Archive
OFFICER DOWN- Police Officer Michael J. Califano
Police Officer Michael J. Califano
Nassau County Police Department
New York
End of Watch: Saturday, February 5, 2011
Biographical Info
Age: 44
Tour of Duty: 12 years
Badge Number: 2852
Incident Details
Cause of Death: Automobile accident
Date of Incident: Friday, February 4, 2011
Weapon Used: Not available
Suspect Info: Charged with negligent homicide
Police Officer Michael Califano was killed when his patrol car was struck by a truck as he conducted a vehicle stop.
Officer Califano pulled over a box truck on the Long Island Expressway, near exit 39, for insufficient lighting. As Officer Califano was sitting in his patrol car writing a summons, it was struck by a flatbed tow truck. The force of the impact pushed the patrol car under the box truck and knocked the box truck into traffic. The flatbed truck ended up a on top of the police car. It took rescuers thirty minutes to remove the roof of the patrol car and remove Officer Califano.
Officer Califano was taken to the Nassau University Medical Center, where he died from his injuries.
The driver of the flatbed truck was arrested and charged with one count of criminally negligent homicide, three counts of assault and failure to move over for an emergency vehicle.
Officer Califano survived by his wife and three children. He had served with the Nassau County Police Department for 12 years and was assigned to the Highway Patrol.
Agency Contact Information
Nassau County Police Department
1490 Franklin Avenue
Mineola, NY 11501
Phone: (516) 573-2000
Please contact the Nassau County Police Department for funeral arrangements or for survivor benefit fund information.
Shoplifting group indicted on multiple charges www.privateofficer.com
Harlyn McBean, Billie Goode and Tayonda Durham are each charged with felony fourth-degree grand larceny, felony fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and misdemeanor criminal possession of an anti-security item, court documents stated.
The three people allegedly stole items totaling more than $1,000 from the New Hartford Walmart store on Sept. 8, including diapers, a cordless phone, contest lens cases, glue, Axe body spray, pre-paid wireless cell phone cards, Nintendo DS and X-Box video games, documents stated.
The group also was found in possession of more than $1,000 worth of stolen clothing from JC Penney, Victoria’s Secret, H&M and The Gap, documents stated
Goode also was charged with misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child, and second-degree harassment, which is a violation. She had a one month old child with her.
Durham was charged with misdemeanor second-degree criminal contempt and misdemeanor unlawfully possessing or selling noxious material. The later charge stemmed from allegedly macing two loss prevention officers at Walmart.
Mississippi man faces life in prison after $1.28 theft www.privateofficer.com
The can cost $1.28. Police in Vicksburg said Friday that 50-year-old Earl L. Scriven was arrested Wednesday after a grocery store manager said he saw Scriven put the can in his pocket and walk out.
Police Lt. Bobby Stewart said Scriven was charged with a felony because it was his third shoplifting offense. State law normally classes shoplifting as a misdemeanor for amounts under $500, unless it’s a third or subsequent offense.
Scriven was released from the Warren County Jail after posting $2,500 bond.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Scriven had a lawyer. A phone number for Scriven wasn’t immediately available.
Target security foils major theft in Pa. www.privateofficer.com
WEST POTTSGROVE PA Feb 6 2011 — Three men were foiled in an attempt to steal more than $1,000 worth of merchandise from the Target store at Upland Square Tuesday by a store employee, but managed to escape capture and are sought by police.
Police said they were contacted around 6 p.m. Feb. 1 about an attempted retail theft at the Target off Route 100 in the township. A loss prevention employee had noticed three men drive up to the store in a white Volvo sedan and park in the lot near the front entrance. Two Hispanic looking men got out of the car and came into the store, pushing a shopping cart. A black man wearing a white baseball cap and glasses followed some time later, also pushing a shopping cart, according to surveillance video.
Police said the men attempted to make it appear as if they weren’t together when they entered the store, but were seen by store security in proximity to each other in parts of the store.
Police said loss prevention grew suspicious of the men and followed and watched them by camera as they walked around the store, filling a shopping cart with merchandise. The two men who first entered the business appeared to be acting as lookouts while the third man placed different items from several departments into his cart, including xBox games and other high-end electronics, police said.
At one point during their time in the electronics section of the store, the black man with the white cap grabbed plastic Target store bags from a cash register area. The men put the merchandise in them to make it appear as if they had gone through the checkout line, police said.
