Kearney, MO (KSHB) – A Kearney Middle School student’s “kill list” left parents and classmates frightened this weekend.

The Kearney, Missouri, Police Department said Friday evening it was aware of the alleged threats and was investigating.

The incident left some parents so frightened they decided to keep their kids out of school Friday and might do the same Monday.

“I took my child out of school Friday,” Courtney Kennedy said. “I was scared for her to be there.”

Kennedy, the mother of a sixth-grade student, was unnerved by a threat made toward several students.

“Things are in an uproar,” Kennedy said. “Parents are scared — me being one of them. I am very frightened for the safety of, not only my child, but the entire school.”

One of the students who threatened posted a message on Snapchat that reads, in part: “(The student who made the list) threatened to kill me and everyone at KMS. He told me that he wanted to be a serial killer and kill me first. He always told me that he didn’t like me and that he was going to kill me one day.”

Parents were equally upset by he lack of communication from the Kearney School District regarding the threat. Most parents only found out after the police announced the investigation on social media.

“Finding out on social media — on Friday on social media — was just shocking,” said Rhonda Holland, who has a seventh-grader at KMS. “Why wasn’t there a statement by the Kearney School District saying that they had the matter brought to their attention and they were investigating it?”

The district finally sent out a statement to parents Saturday, acknowledging the threat and explaining the timeline.

According to the letter from Kearney Middle School Principal Bart Woods, a student notified the school counselor about another student’s “hit list/kill list” and additional prior threatening statements, which had gone unreported.

Woods said the school launched an immediate investigation, reported the threats to local police, and required the student who made the threat to complete a mental health assessment.

The district also tweaked its policy and put “a safety plan has been put in place to monitor the initial threats as we move forward from this incident,” Wood said,

According to the letter, the KMS administration was in contact with the parents of all the students involved throughout the process.

“We have also made contact with all others who expressed concerns to us,” Woods said in the letter.

He indicated that it hasn’t been school policy to send information regarding verbal threats to all parents, but it was making an exception “due to concerns being expressed on social media” and in an effort to “eliminate any confusion and misinformation.”

Woods said he believes Kearney Middle School is a safe environment, expressed appreciation for the students who came forward about the threats and encouraged parents to reach out with any concerns.

“Student/school safety is extremely important to us and is something we talk about with our students,” Woods said.

Given the number of high-profile incidents nationwide involving violence in schools, it’s little wonder some parents are on edge when such threats impact their communities.

“We send these kids to school, and we believe it’s a safe place,” Holland said. “You have something like this happen, and it’s just hard.”

Kearney police provided an update of the investigation Saturday afternoon.

“Today we have conducted investigations and interviews,” a post on the department’s Facebook page said. “We believe that we have a much better understanding of this alleged incident. We have been working with the Kearney School District to ensure that everyone will be safe and that Monday will be another productive day of learning at the Kearney Middle School.”

Kearney police also said to expect an increased police presence at KMS next week.

via: https://fox2now.com/2019/04/14/middle-school-students-kill-list-leaves-missouri-parents-on-edge/

BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. – A small-town Pennsylvania police officer will not face charges after shooting an unarmed man during a struggle because the officer honestly believed at the time he was using his Taser, not his service weapon, the Bucks County district attorney’s office said in a statement.

District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said the March 3 shooting was “was neither justified, nor criminal, but was excused,” according to the statement posted on the DA’s office website.

“Weintraub said the law excuses the shooting officer’s conduct from criminal prosecution because of his ‘honest but mistaken’ belief he was deploying his Taser at the time he discharged his service weapon,” the statement said.

The wounded man, Brian Riling, was hospitalized in critical condition for several days after being shot in the stomach but has since been released, the statement said.

The New Hope officer, who was not identified because he wasn’t charged, was placed on paid administrative leave and retired from the department April 10, the statement said.

The investigation conducted by detectives employed by the DA’s office was partly based on a video shot inside a holding cell in the police station in New Hope, a town of 2,500 people about 40 miles north of Philadelphia. The statement refers several times to a letter Weintraub sent to the New Hope police chief, but the DA’s office won’t release that letter, said James O’Malley, the communications director for the DA’s office.

CNN reached out to Riling’s lawyer and has yet to receive a response. CNN also tried to contact Weintraub and the New Hope police chief, Michael Cummings, but did not receive a response.

Struggle inside a holding cell

Riling was in police custody after being charged March 3 with intimidation and retaliation against a victim, simple assault and related offenses stemming from an incident on the same day, the district attorney’s statement said. He was also charged with burglarizing the same victim’s home in mid-February, the statement said.

