The man who helped kill 10 people in the Washington, D.C. area in 2002, known as the D.C. sniper, has married.
Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the killings, was married during a ceremony at Red Onion State Prison in southwest Virginia, the Associated Press <a href="https://amp.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/10/lee-boyd-malvo-dc-sniper-gets-married-prison/">reported</a>. “Carmeta Albarus, who has served as an adviser and mentor for Malvo since testifying at his 2003 trial, confirmed the wedding took place earlier this month,” the outlet reported.
“Over the past 17 years, he has grown despite his conditions of confinement,” she told the AP. “He has grown into an adult, and has found love with a wonderful young lady. … It was a beautiful ceremony.”
The bride has not been identified
Back in October 2002, Malvo and John Allen Muhammad terrorized the nation’s capital and neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland during a terrifying killing spree that lasted three weeks and killed 10 people while critically wounding three more. Even before the sniper spree, the pair killed others during a crime spree that began in February 2002 as the two crossed the country. They murdered and burglarized people from Washington state to Louisiana before heading up the Washington, D.C. metro area for the sniper spree.
Muhammad, who was 41 at the time of the killings, was executed in 2009 for his role. Malvo was sentenced to life in prison. Earlier this year, Virginia passed a law that allowed criminals who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crime to seek parole after serving 20 years in prison, the AP reported. This new law would have made Malvo eligible for parole in 2024.
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/d-c-snipers-case-dismissed-by-supreme-court">reported</a>, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 2017 vacated three of Malvo’s life sentences in Virginia. The decision came years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that mandatory sentences of life without parole for juvenile offenders violated the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. More from The Daily Wire:
<blockquote>The Supreme Court heard Malvo’s case last fall. Attorneys for Malvo, now 35, argued that he should be resentenced in light of the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on juvenile offenders. The Supreme Case on Wednesday dismissed Malvo’s case.
“The one-sentence order, which was expected, comes two days after Virginia’s governor signed a bill making juvenile offenders who were sentenced to life imprisonment eligible for parole after serving 20 years. Both sides told the Supreme Court there was no reason to continue the case,” CNN reported.</blockquote>
Though Malvo received some relief in Virginia, he won’t be released from prison anytime soon. He still has three life sentences in Maryland for the people he killed there during his 2002 crime spree. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) released a statement saying the case was about more than just Malvo.
“He has counts in the state of Maryland so it would be a long time. But it’s not so much about him. It’s about the hundreds of people who are incarcerated right now and were tried as juveniles and we want them to have an opportunity for a second chance,” Northam said in the statement.

Lee Boyd Malvo

The Sniper Who Killed 10 People In Washington, DC Gets Married. In Prison.

Crime

Murder

Washington D.C.

Seventeen years ago, the Washington, D.C. metro area was terrorized for three weeks by sniper fire, which claimed the lives of 10 people and critically injured three others.
The culprits were John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the attacks. Muhammad was executed on November 10, 2009, while Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory sentences of life without parole for juvenile offenders violated the Eight Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, CNN <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/02/26/politics/supreme-court-lee-boyd-malvo-case-dc-sniper/index.html">reported</a>. In 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated the three life sentences Malvo received in Virginia based on the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling.
The Supreme Court heard Malvo’s case last fall. Attorneys for Malvo, now 35, argued that he should be resentenced in light of the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on juvenile offenders. The Supreme Case on Wednesday dismissed Malvo’s case.
“The one-sentence order, which was expected, comes two days after Virginia&#8217;s governor signed a bill making juvenile offenders who were sentenced to life imprisonment eligible for parole after serving 20 years. Both sides told the Supreme Court there was no reason to continue the case,” CNN reported.
Just because Malvo’s sentence in Virginia was reduced does not mean he will be getting out of prison anytime soon. He still has life sentences from Maryland for the people who were killed there during the 2002 attacks. More from CNN:
<blockquote>At oral arguments, Virginia argued that the sentence of life without parole could stand because Malvo&#8217;s sentence was discretionary, not mandatory.
Justice Elena Kagan had questioned, however, whether Virginia properly considered Malvo&#8217;s age. She pointed out that the 2012 decision, which she wrote, could be summarized in two words: &#8220;youth matters,&#8221; and that a sentencer must treat children differently from adult offenders.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, on the other hand, repeatedly questioned a lawyer for Malvo on the meaning of the court&#8217;s precedents and how they would impact cases where the judge or jury did not just consider a sentence of life without parole.</blockquote>
In response to the Supreme Court dismissing the case, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) released a statement saying the case is about more than just Malvo.
“He has counts in the state of Maryland so it would be a long time. But it’s not so much about him. It’s about the hundreds of people who are incarcerated right now and were tried as juveniles and we want them to have an opportunity for a second chance,” Northam said in the statement.
Fox 5 DC <a href="https://www.fox5dc.com/news/dc-sniper-case-dismissal-prompts-statement-from-virginia-gov-northam">reported</a> that former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, who prosecuted Malvo for his crimes in Maryland, made sure people knew Malvo was not getting released thanks to the latest ruling.
“Six people were murdered in Montgomery County and should have their day in court, was that we were worried and concerned about what might happen in Virginia down the road. And this has happened, so even in the event that Malvo were to be paroled, he would then have to serve six life sentences in Maryland,” Gansler said in his own statement, adding that Malvo is unlikely to be paroled and the Maryland sentences mean he’ll probably never leave prison.

Lee Malvo

D.C. Sniper’s Case Dismissed By Supreme Court

Supreme Court

In 1984, a woman was murdered at Torrey Pines State Beach in California. Claire Hough was just 14 years old when she was found dead on the beach after being strangled to death and having one of her breasts severed.
Her murder went unsolved for decades.
In 2012, police detective Michael Lambert joined the cold-case homicide unit and ordered DNA tests on Hough’s body, which couldn’t be conducted 28 years earlier. DNA from a man named Ronald Tatro was found in multiple places on Hough’s body. Tatro, however, drowned in 2011 and therefore could not be charged.
Another man’s DNA was also found in a small quantity of the vaginal swab taken during the girl’s autopsy, the San Diego Community News Group (SD News) <a href="http://www.sdnews.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Jury%2Bawards%2B%25246M%2Bto%2Bwidow%2Bof%2Bman%2Bfalsely%2Baccused%2Bof%2Bmurder%2B-%2520&amp;id=27703145">reported</a>. The DNA belonged to Kevin Brown, who worked as a crime lab employee at the time the sample was handled. SD News reported that crime lab employees testified at a trial for Brown’s widow’s wrongful death lawsuit against city police that in 1984, male lab employees “used their own dried semen samples as a control method” and did not always wear gloves when handling samples or thoroughly cleanse scissors.
Lambert, the detective working Hough’s cold case, wrote an affidavit asking a judge to authorize a search of Brown’s possessions. That affidavit did not mention that contamination could have resulted in Brown’s DNA being found on the victim. Deputy City Attorney Catherine Richardson said Lambert had been told contamination was ruled out as a possible reason for why Brown’s DNA was discovered on the victim, and he was never told contamination was possible.
&#8220;He had a distinguished career as a detective. He was an officer for almost 30 years,&#8221; Richardson argued at the trial.
She also said Brown never mentioned the fact that crime lab employees used their own semen as a control factor in tests when he was questioned about his DNA being found on Hough. When questioned Brown did say he had sex with a young girl in the early 1980’s who may have been named Claire. He said the sex occurred in a hotel, but police considered him a suspect. Brown allegedly called his old roommates from that time period to see if they remembered anything but then called back asking them not to tell police about anything that happened back then.
Police seized 14 boxes from Brown’s home, including family photos and recipes, a 1937 yearbook, and other mementos that had nothing to do with the case. Brown’s wife, Rebecca, who filed the wrongful death lawsuit, didn’t get the boxes back until after Kevin committed suicide in 2014. Just two days after his suicide, San Diego Police sent out a press release saying Brown had been linked to Hough’s murder. Rebecca filed the wrongful death lawsuit in 2015 and was awarded $6 million in damages for the way her husband had been treated. The individual officers included in the lawsuit – Lambert and detective Maura Mekenas-Parga, were only ordered to each pay $1 in damages.

DNA evidence

Man Kills Himself After Being Falsely Accused Of Murder. His Widow Just Got $6 Million.

