LA Homeowner defends his house from multiple burglars protecting grandmother and toddler

Police-arrest-man

Important Takeaways:

  • A homeowner shot and killed a home invasion suspect in Los Angeles early Saturday morning while a grandmother and toddler were in the house in the fifth such crime reported in the area in the space of 10 days.
  • Officers were called to a home in the Granada Hills section of the San Fernando Valley, north of Beverly Hills, around 5am on Saturday after someone reported a ‘hot prowl’ – a burglary where the homeowner is present.
  • ‘The officers’ preliminary investigation determined that approximately three to four armed males in their 20s entered the home with the intent to burglarize the location,’ according to LAPD officials.
  • The name of the deceased burglar has not been released.
  • The other three suspects fled the scene and have not yet been identified, but police said a ‘trail of blood’ suggested one of them had been injured.
  • There was also a grandmother and a toddler in the house at the time.
  • Video from the scene shows the unnamed male homeowner being detained by police during the initial investigation, but it is not known if he has been charged.
  • LAPD Valley Bureau Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said that the investigation in ongoing and that it’s up to the District Attorney’s Office if charges will be filed in the case.
  • Neighbors were alarmed by the incident but told KTLA that they aren’t surprised.
  • Pat Walsh said: ‘We’ve been having burglaries every day in this neighborhood.
  • ‘So I’m not surprised at all. It’s been a real problem. Residents here are fed up.’

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18-year-old arrested after deliberately running over retired cop claims he will be out in 30 days

Jesus Ayala

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘Killer’ teen driver, 18, told police ‘I’ll be out in 30 days, I’ll bet you,’ after ‘deliberately mowing down retired cop, 64,’ while friend, 16, filmed
  • A teenage driver accused of mowing down a retired police chief bragged to cops that he would be back on the streets in less than a month.
  • Jesus Ayala, 18, was arrested hours after he allegedly drove into Andreas Probst, 64, and told officers that he wouldn’t be locked up for long.
  • ‘You think this juvenile [expletive] is gonna do some [expletive]? I’ll be out in 30 days, I’ll bet you,’ Ayala told Las Vegas cops.
  • He added: ‘It’s just ah, [expletive] ah, hit-and-run — slap on the wrist’, despite cops not mentioning the accident to him yet, according to KLAS. His comments were caught on police body cameras.
  • Cops had only arrested him for a warrant and obstructing a peace officer but discovered the sick footage on his phone.

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Street preacher put in cuffs for trying to quote 1st Corinthians 14:33 at Pride event

Romans 1:28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Important Takeaways:

  • Charges Dropped for Street Preacher Arrested at LGBTQ Event: ‘I’m Just Here to Spread the Gospel’
  • Damon Atkins was placed in handcuffs and arrested for alleged “disorderly conduct, engaged in fighting,” during the incident, Fox News reported Sunday.
  • However, the Berks County District Attorney announced Wednesday that “After a review of the incident which took place on June 3rd in the 800bl of Washington St in Reading, our office has withdrawn charges of disorderly conduct filed against Damon Atkins.”
  • “The charges were withdrawn after we reviewed the videos of the incident & applicable case law,” the social media post read:
  • The Fox report said Atkins was apparently trying to quote 1 Corinthians 14:33 which states, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”
  • During an interview with CBN News, Atkins said he was not angry with anyone attending the event, but “I am aggressive towards sin and that is it.”
  • “I want everyone to know, including my brothers and sisters, my best friends, everyone here, you cannot live in willful sin,” he explained

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Lawlessness: In our Society today it seems anything can happen

Six year old shot

Mathew 24:12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Important Takeaways:

  • Police arrest man who allegedly shot 6-year-old when basketball rolled into yard
  • Neighbors told ABC News’ Charlotte affiliate WSOC the shooting on Tuesday started when a basketball rolled into Singletary’s yard from a group of local children playing basketball in the street. Singletary allegedly fired a gun at a neighbor before approaching a father and daughter, William James White and 6-year-old Kinsley White, who were both seriously wounded.
  • One woman was grazed by a bullet and a second man was shot at but not injured, police said.
  • William White remains in serious condition, according to police.
  • Family members said William White tried to draw gunfire toward himself to protect his family as Singletary unloaded an entire magazine toward his neighbor. White was shot in the back in his own front yard, according to his partner, Ashley Hilderbrand.

