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Police kill armed man at Georgia K-Mart www.privateofficer.com
The shooting happened just after 11 a.m. at the Kmart at 1751 Marietta Highway in Canton.
Canton police officers responded after a caller reported a man with a gun in the bathroom at the Kmart.
Shots were fired and the suspect was wounded, according to police.
The wounded man was taken to a local hospital where he later died.
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Orlando police lay off officers www.privateofficer.com
Orlando police officers thought they were safe from city layoffs, but 15 officers out of 700 on the force will soon be out of a job. That has some residents concerned about how the city will be able to fight crime.
“It doesn’t sound like that many but we need them,” one resident told Eyewitness News.
The Fraternal Order of Police is upset because both the union and Police Chief Val Demings have submitted budget proposals that did not require cutting actual officers. But the union says the city rejected those ideas.
The police union thought the Orlando Police Department was only cutting certain programs and vacant positions. Now, city hall is hoping to save an additional $100 million in OPD’s budget by putting 15 officers on the chopping block.
“I think we should look at other ways to try to cut the budget,” one resident told Eyewitness News.
On Wednesday, the City of Orlando announced it would cut 342 jobs citywide in an effort to save money. That’s about ten percent of the city’s payroll.
Part of that number will include 47 firefighters, 29 people from Business and Financial Services, as well as 19 positions from Families, Parks and Recreation. The Mayor’s staff will also lose nine people.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer’s office said the layoffs announced are a result the economic crisis and voters who want lower property taxes.
“More than half of our total budget is police and fire. The two largest departments had to participate in this in order to match our expenditures with our revenues. That’s the challenge we have,” Orlando Chief Administrative Officer Byron Brooks said.
The city said Orlando has more officers than two years ago, thanks to the Mayor’s public safety initiative, which has also been cut next year.
Even though the city says violent crime dropped 10 percent last year, Forbes magazine recently listed Orlando as the sixth most dangerous city in the United States.
Chief Demings says her department has applied for funding through the Cops Recovery Program to keep the 15 officers, but if the federal dollars don’t come through the officers will be gone by September
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Police charge shoplifter with grand theft www.privateofficer.com
Lisa Ann Hayward had a first-appearance hearing Saturday on a felony charge of possession of an anti-shoplifting device. She is held in the Collier County jail on $2,500 bond.
Naples police arrested her Friday night after a manager for the Wet Seal store alerted them to two women possibly using booster bags in the mall.
Booster bags, foil-lined bags that block store sensors’ ability to detect surveillance tags, have become more difficult to detect as thieves also are creating lined “booster baby strollers,” complete with a real child, according to the National Retail Foundation.
The Foundation says organized retail crime nationally totals $15 billion to $30 billion in losses yearly and is growing in the poor economy as bands of thieves prowl stores, some legitimately buying items to throw store security off their tracks.
Friday night, Coastland Mall security called clothing stores to warn them and the manager of Victoria’s Secret alerted security they had a shopper with a possible Victoria’s Secret booster bag, according to Hayward’s arrest report.
The manager said that woman, who turned out to be Hayward, was with another who was pushing a baby carriage.
Police then realized there was a band of possible thieves walking the mall and stopped Hayward, who was carrying several bags. Reports say she was carrying items from Children’s Place and had no receipt, while she had another bag with a receipt. She also was carrying items from Gymboree children’s store without a receipt.
Other female suspects were stopped and checked, but had receipts.
Hayward contended another woman handed her the bag and deputies are checking surveillance video.
“I have four kids at home,” Hayward pleaded with deputies, according to her arrest report. “I wouldn’t have held the bags. I’m on probation.”
State prison records show she’s serving two years of probation after being sentenced last summer in Miami-Dade County on two felony grand theft charges and two for failing to return a rented vehicle. The sentence involves four separate crimes in 2001 and 2008.
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Shoplifters arrested after biting police officers www.privateofficer.com
A Shreveport police officer was bitten while trying to arrest two women suspected of shoplifting at a Shreveport business Saturday afternoon.
At around 1:40 p.m., Cpl. Scott Deen responded to a call from the Old Navy store in the 6600 block of Youree Drive, where a woman was suspected of shoplifting.
By the time he arrived, the woman had left Old Navy and gone to the nearby Sally’s Beauty Supply, where she was joined by another woman, police said.
