Florida Officer Accussed Of Molesting Suspect www.privateofficer.com

Florida Officer Arrested For Molesting Suspect www.privateofficer.com

Fort Pierce FLA. Dec. 28, 2007

Police Officer Dwight Toombs was arrested Wednesday on charges of sexual battery and lewd and lascivious battery after police say he sexually molested a 15-year-old girl while investigating a case.
Toombs, 33, who has been with the Fort Pierce department since 2001, was charged with three felony counts of sexual battery on a person 12 years of age or older by a government agent and three felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery. He was taken to the St. Lucie County Jail and his bail was set at $900,000, according to the Fort Pierce Police Department.
“It’s disturbing,” Police Chief R. Sean Baldwin said Wednesday evening. “It’s painful. It hurts. It’s embarrassing for the department. We work so hard to gain and maintain the public’s trust and to have an incident like this tears away at that. It’s hard on me and it’s hard on every officer that works here.”
Toombs had been placed on leave in several high-profile cases. He was fired by a previous police chief in 2004 after an internal investigation found he struck an 11-year-old with a belt, but City Manager Dennis Beach gave Toombs his job back.
According to a complaint affidavit in the most recent case, Toombs molested the teen he had handcuffed after being called to investigate an incident of a couple having sex in a car at Kimberly Bergalis Memorial Park on Dec. 18.
Both the girl and the 20-year-old man involved – who hasn’t been charged with a crime but is being investigated regarding having sex with a minor – told police Toombs fondled her twice, the report states.
The girl told police when Toombs arrived, she and the man were in the car and she was wearing only a T-shirt. Toombs reportedly asked them both for identification, handcuffed the man, went around to where the girl was sitting and handcuffed her, the report states.
Police say Toombs drove the man and girl to another location, where “he got three gloves from his car, put two of them on” and molested her again, the report states.
Baldwin said investigators worked on the case through the holiday break and Toombs was arrested as soon as they thought they had enough evidence. The criminal investigation is continuing.
“We try to be extremely careful when considering charges against a police officer,” Baldwin said.
Toombs, who was placed on administrative leave with pay last Thursday, will remain on paid leave pending the review of an administrative investigation, according to a department news release.
Previous incidents in which Toombs has been involved will also be factored into a decision about whether he will be allowed to keep his job with the department, Baldwin said.
A look at the officers personnel file showe that this was not the first incident where the officer is accussed of misconduct.
Fort Pierce Police Officer Dwight Toombs has been involved in several other incidents as a officer.
October 2004 : Toombs is fired by then-Police Chief Eugene Savage after an internal investigation found he struck an 11-year-old with a belt. Toombs was found to have violated three department policies: conduct unbecoming an officer, commission of a felony and perjury in an official proceeding. But City Manager Dennis Beach gave him back his job in November with back pay and benefits to avoid “a long drawn-out hearing process,” Beach wrote in a memo.
February 2006 : After participating in an incident that month where a 48-year-old man was given a Taser shock in the Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute emergency room and died a month later, Toombs was placed on administrative leave with pay but was reinstated after an internal investigation.
January 2007 : He was suspended without pay for two days after spending more than an hour in a sex store while on duty.

EMAIL US! WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! adminassist@privateofficer.com

Send News, Comments or Questions

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS!

Shoplifter tries to kill store clerk www.privateofficer.com

Grover N.C. Dec. 28, 2007

Court dates have been set for the two people charged in an incident that left a mother of three in critical condition at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. Appearing in orange jumpsuits, Pamela Sue Dockery, 21, of 915 Grass Hollow Court in Charlotte and Donald Joshua Jones, 26, of 107 Sprouse Lane in Grover, appeared before Judge Larry J. Wilson via video for their arraignments. Police say the two shoplifted from a Wilco Travel Center just across the state line in South Carolina and drove into Grover with clerk Cheryl Green, who apparently tried to stop them, on the hood of the car. Dockery faces charges in North Carolina of aiding and abetting DWI, felony hit and run, failure to stop for an injury and permitting a vehicle to be driven by a non-licensed driver. Jones faces charges in North Carolina of DWI, driving with a license revoked, reckless driving, felony hit and run, failure to stop for personal injury and possession of an open container. They each told Wilson that they understood the charges against them. Assistant District Attorney Sally Kirby-Turner said there was a chance that additional charges could be added after she meets with the state trooper who handled the case. Wilson set Jan. 17 as the date for the trials of Pamela Dockery and Donald Joshua Jones. Jones also faces a charge in South Carolina of felony assault and batter with intent to kill. Jones’ extradition hearing is set for Jan. 24. “They’re going to need to take care of the North Carolina charges before they handle it in South Carolina,” Wilson said. Both Jones and Dockery asked for court-appointed attorneys. Dockery was assigned to Brenda McClean and Jones to Andrea Fite. The two are being held at the Cleveland County Detention Center. Jones has no bond while Dockery’s was set at $25,000 secured.

Donald Joshua Jones, 26,of 107 Sprouse Lane, GroverCleveland County Detention Center, is being held on No bond in North Carolina and faces a slew of charges including,DWI,Driving with a license revoked,Reckless driving,Felony hit and run,Failure to stop for personal injury,Possession of an open container,Extradition/fugitive from another stateSouth Carolina charges,Shoplifting,Felony assault and battery with intent to kill.

Girl finds x-rated video on Christmas game www.privateofficer.com

Girl finds X-rated video on Christmas gift www.privateofficer.com

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. Dec. 28, 2007 – The family of a 10-year-old girl who received an MP3 video player for Christmas was shocked when it found the player was loaded with explicit songs and pornographic movie clips.

The daughter of Cookeville’s Daryl Hill was thrilled to find that Santa had left an MP3 player under the tree, until she turned it on.
“Within 10 minutes, my daughter was crying,” said Hill.

There were video clips of XXX rated sex scenes, and the pornography was so graphic that Channel 4 could not broadcast it.
“I wish I could take the thoughts and images out of her head,” said Hill.
The Hills had bought three MP3 players for their children that came from a Wal-Mart store in Sparta, Tenn. It turns out one of the MP3 players had been returned to the store from a previous owner who loaded sex clips, graphic war scenes and lyrics about using drugs.
The Hills want to know why Wal-Mart would sell used merchandise as new in the first place, which is in violation of its own policies.
“If they want to be a major retailer, they need to act like it,” said Hill.
The manager at the Sparta Wal-Mart declined comment on the matter, and referred Channel 4 to Wal-Mart’s corporate office.
A Wal-Mart spokesperson e-mailed us confirming that stores are not supposed to return opened packages to the sales floor. They said they are working to get to the bottom of the problem.
The Hills said they have declined Wal-Mart’s offer to replace the MP3 player. They’ve already bought their daughter a new one and are hanging onto the controversial one until they talk to a lawyer.

