NEW YORK (AP) - New York City office workers who got carried away during the Yankees victory parade Friday apparently began tossing files and documents out the window when they couldn't get their hands on confetti.
Auditor Damian Salo attended the Manhattan parade. He tells The New York Post he found all sorts of personal financial documents in the mountains of shredded paper tossed from skyscrapers as the players rode up Broadway.
They included pay stubs, banking data, law firm memos and even some court files.
The founder of one financial firm, Alan Sarroff, says his company reprimanded one "overzealous" employee for throwing records out the window that should have been shredded.
Ticker-tape parades on Broadway are a New York tradition.
Alleged Ohio serial killer rare among mass killers
by bugs
Alleged Ohio serial killer rare among mass killers
Email this Story
Nov 7, 4:25 PM (ET)
By JOHN SEEWER and ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
CLEVELAND (AP) - Authorities say Anthony Sowell lured women into his home in a busy neighborhood, killed them - most by strangulation - and scattered their remains throughout the inside and buried some in the backyard.
Such brazenness defies logic, but experts identify a narrow subcategory of serial killers, including the 1893 Chicago Fair killer, Dr. H.H. Holmes, and Milwaukee cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, who hunt from home.
"These types are so rare that you can't make a summary estimation as to why or what went wrong or anything," said Robert Keppel, a national serial-killer expert who investigated serial killer Ted Bundy in Washington state in the 1970s.
"There's just not a whole lot of these folks running around the world," he said.
Sowell had the perfect lair.
His home and backyard - a burial site for five victims - were shielded by an empty home to the left and the windowless brick wall of a sausage company on the right.
Anytime the stench of decaying bodies blew over the street, neighbors blamed the meat processing next door.
His house stood out only because it was one of the nicest on a block dotted by homes with peeling paint and broken windows, some of them vacant.
It looked safe.
Sowell often sat on the front steps, sipping beer out of a bottle and greeting residents passing by on their way to the corner store that was just steps away for alcohol, snacks and cigarettes.
Neighbors say he'd offer a few the chance to get high.
Sowell's alleged approach reflects an obvious point, said forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill: the potential role of mental illness in such unusual behavior.
"The fact that they would dirty their own nest, as it were, is peculiar to me and suggests a level of mental illness or sickness," said Berrill, director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science.
Tanja Doss told The Associated Press that when she went up to Sowell's third-floor bedroom for a drink last April, he attacked her. "I'm sitting on the corner of the bed and he just leaped up and came over and started choking me," she said.
She said she escaped the next morning when he left for the store.
When people think of serial killers, they imagine predators like Bundy, who stalked women and killed women in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and finally Florida.
Or Gary Ridgway, dubbed the Green River killer, who pleaded guilty to the deaths of 48 women, many of them found in or near Washington State's Green River.
But some of history's most notorious serial killers literally worked close to home.
Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, built a "World's Fair Hotel" he used to lure women to their death during the 1893 World's Fair, a series of crimes recounted in the 2004 best-seller, "Devil in the White City."
While Holmes confessed at one point to killing 27 people, the true number of victims is unknown; some authorities placed it as high as 200.
In Houston, Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks killed 27 boys and young men in a torture-murder ring in Houston from 1969 to 1971. Police found a plywood "torture board" in Corll's home used to torment many of his victims before they were killed.
In Illinois, John Wayne Gacy, a building contractor and amateur clown, was convicted of luring 33 young men and boys to his Chicago area home for sex and strangling them between 1972 and 1978. Most were buried in a crawl space under the home; four others were dumped in rivers. Gacy was executed in 1994.
In Milwaukee, Dahmer, a former candy factory worker, confessed to killing and dismembering 17 people since 1978, some of whom he mutilated and cannibalized. His victims included 11 males whose remains were found in his apartment.
Dahmer was serving a series of life sentences when he was killed by another inmate at a Wisconsin prison in 1994.
The crimes that Sowell is accused of put him in the same category as Gacy and Dahmer, said Jack Levin, a Northeastern University criminologist.
At the same time, the Cleveland murders resemble the more general portrait of a serial killer who doesn't stray far from his comfort zone.
"They never leave town. They never travel to another state. They stay close to home, where they're familiar with the victims and escape routes and dump sites," Levin said.
Hunting from home may have been easier because of the marginal lives led by Sowell's alleged victims. All four of the Cleveland women identified until now battled addiction in their lives.
It wasn't unusual for some of them to disappear for a week or two and then return.
Naticia Duncan, who lives a few houses away from Sowell, fears that her friend, Kimberly Sharp, may be one of the victims. Sharp would often stay at Duncan's house, do her laundry and then leave when she met a new man.
"I'd see her a month later, then she'd do it again," Duncan said. "Then I never saw her again."
Police remain at Sowell's house for now but investigators say they have no immediate plans to search for more remains.
Sowell, 50, remained in jail Saturday on a $5 million bond on charges of rape and aggravated murder.
Across the street Saturday, the number of fliers on a makeshift memorial wall with pictures of missing women continued to grow.
Dale Hunter taped a piece of paper with two photographs of his sister, Amy Hunter, on the missing person's board Saturday.
