2019 Police Body Camera Video Shows Moments Police Handcuff Innocent, Naked Woman During Wrong Raid
CHICAGO (CBS) — For the first time, police body camera video reveals what an innocent woman said happened to her nearly two years ago: police officers wrongly entered her home with guns drawn and handcuffed her naked as she watched in horror.
Last year, Anjanette Young filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the video to show the public what happened to her that day. CBS 2 also filed a request for the video. But the Chicago Police Department denied the requests.
Young recently obtained the footage after a court forced CPD to turn it over as part of her lawsuit against police.
“I feel like they didn’t want us to have this video because they knew how bad it was,” Young said. “They knew they had done something wrong. They knew that the way they treated me was not right.”
Hours before the TV version of this report broadcast, the city’s lawyers attempted to stop CBS 2 from airing the video by filing an emergency motion in federal court.
The video reveals on Feb. 21, 2019, nine body cameras rolled as a group of male officers entered her home at 7 p.m. Not long before, the licensed social worker finished her shift at the hospital and had undressed in her bedroom.
That’s when she said she heard a loud, pounding noise.
Outside, officers repeatedly struck her door with a battering ram. From various angles, the video captured the moments they broke down the door and burst through her home.
“It was so traumatic to hear the thing that was hitting the door,” Young said, as she watched the video. “And it happened so fast, I didn’t have time to put on clothes.”
As they rushed inside with guns drawn, officers yelled, “Police search warrant,” and “Hands up, hands up, hands up.” Seconds later, Young could be seen in the living room, shocked and completely naked, with her hands up.
“There were big guns,” Young remembered. “Guns with lights and scopes on them. And they were yelling at me, you know, put your hands up, put your hands up.”
Young looked terrified and confused as she watched officers search the home. An officer put her hands behind her back and handcuffed her as she stood naked.
“What is going on?” Young yelled in the video. “There’s nobody else here, I live alone. I mean, what is going on here? You’ve got the wrong house. I live alone.”
“It’s one of those moments where I felt I could have died that night,” she said. “Like if I would have made one wrong move, it felt like they would have shot me. I truly believe they would have shot me.”
And like so many other wrong raids CBS 2 uncovered, the one on Young’s home could have been avoided.
Using body camera video and police and court records, CBS 2 pieced together – moment by moment – not only how Young was treated during the raid, but also how police failed to check the bad tip that led them there.
Young recently agreed to an interview to discuss the body camera video after she first spoke to CBS 2 last year. CBS 2 blurred portions of the video in which Young was unclothed.
With her hands bound behind her back, the video shows an officer wrapped a short coat around her shoulders. But the coat only covered her shoulders and upper back – leaving her front completely exposed as she stood against the wall. Officers stood around her home – in the kitchen, the living room and the hallways – while she remained naked.
“It felt like forever to me,” she said. “It felt like forever.”
About two minutes after police entered the home, an officer found a blanket and wrapped it around Young as she sobbed and repeatedly asked officers who they were looking for.
“They just threw something over me, and my hands are behind me and I’m handcuffed,” Young said in an interview. “So there’s no way for me to secure the blanket around me.”
The blanket continued to slide open and expose her body. One video clip shows an officer stood in front of Young but made no attempt to cover her. Another officer walked over and held the blanket closed.
Young continued to beg police for answers.
“Tell me what’s going on,” she cried in the video.
“You’ve got the wrong house, you’ve got the wrong house, you’ve got the wrong house,” Young repeated.
“There’s no one else who lives in this apartment?” the sergeant asked.
“No, no one else lives here,” Young said.
Young told police at least 43 times they were in the wrong home. She repeatedly asked them to allow her to get dressed and told them she believed they had bad information.
“Oh my God, this cannot be right,” Young said during the raid. “How is this legal?”
Police did have bad information, CBS 2 Investigators uncovered, and they failed to do basic checks to confirm whether they had the correct address before getting the search warrant approved.
