Teen injured when gun goes off while taking selfie
A Texas teen trying to take a selfie while holding a gun ended up in the hospital after it went off, sending pieces of glass and metal into his face and penetrating his brain, according to a report.
The photo shoot went awry around 11 p.m. Thursday as the 16-year-old boy was posing with a loaded 9mm pistol at a San Antonio home, news station KABB reported.
The unidentified boy accidentally fired a bullet at his phone, sending glass and metal shrapnel into his face and eye, authorities said.
The shooting penetrated the teen’s brain, and he was rushed to University Hospital in stable condition, radio station WOAI reported.
Police are investigating to determine how the teen got hold of the gun.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/23/teen-injured-when-gun-goes-off-while-taking-selfie/
Attorney allegedly used ‘shoe camera’ to look up girl’s dress at Apple store
A 66-year-old licensed Bay Area lawyer was arrested Sunday after he allegedly taped a camera to his shoe and then “moved his shoe so that the camera was under a female juvenile’s dress” at an Apple Store in Walnut Creek, Calif., police said.
Jacques Bloxham, who is a personal injury attorney, was reportedly confronted by the girl’s father and fled the store. Officers said they found various cameras and recording devices in the suspect’s car in addition to the one attached to his shoe.
Bloxham was arrested around 3 p.m. and booked into Contra Costa County Jail on suspicion of using a camera to secretly record the undergarments of another person, along with annoying or molesting a child under 18, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. He later posted bail.
Police are investigating whether Bloxham recorded others and urge anyone with information to call the Walnut Creek Police Department.
Bloxham was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1986. He founded the Injury Law Center “in response to the public’s need for a personal injury attorney with honesty, integrity and a new understanding of the needs of injured clients,” according to his Yelp business profile.
FL White deputy caught on video punching black teen, slamming head on pavement
A sheriff’s deputy in Florida is on restricted duty after being caught on video punching a black teen in the head after he was pepper-sprayed and slamming his face into the pavement, video shows.
The Broward County deputy, Christopher Krickovich, is seen in footage circulating on social media platforms punching an unidentified 15-year-old boy in the back of the head after repeatedly slamming his face into the ground during an incident Thursday near J.P. Taravella High School.
Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said Friday that Krickovich has since been placed on “restrictive administrative assignment” as an investigation is conducted.
“We will look at this as a fact-finding measure to ensure that we hold folks accountable,” Tony said in a videotaped statement. “This may take some time for us to look thoroughly into, but understand that we will be transparent and if folks need to be held accountable, it shall be done. So please be patient with us.”
Witnesses at the scene — where 200-plus students gathered after rumors that a fight was set to break out, according to Krickovich’s report — can be heard screaming as the rough arrest unfolded.
“What are you doing?!” one woman shouts. “He’s bleeding!”
Krickovich said in an arrest affidavit obtained by the Miami Herald that the incident erupted when a large group of students began “yelling, threatening us and surrounding us” outside the school. One teen was taken into custody on trespassing charges after being involved in a fight there a day earlier. The second teen, meanwhile, was taken to the ground as the unruly group surrounded the deputies, Krickovich wrote.
“I had to act quickly fearing I would get struck or having a student potentially grab weapons off of my belt vest,” the arrest report read.
Two teens were arrested in connection with the incident, including one who was charged with assaulting an officer and obstruction without violence. A judge later downgraded the assaulting an officer count against the 15-year-old, who had no prior criminal history, WPLG reports.
Krickovich acknowledged that he was able to subdue the teen after he “struck the male in the right side of his head with a closed fist” as a distraction, WTVJ reports.
Other witnesses said deputies arrived at the school and threatened students in the crowd with pepper spray while ordering them to leave the area.
“The next thing you know, his head started bleeding and everything, and while he was getting handcuffed, lil bro got punched in the face by police,” one student told the station.
Another witness told WPLG that the deputies went “way too far” during the arrests.
The mayor of Broward County, Mark Bogen, said Krickovich should be fired and potentially prosecuted for his actions.
“The entire issue has to do with one word: resistance,” Bogen tweeted Monday. “In law enforcement if the alleged perpetrator is not resisting, then there is no justification to use force. When the student was on the ground, he did not resist at all.”
The video shows that the officer “had no justification” for smashing the teen’s head into the cement and punching him in the head, according to Bogen, who called on prosecutors to look into whether battery charges against Krickovich are warranted.
United Airlines employee allegedly called actress a ‘shining monkey’
A United Airlines employee repeatedly shouted racial slurs at an actress in view of other customers, calling her a “shining monkey,” according to the woman’s attorneys and court documents.
