Ohio man charged with murder over shooting of Black ride-share driver

William Brock, 81, who is white, was arrested after he fatally shot Lo-Letha Hall, 61, outside his home in South Charleston, Ohio

An Ohio man was charged with murder after shooting a Black ride-share driver in an unprovoked attack, following the most recent string of cases of Black Americans being shot while doing mundane things.

William Brock, 81, who is white, was arrested after he fatally shot Lo-Letha Hall, 61, outside his home in South Charleston, Ohio, about an hour outside Dayton, NBC News reported.

Continue reading...

One dead and five injured in Washington DC shooting, police say

Officers confirm man dead and five people, including a nine-year-old and 12-year-old, hospitalized as possibly two shooters at large

One person was killed and multiple people injured, including two children, in a shooting in Washington DC on Wednesday evening.

Police have issued a public alert for the car believed to be carrying the gunman that fled the scene.

Continue reading...

Gun crime survivors create scheme to stop violent partners owning firearms

Some police in England and Wales now ask spouses to flag dangerous traits or mental health problems

Survivors of gun crime committed by violent and coercive partners have worked with police to create a groundbreaking scheme designed to stop more dangerous offenders being allowed licensed firearms.

The women have helped police frame a questionnaire that firearms officers put to the partners of people wanting a licence that will flag up issues such as a propensity to violence or mental health problems.

Continue reading...

Candidate for mayor of Mexican city of Celaya killed on first day of campaign

Bertha Gisela Gaytán is one of at least 22 mayoral candidates murdered in Mexico since September 2023

A candidate running to be mayor in one of Mexico’s most violent cities has been killed on the first day of her campaign, adding to the death toll in what experts say could be the country’s bloodiest elections in history.

Bertha Gisela Gaytán was shot in a town just outside of the city of Celaya, where she was running for Morena, Mexico’s governing party. A video on social media shows a group of activists and supporters of Morena walking through the streets before shots ring out.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris announces new office to implement ‘red flag’ gun control laws

Vice-president launches national resource center at site of 2018 Florida school shooting where 17 were killed

The White House has announced a new national office to support states implementing “red flag” laws to combat gun violence, an initiative funded by the justice department.

Kamala Harris made the announcement on Saturday during a visit to Parkland, Florida, where she toured the site of the nation’s worst high school shooting, the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre that killed 17.

Continue reading...

Claims of ‘lawlessness’ on New York City subways increase danger, critics say

Violent crimes in 2024 have been used as ‘political tool’, and law enforcement response does not solve root issues, critics say

A high-profile string of violent crimes on New York City’s subway in 2024 has been used “as a political tool” by pundits and politicians, transit advocates say, leading to a false perception of spiraling underground crime, which could create more danger in the future.

Crime in the subway system, one of the world’s most used rapid transit systems, declined in 2022 and decreased again in 2023, according to police. But subway crime is up so far in 2024, and it is the nature and violence of the incidents that has captured public attention.

Continue reading...

Philadelphia shooting suspect will face charges in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

The gunman is suspected of killing his stepmother, his sister, and the mother of his children before being arrested in New Jersey

The suspect involved in the fatal shootings of three people outside a Philadelphia-area suburb on Saturday morning has been arrested and will face charges in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, authorities said on Sunday.

According to authorities, 26-year-old Andre Gordon was found near a house in Trenton, New Jersey, after carrying out two separate shootings. Police had surrounded the home for hours in the belief that he was there, but Gordon apparently slipped out before the police cordon went up. He was arrested at around 5 pm, unarmed, when he was spotted walking down a street a few blocks away, police said.

Continue reading...

Police had cause to detain gunman before deadly Maine shooting last year – report

Before Robert Card killed 18 last year, police had opportunity to seize his guns and place him in custody after several incidents

Law enforcement should have seized a man’s guns and put him in protective custody weeks before he committed Maine’s deadliest mass shooting, a report found Friday.

An independent commission has been reviewing the events that led up to army reservist Robert Card killing 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston on 25 October, as well as the subsequent response.

Continue reading...

Guns and weapons trafficked from US fueling Haiti gang violence

Experts say most guns smuggled from states with lax firearms laws such as Florida, Arizona and Georgia

As Haiti has again plunged into violent chaos, images of gang members bearing high-powered rifles, pump-action shotguns or automatic weapons in the streets of Port-au-Prince have become ubiquitous.

But this weaponry is not made in Haiti, a country with no firearms or ammunition manufacturing capabilities.

Continue reading...

Swedish police call for ban on civilians wearing bulletproof vests

Growing numbers buying protective gear as gangs recruit young people amid surge in violence across country

Police in southern Sweden have called for a ban on civilians wearing bulletproof vests, which they say do not have a place outside war zones because they cause fear in communities.

Increasing numbers of children and young people, including those under 15, are wearing protective vests in towns and cities, they said, as gang crime continues to pull in the younger generation in Sweden.

Continue reading...

Police seek vehicle after masked men kill four at California party

Shooting on Sunday evening at outdoor gathering in King City left four dead and seven others injured, police say

Police are offering a $20,000 reward for information on a shooting that took place on Sunday evening when a group of masked men pulled up to an outdoor birthday party in central California and opened fire, killing at least four.

Officers responded to a reported shooting at about 6pm in King City, California, about 106 miles south of San Jose, and found three men with gunshot wounds who were pronounced dead in a front yard, the King City police department said. A total of 11 people were hit by gunfire.

Continue reading...