EMAIL US: adminassist@privateofficer.com

Send us News, Comments or Questions

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS!

Woman wipes her nose on officer’s uniform www.privateofficer.com

DUNBAR W.V. Dec. 28, 2007

A woman arrested by police officials for domestic battery was also charged with police battery after wiping her nose on the back of an officer’s shirt.
In an incident that took place Friday, 36-year old Georgia Ann Newman was arrested for biting and slapping a man. While being led away, she allegedly wiped her nose on the officer’s shirt while being led into the police station for booking procedures.
The Charleston Daily News said that on top of her charge for domestic battery, Newman was also charged with battery on a police officer – something that is defined as the intentional physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature towards a police officer.
The previous charge of domestic battery, according to the AP, was because of a police report filed by a Cpl. S.E. Elliott, who claimed he saw Newman slap a man, and then bite his elbow. When the man backed away, Newman was said to have spat in his face.

The woman was jailed and held under an undisclosed amount of bond for both charges pending her court date.

Email Us: adminassist@privateofficer.com

Beer Thieves On The Loose In Georgia www.privateofficer.com

ALBANY, Ga. Dec. 28, 2007 — Sounds like some south Georgia crooks have been stocking up for a big holiday bash.
Thieves took tractor-trailers loaded with beer and swiped the suds twice within the past week, authorities said.
Dougherty County authorities are investigating a report of a missing 53-foot-long trailer that was loaded with more than 2,300 cases of beer. Police said the beer disappeared sometime between Dec. 21 and Thursday.
Also on Dec.21, more than 300 cases of beer were stolen from another tractor-trailer, which had a tracking device. The trailer as driven about three miles before it was emptied, according to police.

Police admit that there are no clues in these cases so far and that they arelooking for either a big holiday bash or someone trying to sell beer at huge discounted prices.

Email Us! We Want To Hear From YOU! adminassist@privateofficer.com

Send Us News, Comments or Questions

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS!

Unions Cozy Up, Recruit Security Officers www.privateofficer.com

CHICAGO IL. DEC. 28, 2007

Like an old friend just catching up, Albert Higgins glided through some chit-chat with security officer Georgia Denton and then segued into his message.Would she like to take a more active role in her union?”I would be glad to,” replied Denton, who works at a downtown Chicago office building and is a member of Local 1 of the Service Employees International Union.

In a flash, Wendy Howell, a Local 1 organizer, stepped forward and handed Denton some pamphlets to hand out to fellow Local 1 members and asked her to make sure she reminds them not to miss a coming meeting.It was an ideal encounter for Howell, 27, who has been an organizer for four months, and for Higgins, who has been taking time off from his job as a security officer for a few years to help solidify the local’s ranks and to reach out to non-union security guards.Their work illustrates how organized labor is trying new ways to reach out to members and non-members to overcome the downward spiral that has slashed its share of the U.S. workforce. Labor represents a scant 7.4 percent of the nation’s private workforce and 12 percent overall, the government’s latest figures show. Those are the lowest numbers since the Depression.As a result, organizing is a key union mantra. Besides pumping more money and resources into signing up new members, unions also are diversifying the organizers’ ranks.That means they are using young organizers like Howell, who comes with a short but intense history of political and community organizing. It also means that they are likely to seek more women organizers as well, realizing that females account for a large number of the professional and service industry jobs that they want to organize.So, too, they are likely to continue to turn inward in search of members who can become short-term organizers like Higgins. Unions have learned that workers from the same jobs and backgrounds as those they are can trying to represent often open doors faster than the best-trained organizers.When the AFL-CIO broke apart two years ago, one of the vows made by the heads of UNITE-HERE, which joined the dissident Change to Win Federation, was to increase the union’s organizing, said John Wilhelm, head of the hospitality division for the union created with the merger of the garment and hotel workers unions.”We set a goal in 2004 of spending over 50 percent of our funds on organizing, and now we are close to 55 percent,” Wilhelm said. Previously, the unions spent about one-third of their budgets on organizing, he added.Similarly, the AFL-CIO has taken up the need for more and better organizing efforts, said Stuart Acuff, head of organizing.”We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ve got more unions working to develop organizing capacity than we’ve ever had,” Acuff said. About one-third of the federation’s 55 unions have gained the capacity to run top-notch organizing drives, he said.Unions are almost certain to continue to wage campaigns in industries where they think they can reap new members, such as health care and gaming.Global cooperationConfronted by global companies’ sprawl to the U.S., they also are likely to reach beyond their normal boundaries and traditions, linking up with foreign unions to take on multinational employers.This is a relatively new tactic for U.S. unions, and the 1.5 million member SEIU has put a high priority on gaining global allies.SEIU’s confrontation with the Wackenhut Corp. is a case in point. The nation’s second-largest security guard firm, with 40,000 officers, Wackenhut is an arm of British-based G4S, the world’s largest security firm with more than a half-million employees on six continents.Tom Balanoff, president of Local 1 and a SEIU vice president, said the union has been waging a “national and international campaign” against G4S by linking up with security guard unions around the globe.But the company has also punched back.

Last month, Wackenhut filed a racketeering lawsuit in Florida, challenging the union’s organizing methods, an action SEIU officials claim will not prevail in the courts.Wackenhut claims a winIn Chicago, the local has been battling Wackenhut’s decision not to renew its contract this year with the union for about 65 security guards at the downtown offices of Columbia College and Bank of America.

In a labor law case related to this issue, Wackenhut officials say they have won a significant victory.An administrative law judge for the National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that the Building Owners and Managers Association could not require guards at its downtown Chicago buildings to belong to the SEIU, said Dan Murphy, an attorney for WackenhutThe ruling “opens a rigged market,” said Murphy, adding that Wackenhut decided to drop its ties with the SEIU at the request of workers at the two sites. Under U.S. labor law, a security company can break its ties with a union when their contract expires, he said.”We don’t have a problem if our workers seek out a union,” Murphy said, noting that about one-third of Wackenhut’s guards in the U.S. belong to several small unions that strictly represent guards.The company prefers those unions over one like the SEIU, where workers may have “divided loyalties,” he said.Balanoff said the union is studying the ruling before it makes a decision whether it will file a challenge.”We will continue to bargain with BOMA and, hopefully, with the contractors,” he said.