Hunter said she used to stay with friends in the area and knows that she drank beer with Sowell in his house. He fears the worst.
"She was real comfortable in this neighborhood," said Hunter. "I dropped her off here a few times."
---
Associated Press Writer Vicki Smith contributed to this report.
Turkey Meatballs with Spinach, Bacon & Cream Sauce
1 pound ground turkey
1 bag 3.5 oz crushed bbq pork rinds
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
2 cups spinach
2 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
Directions
Mix turkey, pork rinds, eggs, rosemary, oregano, cayenne and garlic salt. Cook meatballs. In separate pan, wilt spinach in 1/4 cup of water. Drain and add bacon. Add cream and parmesan and reduce. When reduced pour over meatballs.
Nutritional Facts
Mercy (Repeat)
NBC: Saturday, November 7 7:00 PM
Drama, Medical
You Lost Me With the Cinder Block
Veronica tries to save a pregnant woman in the aftermath of a car wreck; Dr. Harris calls for a hearing to determine Veronica's future at Mercy Hospital; Sonia helps a sleepwalking patient.
College Football
ABC: Saturday, November 7 7:00 PM
Sports event, Football
Teams TBA
Cops (New)
FOX: Saturday, November 7 7:00 PM
Reality, Crime
Dangerous Arrests
Las Vegas officers respond to a bank robbery that leads to a car chase; officers find a man passed out in his truck while at a traffic light.
Cops (Repeat)
FOX: Saturday, November 7 7:30 PM
Reality, Crime
From Bad to Worse
A high-speed pursuit ensues when a California police officer spots a vehicle reportedly used in an armed robbery; deputies in Seattle use a taser to apprehend a known offender.
NCIS: Los Angeles (Repeat)
CBS: Saturday, November 7 7:00 PM
Crime drama, Action, Adventure, Mystery
The Only Easy Day
Sam learns that his former Navy SEAL colleagues are involved in the case of a murdered drug dealer.
Law & Order (Repeat)
NBC: Saturday, November 7 8:00 PM
Crime drama
Just a Girl in the World
Detectives find that DNA evidence seems to link the murder of a CSU investigator and an attack on a young journalist (Camille Chen).
America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back (New)
FOX: Saturday, November 7 8:00 PM
Reality, Crime
Seven Minutes of Murder Special Edition
A murderous afternoon in Berkeley, Calif., leaves three people dead in a span of seven minutes; new developments in San Francisco's notorious Zodiac Killer case.
Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers
CBS: Saturday, November 7 8:00 PM
Sports event, Mixed martial arts
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers, heavyweight match; Jake Shields vs. Jason Miller, middleweight title; Gegard Mousasi vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjo; Fabricio Werdum vs. Antonio Silva. From Chicago.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Repeat)
NBC: Saturday, November 7 9:00 PM
Crime drama
Spooked
When a young couple is found dead in the back of a padlocked truck, detectives discover the male victim was connected to a Mexican drug cartel.
Fort Hood, community mourn shooting victims
Email this Story
Nov 7, 7:34 AM (ET)
By BRIAN SKOLOFF and ANGELA K. BROWN
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FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) - A chaplain exhorted hundreds of mourners gathered at a candlelight vigil to not give up hope as Fort Hood and its surrounding community looked to each other for comfort after an Army psychiatrist allegedly went on a deadly shooting spree at the military base.
A grief counseling center was set up Friday at the Killeen Community Center to help residents struggling to make sense of one of the worst mass shootings ever on a base in the United States. At least 13 people died and more than two dozen were wounded in the attack a day earlier.
The alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was wounded and taken into custody after a gunfire exchange with two civilian police officers. At least 13 people died and more than two dozen were wounded.
Like other military installations nationwide, the bonds between Fort Hood and the town at its doorstep are tight. Town merchants depend on the soldiers who shop at their stores and eat at their restaurants. Locals show their appreciation and support for the troops, hoisting giant yellow ribbons and raising money for charities benefiting Fort Hood soldiers stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
"Most of our clientele are soldiers, so this affects everyone in the community," said James Carpenter, 34, a tattoo artist at Zombie Ink and a former soldier who had been stationed at Fort Hood before he left the Army in 2003. "Everyone is asking why and saying, 'I can't believe he did that.'"
Witnesses said Hasan stood on a desk and began firing after walking into the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, where troops who are about to be deployed or who are returning undergo medical screening. Those who weren't hit by direct fire were struck by rounds ricocheting off the desks and tile floor.
Officials say the gunman was stopped after two civilian police officers arrived on the scene and began a firefight with Hasan, who was hit four times including at least once in the torso.
Most of the shooting survivors remained hospitalized, many in intensive care. Hasan was transferred Friday to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Hood. Army officials late Friday gave no indication of his condition except to say he was "not able to converse."
Some who knew Hasan said he may have been struggling with a pending deployment to Afghanistan and faced pressure in his work with distressed soldiers, although authorities still did not have a motive.
Hasan's Palestinian uncle said his nephew loved America and wanted to serve his country.
Rafik Hamad, 64, told the Associated Press in El-Bireh in the West Bank that Hasan had been harassed by other soldiers because of his Muslim faith but that he was not angry.
