Another Brown Man Murder By Cop in Charlotte

Hispanic man call Police for help. They kill him standing on a porch with his hands up.

New bodycam footage shows Latino man had hands up when NC police fatally shot him

In early September, members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department shot and killed a man named Rueben Galindo. Now, body camera footage shows that the man had his hands up when an officer took his fatal shot.

According to local alternative weekly Creative Loafing, CMPD claims Galindo called 911 on himself on September 6 to tell them (through a Spanish interpreter) that he had a gun, though he did not elaborate.

As they approached, officers told him in Spanish to raise his hands. He complied, and then two officers — Courtney Suggs and David Guerra — fired. It appears that Guerra’s shot was the one that killed Galindo.

Both Guerra and Suggs are on leave, according to local TV station WSOC-TV.

 

Multiple Police Officers Shot in Kissimmee, Jacksonville, and Pennsyllvania

Un-freakin-believable! Six Officers shot in two states in the last 24 hours. These guys were just doing their duty, and this serves as a reminder of how dangerous their jobs can be just doing their normal duty.

 

 

1 police officer killed, 5 others injured in 3 shootings in Florida and Pennsylvania

One police officer was killed and three wounded in nighttime shootings in two Florida cities where the officers were responding to suspected drug activity and reports of a suicide attempt, police said Saturday.

In Pennsylvania, two state troopers were shot outside a small-town store in Fairchance, south of Pittsburgh. State police say the troopers, both taken to hospitals after the Friday night shooting in Fairchance, were in stable condition.

One officer was killed and another gravely injured late Friday night in Kissimmee in central Florida just south of the theme park hub of Orlando. Kissimmee Police Chief Jeff O’Dell said at a news conference Saturday that a suspect, Everett Miller, was arrested several hours after the shootings.

He faces a first-degree murder charge. Authorities originally said they believed there were four suspects, but the chief said no other arrests are anticipated.

The other two officers were injured a couple of hours later in Jacksonville, one of them shot in both hands and the other in the stomach. The shooter in Jacksonville was shot and killed when police returned fire.

In Kissimmee, officers Sam Howard and Matthew Baxter were checking suspects in an area of the city for drug activity when they were shot, O’Dell said earlier. They did not have an opportunity to return fire.

“They were surprised,” O’Dell said. When asked whether they were ambushed, he said, “It’s too early to tell, but it’s leading that way.”

Kissimmee police Officer Matthew Baxter (l) and Sgt. Sam Howard. Officer Baxter is dead, Sgt Howard is in “serious condition and not expected to survive”.

Everett Gleen Miller was apprehended and charged with 1st degree Murder for the shooting of officers Baxter and Howard

In Jacksonville –

In Western Pennsylvania –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1SDlWWVgxo

 

Gunman Opens Fire on GOP Congressmen

This is breaking. No idea yet as to the what or why of this, only that one confirmed Congressman is shot (Steve Scalise), and others “are injured”.

Police claim to have a suspect in custody. No information as to motive at this point.

The Democrat-Republican Baseball game is a fun, family oriented annual event in Washington, DC – usually held at Nat’s Stadium. President Obama usually took time out to see the game.

Gunman fires on Alexandria park during GOP baseball practice; lawmaker Scalise among wounded

A gunman opened fire Wednesday morning on a baseball practice at a park in Alexandria involving Republican members of Congress, possibly injuring several including at least one lawmaker, Steve Scalise, the majority whip, according to police and a congressman.

Alexandria police would only confirm that a shooting had occurred and that one person was in custody.

Rep. Peter Kane (R-N.Y.), in an interview with The Washington Post, confirmed early details. King said Capitol Police confirmed the account to him.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) told The Post that Capitol Police officers walked into the congressional gym around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday and told members about the shooting and said Scalise had been shot.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer tweeted: “Both @POTUS & @VP are aware of the developing situation in Virginia. Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected.”

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) Tweeted that “Shooter attacked a GOP baseball practice. Rifle. 50+ shots fired. 5 hit including Steve Scalise. I am not shot.”

The 7:30 a.m. practice in the park in the 400 block of East Monroe Street was the finally before Thursday night’s scheduled game between Republicans and Democrats at Nationals Park.