EMAIL US! ANYTIME! WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! adminassist@privateofficer.com

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS!~~~~

Security Officer Aids In Arrest Of Copper Thief www.privateofficer.com

POLK COUNTY FLA. DEC. 28, 2007 — Deputies have arrested a Dover man for stealing thousands of dollars worth of copper from mining property.
Erwin Westmoreland is also charged with causing thousands in damage to the property on County Road 640.
Deputies responded to a call on December 23rd from a security officer who had seen Westmoreland taking some copper from a property that he was guarding and called 911.. The responding deputies found that Wesmoreland had fled so they set up a perimeter and tracked down Westmoreland to a hiding place. They say he admitted to the crime and another on the same property December 20th. He was booked at the Polk County Jail on December 24th.
He faces a total of 11 counts in the two crimes and is being held on $79,000 bond.

EMAIL US! WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! adminassist@privateofficer.com

Send Us NEWS, COMMENTS or QUESTIONS

COME SEE OUR NEW MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS~!

School security wants to be loser www.privateofficer.com

School security officer on TV show, Big Loser www.privateofficer.com

Hollywood California Dec. 28, 2007

Unlike most TV game show contestants, Trent Patterson hopes to come home a loser — a big loser.
Patterson, an Endicott resident and security coordinator at Chenango Valley Middle School-High School, is one of 20 semi-finalists divided into 10 teams scheduled to compete in the upcoming fifth season of NBC’s weight-lost show The Biggest Loser.
Patterson, 39, entered the competition at 440 pounds, according to the program’s Web site. His teammate on the reality show will be a former football colleague at the University of Alabama, Roger Shultz, 40, who started the competition at 375 pounds. Both were linemen for the Crimson Tide football team; Patterson from 1988 to 1990.
Actually, the show started taping several weeks ago. Patterson left Endicott in mid-October and is secluded somewhere on the West Coast — an highly secretive location unknown even to his wife, Michele Patterson, who cannot contact her husband except for an emergency. A confidentially agreement prohibits him from talking about anything related to the program.
During a weekend visit to celebrate Christmas with his family, Trent Patterson was tight-lipped about what’s happened on the program so far, although those who know and saw him observed a definite weight loss.
Patterson visited Chenango Valley, where students held a pep rally Friday to show support for the popular security guard. “He’s an engaging personality. Students and staff are every excited and supportive of his efforts,” said CV Superintendent Carmen Ciullo. “He was not allowed to talk about the program.”
When NBC airs this season’s two-hour premier at 8 p.m. New Year’s Day, Michele Patterson, school colleagues and students will find out for the first time exactly how much weight Trent Patterson has shed in early stages of the weight loss contest, which is supervised by professional trainers who coordinate diet and extensive workout regimens for contestants. The program can be seen on WBGH-TV, which is cable channel 5 in the Binghamton area.
“Definitely, this is something that’s going to be good for him,” said Michele Patterson. “He wanted to be a positive role model for the students.” Among the items on his athletic resume, Patterson has been an assistant football coach at Chenango Valley, as well as a strength and conditioning coach for Chenango Forks’ football program.
Even if Patterson, who’s been on an unpaid leave from his duties at CV, and Shultz, from Enterprise, Ala., fail to win the grand prize, they still win by losing weight. If the two teammates really win, first prize is $250,000.
“They talk about their football training camp like they’ve been through war,” notes Patterson’s profile on www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser_5. “You can tell he will be a fierce co-competitor

More than 100 fight at mall www.privateofficer.com

More than 100 fight at mall theater www.privateofficer.com

Toledo Ohio, Dec. 28, 2007

Several Toledo police officers quelled a fight Tuesday night involving more than 100 people that began inside a movie theater in Westfield Franklin Park mall, police said.
No one was arrested and there were no reports of injuries, police said.
Toledo police Officer Steve Skeels, who works part-time security at the mall, was outside the No. 5 theater about 11 p.m. when someone told him people were fighting inside, police said.
He and another security officer went into the theater, saw people running, and directed the crowd to the exits, police said. More than 100 people began running down the escalators and the steps leading out to the parking lot, police said.
A few minutes later, the crowd started running back toward the mall.
Officer Skeels observed several people fighting and reported that an unknown male began swinging his fists.
Officer Skeels fired a Taser at the man, who then ran into the crowd that had headed back toward the parking lot, police said.
More than 20 Toledo police units were called to assist, a police report said.
The incident occurred about a year after a series of fights involving teenagers, including one that escalated to chair-throwing in the mall’s food court.
Police and the mall implemented new security measures after one of those altercations and credited those measures with squelching a Jan. 12 dispute outside the mall’s cinemas.

EMAIL US; adminassist@privateofficer.com

COME SEE OUR NEW MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

Cyber Crooks Fish In Your Waters! by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

