It was kind of a big deal last June when Detroit Police found two alligators living in an apartment. Apparently, gators as pets is kind of trend because eastside resident Shontez Gibson witnessed someone dumping a five-foot alligator in a vacant lot Thursday night.
They're always so cute when they're little. Then they grow up and become ferocious man-eating animals.
According to WDIV, Gibson and his uncle rescued the gator--pretty brave considering gators aren't exactly the friendliest of animals. They cared for the gator until the Humane Society could pick it up.
WDIV: "A black truck pulled up, they got out and I thought they was dumping a body," said Shontez Gibson, who helped rescue the exotic animal. "So, I told my uncle. My uncle said, 'Come on, let's go see.' My uncle chased the truck up the street and they stopped, so my uncle ran back. And when we got back in the field I said, 'No, it's an alligator.'"
Gibson placed the alligator in its own room with a space heater to help warm it up. He said he fed it fish.
Seriously, people, next time you want to get an alligator as a pet, consider a kitten instead. -- JTW
When there is a death and a possiblity of it being a homicide, all the people around that person is interrogated and given a poly. SO, why wasn't Nina or Dina given the same since they were spotted in front of the mansion that night by a witness? Was Adam interrogated?
Rebecca told Coronado police she thought Dina was going to kill her?
Several people told investigators that Rebecca had told them months before her death that she thought Dina Shacknai was crazy and she was afraid what Dina was capable of. Then there is also the statement from CPD that Rebecca stated she thought Dina was going to kill her. Yet to the bought investigators this was not relevant information. Neither Dina or Nina took a polygraph, give DNA samples, were positively alibied at the time of Rebecca's murder. Though Jonah Shacknai does not openly support Dina's mud slinging he has also done nothing in support of finding truth in either case. That is most likely because he was well aware what Dina had planned but did nothing to stop it.
New York: A firefighter has been shot while responding to a house fire in western New York.
Officials in the town of Webster tell local media outlets that someone shot at firefighters around 6 am on Monday when they arrived at the scene of the blaze just east of Rochester.
A fire official with the West Webster Fire District tells the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester that the firefighter is listed in satisfactory condition at Strong Memorial Hospital.
Officials say the fire spread to a second home. A man answering the phone at the fire station said firefighters are unable to battle the blazes as long as the area hasn't been secured by police. The man said no other information was being released.
In this May 9, 2012 file photo, people hold photographs of their relatives who went missing during a protest that is part of the campaign "March of National Dignity.
Mothers searching their sons and justice" held at the Revolution Monument in Mexico City. A new report by a civic participation group has put a number for the first time on the human toll of all the violence: 20,851 people disappeared over the past six years, although not every case on the list may be related to the drug war. With at least another 70,000 people having died in drug violence, the numbers point to a brutal episode in Mexico that ranks among Latin America's deadliest in decades.