The video shows Riling removing his belt inside the cell at an officer’s direction when a white, rectangular object falls from his pants to the floor. Riling puts his foot on the object. The DA’s statement said the object was “consistent with a drug baggie.”

The video shows the officer pushing Riling onto a concrete bench but Riling resists and the men struggle. The DA’s statement said Riling threw the object into the toilet, but the toilet is not visible in the video.

A second officer entered the cell to help the first officer. While holding his service weapon in his right hand, the second officer yells “Taser” and shoots Riling in the stomach, the video shows. The two officers leave the cell for a moment. The DA’s statement says Riling flushes the toilet during this time, but the toilet can’t be seen.

The first officer comes back into the cell and at first orders Riling to get onto the seat. But Riling lies on the floor, saying, “I don’t want to die, dude,” and “Why’d you shoot me? Are you kidding me?” Later he asks, “What the [expletive] is wrong with that guy?”

‘He did not possess the criminal mental state’

The DA’s statement discusses the officer’s “mindset” during the incident.

The officer who shot Riling was aware of Riling’s “criminal episodes” before the shooting and heard Riling make violent threats during a phone call with the “previously mentioned victim,” the statement said.

“Given the totality of circumstances, the officer would have been justified in using his Taser to regain control of Riling inside the holding cell, DA Weintraub said in his letter [to the police chief], as the officer had a reasonable belief the scuffle posed a danger to his fellow officer,” the statement said.

“The use of a firearm must be an officer’s last resort, Weintraub wrote, and was not justified in this case. However, the letter [to the police chief] continues, because the officer believed he was deploying his Taser and not wielding his service firearm, he did not possess the criminal mental state required to be guilty of a crime under state law.”

The statement mentions a section of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code which says a person has a defense to a criminal charge if he makes a mistake for which there is “a reasonable explanation or excuse.”

The DA’s statement said the officer violated a department policy by wearing the Taser on his right side, in front of his firearm, instead of on the “non-dominant side, in what is known as a cross-draw position.”

That policy violation didn’t constitute a violation of law, though, the statement concludes.

“Weintraub also considered the officer’s decades of exemplary service to the citizens of New Hope as evidenced by dozens of commendations and letters, as compared to relatively few minor historical infractions on his service record,” the statement said.

The New Hope Police Department posted this statement on its website: “The Department thanks District Attorney Weintraub and the members of his office for their thorough investigation and report. The police department has no further information to release, and no further comment on this matter.”

Previous cases

This is not the first time an officer has shot a suspect with a gun, thinking he was using a Taser.

Robert Bates, a reserve deputy with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma, said he meant to use his Taser stun gun, not his revolver, on suspect Eric Courtney Harris, who had been tackled by other deputies and was being held on the ground on April 2, 2015.

Bates was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and given a four-year sentence.

In a 2009 case, a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer fired his gun instead of his Taser, killing 22-year-old Oscar Grant in Oakland, California.

The former officer, Johannes Mehserle, testified that he had meant to use his Taser but drew his gun instead. Mehserle was sentenced to two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter but was released early due to good conduct.

via: https://pix11.com/2019/04/14/da-police-officer-excused-after-mistakenly-using-gun-instead-of-taser-to-shoot-unarmed-inmate-in-cell/

(CNN) — A Phoenix man killed four people, including his wife and two children, in a shooting rampage that started as a domestic dispute over allegations of an affair, police said.

The suspect, Austin Smith, 30, returned home from a bar Thursday night and confronted his wife over accusations that she had cheated on him, which she denied, according to CNN affiliate KNXV.

He then killed his wife and two daughters at the family home and drove to the apartment of the man he believed she was having an affair with, said Sgt. Tommy Thompson of the Phoenix Police Department.

There, he fatally shot the man and injured two others, he said.

Police: One daughter survived

His wife, Dasia Patterson, 29, and their daughters Mayan Smith, 7, and Nasha Smith, 5, were found dead in the family’s home, police said.

His 3-year-old daughter was hiding under a bed when police arrived and was not injured, Thompson said. The suspect told police that he chose not to kill her because she “reminded him of himself,” the affiliate reported, citing court documents.

Police said the older daughter died of blunt force trauma, and the suspect told investigators that he allegedly killed her because she was crying.

Patterson’s relatives said they are devastated and struggling to come to terms with the loss.

“We are in anguish over the senseless loss of our beloved Dasia and her young children,” her family said in a statement.