false accusations

On Wednesday, former National Rugby League (NRL) player Rowan Baxter, 42, reportedly doused his estranged wife Hannah Baxter, 31, in gasoline and set her and their three children on fire to be burned alive in a car.
Hannah reportedly made it out of the car while engulfed in flames screaming that Rowan had poured gasoline on her as she fought to save her babies. Rowan, it has been reported, left the accident and died of self-inflected knife wounds in an apparent suicide.
Rowan, according to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8019461/Ex-footballer-shared-footage-play-fighting-kids-Brisbane-car-inferno-left-four-dead.html?fbclid=IwAR2yPLk9lJr0aislqsM6AzI7ExkCYSxb_TrpQOJsbaQqH-iUCvT7Y6diSh8">The Daily Mail</a>, set the family&#8217;s white SUV aflame on Wednesday morning at Camp Hill, in Brisbane, Australia. &#8220;Baxter survived the blast but stabbed himself in the chest on the sidewalk next to the car as locals desperately tried to free the children trapped inside,&#8221; the report outlined.
All three children, 6-year-old Aaliyah, 4-year-old Laianah, and 3-year-old Trey, perished on Wednesday. Hannah was brought to a hospital, but later succumbed to her injuries.
One witness, reported The Daily Mail, claimed Hannah screamed, &#8220;he&#8217;s poured petrol on me.&#8221;
&#8220;The former New Zealand Warriors player stabbed himself after the blast and begged first responders not to put out the flames on the car,&#8221; the report said.
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MOTHER DIES: Hannah Baxter, the mother badly burned in the deliberately lit Brisbane car fire which killed her three&#8230;
Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/10NewsAdl/">10 News First Adelaide</a> on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/10NewsAdl/photos/a.611472955584121/2912448478819879/?type=3">Wednesday, February 19, 2020</a></blockquote>
</div>
Det. Insp. Mark Thompson called the scene &#8220;horrific,&#8221; while speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/19/three-dead-including-children-after-car-allegedly-set-alight-in-brisbane">The Guardian</a> reported.
“It will be a horrific thing for police and emergency services to deal with in the coming days,” said Thompson.
“We’ve all got different experiences in life. I’ve seen some horrific scenes, this is up there with the [worst] of them,&#8221; he added.
“Preliminary investigations indicate the woman was driving the car and the man was in the front passenger seat prior to the incident,&#8221; a police report said, noting, &#8220;A man who assisted in rescuing the woman from the vehicle sustained burns and was transported to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital for treatment.”
According to The Daily Mail, Rowan posted a video to Facebook of himself playing with his children about a month ago:
<blockquote>
Baxter uploaded to his Facebook account about a month ago, the three children giggled as he took turns grabbing them by the neck and pushing them away from him.
Trey, who was still in diapers at the time, eventually grew tired of the game after having his head slammed into a bed and ran off camera in tears.
Baxter laughed and continued playing with his two older girls.
The video was met with messages of support from his friends, who said he was teaching his children to have a thick skin.
</blockquote>
Hannah and Rowan ran a gym together called <a href="http://integr8fit.com.au">Integr8</a> and even created a video, as seen below, to advertise their services. According to reporting from The Guardian, the gym stopped operating within the last few months.
&#8220;By far the best trainers I have ever experienced,&#8221; reads a review posted to the gym&#8217;s website from a woman named Erika. &#8220;They are so passionate about what they do and care so much about their members, and for their member to reach their goals.&#8221;
&#8220;I’ve been at Integr8 for 4 months now and love it more every week. From the moment I joined the welcome was warm and the vibe was like nothing I’d experienced,&#8221; praised another reviewer.
&#8220;Rowan and Hannah are top notch athletes with a wealth of knowledge in various areas of fitness,&#8221; a review from Sima said.
WATCH:
<iframe title="Introduction video" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nzQRczkRvp8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Rowan Baxter

‘Horrific’: Ex-Rugby Player Burns Alive Wife, Three Young Children: Report

Australia

An illegal alien who used a loophole to obtain a green card is now suspected of smothering 22 elderly people in Texas, most of whom were women.
Billy Chemirmir had posed as a maintenance worker at various senior living facilities throughout the Dallas-Forth Worth metro area between 2016 and 2018. In May 2019 he was finally arrested and charged with the deaths of at least a dozen elderly women, making him one of Texas’ most prolific serial killers.
Now Chemirmir is suspected of killing up to 22 elderly residents of Texas, mostly women, The Dallas Morning News <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2020/02/04/new-suits-in-billy-chemirmir-case-identify-two-more-alleged-victims-offer-new-details/">reported</a>. Two lawsuits were filed in the 4th County Court at Law in Dallas by three families alleging their loved ones were killed by Chemirmir and the retirement community where they lived, Preston Place Retirement Community, didn’t do enough to protect them.
One of the victims mentioned in the lawsuits is Miriam Nelson, who told staff at Preston Place that a man she did not recognize had entered her apartment. Two days later, she would be dead. Her son-in-law, former Dallas Cowboys safety Cliff Harris has since called for improved security at Preston Place.
“We made an assumption that it was safe,” Harris told the Morning News. “These ladies, these widows are the most vulnerable part of society. I feel like they were sitting ducks.
Nelson had told her family that a man believed to be Chemirmir entered her apartment claiming he needed to check for leaks. Nelson did not recognize him as one of the regular maintenance men, so she called the front office. It was the middle of a weekday, yet no one answered. The next morning her grandson complained to the management office. At the time, five women had already died under mysterious circumstances. The day after her grandson complained, Nelson was murdered.
“By the end of the month, Miriam’s family would discover the horrific and preventable reality about what happened on the last day of their mom’s life. They would discover that the same man who had accessed and robbed Miriam’s apartment on March 7, 2018 had returned two days later on March 9th. They would learn that he forced his way into Miriam’s apartment and forced Miriam into her bed. They would learn that he then placed a pillow over their mother’s face and held it down as Miriam struggled helplessly to breathe. They learned that, after he had killed Miriam, Chemirmir had scavenged her apartment to steal the fine jewelry he must have identified during his first visit,” the lawsuit stated.
Two other women – Mamie Dell Miya and another unnamed woman – were mentioned in the lawsuits. Chemirmir has not been charged with their deaths, but the Morning News reported that police reports included in the lawsuit show that authorities suspected Miya’s death may have been a capital murder case. If Chemirmir did indeed kill the 22 people that have been publicly linked to him, it would make him a more prolific serial killer than even Jeffrey Dahmer, who was proven to have killed 16 people. (For reference, John Wayne Gacy was proven to have killed 33 people).
Chemirmir has only been charged with 12 deaths so far, including seven from Preston Place. Chemirmir is alleged to have overstayed his tourist visa and then marrying an American woman as part of a sham marriage that allowed him to stay in the country. He had already been arrested for driving while under the influence and aggravated assault, which should have gotten him deported.
As for the retirement community where many of the murders took place, CBSDFW <a href="https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/02/05/families-of-women-allegedly-murdered-by-billy-chemirmir-file-suit-against-apartment-complex/">reported</a> that the lawsuit against Preston Place accused the retirement community of being “geared only toward in luring elderly residents to maximize occupancy and profits for their private equity owners and investors.”

Elderly woman

Illegal Alien Who Avoided Deportation Allegedly Smothered 22 Elderly People

Texas

Maesaiah Thabane, the 42-year-old first lady of Lesotho, the mountainous African nation that is completely encompassed by South Africa, turned herself in to police Tuesday for the 2017 murder of Lipolelo Thabane, the country’s former first lady and the estranged wife of the 80-year-old sitting prime minister, Thomas Thabane. 
According to the <a href="https://apnews.com/bf378c5758680242c10758a8b8d855f5">Associated Press</a>, Maesaiah Thabane fled the country last month after she was ordered to report for police questioning in connection with the death of Lipolelo Thabane, who was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40286150">mysteriously shot</a> to death in 2017 only days before the prime minister’s second inauguration. 
At the time of the Lipolelo Thabane’s death, Maesaiah Thabane was in an odd predicament: During 2015, the country’s court had ruled Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, despite having filed for divorce in 2012 against his estranged wife on the grounds of “malicious desertion,” was still legally married to her pending legal challenges put fourth by Lipolelo Thabane, reports the <a href="http://lestimes.com/thabanes-ex-wife-is-first-lady-high-court/">Lesotho Times</a>. 
As such, Lipolelo Thabane was still technically the real first lady, and Maesaiah Thabane was not legally entitled to any government benefits, reports the news outlet. 
In the ruling, Judge Molefi Makara prohibited Maesaiah Thabane from “performing any functions and exercising any rights vested” in the office of the first lady, and from receiving any government compensation, including access to a chauffeur, bodyguard, and healthcare, reports the news agency. Furthermore, any government benefits were to be directed to the prime minister’s estranged wife until the divorce case had been settled. 
According to the Associated Press, Prime Minister Thabane formally married Maesaiah Thabane approximately two months after Lipolelo Thabane was found dead. 
Mokete Paseka, the deputy commissioner of police, announced Tuesday that the first lady, who voluntarily turned herself into authorities, would be held in custody until formal charges were drafted, reports the news agency. Authorities had previously questioned Prime Minister Thabane himself, alleging that his cell phone was in contact with an undisclosed person who was near Lipolelo Thabane at the time she was killed. 
The first lady’s arrest comes amidst Prime Minister Thabane’s recent acknowledgment that he no longer has the energy to rule the country, and as such, plans to retire soon. His own party had previously called on him to leave office last July. 
In 2014, Prime Minister Thabane fled to South Africa amidst concerns that an army coup was threatening his life after he ousted a military leader. 
&#8220;I have been removed from control not by the people but by the armed forces, and that is illegal,&#8221; Thabane told the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28994193">BBC</a> from neighboring South Africa. &#8220;I came into South Africa this morning and I will return as soon as my life is not in danger. I will not go back to Lesotho to get killed.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-lesotho-coup/lesotho-pm-calls-for-regional-peace-force-after-coup-aide-idUKKBN0GW1TM20140902">Reuters</a>, the military denied staging a coup, but acknowledged making a strategic move against the police, who support the prime minister, for allegedly plotting to give weapons to a regional political faction. 
Thabane returned to Lesotho shortly after the military disruption with a South African official to help resolve the conflict.