According to CPD’s complaint for search warrant, one day before the raid, a confidential informant told the affiant – or lead officer on the raid – that he recently saw a 23-year-old man who was a known felon with gun and ammunition.
The document said the officer found a photo of the suspect in a police database and showed it to the informant, who confirmed it was him. The officer then drove the informant to the address where the informant claimed the suspect lived.
Despite no evidence in the complaint that police made efforts to independently verify the informant’s tip, such as conducting any surveillance or additional checks as required by policy, the search warrant was approved by an assistant state’s attorney and a judge.
But CBS 2 quickly found, through police and court records, the informant gave police the wrong address. The 23-year-old suspect police were looking for actually lived in the unit next door to Young at the time of the raid and had no connection to her.
CBS 2 also found police could have easily tracked the suspect’s location and where he really lived because at the time of the raid, he was wearing an electronic monitoring device.
“That piece of paper [search warrant] gives them the right to, you know, that says you can do X, Y, Z based on what’s on that paper,” Young said. “So if you get it wrong, you are taking 100 percent control of someone else’s life and treating them in a bad way.”
The body camera video also raises questions about the approval of the warrant. In one clip, officers in a squad car reviewed their notes and can be heard talking. CPD wouldn’t comment when CBS 2 asked what the conversation meant.
“It wasn’t initially approved or some crap,” one officer said.
“What does that mean?” the second officer asked.
“I have no idea,” the first officer said. “I mean, they told him it was approved, then I guess that person messed up on their end.”
Citing an ongoing investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), CPD also wouldn’t comment when CBS 2 asked about the raid or why officers acted solely on an informant’s tip.
But the video shows Young made multiple attempts to ask CPD some of those same questions.
“Who are you looking for?” Young asked.
“I’ve been living here for four years and nobody lives here but me,” she yelled.
“I’m telling you this is wrong,” Young continued. “I have nothing to do with whoever this person is you are looking for.”
This is not the first time police failed to do basic checks that would have contradicted bad information given by an informant. Last year, CBS 2 interviewed the Blassingame family who were wrongly raided by police in 2015. Jalonda Blassingame’s young sons said officers pointed guns at them, leaving them traumatized, like dozens of other children CBS 2 interviewed as part of its two-year investigative series.
“I felt scared for my life,” said her son Jaden, who was 10 at the time of the raid.
CBS 2 quickly found the suspect police were looking for had no connection to the Blassingames and had been in prison at the time of the raid for years.
That trauma experienced by innocent children and families as a result of wrong CPD raids was the subject of CBS 2’s half-hour documentary, “[un]warranted.” It also examines how Black and Latino families are disproportionately affected.
“They are adding trauma to people’s lives that will be with them the rest of their lives,” Young said. “Children have to grow up with that for the rest of their lives. The system is broken.”
Many of the families interviewed, including Young, filed lawsuits against police. Keenan Saulter, Young’s attorney, said he believes wrong raids are violating families’ constitutional rights.
“If this had been a young woman in Lincoln Park by herself in her home naked, a young white woman — let’s just be frank – if the reaction would have been the same? I don’t think it would have been,” Saulter said. “I think [officers] would have saw that woman, rightfully so, as someone who was vulnerable, someone who deserved protection, someone who deserved to have their dignity maintained. They viewed Ms. Young as less than human.”
Young said the way officers treated and spoke to her during the raid amplified the trauma she experienced. The video shows she was visibly upset and afraid as she asked police questions, but did not immediately receive any answers about why officers were there.
“OK, OK, you don’t have to shout,” the sergeant said.
“I don’t have to shout?” Young yelled. “This is f****** ridiculous. You’ve got me in handcuffs. I’m naked, and you kicked my house in. I keep telling you, you’ve got the wrong place.”
Young cried during her interview when she remembered how police treated her.
