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OFFICER DOWN- DEPUTY SHERIFF BRANDON LEE COATES
Deputy First Class Brandon Lee Coates
Orange County Sheriff’s Office
Florida
End of Watch: Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Biographical Info
Age: 27
Tour of Duty: 4 years, 6 months
Badge Number: Not available
Incident Details
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: Committed suicide
Deputy Brandon Coates was shot and killed while making a traffic stop near the intersection of South Nashville Avenue and 45th Street at around 8:30 pm. Moments after radioing in the traffic stop 911 dispatchers received calls stating a deputy had been shot and received a description of the suspect’s vehicle.
The vehicle was located at a nearby apartment complex. During the ensuing search for the suspect, the man’s body was found suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Deputy Coates had served with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for 4½ years and was assigned to the Tactical Anti-Crime Unit. He is survived by his wife, who also serves as a deputy with the agency.
Agency Contact Information
Orange County Sheriff’s Office
2500 W. Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL 32804
Phone: (407) 254-7000
Please contact the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for funeral arrangements or for survivor benefit fund information.
Pastor Jinwright and wife get prison for tax invasion crimes www.privateofficer.com
Charlotte NC Dec 10 2010A federal judge sentenced Charlotte pastors Anthony and Harriet Jinwright to prison late Thursday, after the couple who led Greater Salem church pleaded for leniency in their punishment for tax evasion.
Anthony Jinwright got eight years and nine months in prison, while Harriet Jinwright received six years and eight months. The couple must also pay the Internal Revenue Service more than $1million, plus $213,666 to the state. U.S. District Judge Frank Whitney acknowledged the couple had been generous and loving spiritual leaders, often paying tuitions, light bills and rent for hurting people.
“What’s troubling,” he said, “is what I will call the Robin Hood defense. It’s very easy to give away other people’s money.”
Whitney noted that he felt a sense of remorse from Harriet Jinwright, but not her husband.
“Bishop Jinwright is the definition of ‘good people can do bad things,’” he said.
The sentencing, which came about 10 p.m., capped a proceeding that ran more than 20 hours over two days as prosecutors and defense lawyers argued over how much time the pair should spend in prison.
In seeking mercy, Anthony Jinwright, 54, told the judge he wanted to go around the country to advise pastors to hire good financial advisers and comply with tax laws. His wife’s plea drew sniffles and quiet crying from supporters in the courtroom.
“I ask for your forgiveness and your mercy,” Harriet Jinwright, 51, told the judge.
Her lawyer explained that Harriet Jinwright is scheduled for surgery in January and would need months of recuperation. Judge Whitney gave her some time, ordering her to report to prison in April.
Anthony Jinwright was led away in shackles, and might serve his time at the Butner federal prison in North Carolina.
Friends and congregants of the Greater Salem Church have flocked to Charlotte’s federal courthouse to support the Jinwrights, who were convicted in May of tax evasion.
A prosecutor on Thursday called the couple “tax cheats,” while Anthony Jinwright’s attorney cast his client as unsophisticated and careless about money matters.
“People can be wrong about their taxes,” attorney Ed Hinson told the judge. “Maybe he was reckless not to concern himself with (financial) details. For a preacher, that really isn’t in the front of his mind.”
But Assistant U.S. Attorney David Brown emphasized that a jury – after a four-week trial – decided the Jinwrights were guilty of tax evasion.
“They wanted to enrich themselves at the expense of the United States government,” Brown told the judge. “What we have, your honor, are 18-year tax cheats.”
Judge Whitney ruled Thursday the total tax loss attributed to the Jinwrights exceeded $1million. He also weighed whether other actions by the Jinwrights should increase their prison time.
He considered, for example, whether Anthony Jinwright abused a position of trust and whether he tried to obscure his actions.
At trial earlier this year, prosecutors described the couple’s lavish lifestyle of luxury cars and expensive trips, while the church they led struggled to pay its bills.
Greater Salem has since filed for bankruptcy protection, and its properties were auctioned off in foreclosure.
The sentencing hearing included lengthy testimony on how much in taxes the Jinwrights failed to pay, as well as a parade of character witnesses, who vouched, sometimes emotionally, for the pastors.