LESOTHO-POLITICS-CRIME

African Nation’s First Lady Arrested For Murdering Former First Lady

Africa

Homicide

Police

A man who was convicted of murdering his partner by beating her with a hammer before fatally stabbing her with two knives in 2004 was given supervised release and given permission to “satiate his sexual needs.”
Then he <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7959179/Wife-murderer-freed-parole-satisfy-sexual-needs-kills-sex-worker.html">stabbed a 22-year-old sex worker</a> to death in a hotel room in January.
Eustachio Gallese, 51, turned himself in on January 22 and confessed to the murder of Marylène Lévesque in a Sainte-Foy district hotel room. He had been banned from visiting an erotic massage parlor where Lévesque worked after he had behaved violently with other women, but Lévesque agreed to meet Gallese at the hotel room.
As <a href="https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/daphne-bramham-allowing-paroled-murderers-to-visit-brothels-isnt-just-stupid-its-illegal-and-deadly?utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Facebook&amp;fbclid=IwAR1sX7Rz-YaNpqUmGNMonWVJcDn6456ktc3ZvGSegipfos3mDQxAhquj">The Vancouver Sun</a> reported, Gallese was convicted of conjugal violence in 1997, and in 2004, he murdered his 32-year-old partner, Chantal Deschênes, who had two daughters of her own.  In 2006, Gallese was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years, with a judgment in 2007 saying he was at high risk of committing violence against a partner. But that judgment was later reduced to a moderate risk; and later he was allowed to leave the prison if he was supervised.
In March 2019, Gallese was granted supervised release and released to a halfway house. In September, that release was extended for another six months.
<a href="https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/884xd3/sex-worker-killed-after-paroled-murderer-allowed-to-satisfy-sexual-needs">Vice</a> reported that Gallese discussed his sexual needs with case workers.  The written summary stated:
<blockquote>The hearing allowed us to realize you managed, and this with the approval of your case-management team (the people who prepare an offender for a release), relations with women that the board considers inappropriate. This strategy of managing your risk as it was presented and understood during the hearing paradoxically constitutes a worrying and significant risk factor …
Although you are still single and you say you aren’t ready to enter into a serious relationship with a woman, you are able to efficiently evaluate your needs and expectations towards women. During the hearing, your parole officer underlined a strategy that was developed with the goal that would allow you to meet women in order to meet your sexual needs.</blockquote>
The Conservative MP for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, Pierre Paul-Hus, wanted to know how the parole board could have allowed Gallese, &#8220;whom they knew had a problem with women, to obtain sexual services.&#8221; asking, &#8220;Can the minister tell the family why the board gave that permission to a man known to be violent?&#8221;
Quebec Minister of Justice Sonia Lebel has demanded some answers, wanting to know how Gallese got parole in the first place. She later tweeted, &#8220;We are satisfied that the federal Minister of Public Security has announced that an investigation will be held and that Quebeckers will get their questions answered.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Nous sommes satisfaits que le ministre fédéral de la Sécurité publique annonce la tenue d’une enquête et que les Québécoises et Québécois obtiendront des réponses à leurs questions. <a href="https://t.co/qAE7WFeNHn">https://t.co/qAE7WFeNHn</a>
&mdash; Sonia LeBel (@slebel19) <a href="https://twitter.com/slebel19/status/1221898715818008577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair stated, “In its September 2019 decision, the Parole Board explicitly opposed letting the accused visit massage parlours during his release.”
Sandra Wesley, executive director of the sex worker advocacy group Stella, was furious, saying that authorities “knew that this man, who was considered very dangerous to women, was not ready to have sexual relations with women, that he had a history of extreme violence toward women,” according to the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-wants-answers-on-how-moderate-risk-murder-suspect-made-parole">Montreal Gazette.</a>

Inside of a modern prison with open doors

Murderer Paroled, Given Permission To Satisfy His ‘Sexual Needs.’ Then He Murders A 22-Year-Old Woman.

Canada

When you think of the deadliest cities in America, you probably think of Detroit, Baltimore, maybe some place in New York and California.
It’s true that Detroit, Michigan and Baltimore, Maryland rank among America’s top five deadliest cities, but the other three on the list might surprise you. Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/deadliest-u-s-cities.amp">reported</a> on the most recent <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2018-crime-statistics-released-093019">crime statistics</a> from the FBI, which showed an estimated 16,214 murders in the U.S. in 2018 (2019 data is not available yet). Below are the top 5 deadliest cities in America:
5. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
The state capital of Louisiana “saw 35.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents in 2018, which is 10 places higher than Chicago&#8217;s murder rate. In total, 87 people were murdered in Baton Rouge in 2018,” Fox reported, adding that the number of murders in the city actually fell from 2017, which saw 106 murders.
4. New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana makes the list again. New Orleans in 2018 had a murder rate of 37.1 per 100,000, with 146 murders taking place in the city. NOLA.com, however, <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_5a55e4d0-d958-582f-af70-645af3ab9c0f.html">reported</a> that this was actually the “lowest annual murder toll since 1971, when there were 116 slayings.” The outlet reported that 2018 also marked the second year in a row the number of murders dropped. In 2016, the city suffered 174 murders, but that number dropped to 157 in 2017.
3. Detroit, Michigan
It’s no surprise that Detroit is on the list, and it’s not just murders that make it one of America’s most dangerous cities. The 2018 murder rate in Detroit was 38.9 per 100,000 people, but murders dropped slightly to 261, down from 267 in 2017, Fox reported.
The Detroit News <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/2019/09/30/detroit-crime-numbers-drop-again-but-still-fbis-most-violent-city/3787467002/">reported</a> that overall violent crime rate in the city decreased by 2% in 2018, though it still placed among the most dangerous cities with a rate of 2,008 violent crimes per 100,000. Violent crime includes murder, rape, assault, and robbery. There were a total of 13,478 violent crimes reported in Detroit in 2018.
2. Baltimore, Maryland
“Baltimore saw 51 homicides per 100,000 people in 2018, more than five times the national average, for a grand total of 309 homicide victims. For perspective that&#8217;s 20 more than were murdered in New York City the same year, despite having less than 10 percent of New York City&#8217;s population. Though Baltimore&#8217;s murder rate remained high, its overall crime rate dropped by nearly 60% between the mid 1990s and the mid 2010s,” Fox reported.
1. St. Louis, Missouri
Another city in a southern state makes the list. The murder rate in St. Louis was 60.9 per 100,000 in 2018, Fox reported. The city’s population is just 318,000, yet saw 186 murders that year.
The FBI statistics note that an estimated 1,206,836 violent crimes were reported in 2018, but noted this was a slight drop from the 2017 estimates and that robbery offenses fell by 12%, murder fell by 6.2%, and aggravated assault decreased by 0.4%. Rape reports, using a revised definition that allows more woman to make accusations, increased by 2.7%.

murder

America’s Top 5 Deadliest Cities Aren’t The Ones You’d Think

On Tuesday, a federal official blamed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for the murder of a 92-year-old Queens woman by an illegal immigrant, citing New York City’s “sanctuary policies” triggered the immigrant’s release after he had already been arrested on assault and weapon charges.
Thomas Decker, New York field-office director of enforcement and removal operations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, <a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-lodges-detainer-against-guyanese-national-arrested-murder-92-year-old-new-york">stated</a>:
<blockquote>It is made clear that New York City’s stance against honoring detainers is dangerously flawed. It was a deadly choice to release a man on an active ICE detainer back onto the streets after his first arrest included assault and weapon charges, and he now faces new charges, including murder. New York City’s sanctuary policies continue to threaten the safety of all residents of the five boroughs, as they repeatedly protect criminal aliens who show little regard for the laws of this nation.
In New York City alone, hundreds of arrestees are released each month with pending charges and/or convictions to return back into the communities where they committed their crimes, instead of being transferred into the custody of ICE. Clearly the politicians care more about criminal illegal aliens than the citizens they are elected to serve and protect.</blockquote>
On November 27, Reeaz Khan, 21, an illegal immigrant from Guyana, was arrested for allegedly slashing his father with a broken ceramic mug, prompting ICE to initiate a detainer request; Khan was charged with misdemeanor assault, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment, and released without bail after being slapped with a temporary order of protection for his dad, as <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/14/feds-blame-de-blasio-for-murder-sex-assault-of-92-year-old-woman/">The New York Post</a> reported.
On January 10, Khan was arrested for the sexual abuse and murder of Maria Fuertes, 92; Fuertes was found near death on a Richmond Hill sidewalk in the early morning of Jan. 6. The Post noted, “Fuertes had been lying in the 32-degree weather for about two hours after being sexually assaulted and strangled, law-enforcement sources have said.” Fuertes later died at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, having suffered a broken spine and rib fractures. Khan was charged with murder, sexual abuse, contact by forcible compulsion, and sexual abuse against a person incapable of consent.
The Post added that Fuertes “allegedly implicated himself before being arrested last Friday.” Before he was charged with the murder of Fuertes, Khan informed police he was only trying to help Fuertes on the ground when he “fell down, his belt broke, his pants fell down and his penis fell near her vagina,” but Assistant District Attorney Joseph Grasso said at Khan’s arraignment, “Defendant then stated that he did lift up her skirt and tried to put his penis inside of her.”
&#8220;The city’s detainer law and policy mandates that officials turn over to ICE only those who are convicted of violent and serious offenses, and only when ICE has met legal and due process requirements, according to a city official,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/14/nyregion/92-year-old-woman-queens-murder.html">The New York Times</a> noted. The NYPD said it “did not receive an ICE detainer” regarding Khan, but ICE spokeswoman Rachael Yong Yow noted a fax confirmation receipt of a detainer request sent to the NYPD’s Queens Central Booking unit at 7:41 a.m. on Nov. 27.
ICE stated:
<blockquote>ICE lodges detainers on individuals who have been arrested on criminal charges and who ICE has probable cause to believe are removable aliens. The detainer asks the other law enforcement agency to notify ICE in advance of release and to maintain custody of the alien for a brief period of time so that ICE can take custody of that person in a safe and secure setting upon release from that agency’s custody. When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders onto the streets, it undermines ICE’s ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission.</blockquote>
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Security Around New York City Increased After U.S. Missile Strike In Baghdad Kills Iranian Top General Qasem Soleimani