The actress, Cacilie Hughes, was returning home to Houston on Feb. 26 after a speaking engagement on women’s empowerment at a university in Michigan when she encountered a United Airlines employee named Carmella Davano while waiting for her luggage to arrive, according to attorneys Benjamin Crump and Jasmine Rand.
Hughes, 31, then asked Davano for a “refund code,” prompting the woman to erupt at United’s terminal inside George Bush Intercontinental Airport and call her a “monkey” and a “shining monkey,” Hughes told the New York Times.
“I was humiliated,” Hughes told the newspaper. “I was crying and I was the only black woman in the area.”
Crump and Rand, who are holding a press conference Tuesday on the alleged incident, said in a news release Monday that Davano also told Hughes to stop looking at her with her “monkey face.” Other passengers at the terminal witnessed the exchange and tried to intervene, but were unsuccessful.
Hughes then asked another United employee to call police, a request that was denied, leading her to contact authorities herself. Davano was later criminally charged with disorderly conduct for using a racial slur, Crump and Rand said.
Court documents obtained by the New York Times show that the misdemeanor charge was filed against Davano, who could not be reached for comment, one month after Houston police issued her a citation for profane and abusive language in a public space.
The outlet reports that two witnesses also told responding officers that they heard Davano direct the slurs toward Hughes, who appeared in 2015’s “Focus” alongside actor Will Smith. She’s also the vice president of the Big Sister Little Sister Mentoring Program, according to the nonprofit group’s website.
Davano could not be reached for comment Tuesday. She has not returned to work for United since the alleged incident, according to a statement from the airline obtained by The Post.
“At United, we proudly hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism and have zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind,” the statement reads. “We have withheld the employee from service since the night of the incident pending an internal investigation. Upon conclusion of the investigation, we will take any and all appropriate corrective action up to and including termination.”
Crump and Rand said the incident is the latest example of a “companywide pattern of racial discrimination” by United Airlines, citing a Nigerian woman’s lawsuit alleging that she was kicked off a flight last year after a white passenger said she smelled.
The attorneys also referenced Eric Murdock, a former NBA point guard who sued the airline for $10 million in December for kicking him out of an exit row before allowing a white passenger to take his seat.
“Racial slurs like ‘shining monkey’ should be relics of history, not resurrected to fuel the fire of racism faced by so many African Americans in today’s society and condoned on United Airlines flights,” Crump and Rand’s joint statement read.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/23/united-airlines-employee-allegedly-called-actress-a-shining-monkey/
Men notice woman eating alone, invite her to join them in touching act of kindness
OXFORD, Ala. — A beautiful gesture at an Alabama restaurant has gone viral.
A man named Jamario Howard posted on Facebook that he and two of his friends went to eat at a restaurant in Oxford last week when he noticed a woman sitting alone.
Jamario wrote, “My exact thoughts was ‘dang I’d hate to have to eat alone.’”
That’s when he decided to do something about it. Jamario said he walked up to the woman and asked if he could sit with her. She said yes, and as they started talking, he learned she lost her husband, and their 60th anniversary was the next day. “I instantly gave my condolences and asked her to come eat with us, which she was excited to do,” Jamario wrote.
“The point in this is always be kind and be nice to people. You never know what they are going through. This woman changed my outlook on life and how i look at other people. Everyone has a story so do not judge!” he continued. Jamario ended his Facebook post with an important reminder for people to go see their moms and grandparents. “They miss you!!” he said.
His Facebook post has been shared more than 30k times and has thousands of comments from people who love what he did. One person wrote, “Faith in humanity restored.” Another said, “Your mommas should be proud of the young men they have raised!”
T.I. posts bail for 23 nonviolent Georgia offenders for Easter
LITHONIA, Ga. — Rapper T.I., a Georgia church and VH1’s “Love and Hip Hop” personality Scrapp Deleon came together to post bail for 23 nonviolent offenders who would have spent Easter behind bars.
News outlets report the “Bail Out” program extends beyond the weekend, with each offender being connected to a mentor and possibly given funds for college savings. The New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia says the church set out to raise $40,000 at the start of Lent, but donations topped $120,000 about a month later.
The program targeted people in DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett and Rockdale counties. Senior church pastor Jamal Bryant says this was a way for the church be more outspoken when it comes to prison reform.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/04/23/rapper-t-i-posts-bail-for-23-nonviolent-georgia-offenders-for-easter/
Twin boys found in ‘cages’ bolted to the wall inside California home
MODOC, Calif. – The parents of two small children who were found trapped inside makeshift cages bolted to the wall of a Northern California home have been arrested, authorities said Monday.
The grim discovery was made while deputies served a search warrant at a residence in the 3000 block of C/R 101, according to a news release from the Modoc County Sheriff’s Office.
