Archive
Armed guard killed by police after shooting CHP officer www.privateofficer.com
Sacramento CA Nov 15 2011 The man suspected of shooting a California Highway Patrol officer was a security guard licensed to carry a weapon on duty, according to a published report.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department identified the man involved in Sunday’s shooting as 68-year-old Richard Bernard Bisbee. He was later shot and killed by local police.
The Sacramento Bee on Monday cited state records showing the Elk Grove resident was registered as a security guard and allowed to carry a gun. Telephone and online directories give no home listing for him.
Authorities say Bisbee fired several rounds from a handgun at two CHP officers during a traffic stop on Highway 99 in Elk Grove, south of Sacramento. The officer is expected to recover after he was shot in the hip and left wrist.
Source:www.heraldextra.com
Shoplifter tries running down security officer www.privateofficer.com
A suspect in a attempted theft at Nordstrom in The Village at Corte Madera tried to pepper spray a security officer and then tried to hit him with her car during her getaway Saturday evening.
Security reported a grab-and-run theft just occurred. The suspect is a black, female adult in her 40s. Once the suspect made it to her car, she called out to two subjects to attack security while she also attempted to strike him with her vehicle.
The female suspect was last seen driving northbound on Redwood Highway and the other two subjects left on foot northbound on Redwood Highway. There were no injuries. Contact was made with the two subjects and it was determined they did not commit a crime and they were sent on their way.
The area was checked for the suspect and her vehicle, a gold ’91 Honda Accord, California license plate number 6SLE090. Units were unable to locate the subject.
Bomb found at Detroit airport www.privateofficer.com
DETROIT MI Nov 15 2011 – The Michigan State Police bomb squad was called Monday to investigate the discovery of an explosive device on the grounds of Oakland Southwest Airport in New Hudson.
The device was spotted by Oakland County Sheriff’s Department deputies investigating a report of fuel theft from an airplane.
The device was described as a plastic bottle with cotton sticking out of the top.
All-clear given at Allen Park…Bomb squad team members used a robot to open the bottle. They found it ws filled with fireworks powder. The bottle was removed from the area and was secured in an explosives storage trailer.
Deputies working with a K-9 unit dog did a sweep of the area in search of any other devices. None were found.
The investigation into the source of the device continues.
Drew University public safety officer assaulted www.privateofficer.com
Patrolman Anthony Maccario was contacted by Drew Public Safety Officers on Friday at 11:59 p.m.
The Drew officers said they had stopped three individuals on campus and had discovered they were not Drew Students. One of the three, Qawwee Harris, fled from the officers during questioning but was apprehended by a Drew University lieutenant who Harris allegedly punched in the face while he was being taken into custody.
Harris was charged with aggravated assault on a Drew public safety officer and criminal trespass on campus.
Also arrested were Richard Irving, 18, of Easton Pa., and Michael Irving, 20, of Temple Hills, Md., who were charged with criminal trespass.
All three were taken to police headquarters for processing. Richard Irving and Michael Irving were released pending a mandatory court appearance. Harris was released on $2,500 bail, pending a mandatory court appearance.
The Drew safety officer was taken to the hospital, treated for his injuries and later released.
Source:DailyRecord.com
Police arrested four dozen people after college football game www.privateofficer.com
Athens GA Nov 15 2011
Athensonline.com is reporting dozens of arrests during a week-end football game.
Athens-Clarke County and University of Georgia police arrested four dozen people on various alcohol-related charges overnight Saturday, according to Clarke County Jail records.
A mid-afternoon game with SEC rival Auburn was sure to bring some rowdiness to downtown Athens, but in all, 20 were booked into jail on underage drinking charges, seven on intoxication charges and a dozen others on disorderly conduct charges. Together with the Georgia State Patrol, local authorities charged 10 people with DUI in the hours after the game.
Some of the zaniness included:
• A 32-year-old man took offense when bouncers threw him out of a bar. The man backed up, took a running start and tried to punch the bouncer though a police officer was standing not far away watching. Instead of getting back into the bar, the man went to jail.
• An 18-year-old stood in the street, flipping off passengers in a cab and trying to start a fight with them. The teen landed behind bars on an underage consumption charge.
• A Crawfordville, Fla., man might have walked away without even a ticket, but ended up behind bars after he lied to a cop and then started cursing him. The officer said in a report that he asked the man if a bottle of beer he was carrying was open, planning only to tell him to pour it out. The man said the beer wasn’t open (a lie) and started to curse the officer when he wrote him a citation, so he ended up in jail on public intoxication and disorderly conduct charges.
