Tag Archives: Assault

Minnesota probing Australian woman’s fatal shooting by police

Justine Damond, also known as Justine Ruszczyk, from Sydney, is seen in this 2015 photo released by Stephen Govel

By Todd Melby

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – Minnesota officials were investigating on Monday how an Australian woman who called police for help over the weekend ended up shot and killed by one of the officers who responded in an alley near her house.

Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges called for a probe of why officers were not using the body cameras they are equipped with during the incident that led to the death of Justine Damond, from Sydney, around midnight Saturday.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was investigating the shooting, in keeping with a new policy adopted in 2014, to avoid having the Minneapolis police department investigate itself, said Hodges, who described herself as “heartsick and deeply disturbed” by the shooting.

“We don’t want to jeopardize the BCA investigation, or compromise its independence,” the mayor said in a Facebook post on Monday.

Hundreds of people took to the streets Sunday to decry the killing. The BCA said the officers’ body cameras were not turned on and their patrol car camera did not capture the incident. It was attempting to determine whether any video of the shooting exists.

“I have a lot of questions about why the body cameras weren’t on, questions that I hope and anticipate will be answered in the next few days,” Hodges told reporters late Sunday.

Damond, also known as Justine Ruszczyk, had taken the name of her American fiance Don. She had originally studied to be a veterinarian but owned a meditation and life-coaching company in Minneapolis, according to her personal website. U.S. and Australian media gave her age as 40.

In a statement given to media in Sydney, family friend Julie Reed said the couple had been due to marry.

Zach Damond, who had already taken to calling his father’s future bride “mom,” told the Minneapolis Star Tribune she called the police because she heard a sound in the alley outside her house.

“Basically, my mom’s dead because a police officer shot her for reasons I don’t know,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “I demand answers.”

The Star Tribune quoted three sources it did not name as saying Damond was in her pajamas when the police car responding to her 911 call pulled into the alley.

She approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and was shot through the door, the newspaper said.

Both officers who responded to the 911 call have been placed on administrative leave, the Star Tribune quoted police as saying.

Minneapolis police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

(Additional reporting by Chris Michaud in New York; Writing by Gina Cherelus; Editing by Scott Malone and Tom Brown)

 

Woman pepper-sprayed at UC Berkeley protest sues university, police

A worker surveys the damage to a vandalized Starbucks after a student protest turned violent at UC Berkeley during a demonstration over right-wing speaker Milo Yiannopoulos, who was forced to cancel his talk, in Berkeley, California.

By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) – A woman who says she was pepper-sprayed by protesters demonstrating against a planned appearance by a right-wing speaker in February has sued the University of California at Berkeley for infringing on her First Amendment free speech rights.

Kiara Robles of Oakland, California is suing 18 individuals and organizations including officials at the University of California, UC Berkeley’s police department, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, the Berkeley Police Department, U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi and investor George Soros.

“Robles was attacked with extremely painful pepper spray and bear mace by masked assailants amongst the protesters because she chose to exercise her right to freedom of speech and show support for the planned speaker, Milo Yiannopoulous,” according to the lawsuit.

The suit was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by Larry Klayman, a conservative activist and one of Robles’ attorneys.

In an emailed statement on Tuesday, Dan Mogulof, a spokesman for the University of California at Berkeley, defended the actions of campus administrators and police, and said the university would vigorously fight the suit.

A spokesman for the Berkeley mayor’s office, Stefan Elgstrand, said the office has no comment on pending litigation.

According to the lawsuit, Robles went to UC Berkeley to hear Yiannopoulous’ speech. But violence erupted after more than 1,500 protesters gathered on the campus, forcing the former Breitbart News editor to cancel his appearance at the liberal-leaning institution.

According to the lawsuit, the University of California, Berkeley unconstitutionally limited the First Amendment rights of its students and invitees at the event “who do not subscribe to the radical, left-wing philosophies sanctioned by defendants.”

Representative for the University of California’s office of the president and the city of Berkeley Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A statement from Pelosi was not immediately available, according to a spokeswoman from her office, Caroline Behringer.

George Soros could not immediately be reached.

Robles is demanding a trial by jury and is seeking more than $20,000,000 in damages and other relief, the lawsuit said.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Dan Grebler)

Four charged with hate crimes over Chicago beating shown on Facebook

By Timothy Mclaughlin

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Four African-Americans accused of attacking an 18-year-old man with special needs while making anti-white racial taunts and broadcasting the assault on Facebook were charged with hate crimes in Illinois on Thursday.

Jordan Hill, Tesfaye Cooper, and sisters Brittany and Tanishia Covington were each charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Tanisha Covington was the eldest at 24, while her sister and the two men were 18 years old.

