Disney security officer will challenge gun policy at work www.privateofficer.com

Disney security officer will challenge gun policy at work http://www.privateofficer.com

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. July 5 2008 A Disney security guard told Eyewitness News he’s okay with being fired rather than go to work unprotected.

Disney claims it’s exempt from a new state law that allows employees to keep handguns in their cars.

The employee Eyewitness News talked with is not concerned about safety at the park. He’s concerned about a rise in crime everywhere else.

As a security guard, Edwin Sotomayer works strange hours and says he has a right to feel safe when he is commuting to and from the theme parks.

He has been a Disney security guard for more than 13 years, but he’s willing to lose his job to stand up for his right to bring a gun to work”I am going to be a test tube of this new law. If I am the first one to get fired at Disney, let it be,” he said.

Disney claims it’s exempt from a new state law allowing employees to carry guns in their cars because it stores fireworks, but Sotomayer says Disney is violating his rights and he plans to challenge the company Friday by putting his gun in a case and keeping it in his car while he works security at Animal Kingdom.

“It’s the law and the law is there to protect me. I hope somebody is listening to me up there too,” he said.

Sotomayer said he wants to be able to protect himself from Orlando’s growing crime problemChannel 9 found a 43 percent increase in the number of calls for service to Disney in the last year, but also found the Orange County Sheriff’s Office didn’t file a report on most of the calls. Deputies said they will not file a report if the incident does not rise to the level of a crime.Sotomayer said Disney is safe, but Orlando is not, and he has the right to keep a gun in his car so he is protected during his 23-mile commute to and from the theme park.

“The criminals don’t care. If they have to kill someone, they will,” he said.Disney told Eyewitness News it respects Sotomayer’s opinion, but safety is its top priority and employees who bring guns to work risk getting fired. Sotomayer has already hired an attorney.

He is not the only one who is upset.

The NRA and the State Attorney General have also received complaints.

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Police officer arrested for aiding wife’s prostitution business www.privateofficer.com

Police officer arrested for aiding wife’s prostitution business http://www.privateofficer.com

GREENWOOD, Ind. July 5 2008 An Indianapolis Metro police officer accused of helping his wife operate a prostitution ring surrendered to police Thursday and spoke publicly for the first time about the case.
As he left the Johnson County Jail after posting bond, Lee had a message for his former colleagues at the department.

I love the police department and I have done nothing wrong,” Lee said.

Lee, 30, was fired on Wednesday after the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office released details of the allegations against him and charged him with aiding in promoting prostitution.

Among those allegations, police said Lee often wore his IMPD uniform while collecting money for the operation prosecutors said involved his wife, Lori Vernon-Lee, 36.

Lee was isolated from the rest of the jail population as he waited to be bailed out, 6News’ Cheryl Jackson reported.

When Lee bonded out of jail, Lori Vernon-Lee was still there. She was charged with five counts of promoting prostitution.

Police said Lee’s home, in a neighborhood full of children, was home to an escort service at which numerous sex acts were offered in exchange for money.

“Not what we would expect to find across the street,” said neighbor Jim Conners. “It was pretty shocking.”

Conners and his wife, Marie, said the alleged illicit business put everyone in the neighborhood in danger.

“We were wondering what happened to the kids,” Jim Conners said. “They had little kids, and I know they are going to miss their mommy and daddy.”

“He is supposed to be the one to protect us, and then you find this out and you say, ‘My gosh, he is not doing his job.’”

Jerry McCory, 56, a former employee of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, was charged with patronizing a prostitute in connection to the same operation. He resigned from the department last month

Nashville security guard arrested www.privateofficer.com

Nashville security guard arrested http://www.privateofficer.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. July 5 2008 A registered sex offender who works as a security guard at a Metro housing complex is in trouble with the law again.
Everett Jerome York faces aggravated assault and filing a false police report charges.
Metro police arrested the 24-year-old man Thursday. He was booked at police headquarters and appeared in court.
Police said he approached Henneth Patterson and asked him to assault a resident in the Vine Hill Towers complex in South Nashville in June.
Investigators said York promised Patterson unlimited access to the secure building if he carried out the attack. York then allegedly filed a police report saying the resident tried to assault him, which is false according to police.
Police are looking for Patterson for his role in the assault.
In 2002, York faced federal charges for encouraging someone else to commit sexual abuse. That’s why he is on the state’s sex offender registry.
Police ask anyone who knows anything about this case or the whereabouts of Henneth Patterson to call Crime Stoppers at 74-CRIME.

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Security officer finds dead body in shopping center www.privateofficer.com

Security officer finds dead body in shopping center http://www.privateofficer.com

San Diego CA July 5 2008

By:Bryan Hill

Ntl. Assoc. Private Officers

http://www.privateofficer.com/
A security officer on patrol found a man apparently stabbed in a Hillcrest strip mall early Thursday morning. The man died at a hospital..
Lt. Terry McManus said a security officer for the Ralphs Supermarket in the shopping center at 10th and University Avenues found the 25-year-old homicide victim lying outside a neighboring vitamin business with a puncture wound about 2:30 a.m. The security officer called police and officers and paramedics arrived a few minutes later, but the man died at a hospital at 3 a.m., McManus said.
McManus said the man had ID from out of state – the man’s name hasn’t been released – and they’re trying to figure out if he has local ties. He said they don’t know what led to his apparent stabbing, whether if he was in a fight or was a robbery victim.
Another incident unfolded at 37th Street and Ocean View Boulevard in Mountain View about 10 p.m. Officers called out to the neighborhood couldn’t find a victim, but witnesses said they heard an argument between one 17-year-old boy and three other teenage boys and saw a beating. Other people said they heard a gunshot. The witnesses said they saw the boy walking away.
McManus said that about 15 minutes later, a patrol officer at 37th and University Avenue, just four miles away, was flagged down by a woman in a white van who said, “My brother’s been shot. He needs help.”
The officer summoned paramedics who took him to a hospital, where he is on life support, McManus said.
Police are not sure at this time if the shootings are connected in any way.

