1 dead, 8 wounded in shooting at graduation party in Alabama
ATMORE, Ala. (WALA) — A graduation party in Alabama ended in violence, leaving one dead and eight others injured in a shooting.
The party was attended by “past and present students” of Escambia County High School in Atmore early Saturday morning.
Police say one person was killed and eight others were wounded during the shooting.
Escambia County High School principal Dennis Fuqua said the community “felt the pangs of tragedy due to the acts of violence that left several of our past and present students injured.”
According to Atmore police, officers were dispatched around 2 a.m. to a call of shots fired at 100 Martin Luther King Ave, which is the location of the former Escambia County Middle School. That former school building is now a community center.
Officers heard gunshots going off around the property as they arrived on the scene. The officers assisted the gunshot victims while restoring order at the scene, police said. Officers found one male victim dead in the cafeteria.
Witnesses told police the fight initially broke out between two women. Officials say gunshots were fired inside the building, hitting several individuals. The unknown individuals suspected of firing the shots fled to the parking lot, were police say more shots were fired, hitting more victims.
According to officials, a total of eight people were injured during the gunfire. They were transported to Atmore Community Hospital for treatment.
Atmore police encourage anyone with information about the shooting to call authorities.
Saturday afternoon, Escambia County High School Principal Dennis Fuqua issued the following statement:
“It’s always a great day to be a Blue Devil, but yesterday was a day of triumph and tragedy. By day, our seniors experienced the high of obtaining 8.6 million dollars in scholarships, and our varsity football team experienced their first win of the season. Yet, by night we all felt the pangs of tragedy due to the acts of violence that have left several of our past and present students injured. It is unfortunate that the event at the community center has tainted the success our seniors and football team felt, but we love our Blue Devil Family and will continue to pray for wisdom and healing.”
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Teacher says she was fired for taking breaks to pump breast milk
PORTLAND, Maine (AP/Meredith) — A former Falmouth elementary school teacher contends the school district declined to renew her contract because she took three breaks a day to pump breast milk for her baby.
Thirty-three-year-old Shana Swenson, of Portland, sued last week in federal court, claiming discrimination on the basis of gender and pregnancy.
Melissa Hewey, an attorney for Falmouth schools, told the Bangor Daily News that the claims of discrimination are “false.” She said the district provides on-site daycare, extended parental leave and paid time for breast pumping or breastfeeding.
Swenson was a “response to intervention” teacher who helped students in the third through fifth grades who struggled with reading and math. The lawsuit says she was subjected to “extreme animosity and hostility” because of her breaks during the day.
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Air Force employee facing child porn charges – downloaded manual on how to seduce, groom children for sex
ISLE OF WIGHT Co., Va. – Gregory Wacks, the Air Force employee charged with multiple counts of having and distributing child porn, was denied bond Thursday, WTKR reports.
Prosecutors argued he is a threat to the children in this community.
Investigators who forensically searched Wacks’ phone testified they not only found thousands of images of child porn involving very young children, but they also found a 170+ page PDF filed labeled “How to Practice Child Love.” The Commonwealth’s Attorney described the book to the court as a manual for seducing and grooming children into sexual acts, starting at a very young age.
The document was pulled from a known child porn trade site and had been downloaded to Wacks’ phone, according to investigators.
Wacks, an Air Force veteran currently employed as a civilian by the Air Force, was charged in April with one count of distributing child porn; one count of possession of child porn first offense and 18 counts of possession of child porn, later offenses.
Investigators who forensically searched Wacks’ phone said the investigation is not over and they are still combing through the evidence they had from their initial phone “dump.”
After a search warrant was executed and Wacks’ home was searched, investigators seized the cell phone, computer and tablet, but also mentioned finding a hidden camera in Wacks’ home that he shares with his wife and young daughter. Investigators did not go into whether or not they have searched that device and have not mentioned for what purpose it was used.
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Woman allegedly attacked boyfriend with box cutter because he didn’t get her a birthday present
WEST NEWTON BOROUGH, Pa. – A woman is accused of attacking her boyfriend with a box cutter because she didn’t get the birthday she was expecting.
A few hours after taking Georgia Michelle Zowacki out to dinner for her 55th birthday, her boyfriend said she became upset nobody bought her a card, cake or gift. He also said she had been drinking vodka throughout the day to celebrate.
