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Bowling alley security officer shot www.privateofficer.com
A security guard was shot in the leg and buttocks at the Del Rosa Lanes bowling alley late Thursday.
San Bernardino police said the man was expected to survive his wounds.
Police received a call just after 11 p.m. about a report of shots fired at the bowling alley, 1499 E. Highland Avenue. It was unknown if the shooting occurred inside or outside the business, said San Bernardino police Sgt. Jarrod Burguan.
Officers came to the scene and found about 300 people in and outside the bowling alley. The wounded guard was found on the east side of the business.
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Woman vanish from North Carolina small town www.privateofficer.com
Even when they were picked up for drugs or prostitution, nights in jail looming, they called home to let their families know they were OK. Then, one by one, the calls stopped.
Since 2005, nine women who lived at the edges of the poor community in this small North Carolina city have disappeared. Six bodies were found along rural roads just a few miles outside town, most so decomposed that investigators could not tell how they died. At least one of the women was strangled, and all the deaths have been classified as homicides. Three women are still missing.
Police will not say whether they suspect a serial killer, but people in the community about 60 miles northeast of Raleigh do, and they’re impatient with law enforcement efforts to investigate the slayings.
After the latest body — that of 31-year-old Jarneice Hargrove — was found in June behind a burnt-out house that was once a crack den, local law enforcement and state police formed a task force. In July, the FBI got involved.
But friends and family say it didn’t happen soon enough.
“We got someone out here that’s snatching up females,” said Stephanie Jones, a 28-year-old nursing student. “I mean, next person could be your grandmother, it could be me, it could be my mother, it could be my daughter.”
Jones, who knew two of the victims, has founded a group that is raising money to publicize the slayings and search for those still missing. She says the cases are being swept under the rug because of the victims’ lifestyles.
The lead investigator, Sheriff James Knight, said he cannot comment.
Rumors swirl about the identity of the killer, if there is just one. Some say he is an ex-military man or an ex-police officer because he leaves no evidence. Others believe he is exacting revenge on local women after contracting HIV from a prostitute.
Forensic psychologist Dr. Michael Teague said the killings are probably the work of one person.
“You’re talking about a man who didn’t finish high school, probably doesn’t have a regular job, probably not married or in a stable relationship,” he said.
Vivian Lord, chairwoman of the criminal justice department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said that if one killer is responsible, he is likely trying to cleanse the world of prostitutes or deliberately picking victims he knows won’t be missed.
If it’s the latter, he chose wrong when he killed Ernestine Battle. Her sister, Tynatta James, 64, remembers the February 2008 day the family reported Battle missing. It had been less than 48 hours since they last heard from the 50-year-old, but she always checked in, even from jail.
“We knew something wasn’t right because she hadn’t called,” James said.
A month later, a man putting up a wire fence around his property down a rural stretch of road outside town found a badly decomposed body. The bodies of two other victims were found in the same area in 2007 and 2009.
In May, a DNA test identified the remains as Battle’s. She was wearing only her underwear and police told James she was probably strangled, but they couldn’t be sure because animals had dragged away a small throat bone that typically breaks when someone is killed that way.
“I’m still frustrated,” James said. “I didn’t really feel like they were doing all they could. I just feel like they recently started to get involved in the cases after the last lady.”
For Alecia Johnson, the killings were a wake-up call. She knew most of the women: They all walked the streets of Rocky Mount together. She said she didn’t wait for police to catch a killer. She stopped after the body of the first woman, 29-year-old Melody Wiggins, was found dumped in the woods in 2005.
“I used to walk these streets and jump in and out of cars. But then when that first girl Melody got killed I stopped that because I knew he would kill another,” said Johnson, 41. “I hate for that to happen to her, but it probably saved my life. I have five babies.”
Counting the names on one hand, she added, “There’s probably five or six girls left around here that will jump in and out of cars. He really did kill the whole neighborhood.”
Jones’ group has raised enough money to post billboards with the faces of the missing and slain women. Now she is raising more to organize search teams for those whose bodies have not been found.
Juray Tucker, the mother of 37-year-old Yolanda Lancaster, missing since February, said she wants to help with fundraising but doesn’t get much time now that she has to care for her daughter’s children.
“Every day, every minute, every hour, I’m worried,” she said. “It’s constant on my mind and there ain’t nothing I can do, ain’t nothing I can do.”
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Moline football coach arrested for student sexual contact www.privateofficer.com
The head football coach at Orion High School who also coaches and teaches at United Township High School is facing charges alleging he had sexual contact with a female student.
A release from the Moline Police Department says 37-year old Jason Vanhoutte was arrested Wednesday afternoon at his home in Moline on three counts of criminal sexual assault, which are Class 1 felonies. Vahhoutte has coached varsity football at Orion the past 11 years and was an assistant basketball and baseball coach at U-T. He has taught social studies at U-T for the past 15 years.
Authorities say the East Moline Police Department was notified late last Friday afternoon about potentially inappropriate text messaging between Vanhoutte and a teenage girl who attends United Township. Police in East Moline notified the school when the investigation began.
East Moline police say the investigation led them to believe criminal sexual activity occurred in Moline between Vanhoutte and the student, and Moline police joined the investigation. Authorities say the joint investigation developed information needed to secure an arrest warrant for Vanhoutte, whose bond was set at $100,000.
Vanhoutte was released from jail on bond and is currently on paid administrative leave.
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AL. bingo hall robberies maybe inside jobs www.privateofficer.com
Robbers who cut electrical wires to a Huffman Road bingo hall this morning apparently knew about the hall’s security system, said Jefferson County Sheriff’s Lt. Randy Christian.
The bingo hall has a system to “buzz” in people to the building for certain times of the day, Christian said. “It appears they likely knew the security system,” he said.
