Husband and wife robbery team arrested www.privateofficer.com

Metro Atlanta GA. Jan 15, 2008

ATLANTA — Investigators across the metro area are adding up cases of a suspected husband and wife robbery team.
The Fayetteville couple is in jail in Henry County as detectives from at least a half a dozen agencies look into armed robberies dating back to August of last year.
Roslyn Ford-Calhoun and her husband, Preston Calhoun, lived in nice home in a nice subdivision in Fayetteville. They were raising their teenage daughters and their elementary school-aged children as well, but police alleged, between the parent-teacher conferences and the soccer games, the couple were robbing stores.
“We figure anywhere from 10 to 15 that they’ve done,” said Det. Ron Waddell with the Smyrna Police Department.
They were a couple that had no problem doing things together, police said. Officials said Roslyn Calhoun and Preston Calhoun had everything worked out and would rob stores, like the Smyrna Family Dollar.
“The wife, if there was a male employee, would go back and keep them busy with some busy questions and keep them occupied and once the other customers were gone out of the store that’s when the husband would actually approach one of the tellers or the manager and commit the robbery,” said Waddell.
Police have linked the Calhouns to at least a dozen robberies across the metro Atlanta area during the last few months of 2007. Officials said the two had a liking for dollar stores but were also suspected of robbing clothing and party goods stores as well.
Authorities said it was the couple’s distinctive black Cadillac that was spotted during a get-away in Henry County, that led to their arrest.
Police said they are now trying to figure out how many stores the “Bonnie and Clyde” team have robbed.
“It’s not like it is on TV where everybody is stressing over their jurisdiction. A lot of good teamwork, working together, networking and passing along information from agency to agency and we were able to link these things together,” said Waddell.
Smyrna has charges against the pair for armed robbery and false imprisonment for allegedly taking an employee to a back room and holding him briefly. Other metro agencies have warrants out against the two as well.

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Church donates $145,000 to underpaid officers www.privateofficer.com

ODESSA, TX JAN 15 2008 — A local church has given $145,000 to the Odessa Police Department for the money to distributed among “underpaid” officers, a church leader said.
The Rev. Don Caywood of Odessa Christian Faith Center handed the money over to police Chief Chris Pipes at a Sunday service. The department will distribute $1,000 checks to 145 employees.
“It became obvious our men and women in blue are underpaid,” Caywood told the congregation during the service.
Caywood said the church, which has a weekly attendance of about 1,600, raised most of the money since late October. Caywood said he was inspired after hearing of officers battling for better pay and benefits.
The donation also reflected the community’s respect for police in the aftermath of the September deaths of three officers who were gunned down in the line of duty.
Cpls. Arlie Jones, 48, John “Scott” Gardner, 30, and Abel Marquez, 32, were shot while responding to a domestic disturbance call at the home of Larry Neil White, 58. White has been indicted on three counts of capital murder and three counts of attempted capital murder for the alleged shooting.
“We want their morale to soar,” Caywood said in a story for Monday editions of the Odessa American.
Pipes said he was amazed by the gift.
“The magnitude of thank you equal to the magnitude of the gift … I don’t have those words,” Pipes said.
Cpl. Z. Saldana was among a group of patrol officers surprised by the checks at a Sunday afternoon briefing.
“For us to receive (the money) out of the generosity of their hearts … there are no words to express what we feel for them,” Saldana said.

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Woman grabs off-duty officer’s gun during arrest www.privateofficer.com

ATHENS GA. JANUARY 15, 2008

A woman who police said grabbed a gun from an off-duty Athens-Clarke officer and tried pointing it at him during a scuffle in a westside supermarket Monday night was already facing a charge that she stabbed a man in another store last year.
The most recent incident happened in the Alps Road Kroger store, where a different off-duty officer working as a security guard was nearly stabbed to death in December by a man with a history of mental illness.
During Monday’s scuffle, shortly before 7 p.m., Senior Police Officer Charlie Snyder was trying to arrest 20-year-old Shekeena Rena Davis on outstanding felony warrants when Davis ran and then struggled with the officer, grabbing Snyder’s handgun from its holster, according to police.

