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Memphis security officers shot www.privateofficer.com
Memphis police said the shooting happened just after 10:00 p.m. at the Crystal Palace on South Third. According to police, two security guards were shot as they broke up a disturbance in the rink’s lobby.
Lt. Col. M. D. James of the Memphis Police Department said shots rang out as people were trying to rush into an open door after a fight.
“The security guards got them out of the building,” Jones said. “As the guards came back in, gunshots rang out from the parking lot.”
Police do not have a clear description of the shooters. If you have information that could help police, call CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH
6 Year old girl commits suicide www.privateofficer.com
Brad Berry, the DA in Yamhill County, southwest of Portland, said in a letter to The Associated Press that the public interest fails to outweigh the invasion of personal privacy to the family of Samantha Kuberski.
The McMinnville Police Department, which publicly disagreed with the medical examiner’s ruling, declined to release the documents when the investigation was closed in January, prompting the AP to turn to Berry.
The police, acting on the wishes of Samantha’s family, cited an exemption in public records law which states that releasing the records would be such an invasion that a reasonable person would deem it highly offensive.
The girl, days short of her 7th birthday when she died in December, is thought to be the youngest person ever to commit suicide in Oregon, according to the state Department of Human Services. Police detectives, however, said they believe the death was an accident.
Both sides largely based their conclusions on interviews conducted with the girl’s parents and siblings. Though the records of those interviews remain secret, police and medical examiners discussed what was said.
Detectives learned Samantha was well-liked, well-adjusted and did well at school. She had not been abused, had not suffered a recent trauma and had expressed no thoughts of suicide until about an hour before the incident, when she threatened to kill herself after being chastised by her mother and sent to her room.
While her mother and three siblings were in another part of the house, the authorities said, Samantha got inside an unused crib that had no mattress or box spring. She placed a child’s belt around her neck and tied it to the upper railing of the crib, hanging herself. The first-grader died at a hospital after the family and paramedics tried to save her.
Dr. Clifford Nelson, the deputy state medical examiner, ruled the death a suicide, a conclusion police did not support.
“The disagreement is a little more philosophical than it is material to the case,” McMinnville police Capt. Dennis Marks said prior to the public records request. “It’s not that we disagree with the mechanics of what happened. It’s the finding that a 6-year-old could form that kind of intent.”
Nelson said it’s a disturbing case, but he couldn’t “fudge the facts to make people feel better.”
Samantha’s parents declined to be interviewed for this article.
Child psychiatrists contacted for their opinion could not speak specifically about this case, but said it’s possible for a girl that young to form such intent. Dr. Gregory Fritz, academic director at Bradley Hospital in East Providence, R.I., said it’s “old-fashioned” to think otherwise.
“Children can have feelings of sadness and misery that profound,” he said. “They can organize themselves to purposely and intentionally take their own lives.” Berry, the district attorney, declined to file any charges, saying he could see the death as a suicide or an accident, but neither is a crime and there’s no evidence of foul play.
He and Dr. Karen Gunson, the state’s chief medical examiner, said Samantha and her siblings had been warned about the danger of belts when they used them while pretending to be dogs on leashes.
“Statements were made by the girl that indicated she was going to kill herself,” Gunson said. “She had the means and she realized that if she put something around her neck that was dangerous and could cause death — because her parents had told her that. My contention is that shows intent.”
She added: “Maybe it was a totally impulsive thing that happened, that’s probably true. But I also see that in adults.”
Greene County Ala sheriff dies www.privateofficer.com
By: Brett Davis/Staff
PRIVATE OFFICER NEWS
http://www.privateofficer.com
Authorities in Greene County Alabama said that Sheriff Ison Thomas has died on Saturday morning of cancer.
Sheriff’s Department officer Chaquita Davis said Thomas died at Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa.
Thomas was elected sheriff of the west Alabama county in 2006.
No other information is being made public and there has been no announcement
of funeral arrangements.
Security officer dies from gunshot wounds www.privateofficer.com
Jim Locker, who worked with Moonlight Security, died from injuries sustained after being shot outside Western Manor Apartments on James H. McGee Boulevard.
Dayton police said Christopher Beatty Jones opened fire on Locker and another security guard. Bill St. Peter survived the shooting.
