Category Archives: US crime

Florida teen allegedly shoots and kills sister over Christmas gift spat

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The 14-year-old was then allegedly shot and wounded by his 15-year-old brother in retaliation; both are now in custody

A Florida woman holding her 11-month-old son in a baby carrier was fatally shot by her 14-year-old brother while trying to defuse an argument over Christmas gifts he was having with a 15-year-old brother who also was armed, authorities said.

The 15-year-old brother then shot his 14-year-old brother, though not fatally, for killing their sister on Sunday in Largo, Florida, which is located in the Tampa metro area, the Pinellas county sheriff’s office said in a news release.

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One person killed, another injured in shooting at Florida shopping mall

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Police say the victim was likely ‘targeted’ in the attack at the Paddock mall in Ocala, about 80 miles north-west of Orlando

A man has died in a shooting at a shopping mall in central Florida two days before Christmas in which the victim was apparently “targeted” for the attack, police said.

Ocala police chief Mike Balken told reporters on Saturday evening that the man was killed after he was shot multiple times in a common area at Paddock Mall in Ocala, located about 80 miles north-west of Orlando. A woman was shot in the leg, police said.

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Elijah McClain: two Colorado paramedics convicted of criminally negligent homicide in 2019 killing

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EMTs Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper injected 23-year-old with high dose of ketamine in a case that sparked mass protests

Two Colorado paramedics have been convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Elijah McClain after he was stopped by police in 2019.

The jury’s guilty verdicts on Friday for Aurora EMTs Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper mark an extraordinarily rare case of paramedics being found criminally liable for a civilian’s death in police custody and follow years of protests. Cichuniec was also found guilty of second-degree assault. Cooper was acquitted on the assault charges.

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White South Carolina couple ‘harassed Black neighbors with burning cross’

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Worden Butler and Alexis Hartnett charged after FBI search house in Horry county following alleged racially motivated campaign

The FBI has searched a house in South Carolina after a white couple allegedly put up a cross that faced their Black neighbors and set it on fire.

On Wednesday morning, federal agents searched the house of 28-year-old Worden Butler and 27-year-old Alexis Hartnett in Horry county for a “civil rights investigation involving allegations of racial discrimination”, WBTW reports the agency saying.

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US man formerly on death row freed after murder charges dismissed

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Noel Montalvo was in Pennsylvania prison for 20 years for murders that he blamed on his brother who died in prison

A man formerly on death row has been released from prison following dismissal of murder charges in a double slaying a quarter-century ago that he blamed on his brother, who died in prison while appealing his own death sentence in the case.

Noel Montalvo, who turned 59 on Tuesday, was freed on Monday night after York county, Pennsylvania, prosecutors dismissed charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and burglary shortly before a retrial was to begin. He pleaded guilty to an evidence tampering charge for which the judge sentenced him to a year of probation.

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US archbishop secretly backed bid to free priest convicted of raping child

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‘I join you in the prayer to guide those regarding your appeal,’ Gregory Aymond of New Orleans wrote to priest given life sentence

As he reached the end of his 41-year life, Kevin Portier had endured child rape at the hands of a southern Louisiana Catholic priest for whom he had served as an altar boy; a highly publicized trial that sent the clergyman to prison for the rest of his days; and the trauma associated with those experiences.

But one of Portier’s harshest ordeals came within his final two years alive. Representatives of the church that he had been raised to believe in approached him at his home, at his job and at a relative’s funeral to ask him to lend his support to efforts to secure an early release for his rapist, Robert Melancon.

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US man charged in four murders lured victims with promise of buried gold

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Victims fell for alleged serial killer’s tale that he needed help finding gold in area of his Washington state farm, authorities say

An alleged serial killer in Washington state has been hit with new murder charges after authorities revealed that he may have used the same scheme to kill all four of his victims by telling them he needed their help finding buried treasure.

Richard Bradley Jr, 40, who has been awaiting trial of murder charges in the death of 44-year-old Brandi Blake since his arrest in 2021, has now been charged in the deaths of three more people, one identified from ribs buried on Bradley’s 160-acre Game Farm Park in Auburn and matched to his mother using DNA.

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Former Pennsylvania mayor imprisoned for shooting at Pokémon Go players

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Ida Reams served as mayor of Osceola Mills from 2013 to 2021 and was intoxicated when she confronted the two men

The former two-term mayor of a Pennsylvania town has been ordered to serve up to a year in jail for shooting a gun at – and threatening to kill – two players of the popular mobile game Pokémon Go.

Ida Reams, who served as mayor of Osceola Mills from 2013 to 2021, was intoxicated when she confronted the two male players of the augmented reality game in the parking lot of a food bank in the town in March last year.

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Georgia teacher accused of threatening to kill student over Israeli flag, police say

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Teacher arrested after allegedly saying he would ‘cut’ student’s ‘head off’ after she told him she was offended by his Israeli flag

A school teacher in the US state of Georgia was arrested after allegedly threatening to behead a student who expressed taking offense over his Israeli flag, according to authorities.

Benjamin Reese’s arrest at the middle school named after the town of Warner Robins occurred on after a student approached and told him she was offended by the Israeli flag hanging in his classroom, the local news station WMAZ reported, citing a police account of the case.

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Man charged with murder of Detroit synagogue leader Samantha Woll

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A 28-year-old Detroit man was charged with three crimes, and authorities allege he was a stranger who had broken into home

A stranger accused of breaking into the home of a Detroit synagogue leader was charged with her murder Wednesday, nearly two months after her body was found outdoors with multiple stab wounds, authorities said.

