Category Archives: US policing

Arkansas father rushing his sick child to hospital won’t face charges after officer rammed into his car

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State trooper used Pit ramming maneuvre to stop Dillon Hess from speeding while transporting his son to hospital

An Arkansas father speeding while transporting his sick child to the hospital will not face charges after a state police trooper used a vehicle-ramming technique known as a Pit maneuvre to stop his vehicle, authorities have said.

Officials said they have ruled out charges against the father, identified as Dillon Hess, who was speeding as he rushed his son to the hospital for emergency medical treatment after he suffered an allergic reaction, as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first reported.

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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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California: officials investigate after second shooting by ICE agents in a week

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Shooting at vehicle in Ontario comes as Trump officials attempt to step up deportation operations across US

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were involved in a shooting in southern California on Thursday, prompting a federal investigation.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that ICE officers were conducting a vehicle stop in Ontario when another driver, who was not the target, approached. Officers ordered the driver to leave the area, according to the statement.

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Border patrol leader told to go to court every weekday to report on Chicago enforcement

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Federal judge gives orders to Gregory Bovino in exceptional bid to impose oversight over Trump officials’ raids in city

A federal judge has ordered Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official leading the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Chicago, to appear in federal court each weekday to report on the day’s incidents in an exceptional bid to impose oversight over the government’s militarized raids in the city.

The order came following a terse hearing on Tuesday morning.

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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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Revealed: police across US spread false rumors about Venezuelan gang threats

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Claim that Tren de Aragua planned to attack officers was widely shared – only for FBI to later acknowledge it was mistaken, internal files show

An unverified rumor that Venezuelan gang members were preparing to kill police officers spread like wildfire through US law enforcement agencies last year, internal records reveal, only for federal officials to later quietly acknowledge the claim was mistaken.

The intelligence report, which appears to have first been disseminated by a local New Mexico police department in July 2024, suggested that the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang had directed its members to “fire on or attack” law enforcement. The vague assertion quickly traveled among law enforcement agencies. It even made its way into a formal proclamation by the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, and was repeated by Republican Congress members as evidence of the dangers of Venezuelan immigrants and Democrats’ border policies.

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US driver kills one and injures at least 14 in car-ramming attack at child’s party

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Driver turned himself in to Maryland authorities after initially fleeing scene, where eight children were injured

A driver rammed into a group of people at a children’s birthday party outside of Washington DC late on Saturday, killing a woman in her 30s and injuring at least 14 others, eight of whom were children.

In a statement released by the Bladensburg police department in Maryland, they announced that the driver of the striking vehicle had turned himself in and had been identified as a 66 year-old man from the surrounding area.

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At least 15 detained after protesters and police clash outside Chicago Ice center

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Officers reportedly tackled and dragged several people after authorities told demonstrators to stay in ‘protest zones’

At least 15 people were taken into custody outside the Broadview Ice detention center in the Chicago area after heated confrontations between Illinois state police and protesters on Friday.

Authorities had instructed demonstrators to remain in designated “protest zones”, but tensions escalated when officers moved to clear the roadway.

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Trump authorizes national guard deployment to Chicago, White House says, as border patrol there shoots woman

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Illinois governor JB Pritzker says administration is escalating ‘aggression against Illinois citizens and residents’

Donald Trump has moved to deploy the national guard in another city by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago, where the government said border patrol agents shot and injured a woman while firing at someone who tried to run them over.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president had authorized using Illinois national guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.

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Police identify suspect in 1991 murders of four girls at Texas yogurt shop

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Officials name Robert Eugene Brashers in brutal deaths of Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas and Jennifer and Sarah Harbison

After more than three decades, police have identified a dead suspect in an infamous 1991 murder case in which four girls were slain at a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas.

Austin police revealed Friday that Robert Eugene Brashers had been identified as a suspect in the murders through “a wide range of DNA testing”. Brashers, who had a lengthy criminal history, died by suicide in 1999 at age 40 during a standoff with police in Missouri.

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California becomes first state to ban face coverings for most law enforcement

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Local and federal agents, including immigration officials, may not wear masks while conducting official business

California will be the first state to ban most law enforcement, including federal immigration agents, from covering their faces while conducting official business under a bill signed by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, on Saturday.

The ban is California’s direct response to a recent series of immigration raids in Los Angeles where federal agents wore masks while making mass arrests. The raids prompted protests and led Donald Trump to deploy national guard troops and marines to the city.

