Tag Archives: Police

Champs Elysees attacker stashed weapons, was on French watchlist

Police secure the area near a burned car at the scene of an incident in which it rammed a gendarmerie van on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris, France, June 19, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

By Emmanuel Jarry and Richard Lough

PARIS (Reuters) – A man who rammed a car into a police van in Paris stored a cache of weapons at his home and held a gun permit despite being on a secret service list of people linked to radical Islam, police sources and French officials said on Tuesday.

A judicial source said investigators were compiling an inventory of the arms and equipment found in the 31-year-old’s home. The man, who died in the attack, was also carrying in his car an assault rifle, two pistols, ammunition and two large gas canisters when he rammed a police convoy on Monday.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the individual first received a permit to possess a gun before he was flagged to intelligence agencies as a potential militant threat. At the time there was no reason to deny him the permit, Philippe said.

Philippe said it was “quite possible” the license was active at the time the attacker was on a security watchlist. Three sources close to the investigation confirmed it was.

“Nobody can be happy, and certainly not me, that someone who has been flagged to security agencies can continue to benefit from such an authorization,” Philippe told BFM TV.

The man was placed on France’s so called ‘Fiche S’ watchlist after he was found to belong to a radical Islamist movement, two police sources said.

Individuals on the list are placed under surveillance though the intensity of that surveillance varies depending on the perceived threat the individual poses.

Philippe said draft legislation drawn up in May envisaged changes to allow officials who handle gun permits to check if individuals seeking licenses are on a watchlist.

ARRESTS

But refusing permits in such cases had it drawbacks, he said. “If you revoke the authorization of someone who is under surveillance, they’re going to know why.”

On Monday, witnesses saw the man being pulled from the car as thick yellow smoke poured out.

Police arrested four of his close relatives in a raid south of Paris late on Monday, a police source said. They included his father and brother.

France has been on high alert after a wave of militant Islamist attacks over the past two years, including most recently an attack on police outside the Notre Dame Cathedral and an Islamic State-claimed attack on police on the Champs Elysees in April.

In July last year, 86 people were killed when a truck plowed through a crowd in Nice, and similar incidents have occurred in other European cities.

Philippe said the government would be presenting a draft law soon to toughen counter-terrorism legislation.

“We need to find legal instruments that at once guarantee that we continue to live in a Fifth Republic which safeguards freedoms and ensure the security of French people,” Philippe said.

(Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier and Brian Love; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Car rams police vehicle on Paris’ Champs Elysees, driver likely dead

A burned car is seen on the Champs Elysees avenue after an incident in Paris, France, June 19, 2017.

By Michel Rose and Marine Pennetier

PARIS (Reuters) – A driver deliberately rammed his car into a police van as it drove down Paris’ Champs Elysees avenue and was probably killed, police said, adding that no officers or bystanders were injured and the situation was under control.

The Paris prosecutor’s counter-terrorism unit said it had opened an investigation into the incident, which occurred only a short walk away from the Elysees presidential palace and the U.S. embassy.

The car hit the front of the police van as it was overtaking it and caught fire, a police spokeswoman told reporters.

“It appears to have been a deliberate act on the part of the individual,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet.

Brandet told reporters the driver, who was armed, was “most likely dead”, adding that it was difficult to say for sure while the area where he was lying was being checked for explosives.

A report on France’s BFM TV said the man was known to security services and had been carrying a gas bottle in the car.

France has been on high security alert following a series of militant Islamist attacks in recent years, including the shooting of a policeman in an Islamic State-claimed attack on a police bus on the Champs Elysees in April.

(Reporting by Michel Rose and Marine Pennetier; Editing by Leigh Thomas and Andrew Callus)

UK armed police arrest suspected knifeman near parliament

Armed police officers stand outside the Palace of Westminster, in central London, Britain June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Will James

By William James and Costas Pitas

LONDON (Reuters) – British armed police detained a man on suspicion of having a knife after he ran, shouting, toward one of the gates of the Westminster parliament in central London on Friday.

“The man – aged in his 30s – was arrested,” police said.

A witness at the scene told Reuters the man ran toward one of the gates to parliament where a militant killed a policeman less than three months ago.

“You could tell he was suspicious, he was stood there fists clenched. He looked quite an angry geezer,” Bradley Allen, 19, told Reuters.

“We got seconds down the road and they had him on the floor, pinned. Police around him, telling everyone to move back.”

The incident occurred less than three months since a man drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, and then stabbed a policeman to death in the grounds of parliament, the first of three deadly attacks in Britain which has put the security services on high alert.

