Archive
Baldwin County employee commits suicide in front of co-workers www.privateofficer.com
James Edison “Jimmy” White shot himself in the head while solid waste employees stood nearby, said Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Stephen Arthur. At least one of them witnessed the gunshot, he said.
White was a 17-year county employee and was scheduled to retire at the end of this month, said Andrea Rider, Baldwin County personnel director.
“I’m just in shock,” Rider said. White had told everyone that he was looking forward to retirement, she said.
“He told me he was going home to fish and hunt,” Rider said. White had worked for the county since 1994, she said.
Arthur said White had been at home from work this week with “an illness — a cold or the flu.”
Early Wednesday morning, White was sitting inside his truck on the roadside, and when the garbage truck approached “he pulled out and blocked the roadway,” Arthur said. He then shot himself with a handgun, Arthur said.
Arthur said no note had been found. Investigators had not determined White’s reasons for taking his own life, he said. The incident remains under investigation.
According to newspaper records, White’s mother — Willie Blanche White — died in June of last year at the age of 87.
White’s funeral arrangements had not been announced by Wednesday evening.
Bellagio Casino robbed by armed man www.privateofficer.com
LAS VEGAS NV Dec 16 2010 –Las Vegas police detectives are investigating an early morning robbery at the Bellagio.
Police say around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, a man wearing a motorcycle helmet walked into the pit area with a gun. Officers say he pulled out a gun at the craps tables and told casino guests not to move. Police say he got away with $1.5 million in casino chips, ranging in denomination from $100 to $25,000.
The suspect then fled the scene on a motorcycle. No one was hurt in the robbery. Police say the robbery took about two minutes and the suspect specifically targeted the craps tables.
Police believe the suspect is the same man who robbed the Suncoast Poker Room on December 9. In both robberies, the suspect wore a helmet and fled on a motorcycle.
Police say the suspect is a white man, 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 220 pounds. His motorcycle is a black 2009 or 2010 sport bike.
There have been 10 casino robberies this year.
Anyone with information regarding this robbery is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.
Channel 8 news
Mall kidnapping proves to be false rumor www.privateofficer.com
Although WTOL has received many phone calls and emails from people are really worried about the issue, Police Chief Mike Navarre says it’s absolutely not true.
“There was absolutely no evidence, whatsoever, that anything remotely close to this had occurred.”
Message boards and emails are full of stories about a teenaged girl that two men tried to kidnap at Westfield Franklin Park Mall. In all of the stories, the girl is rescued, but the abductors get away.
The abductors are allegedly seen racing to a van where other girls are already being held captive.
“It was a rumor that had spread quite quickly to a lot of people. I think it’s the perfect example of what can happen today with the electronic age,” Navarre said.
Chief Navarre says he thoroughly investigated the rumors by checking for any 911 calls, police reports, criminal investigations, and talking with mall security. He concluded that someone has began a nasty rumor.
“If it’s true, then somebody is guilty of the biggest cover-up since Watergate. Because there is not one tiny bit of evidence that would support anything remotely possible to this happening,” Navarre said.
Westfield Franklin Park issued a statement saying:
This rumor is false. The Toledo police department has conducted a thorough investigation and determined that no such incident has ever been witnessed or reported at Westfield Franklin Park.
Chief Navarre said he wants to put this rumor to rest because it can unfairly hurt business.
By:WTOL
Union County NC teacher arrested for sex with student www.privateofficer.com
UNION COUNTY, N.C.Dec 16 2010 — A Union County teacher resigned Wednesday after allegations of a sexual relationship with a student surfaced.
The Union County Sheriff’s Office said 27-year-old Melissa Bitz had sex with an 18-year-old student at Parkwood High School in Monroe, where she was a first-year Spanish teacher.
Bitz was arrested on Tuesday night at her Indian Trail home and charged with a sexual act by a custodian.
Tribal police chief gets prison for defauding government www.privateofficer.com
In a plea agreement 52-year-old Fredrick James Paquin was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay over $231,000 in restitution to the federal government.
Paquin was charged in January of defrauding the government out of grant funds intended for Tribal Law Enforcement between 2002 and 2008
Man charged in theft of 15,000 social security numbers www.privateofficer.com
Police arrested Evan Kane, 25, from Waterford NY, for stealing the collection of social security numbers from computers belonging contractors working for the Office of Disability and Temporary Assistance, which is the New York state agency that decides some initial disability claims for Social Security.