There was not a “shred of evidence” that Samantha Woll was killed as a result of antisemitism or any hate crime, prosecutor Kym Worthy said.

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Man flies from Denmark to Los Angeles with no passport or plane ticket

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Sergey Ochigava, who had Russian and Israeli identification, faces felony charges of being an aircraft stowaway

A Russian man who flew on a plane from Denmark to Los Angeles in November without a passport or ticket told US authorities he didn’t remember how he got through security in Europe, according to a federal complaint filed by the FBI. He has been charged with a federal crime.

Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava, 46, arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on 4 November via Scandinavian Airlines flight 931 from Copenhagen. He initially told authorities he had left his passport on the airplane which he flew on. A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer could not find Ochigava on the flight manifest or any other incoming international flights, according to the complaint filed 6 November in Los Angeles federal court.

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Minnesota man wrongfully convicted of murder freed from life sentence

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Marvin Haynes receives apology from DA who said prosecutors had no forensic evidence linking him to 2004 murder

A man convicted of murdering a Minnesota flower shop clerk largely based on a single eyewitness identification has been freed from a sentence of life imprisonment, elating his supporters and him but outraging the slain victim’s family.

Marvin Haynes was 16 when the killing which sent him to prison for nearly two decades unfolded in 2004 in Minneapolis. His release comes amid the implementation of court-mandated reforms to the local police department, prompted in part by a former officer’s murder of George Floyd in 2020.

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Catholic priest killed by attack in Nebraska church residence

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Stephen Gutgsell assaulted ‘during an invasion’ of a Fort Calhoun church and suspect was taken into custody, authorities said

A Catholic priest in a small Nebraska community died Sunday after being attacked in a church rectory, authorities said.

Stephen Gutgsell was assaulted “during an invasion” of St John the Baptist Catholic church in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, the archdiocese of Omaha said in a Sunday statement.

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Michigan teen sentenced to life for school shooting that killed four

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Ethan Crumbley apologized before the sentencing for the 2021 high school shooting as parents still in jail on related charges

A judge sentenced a Michigan teenager to life in prison on Friday for killing four students and terrorizing others at Oxford high school in 2021, after listening to hours of gripping anguish from parents and wounded survivors.

Judge Kwame Rowe rejected pleas from defense lawyers for a shorter sentence and ensured that Ethan Crumbley, 17, will not get an opportunity for parole.

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Hunter Biden indicted on tax charges in California in new criminal case

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Charges come in addition to federal firearms charges and intensify pressure on president’s son ahead of 2024 election

Hunter Biden has been indicted on nine tax charges in California, becoming the second indictment against the president’s son, adding fuel to a scandal that Republicans have been seizing on in the lead-up to the 2024 election.

The state charges on Thursday follow federal firearms charges in Delaware alleging Biden unlawfully obtained a revolver in October 2018 after he falsely stated he was not using narcotic drugs.

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Suspect in Las Vegas university shooting named as college professor

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Anthony Polito, 67, who died at scene of shooting that left three dead and one critically wounded, had unsuccessfully sought job

The four people shot at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, campus on Thursday were all faculty members, the university has said.

Three people died and one person was critically wounded in the shooting. The suspect in the attack, which took place at approximately 11.45am, has been named as a college professor who had failed to win a job there, according to police officials.

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US chocolate mogul charged over deaths of Canadian animator and partner in Dominica

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Jonathan Lehrer, 57, and alleged accomplice appear in court after bodies of Daniel Langlois and Dominique Marchand were found

An American chocolatier and his alleged accomplice have been charged in the Caribbean island of Dominica with the murder of a Canadian animation innovator and eco-resort owner and his partner days after their bodies were found in a burned-out car.

Jonathan Lehrer, 57, and Robert Snider appeared in magistrates court in Roseau, the capital, on Wednesday to face charges relating to the murders of Daniel Langlois and Dominique Marchand. They did not enter a plea.

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Georgia prosecutors predict jail sentences in Trump 2020 election case

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Exclusive: Fulton county prosecutors say in emails their legal careers will continue long after defendants go to jail

Fulton county prosecutors have signaled they want prison sentences in the Georgia criminal case against Donald Trump and his top allies for allegedly violating the racketeering statute as part of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to exchanges in private emails.

“We have a long road ahead,” the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, wrote in one email. “Long after these folks are in jail, we will still be practicing law.”

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Texas police arrest suspect after six people killed in spree of violence

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Shane James, 34, charged with two counts of murder over series of shootings that also left three injured including two police officers

Police in Austin have arrested a man after a series of shootings that left six people dead and three people injured, including two police officers and a bicyclist, over the course of eight hours.

Austin’s interim police chief, Robin Henderson, said at a news conference early on Wednesday that the violence occurred in two separate incidents across two central Texas communities. He said police were not aware the incidents were connected until after they arrested the man, named as 34-year-old Shane James.

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Owners of US funeral home that hid 190 decaying bodies to appear in court

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Jon and Carie Hallford to face charges of theft, forgery, money laundering and approximately 190 counts of abuse of a corpse

Relatives who knew or feared that their loved ones were among the 190 abandoned bodies found decomposing in a Colorado funeral home watched in person for the first time Tuesday as the owners of the business appeared before a judge.

Jon and Carie Hallford own Return to Nature Funeral Home, which has a facility in Penrose where investigators in early October discovered dozens of stacked bodies, some that had death dates as far back as 2019, according to a federal affidavit. The pair stand accused of abusing corpses, stealing, laundering money and forging documents.

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