Loss prevention continued to watch and follow the men as they independently moved throughout the store and toward the Starbucks at the front of the store, near the front door and past the cashier area, police said.
The two alleged lookouts left first, without a shopping cart, getting back into the Volvo in the parking lot, police said.
When the third man pushing the shopping cart entered the vestibule between the store’s front doors, the loss prevention officer gave chase, police said.
Loss prevention cannot stop or accuse someone for committing retail theft until they have entered a certain area of the store, past the cash registers, police were told, which is why the man could not be stopped until he was seen leaving the store with the merchandise.
To escape the security employee, the theft suspect overturned the shopping cart, then fled toward the white Volvo, store surveillance video shows. The white Volvo was then seen leaving the parking lot.
The license plate number was not visable to store security cameras focused on the parking lot, police said, and the store employee who attempted to stop the man leaving with the shopping cart did not see it either, police said.
The total cost of the merchandise recovered by store employees was valued at $1,106, police said.
Police suspect the men are still in the Pottstown area and are asking the public to help identify them based on surveillance video, available at http://www.pottsmerc.com/news/video, and photos taken by store security.
If anyone recognizes the men in the videos or photos, they are asked to contact West Pottsgrove police at 610-323-2090.
Source:The Mercury
Macy employee steals $60,000 worth of makeup www.privateofficer.com
Daly City CA Feb 6 2011 A Macy’s employee has been arrested on suspicion of stealing $60,000 worth of makeup from the retailer’s stores in Daly City and San Francisco.
Police say 31-year-old Carlos Gacula was detained by store security on Tuesday as he tried to walk out of a Macy’s store in Daly City with 90 tubes of MAC lipstick worth $1,300.
He allegedly later acknowledged having taken about $40,000 in cosmetics from the Daly City store and another $20,000 from the store in San Francisco’s Union Square over the course of a year while working in the stock room.
Police say Gacula told investigators he was having financial problems. He allegedly sold the makeup to friends and at an outdoor market in San Francisco.
The San Mateo County Times reports that Gacula was booked on charges including embezzlement and grand theft.
Source:www.sfgate.com
Man dies fighting nightclub security www.privateofficer.com
WARREN OH Feb 6 2011 – A man who witnesses say egged on an employee at a North Park Avenue bar died early Friday morning following a fight.
Kevin Gadley, 36, who has a Newton Falls address listed on police reports, died at Trumbull Memorial Hospital after he was involved in a fight at the Paradise Bar, 2261 N. Park Ave., about 11:15 p.m. Thursday.
Police spokesman Sgt. Jeff Cole said detectives are waiting to hear from the coroner before treating the death as a homicide. A spokeswoman for Trumbull County Coroner Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk said he didn’t get to perform the autopsy Friday.
If ruled a homicide, it would be the second one in the city this week and this year.
Members of Gadley’s family gathered at the Warren home of his father said they didn’t want to comment Friday because they didn’t yet know what happened.
A message was left on a number listed as being Gadley’s.
An employee, Kenny McAllister, called 911 and said he was in a fight with Gadley, who McAllister said was once a bouncer at the bar.
”He took a swing at me and I hit him,” McAllister told a dispatcher. ”I knocked him the hell out. He’s been lying here for five minutes.
”I knocked him cold. I need an ambulance and we need to file charges on how he was acting towards our patrons before he started with me.”
Efforts to reach McAllister Friday were not successful. There is no listing in the phone book and an employee at the bar said no one would be commenting.
The disc jockey at the bar told police he saw Gadley come in about 9 p.m. and try to pick a fight with the current bouncer, and that he was trying to avoid Gadley. Gadley followed the bouncer around and kept bumping him with his stomach, the witness said.
Another witness said that Gadley hit the bouncer and the bouncer hit Gadley back before the two fell to the ground. The bouncer got up and said he thought Gadley had too much to drink because Gadley continued to lie on the ground, the witness said.
McAllister told police he tried to avoid Gadley, but Gadley slapped him and he punched him back. He cut his knuckle while hitting Gadley several times before Gadley fell down.
A bartender told police that Gadley became upset when she refused to serve him because he was too drunk and that Gadley hit the bouncer first.
Police records show officers have been called to the address 33 times in the past year, including six times since the start of the new year.