“Next thing you know, I’m getting stabbed,” the boyfriend, David Rae, told KDKA.
Rae alleges Zowacki attacked him with a box cutter, putting it near his throat and threatening to kill him. “She went to my neck, she says, ‘I’m going to kill you,’” Rae explained. He said his girlfriend then slashed his arm with the weapon.
After cutting him, Rae told Westmoreland County Police Zowacki went into his bedroom and threw his TV set on the ground, broke his bed, tipped over his nightstand and threw other objects around the room.
“Destroyed my bedroom,” Rae said. “Destroyed it.”
The two had been living together at their West Newton home for about four months prior to the incident, according to the criminal complaint.
After the alleged attack, police said Zowacki left the residence on foot. When police arrived at the scene, she was on a nearby neighbor’s porch.
Zowacki spent the rest of her birthday in jail. She has been charged with aggravated assault, held on a $25,000 bond.
Meanwhile, Rae received several stitches. But he told KDKA, he feels lucky he didn’t end up dead.
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2 women accused of having sex with dog while communicating with inmate in jail
Norfolk (CNN Wires) — Two Norfolk women are accused of having sex with a dog while communicating with an inmate in two city jails.
34-year-old Jermaine Gaye was arrested on January 31 for a hit-and-run. News 3 told you how Gaye stands accused of hitting a police car before driving off at a high rate of speed.
They said he eventually crashed, and two people were hospitalized as a result.
While being held in the Norfolk Jail, court documents state that Gaye spoke to three women over the phone, encouraging them to threaten the witness in his case.
Court records state that Denise Kearney and Ashley Pinkett allegedly called the witness five times over the course of a few days and tried to convince her “to either change her story or not come to court.”
It states they also allegedly went to the witness’ home.
Pinkett and Kearney are accused of having sex with Gaye’s dog while “he encouraged them over the phone from the Norfolk City Jail,” according to court records. The alleged sexual acts occurred on March 18, March 27, March 29, April 2, April 3 and April 7.
Court records state Pinkett mentioned photographing the act.
Around this time, Gaye was moved from the Norfolk Jail to the Virginia Beach Jail due to his attempt to allegedly establish an improper relationship with a jail employee in Norfolk. On April 11 and April 12, during a video chat from the Virginia Beach Jail, Pinkett allegedly had sex with Gaye’s dog at home while Gaye encouraged her over video chat with what appeared to be a white towel draped over the back of his head.
Gaye is facing 34 charges, including several counts of cruelty to animals. He is being held without bond.
Pinkett is facing 20 charges including bestiality, animal cruelty charges and tampering with a witness. She has court on June 13, and is currently being held without bond.
Kearney is facing seven charges and has court on Monday. She is also being held without bond.
Both women declined an interview from jail.
The Virginia Beach Jail issued a statement. They said they’re cooperating fully with the investigation.
It is our policy to fully prosecute any criminal activity that occurs within our facility, to include any criminal conduct that may be captured as part of an inmate’s visitation. All inmates and their visitors are warned that visits are monitored and recorded.
This is part of the Terms of Service that Telmate (the video visitation system operator/vendor) requires users to agree to in order to participate in web-based video visitation, messaging, etc. via the tablets: “Any and all other content or information shared, transmitted, or sent using any messaging system or video visitation system or any other method, may be accessed, reviewed, searched, used, recorded, copied, viewed, listened to, displayed, or distributed by telmate correctional facility staff, or agents of law enforcement, as permitted by law. You hereby acknowledge your awareness of, understand, and consent to all such activity.”
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3-year-old boy fatally shoots self with found gun in Kansas City home
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police in Kansas City say a 3-year-old boy is dead after he found a handgun in his home and accidentally shot himself.
Police say officers were called around 12:30 a.m. Saturday to a house on the south end of Kansas City for a report of a shooting. Officers dispatched to the house learned that a 3-year-old had been accidentally shot and rushed to a hospital by his mother. The child was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Police say officers interviewed the mother at the hospital and a man at the home who was caring for a 2-month-old baby. Police say initial investigation reveals the man and woman were at home with the two children when the 3-year-old found the unsecured gun and shot himself.
Police are continuing to investigate.
