Free Republic

Everyone around W. Arrow and S. 20th streets knew John H. Spooner, the older white man who had lived there for decades, much longer than his younger Hispanic and African-American neighbors, and who was always walking his dogs around the block. And they knew he was upset about a break-in at his house earlier this week, when burglars took some expensive shotguns and other items. He suspected his new next door neighbor. According to a criminal complaint filed Friday: As 13-year-old Darius Simmons was moving a garbage cart from the curb Thursday morning, Spooner, 75, confronted him and demanded the...

Local child molester slain in L.A. prison An inmate serving a life sentence stemming from the sexual assault of a child in Oceanside was killed Tuesday in his prison cell in Los Angeles County. Francisco Javier Aguilar, 36, was found dead in his cell at the California State Prison in Lancaster after 1 a.m., authorities said. He had a cable wrapped around his neck, The Los Angeles Times reported. The cause of death has not been released. An autopsy was set for Thursday, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office. Aguilar’s cellmate, Aaron Alvarez, 42, has been arrested in...

Despite ‘Castle Doctrine,’ defendant is convicted in slaying A PHILADELPHIA JUDGE said Wednesday he was convinced that a disabled, retired Marine was being attacked in the moments before he fatally stabbed a man last October, but he concluded that the stabbing was still a criminal act rather than self-defense. Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner then convicted Jonathan Lowe, 57, of voluntary manslaughter and possession of an instrument of crime. The judge found him not guilty of the more-serious charges of first- and third-degree murder. Lowe, who wears a pacemaker and has survived two strokes and two heart surgeries, could face...

Police in New Haven are investigating the city's sixth homicide this year, and its third in a week. Police said 23-year-old Shane Deran Barrett was shot several times at the corner of Gibbs Street and Dixwell Avenue Tuesday afternoon. Police said someone posted pictures of Barrett online and fled the scene before police arrived. Police are still searching for a suspect.

Police have yet to charge a black motorist who shot dead a mentally disabled and unarmed "white Hispanic," Daniel Adkins, in a Taco Bell parking lot near Phoenix earlier this month. The two reportedly exchanged words before the shooting that occurred, according to some accounts, after the motorist almost ran over Adkins who then banged his fist on the car's windshield. The April 3 shooting by the 22-year-old black man -- whom police in suburban Laveen have yet to identify -- has gotten little if any coverage by the national media. Nor has President Obama weighed in on the case....

Imagine Soldier Field beyond capacity, brimming with 63,879 young African-American men, ages 18 to 24 — more than U.S. losses in the entire Vietnam conflict. Imagine the University of Michigan’s football stadium — the largest in the U.S. — filled to its limit of 109,901 with black men, age 25 and older. Now add 28,223 more — together totaling more than U.S. deaths in World War I. Picture two UIC Pavilions packed with 12,658 Trayvon Martins — black boys, ages 14 to 17 — nearly twice the number of U.S. lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now picture all of...

Raeford, N.C. — As they buried a Hoke County couple killed in their front yard last weekend, family members said Thursday that they are still struggling to make sense of the tragedy. Tommy Charles Brown Sr., 35, and his fiancée, Thalia Rebbecca Mook, 35, were gunned down outside their home on Philippi Church Road in the Rockfish community on Saturday evening, authorities said. John Oliver Hill Jr., 48, who lives across the street, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in their deaths and is being held without bond in the Hoke County jail. Hoke County Sheriff Hubert...

A suspected drunken driver accused of crashing into a home killing one child and injuring another is being held without bail after a judge heard Monday that he may not be in this country legally. Luis Hector Lopez-Rodriguez, 27, is accused of losing control of the blue Ford Crown Victoria he was driving and plowing in to the front porch of a southwest Houston apartment, where two children were playing during a Saturday night party. During a brief court appearance Monday, Magistrate Judge Blanca Villagomez said federal officials have put a hold on Lopez-Rodriguez, which typically means his immigration status...

An Italian prosecutor wants to put Amanda Knox back in prison, saying today that he is "very convinced" that she killed her roommate Meredith Kercher. Prosecutor Giovanni Galati filed a 112-page appeal today seeking to throw out a court ruling that found Knox innocent of her roommate's murder and set her free after four years in an Italian prison.

KARAK, Dec 9: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a young man as he came out of a court in Takht Nusrati after the proceedings of the alleged gang rape of his sister in Karak on Friday. Alamzeb Khattak, 24, had steadfastly supported his sister`s fight for justice in the face of threats and unrelenting pressure from the accused who include three policemen. His cold-blooded murder in the precinct of a court prompted the provincial home department order “a thorough and transparent probe into any security lapse” ... Police had arrested the four accused in the rape case, including inspector Peer Mohsin...