Feds Blame De Blasio For Murder Of 92-Year-Old Woman By Illegal Immigrant

Bill de Blasio

Illegal Immigration

New York City

Baltimore has registered a grim new record in its crime statistics. Over the holiday weekend, the city suffered its 343rd homicide of the year, surpassing its previous high of 342 and setting a new record for killings per capita.
After seeing declining numbers, homicides began to increase dramatically in 2015 following the infamous case of Freddie Gray, which some blame for encouraging a more &#8220;hands off&#8221; approach by law enforcement.
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&#8220;Baltimore police recorded the 343rd homicide of the year Saturday with the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old man in the Belair-Edison neighborhood,&#8221; <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-12-29-20191229-d2mxtvzxance7gwo2rre3lbteq-story.html">The Baltimore Sun</a> reports. &#8220;Shortly before 11 p.m., city officers found the man lying in the 4300 block of Dudley Ave. in an area south of Belair Road and two blocks from Herring Run Park. The man had been shot multiple times and later died in an area hospital.&#8221;
The outlet notes that the murder followed just two days without a fatal shooting in the city. The previous murder took place Thursday night.
As <a href="https://wtop.com/baltimore/2019/12/baltimore-breaks-city-record-for-killings-per-capita-in-2019/">The Associated Press</a> details, with its 343rd fatal shooting of the year, the city has now officially reached &#8220;a historically high homicide rate.&#8221;
&#8220;With just over 600,000 residents, the city hit a historically high homicide rate of about 57 per 100,000 people after recent relentless gunfire saw eight people shot — three fatally — in one day and nine others — one fatally — another day,&#8221; AP reported Friday. &#8220;The new rate eclipses that of 1993, when the city had a record 353 killings but was much more populous before years of population exodus.&#8221;
To highlight how dire the situation is in Baltimore, AP notes that New York City, which has a population of over 8 million compared to Baltimore&#8217;s 600,000 residents, had recorded 306 homicides through Dec. 15.
Baltimore&#8217;s previous record for the number of homicides in a year was 342, the number fatally shot in the city in both 2017 and 2015. Beginning in 2015, the city has recorded at least 300 homicides per year.
After seeing a decline in the murder rate, killings spiked dramatically in 2015, the same year that Freddie Gray, an African American Baltimore resident, died while in police custody. Gray&#8217;s death caused a massive uproar in the city, sparking protests and riots, in which police were reportedly told by the mayor to &#8220;stand down.&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/source-baltimore-mayor-ordered-police-to-stand-down">Fox News</a> reported at the time:
<blockquote>
Despite a firm denial by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a senior law enforcement source charges that she gave an order for police to stand down as riots broke out Monday night, raising more questions about whether some of the violence and looting could have been prevented.
The source, who is involved in the enforcement efforts, confirmed to Fox News there was a direct order from the mayor to her police chief Monday night, effectively tying the hands of officers as they were pelted with rocks and bottles.
Asked directly if the mayor was the one who gave that order, the source said: &#8220;You are God damn right it was.&#8221;</blockquote>
Many have blamed the fallout of the case for the increase in crime in the city, maintaining that the backlash against the police and the pressure from elected officials has resulted in a more &#8220;hands off&#8221; approach by officers.
Others, as AP explains, have blamed the spike in crime as the result of a confluence of factors, including access to illegal guns, the opioid epidemic, social inequalities, lack of jobs, and political incompetence.
H/T J<a href="https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2019/12/29/baltimore-succeeds-breaking-murder-record-century/">azz Shaw</a>
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Ceasfire Baltimore rally to stop gun violence

Baltimore Surpasses Highest Murder Rate Ever

Baltimore

The oh-so-very conscientious Middle East historians at Vox, who once landed themselves in hot water barely three months after website launch with the <a href="https://freebeacon.com/blog/in-praise-of-vox-media-max-fisher-and-zack-beauchamp/">dissemination of laughable fake news</a> about a purported <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2014/07/17/voxs-motto-should-be-explaining-the-news-incorrectly-repeatedly/">land bridge</a> connecting the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">Hamas</a>-controlled Gaza Strip with the biblical Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria (i.e., the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-yes-palestinian-state-far-more-dangerous-josh-hammer">&#8220;West Bank&#8221;</a>), are apparently <a href="https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2019/12/24/rashida-tlaib-would-no-doubt-be-very-pleased-with-voxs-inexcusably-dishonest-reporting-on-israel-and-israeli-jews/">up to it again</a>.
As highlighted by <a href="https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2019/12/24/rashida-tlaib-would-no-doubt-be-very-pleased-with-voxs-inexcusably-dishonest-reporting-on-israel-and-israeli-jews/">Twitchy</a>, Vox has written a piece about the post-Oslo Accords modern history of the city of Bethlehem that is, in the words of one venerable pro-Israel Twitter user, &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/AG_Conservative/status/1209497608122703872">inexcusably dishonest</a>.&#8221; And it is.
Seven years following 1993&#8217;s <a href="https://honestreporting.com/the-second-intifada-israeli-society-terrorized/">fateful</a> signing of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_I_Accord">Oslo I</a> between the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the late Palestinian-Arab unrepentant jihadist Yasser Arafat, Vox informs its readers, &#8220;tourism in Bethlehem &#8230; took a nosedive when the Israeli military invaded many of the West Bank’s major cities that were under Palestinian jurisdiction.&#8221; Vox continues: &#8220;As a political stalemate and expanding Israeli settlements led to the bloody Second Intifada, or uprising, the devastation and Israeli curfews kept tourists away; hotels closed and restaurants went out of business.&#8221;
This is not merely historical revisionism or tendentious distortion. It is an outright lie.
In reality, it was the terrorist Arafat who was singularly responsible for commencing the bloody Second Intifada — a four-plus-year sustained jihad during which over a thousand Israelis paid the ultimate price and thousands more were also wounded.
Although Arafat strategically waited to launch the Second Intifada until after then-Likud party prime minister candidate Ariel Sharon had the oh-so-shocking temerity to visit the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, in September 2000, it is now commonly known that Arafat had been planning the civilizational jihad at least since he rejected then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak&#8217;s <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/bill-clinton-palestinians-were-offered-temple-mount-in-2000/">exceedingly generous</a> &#8220;two-state solution&#8221; offer (96% of Judea and Samaria) at the U.S.-hosted Camp David Summit two months prior. The U.S. government&#8217;s own <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-mitchell-report-may-2001">Mitchell Report</a> on the subject, overseen by former Sen. George Mitchell (D-ME), made this quite clear (emphasis added):
<blockquote>&#8230; [T]he immediate catalyst for the violence was the breakdown of the Camp David negotiations on July 25, 2000 and the &#8220;widespread appreciation in the international community of Palestinian responsibility for the impasse.&#8221; In this view, Palestinian violence was planned by the PA leadership, and was aimed at &#8220;provoking and incurring Palestinian casualties as a means of regaining the diplomatic initiative.&#8221; &#8230; The Sharon visit [to the Temple Mount] did not cause the &#8220;[Second] Intifada.&#8221;</blockquote>
Lest there be any doubt as to which party was to blame for the negotiation breakdown at Camp David in 2000, furthermore, let us defer to then-U.S. President <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/23/israel3">Bill Clinton</a>: &#8220;[Arafat] did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all. He just kept saying no to every offer, never making any counterproposals of his own.&#8221;
In short, the unrepentant terrorist Arafat deliberately tanked the Camp David negotiations and used his own destruction of the possibility for a sustained peace as an excuse for launching a years-long bloody jihad to murder as many Israeli Jews as possible. Contra Vox&#8217;s despicable lying, all subsequent Israel Defense Forces (IDF) incursions into Palestinian-Arab strongholds in Judea and Samaria were in direct response to Arafat&#8217;s preplanned war. In short, it was Arafat&#8217;s deliberately beginning to kill Israeli civilians en masse that prompted the IDF&#8217;s military response.
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Vox apparently wants readers to think Israel invaded Bethlehem out of nowhere, and suggests the second intifada *followed* the invasion. 
Of course, that &quot;uprising&quot;—ie the murdering of Israeli civilians in cafes, buses, and markets—prompted the invasion of West Bank cities. <a href="https://t.co/lkMCaEvUho">pic.twitter.com/lkMCaEvUho</a>
&mdash; Gilead Ini (@GileadIni) <a href="https://twitter.com/GileadIni/status/1209496422778900480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The Second Intifada was a uniquely harrowing time to live in Israel. Here is how Matti Friedman, who lived in Israel during part of the jihad, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/opinion/israel-election-netanyahu.html">described</a> it at The New York Times in September:
<blockquote>No single episode has shaped Israel’s population and politics like the wave of suicide bombings perpetrated by Palestinians in the first years of the 21st century. Much of what you see here in 2019 is the aftermath of that time, and every election since has been held in its shadow. The attacks, which killed hundreds of Israeli civilians, ended hopes for a negotiated peace and destroyed the left, which was in power when the wave began. Any sympathy that the Israeli majority had toward Palestinians evaporated. &#8230;
I remember standing at a bus stop when I heard a suicide bomber blow himself up and murder 11 people one street over, at Café Moment. My mother passed through the Nahariya train station right before a suicide bomber struck there, and my sister was in a cafeteria at the Hebrew University campus when Palestinians blew up a different cafeteria. I’ve got many more memories like that, all of them standard for the time.</blockquote>
There are a <a href="https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2019/12/24/rashida-tlaib-would-no-doubt-be-very-pleased-with-voxs-inexcusably-dishonest-reporting-on-israel-and-israeli-jews/">myriad other problems</a> with Vox&#8217;s duplicitous holiday season smear job about Israel and Bethlehem. But outright lying about how the Second Intifada started — in contravention of the U.S. government&#8217;s own review of the facts, no less — stands atop the sordid list of Vox&#8217;s falsehoods.
Of course, what else might we expect from the folks who once claimed Israel restricted Palestinian-Arab &#8220;traffic&#8221; on a &#8220;land bridge&#8221; connecting Gaza to Judea and Samaria? &#8220;Fake news&#8221; is very, very real.

