Free Republic

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A Battlefield, Mo. man charged with making a terroristic threat at a south Springfield Walmart in August pleaded guilty to an amended charge. Dmitriy Andreychenko, 20, pleaded guilty in a Greene County courtroom Friday to an amended charge of making a false report... "I am glad that the courts worked with me, that they had grace on me, everything worked out great," Andreychenko said after Friday's hearing. "I would just like to apologize to the community. I would never hurt anyone, and I'm sorry." A judge sentenced him to a 180 day suspended jail sentence, two years...

Less than three months after his arrest, former UVSC student Kidus Chane Yohannes has been declared mentally competent to stand criminal trial. A 4th District Judge made the decision on Thursday, Sept. 6. A preliminary hearing has been set for Sept. 20. "Yohannes is charged with two felony counts of providing false information for a gun background check and a third felony of possessing a credit card stolen from one of his roommates," said Joe Pyrah, a Daily Herald writer. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, prosecutors requested the competency examination of Yohannes because, as is stated in court documents,...

Studying a single issue over time often reveals important trends, and one trend there to observe in an increasing among of hostility toward Christian churches and schools across the United States. Most recently, a former student at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minn. came in during an afternoon Mass and shot 19 people, two fatally. “The shooter was very openly disdainful of Christianity and Christian symbols,” director of FRC’s Center for Religious Liberty Arielle Del Turco said on “Washington Watch.” “He had a picture of Jesus attached to a shooting target in his room, and he was posting videos about...

The overwhelming majority of gun owners are in favor of universal background checks, of raising the minimum age to buy guns to 21 and so-called "red flag" laws to remove guns from potentially dangerous people, a new NPR/Ipsos survey finds. But most of these gun owners also don't want to see an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon ban, doubt new gun-control measures would do anything to stop mass shootings and Republican gun owners in particular think passing new gun control laws is a slippery slope toward taking all guns away. "As a gun owner myself, both pistols and hunting rifles, I feel...

The gunman who slaughtered two children and injured 18 other people at a Minneapolis Catholic school and church had recently broken up with his romantic partner — and previously had a “medical mental health” call made to his home when he was a teen, according to police records. The father of Robin Westman, 23, told investigators that the shooter had “broke up with a significant and/or romantic partner” and had been staying with a friend in St. Louis Park, Fox9 reported. Police were also made aware of a 2018 welfare check at the home of Westman’s mother, with the incident...

Chicago, IL, April 26, 2004 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) lauded today's conviction of Matthew Hale, leader of the former World Church of the Creator (now known as the Creativity Movement), on charges he solicited the murder of a federal judge and for obstruction of justice. "We applaud United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and F.B.I. Special Agent in Charge Thomas Kneir for having the diligence and courage to aggressively pursue the prosecution of this unrepentant racist, who has shown nothing but scorn for our nation's system of justice," said Richard S. Hirschhaut, ADL Chicago Regional Director. "We also congratulate Assistant...

The wife of suspect Vance Boelter spoke out for the first time since two Minnesota state politicians and their spouses were shot, saying she and her family are “absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided” by the violent incident that killed one couple and seriously injured the other. Boelter is accused of killing Melissa Hortman, a member of the Minnesota State House, and her husband, Mark, as well as injuring John Hoffman, a member of the Minnesota State Senate, and his wife in a separate shooting. He is facing state and federal charges including murder, firearms offenses and stalking, and could...

Despite the blistering heat, Chicago had relatively few shootings over the weekend, with three people killed and 23 others injured across the city, according to data from the crime tracking site HeyJackass.com. It’s the lowest shooting toll for the same weekend since 2018, which also had three killed and 23 injured, the site reported. In total, CPD handled 20 shooting incidents over the weekend, involving victims ranging in age from 11 to 63. So far, police have not announced charges in connection with any of the shootings. The department provided the following details about the crimes: Friday, June 20 1:58...

The Shining and It author Stephen King reacted to last weekend’s targeted shootings in Minnesota via an X post where he claimed the “real culprit” in the attacks was “the gun.” Breitbart News reported that Vance Boelter allegedly killed Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband in their home after shooting and severely wounding state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife in theirs. Boelter allegedly dressed like a police officer and parked a car that resembled a police vehicle in the driveway of both homes as he carried out his attacks. King used an X post to...