“When I asked them to show me, when I asked them to tell me what they are doing in my house, and their response to me was just, shut up and calm down, that’s so disrespectful,” she said.
About 13 minutes into the raid, a female officer who later arrived walked Young to her room so she could get dressed, but put the handcuffs back on afterward. Police continued to question Young while she was clothed.
“Ma’am, there’s no firearms in this place?” the sergeant asked.
“There’s no gun in this place…no, no, no,” Young answered. “I am a social worker…I’ve been a social worker for 20 years. I follow the law. I don’t get in trouble for anything. I don’t do illegal stuff. I’m not that person. You’ve got the wrong information.”
The sergeant then told the affiant officer – the cop who got the warrant – to step outside.
“I want to have a conversation with you, let’s go talk outside,” the sergeant said.
But moments later, the officer’s body camera turned off. CPD did not respond to questions about why the camera was turned off – a pattern CBS 2 found both during wrong raids and in CPD’s every day interactions with civilians.
After nearly 20 minutes, police finally removed the handcuffs. Toward the end of the raid, the sergeant apologized to Young, the video shows.
“I do apologize for bothering you tonight,” the sergeant said. “I assure you that the city will be in contact with you tomorrow.”
“Is there anything I can do right now?” the sergeant also asked.
“Just leave and let me move on, this is so crazy,” Young said, still in tears.
“Again, I do apologize for meeting you this way,” the sergeant said. “I will do everything I can do to get the door fixed.”
Officers then attempted to fix her door with a hammer. When that didn’t work, they tried to wedge an ironing board in between the door.
Young said it was “surreal” watching the body camera video of what happened to her nearly two years later.
“It’s almost like a bad movie,” she said. “I feel like I’m watching a movie, but those are no actors, I’m no actor, but this is my life and it happened to me.”
In response to the city’s emergency motion and efforts to stop CBS 2 from airing the body camera video, CBS 2’s attorneys filed a response in federal court Monday night. They said the city’s action is unconstitutional and an attempt to suppress CBS 2’s reporting. While the report was being broadcast, a judge denied the city’s motion.
Even though the incident happened in February of 2019, COPA did not open the investigation or contact Young until nine months later when CBS 2 first broke the story online.
On Nov. 25, 2020 – more than a year since COPA began investigating – COPA said it “is still in the process of serving allegations and conducting all necessary officer interviews.”
While Young continues to live with trauma – that feeling of safety at home, she said, is lost – she leans on her church for healing and support. She believes she has a responsibility to use her voice to help protect others.
And if police don’t make sure they have the correct address before conducting search warrants, she said, their actions will continue to traumatize innocent families.
“The work is warranted – they need to do the work,” Young said. “But they need to do it right. They can’t just callously do it and leave people’s lives in ruins because they got it wrong.”
via: https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/12/15/you-have-the-wrong-place-body-camera-video-shows-moments-police-handcuff-innocent-naked-woman-during-wrong-raid/
Photo Credit: reason.com
2-year-old boy abandoned at Mississippi Goodwill store with change of clothes and note: “child abandoned…no phone number from mom” Suspect in custody
Southaven police posted on social media Monday about the boy, who they believe is about 2 years old. They told WREG he had a change of clothes, some food and a note written on a paper towel that read, “child abandoned … no phone number for mom.”
Southaven is just south of Memphis across the Mississippi border.
The boy was unable to give his name or the names of any parents or relatives to officers, and they posted to social media asking the public for help identifying any relative or possible suspects.
Later Monday afternoon, police said they received numerous tips in addition to surveillance video.
“Southaven Police received numerous tips, and with the assistance of F.B.I. offices in both Mississippi, and Tennessee, along with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department a suspect related to this case was taken into custody in Memphis at approximately 15:30 hours. At this time the investigation is still on going, no suspect information or charges are being released,” they posted on Facebook.
via: https://www.pix11.com/news/national/toddler-abandoned-at-goodwill-with-note-and-change-of-clothes-suspect-in-custody
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Wannabe Instagram star allegedly ripped mom’s heart, lungs and intestines out in shocking murder
A young medical student and Instagram star wannabe allegedly ripped out her mother’s heart, lungs and intestines – then calmly washed the blood off in the shower and met up with her boyfriend, according to a report.