Witnesses included former N.C. Sen. Robert Pittenger, a young pastor mentored by Anthony Jinwright who came all the way from South Africa to testify, and a long-time church member who said Anthony Jinwright paid for her son’s education.
Anthony Jinwright, was convicted on 13 of 18 charges, including conspiracy and multiple counts of filing false tax returns and tax evasion. He was acquitted on five counts of mail fraud.
Harriet Jinwright, was found guilty on four of 13 charges, including conspiracy and tax evasion. She was acquitted on three counts of tax evasion and six counts of filing false tax returns.
Prosecutors accused the pastors of failing to report more than $2.3 million in taxable income from 2002 to 2007.
In their 2007 joint returns, the Jinwrights reported their total wages as $465,507, according to prosecutors. That didn’t include a housing allowance of $160,833 and car allowance of $45,826.
Prosecutors previously revealed in court documents some of the Jinwrights’ expenditures in 2007: about $178,000 for eight vehicles; $4,000 for car wash expenses; $311,000 for their two homes; $4,000 in lawn care; nearly $3,000 for Time Warner Cable and DirecTV; and more than $4,000 for house cleaning expenses.
An overflow crowd of supporters watched the proceedings via closed-circuit video in a second courtroom.
“They’re my pastors, and I believe in them,” church member Raymond Moore said. “They’re not criminals.”
Source:www.charlotteobserver.com
Missouri police officer in deadly pursuit was unlicensed www.privateofficer.com
UPLANDS PARK MO Dec 10 2010 — Lamont Aikens had a uniform, a badge and a patrol car last year when he chased a speeding car into St. Louis, where it crashed and killed a mother of four.
The one thing he didn’t have was a license to work as a police officer, according to charges filed in St. Louis County on Tuesday.
In addition, court records show that Aikens has criminal convictions and at least 18 arrests on his record, including an arrest in 1994 for murder. No charges were filed in that case.
Aikens, 35, of Florissant, and Kenneth Minner, 57, of Uplands Park, were each charged Tuesday with knowingly holding a commission of a police officer without a valid license. It was unclear whether Minner had any connection to the fatal crash, although court records indicate he was questioned.
Henry Smith, 44, of Dellwood, who was acting Uplands Park police chief at the time of the crash, was charged with knowingly granting the commission of a peace officer without a valid license.
The charges are misdemeanors, punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine up to $500.
Family members of Lashanna Snipes, who died in the crash on Dec. 3, 2009, expressed relief that Aikens had been charged.
“If you look at the rap sheet he had, you know he shouldn’t have even been behind the wheel,” Jasmien Jones, one of Snipes’ nieces, said Tuesday.
In June 2008, Aikens sought to expunge his arrest record with the St. Louis Police Department. A judge denied his request, saying he was ineligible to have his record cleared because at least one of his arrests resulted in a conviction. That conviction, for third-degree assault and stalking in 1993, resulted in a year of probation.
Aikens also pleaded guilty to drug possession in 1993, and in 2000 he pleaded guilty of felonious restraint. He received probation in both cases.
The other arrests include forcible rape, first-degree assault, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon and assaulting a law enforcement officer. There are no details in court records of the arrest for first-degree murder, except that he was arrested on Aug. 3, 1994, and warrants were refused.
In the crash that killed Snipes, Aikens was driving an Uplands Park police car that was chasing another car. The car being chased ran a stop sign and slammed into Snipes’ car. Snipes’ sister, Ayanna Jones, and three children in the car were also hurt in the crash.
Family members have a wrongful death lawsuit pending in St. Louis Circuit Court against Aikens and the Uplands Park police department. The suit says the department knew or should have known Aikens wasn’t a licensed officer at the time of the crash.
The suit also said that Aikens pursued the car for more than two miles outside Upland Park’s jurisdiction and that the police car did not have its lights or siren on. Aikens chased the car for a misdemeanor speed violation, a pursuit that is against St. Louis County Police pursuit policies, the suit says.
The driver of the car that was being chased, Derion Henderson, 17, faces charges of second-degree murder and tampering for his role in the crash.