Another witness near parliament on Friday told Reuters he saw police threatening to use a stun gun on the man. Pictures from the scene showed the man on the ground with an officer pointing a gun at him.

“There were about three or four policeman, one of them shouting at the crowd to get back,” the witness, who declined to give their name, told Reuters.

“The guy was on the ground on his front on the pavement alongside Parliament Square. They had him on the ground and were warning they would taze (stun) him again.”

Officers later put the man in the back of a police van, a Reuters reporter said. Parliament said it was aware of the incident.

The gates to parliament were closed and armed police were patrolling as usual inside the perimeter, a Reuters reporter inside the building said.

On March 22, Khalid Masood drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing four people, before he ran into the grounds of parliament and stabbed a police officer to death. He was shot dead at the scene and his attack prompted a review of security around Westminster.

That attack was followed by a suicide bombing in Manchester and a similar deadly attack on London Bridge, thrusting security and policing to the fore of campaigning before last Thursday’s election.

The spate of recent attacks were the deadliest in Britain since four British Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people on the London transport system in July 2005.

(Reporting by William James and Costas Pitas, writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Michael Holden)

Black Lives Matter sues for court oversight of Chicago police reforms

FILE PHOTO: Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson arrives at a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on September 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo

By Chris Kenning

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Members of Black Lives Matter and other groups sued the city of Chicago on Wednesday, seeking to force federal court oversight of reforms to the police department, which has been accused of using excessive force against minorities.

The lawsuit, filed by civil rights attorneys in the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois, came after Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed off a pledge to let a federal judge oversee reforms.

The lawsuit asks the court to ensure reforms will halt what it described as the ongoing use of excessive force, physical harassment and targeting of minority youth and a reliance on overly aggressive tactics by Chicago police.

“Chicago has proven time and time again that it is incapable of ending its own regime of terror, brutality and discriminatory policing,” the lawsuit said. “Absent federal court supervision, nothing will improve.”

In January, a federal investigation found Chicago police routinely violated the civil rights of people, citing excessive force and racially discriminatory conduct.

That followed protests sparked by the fall 2015 release of video showing a white police officer fatally shooting black teen Laquan McDonald a year earlier.

After the probe’s findings were released, Emanuel committed to a consent decree, a court-ordered reform agreement.

Earlier this month, he said Chicago was discussing an agreement with the Justice Department that would include an independent monitor instead of court oversight.

In an interview with Reuters, Emanuel said a consent decree with the Justice Department is not an option because Attorney General Jeff Sessions does not favor them to impose reform.

Chicago has pushed ahead with reforms including enacting new rules on use of force, provided two-thirds of the Chicago police force with body cameras and is hiring 1,000 new officers, Emanuel said.

Emanuel indicated he still has questions about the role of any outside monitor. “If you have an outside monitor, what are their authorities and their abilities?” he asked.

Edward Siskel, the city’s top lawyer, said on Wednesday that the larger need for reform was npt in question.

But the shift away from using court oversight drew criticism from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and activist groups. A plaintiffs’ attorney in Wednesday’s lawsuit said the city could enter a court-decree with the plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs include six individuals along with groups including Black Lives Matter Chicago and Blocks Together.

Kevin Graham, president of Chicago’s police union, in a statement objected to the lawsuit’s characterization of the department and said his offers are doing a phenomenal job in extremely dangerous circumstances.

(Additional reporting by David Greising; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Lisa Shumaker)

At least 19 killed in hotel attack in Somali capital

Damaged vehicles are seen at the scene of an attack outside a hotel and an adjacent restaurant in Mogadishu, Somalia June 15, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

By Feisal Omar

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – At least 19 people were killed when Islamist militants launched a car bomb and gun attack on a busy hotel and adjacent restaurant in the Somali capital, a police officer said on Thursday.

A car driven by a suicide bomber rammed into the Posh Hotel in south Mogadishu on Wednesday evening before gunmen rushed into Pizza House, an adjacent restaurant, and took 20 people hostage. Posh Hotel is the only venue with a discotheque in the capital.

District police chief Abdi Bashir told Reuters Somali security forces took back control of the restaurant at midnight after the gunmen had held hostages inside for several hours. Five of the gunmen were killed, Bashir said.

“We are in control of the hotel but it was mostly destroyed by the suicide bomber,” he told Reuters by phone.

Witnesses said there were bodies lying at the scene on Thursday morning as ambulances came to take them away.

Ahmed Mohamud Adow, the spokesman for the country’s interior ministry, said the dead included a Syrian national who worked at the restaurant. He did not identify the dead Syrian who local residents said worked as a chef at the Pizza House.