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2 Dead in shoot-out with police www.privateofficer.com

2 Dead after shoot-out with police http://www.privateofficer.com

Baltimore MD July 5 2008

By:Rick McCann

Ntl. Assoc. Private Officers

http://www.privateofficer.com/

Police responding to a call from security officers needing help were met with a large unruly crowd who were armed.
Officers initially were called by security for shots being fired and a crowd that refused to disperse after a 4th of July celebration was over.

Two men were killed and another man was shot during a police-involved shooting early Saturday morning outside a union hall in Southwest Baltimore, according to police.

Police say the incident happened after several men began shooting in the air about 1:30 a.m. at the end of a party held at the Maryland chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 67 headquarters.

The two-story brick building in the 1400 block of Bush Street was rented out by an outside organization.

Officer Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman, said that the event had their own security officers but that they could not handle the disorderly crowd and that several people were shooting guns.
Police arrived on the scene shortly after the men fired the guns. She said officers were immediately able to identify the suspects and confronted the men. The suspects then turned their guns on the officers, according to Monroe.

Two officers fired back killing two men and wounding a third, police said.

Police are not releasing any information on the officers involved or the suspects. The other man shot suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

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Women arrested for taking children shoplifting www.privateofficer.com

Women arrested for taking 5 children shoplifting http://www.privateofficer.com

Tampa Fla. July 5 2008

A Plant City woman is accused of taking five children on a shoplifting trip to Wal-Mart with another woman and a 13-year-old boy, an affidavit states.
Rhonda Yvette Brooks, 26, is free Thursday on $2,500 bail after her arrest Wednesday. Plant City police charged her with felony grand theft and a misdemeanor for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
An attempt to reach Brooks at home was unsuccessful. She has no other criminal record in the state, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Police said Brooks, her 13-year-old stepson, and friend Nigeana Broadnax, 24, bagged $584.15 worth of unpaid clothing at the store at 2602 James L. Redman Parkway. They were stopped upon leaving.
Brooks’ five children with her at the time, police said.
Broadnax, of Plant City, was held at the Orient Road Jail Thursday on $2,500 bail, jail records show. She is charged with felony grand theft and a warrant for failing to appear in court on a misdemeanor petty theft charge.
No information on the boy’s custody was available.
This is the third time this week that authorities have publicized an incident of women shoplifting with children.
Hillsborough County deputies on Tuesday charged Yumay C. Guardado, 32, of Tampa with grand theft and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Guardado took her 12-year-old daughter shoplifting at a Brandon Target on two occasions, deputies said.
The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office is still searching for two women who brought four children on a shoplifting trip to a Bealls department store on Route 54 in New Port Richey on June 17. Investigators have released store security video of the women.

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Police officer assaulted while assisting security www.privateofficer.com

Police officer assaulted while assisting security http://www.privateofficer.com

Monroe LA July 5 2008

By: Rick McCann

Ntl. Assoc. Private Officer

http://www.privateofficer.com/

An off-duty Monroe police officer was allegedly assaulted when he stepped in to assist a security officer who was being disorderly toward a private security officer.
The officer attempted to arrest the Monroe man following an altercation with the security guard but the man resisted and put up a struggle.
Police arrested Greg Hegwood, 24, of 326 Bell Ave., Monroe, after an officer observed Hegwood ignoring a security officer’s orders to leave the premises at Bell Avenue.
The officer said he observed Hegwood approach the security guard with a clenched fist and that’s when he went to assist the security officer.
When the officer attempted to handcuff Hegwood and advise him of his rights, Hegwood allegedly attempted to grab the officer’s groin.
Hegwood reportedly spat on another officer as he attempted to retrieve Hegwood’s identification.
The arresting officer reported that throughout the altercation he heard Hegwood threatening to shoot and kill the security guard.
Hegwood was booked into the Richwood Correctional Center on charges of assaulting an officer, resisting arrest by violence, disturbing the peace and remaining on the premises

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OFFICER DOWN…PELL CITY ALABAMA www.privateofficer.com

OFFICER DOWN…..PELL CITY AL http://www.privateofficer.com

OFFICER DOWN

Police Officer Kenneth (Greg) Surles

Pell City Police Department Alabama

End of Watch: Friday, July 4, 2008

Biographical InfoAge: 29

Tour of Duty: 8 years

Badge Number: 828

Incident DetailsCause of Death: Automobile accident

Date of Incident: Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Officer Greg Surles succumbed to injuries sustained three weeks earlier when his patrol car was struck by a tractor trailer on Highway 231.He sustained massive internal injuries and was flown to UAB Hospital, where he remained until succumbing to his injuries.

Officer Surles had served with the agency for 8 years. He is survived by his wife, 4-year-old daughter, and 11-week-old daughter.

Agency Contact InformationPell City Police Department1905 1st Avenue NPell City, AL 35125Phone: (205) 884-3334

Please contact the Pell City Police Department for funeral arrangements or for survivor benefit fund information.