SAN JOSE, CALIF.: Dec. 25, 2007 Somewhere in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second biggest city, a tiny startup has struck Internet gold. Its dozen-odd employees are barely old enough to recall the demise of the Soviet Union, but industry analysts believe they’re raking in more than $100 million a year from the world’s largest banks, including Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual.
Their two-year rise might be the greatest success story of the former Eastern Bloc’s high-tech boom — if only it weren’t so illegal. The cash might be coming from your bank account, and they could be using the computer in your den to commit their crimes.
The enigmatic company, which the security community has dubbed ”Rock Phish,” has rapidly grown into a giant of the Internet underground by perfecting a common form of Internet crime known as ”phishing.” The thieves capture people’s personal computers, then use them to send phony e-mail that tricks other users into revealing private financial information.
”Rock is the standard. They’rethe Microsoft,” said Jose Nazario, a researcher at security company Arbor Networks. ”Everyone else is a bit player.”
As big as Rock Phish has become, though, it is a sliver of a much larger problem.
During the past few years, a professional class bent on stealthy online fraud has transformed Internet crime, rendering obsolete the hobbyist hackers who sought fun and fame. These Al Capones of the information age are like ghosts in our Web browsers, silently taking over our computers, stealing digital bits and turning our data into cash.
They’ve created a sophisticated cyberspace shadow economy, which government and research firms estimate costs us tens of billions of dollars annually. The crimes themselves, and their staggering effect on our wallets, are disturbing. Yet the greater concern is the failure of corporate executives, government leaders and average citizens to comprehend the mounting threat and fight back.
”People talk about a ‘Digital Pearl Harbor,’ but that’s already happened,” said Rick Wesson, chief executive of Support Intelligence, one of many companies in the California area known as Silicon Valley battling these cybercriminals. ”It’s just that people don’t understand it has happened.”
Snowballing problem
Organized online crime didn’t appear out of nowhere — security experts have been tracking its growth for years — but by almost every measure, it’s exploding: The number of new pieces of malicious software, or ”malware,” tripled in the first half of this year compared with the previous six months, according to computer security company Symantec. And the number of phishing Web sites spotted in the first three months of 2007 by security software maker McAfee skyrocketed 784 percent compared with the year before.
These attacks cost real people real money — individual Americans lost at least $200 million last year to online fraud — and that’s just the people who took the time to report their misfortune to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Those 200,000 cyberfraud victims said they were swindled out of an average of $724 — an amount small enough to discourage individual reporting and to help keep Rock Phish relatively hidden.
Businesses are hit even harder: Average annual losses doubled to $345,000 per company in the 2007 Computer Security Institute survey. A 2006 FBI estimate pegged the total cost of cybercrime to businesses at more than $67 billion.
These statistics exclude a variety of additional, indirect costs to U.S. citizens: higher retail prices and banking fees, declining stock values, lower wages and decreased tax revenue.
None of the figures is perfect. Security vendors, research firms and law enforcement all have an incentive to inflate the numbers when it might mean increasing sales, visibility or funding. At the other extreme, businesses like banks are motivated to play down the problem. Yet the general trend is clear to almost everyone who has studied Internet security: Cybercrime is pervasive, and getting worse.
”The volume in absolute numbers is going through the roof,” said Mark Harris, global director of SophosLabs, the research unit of British security vendor Sophos. ”We’ve simply stopped counting.”

The Internet has handed postmodern swindlers an endless supply of marks, and cheap tools to attack millions with a single click.
In phishing, one of the most successful scams, people are tricked into revealing their passwords and other account information by phony e-mail that purports to come from banks. Cybercriminals then use that information to pilfer money. The first such schemes hit America Online members a decade ago. The attacks then spread to e-mail, targeting eBay and banks. Before long, Americans were getting phished by the thousands.
How they fool you
Some people are lured to visiting Web pages containing malware, either by inadvertently visiting infected sites or by clicking on an e-mailed link. There, a pixel-size frame, invisible to the user, stealthily installs code onto the computers of visitors lacking the latest Web browser security updates. Most users have no idea such a ”drive-by download” has taken place, even as these Trojan horses surreptitiously log their banking passwords or other private information.
Criminals are increasingly hiding this malware within apparently safe sites. Last year, Circuit City acknowledged its customer-support site had been hacked and was serving up dangerous code, allowing hackers to take control of visitors’ PCs.
In an April research paper called The Ghost in the Browser, a Google security team led by Niels Provos described a digital hunt through billions of Web pages searching for malicious sites. Using a process Provos calls ”conservative,” the team identified more than 450,000 Web pages that included malicious code, and 700,000 that ‘’seemed” dangerous. Google says the numbers are now much larger.
Even the least technical crooks can launch phishing campaigns or control a network of millions of hacked computers at the touch of a button, by purchasing do-it-yourself cybercrime kits.
For about $1,000 on underground sites, you can buy MPack, a full-service malware attack and distribution kit, which lets you host a Web page that infects any user who visits. Owners can even monitor the number, type and location of infections from MPack’s handy console page.
Worldwide epidemic
Dave DeWalt stood beneath the massive mounted television screen in April, staring at thousands of dots as they flickered across the continents of a digital world map. Each represented a real-time cyberspace attack: green for dozens of spam e-mails spewed out in the past six hours, amber for hundreds and red for more than 500 sent.

DeWalt was inside a corporate laboratory in Aylesbury, England, roughly 5,000 miles from the headquarters of Mc-Afee, which he had recently joined as chief executive. Mc-Afee researchers had narrowed down to a one-mile radius the locations of computers hurling out e-mail to swindle, scam or make life miserable for Internet users.
Dots appeared inside university dorms, popped up across the Middle East, swarmed through Eastern Europe. In more than 20 years in the tech industry, DeWalt had never seen anything like it. He began to understand something few Americans — even at the highest levels of government, business and academia — are able to grasp: the complex reality of the omnipresent cybercrime crisis, spreading worldwide, from Silicon Valley to Southeast Asia.
”I came into McAfee not knowing what was going to hit me,” DeWalt said. ”It’s becoming an epidemic.”
This plague of online crime isn’t just chaotic wrongdoing on a mass scale — it has coalesced into an interconnected industry that runs the gamut from virus writing to money laundering. Seemingly separate attacks like spam, phishing scams, viruses and Trojans, botnets and data breaches are the ugly Hydra heads of a single, complex beast that functions much like a legitimate market.

An organized crime syndicate might buy a trove of e-mail addresses culled from a data breach; spam e-mail with a Trojan attached; absorb recipients’ computers into a ”botnet” that it rents out to a phishing group, which sends its own e-mails purporting to be from a major bank, asking users to log onto sites hosted on a different botnet; and then steal money from those accounts and launder them through mules, with everyone taking a cut of the proceeds.
Not even Rock Phish stands alone — evidence points to links between these phishers and the Russian Business Network, an Internet service that plays host to several cybercriminals, according to anti-cybercrime detectives at VeriSign iDefense, as well as other researchers.
The online crooks are constantly bartering, buying and renting from one another, just as Microsoft and Google rely on other tech companies for the products and services that keep their corporations functioning.

EMAIL US! Send Us News, Comments, Questions

adminassist@privateofficer.com

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS!