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Chicago suburb warns residents that federal agents may be about to arrive

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Evanston urges residents to report sightings of federal agents as Trump has threatened immigration crackdown

A Chicago suburb has warned its residents that federal immigration agents may be present in the coming days as Donald Trump continues to threaten an immigration enforcement crackdown and national guard deployment in the nation’s third largest city.

The city of Evanston issued a statement urging its residents to report sightings of federal agents, after local officials said they were informed over the weekend about the likelihood of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) activity.

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Chicago mayor signs executive order directing city to resist Trump’s immigration raids

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Brandon Johnson’s order directs city police not to collaborate with federal agents in immigration enforcement

The mayor of Chicago has signed an executive order outlining how the city will attempt to resist Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Brandon Johnson pushed back on Saturday against what he called the “out-of-control” Trump administration’s plan to deploy large numbers of federal officers into the country’s third-largest city, which could take place within days.

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Maine police officer detained by Ice agrees to leave US

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Jon Luke Evans had been employed by local police after federal database confirmed his eligibility to work

A Maine police officer arrested by immigration authorities has agreed to voluntarily leave the country, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said on Monday.

Ice arrested the Old Orchard Beach police department reserve officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on 25 July, as part of the agency’s effort to step up immigration enforcement. Officials with the town and police department have said federal authorities previously told them Evans was legally authorized to work in the US.

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Democrats introduce joint resolution to end Trump’s ‘lawless’ DC takeover

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Legislation says special emergency conditions that would warrant federalization of DC police have not been met

Democratic lawmakers have introduced a joint resolution aimed at ending what they call Trump’s unlawful and unprecedented move to federalize the Metropolitan police department (MPD) in Washington DC.

Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House judiciary committee; DC’s non-voting House delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton; and representative Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House committee on oversight and government reform, introduced the resolution on Friday, invoking the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973.

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Sea of people march across Sydney Harbour Bridge calling for an end to killing in Gaza

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NSW police estimate 90,000 walked despite force and premier opposing rally, while Palestine Action Group claims up to 300,000 peacefully protested

At least 100,000 pro-Palestine marchers, including Julian Assange, the former foreign minister Bob Carr and the government MP Ed Husic, have marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge in the rain to protest against Israel’s conduct in Gaza and to speak out about the children starving there.

The world-famous landmark was closed to traffic at 11.30am on Sunday, with protesters gathering in Lang Park in the city centre before enduring heavy rain as they walked across the bridge.

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Grenade missing from scene of blast that killed three LA police officers

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LA county sheriff’s deputies died when one of two ‘military-style’ grenades detonated at police training complex

A grenade is missing from the scene of an explosion that killed three people at a Los Angeles law enforcement training facility, authorities said.

Three veteran deputy sheriffs died in the explosion last Friday, the LA county sheriff’s department’s largest loss of life in a single incident since 1857.

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Videos reveal harsh conditions inside Ice’s New York City confinement center

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Footage shows people sleeping on floor next to toilets in facility that agency says is not a detention site

Two videos have surfaced shedding light on what is happening behind closed doors at a New York federal building where people are being confined after being seized by officers on their way out of immigration court on the 12th floor, with the footage offering a rare look inside a controversial and closely guarded space that is part of Donald Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown.

The filming, shared by the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), captures one of several rooms at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, on the building’s 10th floor, where accounts have emerged of people being detained in wholly unsuitable conditions with few basic provisions, but there had been no public access to direct evidence.

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Two dead and three injured, including state trooper, in Kentucky shootings

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Unidentified shooter wounded trooper near airport in Lexington, then fled to a nearby church and opened fire

A suspect shot and wounded a state trooper near a Kentucky airport on Sunday before fleeing to a nearby church, killing two women and wounding two men, before being fatally shot.

At 11.36am ET on Sunday an unidentified shooter opened fire near Blue Grass airport in Lexington and wounded a state trooper, according to authorities. The shooting occurred after the trooper had pulled over a vehicle after receiving a licence plate reader alert in the area of Versailles Road, Lexington police said.

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‘Authoritarian playbook’: DHS accuses critics of assaulting officers when videos say otherwise

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Civil rights advocates and scholars say the US government’s claims are troubling indicators of rising authoritarianism

After New York City comptroller Brad Lander this week became the latest prominent Democrat to be arrested while monitoring and protesting US immigration authorities, the Trump administration trotted out a familiar refrain to justify his detention.

The mayoral candidate had “assaulted” law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asserted, warning “if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences”.

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