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CHP Officer Brett Oswald killed
California Highway Patrol
California
End of Watch: Sunday, June 27, 2010
Biographical Info
Age: 47
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: 13164
Incident Details
Cause of Death: Struck by vehicle
Date of Incident: Sunday, June 27, 2010
Weapon Used: Not available
Suspect Info: Not available
Officer Brett Oswald was killed when he was struck by a vehicle at the scene of an abandoned vehicle.
Officer Oswald responded to a report that a vehicle had hit a tree on South River Road in Paso Robles. After investigating, Officer Oswald determined that no accident had occurred and that the vehicle was abandoned. He called for a tow truck and was waiting next to his patrol car, when a passing vehicle crossed the double yellow lines and struck the patrol car. The force of the impact pushed the patrol car into Officer Oswald.
Officer Oswald was transported to a local hospital where he later died from his injuries.
Agency Contact Information
California Highway Patrol
PO Box 942898
Sacramento, CA 94298
Phone: (916) 657-7261
Please contact the California Highway Patrol for funeral arrangements or for survivor benefit fund information.
Officer Justin McGrory killed by DUI driver
California Highway Patrol
California
End of Watch: Sunday, June 27, 2010
Biographical Info
Age: 28
Tour of Duty: 2 years, 8 months
Badge Number: 18606
Incident Details
Cause of Death: Vehicular assault
Date of Incident: Sunday, June 27, 2010
Weapon Used: Automobile; Alcohol involved
Suspect Info: Charged with vehicular manslaughter
Officer Just McGrory was struck and killed by a drunk driver while conducting a field sobriety test on I-15 in Barstow at 3:38 am.
He and his partner had stopped a suspected drunk driver and were administering the tests when he was struck. His partner was not injured. The drunk driver who struck him stopped a short distance away. He was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter.
Officer McGrory had served with the California Highway Patrol for almost three years. He is survived by his wife and three small children.
Agency Contact Information
California Highway Patrol
PO Box 942898
Sacramento, CA 94298
Phone: (916) 657-7261
Please contact the California Highway Patrol for funeral arrangements or for survivor benefit fund information.
NOPD makes 60,000 arrests in 2009 www.privateofficer.com
New Orleans police is still focusing too many resources on minor arrests, according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
That’s what a new Metropolitan Crime Commission analysis of last year’s statistics shows, and it’s evidence that the department under the leadership of Warren Riley was spending a lot of time and energy on minor crime, a troubling trend for a city plagued by violence.
Share Superintendent Ronal Serpas, who has promised to reduce violent crime, cautioned against dismissing some offenses as petty. In some cases, a person’s misdemeanor misbehavior might be “the problem in that neighborhood,” he said.
But while the police department should be responsive to the public, it’s worrisome when arrests for felonies aren’t budging but traffic arrests are going through the roof. That’s what happened in 2009. Then-Superintendent Riley made good on a promise to reduce arrests on municipal charges — offenses like public drunkenness and disturbing the peace. But arrests for traffic offenses shot up by 3,000, accounting for nearly 10,000 arrests in 2009.
Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the crime commission, criticized pursuing quantity over quality. When police officers spend an hour or two taking someone to jail for an expired driver’s license or public urination, he said, they aren’t out on the street to respond to more serious offenses. Police should issue tickets or summonses in cases where it is appropriate, he said, and that’s certainly a more efficient approach.
Arresting people for traffic or other minor warrants from other parishes, something that the New Orleans Police Department has historically spent a lot of time doing, is especially wasteful. Those jurisdictions often refuse to use their resources to pick up those who were arrested. Instead, they tell the Orleans Parish Prison to release them with a summons.
The state Legislature addressed that situation, adopting a measure that gives police officers the discretion to issue new court summonses. While the law already provided that option for many non-violent minor cases, a legal opinion from former state Attorney General Charles Foti said that officers “have to bring that person to jail.” Some agencies, including the NOPD, were guided by that opinion, even though it was non-binding. Superintendent Serpas said that the legislative change will help.
“We are talking about tens of thousands of manhours that could be redirected to more productive endeavors,” Mr. Goyeneche said. That’s a welcome change, and future arrest statistics should reflect it.
Franklin County TN off-duty deputy shot-killed www.privateofficer.com
According to authorities, Deputy Mike Claiborne, 25, was with his girlfriend at about 11:30 p.m. when he was shot in the head at a residence on Rowe Gap Road.
Claiborne was off-duty at the time, said investigators. Claiborne’s friends said he worked late hours, from 4 p.m. until 6 a.m., so house hunting that late at night seemed normal to him.
Neighbors said Larry White lives at the home and has experienced several break-ins. They added that White may have thought someone was attempting to burglarize his home.
It was still not clear what led to the gunfire.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said it was not finished with its investigation and planned to turn its findings over to the district attorney, who will present them to a grand jury.
White has not been arrested. Authorities said he flew back to Florida where his primary home is located which is frustrating for some of Claiborne’s friends and co-workers.
Services Scheduled
Visitation will be held Tuesday from 2 to 5 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. The funeral will be held at Higgins Funeral Home at 10 a.m. Wednesday. The family is asking that donations be made to a memorial fund for Claiborne’s 18-month-old son, Kollin, that has been established at U.S. Bank.
Was Shooting Justified?
The Channel 4 I-Team sifted through Tennessee laws and found if “a person has a reasonable belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury,” then deadly force could come into play.
In this instance, criminal defense attorney David Raybin said, it’s a gray area. Self-defense is subjective and based on the reasonableness of the persons actions based on all the facts.
