Free Republic

Six people were killed and at least 23 others—including a 4-year-old girl—have been wounded in shootings across Chicago this Memorial Day weekend, police said. The 4-year-old, identified by her family as Jacele Johnson, was shot about 8 p.m. Friday in the West Englewood neighborhood. She and her 17-year-old cousin Romare Wilson were inside an SUV in the 7000 block of South Justine when another vehicle pulled up and someone inside opened fire, according to their family and Chicago Police.The girl was shot in the head and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was in critical condition, authorities said. The...

An Omaha police officer and a suspect involved in a shootout Wednesday have died. Kerrie Orozco, 29, a gang unit officer, was serving a warrant on the Metro Area Fugitive Task Force when she was shot. Orozco is the 25th officer – and first female – in the department killed in the line of duty. Orozco had been taken to Creighton University Medical Center in extremely critical condition after being shot about 1 p.m. near Read Street and Martin Avenue.

SPRING HILL – Firefighters face countless hazards each time they walk into a burning building or pull victims from mangled vehicles, but what about unexpected dangers presented by those they are trying to help? Just like the increasing hostility towards law enforcement, the threat of violence against all First Responders is growing. During the recent unrest in Baltimore, Firefighters were pelted with rocks and bottles as they tried to extinguish burning buildings and vehicles. Closer to home, Fire Rescue responded to 680 Cape Cod Loop Sunday, to assist a man who had fallen into a pool at Nantucket Cove Apartments....

...The deputy suffered a two-and-a-half-inch cut to his forehead and multiple bodily injuries. The doctor told the deputy it looked like the cut was made by a box cutter. "They roughed him up, but the officer was able to press a button and release his K-9 from the backseat," Adam said. The dog bit at least one of the suspects, potentially saving the officer's life, Adam said. That was more than good equipment and a good dog, Adam said. "We have four K-9 units here, but only two of our vehicles are equipped with the pop mechanism," he said. But...

In a recent panel discussion on poverty at Georgetown University, President Barack Obama gave another demonstration of his mastery of rhetoric — and disregard of reality. One of the ways of fighting poverty, he proposed, was to "ask from society's lottery winners" that they make a "modest investment" in government programs to help the poor. Since free speech is guaranteed to everyone by the First Amendment to the Constitution, there is nothing to prevent anybody from asking anything from anybody else. But the federal government does not just "ask" for money. It takes the money it wants in taxes, usually...

Nine people have been killed and 18 hospitalized in a shoot-out between rival biker gangs at a recruitment event in a Texas restaurant on Sunday afternoon. What started as a physical fight in the bathroom spilled out into the bar and rapidly escalated to involve chains, clubs, knives and gunfire across Twin Peaks Bar and Grill in Waco, local media reports. Diners, including young children, scrambled and many took shelter in the freezer as hundreds of gang members ran rampage around the booths, according to KXXV.

Jacksonville FL---Duval County Public Schools confirmed that two female students were shot in a school bus at 118th Street and Ortega Farms Boulevard on Thursday afternoon.

A Maryland man faces a long recovery after he was brutally beaten by a group of teens.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore and numerous downtown businesses closed early Monday, citing concerns about potentially violent activity in the area. Lexington Market, a city courthouse and businesses including T. Rowe Price and Venable LLP said police warned them of large gatherings and protests downtown. According to widely circulated flier, a high school "purge" was to take place at 3 p.m., starting at Mondawmin and ending downtown. Such memes have been known to circulate regularly, but today's has led to bolstered police presence around the city. The flier includes an image of protesters smashing the windshield of a police car...

Barry Hammer didn’t know what hit him. A night out at a Celtics game with his wife and twin boys on Tuesday turned into a nightmare when he was punched in the face by a total stranger for no apparent reason. “I’ve never been punched in my life,” said the 38-year-old Auburn dad who’s still stunned by what happened in the mezzanine area of Boston’s TD Garden during his kids’ first Celtics game. Hammer said he believes he was likely the victim of a so-called “knockout game.” The game has been seen around the country and involves attackers who sucker...

