Free Republic

WETUMPKA, Ala. Three Prattville High School students and a Montgomery teenager have been charged with murder in a fatal shooting that apparently occurred after an argument over whether Wetumpka or Prattville has a better high school football team. Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin said the shooting occurred after an argument Friday night at a back-to-school event in Wetumpka. Killed was Ramonda Mitchell, 35, of 114 Crenshaw Drive. Franklin said the shooting occurred about 4:30 a.m. Saturday in the Crenshaw community, just west of Wetumpka. Charged in Mitchell's death are James Gray, 19, of Montgomery, and Justin Edwards, Greg Hall and...

A night that allegedly started pleasurably for one Lake Charles, LA couple turned deadly. The Calcasieu Parish sheriff's office has charged 36 year old Kimberly Grosset with negligent homicide in connection with the shooting death of her boyfriend. Officials say she and 49 year old Robert White were engaged in consensual sexual behavior when he was shot in the head with a gun at his McCindy road home. No bond has been set.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- There is new information about a man accused of driving drunk and crashing into two cars Monday morning on I-40. Federal authorities say the driver, who first said he was Michael Delatorre, is really Ricardo Contreras. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials say Contreras is in the country illegally, and that he had been picked up by ICE officials in California and deported twice in April of 2004. ICE officials have placed a detainer on him at the jail. Contreras made his first court appearance today. State Troopers say he was driving while impaired and crossed the median...

Alex Gonzales, left, and Fernando Olvera, right, members of the band Mana, speak during a news conference while former vice president Al Gore listens Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007, in Los Angeles where Gore announced his climate change concerts. The campaign, Save Our Selves — The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis, hopes to trigger a broad movement to address what the former vice president calls a global climate crisis. More than 100 performers, including Mana, are scheduled to appear at the July concerts. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

advertisementOfficials still aren't saying if a suspected illegal entrant shot and killed Friday by a U.S. Border Patrol agent had a weapon. The details surrounding a fight between the man who was killed, Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera, 22, of Puebla, Mexico, and the Border Patrol agent remained hazy Saturday as officials were tight-lipped about the investigation. "The agent thought his life was in danger," said Jesús Rodriguez, a Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. The incident occurred just after 3 p.m. Friday 150 yards north of the border between Bisbee and Douglas, southeast of the Paul Spur Lime plant and Arizona 80,...

Two Coast Guard divers killed in a botched Arctic training dive were loaded with too much weight and were assisted by untrained crew members who had been drinking beer, an official investigation has found. The two divers, from the Seattle-based icebreaker Healy, plunged to about 200 feet - about 10 times deeper than intended - shortly after entering the 29-degree water on Aug. 17, 2006.

NEW YORK - Thousands of protesters, counting in unison from one to 50 to mark the number of shots fired by police in the death of an unarmed Queens man last month, clogged Fifth Avenue on Saturday in a “Shopping for Justice” protest three weeks after the slaying and one week before the Christmas weekend. Trent Benefield, 23, one of the survivors of the Nov. 25 shooting that killed Sean Bell, led the marchers from his wheelchair as they headed south through midtown Manhattan. He was encircled by bodyguards, and followed by a group of clergy and elected officials on...

New York’s anti-cop forces have roared back to life thanks to a fatal police shooting of an unarmed man a week ago. The press is once again fawning over Al Sharpton, Herbert Daughtry, Charles Barron, and sundry other hate-mongers in and out of city government as they accuse the police of widespread mistreatment of blacks and issue barely veiled threats of riots if they do not get “justice.” The allegation that last weekend’s shooting was racially motivated is preposterous. A group of undercover officers working in a gun- and drug-plagued strip joint in Queens had good reason to believe that...

Death behind bars Harold Ledet Jr. was jailed Nov. 21. Five days later, he was dead. His family wonders how, why. By KIM GILLILAND Record Staff Writer Tuesday, November 28, 2006 NEWTON - Harold James Ledet Jr. was awake in his jail cell shortly before 3:30 a.m., prompting a jailer to ask if he was OK. Ten minutes later, he was no longer breathing. A transcript of a 911 call made about 3:36 a.m. shows Ledet was unresponsive and not breathing before being taken from his cell to Catawba Valley Medical Center. He was later pronounced dead. Ledet, 28, died...

NEW YORK - A bouncer was arrested Thursday on charges he shot four people _ killing one _ in an angry frenzy outside a Manhattan nightspot. Stephen Sakai, 30, of Brooklyn, was awaiting arraignment on murder, assault and weapons charges. Police also were investigating whether Sakai was involved in three other fatal shootings, law enforcement officials said Thursday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation had not been completed, said the suspect made statements implicating himself in those slayings. One of the victims had worked as a bouncer at a topless bar in Brooklyn called Sweet...