(STATEWIDE) The homicide rate for African Americans in Wisconsin is almost five times the national rate. A new report using FBI statistics ranks Wisconsin in the top ten for the percentage of black murder victims. The figures are from 2009. Of the 146 murders in the state that year 79 of the victims were black and most of them 66 were young black men. Most 60 percent knew their killer. Josh Sugarman heads the Washington, D.C. based Violence Policy Center that produced the report crunched the numbers and produced the ranking. He says gun control laws are the key to...

An infant girl found wrapped in a towel on the front steps of a Northeast residence late Sunday night later died, and police are investigating the case as a homicide. A resident of the 3000 block of Channing Street, NE, was walking home when he saw the unidentified infant on the steps of another home in the same block, police said Tuesday morning. After finding the baby cold and unconscious, he brought the baby into his home and called 911. Police and Fire and Emergency Medical Services arrived at the scene shortly after 11:30 p.m. and found a neighbor performing...

BELLEVUE, WA – This week’s revelation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that homicide is no longer among the leading causes of death in the United States – at a time when gun ownership is at an all-time high – shows that the gun ban lobby has been wrong, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. “The CDC’s report for 2010 that removes homicide from the top 15 leading causes of death in this country coincides with a period of record high gun ownership,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “At the same...

For the first time in 45 years, homicide has fallen off the list of the nation's top causes of death... the murder rate fell enough in 2010 to drop it out of the top 15 causes. Criminologists have not reached a consensus about what's been driving murder rates down

(AP) SALT LAKE CITY - A bodybuilder who was shot in the head during a carjacking outside a Nevada casino — then drove herself to get help — was released from a Salt Lake City hospital just days after the shooting, which authorities said figured in a two-state crime spree. Rattana Keomanivong, operator of the Animal House Training and Nutrition gym in West Wendover, Nev., is a tough woman who earned the title "Wendover Strongest" during a weightlifting fundraiser last summer, police Sgt. David Wiskerchen said Wednesday. Keomanivong was able to drive herself to the police station after being shot...

The United Nations just put together their Global Study on Homicide 2011, an extensive report detailing each country's homicide rate and the factors that brought them there. Globally, there were 468,000 murders in 2010, giving the world an average of 6.9 murders per 100,000 people. But more than a third of these homicides took place in Africa, and slightly lower percentages took place in the Americas and Asia. Not surprisingly, many of the countries with the highest homicide rates are low on human development, high on income inequality and corruption, and fairly unstable. Because homicide rate is per capita, some...

One person is dead and two are wounded in three shootings police investigated today. It’s too early to tell if the shootings were related, police said. Andre Kelly, the city’s 30th homicide victim of the year, was found dead of a gunshot wound by a friend on the first floor of a multi-story building at 536 Whalley Avenue. No further information was available about Kelly, whose body was found at about 7:20 p.m. Police officer David Hartman, spokesman for the department, said the apartment that Kelly was found in is located at the rear of a building that includes a...

An apparent carjacking attempt described as a random act of violence has taken the life of a 45-year-old Albion woman and led to the capture of an illegal immigrant charged with her murder, Orleans County sheriff's officials said Monday. Kathleen I. Byham was walking toward her car in the Walmart Supercenter parking lot in the Town of Albion shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday when she was accosted and stabbed multiple times, Sheriff Scott D. Hess reported. She was taken to Medina Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 7:40 p.m.

VIDEO at LINK: This young University of Colorado student and "Occupy Denver" protester may appear too young to have much life experience, but yessir — he’s mad as hell and he isn’t going to take it anymore. “There’s a lot of stuff that needs to change,” our boy says, “and if it doesn’t, violent revolution will come.” How to change things for the better? Apparently it just takes a box of bullets and some rope. “If you get the thirteen families that own the world, including George Bush and his administration," he says to our video blogger, "get them in...

PHOENIX, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- The lamestream media told you: The 413 killings by police nationwide that were ruled justifiable in 2009 were the most since 1994, FBI statistics show. And the 262 killings by private individuals ruled self-defense were the most since 1997. National numbers for 2010 are not yet available. With some variations, the numbers for both categories have been trending upward since about 2000. Interestingly, the national rise in justifiable homicides has occurred as violent crime levels have dropped. The estimated U.S. violent crime level total in 2009 was 5.2 percent below the 2005 level and 7.5 percent below...