• A 23-year-old university of Georgia student was arrested at a Lumpkin Street apartment after he and a friend refused to pay the cab fare. A police officer arrived at the apartment in the middle of the night to find three scared women locked in the running cab with pepper spray to defend themselves.
The driver and a passenger had been arguing outside the cab about the fare, they said. The passenger insisted the driver tried to double the price once they arrived at their destination, but the driver said the man refused to pay at all, hit him in the face with two $5 bills and threw a boot at him. The man was arrested for simple assault on the driver.
Airplane passenger arrested in theft of flight attendants cash www.privateofficer.com
Police met Iceland Air Flight 631 as it arrived at Logan International Airport about 5 p.m. Sunday, and arrested Torry Johnson of Gloucester , Mass. He is accused of taking the money and some foreign currency from the attendant’s purse.
Police say when the flight crew confronted Johnson, he returned the foreign currency but then locked himself in the plane’s bathroom, where police believe he flushed the cash down the commode.
Johnson was released from police custody Sunday evening. He is to be arraigned Monday. A phone number for Johnson could not immediately be found.
Source:huffpost.com
Hidalgo County constables could be eliminated www.privateofficer.com
Hidalgo County TX Nov 15 2011 Four deputy constables assigned to Precinct 5 put away their department-issued guns last week under a directive from Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra as the county sorts out questions about their office’s future.
Chief Deputy Constable Danny Marichalar Jr. instructed his deputies, who serve Delta residents, to complete paperwork and other office duties, taking them away from patrols, traffic control and other regular activities. It remains to be seen, however, whether those deputies will ever return to their work.
Hidalgo County commissioners are set to debate the future of Hidalgo County’s Precinct 5 offices Tuesday, with Guerra’s push to abolish the precinct in stark opposition to Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia’s desire to preserve it.
The debate is in part a byproduct of the legal limbo in which the precinct has found itself since former Constable Walo Bazan was convicted on felony theft charges, a problem compounded when Delta voters re-elected him despite his inability to actually serve in the office. But the turmoil is also a question about the necessity of having a precinct available to serve only a small fraction of residents in a corner of the county where their traditional responsibilities of serving court papers are less in need.
County commissioners will debate conflicting agenda items Tuesday that would either abolish the precinct altogether or preserve it under new leadership – a fight that is likely to inflame the political passions of Delta residents, who consider the Precinct 5 offices a unique opportunity to elect their own to county positions.
Marichalar, who has led the Precinct 5 Constable’s Office in Bazan’s absence, said his office has been marginalized for years by county inaction that has prevented it from fully serving its residents, leaving him with half his budgeted deputies and equipped with aging police cars that lack simple radar guns.
“If they recognized me as a constable and gave me a green light, we can start doing everything again,” Marichalar said. “If they shut us down, it’s the community that is going to be suffering.”
‘PRECINCT WITHIN A PRECINCT’
Guerra approached county commissioners in October with his request to ax Precinct 5 using a section of the state constitution that outlines how to eliminate county precincts.
Representing Edcouch, Elsa, La Villa and rural portions of northeast Hidalgo County, the Precinct 5 constable and justice of the peace are the only such offices not tied to a county commissioner’s precinct. Each other constable and justice of the peace office is connected in name and general geographic area to a county commissioner.
After further discussion on the topic last week, commissioners asked to place items on the agenda for Tuesday when they’ll decide whether to eliminate the precinct by redistricting it away. Commissioners could essentially approve new maps with districts for only four constables and justices of the peace rather than five, most likely incorporating Delta residents into the Weslaco-based Precinct 1 that has the second-lowest proportion of residents.
Guerra has justified his desire to eliminate the precinct by pointing to Bazan’s unclear status, poor performance by the embattled constable’s successors and the small population the office services.
Precinct 5 represents slightly more than 35,000 residents, compared with an average of about 185,000 residents who live in the county’s four other precincts, according to 2010 census figures. But the precinct also trails its neighbors in producing revenues, generating less than 2 percent of the $715,000 in fees collected this year by the county’s constable’s offices.
Guerra said the county’s “precinct within a precinct” arrangement is a budgetary waste when the county has been searching for ways to cut costs. He said the county can eliminate the Precinct 5 offices – and the salaries for its elected officials – by drawing the Delta into Precinct 1, leaving its current office open as a satellite location.
“The people are overrepresented by (elected officials) that don’t serve the number of residents that other constables do,” he said. “You don’t have the concentrated population where you would generate the fees from litigation like you do in an area like McAllen.”