Anna Leikovic, 21, of Comrat, Moldova, initially used a kitchen knife to stab her mother, Praskovya Leikovic, 40, who remained alive after the barbaric attack at her home, East2West News reported.
The crazed daughter then carved up her dying mom’s innards, according to the outlet.
Leikovic is “suspected of a terrible crime,” the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported, citing police. “She stabbed her mother with a knife and then cut out the heart of a living woman.”
It added: “It is hard to believe but she cut out the heart in the most literal sense of the word.”
The medical student, who has 9,400 followers, appeared in court, where she was asked by a reporter whether she had mutilated her mother in a savage attack.
“Goodbye,” Leikovic replied, laughing.
According to local reports cited by East2West, the mother had returned from a work stint in Germany and believed her daughter was taking drugs, so she arranged treatment for her.
Anna reportedly got angry.
“This was a very good family,” said Anna’s uncle Vladimir, who denied that she had been put in rehab.
“Praskovya loved her daughter so much, and she spent as much time with her as she could,” he said. “It took two hours for the police to tell me Anna is the main suspect. I could not even imagine this.”
Police spokeswoman Lyubov Yanak said: “The detainee is the main suspect. There is no likelihood of other suspects.”
The investigation into the motive in the shocking murder is ongoing.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/15/wannabe-instagram-star-killed-mom-with-kitchen-knife-report/
Photo Credit: PRO TV
Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church received $4.4M COVID-19 PPP loan
Multimillionaire televangelist Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Texas netted $4.4 million in bailouts through the federal COVID-19 relief program, records show.
The Houston megachurch, the largest in the nation with 52,000 weekly congregants, received the forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loan in late July, the Houston Business Journal reported Sunday.
The loan was the third-highest in the Houston area during all of July and August, the outlet noted, citing federal data.
Lakewood’s PPP check went to 368 full- and part-time employees, spokesman Donald Iloff told the Houston Business Journal.
He said in-person services that were suspended from March 15 through Oct. 18 due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted “its ability to collect substantial donations during those services.”
“Believing the shutdown would only last a few weeks, Lakewood did not initially apply for PPP assistance during the first half of the program,” Iloff said in a statement. “However, as the shutdown persisted month after month, given the economic uncertainty, Lakewood finally applied for the PPP loan and has been able to provide full salaries and benefits including health insurance coverage to all of its employees and their families.”
He added, “It is important to note that, since 2004, Pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen have not received salaries from Lakewood Church, and the PPP funds do not provide any personal financial benefit to them, whatsoever.”
Osteen — whose sermons are seen around the world — is worth an estimated $100 million. He took the helm of Lakewood Church following the death of his dad, founding pastor John Osteen, in 1999.
The toothy televangelist had teamed up with Kanye West to host Lakewood Church’s virtual Easter Sunday service in April — but West’s appearance fell through due to social distancing issues, TMZ reported.
The service, however, was still star-studded, with performances by Mariah Carey and words from Tyler Perry.
The best-selling author came under fire in 2017 following accusations that he refused to open up his megachurch to Tropical Storm Harvey victims.
The Small Business Administration said it’s approved more than 5 million loans through the $525 billion program, which ended in August.
Recipients included small businesses — as well as thousands of churches and other religious organizations and private schools.
About 1,500 religious organizations in the Houston area were approved for PPP loans, with 20 receiving loans of more than $1 million, the Houston Business Journal said.
A slew of businesses that received PPP loans — designed to help keep small businesses in operation — opted to return them, including Shake Shack, news website Axios and more than a dozen publicly traded companies.