Raybin said because there seems to be no signs of an attempted break, Claiborne looks like the victim. But at the same time, Raybin said, because Claiborne was on White’s porch and close to his door at such a late hour of the night, and because of White’s disability and prior threat, White could have been following the law.
“It would depend on where the officer was shot. If he was shot in the front, if he was coming toward the homeowner, then a case could be made for self-defense. If he were moving away, it would be a lot more difficult to say he was in danger at that point,” said Raybin.
The Tennessee Bureau of investigation is still investigating this case. They will hand their findings to the district attorney to present to a grand jury July 6.
Raybin said because of the factual questions in this case, it will be up to a grand jury to determine whether White should be charged with manslaughter, reckless homicide or nothing.
Burglary suspect runs down security officer www.privateofficer.com
It happened at the sears in Odessa at around 12:30 Saturday afternoon.
Odessa police say two black men were stealing when a guard caught them…it was at that point they led him on a chase into the parking lot.
One of the suspects was caught but the other made it to his car. He then reversed over the officer’s foot and escaped.
The officer was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
If you have information about this crime please call Odessa crime stoppers at 333-TIPS.
Source:Channel 7 News
Adventist President heavily guarded www.privateofficer.com
They were the members of the executive security team, a band of men and women specifically assigned to protect the former and newly elected presidents — and their wives — at Session.
“We’re all over the place,” said Karen Banner, the team’s security supervisor, who is working her third Session.
The team is part of a larger group — consisting of some 450 private security guards, as well as Atlanta police officers — tasked with ensuring the global Protestant denomination’s 10-day event moves forward without incident.
“We’ve got Plan A, Plan B, Plan C in place,” said Jim Vines, security director for the General Conference, who coordinated all Session security. “You cannot see me sweat.”
That may be because most of the sweat came years before, with planning that began almost as soon as the last Session ended five years ago, Vines said. The executive detail scoped out the Georgia Dome and Georgia World Congress Center about a year ago to get the lay of the land, he said, making sure they knew the ins and outs of the venues and surrounding areas well before Session started.
During this year’s event, hundreds of watchful eyes are constantly on the lookout for signs of trouble, Vines said. Guards have already escorted people from “groups who oppose the Seventh-day Adventist theology” off the campus, he added, preventing them from causing potential trouble.
For the executive security detail, the job is a continuous exercise in staying alert, scanning the Dome floor and every room and passageway to make sure all runs smoothly, while staying patched in to messages over their see-through earpieces. They grow a bit wary when people walk up to the stage where church leaders sit or stand. And they take specially developed routes, some underground, that the city has opened so they can move executives without dealing with the crowds.
“It’s a major task because you’re guarding the life of the president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” said Davion Percy, one of the security team members assigned to former President Jan Paulsen. “It’s an honor.”
But their duties can extend beyond the typical watchman, Vines said.
“Because the president is so popular, people like to stop him for their own little photo ops,” Vines said, smiling. “He really likes to do that, but he really doesn’t have the time. …It’s crucial that we get him through the crowd.”
Preventing spontaneous photo ops also can include encouraging people not to snap pictures of the president when, say, he’s got a fork in his mouth, Vines said. “It’s all good-natured, and he tries to take it in stride, but I wish people wouldn’t do that.”
The job is no 9-to-5. The detail regularly faces 18-hour days, depending on the president’s usually hectic schedule.
Even as he attends to Atlanta’s activities, Vines already has plans to meet with representatives from San Antonio, Texas, which will host the next Session, to start talking about the transition.
“We work in a world church, and the objective is to get the spiritual word out to the masses. We want to make sure that that happens in a nice, orderly, safe way,” he said. “I enjoy it. I feel like I’m making my small contribution to the cause.”
Source: Adventist News Network
Shoplifter spits blood at police www.privateofficer.com
A Chula Vista police officer is recovering from a sprained wrist, after being spit at and attacked by a man he was trying to take into custody.
Officers were responding to a call from security at Chula Vista Center on Saturday, to assist mall guards with two suspected shoplifters, Chula Vista Police Lt. Fritz Reber said.
The men were fighting with mall security when officers arrived. One man was able to get away, but the other man, identified as 20-year-old Sergio Durazo, violently fought with officers and spit blood at them as they tried to arrest him, police said.
Durazo is charged with suspicion of felony assault on a police officer and robbery.
The officer was taken to the hospital and released.
Source:NBC NEWS
Off-duty Gretna police officer killed in fight www.privateofficer.com
Brett Thomas, a seven-year veteran of the Gretna PD, died after being hit in the scuffle.
Eighth District New Orleans Police officers responded to a 4 a.m. call of a fight in the 400 block of Bourbon Street and found the 28-year-old lying on the ground, Public Information Officer Janssen Valencia said.
EMT’s took Thomas to a hospital, where he died. Coroner John Gagliano confirmed Sunday afternoon that the cause of death was trauma to the head.
Gretna Deputy Police Chief Anthony H. Christiana said Thomas was assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division and was a member of the department’s Special Response Team.
“The Gretna Police Department and Community will miss Detective Thomas’ professionalism, dedication, loyalty and integrity as a member of this agency,” Christiana said in a news release.
During the investigation, Valencia said detectives learned that Thomas, who was with friends, got into a “verbal altercation,” which escalated into a fight with a random group of men.
Thomas was hit and collapsed and, shortly thereafter, those involved in the fight fled.
Anyone with information that can help with the investigation is asked to call Crimestoppers at 822-1111. A cash reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the person or persons responsible.
