Free Republic

Two would-be robbers who were fatally shot at a liquor store in the Gresham neighborhood Saturday night have been identified as a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy, authorities said. Keshawn Marzette, 15, of the 8300 block of South Throop Street, and William Larson, 17, of the same address, were pronounced dead on the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Autopsies Sunday determined both died of multiple gunshot wounds and their deaths were classified as homicides, the office said. The two were shot to death by a store employee about 8:30 p.m. when they tried to rob...

INDIANAPOLIS - Prosecutors Tuesday filed a sentencing enhancement against one of the suspects in Amanda Blackburn's murder. The enhancement means that if Larry Taylor is found guilty of murder, he could face an additional 6-20 years in prison because Blackburn was pregnant when she was killed. Both Taylor and Jalen Watson pleaded not guilty in court earlier Tuesday morning. Prosecutors say Taylor and Watson entered the Blackburns' unlocked front door on Sunnyfield Court the morning of Nov. 10 after Amanda's husband, Davey, left for the gym. Inside, Amanda put up a fight. But court documents say Taylor admitted to Watson...

Savages at play Barack Obama High School. The irony is, well....

DOWNTOWN JACKSON -- Three people appeared Tuesday in city court on accusations of entering a Jackson fast food restaurant and assaulting an employee during a busy lunch hour.

A group of robbers on the south side of Chicago appear to have taken a page out of the Gulf Cartel or Los Zetas manual for setting up roadblocks in order to carry out violent robberies. Just last week a group of three or four robbers have used a construction area in the city’s south side to set up roadblocks as a trap for motorists. Once the motorists stop, they were assaulted and robbed, UPI news reported. The practice bears a striking similarity to a practice already established by both the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas who set up roadblocks...

Police say a burglary suspect being chased by police struck a pedestrian and then crashed his car.Police say the man kicked in the door of a home and then shot at a woman during an attempted burglary on Alpine Drive in Roswell Tuesday afternoon.They said the driver died Tuesday night. Police identified him as 17-year-old Anthony Stokes of Decatur. Stokes gained national attention when he was denied a heart transplant because of “a history of non-compliance.”They said the pedestrian who was struck is Clementina Hernandez, 33, of Roswell.“A lady said a person kicked in the door to break into the house. She was...

A 5-year-old boy was “screaming his lungs out” Sunday as he came “flying out of the door” of an SUV during a botched theft of a flat-screen TV from a Falmouth Wal-Mart by his mom and her boyfriend, according to police reports released yesterday. Eyewitnesses said they ran to help as the crying boy fell “out of the car onto the ground” and then got up and started to chase the SUV.

A Huntsville man doomed by his own testimony, according to his lawyer, was convicted today of raping a woman passed out in the bathroom during a Fourth of July party last year. Jason Scott McNeal, 36, was convicted of first-degree rape - having sex with a person unable to consent because they were physically helpless or mentally incapacitated - after the jury deliberated for more than two hours. McNeal's father testified on his son's behalf, telling jurors the younger McNeal was not a violent person. But his claim was likely undermined for the jury after McNeal's father admitted on cross-examination...

Forty police officers were called to restore calm after chaos broke out at on Saturday night at the Darts Invitational Challenge, an international competition at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. Security guards at the stadium were unable to quell the violence. Daniel Andrews, the state premier in Victoria, said the incident was “very ugly” and authorities will reconsider whether to host other such darts events in the future.

CONWAY, S.C. – Police say a South Carolina man charged with sexual assault of his nephew's girlfriend was beaten by the relative, who won't be charged in the incident. Fifty-two-year-old William Mattson of Conway is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Local media outlets report that a judge denied him bond Saturday. Mattson was arrested New Year's Day. Authorities say Mattson's nephew told them he came home and found his girlfriend and uncle in bed together. The nephew said the woman was naked, and Mattson was clothed. The man said he beat Mattson until he was out of the house....

A man who stormed into a bonfire party with a handgun, believing his girlfriend had been raped by the men there, came out of the whole mess the worst for wear. Janos Papp, 57, ended up being viciously beaten by the men at the party - who had not raped his girlfriend, it turned out. She had made the story up after her ATV broke down and she was angry the men at the party were too incompetent to help her.