Iloff didn’t immediately return a message from The Post.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/15/joel-osteens-megachurch-received-4-4m-covid-19-ppp-loan/
Photo Credit: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal
Would-be Florida burglar dies after window slams down on him
A thief’s burglary attempt backfired when the window of the Florida home he was trying to climb through abruptly crashed down on his neck, killing him, police said.
The freak incident unfolded Saturday when the convicted felon with facial tattoos and piercings, 32-year-old Jonathan Hernandez, attempted to break into a residence in Lehigh Acres, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said.
“When Hernandez was trying to work his way through the window, it unexpectedly closed on top of him, pinning him and keeping him suspended in the air,” Lt. Russell Park, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said Monday.
Hernandez was dead by the time deputies arrived, according to Park.
The would-be crook was “no stranger to law enforcement,” said Park, who explained that Hernandez was busted in 2014 “for his involvement in a murder case.”
Details about that case were not immediately available.
Local jail records show that Hernandez, also known as Jonathan Hernandez-Zuluaga, had multiple prior arrests on his record including for marijuana possession, grand theft and probation violations, the News-Press reported.
Meanwhile, Hernandez’s loved ones were convinced that police were not providing the full story.
“Soon as I got there I’m like, there’s no way. This isn’t what happened,” Hernandez’s fiancée, Patricia Duarte, told NBC2 News.
“When I first met him, I was like man he looks like he has a rap sheet like El Chapo,” said Duarte. “And he’s the complete opposite of that. He’s the sweetest person you’d probably ever meet and has the biggest heart.”
Duarte said she will continue to push for more answers surrounding Hernandez’s death.
“I just need something to be done the right way. I need a proper investigation,” Duarte said. “I need the actual truth to come to light.”
Tyson Lane defended Hernandez, saying, “He is not a burglar. He’s not a thief. He’s not a bad guy.”
“That’s not what he is. If he had a roof over his head and you didn’t, he would give you a roof over your head, bring you in his household,” Lane told the news outlet. “That’s something that he did for a lot of people, including myself.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/15/would-be-florida-burglar-dies-after-window-slams-down-on-him/
Photo Credit: Lee County Sheriff’s office
Sandy Hook victims remembered in online vigil on anniversary of elementary school shooting
NEWTOWN, Conn. — The 20 children and six educators killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School were remembered on the eighth anniversary of the massacre during an online vigil.
The victims’ names were read aloud Monday, as were the names of more than 150 people killed by gun violence within the past year in Connecticut.
Advocates called for stricter gun laws to prevent mass shootings, during the video conference vigil hosted by Connecticut Against Gun Violence.
A few religious services and private gatherings were planned in Newtown during the day. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy noted the 20 children would have been entered high school this year.
via: https://www.pix11.com/news/national-news/sandy-hook-victims-remembered-in-online-vigil-on-anniversary-of-elementary-school-shooting
Photo Credit: pix11.com
A New York businessman donated a $1 million art collection to Morehouse College
(CNN) — A Morehouse College alumnus has gifted the historically black college an art collection worth $1 million in an effort to diversify the world of art.
Business executive and art enthusiast George Wells has pledged the art collection — which features eight pieces that focus on identity politics and racial inequality — to Morehouse College, the school confirmed to CNN on Friday.
The collection includes works by a diverse range of artists, including McArthur Binion, Rashid Johnson, Amy Sherald, Mickalene Thomas and Ivy Haldeman.
“I will always be grateful for my Morehouse education and the springboard it created for my career on Wall Street and in business, and I want to recognize that with this gift,” Wells, 42, said in a statement.
“Owning multiple works by Johnson and Thomas is like owning a piece of history to me. Their practices both showcase black resiliency and triumph but in different ways and from different gender perspectives. It is my hope that this gift will serve as an impetus for furthering racial equality within the art world during this exceptionally vulnerable time for Americans and race relations.”