Fort Hood spokesman Col. John Rossi said that the assailant fired more than 100 rounds and that his weapons were not military arms, but "privately owned weapons ... purchased locally."
Shock over the shootings persisted into Friday night, when hundreds attended a candlelight vigil in the first formal community gathering since the killings. Earlier in the day, a moment of silence was held at U.S. military installations as a show of respect for the victims, and 13 flag-draped coffins departed from Fort Hood for Dover Air Force Base and the military's mortuary based in Delaware.
At the vigil, husbands wrapped their arms around their wives, babies cried and old men in wheelchairs bowed their heads during the service at a post stadium.
The Army's chief chaplain, Douglas Carver, offered prayers and encouragement to those in attendance.
"Remember to keep breathing. ... Keep going," Carver told the crowd of several hundred, many dressed in fatigues and black berets.
The crowd sang "God Bless America" and "Amazing Grace" in the bleachers under the stadium lights. After about 20 minutes, the stadium went dark, the only light from camera flashes and surrounding buildings in the distance as candles were passed around the bleachers.
It was a tough night for Maj. Dan Walker, 34, who returned from Kuwait in June, his third deployment overseas.
"I've been to a lot of these in my career," Walker said as he walked through the dark parking lot after the service. "They definitely don't get any easier, and this one is probably one of the toughest ones just because it came so close to home.
"When you go to war, you expect it and understand it," he added. "But this is different. When you come home, you try to relax and live as normal a life as possible. You don't expect this."
Among the victims were Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago, who was pregnant and preparing to return home. Family members said Velez had recently returned from deployment in Iraq and had sought a lifelong career in the Army.
Pfc. Michael Pearson, 21, of the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, Ill., quit what he figured was a dead-end furniture company job to join the military about a year ago. Pearson's mother, Sheryll Pearson, said he joined the military because he was eager to serve his country and broaden his horizons.
Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis., joined the Army after the 2001 terrorist attacks and had vowed to take on Osama bin Laden, her mother, Jeri Krueger said. Amy Krueger arrived at Fort Hood on Tuesday and was scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan in December, her mother told the Herald Times Reporter of Manitowoc.
Michael Grant Cahill, a 62-year-old physician assistant, suffered a heart attack two weeks ago and returned to work at the base as a civilian employee after taking just one week off for recovery, said his daughter Keely Vanacker.
Cahill, of Cameron, Texas, helped treat soldiers returning from tours of duty or preparing for deployment. Often, Vanacker said, Cahill would walk young soldiers where they needed to go, just to make sure they got the right treatment.
"He loved his patients, and his patients loved him," said Vanacker, 33, the oldest of Cahill's three adult children. "He just felt his job was important."
---
Associated Press writers Caryn Rousseau in Bolingbrook, Ill., Robert Imrie in Wausau, Wis., Monica Rohr in Houston, Sophia Tareen, Michael Tarm and Amy Shafer in Chicago, and Dalia Nammari in El-Bireh in the West Bank contributed to this report.
George W. Bush visits wounded soldiers
Associated Press
Nov. 7, 2009, 8:23AM
FORT HOOD Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, visited wounded soldiers and their families near the site of the worst mass shooting on an Army post in the United States.
The Bushes made their private visit to Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center on Friday night. Bush spokesman David Sherzer said in an e-mail that the couple thanked Fort Hood's military leaders and hospital staff for the amazing care they are providing.
An Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is accused of killing 13 people and wounding 30 in a shooting rampage Thursday at a Soldier Readiness Processing Center on the post.
Hasan was wounded by a civilian police officer and was taken into custody.
Another attack leaves US Muslims fearing backlash
By ERIC GORSKI, AP Religion Writer Eric Gorski, Ap Religion Writer Sat Nov 7, 7:30 am ET
As word spread that a gunman had opened fire at Fort Hood leaving a trail of carnage, a chilling realization swept across the U.S. Muslim community: He has an Islamic name.
From a professor who just testified in Congress, to a White House adviser appearing before a Jewish group and a former Marine driving home from work, Muslims across the country were shocked, angry and afraid that the attack would erode efforts to erase anti-Islamic stereotypes.
Many Islamic leaders said the Fort Hood tragedy that left 13 dead and 30 wounded including the alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, could likely post the sternest test for U.S. Muslims since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"A lot of us work very hard for this country, to make America a better place," said Muqtedar Khan, a progressive Muslim scholar who has just given Congressional testimony on U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan before Thursday's attack. "And this one nut like Maj. Hasan comes along and in one crazy episode of a few seconds he undermines these years and years of hard work we are doing to make American Muslims part of the mainstream in the community."
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is a Muslim who attended his former mosque daily and had an "Allah is Love" bumper sticker on his car. Soldiers reported Friday that the shooter shouted "Allahu Akbar!" Arabic for "God is great!" during the rampage.
Other troubling details also emerged, including reports that authorities suspect Hasan posted online messages about suicide bombers and violence, was struggling with a pending deployment to Afghanistan and was being harassed in the Army for being a Muslim.
While a motive remains unclear, the confirmation of Hasan's faith alone prompted major Muslim groups and mosques to issue statements condemning the killings as contrary to Islam and praising the service of the many Muslim Americans in the U.S. military.