Brooks told CNN that he heard a loud “bam” behind third base.

“I see a rifle, and I see a little bit of a body and then I hear another bam and I realize there’s still an active shooter. At the same time I hear Steve Scalise over at 2nd base scream — he was shot,” he said.

Brooks said he ran to the first base side and hit behind a batting cage as gunfire continued. He estimated 50 to 100 shots were fired.

He said Scalise crawled out of the outfield leaving a trail of blood, and that he was given liquids and put pressure on a chest wound.

 

White Texas Trumpazoids Shoot Each Other…Blame Illegal Immigrants

This is six kinds of way of stupid. Seems a trio of Trumpazoid racists in Texas ended up in a circle-shoot. Have to believe they was all dressed up in their camouflage underwear too stupid to know most animals are colorblind…And weren’t wearing their bright orange. Or it could just be a case of idjits with guns.

Anyway two of the three who were “hunting” together wound up shot.

What better way to cover up monumental stupidity than a little right-wing racism to blame it on “illegals” sneaking across the border for a group of Chumph-suckers!

Two hunters indicted in friendly-fire shooting they blamed on immigrants

Two hunters have been indicted in a West Texas shooting they falsely claimed was started by unauthorized immigrants.

Michael Bryant and Walker Daugherty were indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on a charge of using deadly conduct by discharging firearms in the direction of others, Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez told CBS7.

A Presidio County sheriff’s deputy responded to the Jan. 6 shooting at Circle Dug Ranch, near the border community of Candelaria, where he found Daugherty and Edwin Roberts with gunshot wounds, the station reports.

They said immigrants attacked them to try to steal the RV the hunting group was using — a false claim that was widely circulated, including by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, according to a piece by The Houston Chronicle.

Miller, who’s been scrutinized for sharing wrong information in controversial social media posts, wrote about the incident in a Facebook note that was shared more than 6,500 times before it was deleted.

“This is why we need the wall and to secure our borders,” Miller wrote. “There are violent criminals and members of drug cartels coming in and it must put a stop to it before we have many more Walker Daughertys.”

It turns out, the incident involved friendly fire.

An investigation revealed that Daugherty shot Roberts and Bryant shot Daugherty, Dominguez told CBS7.

U.S. Border Patrol agents assisted the sheriff’s office by searching the area with thermal imaging technology and didn’t find signs of anyone on the ranch other than the hunting party, the sheriff’s office told BigBendNow.com.

“A thorough search of the perimeter of the ranch house by U.S. Border Patrol involving an approximate 30 agents, including expert trackers, concluded that there was no sign of human pedestrian traffic leading to or from the ranch that night,” the sheriff’s office said.

 

Damn! But Thanks Anyway. Wife Whacks KKK Leader

Gotta appreciate the efforts of those self eradicating white supremacist types…

Wife, stepson charged in slaying of Missouri KKK leader

 The wife and stepson of a Ku Klux Klan leader who was found fatally shot next to a river in eastern Missouri have been charged with murder, reports CBS affiliate KMOV.

Malissa Ancona, 44, and her son, Paul Edward Jinkerson Jr., 24, have each been charged with abandonment of a corpse, first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence, reports the station.

A family that was fishing found the body of 51-year-old Frank Ancona on Saturday, along the Big River near the tiny town of Belgrade, about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis. An autopsy conducted Sunday revealed he died of a gunshot to the head.

According to a probable cause statement obtained by KMOV, Ancona was shot and killed while inside his bedroom, allegedly by Jinkerson Jr. After the shooting, Ancona’s body was placed in Jinkerson’s vehicle and dumped in Belgrade.

The Park Hills Daily Journal said investigators placed yellow police tape around Ancona’s home in Leadwood Saturday. His safe had been broken into and the contents removed. Several of Ancona’s guns were missing, police told the Daily Journal.

According to police, when they searched Ancona’s home, they found “extensive blood evidence” in the master bedroom, KMOV reports.

Malissa Ancona allegedly told police her son, Jinkerson Jr., killed Ancona while he was asleep. She also allegedly said she didn’t file a police report, and attempted to destroy and hide evidence, the station reports.

