Category Archives: US crime

Pride flag in window of Oregon library apparent target of BB gun attack

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Newberg-Dundee police department said in addition to vandalism were ‘concerns of biased intent’

A Pride flag that hung in the window of an Oregon library was the apparent target of BB gun fire amid Pride month and a growing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ measures from US legislatures.

In a Facebook statement on Wednesday, the Newberg public library in Newberg, Oregon, said that around 7.10pm, a BB gun was fired at a window on the south-east corner of the library. A picture showed a shattered window, behind which a Pride flag hung.

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Businessman testifies he promised Bob Menendez up to $250,000 in bribes

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Star witness in trial of US senator from New Jersey says he had deal with Democrat to pressure state attorney general

A New Jersey businessman took his star turn on the witness stand on Friday in the bribery case against US senator Bob Menendez, telling a jury he believed he had a $200,000-$250,000 deal in 2018 for the Democrat to pressure the state attorney general’s office to stop investigating his friends and family.

Jose Uribe testified in Manhattan federal court in the afternoon, providing key testimony against Menendez and two other businessmen charged in a conspiracy along with Menendez’s wife. Next week, Menendez’s lawyers will get to cross-examine the naturalized US citizen.

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Howard University revokes Sean Combs’ honorary degree and scholarship he funded

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Move comes after video released showing hip-hop mogul attacking singer Cassie Ventura in 2016

Howard University on Friday announced that it has revoked the honorary degree it gave to Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2014, discontinued a scholarship program named after the rap mogul and returned a $1m donation from him, citing the video that showed him violently attacking singer Cassie Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel.

“Mr Combs’ behavior … is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor,” the Washington DC school said in a statement. “The university is unwavering in its opposition to all acts of interpersonal violence.”

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DNC targets Trump campaign rally with ‘convicted white-collar crook’ billboard

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Democrats call Trump ‘unfit to serve’ on the advertisement in Las Vegas, where he’s due to speak on Sunday

Democrats will target Donald Trump’s first full-scale campaign rally since his criminal trial with a billboard that brands him “a convicted white-collar crook”.

The ad, paid for by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is the latest indication that the party is ready to become more aggressive in capitalising on last month’s guilty verdict in New York.

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Man who killed unhoused woman with pellet gun gets five years in prison: ‘Her life mattered’

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William Innes, 19, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2023 death of Annette Pershal in San Diego

A 19-year-old who fatally shot an unhoused woman with a pellet gun in southern California was sentenced to five years and eight months in state prison on Thursday.

William Innes pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the killing last May of Annette Pershal, 68, who was living on the streets of San Diego and nicknamed “Granny Annie”. The case sparked national outrage after prosecutors reported that Innes had texted a group chat saying he was going “hobo hunting”.

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US seizes $63m worth of cocaine after dramatic shootout on high seas

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Patrol boat off Venezuelan coast shoots and sinks vessel suspected of carrying drugs as three people go overboard

A high-seas shootout pitting drug runners against the law ended with the smugglers’ boat at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea and the US Coast Guard seizing $63m worth of cocaine, authorities in Florida said on Friday.

The dramatic encounter took place on Tuesday about 25 miles (40km) north of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, when the coast guard cutter Resolute – patrolling with the Dutch navy ship Groningen – identified a vessel in international waters suspected of carrying narcotics, according to a press release from the USCG south-east region.

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Trump’s gun license to be revoked following conviction, media reports say

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New York City police department to revoke Trump’s license after suspending permit to carry a concealed weapon in April 2023

Donald Trump’s license to carry a gun is expected to be revoked by the New York City police department now that he has been convicted of a felony, according to reports on Wednesday evening.

The former president once boasted that he was so popular with the electorate, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” He made the claim in January 2016 during the Iowa caucuses campaign.

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Rock climber sentenced to life in prison for Yosemite sexual assaults

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Charles Barrett was accused of using his fame as a rock climber to lure victim to park and later making threatening phone calls to her

A professional rock climber who assaulted a woman three times during a weekend hiking trip to California’s Yosemite national park in 2016 has been sentenced to life in prison.

Charles Barrett, 40, had been accused of using his fame as a rock climber to lure the woman to the park, and then making hundreds of threatening phone calls against her and his other victims after he was arrested and placed in custody.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Ohio police ask for help finding suspects after mass shooting that left one dead and 24 wounded

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There was a street party in the Akron area before gunfire broke out, killing a 27-year-old man whose identity was not yet released

The mayor and police chief of Akron, Ohio, called on witnesses to come forward with information about a mass shooting in the city that killed one person and wounded 24 others, some critically, over the weekend.

“This was a tragic incident which [affects] our entire community,” Akron’s mayor, Shammas Malik, said. “The sheer number of victims is shocking and disconcerting. I want to be very clear: anyone who was involved in last night’s shooting will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

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Turkish journalist says he was attacked outside exile’s US home

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Yunus Paksoy appeared to be filming a live broadcast outside home of Fethullah Gülen when man in SUV approached

A Turkish journalist for a pro-government channel says a supporter of Fethullah Gülen, the US-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of instigating a failed 2016 coup, attacked him near the self-exiled figure’s home in Pennsylvania in an encounter that apparently unfolded live on air.

In a video posted on Saturday, Yunus Paksoy appeared to be filming a live broadcast outside Gülen’s home, reportedly near the area of Saylorsburg, when a man driving a dark SUV approached him.