The officer managed to disable his pistol’s magazine so it could not be used when Davis tried to point the weapon at him, police said, and Snyder was able to subdue the woman after pepper-spraying her.
Davis was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, battery on a law enforcement officer, felony obstruction and removing a firearm from a police officer, and was also being held on a warrant out of Barrow County.
Snyder and Davis were both treated for minor injuries at local hospitals.
Though Davis has been arrested nine times by Athens-Clarke police since 2005, the Coleridge Court resident had not been charged with a violent crime until last Feb. 12.
Davis was with a boyfriend in a Family Dollar on Lexington Road when they began arguing over Davis’ accusations that he was dating someone else, according to police.

Davis allegedly took a kitchen knife from a store shelf, ripped open the packaging and stabbed the man, police said.
Davis pleaded not guilty to aggravated assault in May.
The woman also has a history of arrests in Barrow County.
Her confrontation with Snyder happened in the same Kroger where Athens-Clarke police Sgt. Courtney Gale was nearly killed Dec. 12 by a man who attacked her with a kitchen knife he stole from the store.
Police said 44-year-old Steven Eberhart stabbed Gale 10 times until customers and a store manager inter

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Mother, son arrested in disturbance with mall security www.privateofficer.com

Woman, son arrested in disturbance with mall security www.privateofficer.com

Salinas KS. Jan 15, 2008

Salina police used a Taser and pepper spray Friday to subdue a Solomon woman arrested for trespassing at Central Mall.
Mall security officers confronted Holli A. Smith, 43, and her son Andrew J. Smith, 15, both of Solomon, about 7 p.m. Friday, saying they weren’t allowed to be in the mall. The security officers asked the two to leave, according to Deputy Salina Police Chief Carson Mansfield.
Mansfield said Holli and Andrew Smith were banned from the mall some time ago, in connection with an incident at Radio Shack.
Instead of leaving, Mansfield said, the two went to — or remained in — the Old Navy store.
After the two refused to leave the second time they were asked to do so by mall security, Mansfield said, mall security officers called Salina police.
Police officers escorted Holli Smith out of Old Navy and into the mall. Mansfield said Smith started screaming and trying to get away, and her husband and son came out of the store. Andrew Smith allegedly hit a mall security officer in the face. He was arrested on charges of battery, trespassing and disorderly conduct, then released.
Holli Smith continued to resist officers, Mansfield said, so an officer desployed his Taser, which shoots barbs that emit an electrical shock, immobilizing a person. The Taser was ineffective Holli Smith was wearing a coat.
An officer then used a “short burst” of pepper spray and was able to handcuff Holli Smith, Mansfield said. He said the officer used such a small amount of the spray that no one else in the area was affected. He said Smith did not receive medical treatment.

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3rd Body Found In Gulf Waters www.privateofficer.com

3rd Child Thrown From Bridge Found In Miss. www.privateofficer.com

Pasagoula MS. Jan 15, 2008

Authorities confirmed today that a third body of a child believed to have been thrown from the Dauphin Island Alabama bridge last week has been recovered.

Search crews have recovered the body of a third child tossed from a coastal Alabama bridge.
Kate Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Mobile County Sheriff’s Department, said the body was found Tuesday by a Mississippi marine resources crew in an inlet of Crooked Bayou near Pascagoula.
She said the identity of the child was not immediately confirmed but was believed to be one of four young children allegedly dropped from the Dauphin Island bridge by their father, 37-year-old Lam Luong.
He is being held without bond on four capital murder charges. A judge has approved the appointment of a translator to help the Vietnamese-born defendant understand the charges.
The bodies of a 3-year-old boy and his 4-month-old brother were recovered over the weekend in waters a few miles west of the Dauphin Island bridge. Johnson said the third body was found a couple of miles west of where the second body was discovered Sunday.
The children’s mother, 23-year-old Kieu Phan, wept last night as she joined others in a candlelight vigil near bayou docks.

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2 Police Officers Killed Working Security Duty www.privateofficer.com

2 Police Officers Killed While On Security Duty www.privateofficer.com

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga.(Metro Atlanta) — Two DeKalb County police officers were shot and killed early Wednesday morning at a Glenwood Road apartment complex.