Garcia counters that the standard for establishing a precinct office is “convenience of the residents.” As one of the county’s largest population centers located outside of its urban areas, the Delta needs law enforcement and justice of the peace court services, Garcia said. Dissolving the precinct would adversely affect Delta residents who are entitled to conveniently located services.
“Every time that someone in our county is impacted adversely in any way, it appears like it’s the Delta area,” Garcia said. “We can no longer keep doing it to them without an opportunity to be heard.”
WHO IS CONSTABLE?
Cameron County commissioners took a similar step to the one being considered here when they consolidated last week from seven constables to five. Before Cameron County commissioners approved the new redistricting map for the 2012 election on a split vote, the county had seven constables that served a total of 10 justice of the peace courts.
But Hidalgo County’s situation is complicated by the circumstances surrounding Bazan’s departure.
In October 2008, commissioners appointed Marichalar to the interim post after Bazan abruptly resigned from his fifth term to begin collecting his pension once the county cut off his salary and benefits. Bazan’s attorney pledged that the constable would re-assume the office months later for the term voters elected him to earlier that year despite his felony conviction.
Bazan was allowed to take the oath of office Jan. 1, 2009 – while Marichalar continued to run the office – until an appeals court confirmed his conviction in 2010 and formerly stripped him of his title.
Garcia said the court can appoint Marichalar to serve as interim constable until the 2012 elections. Marichalar is one of a host of candidates who have expressed interest in the Delta area constable’s seat.
Appointing an interim constable would also address questions about whether the four people working in the Precinct 5 office were properly deputized. The Precinct 5 deputy constables have not filed updated bonds — a financial guarantee that a public official will fulfill their duties — with the county Clerk’s Office as required.
But the deputies have authority to continue operating as law enforcement officers even though their elected official was convicted, said John Helenberg, the director of credentialing for the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education. TCLEOSE revoked Bazan’s peace officer license in 2008, prohibiting him from carrying a gun.
“Good or bad, (Bazan) holds the office until he’s voted out or removed from office,” Helenberg said. “They’re full law enforcement even though he’s in a bind.”
PRIMARY FUNCTION
Still, commissioners will decide whether the Precinct 5 offices are an archaic remnant past its time. Created in 1910 as one of eight constitutionally authorized precincts, Precinct 5 survived a redistricting round in 1972 when the county axed three other precincts.
Precinct 3 Constable Larry Gallardo Jr. said it’s hard to justify a need for Precinct 5 based solely on the civil process it serves. Gallardo, who represents 180,000 more residents than Precinct 5, serves more papers and collects almost as much revenue as Precincts 1, 2 and 5 do combined. Precinct 4 Constable Eddie Guerra tops the workload performed by all of the precincts by virtue of holding office near the county courthouse.
Gallardo, a former president of the state constable association, said Bazan is a “black eye” amid a growing push by state legislators to eliminate the constable’s office altogether. The push is driven by concerns constables have moved away from their traditional court-related duties toward traffic enforcement, patrol and other duties typically performed by sheriff’s deputies.
“Our primary function is to serve the JP courts and provide bailiffs,” he said. “Everything else should be secondary.”
In the Delta, Bazan gained widespread popularity by providing funeral escorts and directing traffic outside local schools. Marichalar, an employee with the office for 14 years, said his office provides security for high school football games, unlocks cars for Delta residents and responds to police calls when sheriff’s deputies are unavailable.
And the Precinct 5 deputies also fulfill their responsibilities to the court they’re assigned to serve with no issues, said Precinct 5 Justice of the Peace E. “Speedy” Jackson. Eliminating Precinct 5 would force Delta residents to travel to Weslaco for the services his court provides locally, such as small claims cases, birth and death certificates and traffic citations.
Jackson, who plans to retire at the end of this term after serving in the position for 24 years, said his precinct’s boundaries should be expanded to take on new residents rather than contracted away.
“The community has been served by this office for about a hundred years, so there definitely is a need here. It would be a loss to the community,” he said. “Whether it can be effectively served by another court, it’s hard for me to say.”
Source:themonitor.com
Glassport PA police officer’s wife commits suicide at police station www.privateofficer.com
GLASSPORT, Pa.Nov 15 2011 — Authorities have identified a woman who killed herself outside the Glassport police station as the wife of an officer.
Allegheny County detectives said Jennifer Piccini, 40, of Elizabeth, fatally shot herself Saturday night outside the station.
Piccini was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
County police Detective Andrew Sherman said police encountered Piccini in the parking lot, which is when she shot and killed herself.
Police said that Piccini died of a single gunshot wound to the head.