The warrant was obtained after shell casings were found on the property when a CHP officer visited to sign off on a correctable citation, television station KRCR in Redding reported.
Authorities had no idea there were children in the home when they went to search it, Sheriff Tex Dowdy said, according to the station.
Both kids were found in two separate modified cribs, one stacked on top of the other. The cribs were “secured to the wall like dog crates,” the release read.
The twin boys are believed to be about 22 months old, KRCR reported.
A search of the home also uncovered three firearms, ammunition, suspected methamphetamine and evidence of a butane honey oil lab, according to the release.
It’s still being investigated why the boys had been locked up, but Dowdy told the station he suspected “it was a way to keep them away from the other items that were located within the residence.”
Ramon Alberto Zendejas, 25, and his girlfriend Mercadies Irene Williams, also 25, were both arrested and face several charges, according to the release.
Zendejas was booked on suspicion of being a prohibited person in possession of firearms, a prohibited person in possession of ammunition, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and child endangerment, sheriff’s officials said.
Williams was booked on suspicion of being a prohibited person in possession of firearms, a prohibited person in possession of ammunition and child endangerment.
They are each being held on $10,000 bail.
The two children have been taken into the care of Modoc County Child Protective Services, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/04/23/twin-boys-found-in-cages-bolted-to-the-wall-inside-california-home/
Deputy on leave for homophobic comment over teen’s suicide
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama deputy has been put on administrative leave for posting a homophobic comment on a Facebook post about a gay teen who killed himself.
Al.com reports Madison County Deputy Jeff Graves wrote the comment Sunday on a WZDX-TV Facebook post about the death of 15-year-old Nigel Shelby, who killed himself last week. His family says he was bullied for his sexuality.
Graves wrote “Liberty Guns Bible Trump BBQ That’s my kind of LGBTQ movement.” He said LGBTQ people are offensive and shouldn’t be accepted. Graves has deleted his comment.
Belle’s Smokin’ BBQ in northern Kentucky offers shirts with a nearly identical slogan : “I support LGBTQ: Liberty, Guns, Bible, Trump, BBQ.”
Sheriff Kevin Turner says an internal investigation will be conducted. Graves didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Woman says nephew was beaten by employee of mental health group home
NORTH ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) – A North City woman is looking for answers after she says her 25-year-old nephew was beaten outside of a mental health group home.
Michelle Lyle said her nephew, Daymond Logan, battles schizophrenia and has stayed overnight at Hopewell Center’s group home on Chamberlain Avenue for two months. On April 11, she said she received a call that Logan was badly beaten and in the hospital.
“He was in a neck brace, two black eyes, broken nose, he was covered in bruises,” said Lyle.
Logan said it started around 7:30 p.m., when he got home from the mall an hour late for curfew. Following a verbal argument with an employee, Logan said he packed a bag and walked out.
“I made it to about the sidewalk before another argument escalated,” said Logan.
He said an employee hit him upwards of 15 times before he walked to the Gas Mart off Delmar and Goodfellow to call 911.
“I didn’t fight back, I couldn’t because of how aggressive was,” said Logan.
Two days after the incident, Lyle went to the group home to gather Logan’s belongings. She said other staff members had no idea what had happened. Lyle said her nephew has a concussion and may possibly need surgery on his nose.
Since the incident, Lyle said Hopewell Center has tried to arrange a meeting with her to discuss her nephew’s case.
News 4 reached out to the center multiple times but is still waiting to hear back. St. Louis City police confirm they are investigating.
Woman says ex boyfriend hid in her attic for 3 weeks before attacking her
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (CNN) — A woman suspected for weeks someone had been entering her home while she was away.
She tried to ignore it, but soon found out her ex-boyfriend had been living in her attic.
The Pittsburgh woman (whose name is being withheld to protect her) had an order of protection against the man.
But she starting seeing signs around her home that something was wrong.
First it was the toilet seat in her bathroom.
Then it was a blanket in an odd place.
“I knew that blanket had not been there before. I knew it. But what could i do? I already had the PFA against him. I can’t call the police and say there’s a blanket in my basement.”
Then on Saturday night, she found her ex, Cary Cocuzzi, standing in the middle of her bedroom.
He attacked her, but she fought him off and ran outside.
Neighbors called 9-1-1 and he was arrested.
“I had an intuition about it, but I ignored it. I brushed it aside. I didn’t want to seem paranoid or, you know, you never think this will happen to you but I should have trusted my instinct because I was right,” she said.
Police say Cocuzzi told them he has been homeless several times in the past two years.
The woman says she’s just thankful her two daughters weren’t home during the attack.