A middle school teacher in Hempstead, New York, is recovering from a beating after a student's mother attacked her inside the classroom. Police say she put the teacher in a chokehold, then her 14-year-old niece punched the teacher in the face.

A Christian missionary is critically wounded after being shot in the head in Karachi, Pakistan, in an apparent terrorist attack.Fifity-five year old Debra Lobo was hit twice when four men fired shots from motorbikes as she was leaving work. Lobo has lived in Pakistan for thirty years and is married with two children. She serves as vice-principal of Jinnah Medical and Dental College. Lobo has been hospitalized with two bullet wounds, one in the chin and one in the arm.According to police, "The initial investigation suggest that this was a pre-planned terrorist attack and was made over the lady because...

Customer Mary Fuller was so scared by the unruly teens flashing gang signs and raising a “ruckus” in the parking lot of the BP gas station in Memphis, Tennessee, that she expressed her fears to a complete stranger, who offered to walk the elderly white woman outside to her car. “I said, ‘I don’t know if I ought to walk out of here or not, because they’re still fighting,’” Fuller told WMC-TV. “He said, ‘It’s not a problem. I’ll take care of this.’” The man she confided in was Orrden Williams, who had gone to the gas station to use...

Shocking surveillance footage shows a mob using a hammer, a rocking chair leg and Mace as they beat a homeless man into a coma during a suspected act of revenge. The video taken in the forecourt of the Sunoco gas station on North 5th Street in Philadelphia shows five people, including two children, storming out of a minivan and attacking the helpless 51-year-old. One of the group takes out Mace as the man is brought to the ground. They then stamp on his head and continue punching him as he lies motionless.

HANCOCK COUNTY -- A family gathering to celebrate a child's birthday turned deadly Sunday when a fight between two brothers-in-law led to a fatal stabbing, officials said. Hancock County Sheriff's Investigator Glenn Grannan said that at 12:30 a.m., deputies found Kenneth Fanning, 29, suffering from multiple stab wounds in the front yard of a rental home on the 5000 block of U.S. 90. The suspect, Clinten Michael Dryer Sr., 32, injured his knee during the fight, Grannan said. He was treated at Memorial Hospital at Gulfport and was charged shortly before 8:30 p.m. Sunday with murder.

All bets were off after a chair-hurling brawl broke out Friday night at the grand opening of a Fat Tuesday New Orleans-style daiquiri bar inside the Resorts World Casino in Queens, officials said.

The man accused by New Orleans police of murdering Domino's delivery driver Michael Price late last month has a history of armed robbery and weapons charges in Houston and New Orleans.Michael Portis, 24, is facing a possible first-degree murder charge after his arrest Wednesday morning (April 1) in the 4900 block of Pauger Street. His arrest came a little more than a week after police found Price's bullet-riddled body inside his car shortly before 1 a.m. on March 24 in the 6100 block of North Roman Street in the city's Lower 9th Ward.Details of Portis' arrest and alleged involvement in...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A 4-year-old girl has grabbed her purple raincoat, slipped out of her house at 3 a.m. and hopped a Philadelphia bus in search of a snack. Bus driver Harlan Jenifer says the girl swung her legs in a seat as she chanted, “All I want is a slushie.”

FAIRCHILD, Wis. (WEAU) - An Amish family in Fairchild now has a sign on their home ordering them to leave. The court order for Amos and Vera Borntreger, along with their four young children, is for violating Eau Claire County building codes. The family claims those codes go against their religious beliefs. The county put up the sign, Thursday, around noon. The penalty for not obeying that sign by leaving their home could be $2,000 dollars for every day they stay or jail time. A group of about ten from the Amish community were gathered when the county delivered the...

An Amish family faces eviction from their home after being found in contempt of court for refusing to comply with building codes on the grounds that doing so would violate the religious community’s ban on modern technology. At a Monday hearing, a Circuit Court judge ordered the Eau Claire County sheriff’s office to evict Amos and Vera Borntreger, a farming couple with four children under the age of six, from their home in the Old Order Amish community of Fairchild, Wisconsin.