Of immediate concern was security at mosques Friday, Islam's main day of communal prayer.
In Washington, Chicago and elsewhere, mosques asked police for extra patrols. In Garden Grove, Calif., officers stood watch outside a mosque as a precaution.
Muslim leaders warned people to be vigilant and avoid exposing themselves unnecessarily including walking alone, said Hussam Ayloush, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Southern California.
"This is one of those moments where we have to sit and pray that most Americans will come out stronger, more united, and more tolerant," said Ayloush, adding that Muslim organizations have received dozens of death threats and hate e-mail.
At the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md., which Hasan attended before moving to Fort Hood, Imam Mohamed Abdullahi urged worshippers Friday to tell their non-Muslim neighbors that Islam was not responsible for the deaths. He also advised them to keep their tempers in check.
"Whenever we hear the name turns out to be Arabic or Muslim we feel a double shock" about such incidents. "And then we worry about backlash," said Imam Mostafa Al-Qazwini of the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County in Costa Mesa, Calif.
U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, an Indiana Democrat who is one of two Muslims serving in Congress, cautioned against focusing on the alleged shooter's religion and instead said the discussion should be about mental health issues.
"This is no way a reflection of Islam any more than Timothy McVeigh's actions are a reflection of Christianity," said Carson, who supervised an anti-terrorism unit in Indiana's Department of Homeland Security and comes from a family of Marines.
Eboo Patel, the executive director of Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, had just spoken at a Union of Reform Judaism conference in Toronto on Thursday night when a rabbi told him: "The guy had a Muslim name."
"I had just spoken from the tradition of Islam ... on the importance of interfaith cooperation and building Muslim-Jewish bridges," said Patel, who sits on a White House faith-based advisory board. "I wish that was viewed as reflective of Islam instead of a deranged lunatic who was acting only in the tradition of deranged lunacy, not in the tradition of any faith."
But other Muslims were weary of what has become a routine: a Muslim does something unspeakable, and Islamic organizations issue statements condemning it.
"Truth be told, we're getting a little exhausted because we've done this to death," said Robert Salaam of Maryland, a former Marine who converted to Islam shortly after the 9-11 attacks and now blogs and hosts a radio show on Muslim affairs. "We're apologizing for people we don't know."
Still, driving home from work listening to the news Thursday, Salaam thought: "God, I hope it's not a Muslim."
____
Associated Press writers David Dishneau in Silver Springs, Md.; Amy Taxin in Tustin, Calif.; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Jeff Karoub in Detroit; and Peter Prengaman in Atlanta contributed to this report.
New International Version
"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse."
King James Version
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
All of my Brothers and Sisters and their family and friends.
Especially the family of the ones kill.
(I said my brothers and sisters, I consider anyone who put that uniform on and serve their country are my brother and sisters,no matter what service, past, present and in the future. The bigest Family in the World.)
1637 Anne Hutchinson, the first female religious leader in the American colonies, was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy.
1874 The Republican party was first symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.
1893 The state of Colorado granted women the right to vote.
1916 Jeanette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
1929 The Museum of Modern Art in New York City opened to the public.
1940 The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state collapsed during a windstorm.
1944 President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first person to win a fourth term as president.
1973 New Jersey became the first state to permit girls to play on Little League baseball teams.
1991 Actor Paul Reubens, a.k.a. Pee Wee Herman, plead no contest to charges of indecent exposure. Reubens had been arrested in Sarasota, FL, for exposing himself in a theatre.
1999 Tiger Woods became the first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win four straight tournaments.
2000 Hillary Rodham Clinton made history as the first president's wife to win public office. The state of New York elected her to the U.S. Senate.
2001 The new .BIZ domain extension was officially launched.
2001 After a 16-month stoppage the Concorde resumed flying commercially.
Racism is just like a box of crayons--it comes in more than one color!!!
Reed....The Jackson, Campbell, Franklin camp. Norwood....The Unknown.... Well I have seen what the last 30 or so years have been, and all I can say is.....I don't fear the unknown.
People wake up, if someone can be so cruel to a dog and set him on fire. He then moves up to human being. They have NO regard for anybodies LIFE!!
Where is the Board of Ethics with KASIM REED? OR DOES IT EVEN MATTER? OF COURSE NOT !
A traditionally Democratic state? You must live in the State of Confusion!
The reason the boss walked by a copier and asked you to make copies; he/she probably doesn't know how to use it.
Send Brian Nichols to Washington, DC. He can get away with murder.
You Morehouse guys are just mad because you can't wear drag to class!
Tony Bennett sings "I lost my hubcaps...in south Atlanta".
Republicans don't want the job of governor, though they are all qualified to be governor.
My boss called me to her desk to take papers to the copier fo her so she could copy them, then said, "while your there, you make the copies".
We'll never leave Atlanta to move to Georgia.
Thanks white Atlantans, for calling Black folk thugs and such and then expecting them to vote for your white candidate which you say is more qualified.