Patrick Mahomes visits sisters injured in Super Bowl parade shooting

Champion quarterback makes hospital visit to Madison and Melia Reyes, who were hit by gunfire in Kansas City mass shooting

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, visited two young sisters who were both shot in the legs during Wednesday’s parade for the reigning Super Bowl champions.

The Mahomeses on Thursday paid a call to 10-year-old Madison Reyes and Melia Reyes, age eight, at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, where they were recovering from surgeries.

Continue reading...

Boy injured in Osteen church shooting lost ‘portion of his frontal lobe’

Samuel Moreno-Carranza’s grandmother posted about boy’s condition, who was injured when police killed the shooter – his mother

A boy who was shot in the head at celebrity Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch on 11 February has lost “a portion of his frontal lobe” while recovering at the hospital, according to his grandmother.

In a Facebook post three days after the shooting, Walli Carranza said her seven-year-old grandson – Samuel Moreno-Carranza – “has lost a major part of what makes us who we are” after “half of his right skull [had] to be surgically removed during two surgeries done in less than 24 hours”. Samuel had endured “cardiac arrest multiple times, and no one can determine whether he has significant brain activity because his scalp tissue is too friable” to let doctors attach electroencephalogram wires to him, Carranza added in a post that doubled as a criticism of the US’s lack of meaningful gun control.

Continue reading...

At least one killed and 21 injured in Kansas City Chiefs parade shooting

Three suspects have been arrested in connection to the shooting as the Super Bowl victory celebrations were wrapping up

At least one person was killed and 21 others injured, including multiple children, in Wednesday afternoon’s shooting that turned a Super Bowl victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs into a scene of tragedy and chaos.

Authorities in Kansas City, Missouri, have said that three people were arrested in connection with the shooting near Union station, which took place as the celebration was wrapping up.

Continue reading...

Kansas City Chiefs denounce ‘senseless aviolence’ at Super Bowl victory parade

Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended the parade, said it ‘seems like almost nothing is safe’ as NFL said it was ‘deeply saddened’

The NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs have denounced the mass shooting that killed one and injured nearly two dozen people, including at least eight children, during Wednesday’s Super Bowl parade celebrating the team’s victory as a “senseless act of violence”.

“We are truly saddened by the senseless act of violence that occurred outside of Union Station at the conclusion of today’s parade and rally,” the Chiefs said in a statement.

Continue reading...

Chicago scraps gunshot detection system accused of racial bias

Community groups say ShotSpotter system sends police to Black and Latino neighborhoods for unnecessary and hostile encounters

Chicago will not renew its ShotSpotter contract and plans to stop using the controversial gunshot detection system later this year, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office announced on Tuesday.

The system, which relies on an artificial intelligence algorithm and network of microphones to identify gunshots, has been criticized for inaccuracy, racial bias and law enforcement misuse. An Associated Press investigation of the technology detailed how police and prosecutors used ShotSpotter data as evidence in charging a Chicago grandfather with murder before a judge dismissed the case due to insufficient evidence.

Continue reading...

Houston: suspect killed and two injured in shooting at Joel Osteen megachurch

Police chief Troy Finner says unclear whether five-year-old boy wounded in incident was struck by officers who shot at attacker

A shooter with a rifle was killed by two off-duty police officers and a child was critically wounded at a Houston megachurch run by the prominent evangelical Christian pastor Joel Osteen, the city’s police chief said.

Troy Finner said it was not clear whether the boy, five, was struck by the officers who returned fire after the shooter, wearing a trenchcoat, entered Osteen’s Lakewood church with the boy shortly before 2pm and began shooting.

Continue reading...

New Orleans man found guilty of manslaughter for 2016 killing of former NFL player

Cardell Hayes faces up to 40 years in prison for the shooting after a traffic altercation that left Will Smith dead

A jury found a New Orleans man guilty of manslaughter after he shot and killed former NFL player Will Smith in 2016.

Cardell Hayes, 36, could face up to 40 years in prison after the guilty conviction. Hayes’ lawyers tried to argue that he shot Smith out of self-defense following a traffic accident that escalated to an altercation in April 2016. But prosecutors for the Orleans parish district attorney’s office said that Hayes had fired needlessly, according to ESPN.

Continue reading...

Convicted serial killer confesses to 1980 Florida spring break murder, police say

Police in Jacksonville draw confession from Billy Mansfield, sentenced to life in prison for five other murders decades ago

After confessing to the murder of an Ohio high schooler on her spring break outside Jacksonville, Florida, in 1980, a jailed serial killer is continuing to talk to detectives investigating other homicides whose clue trails have gone cold, according to authorities.

Billy Mansfield’s confession of the killing of 18-year-old Carol Ann Barrett of Zanesville, Ohio, means officials have now confirmed that he has committed at least six murders. He had previously been handed life sentences in five of the killings, four of which were in California and one of which was in Florida, though officials investigating Barrett’s death made clear in a statement on Thursday that those numbers could grow.

Continue reading...

Chicago police search for suspect in fatal shootings of eight people

Authorities are not aware of a motive for the killings, but warn that Romeo Nance, 23, should be considered armed and dangerous

A man shot and killed eight people at three locations since Sunday in the Chicago suburbs and remains loose, authorities said Monday.

Police in Will county and the city of Joliet said they did not know of a motive for the killings, but said the man knew the victims. The FBI’s fugitive task force was assisting local police in the search for the suspect, the Joliet police chief, William Evans, said.

Continue reading...