Her husband, whose name hasn’t been released, was on duty at the time, Bondy said.
No other information has been released.
School security officer passes away from brain aneurysm www.privateofficer.com
Nelson coached the junior varsity teams in football and boys’ basketball, and he mentored students through his work on campus as a security guard. He was 50.
Affectionately nicknamed “Rock” by those who knew him well, Nelson worked for 16 years at the Fort Lauderdale school and was known for his disciplinary approach and love for teaching sports.
Nelson made sure youngsters kept up with their school work in order to retain their eligibility to play sports for the Panthers.
Close friends said he was typically the first person to arrive at school.
“One morning, I thought I had him,” said a chuckling Ken Scott, a co-worker and fellow coach. “I got up really early and got to school by 5:15 a.m. I thought there was no way he would be there. But there was his car in the lot. I gave up after that.”
It was Nelson’s punctuality that signaled something was wrong when Nelson did not arrive to work on a Monday last month. When nobody heard from him, faculty members at Dillard began to worry.
Calls to his home were not answered, causing close friend Lee Williams to check on him and subsequently find his body.
“I never heard him get into an argument or raise his voice or say anything negative thing about anybody,” said longtime friend Archie Jones. “He was always trying to help somebody. He loved Dillard High School, and more importantly, he loved helping out kids.”
Youth football player raises eyebrows with selfless act
An unusual thing happened during a recent American Youth Football League 90-Pound Division game between the Coral Springs Chargers and Fort Lauderdale Jaguars.
In a sports world where touchdowns and winning are usually the only bottom line, Chargers’ player Dario Esposito raised eyebrows in the game’s latter stages.
With the 10-year-old Parkland resident already having scored several times in the decisive win, Esposito broke for the end zone in what appeared to be another certain touchdown.
But as he approached the goal line, the youngster pulled up and took a knee at the 1-yard line. It gave way for teammate Jason Beneby Jr. to score on a handoff up the middle for his first touchdown of the season.
During the game, Dario came up to me and said he wanted to do something for him,” said Coach Jason Beneby Sr. “I told him to just play football. If you deserve to score, then score.”
But Esposito had made up his mind not to score to give Beneby Jr. a shot at achieving a memorable moment.
The play caused so much confusion that it threw off the Chargers’ coaching staff.
Beneby Sr. said it appeared Dario had scored, so he instructed his kicking team to take the field for the extra point. But the referees said Esposito had stopped short.
“He told me that he knew what he was doing and that Jason deserved to score,” he said. “He said that (Beneby Jr.) was working hard, and he wanted to do it for him.”
Fundraiser staged to help ‘knock out’ child abuse
The Core Fitness & Performance facility in Coconut Creek recently hosted the “Let’s Knock Out Child Abuse” youth boxing event.
Source:sun sentinel
Nevada, Alabama deadliest state for women killed by men www.privateofficer.com
WASHINGTON DC Nov 15 2011 — Alabama had the second-highest rate of women killed by men during 2009, according to a study released recently by the Washington-based Violence Policy Center.
The study focused on single victim/single offender incidents.
The rate of 2.64 deaths per 100,000 population accounted for 64 women killed by a man during 2009, the last year for which FBI statistics were available, the institute said. Alabama’s rate was twice the national average of 1.25, according to the study.
Only Nevada, with a rate of 2.7 per 100,000, ranked higher. Louisiana’s rate of 1.99 per 100,000 ranked a distant third.
The rest of the top 10, in descending order, were Arizona, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, a tie between Hawaii and South Dakota, and Missouri, the study showed. Wyoming, with no instances of women killed by a male assailant, ranked 49th. Statistics for Florida were unavailable for the study.
Alabama’s list of victims included two women under age 18 and four over age 65, with the average age being 38. Along racial lines, the victims’ list split almost evenly, with 32 of the women white and 31 black.
For homicides in which the weapon could be identified, 80 percent, or 41 of 51, were killed by guns, 32 of those killed by handguns. Knives or other cutting weapons accounted for seven deaths, and blunt or bodily force accounted for three more.
For Alabama incidents in which the relationship between victim and killer could be established, 51 out of 52 died at the hands of a man they knew, while one was killed by a stranger, the study noted.
Of the 51 victims who knew their attacker, 34 were wives, ex-wives, common-law wives or girlfriends of the offenders, the institute said. For homicides in which circumstances could be established, 25 out of 26 were not related to any other felony, and 18 of these homicides involved arguments between victim and offender.
The trend of women killed by men acting alone continued in 2010 and 2011 in Mobile and Baldwin counties, according to Press-Register archives.