Airplane Part Falls From Sky, Lands on New York Lawn
by BDB
Airplane Part Falls From Sky, Lands on New York Lawn
Friday, November 06, 2009
ROOSEVELT, N.Y. An airplane part fell from the sky and landed on the front lawn of a home on Long Island, New York. Authorities are looking into how it happened.
Residents called police Thursday evening to report a suspicious object on the home's lawn in Roosevelt.
Officers found a 3-foot-by-4-foot cone-shaped piece of metal. Investigators determined it had fallen from a commercial airplane.
Police didn't immediately say which airline owned the part.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. A Florida newlywed allegedly killed his bride and kidnapped a friend before surrendering to deputies after a dramatic six-hour standoff.
Twenty-three-year-old Charles Edwin Duke was taken Thursday into custody in Levy County. Investigators say he fatally shot 22-year-old Felicia Fine Duke in an argument at their Cedar Key home, then fled with a friend who was staying with them.
Authorities caught on after the friend, Justin White, secretly sent a cryptic text message to the victim's sister.
Duke finally called the sheriff himself, saying his wife's body was in a nearby hunting camp and he had a hostage.
The scene finally ended in a wilderness area where locals go mud-bogging. Duke asked to speak with his father, and surrendered after deputies found him and the two talked.
LONDON The reigning Miss England has relinquished her crown after being accused of a fight in a bar.
Pageant organizers say Rachel Christie has also withdrawn from next month's Miss World competition in South Africa.
They said in a statement that the 21-year-old heptathlete will now focus on clearing her name and training for the 2012 Olympics.
British newspapers reported that Christie got into a dustup with another beauty queen Miss Manchester Sara Beverley Jones in a nightclub earlier this week.
Greater Manchester Police said Friday that a 21-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of assault after an altercation at the city's Mansion nightclub on Monday. She was released on bail pending further enquiries.
Florida Special Needs Child, 3, Left on Bus for 6 Hours
by BDB
Florida Special Needs Child, 3, Left on Bus for 6 Hours
Friday, November 06, 2009
KISSIMMEE, Fla. Two former Osceola County school district employees face criminal charges after authorities say they accidentally left a 3-year-old special needs child in a bus for six hours.
The sheriff's office charged the bus driver, 66-year-old Benjamin Gonzalez, and the aide responsible for the child, 60-year-old Carmen Pacheco, with child neglect Thursday. A school district spokeswoman says both employees were suspended without pay and later resigned.
The young boy was found in the bus Tuesday afternoon. School officials called his mother and told her what had happened.
The boy appeared to be in good health, but the mother took him to the hospital as a precaution.
The state Department of Children and Families began investigating, which led to Thursday's arrests.
10-Year-Old Boy Tells 911 Operator He Shot Dad Out of Anger
by BDB
10-Year-Old Boy Tells 911 Operator He Shot Dad Out of Anger
Friday, November 06, 2009
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico A recording of a six-minute call to emergency dispatchers obtained Thursday by the Associated Press details the moments after a 10-year-old boy allegedly shot his father in the head with a shotgun.
"Just get a doctor over here!" the desperate boy begs the operator on the night of Aug. 27. "Please hurry up. It looks like he's dying."
His father, 42-year-old Bryon Hilburn, was on the floor inside, still breathing, when police arrived at the family's home in Belen, just south of Albuquerque. He died later that night at a hospital.
Now, the boy faces a charge of first-degree murder.
The district attorney filed charges against the boy Tuesday. He cannot face adult sanctions because New Mexico law says a child must be 14 or older to be tried as an adult for murder. The boy remains in the custody of his mother. His name is being withheld because of his age.
During the call, the boy's desperation and concern was interrupted at times with frustration as the operator tried to figure out what had happened.
"I need a doctor. My dad's dying," the boy first tells the operator. The boy gets confused when the operator asks for the home's address. He tells her he will check on the mailbox and tells her his father is bleeding badly and "he fell asleep."
Then in a panicked voice as he breathed heavily, the boy gets further agitated when asked his father's age.
"I don't know. Just come and get him out of here!" he demands.
When the operator asked the boy if he knew what happened, the boy told her he shot his father out of anger.
"I was so over my head. I shot him in the back of the head. I got so angry at him," the boy says two minutes into the call. "Oh, please hurry."
The boy's attention then turns to his sister.
"Don't worry," he gently tells the girl before telling the operator: "Oh, my sister's crying her head off ... I think I hear the sirens."
When asked where the gun is, the boy tells the operator it's in "my dad's gun closet."
The boy can then be heard yelling to officers who arrived at the scene.
"Hurry! My dad!" he shouts at them as the call ends.
Hilburn was divorced and had custody of the boy and his two siblings. The boy's siblings have been staying with relatives following the shooting.
The state's Children, Youth and Families Department reports that state officials received nine calls regarding the family on a department hot line used to report possible child abuse or neglect. Officials substantiated only one claim involving the boy's mother.
Computers, records seized at ACORN offices in La.
By CAIN BURDEAU
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS State investigators raided ACORN offices on Friday, taking away computer hard drives and documents as part of a probe into alleged embezzlement and tax fraud when the organization's national headquarters was based in New Orleans.
"This is an investigation of everything ACORN, the national organization, the local organization and all of its affiliated entities, specifically as it relates to any potential violations of Louisiana law," Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said.