The officers reportedly were off-duty, but in uniform working as security guards at the Glenwood Garden Apartments at 4371 Glenwood Road. Police said it appears they were checking out reports of a suspicious person at the apartments just after 12:30 a.m. when they were shot. Neither officer drew their weapon, according to investigators.
Police think at least two gunmen attacked the officers but it may have been more.

The scene was bloody and there was evidence that the officers were attacked with speed and blindsided.
“They were ambushed,” DeKalb Police Chief Terrell Bolton said during a news conference near the scene of the shootings. “I have never seen such brutality.”
A tow truck driver called police to the scene around 12:40 a.m. and the arriving officers found the two officers down, according to Bolton
One of the officers died at the scene, the other on the way to the hospital and was declared dead at Grady Memorial Hospital, according to police officials.
The names of the officers have not been released.
Bolton said they were in their late 20s to early 30s and said they both were like sons to him.
He said one had two years experience and the other had four years.
Officers at the scene told area news reporters that one of the officers has four children under 12-years-old.
Bolton told the media that he is urging the suspects to turn themselves in.
“We’re hurting right now,” Bolton said. “But we’ll get through this. We’ll deal with it and we’ll apprehend them.”
More than 50 officers, including the DeKalb County SWAT team responded to the area.
A command center has been set up at a shopping center in the 4,000 block of Glenwood Road.
Commuters are advised to stay out of the area as police searching for the gunmen shut down some roads.
Schools in the area will be on lockdown during the police search. Those schools include: Columbia High, Towers High, Snapfinger Elementary, Atherton Elementary and Glenhaven Elementary. Exterior doors at the schools will be locked and movement in and out of the buildings will be closely monitored.
The schools will be on lockdown until they receive an “all clear” message from DeKalb Police.
Some school buses will be rerouted during the search for the suspects.
Police have scheduled a 1:00 p.m. news conference at the scene of the shootings.
Bolton advised the men who shot the officers to turn themselves in. He said during a pre-dawn news conference, “The sun’s coming up. Before sundown, we’re gonna find you.”

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Regional airport left without security www.privateofficer.com

Yakima WA Jan 16, 2008

A snafu over what kind of guards can be used at the Yakima Air Terminal has left it without armed on-site security.
Although federal Transportation Security Administration personnel are still checking bags and passengers at the airport’s security checkpoint, private armed guards posted there for the past five years were removed Jan. 4.
Security has since been limited to a “timed response program,” according to airport assistant manager Jerry Kilpatrick, which essentially means airport staff will call police if there’s trouble.
“This has not jeopardized the public’s safety at all,” Kilpatrick said. “We used the timed response program for many years before the TSA was ever formed.
“Just because there’s not somebody in the building doesn’t mean there isn’t somebody real close there is a police substation within walking distance,” he said, referring to the Yakima Police Department’s substation about 200 yards west of the terminal.
Kilpatrick said the situation exists because TSA officials in Washington, D.C., refused pay for security after learning that the private security officers used by the airport lacked the power to arrest.
A TSA official confirmed the account.
“If the airport wants to have armed security without police powers, they can do that, but the fact is, they won’t get reimbursed by the TSA,” said Los Angeles TSA spokesman Nico Melendez.
Yakima airport security had been handled by Corporate Security Enforcement, a local company that had five guards on rotation for two daily eight-hour shifts.
“This has been a major impact on our revenue,” said Corporate assistant manager Jim Hill. “There’s going to be three people losing their jobs here this week.”
When asked about his guards not having arrest powers, Hill said, “That was never an issue.
“If it got to that point, we called the police department, but that was very rare,” he said.
Kilpatrick estimates the armed security costs $133,000 a year and says the airport can’t afford that on its own. He said he’s trying to get the TSA to re-evaluate the situation.
In the meantime, off-duty Yakima police officers have offered their services. The Yakima Police Patrolmen’s Association said up to 75 officers so far are more than willing to work at whatever price the airport is willing to pay.
“It would be beneficial to our members, it would be beneficial to the airport and it would be beneficial to the public if we were there,” said Officer Rich Fowler, YPPA negotiator. “If you have a police officer there, we can take care of whatever is happening on the spot.”
Kilpatrick said he likes the idea. But he questioned how a contract could be developed with off-duty officers and whether liability insurance, similar to what the security company offered, would be available.
Fowler said the city’s insurance already covers officers during off-duty work, and that the union would accept lower than standard rates.
Yakima police worked at the airport when the National Guard left following their posting after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. They worked there for two years until the TSA said the costs were too high, according to Kilpatrick. At the time, officers were working on overtime at $50 to $70 per hour.
Kilpatrick said the private security they hired was paid about $30 an hour, but TSA is now cutting that reimbursement amount down to $20 to $25 an hour.
Whatever the costs are, Fowler said, officers are willing to accept them in exchange for consistent off-duty work. And he points out that they probably would have been willing to accept less in the first place.
“No one ever came to us and asked if we were willing to work at the airport for less money,” he said. “I worked there back then, and I can tell you that we would have done it no problem.”

