Category Archives: US crime

Suspect in Washington DC national guard shooting had ties to CIA, agency confirms

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Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, worked with agency-backed military units during US war in Afghanistan

The suspected shooter of two national guard members in Washington DC on Wednesday worked with CIA-backed military units during the US war in Afghanistan, the agency has confirmed.

The alleged gunman, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, came to the US in September 2021 under an Operation Allies Welcome program that gave some Afghans who had worked for the US government entry visas to the US.

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Food influencer known as ‘dine-and-dash diva’ arrested in Brooklyn

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Pei Chung allegedly ate at multiple fancy restaurants around New York City and then skipped out on paying

A would-be food influencer known online as the “dine-and-dash diva” has been jailed in Brooklyn, New York, after multiple previous arrests for allegedly skipping out on the bill at high-end restaurants.

Pei Chung, 34, is said to have developed a habit of going to fancy restaurants around New York City, ordering extensively off the menu – and then trying to get out of paying.

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Former Phoenix news anchor sentenced to 10 years for $63m fraud in Covid relief scheme

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Stephanie Hockridge and her husband falsified details to obtain PPP loans guaranteed by US small business agency

A former Phoenix news anchor has been sentenced to 10 years after being found guilty of participating in a fraudulent $63m Covid-19 relief scheme alongside her husband.

Stephanie Hockridge’s sentence on Friday came after a jury convicted her in June. Meanwhile, her husband, Nathan Reis, pleaded guilty in August.

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Family speaks out after stepbrother emerges as suspect in death of Florida teen on cruise

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Anna Kepner, 18, from Titusville, was found dead of asphyxiation under a bed on a Carnival cruise ship

The grandparents of a high school senior found dead on a cruise ship earlier in November say they fear they have lost two grandchildren after her stepbrother has emerged as a suspect in the case.

“No matter what we find out, no matter what they tell us, it’s not going to bring either one of these children back,” Barbara Kepner, the grandmother of the late 18-year-old cheerleader Anna Kepner told ABC News on Monday.

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US woman behind Slender Man stabbing is missing after leaving group home

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Morgan Geyser of Wisconsin cut off her electronic monitoring device and was last seen with an acquaintance

A Wisconsin woman who admitted to stabbing a classmate nearly to death in 2014 to please the online horror character Slender Man is missing after she cut off an electronic monitoring device and left a group home, authorities said on Sunday.

Madison police issued an alert on Sunday for Morgan Geyser, now 23, saying she was last seen around 8pm on Saturday with an adult acquaintance.

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Suspect arrested in shooting death of beloved Oakland football coach

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Cedric Irving Jr, 27, is alumnus of high school where John Beam taught before gaining fame on Netflix’s Last Change U

A 27-year-old Skyline high school alumnus, frequently seen lingering near Laney College, has been taken into custody in connection with the fatal shooting of Oakland football coach John Beam.

Police identified the suspect as Cedric Irving Jr, who was apprehended before dawn at the San Leandro, California, Bart station, ending an urgent search for the individual believed responsible.

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Coach featured in Netflix’s Last Chance U dies after Oakland campus shooting

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Mayor Barbara Lee calls John Beam ‘a man who dedicated himself to building up the young people of this city’

A US football coach who starred in the Netflix documentary Last Chance U, about struggling college teams, has died after being shot on campus, authorities in California said.

John Beam, director of athletics at Oakland’s Laney College, was hurt in a Thursday lunchtime incident at the school’s field house, its downtown sports training complex. He later died, the Oakland police department said on Friday.

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Actor Allison Mack reveals role in Nxivm sex cult in new podcast: ‘I was abusive’

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Smallville actor, released from prison two years ago, tells how she helped coerce women for cult leader Keith Raniere

The Smallville actor Allison Mack says she was once riveted by the influence she wielded through her role in the Nxivm sex cult – though it eventually sent her to federal prison, and she now realizes it was “abusive”.

“I was excited by the power that I felt having these young, beautiful women look to me and listen to me,” Mack, 43, maintains in a new podcast series titled Allison After Nxivm, which contains her first public remarks since her release from prison about two years ago. “And – yes – the sexuality of it was exciting.”

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Drug dealer granted clemency by Trump sent back to prison for violating terms of release

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Man accused of groping family’s nanny, evading bridge tolls and swinging IV pole at nurse and threatening to kill her

A convicted drug dealer who had been granted clemency by Donald Trump was sent back to federal prison on Monday for violating the terms of his release after being charged with several new crimes.

Jonathan Braun was sentenced to 27 months behind bars.

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Ghislaine Maxwell reportedly ‘much happier’ after prison transfer by Trump officials

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Jeffrey Epstein associate, serving 20 years for sex-trafficking crimes, is now in minimum-security federal prison in Texas

Longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes, has reportedly said that she is “much, much happier” after the Trump administration transferred her to a minimum-security federal prison in Texas, according to emails obtained by NBC News.