Jones, Snipes’ niece, said the wrongful death lawsuit was filed because it seemed no one cared about the pain the family suffered because of the crash.
“We’re really grateful that (Aikens) has suffered some type of consequence,” she said. “But we still haven’t gotten any type of apology from anyone, and there’s still four children without a mother.”
The charge against former acting police chief Smith alleges that he hired Aikens in September 2009 and continued his commission through February 2010 knowing Aikens wasn’t validly licensed.
Minner’s charge says he worked as a police officer in Uplands Park knowing he didn’t have a valid license from December 2009 until July 2010.
Harlan Smith, the current chief of police for Uplands Park, declined to comment because he wasn’t aware charges had been filed. “I knew things were in the makings,” he said.
Harlan Smith said all three men still worked for the village. Aikens is a bailiff but is on administrative leave because of the investigation into the crash and subsequent events. Henry Smith is a lieutenant with the police department but is on medical leave. Minner is a code enforcement officer.
Spokesman Mike O’Connell of the Missouri Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, said the charge against Henry Smith meant he could face punishment by the licensing board, including revocation of his police license.
Uplands Park, a village with only 460 residents on Natural Bridge Road, has had a police department for only about five years. But the department has been connected with a series of embarrassing headlines in its short history, including a jailer charged with assault, a former police chief accused of threatening to kill one of his officers and, last year, an officer arrested by the FBI on suspicion of robbing and sexually assaulting prostitutes — in the police station.
Shoplifter leads police on chase with toddler in car www.privateofficer.com
Police said the same suspect earlier in the week led them on a chase with his toddler in the car.
Kenneth Michaels was arrested Thursday afternoon in Kingston. Taylor police found him there along with other law enforcement agencies.
32-year-old Kenneth Michaels of Scranton was led into the Taylor police department after being arrested in Kingston.
Cops said it all started when Michaels was spotted in Wal-mart in Taylor Monday night.
Security officers approached him because they said he stole thousands of dollars of merchandise from that same store last week.
They said Michaels ran off, jumped into a car with his wife Amee at the wheel and the vehicle took off.
There was a chase, but police said they called it off when the learned the couple had their 17-month-old child in the car.
Amee Michaels was arrested at her mother’s house in Pittston early Tuesday morning.
Police said she had 11 packets of heroin in her mouth at the time.
Kenneth Michaels was spotted outside a home in Kingston early Thursday afternoon and was arrested.
Officers said Michaels didn’t put up a fight.
“I’m just glad to have him off the streets,” said Taylor Police Chief Stephen Derenick.
Police suspect Kenneth Michaels in a string of thefts from Wal-marts across both Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.
Kingston police said when he was arrested today he had a lot of copper pipes with him.
They say he’s now a suspect in a burglary in their area.
Source:WNEP
Bouncer avoids prison in death of patron www.privateofficer.com
The family of the man who was choked to death at a Greenville strip club says prosecutors have offered the bouncer charged in the case a plea deal that would allow him to avoid prison.
Joe Collura, Jr, of Moore died on March 31st outside Platinum Plus. Greenville County investigators said Collura, 36, got into an argument with bouncers about his ID inside the club, and three bouncers dragged him out of the club and threw him down on the sidewalk. The coroner ruled the case a homicide, saying the married father of two died of asphyxiation due to neck compression.
“It was completely uncalled for, what they did to him,” says his father, Joe Collura, Sr. He says investigators have described to him what they saw on surveillance video.
“They said you couldn’t hear what was being said, but my son never touched the bouncers. One of them wrapped his arm around his neck and began dragging him while the other two grabbed his feet,” said Collura, Sr. “He couldn’t even defend himself.”
He says his son, the manager of a major technology infrastructure firm, was at the adult club with his boss because they were entertaining an executive of the company’s largest client, BMW.
“That was his business,” says Collura, Sr. “He wasn’t just some low-life hanging at the strip club. He was there because that’s where the client wanted to go, and that’s how business is done.”
He says after his son was tossed onto the sidewalk, clearly unconscious, the three bouncers refused to call an ambulance and even knocked a cell phone from his son’s boss’s hand as he tried to call for help.