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said Monday on CNN’s “News Central” that President Donald Trump “promoted” the violent environment that brought the shootings of Minnesota lawmakers over the weekend. Co-host John Berman said, “There was a state representative, Democratic leader of the state legislature in Minnesota killed over the weekend, a state senator shot. How would you describe the current political atmosphere in this country this morning?” Merkley said, “I feel like Trump has really popped the lid off of the rhetoric and the the sense of hate and violence and promoted this type of an environment. It’s profoundly disturbing for...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Adults living in the U.S. illegally will be excluded from a state-run health care program under an overall budget deal that the closely divided Minnesota Legislature convened to pass in a special session Monday. Repealing a 2023 state law that made those immigrants eligible for the MinnesotaCare program for the working poor was a priority for Republicans in the negotiations that produced the budget agreement. The Legislature is split 101-100, with the House tied and Democrats holding just a one-seat majority in the Senate, and the health care compromise was a bitter pill for Democrats...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson wishes America’s “Happy Africa Day.” “I am proud to join you in recognizing and celebrating Africa Day.” The Democrat Mayor posted the video over the weekend.

Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old man from Chicago, has been arrested by US authorities following the killing of two Israeli embassy workers on Wednesday evening. A man and a woman identified as a couple called Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgram were pronounced dead at the scene near the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., after a gunman opened fire. It’s understood that the victims, who were both said to be Israeli nationals, had been attending a ‘Young Diplomats Reception’ before they were shot when leaving the event.

The Supreme Court ruled that the totality of circumstances must be considered when determining whether a police shooting is justified, not just the seconds before an officer opens fire.The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that the totality of circumstances must be considered when determining whether a police shooting is justified — not just the split seconds before an officer opens fire — in a case involving the fatal shooting of a Black man from Texas. The broader standard is likely to make it easier for victims to prove allegations of excessive force in court. The high court revived a lawsuit...

Gun violence in New York City has spiked along with the mercury, with shootings up more than 50% last week compared to the same time last year — indicating that the Big Apple could be in for a bloody summer. A total of 23 shootings were reported across the five boroughs in the week starting April 21, according to new NYPD statistics — an increase of 53% from the 15 shootings tallied over the same period in 2024. Temperatures in Gotham hit a high of 82 degrees last Tuesday, making it the second-warmest day in April, according to Accuweather. Last...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Inmates had complained for weeks they were being threatened by gang members at a women's prison in Honduras. The gang fulfilled those threats, slaughtering 41 women, many of them burned, shot, or stabbed to death.

New York City has broken a 30-year record for the fewest number of shootings in the first two months of the year, police revealed Monday. The city saw 93 incidents of gun violence between January and February, the fewest for those months since 1993, officials said. Newly released NYPD statistics for February not only showed that dramatic drop in shootings, but also a 14.5% decline in overall serious crimes compared to the same month last year. “In the first two months of 2025, New York City experienced the fewest number of shooting incidents in the past 30 years, and the...

Kevin Jiang was a 26-year-old Yale graduate student, an Army veteran, and, his friends say, a man of faith who volunteered with the homeless. He seemed to have no enemies, and no one could figure out why someone may have targeted him on Feb. 6, 2021, when he was shot in the street not far from his fiancée's apartment in New Haven, Connecticut. Jiang had been driving down the street when his car was struck from behind, and when he got out, possibly to exchange information with the other driver police say, that driver opened fire, shooting him eight times....

Just hours after the shooting at Madison, Wisconsin’s, Abundant Life Christian School, CNN claimed there have been “83 school shootings” during 2024 alone. CNN claimed, “As of December 16 – the 351st day of the year – there have been 83 school shootings in the United States in 2024.” CNN did not provide any links to the myriad school shootings they claim have occurred. Rather, they pointed out that they pulled their information from the “CNN school shooting database.”

TEMPE, ARIZ. - An Arizona prosecutor said the man arrested in the shooting of a Democratic National Committee office in suburban Phoenix had more than 120 guns and over 250,000 rounds of ammunition in his home, leading law enforcement to believe he may have been planning a mass casualty event. Maricopa County prosecutor Neha Bhatia said at Jeffrey Michael Kelly's initial court appearance on Wednesday that federal agents told her about the large seizure made after Kelly's arrest. Scopes, body armour and silencers were also found, she said. A machine gun was discovered in the car he was driving.