Israeli flag Old City Jerusalem

HAMMER: Vox Lies About Israel. AGAIN.

Bill Clinton

Fake News

Foreign Policy

Israel

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Judaism

Media

Media Bias

Middle East

Last week a female student from Barnard College was found murdered in a New York City park. Shortly after, several young teenage boys – including a 13-year-old – were arrested for her murder.
On Sunday, Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association – a police union – made a comment on a radio program that the victim, Tessa Majors, was in the park to buy marijuana.
“An 18-year-old college student at one of the most prestigious universities is murdered in a park, and what I’m understanding, she was in the park to buy marijuana,” Mullins said on John Catsimatidis’ radio show.
“And you think about that, we don’t enforce marijuana laws anymore. We’re basically hands-off on the enforcement of marijuana,” Mullins add. &#8220;So here we have a student murdered by a 13-year-old and we have a common denominator of marijuana. You know, my question to the people of New York City is, ‘Why is this happening?’”
The New York Daily News reported that police have not confirmed if what Mullins said was true. The outlet reported that Majors’ boyfriend said she was jogging in the park. The 13-year-old arrested for his role in the murder said he and his friends chose to rob Majors as she jogged down the steps of Morningside Park.
Even if what Mullins said was true, it had no bearing on Majors’ murder. Her reason for being in the park did not cause her murder – the three young men who killed her were responsible.
In a statement published Monday <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/murdered-barnard-freshmans-family-blasts-police-union-chief-over-marijuana-comment/2242512/">by NBC New York</a>, Majors’ family slammed Mullins for his remarks about Tessa.
&#8220;The remarks by Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins we find deeply inappropriate, as they intentionally or unintentionally direct blame onto Tess, a young woman, for her own murder,&#8221; the Majors family said Monday. &#8220;We would ask Mr. Mullins not to engage in such irresponsible public speculation, just as the NYPD asked our family not to comment as it conducts the investigation.&#8221;
The family went on to say that they still want to know “what exactly happened to Tess and who committed her murder.”
“We believe, for the immediate safety of the community and the surrounding schools, that should be everyone’s top priority and we are grateful to the men and women of the NYPD for all of their efforts,&#8221; the family continued.
Majors had moved to New York this year to attend Barnard College as a freshman. She was interested in music and “sang and played guitar in a band called Patient 0, which recently played its first concert in New York,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/nyregion/barnard-student-fatal-stabbing.html">reported</a>.
On Friday night, the 13-year-old charged in Majors’ murder said during a court hearing that he and his friends put Majors in a chokehold and started robbing her. The young woman fought back and was able to bite one of the attackers on their finger. The teens then stabbed her and left her for dead.
NBC reported that Majors was able to find a security guard outside the park and ask for help. She was taken to a hospital but died soon after.

Site of Tessa Majors homicide

SERIOUSLY? Police Union President Releases Irrelevant Information That Victim-Blames Tessa Majors; Family Responds

On Wednesday afternoon, an 18-year-old female Barnard College student from Virginia was stabbed to death in a Manhattan park allegedly by a group of young men who mugged her, then killed her.
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Barnard College student Tessa Majors, 18, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in Morningside Park last night in what police say was a brutal robbery. <a href="https://t.co/2JLizJxAUr">https://t.co/2JLizJxAUr</a> <a href="https://t.co/0vuSeQTM72">pic.twitter.com/0vuSeQTM72</a>
&mdash; NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNewYork/status/1205102524153372672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Tessa Majors, from Charlottesville, Virginia, was walking down a flight of steps into Morningside Park on West 116th Street at roughly 5:30 p.m. when the assailants attacked her, according to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7783885/College-student-18-stabbed-death-group-thugs-walking-park.html">The Daily Mail</a>, which added, “According to police sources, they demanded money from her and stabbed her multiple times in the stomach before fleeing.&#8221; After Majors was transported to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s hospital she was pronounced dead, as <a href="https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2019/12/12/barnard-student-18-dead-following-stabbing-in-morningside-park/">The Columbia Spectator</a> reported.
The Daily Mail reported that police sources stated a 16-year-old boy, who is a known robbery suspect, was taken into custody from a nearby housing project; a group of young men in their teens were also interrogated. The Daily Mail added that the 16-year-old taken into custody was wearing a green jacket similar to one described by a witness to the attack; a trail of blood was found that led to an apartment the teen was known to frequent.
Majors’ grandmother, Martha Burton, told <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-stabbing-near-columbia-morningside-heights-20191212-ewofwz5e6jdshjl52dlbyqmyci-story.html">The New York Daily News</a>, &#8220;I guess being from a smaller town she was too naive to think about walking alone in New York City. She just shouldn’t have been there.&#8221;
One 20-year-old female student told The New York Times, “My friend is throwing up in the bathroom. She&#8217;s so scared.”
Barnard College president Sian Leah Beilock released a statement saying, “Tessa was just beginning her journey at Barnard and in life. We mourn this devastating murder of an extraordinary young woman and member of our community. This is an unthinkable tragedy that has shaken us to our core.” Ms. Beilock said she and Barnard College dean Leslie Grinage had communicated with Majors’ parents, who were traveling to New York.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/nyregion/barnard-student-fatal-stabbing.html">The New York Times</a> reported, “Ms. Majors’s Instagram account shows a young woman new to the city and eager to develop her music. She sang and played guitar in a band called Patient 0, which recently played its first concert in New York. &#8216;Safe to say the first NYC show went well ;)&#8217; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B3fWwF1g34M/">she wrote on Instagram on Oct. 11.</a> A month earlier, the band released an album called &#8216;Girl Problems.&#8217;”
The Columbia Spectator added, “Barnard’s Furman Counseling Center will remain open all night and during the day tomorrow, and Columbia University Counseling and Psychological Services will open until 2:15 a.m. on the fifth floor of Lerner. Kromm and several staff members from Columbia Residential Life will be in Wallach’s first floor Lounge until 4 a.m. to speak to students.”
The New York Times noted, “Major crime was down about 1 percent this year through Dec. 1 compared with the same period last year, but murder was up about 8 percent, according to Police Department statistics. There had been 298 murders by Dec. 1, compared with 275 to that point in 2018, police data showed.”
Update: an earlier version of this story based on news reports incorrectly stated that  the security booth was unattended. A Columbia university spokesperson has corrected those reports, stating: “The public safety officer assigned to 116th Street and Morningside Drive was at his post last night when the victim emerged from the park, and he came to her aid immediately upon recognizing that she was injured. Reports to the contrary are inaccurate. Officers stationed at this location do not make rounds that cause them to leave their post.&#8221;

