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Active-duty soldier murdered in his Alabama home www.privateofficer.com
The body of a 57-year-old active-duty soldier was found in his home in Saraland on Wednesday afternoon, and police said evidence at the scene indicated the case is a homicide.
The man’s body was found inside the residence at 704 Williams Ave., about a quarter-mile east of Interstate 65.
Saraland police Chief Kevin Anderson did not immediately release the man’s name. However, Benjamin Godwin told the Press-Register on Wednesday night that the victim was his father, Anthony Embley Sr.
Godwin said Embley was a member of the U.S. Army and was stationed with the Army Aviation Support Facility No. 3 at Brookley Industrial Complex.
He said his father last worked with his unit Sunday, and members of the unit became concerned when he did not report for duty either Tuesday or Wednesday. He said Mobile police were first notified, and Saraland police went to the Williams Avenue home shortly after 1:30 p.m. Wednesday to see if he was there.
According to Anderson, it was at that time that his officers found the victim dead inside the home. Anderson did not say how he died or what evidence led officers to determine that he was the victim of a homicide. No one has been arrested as of late Wednesday night, Anderson said.
Embley’s home is on a narrow street just south of Celeste Road and to the east but within hearing distance of I-65. Saraland Baptist Church, at Lincoln Street and Williams Avenue, is two lots to the west of the victim’s home on the same side of the street.
Saraland police worked late into the night processing evidence at the one-story brick home. Its open front door revealed a large-print Sacred Heart portrait of Jesus Christ, easily visible from the street. Godwin said his father was originally from Atmore and practiced the Holiness faith.
Anderson said additional details of the case would be released as the investigation continued.
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GA. police chase, gunfight, leaves one dead www.privateofficer.com
A Georgia State Patrol officer spotted a car going 94 mph on the interstate in Newton County about 9 p.m., said Covington police Lt. Wendell Wagstaff.
The trooper started a high speed chase that lasted four miles.
The chase ended near Alcovy Road when the state trooper bumped the speeding car with his vehicle in a “PIT maneuver.”
The suspect opened fire on the state trooper and a Covington police officer.
“He was sitting in the driver’s seat, shooting out the window,” said Wagstaff.
Both officers shot back, with all three men firing several rounds.
The suspect was shot several times and killed.
A female passenger in the suspect’s car was not injured; neither were the two officers.
After being closed for several hours, the interstate was reopened about 5 a.m.
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Florida Memorial University student charged in assault on security www.privateofficer.com
A Florida Memorial University student faces battery charges, while a campus security officer has been placed on leave following a bathroom tussle involving the student, three guards and allegations of one guard brandishing a gun.
The fracas, which police stay started Monday when a security guard saw 19-year-old Emory Mitchell smoking marijuana, was captured on a cell phone video camera and posted this week on the Internet.
The incident began about 8 p.m. when the unidentified guard saw Mitchell smoking marijuana and approached him, asking for his identification, said Sgt. Bill Bamford, a Miami Gardens police spokesman.
Mitchell tossed the joint into a lake and fled into a nearby bathroom, with the guard in pursuit, Bamford said. Two other guards arrived at the bathroom a few minutes later.
“A fight ensued in the bathroom with the two guards wrestling with the defendant,” Bamford said.
While the guards and Mitchell were scuffling inside the bathroom, a group of students gathered in the hall outside the door, with some worried about the student’s safety.
The video shows one woman shouting “The security guards are beating him up!” Another screams “Do something!”
A male student standing by the door replies: “They locked the door, what do you want me to do?”
A few seconds later in the edited video clip, a guard rushes out of the bathroom and roughs up another student standing nearby. A second guard then comes out of the bathroom, takes his gun out of his holster, points it towards the crowd and then returns it to the holster.
Bamford said there was nothing in the incident report about a gun being brandished.
The guard who waved the weapon has been placed on administrative leave, said Joyce Forchion, FMU’s public affairs director. He was not identified by authorities.
“We regret that the student assaulted the private security officer, but are pleased that no one — including the student suspect — was seriously injured,” Forchion said in a statement. “Florida Memorial’s administration will continue to investigate details about the incident.”