Not what she meant, but … “Make this world a better place…”

 

Grandson of US Representative Danny Davis Shot and KIlled

Condolences to Rep Davis and his family….

WTF can’t these scumbag hardheads murder some Trump supporters aand do something of value for the community?

Grandson of U.S. House member fatally shot in Chicago home invasion

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., said his 15-year-old grandson, Jovan Wilson, was shot in and killed in a home invasion, possibly over a pair of gym shoes. The teen was at home when two assailants broke into the home and shot him in the head

The 15-year-old grandson of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis was shot in the head and killed Friday, possibly in a dispute over gym shoes.

Chicago police said Jovan Wilson was in his home in Englewood when two armed assailants forced their way into the home about 6:45 p.m. The teen and the assailants argued, police said. The teen was shot in the head. Davis, a longtime House member who represents Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, was not at the home.

“That dispute escalated and turned physical and one of the offenders pulled out a gun and shot the victim in the head,” said Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, adding the incident may have sparked in a dispute over sneakers.

Davis had just returned to the Chicago area from Washington, D.C., when he learned of the shooting. He said a 17-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy were behind the home invasion. No arrests have been made.

“Initially it was that he had been shot and then actually the police commander called me and indicated that, there during a home invasion, he had been shot and it didn’t look good,” Davis said.

“Immediately I simply left and came out to the area where it had taken place,” Davis said. “It’s totally disconcerting.”

Davis said his grandson was a typical teen who loved sports and music.

“He liked basketball. If you listened to him he was a basketball star, but he liked basketball and music. All those kinds of things. He was an avid sports fan, he knew all about, you know, the stats of different players,” he said.

Gun violence has increased in the Chicago area in 2016 to levels not seen since the 1990s. The city has had 643 murders through Nov. 6. That’s a 55 percent increase over the same period last year.

 

Cops and Native Americans

Black folks aren’t the only ones who get shot in disproportionate numbers by cops.

Melissa Goodblanket with a portrait of her family at her home in Clinton, Oklahoma, Feb. 13, 2016, with Ma-hi-vist in the rear of the photo.

In Oklahoma, killings of Native Americans raise questions

Noami Barron burst out of her boyfriend Mah-hi-vist Goodblanket’s home and fell to her knees.

“They shot Bird!”

She started to throw up.

Mah-hi-vist, 18, whose name in English translates to Red Bird, has oppositional defiant disorder, a little-understood condition that he controlled with the help of therapy and medication. He’d been in the midst of a mental episode when his father, Wilbur Goodblanket, called 911, worried that his boy was going to hurt himself – but no one else.

The family wanted help from medical personnel and law enforcement calming down Mah-hi-vist. But it did not work out that way. Instead, lawmen shot and killed Red Bird. The young man’s tragic fate highlights a series of deadly Oklahoma incidents in which mentally ill Native Americans encountered law enforcement officers who, campaigners and relatives say, are not trained properly in how to deal with them.

That night Wilbur and Melissa Goodblanket, Mah-hi-vist’s mom, couldn’t believe what they heard.

“Is my son OK? Is he alive?” thought Melissa.

She jumped out of the red Dodge pickup truck where she was keeping warm with her husband and younger son and the family’s German shepherd. She wanted to take a coat to Barron, who was wearing just black stretch pants and a pink pullover on that freezing December night, Dec. 21, 2013, in Custer County, Oklahoma.

Lawmen order Melissa back into the pickup.

From inside the truck, parked in front of the home’s picture window twinkling with white Christmas lights, family members saw officers moving around inside the well-lit living room. They couldn’t see Bird.

Someone started wrapping the front yard in yellow tape. An officer tapped on the hood of the truck and motioned for the family to come out. “Sorry. Your son didn’t make it,” he said.

The Custer County district attorney later ruled the shooting a justifiable homicide.

The Goodblankets call it something else. “Murder,” Melissa said. “They murdered our son.”

At a time law enforcement agencies are re-examining training procedures and policies and outfitting officers with body cameras to address questionable police shooting and in-custody deaths in urban areas like Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, the Goodblankets believe their son’s death is a glaring example of inadequate training in rural Oklahoma law enforcement agencies that routinely encounter the mentally ill.