“They just let him die there like an animal, and I’ve never understood why just one of them was arrested and why that took so long,” says Collura, Sr.
Five weeks after the incident, Jason Alan Purcell, 32, was charged with involuntary manslaughter which carries a maximum of five years in prison. The victim’s brother says at a meeting with the 13th Circuit Solicitor’s Office in early November, assistant solicitor Judy Munson told the family they would negotiate a plea with Purcell, offering him 18 months in prison plus five years probation in exchange for his admittance of guilt.
“She said if he wouldn’t take the deal, then she felt confident we could win a conviction in court, so in that case we would go to trial,” says Andrew Collura.
Collura, Sr. says on Friday, Munson called him and told him Purcell’s attorney had responded by saying they would not accept an offer that included prison time and that she would need to talk to her superiors about the next course of action. He says on Monday, she called back to tell him they were going to offer Purcell five years probation in exchange for a guilty plea.
“I could not believe it,” says Collura, Sr. “I asked what made her change her mind. She said they felt this was the best way to get him to admit guilt. But just admitting guilt is not enough punishment for what he did. He has destroyed our family and left two little girls fatherless.”
13th Circuit Solicitor Bob Ariail responded to our inquiries by saying it would be unethical for him to comment on any aspect of the case until it has been disposed in court. A spokesperson for Ariail confirmed there is a hearing in the case tentatively scheduled for January but would not confirm if the hearing was a guilty plea. Neither would Purcell’s attorney, Randy Hiller; but he did say he believes a probationary sentence would be a fair outcome to the case.
“What happened in March was simply an incredibly tragic accident,” says Hiller. “I know it’s been hard on the victim’s family. But it has also been hard on my client’s family. I do not see any societal benefit by making my client spend time in prison and not be able to support his family.”
Collura, Sr. wants Ariail to take the plea deal off the table, saying the family had rather run the risk of a jury acquitting Purcell rather than allow him to walk out of court on probation.
“This would not serve justice to my son,” says Collura, Sr. “It’s justice for (Purcell), but not for us. But that’s what the criminal justice system is. Justice for the criminals.”
Jason Buffkin, Director of South Carolina’s Victim Legal Network, says the state is among the best in the nation when it comes to protecting the rights of victims of crime. He says victims’ families should always have a say in how their cases are handled, and prosecutors should take the families’ wishes into consideration — but ultimately, prosecutors have the final say in how a case is disposed.
“It is only the Solicitor who can decide whether to try a case, whether to dismiss a case, whether to plea a case and what to plea it to,” says Buffkin. “I tell my victims all the time they do not have the right to control the prosecution. They do have the right to persuade.”
Hiller would not say if Purcell is still working at Platinum Plus.
Collura, Jr’s widow has not returned calls seeking comment. He leaves behind two daughters, ages 10 and 7.
Source:NewsChannel7
Wrong turn lands elderly couple into Pugent Sound www.privateofficer.com
That simple mistake put the couple’s van in the Puget Sound Wednesday night, and nearly cost them there lives.
“How we were able to get out of there, I will never know,” said William, 80.
The couple was planning to meet their son for dinner at Lombardi’s Restaurant along the Everett Marina. William turned into the 10th street boat launch area by mistake, several blocks from Lombardi’s.
The rain was pouring, it was dark, and William said the area was not well lit. He got turned around and wound up driving down the boat launch and into the water.
“A splash came up and I thought even then it was just a puddle,” he said. “Before I knew it we were already floating.”
Their Chrysler van was beginning to sink nose first. Tammy, 77, started moving towards the back of the van.
“I can’t swim, but I didn’t panic,” she said.
The van was going down quick and the water was rising up to the couple’s shoulders.
SON COMES TO THE RESCUE
Jon Forsythe, the couple’s son who was waiting at the restaurant, became concerned that his parents had not arrived.
“I stepped outside to call them because I knew something was wrong,” Forsythe told KING 5 over the phone Thursday. “The phone rang and dad picked up.”
“I told him get help, come over here quick we’re in the water!” William said.
