, 73 and 79, from resort in Redlands

A couple living in a southern California nudist community who were reported missing earlier this week are presumed dead, police said on Friday, and a next-door neighbor had been arrested.

On Friday, police used a tank-like vehicle with a battering ram to smash into a home where they believed the bodies of Stephanie Menard, 73, and her husband, Daniel, 79, would be be found, said Carl Baker, spokesperson for the Redlands police department.

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Doctor charged in Matthew Perry death appears in court after reaching plea deal

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Mark Chavez, 54, to turn over medical license as lawyer says client is ‘incredibly remorseful’ for role in star’s death

One of two doctors charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s death made his first appearance in a federal court in Los Angeles on Friday after reaching a deal to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors.

Dr Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors earlier this month to plead guilty to conspiring to distribute the surgical anesthetic ketamine. He is the third person to plead guilty in the aftermath of the Friends star’s fatal overdose last year.

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South Carolina prepares for first execution in more than 13 years

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After July ruling that state’s death penalty is legal, a man on death row has a week to decide how he will be executed

A man on death row in South Carolina has until 6 September to decide how he would prefer to be executed by the state.

South Carolina’s prisons director has declared the state’s supply of a lethal injection drug acceptable and said its electric chair was tested two months ago and its firing squad has the ammunition and training to carry out its first execution next month in more than 13 years, if needed.

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Pulse nightclub owners will not face charges over 2016 mass shooting

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Police close investigation into Barbara and Rosario Poma over possible manslaughter linked to Florida massacre

The Orlando police department has closed its investigation into the former owners of the Pulse nightclub without filing any charges. Victims’ families and survivors of the mass shooting that killed 49 patrons at the LGBTQ+ club had asked law enforcement to investigate them for criminal culpability.

No charges will be filed against the former owners, Barbara and Rosario Poma, because probable cause did not exist for involuntary manslaughter by culpable negligence, the Orlando police said this week in an emailed statement.

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Massachusetts judge rules Karen Read can be retried for murder after mistrial

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January retrial likely after judge declines to dismiss two charges against Boston woman accused of killing boyfriend

The Massachusetts judge presiding over the high-profile murder trial of Karen Read has rejected a defense motion to dismiss two charges, including murder, setting the stage for the case to be retried in January after jurors deadlocked this summer.

Read, 44, is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, 46, by hitting him with her sport-utility vehicle and leaving him to die in a snowbank. She pleaded not guilty to charges including second-degree murder, manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of a deadly crash.

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Florida police officer charged with manslaughter over Black airman’s killing

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Eddie Duran charged over death of Roger Fortson, who was shot multiple times when he opened apartment door

A Florida sheriff’s deputy is facing a charge of manslaughter with a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting of a US air force member who opened his apartment door while holding a gun.

The former Okaloosa county deputy Eddie Duran was charged on Friday in the 3 May shooting death of senior airman Roger Fortson, assistant state attorney Greg Marcille said. That is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

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