Another 27 civilians were taken to hospital with various injuries, ambulance services said. Witnesses said the attack was launched after the Iftar dinner for customers who are fasting for Ramadan. Most of them were still inside relaxing.

The wreckages of three-wheeled scooters caught up in the blast at the hotel, which also housed a massage parlor, lay overturned around the scene.

Al Shabaab, the Islamist militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack. The group claimed on Thursday morning it killed more than 20 people including soldiers and government workers.

Al Shabaab usually provides a higher death toll from its attacks than the government’s figures.

The group has carried out a campaign of suicide bombings in its bid to topple the Somali government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam.

Since losing large swathes of territory to African Union peacekeepers supporting the government, the group has frequently launched raids and deadly attacks in Mogadishu and other regions controlled by the federal government.

The Horn of Africa country has been racked by armed conflict since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other.

President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who was elected into office earlier this year, promised to defeat al Shabaab.

(Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

At least four killed in San Francisco UPS facility shooting: TV news

Police officers gather outside a United Parcel Service (UPS) facility after a shooting incident was reported in San Francisco, California, U.S. June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

(Reuters) – At least four people were killed, including the suspected gunman, when a disgruntled United Parcel Service Inc <UPS.N> employee opened fire at a company facility in San Francisco, two local TV news stations reported.

After firing on co-workers, the suspect turned a gun on himself when confronted by police, according to NBC Bay Area and ABC 7. He later died at an area hospital, they said, citing law enforcement sources.

San Francisco police said the building was secure but offered no immediate information on victims.

Live video showed a massive police presence near the facility that employs 350, with employees being led out and embracing each other on the sidewalk outside.

“UPS confirms there was an incident involving employees within the company’s facility in San Francisco earlier this morning,” the company said in a statement.

“Local law enforcement have control of the facility and are conducting an investigation. We cannot provide information as to the identity of persons involved at this time, pending the police investigation,” the statement said.

Victims were taken to the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, spokesman Brent Andrew said. He said he could not say how many patients were taken to the hospital or give their conditions.

United Parcel Service vans are seen parked outside a UPS facility after a shooting incident was reported in San Francisco, California, U.S. June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

United Parcel Service vans are seen parked outside a UPS facility after a shooting incident was reported in San Francisco, California, U.S. June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)

At least 3 people injured in San Francisco shooting: local media

(Reuters) – At least three people were injured, including the suspected gunman, in a shooting on Wednesday at a United Parcel Service facility in San Francisco, local media reported.

San Francisco police on Twitter confirmed a shooting had taken place and advised people to avoid the area.

The suspect was hospitalized in police custody, local media reported.

Victims were taken to the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, spokesman Brent Andrew said. He said he could not say how many patients were taken to the hospital or give their conditions.

It was not immediately clear if anyone had died.

The shooting occurred in the area of a United Parcel Service &lt;UPS.N&gt; facility, CBS San Francisco and other local media outlets reported, citing authorities. A San Francisco police representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

(This story has been refiled to correct first paragraph to say United Parcel Service facility … instead of … United Postal Service facility.)

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Tom Brown)

Fire engulfs London tower block, at least 12 dead, dozens injured

Flames and smoke billow as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London, Britain June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

By Kylie MacLellan and Toby Melville

LONDON (Reuters) – A blaze engulfed a 24-story housing block in central London on Wednesday, trapping residents as they slept and killing at least 12 people in an inferno that the fire brigade said was unprecedented in its scale and speed.

More than 200 firefighters, backed up by 40 fire engines, fought for hours to try to control the blaze, London’s deadliest for a generation. The Grenfell Tower apartment block was home to about 600 people.

A local residents’ group said it had predicted such a catastrophe on their low-rent housing estate that overlooks affluent parts of the Kensington area of the capital, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan said there were questions to answer.

Prime Minister Theresa May promised there would be a proper investigation into the disaster, which delayed her talks on trying to secure a parliamentary deal to stay in power and launch talks on Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Some residents screamed for help from behind upper-floor windows and others tried to throw children to safety as flames raced through the Grenfell block of about 120 apartments just before 1 a.m.

Firefighters said they had rescued 65 people – some in pyjamas – from the 43-year-old block.

“We could see a lot of children and parents screaming for ‘Help! Help! Help!’ and putting their hands on the window and asking to help them,” Amina Sharif told Reuters.

“We could do nothing and we could see the stuff on the side was falling off, collapsing. We were just standing screaming and they were screaming.”

TYING SHEETS TOGETHER

Another witness, Saimar Lleshi, saw people tying together sheets to try to escape.