Federal police officer Luis Angel Leon Rodriguez disappeared in 2009 along with six fellow police as they headed to the western state of Michoacan to fight drug traffickers. Since then, his mother, Araceli Rodriguez, has taken it into her own hands to investigate her son's disappearance and has publicized the case inside and outside Mexico. She's found some clues about what happened but still doesn't have any certainty about her son's whereabouts. As Mexican troops and police cracked down on drug cartels, who also battled among themselves, Leon was just one of thousands of people who went missing amid a wave of violence that stunned the nation. A new report by a civic participation group has put a number for the first time on the human toll: 20,851 people disappeared over the past six years, although not every case on the list has been proven related to the drug war. With at least another 70,000 deaths tied to drug violence, the numbers point to a brutal episode that ranks among Latin America's deadliest in decades. In Chile, nearly 3,100 people were killed, among them 1,200 considered disappeared, for political reasons during Augusto Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship, and at least 50,000 people disappeared during 40 years of internal conflict in Colombia. The new database is shedding needed light on Mexico's unfolding tragedy. It's also sparking angry questions about why it doesn't include all of the disappeared. Neither Rodriguez's son nor his six colleagues who went missing on Nov. 16, 2009, are in the database, which was allegedly leaked by the Attorney General's Office to a foreign journalist. The group Propuesta Civica, or Civic Proposal, released the data on Thursday. Rodriguez's mother said she's been in touch with authorities investigating the case and has spoken about it in several public forums about the missing. "I don't think any government entity has a complete database," she said. A spokesman for federal prosecutors, who would not allow his name to be used under the agency's rules, said the Attorney General's Office had no knowledge of the document. As compiled by Civic Proposal, the report reveals the sheer scope of human loss, with the missing including police officers, bricklayers, housewives, lawyers, students, businessmen and more than 1,200 children under age 11. The disappeared are listed one by one with such details as name, age, gender and the date and place where they disappeared. Some media in Mexico have reported that the number of missing could be even greater, at more than 25,000, with their estimates reportedly based on official reports, although media accounts didn't make the reports public. "We're worried because several of the people gone missing in the state of Coahuila, and that we have reported to authorities, don't appear on the database," said Blanca Martinez of the Fray Juan de Larios human rights center in that northern border state. She's also an adviser to the group Forces United for Our Disappeared in Coahuila, made up of relatives searching for loved ones. Martinez said that between 2007 and 2012 the group registered 290 cases of missing people. The database released Thursday lists 272 cases in the state since 2006. "We have no doubt that the authorities have done absolutely nothing" to solve them, she said. Public attention to Mexico's disappeared has grown especially since 2011 when former President Felipe Calderon publicly met with members of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, a human rights group led by poet Javier Sicilia. His son was allegedly killed by drug traffickers that same year. Sicilia's movement demanded that the thousands of killed and missing should be treated as victims of the drug war, even if they were criminal suspects. Calderon's government responded that it would create a missing persons database, but authorities have not made it public so far. Calderon also ordered the creation of a special prosecutor in charge of assisting crime victims and supporting the search for the missing. "There is nothing worse for me than having a missing relative. Not knowing where the person may be is very serious and so ... in every case that comes to us, we try to find a solution, to find the person," said Sara Herrerias, the head of Provictima, the office established by Calderon to help crime victims. Herrerias, however, was cautious talking about the number of missing and said she could only discuss the cases that her office has dealt with. In 14 months, she said, Provictima has handled the cases of 1,523 missing people, most of them allegedly taken by members of organized crime but with some cases also reportedly involving government authorities. Of the total number, 150 people have been located, 40 of them found dead. Herrerias declined to talk about the possible magnitude of disappearances. "I don't like to talk when I don't have hard data," she said. Estimates of the missing vary. The National Human Rights Commission, which operates independently from the government, has said that some 24,000 people were reported missing between 2000 and mid-2012, in addition to some 16,000 bodies that have been found but remain unidentified. The government of President Enrique Pena, who took office Dec. 1, estimates the number of unidentified bodies at about 9,000 during Calderon's previous six-year administration. Civic Proposal director Pilar Talavera said that although her group saw inconsistencies in the database, they decided to disclose it not only to help the public understand the scale of the violence, but also to pressure authorities to disclose official information on disappearances. While the numbers help, what the relatives of the missing need most, of course, is to just learn what happened to their loved ones. Since the disappearance of Rodriguez's then-23-year-old son, a dozen alleged members of the La Familia drug cartel have been arrested as suspects in his case. Rodriguez said she has interviewed four of them, who have told her that her son and the other six officers were killed and their bodies "disintegrated." She said that so far no one has given her any clues about where her son's remains are. "If it's true what the criminals say ... even with that, my heart asks to find Luis Angel," Rodriguez said. "For me Luis Angel is still missing."
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military officials are investigating the apparent suicide of a Navy SEAL commander in Afghanistan.
Navy SEAL Cdr. Job W. Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pa., died Saturday of a non-combat-related injury while supporting stability operations in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
A U.S. military official said the death "appears to be the result of suicide." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the death is still being investigated.