**SNIP** Hong Kong police have asked anyone who grabbed the money to return it authorities as soon as possible. “Otherwise, they may have committed the crime of theft,” Wan Siu-hong, a district police officer, told reporters, according to Radio Television Hong Kong. There was an estimated 35 million Hong Kong dollars --- $4.5 million US -- in the van. About $2.5 million has been recovered. Nearly $2 million is missing, according to the police. The van belongs to G4S, a British security company. According to the South China Morning Post, the company said it was liable for the multimillion-dollar loss...

HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) – Two suspects accused of attacking a 21-year-old Holland Township man with a pickaxe and baseball bat have been arrested. Codi James Antoniello, 19, and a 16-year-old male were arrested Thursday at an apartment complex in Holland Township. Antoniello, who authorities say was trying to shave his head in order to alter his appearance when he was arrested, was arraigned Friday on charges of felonious assault and first-degree home invasion. The 16-year-old suspect will be charged as an adult in the case, according to the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office. He is currently being held in...

How did this Alabama family handle it when they saw the people who broke into their house and stole their Christmas presents? On Sunday afternoon, Chris Wyatt and other family members were able to recognize the people who’d broken into their house on that Friday from home surveillance video. The burglars were apparently back in the neighborhood trying to ruin Christmas for a few more boys and girls. Once confronted, of course, the suspects had their own story. Chris Wyatt told WBRC TV: “They tried to say that they were lost and we corrected them where they were.” While they...

A 350-pound Walmart shopper was arrested yesterday after he was found sitting atop five stolen rib eye steaks in the seat of a motorized scooter that he was riding around the South Carolina store. Rodney Fowler, 43, was spotted Tuesday afternoon placing the steaks in his scooter by a Walmart loss prevention officer, according to a police report. “Suspect sat on the steaks and exited the store passing all points of sale, without attempting to pay for said merchandise,” cops noted.

FULL TITLE: Wife of convicted sex offender pleads guilty to running a daycare centre as a front for a child porn ring The wife of a convicted sex offender has pleaded guilty to running an unregistered daycare centre as the front for a child porn production operation at a North Carolina home. Elizabeth Holland Mills, 35, faces up to 30 years in jail after pleading guilty to one count of manufacturing child porn following her arrest alongside four others in January. In August, her husband Bailey Joe Mills, 34, pleaded guilty to the same charge after police discovered Facebook messages...

The family of Michael Brown have said that the cop who shot him dead will 'feel the wrath of God's vengeance' after the officer claimed he was acting in self defense. Sheryl Davis, Brown's aunt, told MailOnline that she believes Darren Wilson committed murder and that he will suffer retribution in a 'mighty way'. She said that Wilson's actions were 'evil' and that he will be punished by a higher power for what he did - even if he is cleared. Her comments are the most outspoken yet from Brown's family since Wilson's account of what happened was published in...

This weekend marked the 24th annual Pumpkin Festival in Keene, New Hampshire, but instead of good times and fun, festivalgoers found themselves in the middle of a riot when a fight broke out and spilled into the streets.

Witnesses tell The Boston Globe police fired tear gas at hundreds of Keene State College students and others who had been throwing bottles, skateboards and rocks into the crowd. One witness blames heavy alcohol use at earlier parties. WMUR-TV in Manchester showed footage of a crowd toppling over a car, people running from tear gas clouds and street signs being torn down. Police dressed in riot gear ordered crowds to disperse. The parties were part of the Keene Pumpkin Festival, where the community tries to set a world record of the largest number of lighted jack-o-lanterns.

Looks like these boys are going to need a double amnesty. But I’m sure Obama can deliver. Two teenage asylum seekers from Guatemala escaped a detention center in Illinois and carjacked a 91-year-old Navy veteran.The minors, age 16 and 17, were able to walk away unchallenged from Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, Illinois, outside Chicago, on Wednesday morning and carjack two victims before they were arrested more than 225 miles away outside Iowa City, Iowa, according to authorities.Police say they targeted an elderly man in Moline, Illinois, who was picking up his prescription at Walmart. They threatened him with violence,...