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Florida man arrested as he live streams his own crime, hits baby in head
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fl. (CNN Wires) — A Florida man has been arrested as he live streamed his crimes inside a Walgreens, including hitting a newborn in the head with a box.
Ryan Greenlee was arrested by Largo police on Wednesday night on six different counts including child abuse, battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and resisting arrest with violence.
In a public video, live streamed on Facebook, Greenelee went inside the Walgreens on Ulmerton Road and taunted the camera with his money to buy two packs of beef jerky.
However, Greenlee didn’t have enough money and was eventually asked to leave the store as he became belligerent, according to an arrest report.
While leaving, Greenlee became disorderly and started throwing items off the counter, including a box that hit a newborn in the head.
In the video, you can hear the confrontation, but you don’t see the baby hit with the box — but seconds later you hear the two-month old crying.
“I was just so angry that I didn’t even cry,” said the mother, “I was just trying to be as level headed as I could.”
After the baby was hit, an arrest affidavit states that Greenlee then hit a male clerk who was trying to intervene.
The video carries into the parking lot, where it’s hard to make sense of what was happening, but it appears the camera is being tossed around.
Greenlee returns the vehicle he arrived in laughing as a friend in the car said he took things too far.
“I didn’t do nothing, all I wanted to do is go to the store, bro,” said Greenlee in the live stream.
A spokesperson for the Largo Police Department said if you’re ever a witness or a victim to people acting belligerent, remove herself.
“If you are ever out in public and someone behaves in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, remove yourself from the situation and notify someone of authority,” said Sgt. Scott Gore.
A mugshot of Greenlee has not been taken as he is in the healthcare wing of the jail.
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Texas man used hacksaw to cut off mother’s head
DENTON, Texas (AP/Meredith) — A Texas man used a hacksaw to cut off his mother’s head before fleeing and leading police on a chase into Oklahoma last week before they arrested him, authorities said.
Isaac Israel Warriner, 22, was being held Friday in a Denton County, Texas, jail on charges including the abuse of a corpse. He hasn’t been charged with killing his mother, Sarah Warriner, 65, and investigators will consult with the district attorney’s office and medical examiners to determine if additional charges will be filed, Denton city police spokeswoman Khristen Jones said.
Police in Denton, which is about 35 miles (55 kilometers) northwest of Dallas, were called to an apartment complex May 5 by a neighbor who said Isaac Warriner “was acting weird” and carrying around cleaning supplies, according to an affidavit. Officers found his mother’s headless body and the hacksaw inside the Warriners’ unit. Her head wasn’t found in the apartment and Jones, citing the ongoing investigation, declined to say whether it’s been located.
Authorities believe Sarah Warriner had been dead for at least two days before her body was found.
Days earlier, she had taken her son to a Denton hospital after he used a razor to cut his arms, the affidavit said. A nurse called security when Isaac Warriner threatened to kill his mother and himself. Police eventually were called, but he fled the hospital before officers arrived.
Isaac Warriner was spotted in his mother’s car on May 6 and led police on a chase up Interstate 35 into Oklahoma, where he was arrested and held before being returned Thursday to Denton. Online jail records don’t indicate whether he has an attorney.
His father, Kenneth Warriner, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this month that his son suffered a mental breakdown a few months ago.
“She had allowed him to stay with her after his last rehabilitation stay,” Kenneth Warriner said of his ex-wife. “He was prescribed psychotic drugs to try and help, but that didn’t seem to work.
Photo Credit: Denton County Jail/kmov.com
Cop resigns after pulling gun on black college student picking up trash outside dorm
A white police officer who pulled out his gun during a heated confrontation with a black college student picking up trash outside his Colorado dorm is resigning — and will continue to collect his paycheck for the next eight months, city officials said.
The officer, John Smyly, was identified Thursday as the 14-year department veteran seen in a 16-minute video posted to YouTube after confronting Zayd Atkinson outside a Naropa University dorm in Boulder on March 1, the Boulder Daily Camera reports.
Smyly, who had been on paid leave since the tense encounter, was found in violation of two department policies but resigned his post before the end of the city’s disciplinary process.
As part of an agreement, he’ll remain an employee through February and earn roughly $69,000 in salary for unused holiday and sick time, officials said.
