Free Republic

A man in black bloc behaving suspiciously near a right-wing rally outside the Pinellas County Courthouse in Florida on Jan. 6 was apprehended by deputies after he tried fleeing on foot. Garrett James Smith, 22, was arrested and found carrying an active pipe bomb, Antifa propaganda and a written document on what to bring for his direct action. He had recently returned from Portland, Ore. "He was running fast, he was running away from something," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a press conference on Friday. Smith was purportedly targeting dozens of the attendees of a rally protesting the...

Authorities say a hacker gained access to a Florida city’s water treatment plant in an unsuccessful attempt to fill the water supply with a potentially harmful chemicalA hacker remotely gained access to a Florida city’s water treatment plant in an unsuccessful attempt to fill the water supply with a potentially harmful chemical, authorities said. An unknown suspect breached a computer system for the city of Oldsmar's water treatment plant on Friday and briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference Monday....

A hacker recently tried to poison a Florida city’s water supply, police announced Monday. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said someone remotely accessed a computer system that controls the City of Oldsmar’s water treatment facility on Friday. The unidentified person increased the amount of sodium hydroxide being distributed into the city’s drinking water to a “dangerous” level, Gualtieri said at a press conference. The chemical, also known as lye, is used in small amounts to control the water’s acidity — but can be deadly if ingested in large quantities. A worker at the plant immediately noticed the change and reversed...

Full Title: Son, 23, beheaded his mother on New Year's Eve and dragged her body to the trash 'because she nagged him about chores' A Florida man has hacked off his mother's head with an ax on New Year's Eve then dragged her body out to the garbage because she nagged him to do chores, police say. Christian Gomez, 23, confessed to beheading his mother Maria Suarez-Cassagne after a fight when she asked him to move boxes in the garage. Mario Gomez called 911 on about 7.30pm Wednesday and told dispatchers that his brother Christian had killed their mother and...

January 1, 2015 Sheriff: Fla. Man Decapitated Mom With Ax On New Year's Eve OLDSMAR, Fla. - A 23-year-old Tampa-area man is accused of decapitating his mother with an ax on New Year's Eve, reports the Tampa Bay Times. Christian Gomez, 23, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his mother, Maria Suarez-Cassagne, 48, who authorities say was killed in her Oldsmar home. Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Gomez had been upset with his mother because she wanted him to move boxes around the house, reports the paper. Gualtieri also reportedly said the 23-year-old harbored resentment towards his...

A schizophrenic Florida man chopped off his mother's head with an axe because she kept nagging him about chores, police said Thursday. Christian Jose Gomez, 23, who has several previous arrests, was booked on a charge of first-degree murder for the grisly New Year's Eve crime in Oldsmar. He allegedly told police he had been planning the attack for two days because he was in a fit of pique over his mother's requests that he put some boxes in the attic, NBC station WFLA reported. Gomez put his mother's head a garbage can but couldn't lift her body into it...