An employee was alone in the building adding up receipts from the previous night when the two robbers struck, Christian said.
One robber, who had a coat over a hand as if he had a weapon, was described as medium height, slender with two gold teeth, wearing a black baseball cap, black jeans, a black hooded jacket and black gloves, Christian said. The other robber, who watched the door, was described as around 6-foot-2, slender and also wearing a black hooded jacket and black gloves, he said.
Today’s robbery isn’t the first in the Birmingham area. A security guard on Aug. 1 shot a would-be robber after the man walked into a Walker County bingo hall firing a shotgun.
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Man indicted for NY security officer death www.privateofficer.com
LEV L. DASSIN, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York (“NYPD”), announced today the filing of an Indictment charging (surnames listed last) GUANG JU LIN, a/k/a “Ah Gui,” a/k/a “Yi Gui,” and YUDI LIU, a/k/a “Tae Bo,” a/k/a “Ah Bo,” with murder in aid of racketeering. Both defendants are currently in custody. According to the Indictment filed in Manhattan federal court:
GUANG JU LIN and YUDI LIU were members and associates of an organized criminal enterprise based in the Chinatown section of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Flushing section of Queens, that engaged in numerous crimes, including murder, extortion, illegal gambling, the collection of extensions of credit through extortionate means, and narcotics trafficking. On December 11, 2001, GUANG JU LIN and YUDI LIU murdered and aided and abetted the murder of DANNY CABEZAS (who was then employed as a security guard at a karaoke club in Queens, New York) in connection with their membership in the Ah Jun Organization.
GUANG JU LIN and YUDI LIU were each charged with one count of violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity. If found guilty each faces a maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment, and a fine of the greater of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the crime.
YUDI LIU, 26, of Brooklyn, New York, was arrested on August 3, 2009, and appeared before United States Magistrate Judge GABRIEL W. GORENSTEIN yesterday on the charge. GUANG JU LIN, 32, of Los Angeles, California, is currently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California and is expected to be arraigned in the Southern District of New York within the next several weeks. This case has been assigned to United States District Judge SIDNEY H. STEIN.
Mr. DASSIN praised the work of the FBI and the NYPD, specifically the FBI-NYPD Asian Organized Crime Task Force, which conducted the investigation, and thanked the Queens District Attorney’s Office for their assistance.
The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Assistant United States Attorneys JONATHAN B. NEW and AVI WEITZMAN are in charge of the prosecution.
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Alton MO. band director charged with sexual abuse of student www.privateofficer.com
Lang, 36, of Godfrey, was arrested Wednesday at his home and taken to the Madison County Jail at Edwardsville. He was held pending the filing of formal charges today. His bond was set today at $250,000 by Circuit Judge Ann Callis.
The Madison County sheriff’s office said it received information Tuesday that Lang might have been having an inappropriate relationship with a minor. A search warrant was executed at Lang’s home on Wednesday, and deputies said they got information through the search and in interviews indicating that Lang had repeatedly had sexual relations with the student.
The investigation indicated that Lang had sex with the student on several occasions at school during normal school hours, and at locations away from school, the sheriff’s office reported.
Lang was hired as the Alton High band director two years ago to replace longtime director David Drillinger, also of Godfrey. Drillinger had been fired by the School Board after being charged with inappropriately touching students.
Drillinger later pleaded guilty of misdemeanor battery for inappropriately touching a female student and was sentenced to two years’ probation.
A Howard County postal clerk pilfered more than $600,000 worth of stamps, many of which were sold on eBay at a reduced price, federal authorities said.
Marvin L. Foster, 55, of Rosedale, who worked as a clerk at the Elkridge post office for a decade, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to conspiracy to steal from the U.S. Postal Service.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office for Maryland, Foster stole the stamps and then sold them to others for a profit. One of his alleged co-conspirators sold more than $259,000 worth of stamps on eBay for about $229,000, authorities said.
Foster was caught on hidden camera several times in December as he sneaked into the post office supply room and rifled through boxes of “forever” stamps, according to court documents. The stamps, which never expire, come in bricks of 2,000 stamps worth $840 as well as coils of 100 stamps that cost $42.
On Dec. 8, Foster was captured on film creeping into the stock room just after midnight carrying a drawstring bag. When he left, the documents state, “the bag weighed down Foster.” The next day, post office workers discovered that 34 bricks of stamps were missing from the stock room and that two boxes of the stamps had been opened from the bottom.
Foster, reached at his home, declined to comment. His attorney, Christopher P. Nieto, did not immediately return a call requesting comment.
On Dec. 14, Foster was again caught on video putting bricks of stamps into a drawstring bag. The same day, the documents state, bricks of stamps showed up on eBay, sold by “CARDking1122.”
Foster admitted selling the stamps to “CARDking1122,” the documents state. He told investigators he also gave stamps to another man identified only as “E.” Foster said “E” had not given him cash but owed him $25,000 to $30,000.
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Security captures bank robber www.privateofficer.com
Newark Police Sgt. Steve Baum said the man, a white male about 50 years old, went into Park National Bank, 1008 E. Main St., at 9:21 a.m. and presented a note demanding cash. He was not armed and didn’t apparently indicate he was, Baum said.
After the man fled the bank, a bank security officer followed him outside and was able to stop him just before Newark police arrived. Once the suspect was taken to the Newark Police station, he confessed, Baum said.
“We’d like to thank the Park National Bank security officers, who happened to be on site, specifically retired Ohio State Patrol Sgt. Charlie Spurgeon, who’s now an employee of Park National Bank security,” Baum said. “He followed the subject out and made an apprehension of the subject.”
The suspect has not been charged and his name hasn’t been released.
No injuries were reported.
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