Jon jumped in his SUV and sped to the boat launch where he thought his parents might be sinking.
But Forsythe made the same mistake his parents made. He drove down the boat launch and into the water too. Before he knew it, his SUV was sinking alongside his parents van.
“He was able to roll his window down, and get out of the car and he swam across to the van where was,” said William. “Our van was like a coffin.”
Forsythe used a tool tossed to him by a security guard on scene to try and break out the back window of the van where William and Tammy were submerged. Forsythe eventually used his fists to shatter the window.
“We were able to get through the window. He got us out on the ramp, by that time the car was completely submerged” William said. “We had less than a minute to spare before it would have been all over.”
William and Tammy were treated at the hospital as a precaution, but both checked out okay. They credit their son with saving their lives. In 58 years of marriage, they say they’ve never had to endure anything quite like this.
“I can’t believe how it all came together just right.” William said. “Someone was looking down on us. Next time it rains, maybe I’ll stay home.”
The Port of Everett says they are examining the boat launch to determine if any new safety precautions need to be taken.
School system investigating security-student altercation www.privateofficer.com
A 15-year-old eighth-grade student at the Sanders School in the Westside district reportedly claims that on Dec. 2 — after he had a panic attack and stepped into a school hallway — a security guard tackled him. The student claims his pelvis was broken, and that he was left on the floor of an isolation room for two hours before his mother arrived.
The Indiana Department of Education also has launched an investigation, said Mary McDermott Lang, Wayne Township spokeswoman.
“Our own investigation has yielded other conclusions,” Lang said. “We are fully cooperating with the DOE. We are completely comfortable with the DOE looking into this.”
Lang could not confirm the identity of the child or the officer, or reveal other details of the alleged incident.
She said the Sanders School, 4730 W. Gadsden St., educates 102 students from 10 school districts from kindergarten to age 22.
“There are children with behavioral disorders, and the staff is trained in nonviolent crisis intervention,” Lang said. “The staff has to be trained to deal with those situations.
The school has one part-time security officer, and the Westside school district employs a mix of contracted and district-employed security officers.
Source:indystar.com
Mall shopper sues after being Tased www.privateofficer.com
On Dec. 2, 2008, Paul Streeter ran through the parking lot at Clackamas Town Center Mall, pounding on the windows of a mall security car and threatening the guard.
The Boring man then went into the mall, deputies say, and caused a scene.
Deputies were already on their way because Streeter’s father had called 911 saying his son had mental health issues and he was off his medication.
When Deputy Steve Shelly arrived, authorities say, he ordered Streeter to get on the ground but he would not comply. Shelly then used the Taser, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies put Streeter in handcuffs but realized he stopped breathing. They called paramedics and revived him.
Since the incident, Streeter claims he has suffered behavioral, cognitive and emotional problems as the result of being shocked with the Taser.
He is suing Clackamas County and the maker of the Taser, Taser International.
Neither Streeter nor his relatives were available for an interview Wednesday.
Taser International has not responded to FOX 12′s request for a statement and a lawyer for Clackamas County said they cannot comment on ongoing litigation.
Source:FOX12
Former TSA agent sentenced to prison over civil violations www.privateofficer.com
Rome GA Dec 10 2010 In a courtroom filled with family and emotions a former Department of Homeland Security officer was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Dec. 9, after being found guilty for a host of civil rights violations.
In July, Stephen House was found guilty in U.S. District Court in Rome on eight counts of violating several people’s civil rights by making false traffic stops and four counts of filing false police reports while he was a Homeland Security official.
House is a former Rome police officer.
According to March indictment, House made several illegal traffic stops between July 28, 2006, and April 15, 2009, using his federally issued vehicle.
Nearly a dozen of House’s closest friends and family members attended the sentencing hearing held in Judge Robert L. Vining’s courtroom. His mother Charlotte House approached the judge and asked for leniency, saying that she and House’s 9-year-old son both depend on him.
House’s attorney, Marcia G. Shein, said the family’s love and trust of the man was evidence that he was a decent person and when not employed as a police officer would not harm anyone.
“If not in his uniform and not in his (police) car, he won’t act out,” Shein said.