Robbery suspect shot at mall www.privateofficer.com

ATLANTA GA. DEC. 25, 2007 A police officer working security at an area mall

shot and injured a suspected robber on Christmas Eve as hundreds of last-minute shoppers were trying to finish up at The Gallery at South DeKalb.
The unidentified male robbery suspect who was later arrested at a house a few miles away, was shot multiple times, suffering non-life threatening injuries, DeKalb County police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said.
No shots were fired inside the mall, formerly known as the South DeKalb Mall, and no one except the suspect was injured, Parish said.
The incident started around 12:15 p.m. when a shopper told an uniformed off-duty police officer working a security detail that someone had attempted to rob them. The mall is located south of I-20 on Candler Road in unincorporated Decatur.
The officer confronted the suspect in the parking lot of the mall and chased him a short way on foot, Dekalb police officials said. The officer opened fire when he saw the man had a gun, Parish said.
Police won’t say if the suspect fired his weapon or how many shots were fired, but said he was still able to climb into a SUV and drive away.
At about 2 p.m. he was found at a house on Sugar Creek Falls Avenue, which is about three miles from the mall. Parrish said the man was taken to a local hospital.
The SUV was later recovered at Bouldercrest near I-285. A handgun was inside the vehicle.
Several witnesses described the incident as a shoot-out. “He pushed a lady out of a car, he shot at police, the police shot back,” said Daquisha Barber, of Atlanta. “I think it was extremely dumb for officers to fire back. I was just pulling in.”
No other injuries have been reported in the incident. Police are continuing to investigate and the mall was still open for business, although an area of the parking lot was roped off as a crime scene.
“I wanted to get in and get out. I have wrapping still to do,” said Henrietta George, of Atlanta, who was still waiting for her car three hours later, because it was inside the roped-off area. She still didn’t know if her car was one of the several damaged in the shooting. “This isn’t how I planned to spend my Christmas eve.”
Dorothy Moore’s 6-month-old and 22-month-old grandchildren were sitting on Santa Claus’ lap while officers were outside photographing about 15 shellcasings.
“I’m glad we didn’t come when it happened. We just wanted to get their pictures with Santa,” she said. “You ain’t safe nowhere.”
The unidentified officer has been placed on administrative leave while a joint task force of investigators from DeKalb Police, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the District Attorney’s office review his actions.
In other areas of the country, a man was injured during a shooting at a Baltimore area mall and a woman was shot in Tuscaloosa alabama mall during a dispute with another female. There has also been several reports of other violence at mall across the nation during the final 48 hours of Christmas shopping.

EMAIL US! SEND US NEWS, COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS

adminassist@privateofficer.com

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS!

Police officer carjacked; shots fired www.privateofficer.com

ATLANTA GA. DEC. 25, 2007

An Atlanta police officer was carjacked at gunpoint Monday night. The incident occurred near Kimberly Way in southwest Atlanta.The officer was in her personal vehicle — a black Chrysler 300 — at the time. Her service revolver was in the car and is believed to be in possession of the suspects.

An ambulance was requested to come to the scene to assist the officer, but she was not injured.

According to police, three black males jumped out of a green mini-van and menaced the officer, who was working security at an apartment complex. Two of the men were armed. There may have been an exchange of gunfire between the suspects and another security officer, but authorities were unable to confirm that.Police do not have the license plate information on the green mini-van or on the officer’s vehicle, but they did say the Chrysler had a breast cancer plate and 20-inch rims.One or both of the vehicles were last seen driving northbound on I-285 in Fulton County.

Shortly after 11 p.m., area news learned that the officer’s car was found by police about a block away from the scene of the carjacking. It was discovered near the intersection of Fairburn Road and Benjamin E. Mays Drive, at the Cascade Methodist Apartments. The suspects were not with the vehicle when it was found.

Email us! adminassist@privateofficer

ARMORED CAR GUARD SHOT DURING ROBBERY www.privateofficer.com

Armored Car Guard Shot During Robbery by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

CALUMET CITY CA. Dec. 25,2007 Police expect an armored truck guard to be OK after he was hospitalized following an armed robbery Monday near J.C. Penney at Calumet City’s River Oaks Center.

Calumet City police Capt. Dan Zorzi said gunshots were fired about 11:45 a.m. as the armored truck guard was leaving the store, near 159th Street and Torrence Avenue.The victim suffered a gunshot wound and was transported to St. James Hospital and Health Centers in Olympia Fields, where he was in good condition Monday afternoon, Zorzi said.

The suspect is described as a black male, about 5-foot-11 with a medium build, and wearing a white T-shirt, a blue sweat shirt and his hair in braids. He last was seen fleeing westbound from the mall, police said.He made off with an undetermined amount of money, Zorzi said.

The shooting comes more than a year after a similar robbery.In August 2006, an armored truck guard suffered a gunshot wound to the neck, when in broad daylight and in front of several witnesses, a gunman approached the victim, shot him in the neck and robbed him of a green canvas bag filled with money.

In July, two out-of-towners were shot and injured after they met two other out-of-towners in the mall parking lot to buy marijuana, police said.Corey Fondren, 18, of 9152 S. Eggleston Ave., Chicago, and Treon West, 22, of South Holland, are charged in connection with that incident.

Anyone with information on Monday’s incident is asked to call the Calumet City Police Department at (708) 868-2500 or the department’s anonymous tip line at (708) 891-STOP.

EMAIL US! SEND US NEWS, COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS

adminassist@privateofficer.com

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS!