“As we try to process our profound grief, our focus is on the welfare of her sole surviving 3-year-old daughter. She just lost her mother and sisters, and we want nothing more than for her to be with her family right now.”

A second crime scene

After killing his family, Smith drove to an apartment complex in Phoenix and fatally shot Ron Freeman, 46, whom he accused of having an affair with his wife, police said.

In addition to Freeman, he allegedly shot two other people at the home — a man and a woman — who have not been identified. The woman, 47, is in critical condition while the man, 33, suffered serious injuries.

Police received a call about the shooting at the apartment and found the suspect’s car fleeing the scene when they arrived, Thompson said.

“The car was stopped a short distance from the scene … and the suspect, Austin Smith was taken into custody without incident,” he added.

At the scene of the second shooting, one of the victims expressed concern for the suspect’s family. When officers did a welfare check on the suspect’s family, they found his deceased wife and two children.

During an interview with investigators at the Phoenix Police headquarters, the suspect said “the reason he shot these individuals is because in God’s eyes it was all right for him to deal with someone in this manner,” Thompson said.

“He admitted to the crimes and said he believed his wife Dasia had cheated with Ron. Austin stated that God had told him to do the things he did,” he said.

Smith was booked into the Maricopa County Jail and charged with four counts of first degree murder, two counts of attempted first degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault.

Information on his attorney was not immediately available.

via: https://www.kmov.com/news/a-child-is-found-hiding-under-a-bed-after-father/article_55612506-5ef7-11e9-a0cf-c3e942e58811.html

BEECH GROVE, Ind. – A 16-year-old Indiana boy is behind bars, accused of murder after a feud that started on Snapchat, police say.

Isaiha Funez is being charged as an adult for allegedly killing another 16-year-old boy in Beech Grove.

Early Sunday morning, Beech Grove police were called after gunfire struck a car full of teens, according to WXIN. Xavier Weir, 16, died after being shot in the head. Just minutes later another 16-year-old boy, Isaiha Funez, showed up at a hospital with a gunshot wound to his leg.

Surveillance video shows two people shoot at the victim’s car which then drove into a ditch and caught fire. Police said when they showed Isaiha the video he confessed to pulling the trigger.

According to court records, the teenage murder suspect told police that four months before the shooting Xavier had robbed Isaiha’s brother of his phone. Isaiha also claimed “Xavier had posted on Snapchat that there was $1,200 on Isaiha’s head,” if someone would hurt him, adding, “Xavier continued to post every single day on Snapchat that Isaiha was scared of him.”

“It’s just sad to hear a 16-year-old took the life of another 16-year-old,” said Rev. Malachi Walker with Young Men, Inc.

“To take someone’s life is totally outrageous,” Walker added. “When people are angry and frustrated, they act out quickly without thinking.”

For years, Rev. Walker has run a well-respected bootcamp for kids, helping them avoid violence by teaching them that their decisions have consequences.

That’s a lesson Walker believes could have helped prevent a social media feud between two teens from turning deadly.

“We have to teach our kids about how to make good choices and decisions when it comes to conflict resolution,” Walker said.

via: https://pix11.com/2019/04/14/teen-accused-of-killing-16-year-old-boy-over-feud-on-snapchat/

A man with a loaded gun in a diaper bag shot himself and his daughter while changing his daughter’s diaper in a vehicle in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, police said.

CNN affiliates report the incident happened Saturday afternoon, either at or near a Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza parlor in the Birmingham suburb.

The father, who was not identified, was in the back seat of a vehicle changing the girl’s diaper, and the gun went off as he picked up or reached inside the bag, which was sitting on the floorboard, Vestavia Hills Police Department spokesman Capt. Johnny Evans said.

After the gun went off, the bullet traveled through the adult’s leg and then the child’s leg before lodging in the man’s chest, Evans said.

The child is going to be OK. Her father is in serious condition, he said.

CNN affiliate WBMA reported the shooting happened near Chuck E. Cheese’s, while another affiliate, WBRC, said it occurred in the parking lot of the child-themed pizza and gaming center.

John and Ashley Gerrard of Bessemer were at Chuck E. Cheese’s with their 2-year-old when the shooting happened, leaving them worried for their daughter’s safety, WBRC reported.

“You don’t expect anyone would bring a gun around where kids would be. It just doesn’t make any sense,” John Gerrard told the station.

Both WBMA and WBRC quoted police officials saying the shooting appeared accidental.

via: https://pix11.com/2019/04/14/loaded-gun-in-diaper-bag-goes-off-injuring-father-and-daughter-police-say/