Barnard

18-Year-Old Female Student From Virginia Mugged, Stabbed To Death In NYC Park

A newly released <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/4096.pdf">affidavit</a> provides significant new details about an unsolved 2011 murder connected to Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. And it offers incriminating new information about Tsarnaev’s friend, a man killed after attacking an FBI agent during a 2013 interrogation, whose case has been championed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
CAIR continues to represent the estate of Ibragim Todashev, claiming law enforcement conspired to violate his civil rights and that his shooting death was unlawful. A federal judge in Florida tossed the case out last year, but an appeal is pending.
Before he was killed by an FBI agent’s bullet in 2013, and affidavit asserts that <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/4096.pdf#page=15">Todashev admitted</a> he and Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev were responsible for the grisly 2011 murder of three men in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Tsarnaev died in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/autopsy-says-boston-bombing-suspect-died-of-gunshot-wounds-and-blunt-trauma.html">shootout with police</a> early on April 19, 2013, four days after two pressure cooker bombs blew up near the Boston Marathon’s finish line, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/03/us/boston-marathon-terror-attack-fast-facts/index.html">killing</a> three people and injuring 264. His brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, also was wounded, but was arrested days later. He was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/boston-bombing-trial/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-sentencing-boston-victims-address-bomber-directly-n380906">sentenced to death</a> in 2015 after being <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/jury-weighs-verdict-for-second-day-in-boston-marathon-bombing-trial/2015/04/08/11755a56-ddf0-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html">convicted</a> on 30 counts, including use of a weapon of mass destruction related to the bombings.
Investigators quickly were drawn to Orlando after the bombings, where Todashev was living. Federal agents wanted to know about his friendship with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, while local police wanted to talk to him about an unsolved murder.
After several earlier contacts, they spent four hours interviewing Todashev inside his apartment the night of May 22, 2013. According to an affidavit unsealed last week, <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/4096.pdf#page=15">Todashev said</a> he and Tsarnaev originally planned to rob the three men, whom they believed had money because they sold pot. But Tsarnaev, who was armed with a gun, changed plans, saying “they should eliminate any witnesses to the crime,” the affidavit said. The two tied up Raphael Teken, 37, Erik Weissman, 31, and Brendan Mess, 25, before slashing their throats.
“In addition, the victims were covered with marijuana,” the affidavit said. Tsarnaev and Todashev split “several thousand dollars” they took from inside. Todashev said that he and Tsarnaev then <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/4096.pdf#page=16">spent about an hour</a> trying “to clean the crime scene in order to remove traces of their fingerprints and other identifying details,” the affidavit said.
The disclosure was one of few passages not redacted in a 27-page search warrant affidavit from 2013 used to search a Honda CR-V the two rode in that night. It was unsealed in connection with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/11/15/affidavit-pins-grisly-2011-triple-murder-on-tamerlan-tsarnaev/">appeal</a> of his death sentence.
Todashev’s confession was known before, but the unsealed affidavit adds significant details about what he admitted.
The new information also sheds light on the FBI shooting that killed Todashev. Investigators say, and <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/4328/cair-criticizes-independent-investigation-it">two investigations confirmed</a>, that an FBI agent fired only after Todashev threw a coffee table at him, cutting the agent’s head, and then continued to attack.
“Todashev acknowledged his involvement in the Waltham murders and agreed to write a statement,” U.S. District Court Judge Carlos Mendoza <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/1079.pdf#page=16">wrote</a> in an August 2018 order, dismissing a lawsuit by Todashev’s estate against the government.
The law enforcement agents present thought his behavior was becoming increasingly erratic. One sent a text to his colleagues, <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/1079.pdf#page=17">warning</a>, “Be on guard. He is in [a] vulnerable position to do something bad. Be on guard now. I see him looking around at times.”
Moments later, Todashev attacked. The FBI agent later needed nine staples in his head to close the wound from the coffee table. He said Todashev ignored repeated warnings to back off and show his hands. The investigators’ fear for their safety was reasonable, Mendoza <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/1079.pdf#page=25">ruled</a>, and the FBI agent “was not required to wait and see what Todashev might do next.”
CAIR-Florida Executive Director Hassan Shibly, who filed the civil suit as “as the personal representative for the Estate of Ibragim Todashev and Todashev’s survivors,” has made no public comment about the new disclosure about Todashev. In 2014, after separate state and federal investigations also cleared the FBI agent, Shibly <a href="https://twitter.com/HassanShibly/status/447052578397126656">wrote</a> that the FBI’s credibility was being damaged.
An appeal on Mendoza’s order granting summary judgment to the defendants is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
But if the original lawsuit record is any indication, the appeal won’t go far.
The federal district court repeatedly found that CAIR attorneys <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/1079.pdf#page=8">failed to state a claim</a> to support the various counts in the civil suit. Other claims were called “threadbare” and “<a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/1079.pdf#page=13">woefully deficient</a>.&#8221;
At one point, CAIR attorneys even moved to disqualify Mendoza, claiming he could not be partial because he worked on a terrorism task force as a prosecutor before being appointed to the bench. In fact, it was the magistrate judge who acknowledged that work. In a separate motion to disqualify U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel C. Irick, CAIR attorney Tark Aouadi wrote that Irick’s experience “is disturbing to the [p]laintiff as it appears to evidences [sic] bias and partiality which leads the [p]laintiff to seek disqualification.”
Irick <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/1078.pdf#page=4">called</a> the “generalized argument” “so entirely without merit that it defies logic. Indeed, the bald assertion that the undersigned’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned because this case involves allegations of ‘terrorism’ and the undersigned, as an [a]ssistant United States [a]ttorney, worked with a joint terrorism task force is meritless. The fact that the undersigned worked with a joint terrorism task force is not evidence of bias against any person, and no reasonable person would question the impartiality of the undersigned, or anyone else, on that basis.”
Irick did recuse himself “in an abundance of caution,” however, <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/1078.pdf#page=5">noting</a> that he had worked with one of the defendants during his days as a prosecutor. He did this even though “this was not a basis for recusal argued in [p]laintiff’s motion.”
A lawyer for the Todashev estate also claimed the law enforcement officials “were being deceitful,” prosecutors <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/1083.pdf#page=16">wrote</a>, “though he offered no evidence to support this claim.”
Steven Emerson is Executive Director of The investigative Project on Terrorism (<a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/">www.investigativeproject.org</a>) and the author of six books on national security and Islamic terrorism. On Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveEmersonIPT">@SteveEmersonIPT</a>.

Boston Marathon 2014

Boston Marathon Bomber’s Friend Confessed To 2011 Triple Murder Before Being Killed, Affidavit States

Boston

Boston Bomber

CAIR

Lawsuit

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

Baltimore Mayor Bernard &#8220;Jack&#8221; Young suggested on Thursday that the city&#8217;s leadership should not be held responsible for Baltimore&#8217;s consistently high murder rate because none of the leadership members personally committed any murders.
&#8220;There is not a lack of any leadership on my part. I have been moving this city forward &#8230; you know, because I&#8217;m not committing the murders and that&#8217;s what people need to understand,&#8221; Young told reporters during a press conference. &#8220;I&#8217;m not committing the murders, the police commissioner is not committing it, the council is not committing it. So, how can you fault leadership?&#8221;
Young&#8217;s remarks were in response to an <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-1112-jordan-taylor-20191111-yl3v2zq4pvdktaffv7urcd34oa-story.html">opinion piece</a> written by Y in Central Maryland President John Hoey, who blamed the city&#8217;s skyrocketing murder rate on the local government lack of initiative. Hoey penned the op-ed after a 31-year-old Y coach was killed during a home invasion while in his Baltimore residence.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Mayor Jack Young on Baltimore homicides: &quot;I&#39;m not committing the murders. The police commissioner has not committed it. The council&#39;s not committing it. So how can you fault leadership?&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Yg9MMRnUTE">https://t.co/Yg9MMRnUTE</a> <a href="https://t.co/5XExpSMGA2">pic.twitter.com/5XExpSMGA2</a>
&mdash; FOX Baltimore (@FOXBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/FOXBaltimore/status/1194729498194989057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The truth is that we are in the midst of an existential crisis in the City of Baltimore. Our homicide rate is among the highest in the country, and the pace of violence and victims this year is exceeding last year’s already high pace,&#8221; Hoey wrote. &#8220;The reasons for this level of violence are complex and interlocking.&#8221;
&#8220;There is no one thing to be done to fix it, but there are definitely a set of laws, practices and actions at both the local and state level (with federal assistance) that could be used to significantly reduce the rate of violent crime if we had the will and focus to do it,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Other cities have successfully reduced their violent crime rate significantly, but in Baltimore we have had not just a crisis of confidence but, in my view, a crisis of leadership.&#8221;
City Council President Brandon Scott, who is challenging Young for Baltimore mayor, slammed Young for his response in a statement, according to <a href="https://foxbaltimore.com/news/city-in-crisis/mayor-young-says-leadership-isnt-to-blame-for-baltimore-murders">Fox 45 News</a>.
&#8220;Mr. Mayor, respectfully, this can&#8217;t be our response to violence as elected leaders in Baltimore,&#8221; Scott said. &#8220;Our residents deserve to know their leaders have a vision to coordinate our precious resources in the fight against violent crime effectively and urgently, not passing the buck.&#8221;
The city of Baltimore is already bracing to surpass the 300 homicides mark for the fifth year in a row — as of mid-November, 296 individuals have been killed in the city.
Baltimore had the worst homicide rate among the 50 largest cities in the country, as well as the second-highest violent crime rate overall, according to<a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-fbi-data-20180924-story.html"> FBI data</a> released in 2018. At the time, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan called the news &#8220;shocking and disappointing,&#8221; but further noted that &#8220;it doesn&#8217;t come as a complete surprise.&#8221;
Young became the mayor of Baltimore in May 2019 after his Democratic colleague, former mayor Catherine Pugh, stepped down amid investigations into corrupt business dealings. He had previously served for nearly a decade as the president of the Baltimore City Council.
Young&#8217;s campaign manager later issued a statement trying to clarifying his initial comments.
&#8220;While no leaders in our city are personally responsible for these crimes, ALL of us have a role to play in stopping them. And, as mayor, I take and will continue to take responsibility for making our city safer and cleaner,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;But the City leadership can&#8217;t do it alone. We need community leaders, stakeholders, and everyday Baltimoreans to come together and work to reduce gun violence.&#8221;

WATCH: Baltimore Mayor Dodges Responsibility For Skyrocketing Murder Rate: ‘I’m Not Committing The Murders’