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Chad Daybell sentenced to death for murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s children

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Idaho case marked by Daybell and girlfriend Lori Vallow Daybell’s extremist religious beliefs about doomsday

Chad Daybell was sentenced to death Saturday for the murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children in Idaho in a case marked by his and his girlfriend’s extremist religious beliefs about doomsday.

The sentence was handed down after an Idaho jury unanimously agreed that imposing the death penalty would be a just resolution to the triple-murder case. The sentence marks the end of a grim investigation that began with a search for two missing children in 2019. The next year, their bodies were found buried in Daybell’s eastern Idaho yard.

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Minnesota representative Dean Phillips calls on New York governor to pardon Trump

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Failed contender for the Democratic presidential nomination says Kathy Hochul should grant pardon ‘for the good of the country’

The outgoing Democratic US congressman who failed in his presidential primary challenge against Joe Biden called on the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, to pardon Donald Trump over his criminal conviction for hush-money payments to influence the 2016 election “for the good of the country”.

Minnesota representative Dean Phillips, who was the first Democrat to call on fellow party member Henry Cuellar to resign following bribery charges against the Texas congressman, urged for the pardon on Friday in a post on X.

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Florida deputy who killed Black air force member in his own home fired

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Eddie Duran shot Roger Fortson within two seconds after the airman opened his door with his legally owned gun pointed down

A Florida sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a Black US air force airman in the military member’s own home has been fired from his job, officials said on Friday.

The Okaloosa county sheriff’s office said it dismissed the deputy, Eddie Duran, after investigators found that his “use of deadly force was not objectively reasonable and therefore violated agency policy” in the killing of senior airman Roger Fortson on 3 May 2024.

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Donald Trump had lots of negative opinions about felons. Now he is one.

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From roughing up suspects to revoking bail, the 34-count felon has suggested harsh treatment for his fellow criminals

Donald Trump has spent years complaining that American police and the criminal legal system should be “very much tougher”, arguing that some criminals should not be protected by civil liberties, police should rough up suspects and a much wider range of people should face the death penalty for breaking the law.

Now that the former president has been convicted on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records, Trump is arguing that the US legal system is out of control. “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone,” he said on Friday.

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US navy admiral arrested for alleged bribery scheme with training company

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Robert Burke, four-star admiral and once navy’s second-highest-ranking officer, accused of trading contract for high-paying job

A retired four-star admiral who was once the US navy’s second-highest-ranking officer was arrested on Friday on charges that he helped a company secure a government contract for a training program in exchange for a lucrative job with the firm.

Robert Burke, who served as vice-chief of naval operations, faces federal charges including bribery and conspiracy for what prosecutors allege was a corrupt scheme that led to the company hiring him after his retirement in 2022 with a starting annual salary of $500,000. He oversaw naval operations in Europe, Russia and most of Africa.

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Idaho jurors mull death penalty for man convicted over ‘doomsday’ killings

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Chad Daybell found guilty of murder of wife and girlfriend’s two children in 2019, linked to apparent extremist religious beliefs

Jurors in Idaho on Friday were deciding whether to deliver the death sentence to Chad Daybell, the 55-year-old man convicted of killing his wife and his then girlfriend’s two children over beliefs in the extremist religious concept of doomsday.

Deliberations began a day after jurors found Daybell guilty of murdering 49-year-old Tammy Daybell, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and seven-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow in 2019.

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David DePape apologizes for attacking Paul Pelosi and gets 30-year sentence – again

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DePape, who didn’t get to speak in court in original trial on assault of Nancy’s Pelosi’s husband, gets no change to original sentence

The man who was convicted of assaulting then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in 2022 was re-sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday, with no change in the original sentence after the case was reopened so he could speak during his sentencing hearing, local news reported.

David DePape was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison on 17 May for forcibly entering Pelosi’s home in San Francisco early on 28 October 2022 and clubbing her husband, Paul, in the head with a hammer in a politically motivated attack.

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Johnny Wactor: General Hospital actor shot dead in suspected robbery

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37-year-old actor killed in Los Angeles early on Saturday after confronting three men allegedly attempting to steal from a vehicle

Johnny Wactor, the actor best known for his role on long-running soap opera General Hospital, has died after being shot during a suspected robbery in Los Angeles. He was 37.

His mother, Scarlett, first confirmed his death to TMZ. The Los Angeles police department later confirmed that Wactor was shot around 3am on Saturday after confronting three men who were allegedly attempting to steal the catalytic converter from a vehicle.

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Singer Sean Kingston and his mother charged for over $1m fraud

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Two were arrested on Thursday after Swat team raided rapper’s rented mansion in suburban Fort Lauderdale

Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother committed more than a million dollars in fraud in recent months, stealing money, jewelry, a Cadillac Escalade and furniture, documents released Friday allege.

Kingston, 34, and his 61-year-old mother, Janice Turner, have been charged with conducting an organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, identity theft and related crimes, according to arrest warrants released by the Broward county, Florida, sheriff’s office.

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Consultant behind deepfaked Biden robocall fined $6m as new charges filed

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Steve Kramer charged in New Hampshire for AI-generated impersonation of Biden that urged residents not to vote in primary

Steve Kramer, a political consultant who admitted that he deepfaked Joe Biden’s voice in a robocall that was sent out to thousands of US voters in January 2024, has been indicted and fined $6m.

The robocall, which went out ahead of the first Democratic presidential primary in the US in New Hampshire, used artificial intelligence to fake Biden’s voice telling voters to stay home and “save” their votes for the November general election.

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