The bar at one time was known as Benji Brown’s and was declared a nuisance after numerous complaints from citizens about illegal activity there. It was shuttered after its former owner was named in a criminal indictment. It reopened as the Paradise Bar in 2009.
No one at the bar would comment Friday.
Police still have no leads in a homicide reported Monday, where 20-year-old Sharmaine Delaney, 1380 Fifth St. S.W., was found shot to death in her apartment. Her death was the city’s first homicide since a double homicide last May.
Source:Tribune-Chronicle
Security guard shoots-kills man in Alabama www.privateofficer.com
Montgomery police say that a security guard working at the Entec gas station near the Waugh exit off Interstate 85 late Thursday night, shot and killed a man.
The security guard, who was an off-duty deputy sheriff got into an altercation with the man but police will not say exactly what it was over.
Police also have not released the victim or the deputy sheriff’s name or any other details of the shooting at this time.
Montgomery County sheriff’s office has confirmed that the security officer was an employee of their department but also would release no other details.
Security officer shot 5 times during robbery www.privateofficer.com
EAST ST. LOUIS IL Feb 6 2011 — A 23-year-old security guard was shot multiple times as he tried to drive away from a group of young people who tried to rob him.
Detective Michael Floore said the shooting happened at 10:26 p.m. Thursday.
The victim said he was working security for KLM Security. His post was at Top Metal Buyers at 808 Walnut Ave., Floore said.
The guard was sitting in his personal vehicle when three to four people approached the vehicle with a gun. They told him that he might as well give it up, Floore said.
“The victim tried to put his car in gear to drive away. He was shot five times,” Floore said.
The victim, whose name was not released, was taken to the hospital by his girlfriend. Floore said he is in stable condition.
There are no suspects at this point.
Detailed descriptions of the suspected shooters were not available.
KLM Security owner Kim L. McAfee said: “It’s senseless. People are out working, trying to make a living. This man has a family and kids. He could be related to any one of the suspects. They don’t know who is inside of a car.”
He also said he notified other security companies about the shooting “so they’ll be on the lookout and make sure they are doing all they can to be safe.”
McAfee, who is a part-time Washington Park police officer, was grateful for the response time of the East St. Louis Police Department. “For them to be shorthanded, they sure did respond quickly,” he said. The city laid off 16 police officers Jan. 1.
Anyone with any information regarding this shooting is urged to call the East St. Louis Police Department at 482-6700.
Source:www.bnd.com
Gulfport Police capture pharmacy robber www.privateofficer.com
GULFPORT, MS Feb 6 2011 – A Gulfport man is in jail after being accused of holding up a coast pharmacy. On Saturday morning, Gulfport police arrested Linden C. Rudisill, 23, and charged him with armed robbery.
Police responded to a call from French Drug Co. on Pass Road around 11:30 am. Officers were nearby directing traffic because of a power outage in the Courthouse Road area. Because of that, officers say they were able to take Rudisill into custody shortly after he exited the store.
Officers say Rudisill allegedly entered the store, produced a knife, and demanded narcotics.
French’s Drug Co. sales clerk Vicky Litz talked to WLOX about the experience.
Litz said the man approached her at the counter. She said “He told me ‘Ma’am, I don’t want to hurt anybody. I just want some Oxycontin or some Methadone. That’s when I looked down and saw the knife.”
Gulfport police say Rudisill is in the Harrison County Adult Detention Facility under a $100,000.00 bond set by Justice Court Judge Louise Ladner.
Source:WLOX
Nicholls State University Police Officer Killed in Crash www.privateofficer.com
THIBODAUX LA Feb 6 2011 — A Nicholls State University Police officer was killed this morning after he drove his car into a brick wall, State Police said.
Joseph Suitt, 30, of Thibodaux, was pronounced dead after being taken to Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, State Police said. Suitt had worked for Nicholls Police for five years.
Police said Suitt, driving a 2007 Hyundai Tuscon, was coming down Menard Street at 7 a.m. Instead of taking a right on Audubon Avenue, Suitt went straight and crashed into the brick wall of the Archives and Historical Research Center of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux building on campus, police said.
Suitt was not wearing his seat belt, police said.
Suitt was allegedly heading to the Nicholls Police Department for work. Nicholls President Stephen Hulbert said Suitt was a “wonderful man” who was well-liked by the community.
Source:homastoday
