Category Archives: US crime

Police arrest man suspected of shooting into a Sacramento ABC news station

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Police say the ABC10 building was occupied when shots were fired into the lobby but ‘no one was injured’

Police have arrested a man suspected of shooting into the lobby of Sacramento’s ABC affiliate on Friday.

Though the shooting occurred just a day after protesters gathered outside to the station to condemn ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talkshow, Sacramento police said the motive in the case remained under investigation, with it not being immediately clear whether the gunfire was targeted or random.

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Four people arrested in Washington after alleged hate crime attack on trans woman

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Three teenagers and one adult arrested in Renton after an alleged attack left a 39-year-old woman hospitalized

Four people – including three teenagers – are accused of a hate crime in Washington state after being arrested in connection with an alleged attack on a transgender woman that left the victim hospitalized, according to authorities.

The Renton police department said the four suspects in the case first argued with the 39-year-old woman on Monday evening – then beat her after she saw them again later. Investigators say they hurled homophobic slurs at the victim, who was attacked on a street near a transit center in Renton and suffered serious injuries.

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Record 12th execution set in Florida this year for man convicted of killing family

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David Pittman to get lethal injection under DeSantis-signed warrant for killing estranged wife’s sister and parents

A Florida man convicted of killing his estranged wife’s sister and parents and setting their house on fire was scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday evening, which would be a record 12th execution in the state in 2025.

David Pittman, 63, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection starting at 6pm at Florida state prison near Starke under a death warrant signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. The Republican governor has signed more death warrants this year than any of his predecessors.

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Utah prosecutors’ evidence indicates suspected motives of Charlie Kirk’s alleged shooter

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Tyler Robinson is quoted talking to his partner about having enough of the far-right activist’s ‘hatred’ in texts

Evidence put forth by Utah prosecutors Tuesday offered the clearest indication yet of what they suspect motivated Tyler Robinson to kill far-right provocateur Charlie Kirk.

In seized texts reproduced by prosecutors as they charged the 22-year-old with capital murder and other crimes after his arrest, Robinson is quoted talking to his partner – whom they described as “transitioning genders” – about having enough of Kirk’s “hatred”.

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Georgia supreme court ends Fani Willis bid to reverse removal from Trump case

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Election interference case in limbo as court declines to hear appeal against disqualification of Fulton county prosecutor

The Georgia supreme court on Tuesday declined to hear Fani Willis’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling disqualifying the Fulton county prosecutor from prosecuting Donald Trump’s election interference case.

In a 4-3 decision, the state’s highest court let stand the lower court order disqualifying Willis from the racketeering and election interference case that initially snagged 19 defendants, including Donald Trump, in 2023.

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US right capitalizes on fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee in North Carolina

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Far right points to lax criminal justice system and racist narratives, not mental health system failures as experts say

The random and unprovoked killing of a young woman in North Carolina several weeks ago has become a viral video, a political football, and a powerful rightwing talking point – even as the horror and anger her death has provoked obscures what experts say is a vital story about the failures of the American mental health system.

The alleged perpetrator, Decarlos Brown Jr, 34, has a long history of problems with the law and mental health issues. He had been arrested 14 times and served a five-year stint for armed robbery. Brown had also come to believe that there was something alien and malevolent inside him – a “man-made material”, he told people, possibly a computer chip implanted by the government that was fighting him for control of his body.

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Two men arrested in Utah after incendiary device found under news vehicle

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Men could face terrorism-related and weapons charges after officials say device ‘had been lit but failed to function’

Authorities in Utah say two men have been arrested on suspicion of placing an incendiary device under a news media vehicle in Salt Lake City. The bomb didn’t go off.

Police and fire department bomb squads responded on Friday when a suspicious device was found under the vehicle parked near an occupied building.

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Teen Colorado school shooting suspect reportedly fixated on Columbine attack

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Desmond Holly also expressed neo-Nazi views online before a shooting critically injuring two students, ADL says

A teenager suspected in a shooting attack at a suburban Denver high school that left two students in critical condition appeared fascinated with previous mass shootings including Columbine and expressed neo-Nazi views online, according to experts.

Since December, Desmond Holly, 16, had been active on an online forum where users watch videos of killings and violence, mixed in with content on white supremacism and antisemitism, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism said in a report.

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Questions linger about alleged shooter’s motivation for killing Charlie Kirk

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Suspect’s background and politics are being pored over in aftermath of killing of far-right influencer

Though the suspect in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk was revealed by authorities on Friday, questions surrounding his identity and motivations have exacerbated intense US political debates in the aftermath of the shooting.

Authorities revealed Kirk’s suspected killer to be Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old man who grew up in Washington, Utah, along the state’s south-western border.

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Trump blamed ‘radical left’ for Charlie Kirk’s death – even as shooter’s identity remains unknown

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In Oval Office address, president decried the demonization of political opponents, ignoring his own past rhetoric

In his Oval Office address on Wednesday, Donald Trump sought to blame the “radical left” for Charlie Kirk’s killing while the shooter’s identity and motivations remained unclear. Trump promised an unspecified crackdown that could also target “organizations” that he claimed contributed to political violence.