“This should never happen,” David Boyd, the victim’s brother-in-law, said at a news conference Thursday. He said the family was overwhelmed by support expressed on social media.

The incident, part of which was streamed on the service Facebook Live on Tuesday, drew the attention of U.S. President Barack Obama, who called it “terrible” in an interview with Chicago’s ABC-TV affiliate.

“Part of what technology allows us to see now is the terrible toll that racism and discrimination and hate takes on families and communities,” Obama said Thursday.

The victim, who is white, has “mental health challenges,” Chicago police said. He was not identified.

Police said the victim knew at least one of his alleged torturers, meeting Hill at a McDonald’s restaurant in a northwestern suburb of Chicago late last week.

When he did not return home the next day, the victim’s parents reported him missing. He was found by Chicago police days later, on Tuesday.

Police said Hill picked the victim up at the McDonald’s in a stolen van. While the victim’s parents reported him missing, their son and Hill spent the next two days together, visiting friends and sleeping in the van.

On Tuesday, a “play fight” between the two in the Covington sisters’ apartment escalated, Chicago Police Commander Kevin Duffin said at the news conference.

The victim was tied up for four or five hours, gagged and beaten. His scalp was cut and he was forced to drink toilet water, Duffin said.

In the video, the attackers could be heard making comments about “white people” as the victim cowered in a corner, his mouth taped shut.

At least one of the attackers could also be heard saying obscenities about President-elect Donald Trump. Police said they did not know whether the victim was a Trump supporter.

Police officers located the victim on Tuesday after neighbors complained about noise coming from the apartment. He was outside in freezing weather wearing only a tank top, shorts and sandals, police said.

He was taken to a hospital and later released. Members of the public alerted investigators to the Facebook Live video.

The four suspects are due to appear in a Chicago court on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Calif.; Editing by Alan Crosby and Matthew Lewis & Simon Cameron-Moore)

Major Russian naval deployment to intensify Aleppo assault

A general view taken with a drone shows Aleppo's historic citadel, controlled by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, as seen from a rebel-held area of Aleppo, Syria

By Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Russian warships off the coast of Norway are carrying fighter bombers that are likely to reinforce a final assault on the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo in two weeks, a senior NATO diplomat said on Wednesday, citing Western intelligence.

The fleet passed by the Norwegian city of Bergen on Wednesday, the diplomat said, while Russian media has said it will move through the English Channel, past Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean Sea to the Syrian coast.

“They are deploying all of the Northern fleet and much of the Baltic fleet in the largest surface deployment since the end of the Cold War,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

“This is not a friendly port call. In two weeks, we will see a crescendo of air attacks on Aleppo as part of Russia’s strategy to declare victory there,” the diplomat said.

Photos of the vessels have been released by the Norwegian military, taken on Monday. A Norwegian newspaper quoted the head of the Norwegian military intelligence service saying the ships involved “will probably play a role in the deciding battle for Aleppo”.

Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with an air campaign against the Western rebels in the devastated eastern part of Aleppo, has said the deployment will target Islamic State militants in Syria.

But the NATO diplomat said the additional military firepower was designed to drive out or destroy the 8,000 rebels in Aleppo, the only large city still in opposition hands, and allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to start a withdrawal.

An intensified air campaign in eastern Aleppo, where 275,000 people are trapped, would further worsen ties between Moscow and the West, which says the Kremlin may be responsible for war crimes.

NATO officials also say that strategically, Russia’s air strikes are securing its interests by protecting Assad and Russia’s Syrian port in Tartous, which boosts its access to the Black Sea that it controls after taking the Crimean peninsula.

“With this assault, it should be enough to allow a Russian exit strategy if Moscow believes Assad is now stable enough to survive,” the diplomat said.

The fleet off Norway includes Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which is carrying jet fighters, and the Soviet-era nuclear-powered battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiy, or Peter the Great. Other Russian vessels in the group include the anti-submarine warships of the Severomorsk and Vice-Admiral Kulakov and support ships, Russian media has reported.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Ugandian Imam Beats Daughter To Death For Conversion

A 15-year-old girl who converted to Christianity has been beaten to death by her father, a Muslim Imam.

In addition to the killing of Namugonya Jamirah, Imam Abudalah Ali beat his 12-year-old daughter Saidah so severely that she has been hospitalized for two weeks.  The young girl was horrified when she found out that her sister did not survive their father’s attack upon them.

“Saidah needs prayers, trauma counseling and medication for the left side of her hip that was injured by the father,” a hospital source told Morning Star News.

The girls were beaten after accepting Christ at the end of a five-day evangelistic event in Kaliro District.