ACORN staff on the scene declined to comment, but an attorney for the group said in a statement the raid was prompted by allegations that former ACORN employees had removed or altered electronic documents and may do so in the future.
Attorney Pamela Marple said ACORN was cooperating and called the raid exhaustive, saying investigators wanted "virtually every document in the possession of ACORN and any related entity."
The raid was the latest development for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Videotapes released recently showed ACORN employees offering tax advice to two people in Baltimore posing as a prostitute and her pimp. The videos led Congress and state governments to cut funding for ACORN.
State prosecutors said their probe into the New Orleans offices stemmed from allegations made last year by board members involving embezzlement at ACORN nearly a decade ago.
ACORN last year settled an internal dispute and a lawsuit involving accusations that Dale Rathke, the brother of the group's founder, Wade Rathke, made around $948,000 in improper credit card charges in 1999 and 2000. The Rathke family and a donor repaid the money and no charges were ever brought.
Last month, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, the father of David Caldwell, said he would step up an investigation into allegations that the embezzlement may have been as high as $5 million.
ACORN said the $5 million figure was "a worst-case scenario" for what the embezzlement potentially could cost the group.
For 33 years, ACORN's national headquarters was based in New Orleans after Wade Rathke moved here in the 1970s from Little Rock, Ark., where he started the organization. The embezzlement scandal led the organization to move its headquarters to Washington, D.C., earlier this year, a move that allowed the national organization to distance itself from the Rathkes.
David Caldwell said he did not know which former ACORN employees removed the computers.
"We're going to grab the stuff, make copies," he said, "and get it all back to them so whatever entities are doing business with them are able to do so."
___
Associated Press writer Janet McConnaughey contributed to this report.
California Dad Accused of Killing Baby Daughter, Driving Cross-Country With Body in Trash
by bugs
California Dad Accused of Killing Baby Daughter, Driving Cross-Country With Body in Trash
Friday , November 06, 2009
RIVERSIDE, Calif.
A man serving time for killing his infant son and trekking around the country with the child's body pleaded not guilty Friday to doing the same thing to his baby daughter.
Prosecutors contend that Jason Hann stuffed 2-month-old Montana Hann's corpse into a trash bag in 2001 then kept it in trailers and motorhomes for nine months as he and his girlfriend moved from state to state doing odd jobs.
The body was finally discovered in an Arkansas storage facility.
Hann, 34, pleaded not guilty in Indio Superior Court to murder and assaulting a child causing great bodily injury after being extradited from Kentucky, where he was serving time for killing his 6-week-old son 10 years ago.
Authorities said Hann had trekked around with the boy's body for 18 months.
Prosecutors in Riverside County were unsure if they would pursue the death penalty, district attorney's spokesman Michael Jeandron said.
It was unclear why it took so many years to bring charges against Hann in California involving the death of his daughter.
His attorney, Greg Johnson, said he had only been appointed by the court a day earlier and could not immediately comment.
Hann and the children's mother, Krissy Lynn Werntz, 29, were indicted by a Riverside County grand jury in September. Werntz previously pleaded not guilty.
The parents "should have been protecting them and nourishing them. It's a very sad case," Jeandron said.
A declaration in support of an arrest warrant said Hann told a Maine detective that he lost his temper and hit the girl in the head on Feb. 10, 2001, while the couple was living at a trailer park in Desert Hot Springs east of Los Angeles.
"Jason decided to keep Montana in a trash bag so they could keep her with them," according to the court declaration.
The couple eventually arrived in Arkansas and left the body in another trailer at a storage facility with the intent to return, the declaration said, citing Werntz.
The couple missed rental payments, however, and the managers sold their property. In February 2002, a man who bought the trailer found the girl's decomposed body wrapped in plastic bags, authorities said.
The couple was arrested two months later in Maine.
Hann told a Maine detective he was to blame for the death of his infant son Jason at a Shelburne, Vt., campground in 1999, the court declaration said.
"They kept the baby's remains inside a bowling ball bag and traveled the country with him for the next 18 months" before leaving it in a storage container in Lake Havasu, Ariz., when their daughter was born, according to the declaration.
In 2006, Hann pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Vermont and was sentenced to serve 27 to 30 years at a prison in Kentucky.
New Jersey Jury Doesn't Buy 'Too Fat to Kill' Defense
by bugs
New Jersey Jury Doesn't Buy 'Too Fat to Kill' Defense
Friday , November 06, 2009
HACKENSACK, N.J.
A New Jersey jury has rejected a Florida man's claims that he was too fat to kill and has convicted him of murdering his former son-in-law.
Edward Ates said he didn't have the energy to accurately shoot his former son-in-law and escape to Louisiana.
The 62-year-old was 285 pounds when Paul Duncsak was killed in 2006.
Prosecutors said Ates drove from Florida to Duncsak's home in Ramsey, New Jersey, climbed a staircase and shot the 40-year-old.
The victim and Ates' daughter were involved in a bitter custody dispute after their divorce.
Ates testified that he had no reason to want Duncsak dead and couldn't make such a drive that quick because of his weight.
