Columbus, Ohio police where chasing an armed suspect in front of a public library when a bystander named Bill casually stuck his foot out and tripped the fleeing fellow. From Cincinnati.com:
“(The suspect) was coming my way so I got in his way,” Bill said in the video. “I heard him hit (the ground) and the gun went sliding out. He went one way and the gun went another.”
Bill was alerted by police sirens that day while waiting for his granddaughter outside the library.
Police say Bill's intervention may have saved the suspect's life, allowing officers to catch up and arrest him without shots being fired.
It's not known why police were chasing the man, what he is suspected of doing, or why he was carrying the gun in his waistband.
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Actor, comedian and rapist Bill Cosby lost the honorary degree Yale University bestowed upon him after a vote Tuesday by its Board of Trustees.
From its statement:
"Today the Yale University board of trustees voted to rescind the honorary degree awarded to William H. Cosby, Jr. in 2003. The decision is based on a court record providing clear and convincing evidence of conduct that violates fundamental standards of decency shared by all members of the Yale community, conduct that was unknown to the board at the time the degree was awarded. The board took this decision following Mr. Cosby’s criminal conviction after he was afforded due process. Yale is committed to both the elimination of sexual misconduct and the adherence to due process. We reaffirm that commitment with our action today."
The University of Connecticut did likewise in 2016; Wesleyan is expected to follow suit in May.
Cosby drugged and raped Andrea Constand in 2004 and was convicted on three counts of aggravated assault last week. He is yet to be sentenced, but effectively faces life in prison. Read the rest
"Somewhere along the way, they did something wrong, something dumb... Maybe they even got away with it first and thought they'd never get caught."
Hey, hey, hey?
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Cincinnati landlord Courtland Gundlind had enough of the thief who had recently stolen two air conditioning units from his properties. So he hid a GPS tracker inside a new unit, installed it, and waited for the culprit to strike again. Two weeks later, the air conditioner texted him that it was "on the move." From Cincinnati.com:
The Okeana landlord called a friend and followed the trail. The GPS updated every 60 seconds, so they remained about a minute behind. He called police who eventually caught up with the unit and a suspect at the McDonald's on Reading Road.
Cincinnati Police arrested David Lester Walls, 50, of Linden Street, and charged him with theft and criminal damaging. He was arraigned April 11, pleaded not guilty, and is set to return to court May 15....
(Gundling) said police were surprised the GPS in the AC worked.
(Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!)
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Cincinnati police are looking for a woman caught on video stealing a live Menelaus blue morpho butterfly from a special exhibit at Krohn Conservatory. From
WCPO:
(University of Cincinnati biologist Stephen) Matter and colleague Patrick Guerra said the butterfly was likely dead by Wednesday, given its biological need for a warmer climate than the one Cincinnati has experienced since Sunday.
(Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!)
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For more than a century, the Canadian government was responsible for perpetuating horrendous abuses against native peoples who were unfortunate enough to be living in an area where a imperial colonialist power decided to set up shop. It was government policy for Indigenous children to be separated from their families, the without the permission of their parents or tribal elders, and them into what were known as residential schools: institutions predominantly run by the Catholic Church, along with a small handful of schools that were handled by Anglican, Presbyterian and United Church interests.
Once the kids were secured into these boarding schools, they were taught the 'right' way to live--right being in accordance to western culture. Were the incarcerated children to dare to speak their own language or act according to cultural norms outside of what their white caretakers felt was 'civilized,' they were met with severe corporal punishment. Mortality rates at the schools were high. So were instances of physical and emotional abuse. Children were often buried in unmarked graves or simply disappeared. Even after the last residential school closed in 1998, its legacy of hate and abuse remains.
In 2015, Canada finally confessed to its part in this long-running crime. The nation's Truth and Reconciliation Commission looked to the crimes of the residential school system, saying that they amounted to cultural genocide. The commission made 94 recommendations that it felt would go along ways towards righting the wrongs of the past. One those recommendations was that the Pope step forward and apologize for his church's role in the residential school system. Read the rest
As listeners of the Serial podcast know, Adnan Syed was a Baltimore, Maryland high school student sentenced to life in prison for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. Now, he's getting a new trial. From Rolling Stone:
Syed's conviction was overturned in June 2016 by retired Circuit Court judge Martin Welch, but the Attorney General's Office quickly appealed the ruling. Today's decision affirms Syed's right to a new trial, but based on an issue that the Circuit Court had considered and ultimately rejected – that Syed's trial attorney had demonstrated "deficient performance" and "prejudiced Syed's defense" by failing to pursue alibi witness Asia McClain...
(The Maryland Court of Special Appeals') decision comes down to this: "Syed's murder conviction must be vacated, and because Syed's convictions for kidnapping, robbery, and false imprisonment are predicated on his commission of Hae's murder, these convictions must be vacated as well. The instant case will be remanded for a new trial on all charges against Syed."