“I saw three people putting sheets together to climb down, but no one climbed down. I don’t know what happened to them. Even when the lights went off, people were waving with white shirts to be seen,” Lleshi said.

The fire sent up plumes of smoke that could be seen from miles away. The ambulance service said 68 people were being treated in hospital, with 18 in critical condition.

More than 16 hours after the fire started, crews were still trying to douse flames as they sought to reach the top floors.

But London police commander Stuart Cundy told reporters he did not believe further survivors would be found in the building.

At a nearby community center used to house some of those rescued, tensions were rising as occupants waited for news.

“The fire, which was unprecedented in its scale and speed, will be subject to a full fire investigation,” said Steve Apter from the London Fire Brigade. “Any lessons learnt from this will be borne out not just across London, across the UK – and lessons learnt globally.”

The emergency services said it was too early to say what had caused the inferno, which left the block a charred, smoking shell. Some residents said no alarm had sounded. Others said they had warned repeatedly about fire safety in the block.

The building had recently undergone an 8.7 million pound ($11.08 million) exterior refurbishment, which included new external cladding and windows.

“We will cooperate with the relevant authorities and emergency services and fully support their enquiries into the causes of this fire at the appropriate time,” Rydon, the firm behind the refurbishment work, said in a statement.

CHILDREN THROWN TO SAFETY

Residents who escaped told how they woke up to the smell of burning and rushed to leave through smoke-filled corridors and stairwells.

There were reports that some leapt out of windows. Other witnesses spoke of children including a baby being thrown to safety from high windows.

Tamara, one witness, told the BBC: “There’s people, like, throwing their kids out, ‘Just save my children, just save my children!'”.

Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn said sprinkler systems should be installed in such blocks and he called on the government to make a statement in parliament.

Fire Minister Nick Hurd said local authorities and fire services across the country would assess tower blocks undergoing similar renovation work to provide reassurance.

“In due course when the scene is secure, when it is possible to identify the cause of this fire, there will be proper investigation and if there are any lessons to be learned, they will be and action will be taken,” May said.

Khan, the London mayor, said there needed to be answers after some residents said they had been advised they should stay in their flats in the event of a fire.

“What we can’t have is a situation where people’s safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or, if it is the case, as has been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced or maintained,” Khan said.

Resident Michael Paramasivan told BBC radio he had spoken to a woman who lived on the 21st floor: “She has got six kids. She left with all six of them. When she got downstairs, there was only four of them with her. She is now breaking her heart.”

(Additional reporting by Lina Saigol, David Milliken, Costas Pitas, Kate Holton, Neil Hall, Elisabeth O’Leary, Alistair Smout, Megan Revell and Oli Rahman; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Baltimore to flood streets with police after rash of killings

FILE PHOTO: Police are seen as demonstrators gather near Camden Yards to protest against the death in police custody of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. on April 25, 2015. REUTERS/Sait Serkan Gurbuz/File Photo

By Ian Simpson

(Reuters) – Baltimore police will put more officers on the street to battle a surge in killings that included six homicides in seven hours this week, part of a wave of deadly violence not seen in the port city in years, authorities said on Tuesday.

Patrol officers and detectives will go on 12-hour shifts through the weekend, instead of the normal 10-hour stints, and all other officers will be placed in squad cars or on foot patrols, Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said.

The six homicides raised the number of killings in the city of 620,000 people to 158 for the year. The pace is 27 percent ahead of that in 2015, when Baltimore notched its second-highest number of homicides this century, according to police figures.

“We’re just as angry and frustrated and ticked off about it as anyone else watching, and I expect people to be upset,” Davis said at a news conference.

The police commissioner said Baltimore was facing a lethal combination of drugs, guns and gangs as crime groups battled for turf. Officers this month seized 30 kg (66 pounds) of the opioid fentanyl and 15 kg (33 pounds) of heroin bound for West Baltimore, one of the deadliest gang battlegrounds, he said.

The overnight violence on Tuesday included a woman gunned down by a masked shooter and two people fatally shot in an apparent drug dispute, Davis said.

The East Coast city has increased coverage by officers during prior spikes in violence. Davis, who did not specify how many more officers would be on the streets, said officials would evaluate the effort’s results next week.

The violence comes as the Baltimore police department, the nation’s eighth biggest, is under a federal court order to remedy widespread civil rights abuses uncovered by a U.S. Justice Department review. The review was triggered by the 2015 death of a suspect from injuries in police custody that sparked arson and rioting.

Mayor Catherine Pugh, during activities last weekend dubbed “Call to Action,” urged city residents to do more to help combat crime, such as mentoring young people or giving ex-offenders jobs.