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Internet explodes when AI images of Trump being arrested go viral

Trump Black Tie

Revelations 13:14 “…by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth…”

Important Takeaways:

  • Fake AI images of ‘Trump arrest’ hit internet
  • Fabricated images of former President Trump being arrested are circulating social media as the country prepares for his possible indictment this week.
  • The images, created using artificial intelligence software (AI), show what appears to be a large group of New York City Police Department officers arresting the former president as he resists to be detained. Some of the images that were posted on Twitter even depict Trump being forced to the ground, while another image shows him running away from the police officers.
  • The New York City Police Department confirmed to the Associated Press on Tuesday that no arrest of Trump has been made.

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Trumps warns of his arrest; Former VP Mike Pence calls for people to stay peaceful and lawful

Trump Arrest

Revelations 6:4 “And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Firestorm: Trump Warns He’s About to Be Arrested
  • Former President Trump claimed over the weekend that he’ll be arrested this week, touching off a political firestorm. It comes as the Manhattan district attorney is investigating an alleged hush money payment during the 2016 presidential campaign.
  • Trump supporters and opponents are calling it a political prosecution and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is ready to direct a House committee to investigate the D.A.
  • Former Vice President Mike Pence said, “It just feels like a politically charged prosecution here, and I, for my part, I just feel like it’s just not what the American people want to see.”
  • Trump is calling for protests. But McCarthy said, “I don’t think people should protest this, no.”
  • And Pence told ABC’s “This Week” program, “I believe that people understand that if they give voice to this, if this occurs on Tuesday, that they need to do so peacefully and in a lawful manner.”
  • Trump’s claim involves the Manhattan D.A.’s investigation into an alleged hush money payment prior to the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied her claim that they had an affair.
  • Trump’s attorney told CNBC that if indicted, Trump will surrender to face criminal charges.

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Some 40 bodies found in Myanmar jungle after army crackdown -U.N. envoy

A Myanmar soldier stands near Maungdaw, north of Rakhine state, Myanmar September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

(Reuters) -A Myanmar militia force fighting the army in a central part of the country and residents have found at least 40 bodies in jungle areas in recent weeks, including some showing signs of torture, said a militia member and Myanmar’s U.N. envoy.

Since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, hundreds of people have been killed as the army violently quelled protests, and in clashes between soldiers and often hastily assembled, lightly armed local militias.

The bodies were found in several different locations around Kani, a town in the Sagaing area, which has seen fierce fighting in recent months between the army and the militia groups set up by opponents of military rule.

Reuters could not independently verify the claims and a spokesman for the military did not answer calls seeking comment.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Myanmar’s U.N. envoy Kyaw Moe Tun – who represents the elected civilian government – said a total of 40 bodies were found and described three different incidents during July in Kani.

Kyaw Moe Tun described the incidents as “clearly amounting to crimes against humanity,” calling on the U.N. Security Council and international community to impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar’s military.

“There is no sign of easing atrocities, killing, arrest committed by the military,” he wrote. “We demand for urgent humanitarian intervention from the international community before it is too late.”

Fighting in the Sagaing area has now mainly stopped and it was unclear if more bodies would be found, said a member of the Kani militia, who asked not to be identified.

“Most villagers in the remote area had fled to the nearby town,” he said, accusing the military and a rival pro-junta militia of carrying out reprisal killings and looting.

The militia member also put the total number of bodies so far at around 40, found on several occasions.

A military information newsletter dated July 30 said security forces had been attacked by around 100 “terrorists” with small arms near Zeepindwin village in Kani. It said soldiers had retaliated and nine bodies had been retrieved, along with hunting rifles, homemade mines and a grenade.

Security forces have killed at least 946 people since the coup, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, a Thai-based activist group. The military has disputed the tally and also said many members of the security forces have been killed.

(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Kim Coghill and Jonathan Oatis)

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily vows to fight on after owner arrested

By Yoyo Chow

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s Apple Daily tabloid responded with defiance on Tuesday to the arrest of owner Jimmy Lai under a new national security law imposed by Beijing, promising to fight on in a front-page headline over an image of Lai in handcuffs.

Readers queued from the early hours to get copies of the pro-democracy tabloid a day after police raided its offices and took Lai into detention, the highest-profile arrest under the national law.