State wildlife officials field a flood of calls about alligators in the wake of recent fatal gator attacks... As news of fatal alligator attacks spread throughout Florida and the nation, operators at the Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program in Okeechobee are swamped. Operators have stayed late this week to handle the flood of phone calls. They logged 225 calls on Monday, more than double the number of calls they answered a year ago. ''It was nonstop,'' said biologist Lindsey Hord, the program's coordinator. ``As soon as they hung up with one person, they answered another call.'' The call volume increased last...

Tuesday, May 9 at 8/7c To date, there have been no cases of the H5N1 virus in the United States nor has there been a human transmission of the disease in a form that could fuel a pandemic. However, experts around the world are monitoring the Avian Flu situation closely and are preparing for the possibility that the virus could begin to spread from person to person. For information on the virus log onto pandemicflu.gov. There are times that test humanity and challenge the soul of a community or a nation. News images and headlines tell stories of rising waters,...

An immigrant smuggler was convicted Tuesday of causing the deaths of three passengers in a June 2003 crash while fleeing authorities. A jury deliberated for nearly six hours before finding Antonio Sanchez, 30, guilty on three counts of second-degree murder. Sanchez, a Mexican citizen, was retried for speeding away from the California Highway Patrol on state Route 78 near Borrego Springs, killing a woman and two men he was trying to smuggle into the country. He was originally convicted in March 2004 on similar charges and sentenced to 53 years to life in prison. But a state appellate court reversed...

A giant sinkhole that swallowed an Alta man in his living room Friday night was still growing Sunday, precluding rescuers from recovering the victim. Family friend Rick Armstrong said the missing man is presumed to be Jason Chellew, 32, though he deferred to authorities for an official identification.

PHOENIX — The federal government charged three men Friday with smuggling people for financial gain after a deadly wreck near Sonoita. They are charged with bringing 21 illegal immigrants into the United States, according to the United States Attorney for the District of Arizona. Fernando Montes-Carrillo and David Ezquiel Tellez-Gutierrez, both Mexican citizens born in 1974, and Juan Carols Pineda-Navvaro, a U.S. citizen born in 1986, are charged with being co-conspirators involved with transporting illegal immigrants for private financial gain. Two were allegedly drivers of trucks carrying illegal immigrants, one of which crashed in Santa Cruz County on Thursday, killing...

Landmark legislation offering eventual citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants suffered a potentially fatal blow Friday in the Senate, the latest in a series of election-year setbacks for President Bush and the Republicans who control Congress. "Politics got ahead of policy on this," lamented Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass. an evenhanded assessment that belied the partisan recriminations from all sides. Hailed as a bipartisan breakthrough less than 24 hours earlier, the bill fell victim to internal disputes in both parties as well as to bewildering political maneuvering. On the key vote, only 38 senators, all Democrats,...

A teenage driver dodged police twice before eventually slamming her car into a cab early Thursday morning, killing its driver. St. Petersburg police said they tried to stop 18-year-old Leyana Rich twice for erratic driving and speeding, once on Wednesday afternoon, and again early Thursday morning. Both stops failed, and at about 2 a.m. Thursday she barreled through an intersection and T-boned the cab. St. Petersburg Police Department Spokesman Bill Proffitt explained why officers opted not to pursue Rich the first two times. "We have a pretty strict pursuit policy," Profitt said. "We only pursue for violent felonies, and it's...

Brian Morse, 54, was declared dead at the scene, at a home in the 2300 block of Fountain Drive, after his glove became stuck in the wood chipper and pulled him in. The Larimer County Coroner's Office identified Morse, owner of Brian's Tree Trimming & Removal Service, using fingerprints. The cause of death was listed as "total morselization." The gloves protected Morse's hands, leaving the fingerprints intact.

ANCHORAGE - Alcohol was suspected as a factor in half of the 31 fatal collisions over five years between motorists and walkers or bicyclists in Anchorage, according to a new state report. It was usually the walker who had been drinking, according to the report that looked at 1,098 reported cases in which people drove into walkers or bikers during a five-year period ending in 2002. One-way streets in downtown and Midtown Anchorage were worst for accidents-per-mile. Sixth Avenue downtown led with 23 and Benson Boulevard had 21. Crossing at a stoplight or stop sign could be dangerous. More than...

A pursuit of a suspect wanted for a series of robberies ended in a fatal barrage of gunfire after winding through several Southeast San Diego communities Thursday. According to reports, the slow-speed chase began at around 2:20 p.m. at 65th Street and Imperial Avenue. The suspect led officers from both National City and San Diego through Encanto, Lomita and La Pressa before it eventually ended when officers shot and killed the man in the 2300 block of Albamaro Street in Paradise Hills. The 40 mph-chase erupted into a rolling gun battle several times during the pursuit, with the suspect exchanging...