Free Republic

RICHMOND -- A 34-year-old Sacramento man who went to an El Sobrante hardware store on a "mission from Allah to help people" before fatally stabbing an employee 17 times was arraigned on murder charges Tuesday, prosecutors say. Daymond Agnew, charged with murder with use of a knife in Sunday's slaying of 49-year-old Daniel Joseph Stone, of Pinole, at Oliver's Ace Hardware, did not enter a plea and was ordered to return to the Richmond courthouse on Aug. 13 with a public defender.

An East Bay triple-murder suspect left his cell phone behind at the scene of a Pinole burglary and then called it to get it back, unaware that a police officer was on the other end, authorities said today. Anthony Ramirez, 23, never got his phone. Instead, he is in jail, charged with killing a man in Emeryville and suspected of two other homicides in Contra Costa County, Pinole police Sgt. Matthew Messier said.

An El Sobrante man armed with a crossbow and a blazing propane tank who barricaded himself inside his house and held police at bay for more than seven hours was being held in Contra Costa County Jail on Monday, authorities said. Rufus Thomas, 47, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a peace officer, making threats and false imprisonment. When deputies raided the house about 8:15 a.m., they found Thomas wearing a gas mask and a motorcycle helmet and waving a blazing propane tank, Wright said. The police backed off until firefighters could spray...