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In this security-camera video, an attempted break-in somewhere in China goes very wrong almost from the outset. [via] Read the rest
In Seattle, a man attempted to break into the car of a KIRO Radio employee by banging on it with a mop handle. Then he climbed on the building's roof and fell off. Seventeen minutes later, he got up and vanished into the night. Below, John Curley of the "Tom & Curley Show" gives a play-by-play of the surveillance footage. (via Laughing Squid)
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Sandra Louise Garner, 55, of Maypearl, Texas, was arrested this week for allegedly murdering her husband, Jon Garner.
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A dozen prisoners at Jasper, Alabama's Walker County Jail escaped on Sunday and one is still at large. One of them used peanut butter to change the number above his cell door and then called for the guard, a new employee, to open it. The number the prisoner changed it to was actually the door to the outside.
"And unknowingly to (the guard), he hit that lock and out the door they went," said Walker County Sheriff Jim Underwood.
Eleven of the escapees were nabbed within eight hours. A manhunt is underway for the twelfth.
From CNN:
Meanwhile, as of right now, the Walker County sheriff said officials would look again at placing a young person in an control area to make decisions for 140 inmates. The camera system also needs to be equipped with more monitors, he added.
Despite the current sticky situation, the sheriff said he doesn't have plans to put any dietary restrictions in place in the future.
"They love peanut butter sandwiches," said Underwood.
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A Bronx restaurant has one less chicken today, according to reports from ABC News in New York, with the pollo purloiner also making off with a tray of biscuits.
Employees are reportedly "crying foul."
After taking the food, the suspect flew the coop.
The suspect is described as a man with long braids. He was last seen wearing a black and pink shirt, blue jeans and blue sneakers. He also had a white towel over his head.
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Tuker Murray, the 24-year-old assistant manager at a Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches in Kansas City, MO, appears completely unfazed by the robber pointing a gun in his face last week. According to police, a suspect is now in custody. Interview with Murray below. (KCTV5)
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A woman in Avondale, Alabama, was recorded on a gas station's security cameras leaping from a moving car to escape a man who had kidnapped her and stuffed her in the trunk.
According to Sgt. Bryan Shelton, the 25-year-old victim was taken by a suspect outside of her apartment on 4th Avenue South and 38th Street in Birmingham's Avondale neighborhood around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Police said the suspect pointed a gun at her and demanded money.
When the victim said she didn't have any money, the suspect forced her into her black Nissan Altima. Later, he made her move to the trunk of the car.
Shelton said the suspect took her cell phone and wallet.
The victim was then taken to Gas Land on Bessemer Road at approximately 11:40 p.m., where the suspect entered the gas station and tried to withdraw cash from the ATM.
Perhaps she had found the escape latch found in most (all?) modern vehicles' trunks; she ran inside and grabbed the clerk's shotgun while he stood guard at the door and called the cops. Read the rest
An employee of the Royal Canadian Mint stands accused of smuggling $180,000-worth of gold out of the institution in his rectum, reports Kelley Egan of the Ottawa Citizen, "evading multiple levels of detection with a time-honoured prison trick."
“Appalling,” was the conclusion of defence lawyer Gary Barnes, who described the Crown’s case as an underwhelming collection of circumstantial evidence.
“This is the Royal Canadian Mint, your Honour, and one would think they should have the highest security measures imaginable,” Barnes said in his closing submission.
“And here the gold is left sitting around in open buckets.”
Some crimes have a smoking gun. But this one had a coating gunge.
Investigators also found a container of vaseline in his locker and the trial was presented with the prospect that a puck could be concealed in an anal cavity and not be detected by the wand. In preparation for these proceedings, in fact, a security employee actually tested the idea, Barnes said. Lawrence did not take the stand — as is his legal right — and the Crown was not able to definitively establish how the gold pucks made their way out of the facility.
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The rise and fall of Theranos is gripping stuff. The $700m startup touted a revolutionary one-prick suite of blood tests that never worked well. But it managed to keep its failures hidden, writes Vanity Fair's Nick Bilton, thanks to the secrecy and controlling policies of its founder, Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes seems to have been aware of the technology's failure from an early stage, but was committed to it in a way that suggests a cult more than a company. Read the rest
Penn State is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hiring Joe Paterno, the coach who helped his school rack up countless victories and his assistant cover up countless rapes.
The plans for exactly what Penn State will do is unknown, other than stating that the program will be "commemorating the 50th anniversary of Coach Paterno's first game as Penn State head coach" before the game. ... The Nittany Lions, until this point, seemed to want to distance themselves publicly from Paterno since his last game in 2011, most notably taking down his statue outside Beaver Stadium.
Now, the program is looking to honor the former coach, who died in 2012, for the 50th anniversary of his first game with Penn State in what is a controversial choice.
Paterno was fired in 2011 after it emerged that during his tenure, Jerry Sandusky had assaulted dozens of youngsters in his care. Sandusky was ultimately convicted on 45 separate charges. Though Paterno claimed to have been ignorant of his actions—pretending at one point not even to know what "sodomy" means—it later emerged he knew of Sandusky's activities since the 1970s. At least two victims accused Paterno, who died in 2012, of telling them not to go to the authorities. Read the rest