According to the New York State Police, it seems illegal use of the downloaded information only occurred in a limited number of cases; however, it is unclear exactly what information was downloaded and the risk to the persons involved. The investigation is ongoing.
The individuals whose information was compromised will be notified and offered free credit monitoring, and provided with a special toll-free telephone number to call for assistance.
Kane is in custody and being charged with Forgery 2nd degree, a felony; Possession of a Forged Instrument, a felony; Falsifying Business Records 1st degree, a felony; Identity Theft 2nd degree, a felony.
Source:W10.com
Bodies washing up on NY beach baffles police www.privateofficer.com
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer says officials believe a serial killer could be responsible for the killings. Dormer says he and his staff met Wednesday with officials from the FBI’s New York office.
Dormer says agents offered any help they could.
The meeting comes as investigators look into the disappearance of two women working as prostitutes last seen on Long Island. One of the women was last seen in the vicinity of where the bodies were found in recent days, while the second was reported missing from a hotel about 15 miles away.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
BABYLON, N.Y. (AP) — Four decomposed bodies found recently along a remote beach highway are all women, police confirmed Wednesday, as detectives planned to meet with the FBI for help in finding a possible serial killer.
Meanwhile, the mother of a Maine woman who worked as a Craigslist escort and went missing from a hotel on New York’s Long Island told The Associated Press that police in Maine have said her daughter might be one of four bodies.
Megan Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine, was last seen in June at a Hauppauge, N.Y., hotel where she went with her boyfriend. The hotel is about 15 miles from where the bodies were found.
Waterman’s mother, Lorraine Ela, told the AP on Wednesday that a Scarborough detective told her he was “leaning toward one of the four victims being Megan, but he’s not 100 percent guaranteed.”
Messages left for Scarborough police were not immediately returned. A spokeswoman for police in Suffolk County, N.Y., had no immediate comment.
The four bodies were systematically dumped, perhaps over a period of 18 months or longer, along a desolate, wind-swept stretch of highway east of Jones Beach State Park, police said.
The first of the decomposed corpses was found Saturday by an officer and his cadaver dog. Three more, all scattered within a quarter-mile, were found two days later.
Now, authorities want to apprehend a possible serial killer.
“We’re looking at that — that we could have a serial killer,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told reporters at a briefing Tuesday before officers and the cadaver dog resumed searching for possibly more victims. “I don’t think its a coincidence that four bodies ended up in this area.”
The search along a highway about 45 miles east of New York City ended without any additional discoveries, but police intend to press on with an investigation.
Police found the decomposed remains just feet from the roadway during an ongoing search for a missing prostitute last known to be headed to nearby Fire Island. As of Tuesday, there was no indication the woman, a 24-year-old from Jersey City, N.J., who was reported missing May 1, was among the dead.
Police believe the four were killed elsewhere and then brought to the site, a narrow strip of land that divides the Great South Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The four-lane parkway runs through the middle, connecting Jones Beach State Park with several state and town-run beaches to its east.
Dormer said the search of the vast, remote area could take days or longer.
Source:FOX NEWS
Texas student exposes self to teacher www/privateofficer.com
David Brian Pipps, 17, is a junior at Lumberton High School, according to Chief Danny Sullins at the Lumberton Police Department.
Sullins told KFDM News a class had taken a field trip Tuesday and Pipps and another student were the only ones in the room, along with a substitute teacher. Sullins said the other boy left and Pipps was in the room with the teacher. According to Sullins, the boy said “look at this” and exposed himself to the female teacher.
Sullins said the teacher left the room and immediately reported what had happened.
Lumberton Police responded and Sullins told us Pipps admitted exposing himself.
He was taken to the Hardin County Jail Tuesday and arraigned Wednesday on a charge of Indecent Exposure, a Class B Misdemeanor.
If convicted, he could face a up to 180 days in jail and/or up to a $2,000 fine. He could also receive probation.
Pipps posted $750 bond and was released.
Sullins said Pipps will also face disciplinary actions through the school.
TODDLER DROPPED INTO BOILING WATER DIES www.privateofficer.com
DALLAS TX DEC 16 2010(AP) – A Dallas toddler has died after police say he was dropped in a pot of boiling water.
Dallas police told The Dallas Morning News in a story Tuesday that 16-month-old Jabraylon Bables appeared to have been dipped in boiling water. The toddler died Saturday from injuries and infections, 36 days after police say he was deliberately burned.