Deen found the woman and “as he attempted to arrest her, she began to resist violently,” according to a police release. Police say the woman tried to stab Deen with a pen and then bit his right ear. Deen was able to get the woman under control and took her into custody.
Arrested and charged with felony theft by shoplifting, felony battery on a police officer and resisting arrest was Kashika Jones, 18, of the 4200 block of Rightway Street, while Ambrie N. Hughes, 21, of the 3400 block of Fulton Street, was booked on an outstanding fugitive warrant from the Caddo sheriff’s office.
Deen was taken to a local hospital for medical treatment.
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Security officer robbed, shot at www.privateofficer.com
Howard County police arrested three youths Thursday and charged them with trying to rob and shooting at a security guard near the Long Reach Village Center Wednesday night. All the shots missed, police said they were told.
Rick Britton, 20, of Odenton, faces attempted murder, assault and attempted armed robbery and handgun charges and is being held without bail at the Howard County Detention Center.
Two Columbia teens — Derrod Peterson, 18, and Darnell Furby, 16 — were charged as adults with assault and attempted robbery. Both were also at the detention center.
Police said they received numerous calls from people who heard a series of shots in the 8800 block of Flowerstock Row around 9 p.m. Wednesday. They arrived to find a 27-year old security guard who said he’d been confronted by three men and punched in the face. One man fired multiple shots at him as he fled. They then stole cash from his security vehicle, he said. Police did not identify the victim or say what he was guarding.
After a day of investigation, police arrested the three suspects in separate homes, not their own.
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Five people injured in GA. mall crash www.privateofficer.com
Five people were injured at Augusta Mall when they were hit by a car in the parking lot, according to an official at a local ambulance company.
The injured were taken to Medical College of Georgia Hospital, according to Gold Cross EMS Maj. Gene Peebles. He said the injuries were non-life threatening.
Emergency vehicles were sent to Augusta Mall about 9 p.m.
A police dispatcher said someone reported a car had struck several people in the parking lot near the mall’s food court entrance.
A Richmond County sheriff’s deputy at the scene said a man was arrested in the incident. Authorities were questioning the man late Friday and charges were not immediately available.
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Shoplifting arrest may solve ring of thefts at truck stops www.privateofficer.com
A routine shoplifting arrest in eastern Indiana might have solved a ring of thefts at Flying J truck stops across the country.
Indiana State Police arrested Shane Nelson, 47, of Corinth, Miss., and Richard Gutierrez, 35, of Tucumari, N.M., about 8:20 p.m. Friday at the Flying J Truck Stop at the Ind. 3 interchange on I-70 near New Castle.
Police say the two may be responsible for hundreds of thefts from the truck stop chain.
They reportedly would steal an item and come back later claiming they purchased it and planned to give it as a gift but lost the gift receipt, said Sgt. John Bowling, public information officer.
After getting a gift receipt, they would go to another Flying J and return the items for money, he said.
Flying J officials released bulletins with pictures of the men taken from their security cameras to all of their truck stops.
Clerks in the New Castle store recognized the men when they tried to return items.
Police aren’t sure how much has been stolen or the exact locations where the thefts occurred.
However, truck stop officials believe the two men are responsible for more than 500 thefts at their stores, police said.
Both men are being held in the Henry County Jail on a felony charge of attempted theft. Nelson also has a theft warrant from Illinois.
Police are investigating the other possible thefts and could bring additional charges.
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Shoplifter also charged with dealing drugs www.privateofficer.com
Christopher M. Bean, 33, of Brockton was arrested on the evening of May 12 after allegedly stealing less than $50 worth of merchandise from K-Mart on Grossman Drive and charged with shoplifting and trafficking in OxyContin, Deputy Police Chief Russell Jenkins told the Forum.
Officers James Mosesso and Lisa Fahey were called to the store after loss prevention officers reported that they had seen Bean and a companion, a 23-year-old Weymouth woman whose name is not being released because she has not yet been charged, concealing several items in a shopping cart under Bean’s coat.
“Loss prevention officers stopped the couple outside the store after they paid for several items at the register, but not the items hidden under Bean’s coat,” Jenkins said.
When Mosesso searched Bean, he discovered a plastic baggie in his pants pocket containing 74 80mg Oxycontin pills with a street value of almost $6,000, according to Jenkins.
The Weymouth woman will be summoned to court on a single charge of shoplifting.
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