Free Republic

A 13-year-old former Truman Middle School student was arrested and booked with terrorizing after authorities say he posted a photo with a caption threatening to shoot up the school on Friday (Feb. 23). The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office did not identify the student, the fifth arrested since Tuesday in connection with investigations into reported school shooting threats, said Lt. Jason Rivarde, spokesman for the department.The boy posted an unidentified image on his Instagram account Thursday night and wrote "ima (sic) shoot up truman tm at 12:00 be there," according to Rivarde. -snip-- A student at Helen Cox High School in...

Few imagined such a crime could happen -- a triple murder and suicide -- in a middle-class Marrero neighborhood so thick with law enforcement officers that residents call it Cop Land. It's the kind of place where everyone waves hello but no one gets in each other's business.When family gathered outside the yellow crime-scene tape Sunday (Nov. 29) in the Oak Forest subdivision, they comforted the sobbing teenager who had returned from a hunting trip to find her mother and stepfather dead in their living room at 4805 Brandi St. What she hadn't seen, when she ran out to call...

A New Orleans man and a Marrero man have been arrested in connection with a Sept. 1 shoot-out with Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputies, authorities said. Local and state investigators seized four pistols from the suspects, three of them reported stolen. Malcom Hall, 21, of 3150 N. Robertson St., New Orleans, was booked with three counts of attempted first-degree murder and four counts of possession of a firearm in connection with drug activity. Terrane Carter, 20, of 1914 James Dr., Marrero, was booked with four counts of possession of a firearm in connection with drug activity, Normand said. The sheriff...

A Denham Springs man was arrested and booked with committing a hate crime after authorities say he used racial slurs while threatening people with a knife in Marrero. Trinity Vitrano, 41, was also booked with illegally carrying a weapon and aggravated assault, according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office arrest report. A deputy was dispatched to the 6200 block of South Judah Drive in Marrero just before 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday (April 1) after 911 operators received calls reporting a man armed with a knife and threatening people. Witnesses told the deputy that they spotted an unidentified man arguing with...

Relatives feared for the safety of U.S. Army Sgt. Joseph Anderson during each of the three tours of duty the 12-year veteran served in Iraq, worried that warfare in a foreign land would claim his life. But they had no such anxieties when he arrived home to Marrero two weeks ago on holiday leave -- and were all the more devastated when someone gunned down the 31-year-old father of three in the driveway of a relative's home Wednesday (Jan. 1) night. "I thought he'd get shot up over there," Anderson's mother, Kathleen Anderson, 57, said. "He came home on leave...

Investigators with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office recovered 81 spent shell casings at the scene of a murder in Marrero early Monday morning. Three suspects shot and killed Emeal Washington, 58, in the 6100 block of August Avenue, according to Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the department. "There was a substantial number of shots, 81 spent shell casings fired at this one particular victim," he said. The murder is the first in unincorporated Jefferson Parish this year. The shooting occurred just after 2 a.m. as Washington, of Marrero, was visiting a friend's August Avenue residence. The two stepped outside while...

Authorities say a Marrero man shot three pit bulls that were attacking his dog Thursday afternoon. The 26-year-old man, who as not been identified, will not face any charges, according to Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. The incident occurred about 12:30 p.m. in the 5100 block of Pritchard Drive, Fortunato said. The man's girlfriend told him three pit bulls had made their way into the backyard of the couple's residence and were mauling his terrier. The man wasn't able to scare off the dogs and eventually felt threatened by them, Fortunato said. He then shot...

One of four men killed during a shootout at a Marrero bar last month was hit by a bullet fired by the bar owner as he exchanged gunfire with robbers, according to testimony Tuesday during a court hearing for two of the five suspects. Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office Detective Keith Locascio testified that one victim was killed by a .38-caliber bullet and, separately, that bar owner Wallace Gomez was the only person armed with a .38-caliber pistol when gunmen robbed Gomez's bar Oct. 30. Gomez, 78, of Marrero; his brother, Beuford Gomez, 75, of Marrero; Jeffrey Carmardelle, 71, of Marrero;...

HOUMA, La. — Six Southeastern Louisiana soldiers - three from Houma, and one each from Marrero, Raceland and LaPlace - were killed Thursday when a bomb blast struck their patrol vehicle in Iraq.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been spinning its victory in a federal court in New York this week as a blow against the USA Patriot Act. One typical headline: "Federal Judge Calls Patriot Act Secret Searches Unconstitutional." An ACLU press release hails the decision as "a landmark victory against the Ashcroft Justice Department." ...No. If reporters had bothered to read Judge Victor Marrero's decision, they would have learned that the law he actually struck down was a provision of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. Section 2709 authorizes the FBI to issue "National Security Letters" to obtain information...