At least eight homicides in the two-county area since the beginning of 2010 fit the institute’s profile, the archives show.
Some of the cases constitute high-profile incidents, and at least three were homicides that did not have anything to do with domestic violence, according to the archives.
These cases include:
•The May 9, 2010, shooting death of Angel Downs outside her Gulf Shores home. Former Mobile County Commissioner Steve Nodine, with whom Downs had a long-standing affair, was tried in connection with her death, and the case ended in a mistrial. A retrial of the case is pending.
•The June 28, 2010, slaying of retired businesswoman Zoa White, who had been a campaign worker for former Gov. Bob Riley. She was beaten to death during a home invasion in Midtown, and Carlos Kennedy is awaiting trial.
•The July 24, 2010, slaying of Velma Ratley, whose home in Prichard was set on fire after she was killed. Raymond C. White was arrested Sept. 6 of this year and charged with murder and first-degree burglary.
•The April 10, 2010, death of Jeannete Romprey, 59, who was killed and her home set on fire in Grand Bay. Derek Tyler Horton, who was 18 at the time, was charged with murder.
•The May 11, 2010, shooting death of Wendy Stevens, 36, who was shot in front of her children in a vehicle at a west Mobile bank teller machine. Her estranged husband, Michael Berry, was charged.
•The June 9, 2010, death of Deborah Burton, who was found dead after a fire in her home on South Murray Heights Drive. Her husband, Jerome Burton, was charged with murder and arson.
•The Dec. 14, 2010, shooting death of Kimberly Mixon, who was found shot at her home on Bowman Court after her 4-year-old son called relatives about the shooting. Leonard Darnell Coleman was arrested Feb. 24.
•The Feb. 2, 2011, shooting death of Sherlene Orr, 40, who was slain after opening the door of her home on Belvedere Loop. Arthur Douglas Yelder was arrested in New Orleans on Feb. 22 and charged.
Lauderhill police officer arrested after shooting at other officers www.privateofficer.com
Davie Fla Nov 15 2011 Police in the line of duty may expect to be shot at by criminals, but not by a colleague.
A Lauderhill police officer allegedly shot at a uniformed colleague while she sat in her squad car on an off-duty detail Saturday night.
Then he drove away in his Chevy Silverado 1500 pickup truck, stopped at a restaurant about 15 miles away, and ordered a couple of slices of pizza to go before the Davie Police Department’s Special Response Team descended on him in the parking lot.
Police said Officer Kristopher John Bieger, 30, tried to shoot a female police officer who has not been identified. The shooter missed. Bieger now faces charges of attempted first-degree murder and discharging a firearm from a vehicle.
Bieger, a member of the Lauderhill police force for five years, was booked Sunday morning into the Broward County Main Jail, and has been suspended without pay, said Capt. Constance Stanley.
Lauderhill police did not release additional details about the shooting, or characterize the personal relationship between the officers, who worked the same shift.
While the victim was not injured, her patrol car suffered bullet damage from what might have been shots fired from a rifle, according to reports gleaned from police radio communications during the incident, which began about 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Inverness Plaza, near Northwest 56th Avenue and Oakland Park Boulevard, just west of Florida’s Turnpike.
After the shooting, Bieger drove to a Publix shopping center near the corner of Griffin and Volunteer roads, where he entered Donato’s Ristorante and ordered two slices of pizza.
“He was just a regular customer. . . . The guy was not threatening nobody,” said Donato DeLio, 60, owner of Donato’s Ristorante in Southwest Ranches.
After placing his order, Bieger walked outside, appearing agitated. Pacing, and at times crying and screaming into his cellphone as he spoke with an unidentified Lauderhill police officer, Bieger had to be fetched from the parking lot when his order was ready.
He paid, and went back outside, where he continued to pace in the parking lot while talking on his cellphone, DeLio said.
“I had no clue what had happened at the moment,” DeLio recalled.
Then customers began to call and cancel their orders, DeLio said. A delivery driver also called and said he could not return. Police had closed all access to the shopping center.
Moments later, the phone rang inside Donato’s.
It was the police, DeLio said, and they told him to lock the front door, stay away from the front windows, and move all his customers and employees to the rear of the restaurant.
Police had been watching Bieger as he spoke on his cellphone, and expressed concern that he might try to force the SWAT team to shoot him.
“We were in the back for two hours,” DeLio said. “Then the SWAT team came in through our back door.”
Sgt. Christopher Chastain of the Davie Police Department said Bieger was arrested without incident about 10:30 p.m.
Source:www.miamiherald.com