The defendant’s attorney contended that her client did not know he was breaking the law when making these stops.
“If he had known the domino effect these stops created, he wouldn’t have made them,” Shein said.
She also told the judge that House had taken responsibility for his actions in a letter written to the judge. However, Judge Vining did not agree that House had taken responsibility for his actions.
“I really don’t think he has taken responsibility, considering what I heard at trial,” Vining said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William McKinnon requested an 18 months sentence, which he felt was long enough to show other officers the dangers of abusing power.
“Mr. House thought the rules did not apply to him,” McKinnon said. “He demonstrated a pattern of abuse.”
McKinnon also pointed out that House was disciplined by law enforcement agencies in Rome, Adairsville and Cobb County and ultimately lost his Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) certification before he was ever arrested for violating anyone’s rights.
“It is rare for a law enforcement officer not convicted of a crime to be decertified by POST,” McKinnon said.
House could have received a sentence up to three years in prison.
“The government is more generous than I was going to be,” the judge said.
Cries of joy could be heard from House’s family when he was granted a $10,000 bond pending an appeal.
“I am not concerned about granting you bond,” Vining said. “You have got nowhere to run.”
Vining gave House two rules of bond, he could have no contact with the jurors that found him guilty and he could have no contact with the people who testified against him.
He was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and once he serves his 18-month sentence and was additionally sentenced to three years supervised release.
Neighbor charged in death of teenage girl www.privateofficer.com
U.S. Marshals captured Earnest Joseph III, shortly after it was announced that a warrant had been issued for his arrest Wednesday afternoon, according to the St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Joseph will be charged with first-degree murder in Taylor’s death.
Sheriff Wayne Jones told CBS affiliate WWL that Joseph was captured around 3:50 p.m. and that when he saw the Marshals he attempted to run.
Jones indicated that Joseph has a criminal record, but did not elaborate.
Jones also said that deputies had recovered the murder weapon, but did not say what it was.
Adams’ body was discovered when her mother returned from working a night shift as a security guard this weekend.
Adams was a student at Riverside Academy in St. John Parish. Her mother had left her at the home alone as she went to work Saturday night. The mother said she talked to Taylor around 9 p.m.
The coroner’s office said Adams suffered a fractured skull and jaw along with bruising and bleeding of the brain. The object used is still under investigation.
The sheriff’s office said there was no sign of forced entry to the home and that it didn’t appear that anything had been stolen.
Source: WWL
Orange County deputy killed www.privateofficer.com
Orange County Fla Dec 10 2010 As the 13 newest Orange County Sheriff’s Office recruits were being sworn in Thursday morning, Sheriff Jerry Demings delivered a somber message about the tragedy his department was facing.
Just hours earlier, a shooting claimed the life of 27-year-old Deputy Brandon Coates, who had survived two tours of duty in Iraq as a U.S. Marine and been with the Sheriff’s Office less than five years.
“We may be a weakened agency because we lost one last night,” Demings told the rookies, “but we are not broken.”
Coates was shot and killed while patrolling one of Orange County’s most dangerous areas: a neighborhood near South Orange Blossom Trail known for violent crime, drugs, prostitution and murder.
“Deputy Sheriff Brandon Coates was indeed a hero and one of the best deputies we have here in this agency,” Demings said during a news conference Thursday morning. In fact, the day before he died, Coates was honored for his role in taking down a violent gang in east Orange County earlier this year.
When news of the shooting broke Wednesday night, dozens of deputies and law-enforcement officials from across Central Florida flocked to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where Coates was pronounced dead after he was gunned down about 8:30 p.m.
Coates had been patrolling in the area where he was shot as part of the agency’s Operation Safe Holiday — an initiative that focuses on thieves looking to steal recently purchased Christmas gifts from homes or vehicles.
Officials said the accused gunman, 29-year-old Brandon Lyals, shot Coates twice in the head after the deputy pulled over Lyals’ white truck near Nashville Avenue and 45th Street. Coates didn’t have a chance to signal for help, said Capt. Angelo Nieves of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
“What we now know is that there was some kind of struggle or circumstance that caused Deputy Coates to fire his Taser,” a visibly exhausted Demings said. “At some point, Deputy Sheriff Coates was shot in the head twice and succumbed to his injuries after being transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where the trauma team worked on him diligently.”