Maxwell, 63, was moved from a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, to the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas in August – just days after she was interviewed about the Epstein case by deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche. Blanche is a former personal lawyer for Donald Trump, who had been friends with the late Epstein – a convicted sex offender – before winning two presidencies.

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North Carolina police officer fatally shot in hospital emergency room incident

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Campus police officer Roger Smith was killed during a struggle and a ‘person of interest’ is in custody, police say

A police officer was shot and killed during a struggle in the emergency department lobby at a North Carolina hospital Saturday.

The shooting happened around 9am at the WakeMed Garner Healthplex, killing WakeMed campus police officer Roger Smith, according to a WakeMed statement.

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Car fleeing police slams into bar in Tampa, killing 4 people and injuring 11

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Police say vehicle was involved in street racing before driver fled from authorities and then crashed into Ybor City bar

A speeding car fleeing police slammed into a crowded bar early on Saturday, killing four people and injuring 11 in a historic district of Tampa, Florida, known for its nightlife and tourists.

An air patrol unit with the Tampa police department spotted the car driving recklessly on a freeway at about 12.40am after police said the silver sedan had been seen street racing in another neighborhood, according to a police department statement.

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US mass murderer George Banks dies in prison 43 years after rampage

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Banks was convicted of killing 13 people, including his own children, in 1982 shooting in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

George Banks, one of the most notorious mass murderers in the US, has died.

Banks, 83, died on Sunday afternoon at Phoenix state prison in Pennsylvania, the state department of corrections said. Banks died of complications from renal neoplasm, or kidney cancer, said Montgomery county coroner Dr Janine Darby.

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No one hurt after ‘intentional’ explosion at Harvard medical campus, officials say

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Officers did not find additional devices in a sweep of building, authorities say

There was an explosion early Saturday at Harvard University’s medical school that appears to have been intentional, but no one was injured, authorities said.

Police at the Massachusetts Ivy League university said in a statement that an officer who responded to a fire alarm encountered two unidentified people and tried to stop them. But they ran from the campus’s Goldenson building before the officer got to where the alert was triggered by an explosion, police said.

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Missing Louisiana girl, 13, rescued from box in Pennsylvania basement

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Police say Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, met girl through Snapchat, and charged him with human trafficking and sexual assault

A 13-year-old Louisiana girl who went missing after meeting a man online was found alive in a box at his home several states away in Pennsylvania – along with evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, according to authorities.

Ki-Shawn Crumity, 26, faces charges of human trafficking, sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and corruption of a child after police in Pittsburgh said they arrested him on Thursday. He is one of at least three men who had been arrested as of Saturday amid an investigation involving law enforcement agencies in multiple states.

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One killed and six injured after shooting at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University

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One armed person detained as historically Black school shooting comes amid rising violence at homecoming events

At least one person was killed and six others wounded in a shooting at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania late on Saturday, as students and alumni celebrated homecoming at outdoor festivities at the historically Black university, authorities said.

A person who had a firearm was detained, and officials are investigating the possibility that there was more than one shooter but don’t believe there is any active threat to the campus, Chester county’s district attorney, Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe, said during a brief news conference early on Sunday.

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New Jersey officer charged after going out for pizza instead of responding to shooting

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Sgt Kevin Bollaro accused of misconduct and falsifying report after blowing off investigation of a double homicide

A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors say he didn’t quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead stopping at an ATM and pizzeria.

Franklin township police sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of 1 August when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) from Manhattan in central New Jersey, according to Hunterdon county prosecutor Renée Robeson’s office.

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Tip on GoFundMe leads to arrest of suspect in deadly 2017 Arizona stabbing

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Message sent to fundraising site led investigators to man accused of stabbing Evin Paulos about 30 times

A tip sent to an online fundraising campaign recently allowed investigators to jail the prime suspect in a deadly 2017 stabbing in Arizona – a case which otherwise appeared as if it might not yield any arrests, according to authorities.

The remarkable chain of events, which began with a tip to a page on the GoFundMe platform in September, led to the 15 October arrest in Mexico of Michael Anthony Arredondo, who is accused of stabbing Evin Paulos about 30 times and killing him while the two were traveling together.

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Body of missing woman found buried behind abandoned Philadelphia school

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Kada Scott was missing for two weeks before anonymous tip led police to wooded area with remains in shallow grave

Remains found buried in a wooded area behind an abandoned school are those of Kada Scott, a 23-year-old woman who had been missing for about two weeks, prosecutors in Philadelphia said on Monday.

Authorities said an anonymous tip led police back to the area they previously searched and they found the remains in a shallow grave. DNA tests confirmed her identity.

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US man accused of faking own death after rape conviction gets at least five years in prison

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Nicholas Rossi, who fled US, receives first of two sentences after being convicted of raping two women in Utah in 2008

A judge has sentenced a Rhode Island man who appeared to fake his death and flee the United States to avoid arrest of at least five years in prison for rape.

The sentence handed down Monday for Nicholas Rossi, 38, was the first of two he faces after being convicted separately in August and September of raping two women in northern Utah in 2008. He is scheduled to be sentenced in November for the second conviction.

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