In their search for answers, the Goodblankets discovered their ordeal was not unique to Custer County, whose namesake, Gen. George Armstrong Custer, carried out the slaughter of a peaceful band of Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal members only 60 miles west of the Goodblanket home. Nor is it unique to Oklahoma, home to 39 federally recognized tribes.

Benjamin Whiteshield, 34, was in the midst of a delusional episode and convinced he was being followed when his grandmother and mother drove him to the Clinton Police Department on June 27, 2012. He had a condition that caused seizures, and he sometimes had a paranoid or delusional episode before one occurred, Sara Whiteshield, his sister, said. When he got out of the family’s vehicle, he had a wrench in his hand. A Clinton police officer shot him in the mouth. He later died.

Similar scenarios have played out elsewhere in western Oklahoma.

Ninety miles south of Clinton, in Lawton, Christina Tahhahwah, 37, was staying with her grandparents on Nov. 13, 2014, when her relatives called 911. She was bipolar and was in the middle of a mental episode, throwing objects around the house. Her family members wanted help getting her back on her medication and to a hospital for a medical assessment.

Police instead arrested her for trespassing and took her to jail, according to an account in The Lawton Constitution. On Nov. 14, she was found unresponsive in her cell. Family members attended a Lawton City Council meeting at which, they said, witnesses reported officers repeatedly used a stun gun on her after she refused to stop singing in jail. She died at a hospital on Nov. 17….Read the Rest Here…

 

Right Wing Porn Results in Shooting at Benghazi Movie

A moron attending the Right-Wing lie fest movie critically shot another movie goer while masturbating his metal manhood in Renton, Washington. It is unfortunate he didn’t blow off his Johnson, with his man meat rattling around in the barrel of that small-bore 22 caliber.

Moviegoer critically wounded after drunk’s gun fires during ’13 Hours’ Benghazi film

A Washington woman was critically injured after being shot in the chest when a man fumbled with his gun during a showing of the Benghazi movie “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” according to local news outlet KOMO News.

According to authorities, the 29-year-old man who dropped the gun appeared to be intoxicated as he entered The Landing theater in Renton, but bolted after the gun went off.

“It got about 15-20 minutes into the film and I believe the lady in front of us that got shot was actually talking to her husband or significant other and that’s when we heard the loud pop,” explained one witness, who asked not to be identified, adding that he was  sitting 3-4 rows behind the man when the gun went off.

Another witness, who also asked to not be identified, stated, “There was a gunshot and we thought it was a light bulb exploding in the theater, so no one really reacted.”

Following the shooting, multiple witnesses saw a man get up quickly and leave through an exit.

The unidentified woman was taken to a nearby hospital where she is listed in critical condition.

According to police, “Preliminary accounts indicate that an intoxicated suspect entered one of the theaters and was fumbling with a handgun he had in his possession when it went off, striking another patron seated in front of him.”

Police state that  they received a 911 call from the shooter’s father Thursday evening telling them his 29-year-old son was distraught and that he admitted he had dropped the gun.

“According to him, he said he dropped the gun and it went off. We have witnesses that say he came into the theater and appeared intoxicated. He went in and took a seat in theater number nine and was fumbling with a pistol when it went off and struck someone sitting in front of him,” said David Leibman of the Renton Police Department, adding that the man is currently in custody.

 

Knoxville Tenn Teen Killed Shielding Friends from Gunfire

The only good news about this is police have at least one of the suspected shooters in custody.

Hero High School Football Player Killed Shielding Girls From Gunfire

Police believe that the shooting was random.

The Knoxville, Tennessee, community is reeling after a high school football player was killed shielding three girls from gunfire.

Zaevion Dobson, 15, jumped on top of the girls to protect them as gunmen opened fire in their neighborhood at around 10 p.m. Thursday, local news station WATE reported. The girls were uninjured.

Known as “Zae,” the teen played on the Fulton High School football team with his brother, Zack.

“He came home from school, did his homework, watched film, watched documentaries of it, players. That’s what he loved — football,” Zack told news station WVLT.

His coach, Rob Black, described Zae as a well-liked leader.

Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch told ESPN that investigators believe the shootings were gang-related, but don’t think Zaevion and his friends were specifically targeted.