Violent crime in America, despite experiencing an overall <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/tables/1tabledatadecoverviewpdf/table_1_crime_in_the_united_states_by_volume_and_rate_per_100000_inhabitants_1993-2012.xls">dramatic decline</a> since the 1990s, has started to <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/25-years-crime-wave-back-republicans-refuse-talk/">surge back</a> over the past few years. Amidst this distressing social trend, alas, America&#8217;s <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/rnc-blasts-kamala-harris-not-pro-criminal-enough/">erstwhile</a> &#8220;law-and-order&#8221;/tough-on-crime political party has been ideologically and financially captured by pro-criminal libertarians who ally with the Left to spout hackneyed, outmoded orthodoxies like the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-dont-let-kim-kardashian-fool-you-america-josh-hammer">alleged (non-)issue</a> of &#8220;mass incarceration.&#8221; The most tangible result of this unholy alliance was the bipartisan 2018 passage of the harrowing First Step Act jailbreak law — a law enactment which President Donald Trump, viewing the <a href="https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20191004/he-was-released-early-from-prison-in-february-now-hes-wanted-for-murder-on-federal-hill">murderous early results</a>, apparently already <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/trump-reportedly-regrets-passage-jailbreak-first-step-act-gullible-conservatives-supported/">regrets</a>.
Alas, the leftist/libertarian alliance on &#8220;criminal justice&#8221; issues, just highlighted during last night&#8217;s Democratic Party presidential primary debate when Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) touted her work with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on the crime-abetting issue of &#8220;<a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/jailbreak-epidemic-gang-member-released-6k-bail-now-accused-raping-12-year-old-girl/">bail reform</a>,&#8221;continues unabated. Which brings us to prominent libertarian lawyer/legal commentator <a href="https://www.cato.org/people/clark-neily">Clark Neily</a>, who has been on a roll, of late. Neily, who spent years with the rabidly <a href="https://ij.org/center-for-judicial-engagement/">pro-judicial power</a> libertarian legal group <a href="https://ij.org">Institute for Justice,</a> now works for the equally <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/proper-judging-means-principled-engagement-not-judicial-deference">pro-judicial power</a> libertarian Cato Institute. Neily&#8217;s title at Cato is &#8220;Vice President for Criminal Justice&#8221; and, based on his recent musings, he appears to embody the zealous leftist/libertarian jailbreak alliance.
The precise target of Neily&#8217;s recent ire is the prosecutor. More specifically, Neily is convinced that far too many prosecutors become federal judges — and that not nearly enough criminal defense attorneys become federal judges. In a highly revealing but nonetheless sober-minded recognition of his core readership for such anti-prosecutorial musings, Neily has published on the subject at both <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/studies/are-disproportionate-number-federal-judges-former-government-advocates">Cato</a> and, just this week, at left-wing <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/too-many-prosecutors-federal-judiciary.html">Slate</a>. The latter piece goes so far as to call for an outright &#8220;moratorium&#8221; on the nomination of former prosecutors to the federal bench.
I am not a former prosecutor. But I do have the benefit of education at a top law school and the experience of serving as a law clerk for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. And I believe Neily is severely misguided in his anti-prosecutor crusade.
Crucially, Neily&#8217;s Cato <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/studies/are-disproportionate-number-federal-judges-former-government-advocates#summary-previous-studies">study</a> makes no attempt whatsoever to control for education, intellect, or legal credentials. To many lay observers, this may seem anodyne — after all, can&#8217;t former prosecutors and defense attorneys/public defenders, as classes of attorneys, be presumed to have roughly equivalent legal acumens and credentials? Well, no. For generations, gifted law students of all political stripes have seen the prosecutorial career path — be it via the Department of Justice (DOJ), local U.S. attorney&#8217;s offices, state attorneys general offices, or even local district attorneys — as a prominent avenue for vocational success. The DOJ <a href="https://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/entry-level-attorneys">Honors Program</a> has long been viewed as one of the most prestigious entry-level attorney tracks in the nation, and scores of lawyers hoping to one day be considered for a federal judgeship have routinely sought U.S. attorney&#8217;s office experience as a means of padding their resumes and evincing a demonstrable commitment to public service. Again, this holds true for lawyers and judges of all political persuasions and partisan affiliations: As but two prominent examples for those on the Left, 2016 failed Barack Obama U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland is a former federal prosecutor and current presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is a former California attorney general.
This is simply not nearly as broadly true for those who pursue careers in the criminal defense bar — be they in private practice or working as public defenders. Leftists and libertarians can gnash their teeth and wail all they&#8217;d like, but the reality, as I <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1176324820771819520">tweeted</a> last month, is that in no sane world is the median defense lawyer of the same acumen and credentials as the median prosecutor. Representing drug traffickers, gangbangers, and felons in possession of firearms is not a dream job. Again, my claim is that this holds true for prosecutors and the defense bar, viewed as a class — obviously, there will be innumerable individual dispensations to such a broad rule, when comparing class sizes of this magnitude. But anecdotally, based on (1) my own personal experience knowing many individuals who have become prosecutors and defense lawyers, (2) my own law clerk experience and thinking back to a comparison of the median prosecutor&#8217;s brief and oral argument versus the median defense attorney&#8217;s brief and oral argument, and (3) discussing the issue with other former federal appellate law clerk friends, I feel eminently comfortable making such a claim. We should feel comfortable establishing a rebuttable presumption that prosecutors, considered as a class, have superior legal credentials to defense attorneys. Based purely on my own experience, I cannot even begin to count the volume of public defender&#8217;s office legal briefs I read that were of an immensely shoddy quality.
At a bare minimum, libertarians and leftists who would seek to place a moratorium on nominating prosecutors to federal judgeships ought to be asked how they can be so sure that they are not sacrificing legal acumen or credentials. I understand that such logic is arguably circular — anti-prosecutor libertarians and leftists could respond that such a moratorium may prophylactically disincentivize smart law school graduates who may aspire for judgeships from pursuing prosecutorial careers. But the salient point is that the general prestige of many prosecutorial career paths is so deeply ingrained in our legal culture. That is not something that can be easily reversed, and I highly suspect the criminal defense bar and its apologists have no particularly compelling argument to offer for how they might be able to do so.
Prosecutors do not write our nation&#8217;s criminal statutes — they merely enforce them. To the extent leftists and libertarians — hooked as they are on the anachronistic talking points of &#8220;mass incarceration&#8221; and &#8220;low-level non-violent offenders&#8221; — have substantive issues with our criminal statutes, they ought to lobby policymakers. By all accounts, considering both <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/needs-leftists-gop-texas-gov-greg-abbott-endorses-radical-ban-box-pro-criminal-mandate-employers/">state-level initiatives</a> and the aforementioned First Step Act, the pro-jailbreak cabal is quite successful in its lobbying efforts. Pro-jailbreak forces are wrong, on the policy merits, but that is an issue that can be debated in the political space. But it would be dangerous for justice and the rule of law, absent pro-jailbreak forces&#8217; ability to overcome the rebuttable presumption about the credentials of disparate vocational classes, for such forces to also take out their frustrations as part of the judicial nominations process.

Judge gavel with Justice lawyers, Businesswoman in suit or lawyer, Advice and Legal services Concept.

HAMMER: In Defense Of Prosecutors

Constitution

Department of Justice

Drugs

Federal Government

Guns

Judicial Branch

Judiciary

Kamala Harris

Jodi Arias became infamous over the past decade for murdering her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander. She was arrested in 2008 for his murder, convicted in 2013, and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole in 2015.
Now, four years later, attorneys for Arias are seeking a new trial, claiming Maricopa County prosecutor Juan Martinez acted improperly during the investigation and trial. Arizona Central <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2019/10/03/jodi-arias-trial-court-of-appeals-overturn-prosecutor-juan-martinez-misconduct/3857752002/">reported</a> that the Arizona Court of Appeals agreed to consider “numerous allegations of misconduct” against Martinez. The outlet included a list of issues the Court of Appeals will look into:
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>Which Arizona Supreme Court cases accurately describe the standard of review for addressing prosecutorial misconduct?</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Is Arias is entitled to a new trial if there was intentional prosecutorial misconduct, and would double jeopardy play a role?</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>What factors are relevant in determining whether Arias was denied a fair trial based on prosecutorial misconduct? Does publicity around the trial affect the decision?</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Was she deprived of the ability to present her defense to the jury?</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>If there was prosecutorial misconduct, did it contribute to her guilty verdict?</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>What authority supports reversing a conviction based on prosecutorial misconduct when there is overwhelming evidence of guilt?</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>What authority supports a conviction when there has been a pervasive intentional prosecutorial misconduct?</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>What steps can the court take to constrain a prosecutor&#8217;s conduct inside the courtroom during the proceedings? Does the court have authority to control the prosecutor outside the courtroom if it impacts the proceedings?</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>Should the publicity outside the courtroom be considered when deciding if the atmosphere of the trial was &#8220;circus-like?&#8221; Can publicity outside the courtroom grant a reversal?</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
Martinez is also facing ethics complaints from the Arizona State Bar, which Maricopa County Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Amanda Steele said was a completely separate issue.
&#8220;We want to ensure our community’s understanding that there are two separate proceedings,&#8221; she said in a statement. &#8220;In one, there is the criminal conviction and life sentence in the Arias case that &#8230; is currently being considered by the Court of Appeals. This also involves claims of prosecutorial misconduct that allegedly occurred during the Arias trial. These separately are being reviewed as part of complaints submitted to the Arizona State Bar.&#8221;
In the Arias case, Martinez has been accused of having flirtatious or sexual relationship with two female bloggers and attempting to get them to dig up dirt on jurors during the trial. One of the bloggers allegedly “bragged to at least two others that she helped Martinez dig up negative information about a juror who refused to vote for a death sentence,” AZ Central reported.
The outlet also reported that a juror’s name was posted online just minutes after a mistrial was declared in the case.
Martinez also allegedly asked a removed juror what other jurors were thinking about the case. That juror also allegedly sent Martinez photos of her “naked breasts to Martinez after he told her he was ‘a breast man,’” the outlet reported.
None of this changes the evidence against Arias found in her car, home, rental car, and at the crime scene.