The guards are sub-contracted by Allied Barton Security Services, a private security firm.
Mitchell, who was arrested by Miami Gardens police, was later released. He was charged with three counts of felony battery.
He has been suspended from the university, Forchion said.
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Wal-Mart security agent fired for chasing armed suspect www.privateofficer.com
Josh Rutner said he was just doing his job as a Wal-Mart “asset protection officer” earlier this month when he chased a knife-wielding theft suspect across the store parking lot.
The man, later identified as Marc Ash, was arrested by Ocala police and the merchandise was recovered.
The next day, Wal-Mart fired Rutner.
Rutner said it boiled down to doing what was right or following policy. For him, it was an easy choice.
“I couldn’t let him get away,” Rutner said. “That’s wrong.”
But Michelle Bradford, a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman, said the store’s no-chase policy is clear.
“We take the safety and security of our customers and associates very seriously,” she said. “There are specific instructions as to what an associate can and can’t do during a shoplifting episode.”
According to Ocala police reports and Rutner’s account, the trouble happened at the Wal-Mart on Southwest 19th Avenue Road near the Paddock Mall. Ash picked up a pack of golf balls, valued at $42.98, and put them in his pants.
Ash then took the golf balls to another section, left them, and ate deli chicken without paying, Rutner said.
Rutner said he watched Ash put the golf balls back in his pants and head out the front of the store.
After radioing for assistance, Rutner and two other employees tackled the man outside the food center doors.
Rutner worked for Wal-Mart for nearly four months, he said. He’d done plenty of stops before.
He wasn’t expecting Ash to pull a knife, slash at his face and take off running, Rutner said.
“I felt now that he was a danger to the public and the city,” he said. “If he’d pull a knife on two security guards, he’d pull a knife on anyone.”
Rutner attempted to hit the man with a shopping cart, he said.
Customer Franchesca J. Marie told authorities she followed Ash into the parking lot from inside her car. She told him to stop and to put down the knife, which officials say she then picked up and threw in the middle of the road.
Police arrested Ash, who was charged with robbery with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault.
Rutner returned to work the next day.
“I was doing my normal routine,” he said. “Nobody said anything.”
Around lunch time, he was called into a manager’s office. A corporate representative from Arkansas was waiting.
“They said this is a non-rehirable offense,” he said. “At the age of 65, I can’t even come back and become a greeter.”
Bradford, the Wal-Mart spokeswoman, declined to comment on Rutner’s potential for rehiring.
Rutner said he knew Wal-Mart policy prohibits employees from going after suspects armed with a weapon, but there was no time to think about the consequences.
Rutner turned in his keys, security codes and badge.
“I didn’t get hurt. They got their merchandise,” he said. “And yet I got fired.”
Rutner said he was required to give a deposition Tuesday in Ash’s court case.
Ash remains in the Marion County Jail in lieu of $57,000 bail.
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Man robs McDonald’s commits, suicide as police close in www.privateofficer.com
Smith had told family members he was traveling to Hartford to commit a robbery, then take his own life, according to law enforcement officials.
A description of the man and his vehicle was broadcast to patrol officers. About 6:10 p.m. a Hartford officer found the man’s Toyota pickup truck in front of 19 Bonner St. The robbery was reported about 5:30 p.m.
Hartford police and a state police dog team tried to track the man and the dog led officers toward the Trinity College campus. Trinity officials put the campus on lockdown about 6:45 p.m.
Hartford officers and state troopers pressed their search and with the assistance of a state Capitol police officer using a thermal imaging camera spotted the suspect lying in woods near Summit and Bonner streets.
As a police dog approached the man, a gunshot rang out and the officers backed off and took cover.When police officers reached the man about 9:45 p.m. they found that he was dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Trinity lifted its lockdown about 10 p.m. In an e-mail to students, staff and faculty, Trinity Dean of Students Frederick Alford wrote that the man took his life in an area just off campus.
Some Trinity students were stuck in academic buildings and classrooms during the lockdown.
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Deputy sheriff’s death still unexplained www.privateofficer.com
A Glenn County sheriff’s deputy died Wednesday night after falling unconscious at his north Chico home.