“Apple Daily must fight on,” the front-page headline read, amid fears the new law is eroding media freedoms guaranteed when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

“The prayers and encouragement of many readers and writers make us believe that as long as there are readers, there will be writers, and that Apple Daily shall certainly fight on.”

More than 500,000 copies were printed, compared with the usual 100,000, the paper said on its website.

Mainland-born Lai, who was smuggled into Hong Kong on a fishing boat when he was a penniless 12-year-old, is one of the most prominent democracy activists in the city and an ardent critic of Communist Party rule in Beijing.

His arrest comes amid a crackdown on the pro-democracy opposition in Hong Kong that has drawn international criticism and raised fears for freedoms promised by Beijing under a “one country, two systems” formula.

The sweeping security law imposed on June 30 punishes anything China considers secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

The city’s Beijing-backed government and Chinese authorities say the law is necessary to restore order after months of at times violent anti-government protests last year, sparked by fears China was slowly eroding those freedoms.

Hong Kong has since become another source of contention between the United States and China, whose relations were already at their most strained in years over issues including trade, the coronavirus, China’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority and its claims in the South China Sea.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday called Lai a “patriot”, saying Beijing had “eviscerated” Hong Kong’s freedoms.

Britain said Lai’s arrest was further evidence the security law was a “pretext to silence opposition”, to which China’s embassy replied by urging London to stop “using freedom of the press as an excuse to discredit” the law.

‘DANCING WITH THE ENEMY’

Police detained Lai for suspected collusion with foreign forces after about 200 officers searched the newspaper’s offices, collecting 25 boxes of evidence.

Handcuffed and apparently wearing the same clothes after spending the night in jail, he was driven by police on Tuesday to his yacht which police searched, according to media footage.

Beijing has labelled Lai a “traitor” in the past and issued a statement supporting his arrest.

The Beijing-backed China Daily newspaper said in an editorial Lai’s arrest showed “the cost of dancing with the enemy.” The paper added that “justice delayed didn’t mean the absence of justice”.

Police arrested 10 people in all on Monday, including other Apple Daily executives and 23-year-old Agnes Chow, one of the former leaders of young activist Joshua Wong’s Demosisto pro-democracy group, which disbanded before the new law came into force.

Chow was released on bail late on Tuesday, calling the arrest of herself and other activists “political persecution.”

“It’s very obvious that the regime is using the national security law to suppress political dissidents,” she said.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement has managed to sustain broad support across the community.

Shares in Next Digital, which publishes Apple Daily, surged for a second day, gaining more than 2,078% from Friday’s close, after online pro-democracy forums called on investors to show support.

Its market value rose as high as HK$5.17 billion ($666.7 million) from some HK$200 million.

In the working-class neighborhood of Mong Kok, dozens of people queued from as early as 2:00 a.m. (1800 GMT) to buy Lai’s paper.

“What the police did yesterday interfered with press freedom brutally,” said 45-year-old Kim Yau as she bought a copy.

“All Hong Kong people with a conscience have to support Hong Kong today, support Apple Daily.”

In another show of support, long queues formed at lunch time at the Cafe Seasons restaurant owned by Lai’s son, Ian, who was also arrested on Monday.

The United States last week imposed sanctions on several top officials over what it said was their role in curtailing political freedoms in Hong Kong. China responded with sanctions on top U.S. legislators and others.

($1 = 7.7501 Hong Kong dollars)

(Additional reporting by Jessie Pang, Carol Mang, Donny Kwok and Clare Jim; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Stephen Coates, Robert Birsel and Nick Macfie)

Hong Kong police raid on newspaper filmed in real time as China flexes muscles

By James Pomfret

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Six weeks after China imposed sweeping national security laws on Hong Kong, police moved in on media tycoon Jimmy Lai, one of the most outspoken critics of Beijing in the city.

Lai, 71, was whisked away from his home early on Monday morning by national security police, part of a citywide operation that also saw eight other men arrested, including several of his senior executives.

Then, just before 10 a.m., hundreds of police descended on Lai’s corporate Next Digital headquarters, where his flagship Apple Daily is produced and published.

Staffers said they asked police what legal grounds they had for entering. But these questions were largely ignored as more than 200 police streamed in, according to a live feed of the unfolding drama.

Apple Daily’s Editor-in-Chief Ryan Law, who was helping film and comment on the Facebook live feed, could be seen rushing about the building as he tried to report on events breaking in his own newsroom.