Wells is the founder of Wells Groups of New York, a management consulting firm that works with start-ups and mid-sized companies in tech, consumer goods and services, and health care, among other industries.
The artworks, which will be displayed around the school in 2021, were part of Wells’ and his husband’s personal art collection, which has grown to more than 50 pieces by both emerging and established artists.
“I would like to thank George Wells and Manfred Rantner for their generosity,” said Monique Dozier, vice president of institutional advancement at Morehouse, in a statement.
“This wonderful contribution from a Morehouse College alumnus celebrates the culture, creativity, intellect, and history of Black people. It also reinforces the importance of investing in the talents of diverse artists. The George Wells Collection will spur academic conversations in our classrooms and be a source of pride for the College, our scholars, alumni, and the Southwest Atlanta community.”
Art that goes beyond politics
While most of the artworks — which include figurative and abstract art — were created by Black and LGBTQ artists, not every piece in Wells’ donated collection tells a story of injustice.
Some works, including Ivy Haldeman’s piece included in the donated collection, simply embody blissful joy, devoid of any trace of race or gender. This, according to Uzee Brown, the chairman of Morehouse College’s Creative and Performing Arts department, is why the collection means so much to the college.
“This gift speaks volumes because what it brings to our community. It brings attention to works that have been underrepresented, as it is with many aspects of African American culture,” Brown told CNN. “Not all art by Black artists is political. It’s art made by someone who’s Black, but the subject matter is broad. It’s about love, happiness, the beauty of nature. We need to let that allow that part of the art to breathe.”
“There is nothing wrong with reflecting the voice that come out of a community, it’s important because our art is an expression of life, but we do not need to be as a people of color marginalized to the point where it’s always the assumption, that our struggles will be the basis of our subject matter,” he added.
Along with sharing stories through art, Wells hopes his donation will educate the Black community from both a creative and business standpoint to add diversity to the art industry.
“Morehouse doesn’t yet have a permanent art collection, so I thought if I could gift this art collection to them, the halo effect and the impact it would have on cultural discourse would be paramount,” Wells told CNN.
“In the art world, there are so few Black people in positions of power, so if we start at the core, which is education, and educate more people about the contemporary art world, we could make that world more inclusive.”
via: https://www.kmov.com/a-new-york-businessman-donated-a-1-million-art-collection-to-morehouse-college/article_3735029d-8841-54c1-8c90-b357c51f5808.html
Photo Credit: Manfred Rantner
UK father dies of cancer after begging for MRI amid COVID-19 crisis
A 27-year-old father of two from the UK died of cancer — months after he had to beg for an MRI scan amid a slowdown during the coronavirus crisis.
Sherwin Hall, of Leeds, West Yorkshire, died on Dec. 3, following an illness that began more than a year earlier.
Hall first began experiencing groin pain in September 2019 that subsided and re-emerged in January — and was given antibiotics both times, he wrote on a GoFundMe page back in May.
He thought he was feeling better, but then the pain returned “with a vengeance” in March, when he experienced pain in his right leg and buttock, and a hard lump by his rectum, he wrote.
He returned to the hospital, where doctors were convinced he had a sexually transmitted infection.
“It didn’t matter that I told them I couldn’t have an STI,” he wrote. “They were so convinced that I might have one that I began to believe it myself and started thinking maybe I had picked it up from sitting on a public toilet.
“I had so many blood tests and swabs. They were all clear. Meanwhile, the pain was so bad that I kept going back to the hospital, begging for a scan to see what was wrong.”
Then another doctor assumed he had prostatitis, or inflammation of the prostate gland, and prescribed antibiotics once again.
“I told them I thought they were wrong, but no one would listen,” Hall wrote. “I did my own research and knew it was something else. I kept begging them in April and May to give me an MRI scan, but no one would listen.
“Both my GP and my consultant told me that I couldn’t get a scan because scanning services were slowed down because of the coronavirus. By this time, my pain was so excruciating and I felt so unwell and so exhausted that I was almost suicidal.”