Protect Your Credit Against Theft www.privateofficer.com

Protecting Your Credit Against Theft www.privateofficer.com

Atlanta Ga. Dec. 25, 2007

Chances are you just finished dropping a boatload of money on holiday gifts. You probably paid for the bulk of your purchases with a debit or credit card, particularly if you did any of your shopping online.
But what did you do to protect yourself against identity theft? Probably not much – most people rarely, if ever, look over their shoulder before handing over their credit card. Some don’t even bother to double-check that a Web site is secure before typing in the digits.
But with an estimated 10 million cases of identity theft each year, paying close attention to your personal information is one of the only ways of keeping your personal information, and your money, safe.
The others? Well, there are micro shredders, which I’ve touted in this space before. There are credit-monitoring services, which may cost more than you feel like spending with the holiday bills rolling in.
Also, critics argue that they may not be all that effective either, since they’re somewhat akin to a fire alarm – it can alert you to a bad situation, but often just a bit too late.
The best solution we have is probably the security freeze, recently made available nationwide by all three credit bureaus. It’s basically a padlock for your credit report and perhaps the best way to keep from becoming a victim.
“A credit freeze is an order to the three credit bureaus – TransUnion, Experian and Equifax – that you do not want them selling your personal information to any third party. What this does is make your credit report unavailable to banks, credit card companies, utility and cell phone companies – anyone who might want to look at your credit report before issuing credit,” explains Scott Mitic, CEO and co-founder of TrustedID, an identity-theft protection service.
If lenders can’t see your credit report, they can’t issue a thief credit in your name.
The downside, of course, is that unless you lift the freeze, you can’t get credit either.
So is it worth the hassle? Here, a primer on security freezes and other ways to keep your identity to yourself.
Weigh the cost. The fee for a security freeze is going to vary by state, but $10 per bureau seems to be the norm. (Unless you’ve already been a victim of ID theft, then it’s free.) You’ll want to put a freeze on your file at each of the three credit bureaus, because contacting just one is akin to locking the front door of your house, then leaving the back and side doors wide open.
So now we’re at about $30. If you have to lift the freeze because you need a new car or want to apply for a mortgage, it’s another $10 a pop. Deciding whether it’s worth the $60 bucks (more if you have to repeat the process) is really a matter of looking to the future. If you’re happy with your house and car, and don’t foresee a need for any additional credit cards or loans in the next several years, it may be worth it to place the freeze. (Note: If you don’t want to deal with it yourself, or see yourself freezing and unfreezing multiple times, a service like Mitic’s, which is $109.95 for a year, may be cost effective.)
Know yourself. I have to admit, I kind of like credit freezes for another reason: They force you to stop and think before spending money you don’t have. It can take a few days for the freeze on your credit report to lift, which is long enough for you to decide you don’t really need that department store credit card after all.
Consider a fraud flag instead. It’s basically a note, attached to your credit report by all three bureaus, requesting that lenders contact you by phone before issuing credit in your name.
One plus to a fraud flag over a freeze is that it’s free. But it may not be quite as effective. “It’s not foolproof,” says Mitic. “It’s not as safe or as guaranteed as a freeze because you’re counting on tens of thousands of different lenders to correctly see this note, correctly call you and correctly verify your identity.”
Arm your computer. Updated anti-spyware and anti-virus software is always worth the investment. For about $30, you’ll protect yourself against programs that can worm into your computer, scan the hard drive for your personal information, and then send the findings into the waiting hands of thieves.

EMAIL US! SEND US NEWS STORIES, COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS

adminassist@privateofficer.com

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS!

Security officer caught in shoot-out www.privateofficer.com

Security caught in the middle of shoot-out www.privateofficer.com

SACRAMENTO CA. Dec. 26, 2007 – Sacramento police investigated a Christmas morning shooting in the Gardenland neighborhood that left one man dead and another man injured, officials said.
City Police Lt. Virgil Brown said a security officer at an apartment complex reported hearing 10 to 15 gunshots from different weapons and notified police for assistance. He then managed to position himself where he was safe as he awaited the police.
Police arrived just after 2:15 a.m. to find a 27-year-old man on the ground in the 2200 block of Northview Drive, which is west of Northgate Boulevard and south of El Camino Avenue. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Sacramento Coroner’s Office did not release his identity Tuesday, pending notification of his relatives.
Investigators learned that a large group of people had been partying in the street, Brown said.
They also discovered that another victim with a gunshot wound had been taken to a local hospital, and officers received reports that another person may have sustained a minor gunshot wound.
Brown said witnesses were uncooperative with detectives, who worked on Christmas Day to sort through differing accounts of the event.
Anyone with information about the shooting can call Crime Alert at (916) 443-4357.

EMAIL US! SEND NEWS, COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS

adminassist@privateofficer.com

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD US TO YOUR FRIENDS!

TSA Security Using Behavior Officers www.privateofficer.com

Seattle WA. DEC. 26, 2007 If a pair of Transportation Security Administration officers strolling by a Sea-Tac Airport ticket counter wish you happy holidays and ask where you’re traveling, it might be more than just Christmas spirit.
Travelers at Sea-Tac and dozens of other major airports across America are being scrutinized by teams of TSA behavior-detection officers specially trained to discern the subtlest suspicious behaviors.
TSA officials will not reveal specific behaviors identified by the program — called SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) — that are considered indicators of possible terrorist intent.
But a central task is to recognize microfacial expressions — a flash of feelings that in a fraction of a second reflects emotions such as fear, anger, surprise or contempt, said Carl Maccario, who helped start the program for TSA.
“In the SPOT program, we have a conversation with (passengers) and we ask them about their trip,” said Maccario from his office in Boston. “When someone lies or tries to be deceptive, … there are behavior cues that show it. … A brief flash of fear.”
Such people are referred for secondary screening, which can include a pat-down search and an X-ray exam. The microfacial expressions, he said, are the same across many cultures.
Since January 2006, behavior-detection officers have referred about 70,000 people for secondary screening, Maccario said. Of those, about 600 to 700 were arrested on a variety of charges, including possession of drugs, weapons violations and outstanding warrants.
Maccario will not say whether the teams have disrupted any terrorist operations. But he did say that there are active counterterrorism investigations under way that began with referrals from the program.
SPOT began spreading out to airports across the nation two years after initial testing began in 2003 in Boston, Providence, R.I., and Portland, Maine. It’s now at more than 50 airports and continues to grow.
Lynette Blas-Bamba manages Sea-Tac’s 12-officer behavior-detection team. Since the program started here in November 2006, more than 600 people have been referred for secondary inspections, she said. Of those, 11 were arrested.
The officers ask simple questions:
“How are you today?”
“Where are you heading?”
“Is this all your property?”
“It’s almost irrelevant what your answers are,” Maccario said. “It’s more relevant how you respond. Vague, evasive responses — fear shows itself. When you do this long enough, you see it right away.”
Maccario emphasized that the program takes into account the typical stress many of us experience when traveling, especially during the holidays.
Ordinary people who are feeling anxious are “much more open with their body movements and their facial expressions as compared to an operational terrorist (thinking) ‘I’ve got to defeat security,’ ” Maccario said. “We’re looking for behavior indicators that show a certain level of stress, fear or anxiety above and beyond that shown by an anxious member of the traveling public.”
The detection teams look for those indicators to spike when a traveler with something to hide approaches security checkpoints.
Blas-Bamba and her team were trained in fall 2006. She says she did behavioral detection of a sort in her last job as a probation officer. “We all do it to a degree. It’s just a matter of understanding and articulating what we see.”
Part of the training is a cultural awareness component, Maccario said. For example, in some cultures people don’t make eye contact with people in authority.
And to emphasize the sensitivity TSA is bringing to the program, he recalled a meeting with an association for people with Tourette’s disorder to assure them that having a tic will not result in a pat-down.
The TSA considers the program a powerful tool to root out terrorists, but also an antidote to racial profiling.
“We don’t care where you are from,” Maccario said. “It’s no longer subjective. If you are acting a certain way, that’s what is going to attract our attention.
“There is no reliable picture of a terrorist,” he added, citing American terrorists like Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and “the fact that al-Qaida continues to recruit people that blend into society.”
The program, however, has raised privacy and civil liberties concerns.
“The problem is behavioral characteristics will be found where you look for them,” the American Civil Liberties of Massachusetts legal director John Reinstein told The Washington Post.
But Naseem Tuffaha, political chairman of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s Seattle chapter, looks at the program as a potential step away from racial profiling.
“Our message in working with federal and local authorities has been to make behavioral-based decisions rather than ethnic-profiling decisions. Our message is to really focus on suspicious behavior rather than suspicious-looking people,” he said.
But Tuffaha warned that if the TSA “only looked hard when somebody is Middle Eastern-appearing … then you are still conducting racial profiling under a different name.”