Sources said a K-9 dog and handler discovered Lyals’ body more than four hours after the shooting and about a mile away at the Alhambra Trace apartment complex near South Texas Avenue and Americana Boulevard. Florida Department of Corrections records show Lyals spent seven years in prison for grand theft and burglary and was released in December 2009.
The flags outside the Sheriff’s Office and the Orlando Police Department flew at half-staff Thursday. Deputies and Orlando officers were wearing black bands over their badges.
Coates and his wife, Orange County Deputy Sheriff Virginia Anne Wright, married in October 2009, court records show. Demings said they have no children. Demings said he spent time with Wright and the couple’s family Wednesday night and early Thursday.
“I said to [Coates' widow] that our law-enforcement agency, our law-enforcement family, we stand behind her,” Demings said. “He’s going to be missed.”
Sheriff’s records show Coates worked on the Tactical Anti-Crime Squad, a specialty unit known as TAC that targets high-crime areas and hot spots in Orange County. He was also a member of the Sheriff’s Honor Guard.
Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Ken Cox said Coates and his comrades were a “close-knit group of friends.” Cox said the group was like “old-time law-enforcement officers who really bonded.”
Late Wednesday, Cox was at ORMC, where an estimated 100 deputies gathered to support and console one another.
“You could see the pain on their faces,” he said.
When a deputy dies in the line of duty, it’s customary that the body is accompanied until it is laid to rest, Cox said. So members of the Sheriff’s TAC squad and Honor Guard have volunteered to stay by Coates’ side around the clock until he is buried.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been made.
Source: orlando sentinel
Detroit school security shoot car thief http://www.privateofficer.com
Detroit MI Dec 10 2010 – A Detroit Public Schools Police Officer opens fire as an accused car thief runs him over. It happened at Crockett High School on the city’s east side.
According to a deputy chief with Detroit Public Schools Police just after two o’clock this afternoon a man was seen by school security breaking into a car in the staff parking lot at Crockett High Schiool. Security notified the officer at the school.
The officer confronted the accused car thief and the thief put the car into gear and struck the officer as he drove off. As this was happening the officer managed to fire off a single shot, striking the suspect in the arm.
The suspect drove a few blocks away and abandoned the car at Van Dyke and Georgia. Detroit police were already on the look out for him and were able to chase him down.
The officer is expected to be ok. The suspect should also make a full recovery.
No one else was caught up in the violence.
Source:WXYZ
Target security agents attacked-woman charged with robbery www.privateofficer.com
MIAMI TOWNSHIP, Ohio Dec 10 2010– A local law enforcement agency arrested two women in Miami Township on Thursday night after they were stopped in the 8000 block of Springboro Pike around 7 p.m. for allegedly shoplifting.
Authorities said the women may lose their two infants, who were with them in the car when the theft occurred.
Police said security guards in the Target store watched one of the women steal merchandise on surveillance video. When they tried to stop her from leaving, she scratched one of the guards and ran to her car, police said.
Authorities soon stopped the vehicle and found merchandise in the car that had been reported stolen from the Target store, police said.
Authorities confirmed that there were children in the car when the female suspects were arrested.
“With all the stores and all the shopping centers, why people still make these decisions is amazing to me,” Miami Township Maj. John DePietro said.
Police said the women stole about $250 worth of merchandise from the store.
“Good teamwork, good police work. We’re happy to have two more shoplifters off the streets tonight,” DePietro said.
Other shoppers seemed shocked to hear about the robbery.
“You have to show your kids what the proper thing to do is, and then for them to see mommy carrying out bags of stuff she knows she didn’t pay for, you know, the kids are going to want to do that stuff,” Franklin resident Kristina Hertel said.
Police said one of the women will be charged with robbery since she attacked the security guard. The other will be charged with theft and receiving stolen property and they may both face charges of child endangering.
The children will stay with another relative, police said.
Source:WHIO