“The exchange between Officer Smyly and Mr. Atkinson does not represent the professionalism of the Boulder Police Department nor the community Boulder desires to be,” City Attorney Tom Carr said in a statement to the newspaper. “While we have no proof racial bias was a motivating factor, the internal affairs investigation resulted in sustained violations of police policies.”
Smyly violated police authority and public trust and conduct, according to the review process that would’ve likely ended in his suspension or termination had he not already resigned from the department, police told the newspaper.
Smyly was conducting extra patrols due to recent crime in the area when he encountered Atkinson with an “unknown object in his left hand,” according to a summary of the probe released by Boulder police Chief Greg Testa.
Video shows Smyly approaching Atkinson in a partially enclosed patio area behind a “private property sign,” prompting the officer to ask if the man had a right to be there. Atkinson, who was holding a trash picker at the time, then told Smyly that he both lived and worked there before giving the officer his ID card.
Atkinson then started to walk away and continue picking up trash after Smyly asked for his address and date of birth, leading Smyly to radio for help. Atkinson then raised his voice, causing the officer to become “threatened by the trash grabber,” according to the report.
“You’re probably going to get tased in a second, because you have a weapon,” Smyly told Atkinson before brandishing his handgun.
Smyly later said he believed his stun gun would be ineffective in subduing Atkinson because of the heavy coat he was wearing at the time, according to the report.
Atkinson asked for Smyly’s supervisor several times during the footage and a total of eight officers and a sergeant responded to the scene. But none of those officers, including Smyly, pointed their weapons at Atkinson, the report found.
“The subject officer should have ended his contact with Mr. Atkinson as soon as Mr. Atkinson provided his name, address and a brief explanation of what he was doing,” the report read.
Investigators also determined that a person overheard on the footage telling Atkinson that he was likely racially profiled was a Naropa employee — and not one of the responding officers.
Atkinson’s attorney, meanwhile, said he was upset that Smyly is allowed to stay on the city’s payroll for more than eight months.
“If you or I did what Officer Smyly did to Zayd Atkinson, not only would we be immediately fired, we would be criminally prosecuted,” attorney Siddhartha Rathod told the newspaper. “The citizens of Boulder should be outraged that Boulder either doesn’t have the ability or the will to fire this officer and root out discrimination from this police department.”
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Boulder Police Dept
Lion tears off 4-year-old girl’s scalp at South Africa big cat farm
A lion ripped off a 4-year-old girl’s scalp in South Africa when the tot and her father got a little too close to a fence closing off the big cats from the public, according to a new report.
Dina Marie de Beer is listed in critical condition after the Sunday attack at the Weltevrede Lion Farm, The Independent reported.
The child’s dad, Peter, was holding his daughter so she could pet one of the cubs when the lioness grabbed him through the fence, South African station Netwerk24 reported.
Dina is listed in critical condition — with her scalp torn off, and one of the lion’s claws having penetrated her skull, the station reported. Part of her skull was surgically removed Monday to relieve pressure on her brain. Her dad, who only suffered minor injuries, told the outlet that it’s expected to be a long road ahead for his daughter.
A tour guide at the farm told The Independent the incident occurred when dad and daughter “got a bit too close,” adding that he hoped the little girl would have a “quick recovery.”
The owners of the farm did not respond to a request for comment from the outlet.
It has been a troublesome month for the lion farm: Just last week, another man was wounded in an attack through the fence, the South African station reported.
And back in 2010, two sisters, 3 and 5, were attacked by lionesses at the same farm, South African outlet Independent Online reported.
Both were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
“Sometimes they play a little rough,” the farm’s owner, Nico Roets, told the paper about the lions at the time.
Up to 8,000 wild lions are held in captivity at 260 South African breeding farms, compared to fewer than 3,000 out in the wild, the Independent reported.
Protesters have previously blasted the farms for allegedly neglecting the animals — and in some cases, operating as total scams that benefit from trophy-hunting or Asia’s trade in bones.
“This horrible incident underscores the need for the government of South Africa to shut down the lion breeding industry in the country, in order to protect both people from these ‘snuggle scam’ businesses in which they expose themselves to potential danger, and spare the suffering of thousands of lions languishing in appalling inadequate captive conditions where they are used as props for the tourist trade,” Audrey Delsink, a spokeswoman for Humane Society International, told the outlet.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/05/16/lion-tears-off-4-year-old-girls-scalp-at-south-africa-big-cat-farm/
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