email us…news, comments or questions

adminassist@privateofficer.com

Pro-Athletes Ponder Their Security www.privateofficer.com

Atlanta Ga. Dec. 26, 2007

It reduces even the biggest, even the strongest to feeling vulnerable, nervous and frightened. Violent crime against professional athletes is nothing new, but it is certainly not on the decline.
During the last two weeks, Atlanta Hawks forward Shelden Williams was carjacked at gunpoint as he left an Atlanta barbershop, and Indiana Pacers guard Jamaal Tinsley’s car was sprayed with gunshots outside an Indianapolis hotel. This, less than two weeks after the murder of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor, shot by an intruder inside his home.
In July, NBA players Antoine Walker and Eddy Curry were robbed at gunpoint in their Chicago homes. And in September, Houston Texans cornerback Dunta Robinson was held up in similar fashion in his home.
It is the proverbial 800-pound gorilla in pro locker rooms these days, a topic worth the attention of its inhabitants but one many would rather avoid.
“I don’t talk about security,” the Bulls’ Ben Wallace said.
“I’d rather not,” the Bears’ Olin Kreutz said.
Luol Deng might have the same feeling, but Williams happens to be a former Duke teammate and a friend.
“Being a basketball player and being in the same position, you have to be honest with yourself and believe that could have been you,” Deng said. “It’s not like Shelden is a guy who went and looked for trouble or they were after him for some reason.”
So how can athletes make themselves less vulnerable at a time when they are more conspicuous than ever?
“We’re a huge target,” Bears receiver Rashied Davis said. “You want recognition, but every time someone sees our face on a TV screen, it puts a big target on us. And the Internet is a huge deal. You can find out where a person lives, an overview of his home, a blueprint of his house. You definitely have to make sure your security system is up to par. Mine is always on.”
Bears tight end Desmond Clark said his house in Orlando is similarly protected. But in the current climate, he said, even that’s not enough.
“Even before the Sean Taylor deal, I was concerned,” Clark said. “Is someone looking at me when I’m not looking at them? I’ve stressed out my wife about not being too flamboyant, having too much jewelry on. I don’t wear much. I think a lot of people get into trouble because of their appearance.
“There are times and places you can get away with it. But even if it’s just me and my wife, you don’t want to make yourself a target.”
Clark says he drives a 1999 Lexus and a Ford Excursion.
“My wife has a BMW 750 and wanted all the rims and stuff,” he said. “But after we actually saw a lady being carjacked for her rims, my wife understood.
“It’s not just athletes _ it’s affluent people, period. We have things everyday people don’t, and some people see it and want it. A lot of people think we don’t deserve it.”
Bulls forward Joe Smith said that in addition to a home security system, he watches everyone he invites into his house.
“It can be a repairman, a cable guy, it can be anybody,” he said. “And all they have to do is just relay the message to the wrong person on where you live.”
Smith said he is especially careful at this time of year.
“I grew up in not so good of an area, and this is usually the time of the year, around the holidays, when most of this stuff happens, people trying to get a little extra for their family or whatever,” Smith said. “The way they think is that we have it, so we’ll be able to get it back with no problem.”
Both the NBA and NFL advocate their players assuming a low profile in public places. But Davis said he does not believe athletes should have to change their lifestyles to reduce risk.
“You make money, you deserve to enjoy it,” he said. “We’re not the only ones who spend money on jewelry, cars, homes. We didn’t start this. We’ve only been making (big) money the last 15, 20 years. And having a modest car is not going to stop something from happening.”
More constructive, Davis said, would be to try to change the behavior of those committing the crimes.
“I grew up in a tough neighborhood, so I know,” he said. “They’re doing what they think is the easy way. But they need to understand that what they’re doing is the hard way.
“Go to school, learn a trade. It feels so much better to get a check from work and not have to look over your shoulder, knowing someone’s out to get you. It’s so much harder living your life that way.”
Still, Davis admits, “One of my biggest fears is not being able to protect my wife and loved ones.”
To that end, Davis keeps registered guns in his home.
“I’m not a gun nut,” he said. “I don’t carry one on me. But I have a few in my home. I’m safe with them, I know how to use them and my wife knows how to use them. I look at it as a necessary evil. I wouldn’t keep it next to my headboard if I didn’t feel I needed to.”
After the Curry and Walker home invasions, the NBA stepped up its annual security presentation to players with a new interactive program called “Safe Net,” in which players were put into various scenarios and had to come up with viable solutions.
Situations included being stopped by police, home invasions and nightclub confrontations.
“It was very, very popular, and we got good feedback from players,” said Bernie Tolbert, senior vice president of NBA security.
Upon recommendation from the league, almost all NBA teams now employ their own security personnel who travel with the team in addition to a league security representative who monitors each team in each city.
Likewise, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said “certainly Sean Taylor’s death has heightened awareness,” but the league has been increasing its attention toward player security over the last decade. Aiello said “close to 30 teams” employ security specialists to work closely with the team in matters of player safety. In addition, the NFL long has had security representatives in each city.
But Tolbert, a retired FBI agent, does not encourage players to keep guns in their homes.
“I try to tell them more people get killed by their own guns than guns belonging to the bad guy,” he said. “It’s their choice, and we let them know about proper registration, use and safety.”
For players who choose to employ their own security, Tolbert warns them to be careful whom they hire.
“Sometimes a bodyguard can exacerbate the situation,” he said. “They need to have a law-enforcement background so they can recognize things before they happen.”
E. Washington of Chicago’s Dignitary Protective Services couldn’t agree more. His company employs only those with law-enforcement backgrounds, and he believes pro athletes, who are among his clientele, should not even consider traveling without professionals protecting them.
“I don’t need my cousin with a gun,” Washington said. “When I look back at the incident with Tank Johnson (whose friend and de facto bodyguard was shot and killed at a nightclub with Johnson), that is not the guy who should have been protecting him.”
Hiring “bouncers who are 6-4 with shaved heads,” said Joe Rokas, isn’t such a good idea either.
“They attract even more attention, and if someone’s drunk, he’s going to see this guy and say, `He ain’t that tough. I can kick his (butt),’ ” said Rokas, a retired Chicago policeman who provided security for Michael Jordan throughout the ex-Bull’s career and continues to work private security as well as in several Chicago sports arenas.
Rokas said after Jordan began using personal security, it began a trend that spread to players such as Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman.
“There’s definitely more violence now, but there are a different kind of athletes now too,” Rokas said. “Honestly, I don’t think bodyguards are necessary. It’s the company you keep and the places you go. And like my father said, you don’t need new friends.”