“He’s been in law enforcement a long time and didn’t deserve what he got,” St. Peter told News Center Seven earlier this week in an interview about the shooting and Locker.
Jones remains in jail on a $1 million bond. He could face additional charges related to Locker’s death.
Nightclub security officer shot www.privateofficer.com
Johnnie Franklin Barnhill, 43, was working at the door of the Hillsdale nightclub at 1421 Hillsdale Street at 12:30 a.m. when a young man tried to gain entry.
“I told him he couldn’t get in without proper ID,” Barnhill said. “Next thing, he comes running by shooting with a small caliber handgun. He fired three shots and one of them hit me in the thigh. I didn’t know I was hit for a while.”
He described the shooter as a young black male, late teens to early 20s, dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans, with long, braided hair.
Barnhill said he was not seriously injured.
“I’m fine and able to walk. Anytime you go out, it can happen anywhere or for any reason, so I count my blessings and move on,” Barnhill said.
5 Charged in rape of 7 yr old girl www.privateofficer.com
TRENTON, N.J. April 4 2010 — Two men and three teenage boys were charged Saturday with gang-raping a 7-year-old girl who was sold by her 15-year-old stepsister during a party at a crime-ridden apartment building in the state’s capital, police said.
Details of the arrests were announced at a Saturday evening news conference outside police headquarters. Police Director Irving Bradley said detectives had been working around the clock since the crime was reported March 28.
“We did get a lot of cooperation from the community, which helped break this case,” Bradley said.
Those arrested included Gregory Joseph Leary, 20, in custody since Friday, when he was charged with having sex with the 15-year-old. The other four are Timear Lewis, 19, and boys ages 13, 14 and 17. Each was charged with aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment.
Prosecutors likely would seek to try all of them as adults, Mercer County prosecutor Joseph Bocchini said.
The suspects, who were to be assigned public defenders, were being held Saturday night and couldn’t be contacted for comment. There was no telephone listing for Lewis; a telephone for a G. Leary had been disconnected.
The case shocked residents of the gritty Rowan Towers apartment building, where three of those arrested live, police Capt. Joseph Juniak said.
Building management has stepped up its security presence there and promised additional safety measures. Residents have expressed skepticism that the apartments would become safer.
Police say the 15-year-old girl went to a party with some men at Rowan Towers on March 28 and the younger girl tagged along because she was worried about her stepsister’s safety. They say the 15-year-old sold sex to men and boys there, then took money to let them touch the younger girl. They say the touching turned to forcible sex as at least seven men raped the 7-year-old.
Additional arrests are expected, police said.
Before Saturday’s arrest announcement, the 15-year-old had been charged with promoting prostitution, aggravated sexual assault and other crimes. Police have not released her name, and she remained in juvenile detention Saturday night.
Mayor Doug Palmer, who met with the 7-year-old girl and her family in his office on Thursday, described their ordeal as a “torment.”
“They’re in a safe place right now,” he said. “I would ask that the community embrace this family — they are going through a lot.”
Palmer gave the girl a stuffed bunny rabbit for Easter. He said the family is getting counseling and indicated it may be permanently relocated away from the city.
He credited the police force for its hard work but said the investigation into “this heinous crime” isn’t done.
“We’re not finished because everyone who is responsible is still not arrested,” he said. “The police will not rest until we get every individual who was involved in this.”
Police earlier in the week urged residents to come forward, but neighbors said they were scared of retaliation from gangs that prowl the streets if they spoke up.
Rowan Towers sits on a stretch of West State Street near downtown Trenton and is surrounded by blocks of abandoned, boarded-up homes.
City Councilwoman Annette Lartique, who represents the area where the crime occurred, said the high-rise has been plagued by crime.
Besides the parents and the 7-year-old, Palmer met with a grandmother, two younger children and other relatives.
“They were understandably upset,” Palmer said. “They felt like they were victims. They said, ‘People are blaming us.’ We need to stop pointing fingers at the family members. These rapists are the problem, not the family.”
Of the girl’s parents, the woman is the mother of the 7-year-old girl, and the man is the father of the 15-year-old. They two have toddlers together.