Mark Louis Arnone, 36, had been a deputy for 10 years and also worked as a weekend and fill-in disc jockey at rock and country stations owned by Deer Creek Broadcasting.
Glenn County Sheriff Larry Jones said Arnone was discovered unresponsive inside his north Chico home by a relative, who called 9-1-1.
According to dispatch reports, the call came in at about 10:30 p.m.
Medics reportedly administered life-saving efforts at Arnone’s McKinley Lane home, and in an ambulance on the way to Enloe Medical Center.
He couldn’t be revived and was pronounced dead at 11:14 p.m.
An autopsy is pending to determine the cause of death. Butte County sheriff’s Sgt. Jason Hail said a toxicology test has also been ordered.
Jones said he received reports Arnone may have consumed a few beers on Wednesday night. Hail said a preliminary coroner’s report mentions nothing about Arnone being intoxicated, however.
Arnone was scheduled for shoulder surgery today at Enloe, and Jones said it’s possible he was on pain medications, or pre-operative medications, at the time of his death. Jones said foul play has been ruled out as a factor in his death.
Arnone was working as a court security officer when he was injured on the job, Jones said.
The deputy received a laceration which required him to get a tetanus shot. Jones said Arnone contended the needle from the shot had precipitated a shoulder condition.
Jones said Arnone was in therapy for the injury, but it wasn’t getting any better.
After consulting with doctors, Jones said Arnone decided to have surgery.
Arnone’s wife, Margarita, works for the Glenn County Department of Child Support Services. She was in Southern California attending in-service training when she was informed of her husband’s death. She flew back to Chico Thursday morning.
Jones said the Arnones have no children.
Deer Creek General Manager Dino Corbin said Arnone was known as “Mark in the Dark” when he hosted a late-night program for another broadcasting company in Chico. At Deer Creek stations he simply went by Mark Arnone. Corbin called him a consummate broadcasting professional, who will be missed by the company and his fans.
Hail said he couldn’t comment further on the cause of Arnone’s death. “The toxicology report will probably tell us everything we need to know,” he said.
Arnone started his career in law enforcement as a correctional officer and in 2006 became a sheriff’s deputy. He was assigned to patrol duties and later to court security, where he was instrumental in establishing security protocols for the Glenn County Superior Court, Jones said.
He gradated from the law enforcement academy at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, and later completed a Peace Officer Standards and Training program.
“Deputy Arnone has been an enthusiastic law enforcement professional, taking on added responsibility when asked to do so,” Jones said in a statement. “Those in the Glenn County law enforcement family are shocked at his passing. He will be sorely missed.”
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Sacramento State University student bludgeoned to death www.privateofficer.com
Two months after he moved from his Santa Clara home to a brand new Sacramento State University dormitory, Scott Gregory Hawkins told his parents he was adjusting well and liked the roommates in his five-person suite.
But in a shocking outburst of violence, Hawkins was bludgeoned to death inside his room Wednesday afternoon. University police say the suspect is one of those roommates, who himself was shot and wounded after officers say he lunged at them with a knife.
Hawkins, a transfer student from West Valley College, died later in the day at UC-Davis Medical Center, according to police.
Police arrested Quran Jones, 19, who witnesses reported seeing wielding a baseball bat just before university police arrived, according to Sgt. Joe Green. Police first fired pepper balls at Jones, then they fired bullets. Jones, who is in stable and fair condition at UC-Davis Medical Center, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. Police would not disclose specifics on his injuries but said he is expected to survive.
“We have not been able to determine any sort of motive or what may have led to this,” Green said.
Hawkins’ father, Gerald Hawkins, of Santa Clara, told the Mercury News his son didn’t have problems with any of his roommates. The younger Hawkins lived in a dormitory that opened just before the fall semester. He and Jones were the only ones present in the suite at the time of the assault, police said.
University officials closed off the suite and moved its three other occupants to other rooms, Green said. The rest of the dorm, called American River Courtyard, remains open.
Hawkins, who was pursuing a degree in history, recently talked to his parents about his adjustment to campus life.
“He was doing very well; we talked with him frequently,” Gerald Hawkins said. “He hadn’t been having any issues. He’s a very gentle person and would never raise a hand to defend himself.”