Lady Justice Statue

Convicted Killer Jodi Arias May Get New Trial Due To Prosecutor Misconduct

Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal was conducting a routine traffic stop on Friday when he was shot in the head.
He had pulled over a vehicle in Harris County, Texas. Dashcam footage showed he and the driver talking with “no combat, no arguing,” sheriff Major Mike Lee told reporters Friday, according to <a href="https://abc13.com/suspect-given-no-bond-in-murder-of-harris-county-sheriffs-deputy/5575271/">CNN affiliate KTRK</a>. The driver’s door was open as the two men talked. Dhaliwal then shut the door before turning to walk back to his patrol car. At that time the suspect, 47-year-old Robert Solis, got out of his vehicle and “almost immediately running with a gun already out,” Lee added. Dhaliwal was shot in the back of the head and later died from his injuries, <a href="https://abc13.com/5573573/">reported KTRK</a>.
&#8220;In a cold-blooded manner, ambush style, (he) shot Deputy Dhaliwal from behind,&#8221; Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters. “It&#8217;s the worst day, the worst nightmare for any police executive.&#8221;
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/28/us/texas-sikh-deputy-shot-saturday/index.html">reported</a> that police used Dhaliwal’s dashcam to identify Solis and arrested him at a nearby ice cream parlor.
Gonzalez <a href="https://twitter.com/SheriffEd_HCSO/status/1177773283950960641">tweeted</a> that Solis “had an active Parole Violation Warrant for Aggravated Assault w/Deadly Weapon dating back to January 2017.”
Lee said Friday that Solis “probably knew he was going to go back to jail and did not want to go back to jail.&#8221;
Dhaliwal, CNN reported, gained national attention in 2015 after he was given permission to wear his turban and full beard as part of his religion. Dhaliwal, an observant Sikh, had owned his own trucking business before joining the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. When he heard the office was looking for someone who could connect with the local Sikh community, he sold his business and became a detention officer, eventually becoming a deputy.
Six years after joining the police department, an official policy change allowed him to wear his turban and beard while on duty.
&#8220;As a Sikh American, I felt the need to represent the Sikh community in law enforcement,&#8221; Dhaliwal said when the policy was issued. &#8220;It will give me the chance to open up the conversation.&#8221;
His coworkers remember him as a beloved member of the community. Harris County police commissioner Adrian Garcia said Dhaliwal had “a heart of gold.”
&#8220;This guy had a heart of gold. He treated his brothers and sisters in law enforcement as if they were just brothers and sisters. He thought of them before he thought of himself. He thought of the broader community before he thought of himself,&#8221; Garcia said.
Gonzalez said Dhaliwal “wore the turban, he represented his community with integrity, respect and pride and he was respected by all.”
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turn <a href="https://twitter.com/SylvesterTurner/status/1177731537149804544">tweeted</a> that Dhaliwal “represented the diversity and inclusiveness of our community and everything that is good. Evil you do not win here.”
Members of the community also sent footage of Dhaliwal interacting with residents. One woman sent a video of the deputy playing with her deaf son at a restaurant.
“A Harris County resident sent us a video of fallen Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal,” the sheriff’s office tweeted. “‘He laughed and joked with all of us, and left a bright impression on my son who is deaf,’ she said.  Deputy Dhaliwal is an incredible loss not only to our HCSO family but to the entire community.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A Harris County resident sent us a video of fallen Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal.
“He laughed and joked with all of us, and left a bright impression on my son who is deaf,” she said.
Deputy Dhaliwal is an incredible loss not only to our HCSO family but to the entire community. <a href="https://t.co/EbsdFeeWXO">pic.twitter.com/EbsdFeeWXO</a>
— HCSOTexas (@HCSOTexas) <a href="https://twitter.com/HCSOTexas/status/1177796393349603328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Military funeral

Officer Dies After Being Shot During Traffic Stop, Dashcam Helps Identify Alleged Killer

A 59-year-old man has died from injuries suffered during an attack by two teenage brothers prompted by the man&#8217;s refusal to give them a dollar.
John Weed was attending the Great Frederick Fair in Maryland on Friday with his family when he was approached by the teens, ages 15 and 16. According to the prosecution, the 15-year-old sucker-punched Weed after he refused to give them a dollar, knocking him unconscious. Video evidence of the attack shows chaos and laughter in moments after Weed hits the pavement; one of the boys even spits on his lifeless body.
Medics flew the victim to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Teenage-Brothers-Fatally-Attacked-Man-Who-Refused-to-Give-Them-Money-Maryland-Authorities-Say-561154601.html">4 NBC Washington</a> reported on Monday. Weed succumbed to his injuries on Saturday, according to the local sheriff’s office.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s despicable, and it tells me a lot about how these young people view this person by the very fact after they had him on the ground they taunted and they spit on him,&#8221; Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said, according to 4 NBC Washington. &#8220;That to me shows hatred and disgust and despise.&#8221;
The 15-year-old teen who landed the sucker punch has been charged with first-degree assault, second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment. His 16-year-old brother landed a second-degree assault charge, according to authorities.
The attackers are being charged as juveniles, but prosecution might push for the teens to be tried as adults, the NBC affiliate reported.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been doing this for close to thirty years,&#8221; said Frederick County State’s Attorney Charlie Smith. &#8220;There’s plenty of times where good people make bad decisions, but when they result in somebody’s death, you get punished.&#8221;
When Sheriff Jenkins was asked by a reporter what the &#8220;appropriate punishment&#8221; should be for the boys &#8220;given their age,&#8221; he sternly replied, &#8220;The maximum.&#8221;
&#8220;They made an adult decision by doing what they did and ended up with a man losing his life, the sister losing a brother, whatever,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They deserve the maximum penalty.&#8221;
The video of the vicious attack picked up traffic online on Sunday. However, the account that initially posted the video erroneously framed the attack as black teens defending themselves from a &#8220;white supremacist.&#8221; The video post has been viewed over 230,000 times and garnered nearly 2,000 likes.
&#8220;A white supremacist tried to racially antagonize a group of Black kids at the Frederick Fair in MD. He started calling them the N-word, and one of the kids, fearing for his life, punched the racist man. The white supremacist later died and two innocent Black victims were charged,&#8221; the caption reads.
However, as reported by <a href="https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/man-dies-after-frederick-fair-assault-two-juveniles-charged/article_61d7ea30-c7f9-57ff-a94d-cfc02e34bd4a.html">The Frederick News-Post</a>, a sheriff&#8217;s office release revealed that &#8220;investigators who responded to the scene interviewed witnesses who indicated that the attack on the man was unprovoked.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">A white supremacist tried to racially antagonize a group of Black kids at the Frederick Fair in MD. He started calling them the N-word, and one of the kids, fearing for his life, punched the racist man. The white supremacist later died and two innocent Black victims were charged <a href="https://t.co/uw56d6Cn0V">pic.twitter.com/uw56d6Cn0V</a>
— Church Of Ogun (@ChurchofOgun) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChurchofOgun/status/1175939278271963138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The Great Frederick Fair released a <a href="https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/man-dies-after-frederick-fair-assault-two-juveniles-charged/article_61d7ea30-c7f9-57ff-a94d-cfc02e34bd4a.html">statement</a> following the brutal incident, emphasizing its commitment to safety and clarifying details of the fatal assault.
&#8220;The Great Frederick Fair’s number one priority is the safety and security of our guests,&#8221; the statement reads. &#8220;To dispel rumors of the events of last night, while there was an assault, there was NO shooting and NO stabbing. The team of security and law enforcement was able to respond rapidly to control and contain the incident. The investigation into this incident remains active and any further information regarding the assault will be released from the Sheriff’s Office.&#8221;
WATCH:
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State Fair in Maryland

Video: Teen Boys Sucker Punch Middle Aged Man At Fair, Spit On Lifeless Body

Maryland

Last week, Boston mother Maureen Maloney was booed while testifying about the death of her son Matthew Denice, who was killed in 2011 by a drunk-driving illegal with a criminal history. Maloney was testifying at the State House in opposition to a bill seeking to grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
&#8220;At the start of her testimony, Maloney held up a photo of Matthew and recalled how he was killed by an illegal immigrant drunk behind the wheel. About halfway into her 3 minutes of testimony, a man behind Maloney booed the grieving mother,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/09/04/booing-wont-stop-this-mom/">Boston Herald</a> reported.
&#8220;It just made me more determined,&#8221; Maloney told the outlet. &#8220;I don’t want other people to lose their lives like Matthew did. I don’t want other families to go through the heartache that my family deals with. And that’s where I get the strength and the stamina to keep doing this.&#8221;
This was not the first time the &#8220;Angel Mom&#8221; has been booed while discussing the tragic death of her son. &#8220;A few years ago, Maloney spoke out against a similar proposal, and a senator had given her his additional three minutes to testify. When Maloney went over the three minutes, she said people in the audience began booing and hollering that her time was up,&#8221; the Herald reported.
&#8220;You get used to it over time,&#8221; the mother said.
Maloney spoke at a Bostonians Against Sanctuary Cities event in May 2017, where she <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDVYecEfuO4">detailed</a> the death of her son by illegal immigrant Nicolas Dutan Guaman.
<blockquote>“On August 20, 2011, my son Matthew Denice was tragically killed less than two miles form our home. Matthew was riding his motorcycle in a residential area with a 20 mile per hour speed limit. Nicolas Guaman, an illegal alien with a criminal record, ran a stop sign, colliding with Matthew’s motorcycle. Matthew landed on the hood and the windshield of Guaman’s truck and rolled off into the street. Witnesses saw Matthew getting up out of the road.
During the trial, the Boston medical examiner and the forensic experts testified that Matthew survived the initial collision with just scrapes and bruises. … By all accounts, he should have lived. 
But Nicolas Guaman, who was an illegal alien did not have a diver’s license and had spent his day drinking beer made a fatal decision. He ran over Matthew, causing Matthew to be lodged in the front, right wheel well. He dragged Matthew a quarter mile to this death while horrified witnesses yelled for him to stop and banged on his truck. Witnesses heard Matthew’s bloodcurdling screams as his body was torn apart over the course of that quarter of a mile. Matthew’s body was impeding the forward motion of that front wheel of the truck. Nicolas Guaman knew he was dragging my son but he continued to flee the police. Eventually Guaman was run off the road and Matthew’s body became dislodged. Guaman then backed up over Matthew, and then continued to flee. And he had his six-year-old son in the truck during all this.” </blockquote>
Maloney said she prayed to her son for strength before giving her testimony last week, the Herald noted. &#8220;I was just asking him to guide me with my testimony and help me to not have anger in my heart towards the other side,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Just do some work through me, use me to try to save other lives.&#8221;
&#8220;Going to hearings like this, talking about it, opens up the wounds and it’s painful,&#8221; Maloney added. &#8220;And hearing them talk about their fear of separation and I’m sitting there thinking, &#8216;I have been permanently separated. This is the ultimate permanent separation.&#8217; They’re afraid they’ll be deported but they can take their kids with them or their kids can go visit them. I don’t have that option.&#8221;
Guaman is currently serving out a 12 to 14-year sentence for the murder of Denice.

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