“Unfortunately, they picked a random group of young men and women who were just hanging out and trying to prepare to celebrate the holiday,” Rausch said.

Rausch explained that the shootings kicked off when someone shot and wounded 46-year-old Lisa Perry, who was inside her apartment. Perry’s 23-year-old son, Brandon Perry, and others then allegedly drove to the neighborhood where Zaevion lived and began firing at random.

Brandon Perry was later found shot after crashing his car into an apartment, and died of his injuries.

 

Ready for a Riot – Cop Shoots Black Teen 16 times In the Back

This Cop murder is so bad, the Police Department is afraid to release the Dash Cam video for fear of inciting riots and violence. This is in Chicago, where over the last few years the murder rate has hit record numbers.

Judge Orders Chicago Police To Release Graphic Video Of Officer Shooting Teen 16 Times

The Chicago Police must release a hotly contested video showing a white officer repeatedly shooting a black teen, a judge ordered on Thursday.

The dash cam footage showing the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in October 2014 has been described as so graphic that the teen’s mother feared its release could trigger racial unrest like what happened in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore after officers killed unarmed black men in those cities.

A city lawyer even said the video was a factor in the unusual decision by the city to approve a $5 million payment to McDonald’s family before his relatives had even filed a lawsuit.

While Michael Brown in Ferguson and Freddie Gray in Baltimore were both unarmed, McDonald had a 4-inch knife. Officials have claimed that he acted erratically and disobeyed orders to drop the weapon when confronted by police in the Archer Heights neighborhood.

The police union has said that an officer shot McDonald out of fear for his life after the teen allegedly lunged at him with the knife. But even the city’s attorney has said McDonald waswalking away when he was shot. The officer shot the teen after he fell to the ground, according to McDonald’s family.

An autopsy found that McDonald had been shot 16 times and had the drug PCP in his system.

Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama ordered police to divulge the video by Nov. 25, according to NBC Chicago. Although initially expected to appeal the decision, the cityannounced later Wednesday it would comply with the judge’s order and release the video next week.

The officer, who has not been officially identified, has not been charged with a crime. He’s restricted to desk duty while the shooting gets reviewed. A grand jury’s decision on whether to indict him could come as early as next week.

Media outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune had filed various requests to pry the footage from the police department. Police and city officials including Mayor Rahm Emanuel had refused to share it, citing an ongoing federal investigation into the shooting and concern that airing it would impede a fair trial later.

But on Wednesday, state Attorney General Lisa Madigan separately ruled against them, saying they had not adequately explained how the footage would undermine a potential fair trial.

 

 

Florida Police Shoot Man Whose Car Had Broken Down

An off-duty plain clothes cop shot and killed a man in Florida who was standing beside his car waiting for a tow truck…

After his car broke down, Florida church drummer shot and killed by plainclothes officer

Their band, Future Prezidents, had finished their gig almost an hour earlier, so bass player Mathew Huntsberger was surprised to get a call from drummer Corey Jones, 31, around 1:45 a.m. on Sunday.

Jones told Huntsberger that his SUV had broken down and asked if he could help, so Huntsberger drove to find his bandmate, who was stranded north of West Palm Beach, Fl. on Interstate 95. He brought along some oil, but when that didn’t work, the two decided to look up numbers for a tow truck.

“I tried to help him the best I could, but I’m not a mechanic or anything,” Huntsberger said in an interview with The Post on Monday afternoon.

Huntsberger said he called roadside assistance for his bandmate and then, about 2:30 a.m., left to head home while Jones waited for the tow truck.

About 45 minutes later, Jones was dead — shot and killed by a police officer.

“When I left him he was sitting in his car calling roadside assistance,” Huntsberger said. “I never would have thought that someone was going to come kill him.”

Few details have been released about the Oct. 18 shooting — which is one of more than 780 fatal police shootings so far in 2015, according to a Washington Post database of all deadly on-duty shootings by police officers in 2015.

In a statement issued Monday afternoon, the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department said that officer Nouman Raja was in plainclothes in an unmarked car when he stopped to investigate what he believed to be an abandoned vehicle on an Interstate 95 exit ramp.