The jury of eight women and four men reached the verdict on its second day of deliberations after a trial that lasted more than a month.
Young soldiers show heroism in Fort Hood tragedy
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By Dan Reed, USA TODAY
FORT WORTH, Texas Unlike many, maybe even most of the soldiers on this enormous military post, privates first class Marquest Smith and Jeffrey Pearsall had never seen combat before Thursday.
But the pair of 21-year-olds emerged from the tragic shootings of 43 soldiers and civilians here as bonafide combat heros.
Smith, from Fort Worth, possibly saved the lives of five soldiers and a civilian Fort Hood employee while repeatedly running back into the building where 39-year-old Army psychologist Maj. NidalMalik Hasan began a shooting spree that resulted in the deaths of 13 people.
Pearsall, of Houston, turned his five-year-old Ford F150 pickup into a makeshift ambulance and hauled five or six wounded soldier to the hospital, at least one of whom, he was told later by medical staff at Darnall Army Medical Center on the post, likely would not have survived had Pearsall not gotten him to the hospital so quickly.
"There's not just one or two heros in this, there's a whole bunch of heros," Pearsall said, referring to soldiers and civilian Department of the Army police officers who responded to the shootings and their bloody aftermath. Caring for wounded soldier amid chaos "is a job we're trained to do on the battlefield, and now it's a job, obviously we have to do here in the United States too."
Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey told reporters at a news conference here Friday afternoon that after visiting with Fort Hood's leaders, crime scene investigators and some of those who at the scene on Thursday, that the shootings were a "kick in the gut, not just for the Fort Hood community, but for the entire Army."
But Casey went on to tell how he'd heard stories of Army medics attending an on-post college graduation in the building next to where the shootings occurred "running to the sound of guns," of soldiers carrying the wounded to cover while Hasan was still on his rampage, and "of soldiers who were wounded while caring for other soldiers."
Neither Smith nor Pearsall were hurt in the shootings, at least not physically. But Smith narrowily avoided being shot several times.
When the first shots were fired inside the post's Soldier Readiness Center a former sports-themed restaurant and bar converted into a paperwork processing center for soldiers leaving for or returning from war Smith was sitting in a cubicle with a civilian employee going through his paperwork.
"We heard popping but we didn't know what it was so we just kept talking about my paperwork," said Smith. "Then we heard people running and somebody yelled 'gun!' "
Smith quickly closed the cubicle's sliding door and then hid with a civilian employee, a woman, under her desk. After hiding for a couple of minutes, a stray bullet penetrated the cubicle wall and went through the chair Smith had drawn up close to the desk for protection. The bullet apparently deflected downward, toward Smith's feet, where it lodged in the heel of his right boot. The civilian employee survived untouched.
When he let up for minute, Smith made a dash for a side door. "There were a couple of soldiers near the door, one was a major, and I pulled them outside," Smith said, "I don't know if they were wounded or not."
Then he went back inside, found two wounded soldiers and pulled them outside before going back in once again. But upon his second return into the building Smith, a tall, lanky former basketball player at Sam Houston High in Arlington, Texas, discovered that the shooter was less than 10 feet away. He turned and ran back toward the door.
"I just saw his back, but began running away," he said. "That's when I could hear and feel the bullets going past my head on either side and hitting the wall."
Once outside, Smith wasn't done. Pearsall, who Smith called his "battle buddy" had been waiting in his pickup for Smith to complete his paperwork, when he heard the shooting.
"I didn't know what it was at first, but then I saw people running out of the building, covered in blood. I told them to get in my truck," Pearsall said. "I got out and helped several more get in. They were pretty messed up. Blood was everywhere. A couple of medics then got in too. I probablly had five or six people back there, including the medics. Then right before I took off, PFC Smith jumped in."
But not for long. After about a mile, as the truck was nearing the on-post hospital, "PFC Smith realized we'd left one of our guys back there, so when I slowed down a little he jumped out and ran nearly a mile back there," Pearsall said.
Smith found the wounded soldier he was search for trying, without much success, to drive himself to the hospital in his own car. "I stopped him and threw him in the back seat and drove him to the hospital," he said.
But while both young soldiers escaped with nothing more than a small bullet hole in one boot heel, both say have been shaken badly.
"I didn't get any sleep last night," a visibly tired and upset Smith said. "My experience was terrifying. I never thought this could happpen at Fort Hood. I'm very distraught right now, and angry."
"I'm angry because I feel betrayed. He (Hasan) was one of our own and did this to our own family."
"We're soldiers' first and we did our jobs even though this happened to my family I'm going to do my job," he said.
Pearsall said the only good to come from the tragic event was witnissing his fellow soldiers rallying to the aid of the wounded. "It shows me that when I do go into combat everybody knows what to do."
Fort Hood suspect moved to San Antonio
Meanwhile, neighbors describe him as friendly, but a loner
San Antonio Express-New
Under the watch of armed military guards, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was moved to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio at about 3 p.m., a hospital spokesman said.
Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood on Thursday, was shot four times by a civilian police officer. He is in stable condition.
Medical center spokesman Dewey Mitchell couldn't provide details on the decision to transfer Hasan from an unnamed Central Texas hospital.