EMAIL US! SEND NEWS, COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS

adminassist@privateofficer.com

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS!

Security officer shot at nightclub www.privateofficer.com

Lafayette LA. Dec. 26, 2007

A security guard for the Plaza Nightclub on Johnston Street next to the Incredible Pizza Company was wounded after being shot by an assailant in the club shortly after midnight Wednesday morning.
According to Plaza Nightclub owner Shannon Wilkerson, a security issue occurred involving patron of the club on Christmas evening.

The security issue was addressed by employees of the nightclub, Wilkerson said, but during the course of removing the patron from the club, the assailant pulled a gun and fired on a member of the Plaza’s security staff. Wilkerson confirmed the incident and said the employee was wounded in the shoulder.
He added that the incident occurred shortly before 2 a.m.This is the second violent incident to occur at the Plaza Nightclub in less that six months.The last incident involved a stabbing that left three young men injured.

email us news, comments or questions

adminassist@privateofficer.com

Girl Finds Homemade “Shank” In Christmas Gift www.privateofficer.com

Sumter S.C. Dec. 26, 2007

It was a scary Christmas morning for a 7-year-old girl opening gifts in Sumter who found a blade inside one of her toys.
Now her parents want some answers from the toy’s maker and the store that sold it to them.
A Polly Pocket plane set was all 7-year-old Corrine wanted for Christmas.
“It says it’s a giant big jet, it comes with Polly and Jess,” says Corrine Compton.
All the loose pieces would have to be assembled by mom.
But when Corrine opened the present, she found a piece not mentioned on the box.
“It’s a little shank. I mean look at it!” says Corrine.
Wrapped in electrical tape is a blade. Corrine’s mom says she found it wedged inside a space for the plane’s walkway.
“It was hidden,” says Kimberly Compton. “The things completely sealed up, wrapped in a box. How did it get there?”
The Polly Pocket set is made by Mattel, and was bought at a Sumter Wal-Mart. But mom says the box was glued closed until Corrine opened it, and the plane was sealed in a plastic bag. So, it’s unclear when or how the blade might’ve gotten inside. And it certainly was not what Corrine expected.
“I thought it was not going to have a shank in it,” she told WIS News 10.
“She’s like, can I play with my toy? No, you can’t play with it right now. Let’s take it back,” says Kimberly. “I mean we have a shank in the toys now.”
We tried contacting Wal-Mart and Mattel, but the corporate offices for both were closed for the holiday.

EMAIL US! WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

adminassist@privateofficer.com

Send Us News, comments or Questions

COME SEE OUR MYSPACE PAGE! myspace.com/privateofficernews

ADD YOURSELF TO OUR FRIENDS!

PRIVATE OFFICER DOWN….UPDATE…..UTAH www.privateofficer.com

Salt Lake City Utah Dec. 27, 2007
A security guard was shot and killed Wednesday in front of patrons at a Salt Lake City truck stop. Police identified the victim as 31-year-old  Verne Jenkins, of Taylorsville. Roger Malcolm, 51, was arrested in connection with the killing and was being held at the Salt Lake County jail.
The shooting happened about 3 p.m. at the Sapp Bros. Travel Center at 1953 California Ave. (1280 South). Police spokesman Jared Wihongi said the guard might have tried to stop a theft, but detectives were still establishing a motive for the crime late Wednesday. Jenkins, who was gunned down near the dining room of a Burger King inside the gas station, died at the scene. Police found a handgun in the station close to where Jenkins was shot, Wihongi said. He said police were evaluating Malcolm’s mental state. The man sat down and waited for authorities to arrive at the scene; he was uncooperative once taken into custody, police said. Witnesses at the scene could hear Malcolm shout obscenities at officers when police opened the door of a squad car before taking him to the Salt Lake County jail.
Court records show that Malcolm was required to complete mental health counseling in 1999 after he was arrested and charged with battery, disturbing the peace and making a threat against life/property .
Several witnesses were sequestered in the truck stop for more than an hour after the shooting. A handful of employees who left the scene around 4:45 p.m. was in tears. The employees, who worked at the station’s Great American Restaurant, declined comment. Sapp Bros. closed for the rest of the evening Wednesday. Employees said they weren’t sure when the business will reopen. Messages left for Sapp Bros. general manager Mark Stevenson and Bill Van Dongen, manager of the station’s Burger King, were not returned on Wednesday. The incident drew onlookers, including Michael Anderson, a Salt Lake City trucker who regularly visits Sapp Bros. He heard news of the shooting and wanted to check on employees at the travel center, which includes a convenience store, Burger King restaurant, 24-hour restaurant and several other amenities. Anderson said he hopes the truck stop will increase its security after Wednesday’s shooting. “I think security here needs to start carrying a side arm,” he said. “It’s getting to be dangerous.”

Email Us–Send news, comments or questions
adminassist@privateofficer.com