"The Naval Special Warfare family is deeply saddened by the loss of our teammate," said Capt. Robert Smith, Commander of Naval Special Warfare Group Two, which manages all Virginia-based Navy SEAL teams. "We extend our condolences, thoughts and prayers to the family, friends, and NSW community during this time of grieving."
"As we mourn the loss and honor the memory of our fallen teammate, those he served with will continue to carry out the mission," Smith added Sunday.
A U.S. military official confirmed Price was from Virginia Beach, Va.-based SEAL Team 4, which is part of the mission to train Afghan local police to stave off the Taliban in remote parts of Afghanistan. Price is survived by a wife and a daughter.
DALLAS (AP) - A female Texas
trooper has been suspended amid an investigation of her videotaped body cavity
search of two women along a busy highway.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said late Wednesday that
Trooper Kelley Halleson has been suspended with pay. Results of a Texas Rangers
inquiry are expected to go to a Dallas County grand jury in January.
An Irving woman and her adult niece this week sued Halleson and a male
trooper, plus DPS director Steve McCraw, over the July traffic stop. Angel and
Ashley Dobbs say the search videotaped by a patrol car camera was unlawful and
humiliating.
The women say a male trooper says he saw them throw cigarette butts out a
window, questioned them about drugs and summoned Halleson. No drugs were found.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
Borderland beat Records show 1 of 5 vehicles was disabled by shots prior to October incident that killed two Guatemalan men
Texas Department of Public Safety officers have fired guns from helicopters while pursuing vehicles five times over the past two years, according to new information on the practice obtained by the American-Statesman.
According to the records, released by the agency Friday after several public information requests, the tactic was clearly successful in only one instance.
Details of the incidents, which all occurred along the Mexican border, raise additional questions about the necessity and effectiveness of a policy that experts have said is almost unheard of in other law enforcement agencies due to the high risks associated with firing a weapon from a moving helicopter at a speeding vehicle.
The practice has been under scrutiny since Oct. 25, when a DPS trooper fired into a pickup racing along a South Texas dirt road near La Joya, killing two Guatemalan men hidden in the bed under a blanket. A third man was injured by the gunfire.
The chase began after Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens spotted the truck and called the DPS for air assistance after it refused to stop. Following the incident, the DPS explained that officers may use gunfire to end a high-speed chase that threatens the lives of bystanders.
The trooper, Miguel Avila, shot as the truck was speeding toward a school more than a mile away, which the DPS said posed a potential danger to students. Alba Caceres, the Guatemalan consul in McAllen, has said the men in the truck had “no guns, no drugs.” Texas Rangers are investigating.
In practice, the airborne marksmen aim at a fleeing vehicle’s tires to disable it. But, as the deadly October incident demonstrated, they don’t always hit their intended target.
On Oct. 21, 2010, a DPS officer in a helicopter fired a single shot at a fleeing vehicle suspected of smuggling narcotics — but missed the car. “Round did not hit vehicle,” the agency’s summary of the incident stated.
The vehicle was eventually stopped when officers threw down spikes to puncture its tires. Although 800 pounds of marijuana was recovered, “two suspects abandoned vehicle and fled to Mexico,” the report concluded.
In another case, on Sept. 13 of this year, a DPS rifleman fired three rounds at a vehicle reported by Mission police to be stolen. From the report, however, it is unclear whether the bullets played a role in ending the chase; Mission police couldn’t provide additional details Friday.
“Three bullet holes were later found in the vehicle,” according to the DPS report. “Three suspects exited vehicle and fled to Mexico.” Just over 1,000 pounds of marijuana were recovered.
It was kind of a big deal last June when Detroit Police found two alligators living in an apartment. Apparently, gators as pets is kind of trend because eastside resident Shontez Gibson witnessed someone dumping a five-foot alligator in a vacant lot Thursday night.
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