Thirty eight people, including the officer who shot Hasan, were wounded in the Fort Hood rampage, according to lawmakers who were briefed by military officials.
Sen. Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat, says Army briefers told senators the wounded included 37 soldiers and a Defense Department police officer.
Meanwhile, more details about Hasan are emerging.
Neighbors of the Fort Hood assailant said he was a loner and didn't like to be disturbed in his apartment.
But Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan also had a friendly, gentle side, according to residents of the Casa Del Norte Apartments, located just a short distance from the post.
I would say Hi, how are you doing?' And he'd say, I'm blessed. I'm doing OK,' said Alice Thompson, who manages the 28-unit complex with her husband, John.
She didn't learn until Thursday night, after Hasan's name was released by authorities as the accused killer of 13 people, that he had told his next-door neighbor he was going to deploy on Friday. He even gave the neighbor many of his personal possessions, and paid her to accept them, saying it would help him clear out his apartment.
John Thompson said Hasan, who moved into the No. 9 apartment upstairs last July, was insistent that no one enter to do repairs when he wasn't home. One time, someone did enter without his knowledge, and when Hasan found out later, he wasn't too happy, he said.
Thompson said he didn't know if Hasan was worried about someone interrupting his Muslim prayers, or about finding something that he didn't want anyone to know about.
Hasan had little in his apartment except a bed, microwave oven, card table and some simple chairs, Thompson said.
In the days prior to the shooting, Hasan began talking to his neighbor, Patricia Villa, who lives in No. 8, about giving her his possessions, from his bed to the microwaveable meals in his freezer. He was about to deploy, he told her.
I don't remember if he said Iraq or ... how do you say that other place (Afghanistan)? Villa said.
I said sure, why not? to Hasan's offer, she told reporters Friday.
Hasan also gave her his shirts, for Villa's husband, and even paid her $60 to accept them, his tables and other items he had no way of moving, other than throwing them away.
He just said he wanted to leave the apartment clean to keep the manager happy, Villa said.
On Thursday morning, she went over and offered him some tamales she'd made. He declined, saying he didn't eat meat. But when she explained that they were sweet tamales, made with pineapple and sugar, he accepted two of them.
And that was the last time I saw him, Villa said.
On Friday, some neighbors sat around in lawn chairs in the open courtyard between the two apartment buildings, not at all concerned about the reporters and photographers milling about and asking questions. It was a vastly different scene from the night before, when authorities had the complex evacuated and questioned some of the residents.
John Thompson said he didn't know yet Friday if he could take back custody of apartment No. 9, which has been searched by the FBI, Army investigators and a police bomb squad.
He said his heart goes out to the victims and their families. At the same time, he said it's hard to grasp how such an act could have been committed by someone who seemed like a real nice guy.
You don't know what's going on in someone's head, he said. You can't judge 'em. It's not our job to judge.
This report contains material from the Associated Press
It was great to see all of my wishes. Elle thanks for making me laugh with the 25, didn't you know. Also Mimi and Bugaboo I got your cards. And Lisa, great to see you posting again or maybe it's me who hasn't posted in awhile. Again, thanks for all of your blessings.
Munley is a civilian police officer with the Department of the Army and serves as a SWAT team member and firearms instructor for the department, Medley said. He said she joined the police force in January 2008 after serving in the Army.
Medley said the Army police department had been doing active shooter training as a precautionary measure since the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech University in which a student killed 32 others before taking his own life.
When you have an active shooter hurting people, our protocol is to move to the threat and eliminate it. That takes some courage and skill, he said. If there was a person there to respond, Kim Munley is the one we would want to be there.
Some of Munleys training in how to respond to a mass shooting came from instructors from a Texas State University-San Marcos program called Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training.
The program, known as ALERRT, teaches police officers and first responders how to engage active shooters, gunmen whose only intention is to kill.
Commander Terry Nichols of the San Marcos Police Department, who is also an ALERRT instructor, said Munley was part of a group of U.S. Department of the Army police officers who were trained by ALERRT instructors in Killeen. He said Munley attended a class in San Marcos as well.
First responders have to be ready to engage the shooter, thats what she did, Nichols said of Munley. She almost sacrificed her life to save others.
ALERRT has trained about 20,000 officers in building entry techniques and rescue and survival strategies, how to deal with explosive devices and in other methods to take on active shooters.
Patrol officers are taught the kind of tactics usually given only to SWAT and the military, including how to get past a barricaded door safely and how to work in low light. Part of the training simulates what its like to be fired upon in combat something many police officers never encounter until its actually happening,
The idea behind the training was to teach patrol officers how to to take on such shooters or at least minimize the damage until SWAT teams arrive. The methods were developed by members of the Hays County Sheriffs Department, who joined with Texas State in 2004 for research support.
ALERRT has a training facility near the San Marcos Municipal Airport. Officers take classes, fire weapons at a shooting range, practice breaching various types of doors and train in a makeshift house, complete with old furniture and wall decorations. Tuition for the two-day, 16-hour basic course in San Marcos is free, thanks to grant money.
The training we started in San Marcos was able to help this police officer stop violence, were very proud of that, Nichols said.
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