The boyfriend of the child’s mother is a convicted murderer named Carlnelus Delaney Simmons. He remains in the Dallas County Jail on a felony charge of injury to a child.
Attorney information was not available. Jabraylon’s mother, Jasmine Thompson, said she does not believe Simmons would have deliberately hurt her child.
Simmons told police he accidentally dropped hot water on the boy.
The Dallas County medical examiner has ruled the death a homicide.
Augusta Ga. school security officer named “Officer of the Month” www.privateofficer.com
“On the morning of Nov. 17, the principal at Terrace Manor Elementary School received an anonymous phone call from a concerned parent saying that a student had brought a gun to school,” said Patrick Clayton, the district’s school safety and security chief, reading from a letter by Superintendent Frank Roberson. “The parent didn’t know where the gun was or what student had it. The principal notified Officer Ables. She jumped into action, conducted a systematic search, and quickly found the student with the gun, and the ammunition in the student’s pocket, and took the student into custody.”
The 10-year-old fifth-grader was apprehended before the school day began. The gun was not loaded.
Ables was recognized during the school board meeting.
Source”Augusta Chronicle
Christmas comes to death row www.privateofficer.com
Nashville TN Dec 16 2010 By the end of the week, each of the 710 inmates at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution will receive a Christmas present at the foot of their cells.
Someone warm and smiling will unwrap it, and pass the goodies through a slot in the cell door.
Things such as chips, cookies, toothbrushes and toothpaste. It’s nothing that would make the Christmas wish list of most people. But it’s something.
Over three nights, about 200 volunteers from 100 area churches will spend their evenings playing Santa to Nashville inmates. Jerry Welborn organizes the church volunteers each year. He has been prison chaplain for 22 years.
“This is all about keeping down recidivism,” he said. “We’re trying to prevent any more victims. This is a way to break the ice between the inmates and the community.”
And, in Welborn’s experience, local churches are more than happy to make that connection. Around the holidays, the prison consistently buzzes with the booms of volunteer caroling groups and the comforting scents of holiday dinners.
“We’re still human beings,” said 50-year-old Richard Odom, a death row inmate who has been locked up since 1978. “We still have feelings. This is the only Christmas present I’ll get.”
A twice-convicted murderer, Odom was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 77-year-old woman in a Shelby County parking garage.
The volunteers, who are mostly men, know there are others who could benefit from their generosity — others who aren’t convicted killers, rapists and robbers — but they feel called to help the forgotten and forlorn.
Thomas Snow is a regular visitor on death row. As the director of the Tennessee Prison Outreach Ministry, the 45-year-old Nashvillian regularly visits with inmates.
“I am here to give them hope,” he said. “As long as they’re here, they have a purpose.”
One death row inmate last week painted a picture that was auctioned for charity.
Families cut ties
The prison’s warden, Ricky Bell, said it usually takes about three years before an inmate’s family cuts ties with them. Many of his inmates have no money to use for the commissary and no visitors, cards or care packages.
“I feel sorry for some of them,” said 76-year-old Benny Kirby, a volunteer with the Smith Springs Church of Christ. “One of the men mentioned to me that his family owns a restaurant in Clarksville. Next time I’m there, I’m going to stop in and tell them I visited him.”
While volunteers delivered gifts to death row Tuesday, 97 percent of the inmates at Riverbend will not die in prison.
They will be members of the community again. And seeing well-meaning church volunteers take time to bring them gifts improves their outlook, which decreases the chances they’ll offend again, Bell said.
“The inmates are always very appreciative,” he said. “Many of them write letters to the churches to thank them.”
John Meeks, 65, from Andrew Price Memorial United Methodist Church has volunteered at the prison at Christmastime for the past several years.
Ask him why and he will point to the Bible, specifically Matthew 25.
The verse says: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Source:Tennessean
Philadelphia security officer shot in the head www.privateofficer.com
Philadelphia PA Dec 16 2010
An off-duty security guard was shot in the head late last night at a Sunoco station at 38th Street and Girard Avenue.
Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives said the victim tried to intervene when he saw a man arguing with a Sunoco cashier about 11:30 p.m.
The man turned and shot the guard in the head and may have taken the victim’s cell phone before fleeing in a green minivan.
The victim, whose name was not released, was admitted in critical but stable condition to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Walker said the victim was alert and talking. Tipsters can call 215-686-3183 or 3184.