Scott Hawkins graduated from Mountain View Academy in 2004 and was “a person who really cared about other people and was a very generous, giving and caring person,” his father said. His son was obsessed with history and wanted to eventually become a history teacher or professor.
Scott Hawkins had Asperger syndrome, a form of autism, “that made him very obsessive about his favorite things,” his father said. He especially enjoyed studying ancient European and Middle Eastern history and was hoping he could graduate with a minor in one of those areas, his father said.
“He could go on and on about the history of Rome or the reasons that the Greek empire did this or that,” Gerald Hawkins said.
The attack was reported just before 2:30 p.m. Wednesday when one of the dorm’s resident assistants called police after hearing a loud disturbance coming from one of the suites.
Tsegay Arefaine, a 19-year-old resident of American River Courtyard, told the Sacramento Bee that he and his roommate left their room to investigate loud noises they heard coming from the first floor. Arefaine told the Bee that they saw a male student “breaking everything in his room” with what he thought was an aluminum bat.
“He was going nuts,” Arefaine said. “He was breaking the windows, the furniture; he was even hitting himself in the head with his own bat.”
The first officers to arrive heard the commotion and saw windows being broken and things being thrown outside, Green said. Officers entered the room and saw Jones holding a knife. When Jones disregarded officers’ orders to drop the knife, he was struck several times with pepper ball pellets, Green said.
Then, police say, Jones raised the knife above his head and charged the officers. Jones was shot and wounded by the officers, Green said.
Police then found Hawkins, who was unconscious and appeared to have been hit on the head.
The two officers who fired guns at Jones, and who had not been identified as of Thursday, were placed on paid administrative leave while the police investigate the shooting.
It was the first killing of a student in 11 years, Green said. In 1998, a football fan shoved another fan, who hit his head on a concrete parking bumper. He died about a week later and the assailant was charged with his death.
Gerald Hawkins and his wife had met some of his son’s roommates after helping him move into the campus dorm, though they did not meet the student accused of killing their son.
“Scott never indicated any problems at all,” his father said.
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Ambulance charge more for obese patients www.priavetofficer.com
The crew offered an idea to Keller, who was then an investigator with the Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services. Could they use a forklift to load the man — bed and all — onto a flatbed truck? Keller agreed: There was no other choice.
“I’m sure it was terribly embarrassing to be in his own bed, riding on the back of a flatbed with straps tying him down, going to the hospital, and then have a forklift at the hospital unload him,” Keller said.
As the nation battles the obesity crisis, ambulance crews are trying to improve how they transport extremely heavy patients, who become significantly more difficult to move as they surpass 350 pounds. And caring for such patients is expensive, requiring costly equipment and extra workers, so some ambulance companies have started charging higher fees for especially overweight people.
The move to modify ambulances is just the latest effort to accommodate plus-sized patients. Some hospitals already offer specially designed beds, wheelchairs, walkers and even commodes.
Ambulance companies say it’s time for insurance providers, Medicaid and Medicare, or patients themselves to begin paying the added costs, which are cutting into their razor-thin profit margins.
In the past, ambulance companies often absorbed the extra expense of serving the obese. Now they are adding charges similar to those already imposed on intensive-care patients, people requiring multiple medications and patients on ventilators.
“In order for these systems to survive and continue to provide their service, there has to be some way to recover those costs,” said Jim Buell, a director at the American Ambulance Association.
Transporting extremely heavy people costs about 2 1/2 times as much as normal-weight patients. It takes more time to move them and requires three to four times more crew members, who often must use expensive specialty equipment, Buell said.
Keller, now an operations manager for the American Medical Response unit in Topeka, successfully petitioned the Shawnee County Commission last summer to raise ambulance fees from $629 to $1,172 for critical-care patients and people who are 500 pounds or heavier.
In Colorado Springs, Colo., and the Nebraska cities of Omaha and Lincoln, the fees are $1,421 for an extremely obese patient, compared with $758 for a typical patient.
Before those ambulances had heavy-duty equipment, crews just had to make do, often calling in burly firefighters to help lift patients.