“Their father got the information that his daughters have converted, and he organized a small group of fellow Muslims, about 17 people, to go and attack the Christians,” a source said. “He found the campaign had finished but went back to his home and waited for the daughters. When they went back home, the father picked up the club and started beating them badly till one called Jamirah died.”

The father had been working to have local Muslims kill the 12-year-old before she was taken from the country for her own safety.

Local Muslim officials said that the father claimed the older girl died in a motorcycle accident and they are not pursing murder charges.

“The police were later bribed and accepted the words of Ali, and he was released on bail,” one source said. “When he came home he went to the [local] chairman and said that he had disowned Saidah, and that if she tries to go back that she will be killed just like her sister, and that he is leaving Saidah in the hands of born-again Christians.”

Woman Attacks Police With Crucifix After Church Vandalism

A Massachusetts woman is under arrest after she vandalized a church and then tried to attack police with a metal crucifix in the same place a church’s nativity scene was vandalized.

The crucifix had been donated after a nearby church was vandalized when a baby Jesus was stolen from their nativity scene and replaced with a severed pig’s head.

Amarellis Cermeno of Haverhill, 54, was arrested on charges including “assault with a deadly weapon, malicious destruction of property and destruction of a place of worship.”

Police were called to La Iglesia Biblica Bautista around 3 p.m. Tuesday after someone had written “666” in large numbers in 15 different places on the church building.  Police found Cermeno nearby carrying a large metal crucifix that she used to attack police.

She is being held without bail.   She is undergoing mental health evaluations.

NY Man Forces Woman To Take Abortion Pill

A New York anesthesiologist is under arrest after police say he forced a woman to take an abortion pill.

Thomas Pfeiffer, 44, reportedly grabbed a woman by the throat, choking her until she opened her mouth.  When she did, he forced an abortion pill into her mouth and made her swallow it.

The woman had told Pfeiffer that she was pregnant because she had taken a home pregnancy test that returned a positive result.

Pfeiffer faces charges of strangulation, abortion and assault.  The strangulation and abortion charges are second degree felonies.  He was placed in county jail on $50,000 bond.

The woman was treated and released from an area hospital.  Police would not release if the woman suffered an abortion because of the drug.

British Citizen Attacked “Knockout Style” in New York

A British citizen who is a Hasidic Jew was brutally attacked on a New York street in what members of the Jewish community are calling another example of the “knockout game.”

While police are refusing to acknowledge the attack was a “knockout” attack, at least one public official says the assault on the 65-year-old man certainly appears to fit the criteria.

“He was attacked from behind by two individuals, brutally attacked,” Democratic New York City Councilman David Greenfield said. “They did not take anything from him, and he was in such bad condition that he had to be hospitalized.”

The man had traveled to New York for a wedding.  He was attacked on the street in Brooklyn as he left the wedding.

The NYPD has increased patrols in the areas where the “knockout game” began in October last year.  Police are reportedly looking at surveillance video of the assault for clues.

Criminal Punches 8-Year-Old In Face For iPad

A grown man who wanted a youngster’s iPad punched an 8-year-old Minneapolis boy in the face.

The boy was following his aunt from a daycare building to the aunt’s car.  Aaron Stillday, 32, ran up to the child, punched him in the face, grabbed the iPad and ran up the street.

Stillday, who has been arrested 60 times, made the mistake of attacking the boy in front of Mohammad Armeli.

Armeli had been working at a nearby restaurant when he saw Stillday attack the child.  Armeli immediately began to chase the thief and followed him for a half a mile.

When Stillday was caught, he responded by smashing the iPad on the sidewalk before he could be subdued.

“This is the scum of the earth,” Armeli said of Stillday.  “You cannot hit a child like that.  Don’t hit him for his iPad, or for anything.”

The good news from the incident:  the Apple Store in Minneapolis, when they were informed of what happened to the boy, gave him a brand new iPad.

Teen Girls Torture Autistic Teen

Two Washington, DC area teenagers are in jail after being arrested on charges related to torturing an autistic boy.

Lauren Bush, 17 and a 15-year-old girl recorded their assaults against the 16-year-old victim.  In addition to forcing him to perform various personal indignities, they stabbed him multiple times and dragged him around by his hair.

They also forced the victim to walk across a partially frozen pond where he fell through the ice multiple times.  The suspects refused to help the boy out of the frigid water and laughed as he struggled to get back onto the  ice surface.

Bush is being charged as an adult.  Both defendants are facing charges of 1st degree assault, 2nd degree assault, production of child pornography and false imprisonment.

Bush and her co-conspirator have not told police why they committed the acts against the boy.