“As the officer exited his vehicle, he was suddenly confronted by an armed subject,” the police department said in a statement. “As a result of the confrontation, the officer discharged his firearm, resulting in the death of the subject.”

Palm Beach Gardens is a roughly 50,000-resident city near Palm Beach, made up primarily of white residents.  The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the shooting, referred requests for comment to the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department. Officials with the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“They’re saying he was armed, but I don’t know if I believe it,” said Huntsberger, who described Jones as a really mellow, church-going guy. “Of course they’re going to say that. If I was there, maybe it’s a different situation. I just don’t know what happened.”

Family members, several of whom are clergy members in the Palm Beach region, and friends have described Jones as a well-known and liked church drummer at Bible Church of God in Boynton Beach.  Jones family plans to gather tonight at a local church to share memories of him, and are making funeral plans for Saturday.

“He was a good kid, just coming home from a gig,” said Jones’s cousin Frank Hearst, 36, of Nashville, Tenn. “He was just an all-around good guy who never got into any trouble, never had any record. It’s just an unfortunate situation.”

Hearst said family members are upset at how little information has been provided about the shooting. They want to know how many shots were fired, and what weapon he allegedly was carrying when he was killed. They  say Jones never carried a firearm.

“They’re saying Corey approached him armed, which is a total lie,” Hearst said. “That don’t make sense.”

Benjamin Dixon said he met Jones because they were both church musicians, occasionally filling in for each other’s bands when a member had to miss a service.

“When you play with someone two or three times, they become friends. Two or three times more, and they become family,” Dixon said.

He remembered Jones as a laid-back guy, often found wielding his drumsticks behind a kit in a church sanctuary.

“He was a very hard worker who you could also find in his church,” Dixon said.

 

Hands Up! Shot…Again

This one in San Antonio, and the victim appears to be a white man. While conservative racists don’t want to admit it, BlackLivesMatter might also save them.

Police in San Antonio fatally shot man with hands up, unaware they were being filmed

This past Friday, after a domestic dispute, police were called to a San Antonio home. When they arrived there, the police claim they confronted the man who was involved in the dispute, but that he resisted arrest.

We have no idea if this really happened, but what we do see is that same man, in his own front yard, peacefully surrendering to police with his hands up in the air. This much is a fact. From all indications, he appears to be unarmed, motionless, and nonviolent when, suddenly, he is shot and killed by county police.

That normally would’ve been case closed. The police would’ve told us that this man rushed them, or went for their gun, or something else, but a young black college student who heard the disturbance decided he had to film it.

“I was watching and wondering, what was going on, but I couldn’t figure it out. I was like, with the things going on in the world, like different type of shootings with cops and different things like that, so I was like, ‘Well, maybe I can catch something with my camera,'” Thomas said.
The video shows the deputies follow the man to the edge of the driveway.

“He kind of just put his hands in the air. After he put his hands in the air, they shot him,” Thomas said.

In other words, this man was executed. The video below, which stops the second before the actual shooting, is worth watching to give you the visual context for what happened.
In another report, released before police knew the video existed, they claimed the man had a knife. If he did, it’s hard to see it in this video and their early account doesn’t really match what we see below.

These officers need to be fired and prosecuted immediately.

 

Another Gun Lynching in Florida?

That Florida SYG Lynch law is having the intended effect…

That Assad guy over in Syria needs to pass one of these laws. Then he’d have the cons screaming to support genocide.

Now, I have no idea what the ethnicities or races are of the individuals involved are – but this is the result of conservative gun mania empowering murderers.

Back in the days when people called murder what it is

 

Florida Man Claims Self-Defense After Hopping A Fence To Shoot, Kill 21-Year-Old In A Hoodie

On Thursday, an Orlando man shot and killed a 21-year-old who was fleeing his yard. He didn’t appear to be stealing anything, according to witness accounts. He didn’t appear to be threatening anybody. But Claudius Smith said he feared he was a burglar, followed him over the fence to a neighboring apartment complex, where he shot him after he said he felt threatened, according to a confession documented in an Orlando Police Department report. Smith even said he feared victim Ricardo Sanes was armed “because his pants were falling down” and his hands were in his hoodie pockets, according to a report obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

Now, questions are emerging about whether Smith will also invoke the state’s Stand Your Ground law, which gained notoriety over the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, shot in a Florida residential development while wearing a hoodie. Law enforcement officials don’t seem to believe Stand Your Ground applies. Smith has already been charged with second-degree murder. But that doesn’t stop a judge from granting Stand Your Ground immunity later. In one of the most recent Florida court decisions on Stand Your Ground, an appeals court granted Stand Your Ground immunity to a man who went to his car to get a gun before the fatal incident.