Baltimore’s rise in homicides has tracked an uptick in U.S. murders. Preliminary Federal Bureau of Investigation data shows a 5.2 percent increase of murders in the first half of 2016 from the year before.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)

Fire engulfs London apartment block, at least six dead, more than 50 injured

Flames and smoke engulf a tower block, in north Kensington, West London, Britain June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

By Kylie MacLellan and Lina Saigol

LONDON (Reuters) – Fire engulfed a 24-floor housing block in central London in the early hours on Wednesday, killing at least six people and injuring at least 50 others in an inferno that trapped residents as they slept.

Flames raced through the high-rise Grenfell Tower block of apartments in the north Kensington area after taking hold around 1 a.m. and witnesses reported many residents desperately calling for help from windows of upper floors.

More than 200 firefighters, backed up by 40 fire engines, fought for hours to try to bring the blaze, one of the biggest seen in central London in recent years, under control.

In late morning, London police said six people had been killed and the death toll was likely to rise.

Fire-fighting crews still had to reach the top four floors of the building where several hundred people live in 130 apartments.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

The block had recently undergone an 8.7 million pound ($11.08 million) refurbishment of the exterior, which included new external cladding, replacement windows and curtain wall facades.

Plumes of black smoke billowed high into the air over the British capital for hours after the blaze broke out. Residents rushed to escape through smoke-filled corridors after being woken up by the smell of burning.

London Fire Brigade said the fire engulfed all floors from the second to the top of the 24-storey block. There were reports that some residents threw themselves out of windows to escape the flames.

“In my 29 years of being a fire fighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale,” London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton told reporters.

Firefighters carry gas cylinders near a tower block severly damaged by a serious fire, in north Kensington, West London, Britain June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Firefighters carry gas cylinders near a tower block severly damaged by a serious fire, in north Kensington, West London, Britain June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

SAFETY QUESTIONS

London mayor Sadiq Khan said the fire raised questions over safety of high-rise blocks like Grenfell Tower. The BBC reported that a political deal between the government of Prime Minister Theresa May and a small Northern Irish party could be delayed because of the aftermath of the fire.

More than 10 hours after the fire broke out London fire brigade said it was still working to bring the fire under control, though the building was not in danger of collapse.

Firefighters rescued large numbers of people from the 43-year-old block, a low rent housing estate which rubs alongside up-scale parts of the Kensington area and highlights the disparities of wealth in the British capital.

London Ambulance Service said more than 50 people had been taken to hospital. A witness told Reuters she feared not all the residents had escaped the fire. Some were evacuated in their pyjamas.

“I looked through the spy hole and I could see smoke everywhere and the neighbors are all there. There’s a fireman shouting ‘get down the stairs’,” one of the block’s residents, Michael Paramasivan, told BBC radio. “It was an inferno.”

“As we went past the fourth floor it was completely thick black smoke. As we’ve gone outside I’m looking up at the block and it was just going up. It was like pyrotechnics. It was just unbelievable how quick it was burning.”

“There was bits of building falling off all around me, I scalded my shin on a hot piece of metal that had fallen off the building,” said Jodie Martin, who lives close to the building and sought to save people from the fire.

“I was just screaming at people: ‘Get out, get out’ and they were screaming back at me: ‘We can’t, the corridors are full of smoke’,” he told BBC Radio.

Smoke billows as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London, Britain June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Smoke billows as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London, Britain June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

RESIDENTS’ CONCERN

Local residents said they had warned repeatedly over fire safety in the block.

London’s mayor Khan said questions needed to be answered over the safety of tower blocks after some residents said they had been advised they should stay in their flats in the event of a fire.

A local residents association had previously warned it was worried about the risk of a serious fire in the block.

“These questions are really important questions that need to be answered,” Khan said.

“What we can’t have is a situation where people’s safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or if it is the case, as has been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced or maintained.”

Ash Sha, 30, who witnessed the fire and has an aunt in the building who managed to escape from the second floor, said the local council had recently renovated the tower.

“They cladded the outside and insulated the inside,” Sha said. “The insulated material is very similar to sponge so it crumbles in your hand. This was just done to tart it up and match the nearby building.”

The local council of Kensington and Chelsea, which owns the block, said it was focusing on supporting the rescue and relief operation. It said the causes of the fire would be fully investigated.

Police closed the A40, a major road leading out of west London, while some parts of London’s underground train network were closed as a precaution.

(Additional reporting by Toby Melville, Neil Hall, Subrat Patnaik, Alistair Smout and Costas Pitas; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Richard Balmforth)