Two arrested in shootout with security officer www.privateofficer.com

RICHLAND HILLS TX. Jan 16, 2008 — Police said today that they have arrested two men Tuesday in connection with a shootout at a Richland Hills apartment complex that left one man dead and a security officer seriously wounded and still hospitalized.
Police now say that the incident started with a drug deal gone bad.
Joaquin Lerma, 22, and Fernando Dominguez Jr., 21, are accused of possession of marijuana in a drug-free zone, according to a police news release. The charge is a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Police said that they also expect more arrests, Detective Tye Bell said.
Five men in a minivan were attempting to buy 90 tablets of Xanax — an anti-anxiety prescription drug — for $200 from three men at the Bellair apartments, 7030 Baker Blvd., about 4 a.m. Sunday, Bell said.
When the group that had arrived in the minivan discovered there were fewer than 90 pills in the bag, the other men fled. The driver of the minivan began shooting at them, Bell said.
An armed security officer heard the shots and ran to the scene, Bell said.
“He told them to freeze and they turned the gun on him,” Bell said.
The officer said that he returned fire. At least a dozen shots were exchanged, police have said.
When the incident was over, the security officer had been shot in the stomach, and 23-year-old Victor Chacon of Sansom Park, who was shot in the head, was dead at the wheel of the van, which came to a stop in the middle of Baker Boulevard, authorities have said.
Bell said that there were two pounds of marijuana in the van, for which is Lerma and Dominguez are accused of possession.
The other two people in the van were juveniles, Bell said.
The security officer, who has not been identified, is expected to survive his injury and police are continuing their investigation.

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Prisoner escapes wearing diaper www.privateofficer.com

Prisoner escapes custody wearing adult diaper www.privateofficer.com

DAYTON Oh Jan 16, 2008 — A Dayton man who was in custody of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office while being treated at Miami Valley Hospital left the hospital and took a cab home while wearing a hospital gown and an adult diaper.
Dayton police eventually found Christopher Stewart, 45, nearly six miles away, Monday night when they were called to his home in the 1900 block of Shaftesbury Road. Sheriff’s officials said a private security guard let Stewart leave the hospital but hospital officials are not sure who actually had control and custody of the prisoner.

According to police reports, officers originally arrested Stewart for felonious assault, kidnapping and resisting arrest for an incident that occurred about 7:10 a.m. Sunday at his home.
While being held in the Montgomery County Jail on Monday, sheriff’s deputies transported Stewart to Miami Valley Hospital for “unknown reasons,” Dayton police Officer Matthew Locke said in a report. “Stewart escaped from the hospital where he was waiting to be treated and returned to his residence.”
Police were called to the Shaftesbury address about 7:35 p.m. Monday. When officers arrived, they heard “yelling and screaming coming from inside the house.” Several screaming women told police Stewart was in the bedroom.
Police tried talking Stewart out of the house but when he failed to respond released a police dog into the house. The dog found Stewart in a closet and bit him several times during a struggle with Stewart.
Locke noted in his report that he struck Stewart once in the mouth in attempt to gain control of Stewart, who he said kept resisting. Stewart was arrested.
Stewart’s wife told police her husband came home from the hospital in a cab while wearing “hospital gown pants and an adult diaper.” He started yelling and breaking items in the house because he was mad about his wife and her daughter calling police Sunday after he shot his firearm into another house.
The wife told police that she fixed her husband some soup to calm him down. After he went into the bedroom, the women snuck outside and called police, the report said.
Stewart was taken to Grandview Hospital to be treated for the dog bites, where he was returned to the custody of the sheriff’s deputies.

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