According to statements by Smith’s girlfriend, Angela Kemraj, to police, the incident started when she saw a man in the yard on surveillance cameras and reported it to Smith. She said they saw the individual in dark clothes and a hoodie leaving their yard without anything in his hands, and climbing over the fence to a neighboring apartment complex. Smith then left the apartment and climbed over the fence. Two minutes later, Kemraj said she heard gunshots. Soon after, Smith came back to the apartment and said Sanes tried to rob him, without mentioning the shooting. During initial police questioning, Smith later denied knowledge about the shooting, and only later confessed, claiming he shot in self-defense.

 

Animal Slaughter in Zanesville, Ohio

Damn, this one gives me a lot of heartburn. I really question the need to kill the animals. First off, they list among the animal they “had to put down” 6 black bears. Black bears? They are native to North America – and I dare say that in a rural area like Zanesville there is a native population of black bears living in the woods. It also wouldn’t surprise me, that if you had someone who knew where (and how) to look – that there aren’t at least a few Mountain Lion…which the cops also killed. I’ve seen Mountain Lion in the mountains and forests of West Virginia and Kentucky, and a heck of a lot of black bear – one or two not very far from the big city. I’ve also seen wolves in Wyoming and Montana, along with Grizzly. And while it can be a heart thumping experience – I have never heard of wolves attacking humans except in adventure and horror stories – although a Grizzly does consider you a nice between meal snack if he is in the mood.

So I don’t see any need to have killed the black bear, mountain lion, or wolves as “threats to the population”. Wolves will kill sheep, I don’t know why, but sheep apparently look like filet mignon coming off the grill to a wolf. However, my family raised pedigree Boxer dogs – and one of the things you never wanted to do was get them in sight of a sheep. Apparently they share the same mental wiring as wolves. And for the truly stupid out there, yes wolves are gorgeous big cuddly looking dogs… And they can be successfully domesticated if you start from puppies…But sticking your hand out to pet a wild wolf is a really bad idea.

So…That leaves the Lions, Tigers, and Monkey. You can’t convince me that in an age of night vision goggles, thermal imagers, and helicopters that there was any threat of these animals going too far. Further, in 4 hours or less – that sheriff could have had a team of 50 or more Animal Welfare, and Zoo professionals onsite armed to the teeth with tranquilizer guns. The story about the guy with the tranquilizer gun having to get 10 feet away from the lion to zap it is utter bullshit.

So is the story about having to kill the animals. This was really an unnecessary, and tragic slaughter.

Add this one to “Domestic Terrorism”.

 

Wyclef Jean Shot in Haiti at Campaign Stop

Singer, and abortive Presidential candidate Wyclef Jean was shot yesterday while attending a campaign rally for Mickey Martelly, one of the two candidates in the runoff election. Wyclef appears to be OK, and was released from the hospital last night with a wound to his right hand.

Singer shot during Haiti campaign

Wyclef Jean, the American singer and music producer, has been shot in the Haitian capital while campaigning for a presidential candidate Michel Martelly.

The 41-year-old former member of music group The Fugees was in a stable condition in hospital in Port-au-Prince on Sunday, being treated for a bullet wound to his right hand.

His management declared via Twitter: “We have spoken to Wyclef, he is ok. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.”

Following last year’s tragic earthquake, the hip-hop sensation declared he would stand for president, only to be told he was inelegible. Instead he returned to Haiti to campaign for Michel Martelly.

The shooting comes as polls open for a presidential run-off on the Caribbean island.

On Sunday Haiti’s 4.7 million voters will choose between a political newcomer, entertainer and singer Martelly, 50, and former first lady Mirlande Manigat, 70, a law professor and opposition matriarch.

It follows a chaotic first round vote on November 28 that dissolved into fraud allegations and unrest.