Trump’s speech underscored an aggressive effort to pin the attack on the left while ignoring his own role in fomenting politically motivated violence.

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Ex-pilot who tried to cut engines on flight after taking mushrooms pleads guilty

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Joseph Emerson, formerly of Alaska Airlines, must do 664 hours of community service and pay $60,569

A former Alaska Airlines pilot accused of trying to cut the engines of a passenger flight in 2023 while riding off-duty in the cockpit pleaded guilty or no contest to all charges against him Friday, saying in court that he regretted endangering those on board as well as the damage he caused to his former profession.

Joseph Emerson reached the plea agreements because he wants to take responsibility for his actions and hopes to avoid further time behind bars, said his attorney, Noah Horst.

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US justice department opens criminal inquiry into Fed governor Lisa Cook

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Officials to investigate claims of mortgage fraud against Cook, who has refused to accept firing by Donald Trump

The US justice department has initiated a criminal investigation into mortgage fraud claims against Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook as a lawsuit she filed against Donald Trump over her firing makes its way through court.

Lawyers with the justice department have issued subpoenas for the investigation, according to the Wall Street Journal, who first reported the investigation, which has since been confirmed by multiple news publications.

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Maine shooting survivors sue US government, alleging army failed to stop deadly attack

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US army accused of ‘repeatedly violating its own policies’ over 2023 shooting by reservist that left 18 people dead

Survivors and family members of victims of the 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, are suing the US government, alleging that the US army could have stopped the attack carried out by an army reservist but failed to intervene.

The suit, filed on Wednesday in Maine district court, alleges that despite decades of knowledge about the risks posed by soldiers in crisis, the policies and procedures the army has developed around dealing with service members who are struggling with severe mental health challenges were not used to disarm the shooter, a sergeant with a 21-year history in the army reserve. Eighteen people were killed in the attack.

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Texas man charged after 11-year-old boy shot dead while playing doorbell prank

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Leon Gonzalo Jr, 42, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with the Houston shooting

A 42-year-old man in Texas has been charged with murder after the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy who was playing a doorbell prank in Houston on Saturday night, authorities said.

The shooting occurred at around 11pm on Saturday, according to Houston authorities, when the boy and his friends were in their neighborhood reportedly playing a game of “ding dong ditch” – an old childhood prank involving ringing a doorbell and running away.

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University of Kentucky athlete charged after dead infant found hidden in closet

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Laken Ashlee Snelling, a 21-year-old cheer team member, faces charges of corpse abuse and evidence tampering

A University of Kentucky athlete allegedly placed her dead infant inside a trash bag later found in a closet while trying to hide the baby’s birth, leading to her being jailed, according to local authorities and media reporting.

Laken Ashlee Snelling, 21, faces charges of corpse abuse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant after her arrest on Sunday in the markedly grisly case, police in Lexington, Kentucky, said in a statement.

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Utah high court pauses firing squad execution of man with dementia

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Lower court to decide if Ralph Leroy Menzies, who killed Maurine Hunsaker in 1986, is competent to face execution

The impending execution of a man by firing squad in Utah was blocked by the state’s supreme court on Friday after his attorneys argued he should be spared because he has dementia.

Ralph Leroy Menzies, 67, was set to be executed on 5 September for abducting and killing Utah mother of three Maurine Hunsaker in 1986. When given a choice decades ago, Menzies selected a firing squad as his method of execution. He would have become only the sixth US prisoner executed by firing squad since 1977.

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Florida to execute man convicted of killing three people in 1992

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The killing of Curtis Windom, 59, by lethal injection will be a record 11th execution in the state this year

A man convicted of killing his girlfriend, her mother and a man he claimed owed him $2,000 is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday in what would be a record 11th execution in the state of Florida this year.

Curtis Windom, 59, would become the 30th person executed this year in the US, with Florida leading the way behind a flurry of death warrants signed by the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. A 12th man, David Joseph Pittman, 63, is scheduled to be put to death in Florida on 17 September.

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Fulton county election board faces $10,000 a day fine for not appointing Republicans

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Democrats voted against appointing two candidates known for election denialism and voter registration challenges

The Fulton county commission in Georgia will be fined $10,000 a day for violating a court order to appoint two Republicans associated with Trump-aligned groups pushing voter fraud conspiracies to the county’s election board.

The county charter states that commissioners “shall” appoint two Republicans and two Democrats nominated by their respective county party chairperson, for two-year terms. When commissioners rejected the nomination by Fulton county’s Republican party chair, the superior court judge David Emerson issued an order requiring the board to appoint them.

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Oklahoma man charged after 11-year-old girl gives birth at home

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DNA test tied man to newborn in case prosecutor calls among most serious, as girl’s mother also accused

An Oklahoma man is facing charges of child sexual molestation after an 11-year-old girl in his orbit gave birth in her home, and her mother is accused of enabling abuse in a case that a local assistant district attorney called possibly “the most serious … I have ever prosecuted”.

The charges that the Muskogee county district attorney’s office filed against Dustin Walker, 34, on Monday came after a DNA test confirmed he was the father of the newborn at the center of the case, the Oklahoma news outlet KWTV reported, citing officials.

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