“This is, I believe, the first time in Hong Kong that police have initiated a mass search on a media outlet like this,” he said, panting, as he scaled a back staircase with a colleague to get around the mass of police officers.

As news of the raid spread, more than 10,000 people tuned in, watching as Law defied police warnings to stop filming.

The newsroom was lightly staffed at the time.

But the few employees there, some clad in shorts and sneakers, were told to produce identity documents and register with the police. Some demanded to first see a search warrant.

Some desks were festooned with poster art in support of pro-democracy protests last year, and the Umbrella movement of 2014. One read: “Who’s afraid of the truth!”

More police began arriving, and fanned across the newsroom, following by Law as they meandered through the unmanned cubicles in scattershot fashion, lifting a paper here, plucking a folder from a cabinet there.

“What is the scope of your search area?” one voice was heard shouting off camera. A male officer replied that such inquiries should be put to his supervisors.

Several executive offices, including Lai’s, were sealed off with a red cordon and guarded by police.

PREPARED FOR RAID

Two months before, in an interview with Reuters in one of those sealed rooms, Lai said he was bracing for just such a day: shifting assets abroad and making preparations with lawyers.

“Everything will be piled on us,” he had said.

At around 11 a.m., police led the crew-cut Lai into his office in handcuffs. When he went to the toilet, an entourage of around 20 officers followed. Several other senior executives were also shown being taken into the building.

The police said in a statement that they had a court-issued warrant for their search, and that the nine men had all been arrested for suspected national security law violations, including collusion with foreign powers.

The police did not reveal the names or any specific charges for any of those arrested.

The raid, though expected, rattled some staffers.

Months before the law took effect, the newspaper had shredded documents, uploaded digitized files to overseas servers and safeguarded sources, two senior reporters told Reuters, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the situation.

“I had prepared myself mentally for this,” one said. “But emotionally I feel a little conflicted. It’s happened so quickly. The government is finally taking this drastic step to destroy the city’s media freedoms.”

Police carted 25 boxes of evidence from the building and blocked reporters from other outlets from entering.

Senior police on the scene tried at one point to prevent Apple Daily reporters working at their desks, but relented upon fierce objections from staff present.

Law, Apple Daily’s chief editor, said the paper would continue to be published no matter what.

“Business as usual,” he said in a text message to Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Greg Torode and Jessie Pang; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in George Floyd case

By Carlos Barria

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – The white Minneapolis policeman who pinned an unarmed black man with a knee to the throat before the man died was arrested and charged with murder, a prosecutor said on Friday, after three nights of violent protests rocked the Midwestern city.

Derek Chauvin, the officer seen on a bystander’s cellphone video kneeling on George Floyd’s neck on Monday before the 46-year-old man died, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman told a news briefing.

“He is in custody and has been charged with murder,” Freeman said of Chauvin. “We have evidence, we have the citizen’s camera’s video, the horrible, horrific, terrible thing we have all seen over and over again, we have the officer’s body-worn camera, we have statements from some witnesses.”

The cellphone footage showed Floyd repeatedly moaning and gasping while he pleaded to Chauvin, kneeling on his neck, “Please, I can’t breathe.” After several minutes, Floyd gradually grows quiet and ceases to move.

Chauvin and three fellow officers at the scene were fired on Tuesday from the Minneapolis Police Department. The city identified the other officers as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J Alexander Kueng.

Freeman said the investigation into Chauvin – who, if convicted, faces up to 25 years in prison on the murder charge – was ongoing and that he anticipated charges against the other officers. He said it was appropriate to charge “the most dangerous perpetrator” first.

Earlier on Friday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called for an end to the violent protests, which have included arson, looting and the burning down of a police precinct, while promising a reckoning with the racial inequities behind the unrest.

“None of us can live in a society where roving bands go unchecked and do what they want to, ruin property,” Walz said. “We have to get back to that point of what caused this all to happen and start working on that.”

The protests, which threatened to stretch into a fourth night, have been driven in part by a lack of arrests in the case.

Responding to a reporter’s question about why the officers were not arrested sooner, Freeman stressed that charges in similar cases would typically take nine months to a year.

“This is by far the fastest we’ve ever charged a police officer,” said Freeman. “We entrust our police officers to use a certain amount of force to do their job, to protect us. They commit a criminal act if they use that force unreasonably.”

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert in Washington, Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico, and Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Paul Simao and Jonathan Oatis)