On May 26 — several months after first experiencing symptoms — Hall was finally given the scan, which revealed a 5.5-inch mass in his pelvis, he said.
He also had 30 lung tumors, the Sun reported.
When Hall died, his son, Sancho, whom he shares with wife La’Troya Hall, was only 9 months old, the Daily Mail reported.
“I am devastated. I have lost the love of my life,” Hall said in a statement. “If Sherwin’s cancer had been found earlier, it is likely he would still be here today. He would want me to do everything I can to prevent other families suffering as we have.”
“It worries me that the Government and NHS leaders continue to say cancer services are back to normal,” she said.
“Our family’s experience has been that, even now, this is simply not the case.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/14/father-dies-of-cancer-after-begging-for-mri-amid-covid-crisis/
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British teen stabbed mom 118 times, asked police to ‘bring a body bag’
A deranged teenage killer stabbed his mom 118 times after first strangling her in their UK home — and then calmly told police to “bring a body bag,” according to a UK court hearing.
Rowan Thompson, 17, was on a break from his $21,000-a-year private school when he strangled mom Joanna Thompson, 50, after they returned from a morning jog in their quaint Hampshire village, The Times of London said, citing a hearing into the death Monday.
After taking a 15-minute break from the attack, he went back — stabbing her 38 times in the forehead, 64 times in the neck and 16 times in an arm, Winchester coroner’s court was told.
“I’ve just killed my mum . . . I strangled her and I’ve been stabbing her with various knives and whatnot,” he told a dispatcher for the UK’s equivalent of 911, relaying it in a “calm, unemotional and quite ordinary manner” after the killing in July last year, the hearing was told.
“I need someone to arrest me, as that’s what you do, and an ambulance would be nice,” Thompson told the operator in the call played in court, the UK Times said.
“Bring a body bag or whatever you do,” Thompson had said.
Along with details about the bloodbath, Thompson also filled in the operator about details from his weekend, saying he’d “had a meal and went to the cinema with my best friends, which was really nice.”
Thompson was due to stand trial in October for the murder — but was found dead four days before the start of the trial while in custody at a secure mental health facility, the report said.
The teen — who struggled with “gender identity issues,” according to his father — had a history of mental health problems as well as an earlier suicide attempt, the paper said.
However, psychiatrist John Sandford told the court that apart from minor autism “there was nothing to suggest [Thompson] was suffering from abnormal mental functioning” when he killed his mother.
Coroner Jason Pegg recorded a verdict of unlawful killing for the mom’s death, saying that “no one will ever know why” Thompson killed her.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/14/british-teen-stabbed-mom-118-times-asked-bring-a-body-bag/
Photo Credit: Family/Solent News
West Virginia child charged with killing four family members
A juvenile in West Virginia has been charged in the slayings of two boys and their parents inside their home, authorities said.
The unidentified man, woman and their two sons, ages 3 and 12, were found dead with gunshot wounds around 10:40 a.m. Sunday in a house in Elkview, WV Metro News reported.
Authorities said a relative went to the home that morning to check on the family after not hearing from them for days.
When he arrived, he found the front door unlocked and three people dead, news station WSAZ reported.
Responding authorities found the fourth victim, the outlet reported.
“We determined immediately on the deputies’ arrival they were all deceased,” Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford told WV Metro News.
Rutherford said a fifth member of the family — a teenage boy — had been found safe away from the crime scene. He has spoken to authorities.
A juvenile has been charged with murder in connection with the grisly slayings, though it’s unclear whether the child has any relationship to the victims.
Rutherford declined to release more information because the suspect is a minor.
No further details were provided about the victims or the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
“We’re in the process now of going through the residence collecting evidence. Right now it’s very, very early,” Rutherford told reporters.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/12/14/west-virginia-child-charged-with-killing-four-family-members/
Photo Credit: WOWK13