“I’ve heard stories of people moved by U-Haul trucks and sides of mobile homes having to be removed to move patients out, things of that nature,” said Ted Sayer, a general manager for the American Medical Response unit.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long said that nearly a third of Americans are obese. About 5 percent of the population is morbidly obese, meaning they are more than 100 pounds heavier than their ideal weight.
Some critics say the higher fees are a form of discrimination.
“Ambulance services are a critical public service and should accommodate the needs of all of those who require them at a fair cost,” said Joseph Nadglowski, president of the Obesity Action Coalition, a group that advocates for the obese.
Higher payments for heavy patients are commonplace in Oregon and Washington because the insurance industry there acknowledges the additional costs, said Liz Merritt, a spokeswoman for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Rural/Metro Corporation, an ambulance provider.
Ambulance companies say the insurance industry is their best hope for closing the financial gap.
As with any medical service, ambulance companies bill private insurers or government health care programs. Medicare and Medicaid do not pay extra for transporting the extremely obese, although that’s something the ambulance industry wants to change. The uninsured are charged directly, but many of them cannot pay.
“It’s really an emerging area,” said Susan Pisano, a spokeswoman for the America’s Health Insurance Plans, an insurance industry trade group. “It is one more way that obesity is contributing to health costs.”
Proponents of the extra fees say obese patients are grateful for equipment that eliminates the need for flatbed trucks and forklifts.
“We’ve noticed that people who are heavy know that they are heavy, and they don’t want to impose on others, and they don’t want someone injured while moving them,” Sayer said.
Like many ambulance companies, Keller’s unit in Topeka recently spent about $10,000 to retrofit an ambulance with equipment that accommodates patients weighing up to 1,600 pounds. Ambulance services with helicopters also are creating larger patient compartments and adding stronger gurneys.
Sales of specialized lift systems nationwide are expected to reach $193 million by 2012, up from $75 million in 2004, according to EMS Insider, an industry newsletter. The sale of specialized stretchers is expected to nearly double to $50 million in 2012.
Keller is hopeful more companies add the equipment so the very obese will receive better care. He recently went out on a call involving a severely overweight woman.
“The family was there, and we brought the cot in and helped her onto the cot. And she said, ‘I appreciate it so much, you looking out for our needs,”‘ Keller said. “And I thought that was pretty cool.”
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Rapper Lil Wayne guilty of gun charges www.privateofficer.com
He previously had pleaded not guilty to illegal gun possession charges that carried at least 3 1/2 years in prison upon conviction.
Lil Wayne remains free on bail while awaiting his February sentencing. The somber-looking rapper did not speak as he left court.
Police said a gun was found on his tour bus in Manhattan in 2007.
The rapper, born Dwayne Carter, won last year’s best rap solo performance Grammy for “A Milli.” His albums include “Tha Carter,” “Tha Carter II” and “Tha Carter III.”
His trial had been due to start Jan. 20. The judge had been holding a hearing on a debated DNA profiling technique used to tie the rapper to the gun.
Lil Wayne, 27, also is scheduled for trial in Arizona on felony drug possession and weapons charges. He has pleaded not guilty in that case, which arose from a January 2008 arrest at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint.
In New York, he politely answered the judge’s standard questions with “yes, Sir” and “no, Sir” as he entered his plea to second-degree attempted weapon possession, a felony.
He acknowledged he had a .40 caliber semi-automatic loaded gun on bus.
When the judge warned that he would not be able to withdraw the plea as some people try to do, the rapper said, “I’m not one of those people.”
Prosecutors said small amounts of DNA found on the loaded weapon connected it to the platinum-selling artist. Defense lawyer Stacey Richman said the gun wasn’t Lil Wayne’s, and the testing technique was too problematic to prove otherwise.
Police pulled over Lil Wayne’s tour bus in Columbus Circle on July 22, 2007. They said they had seen and smelled marijuana smoke wafting out the door before the bus left a concert venue minutes earlier.
Police said that as an officer approached, the rapper tossed away a Louis Vuitton bag containing a gun.
The defense disputed officers’ basis for searching the bus and noted that more than a dozen other people were aboard.
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