Month: January 2022

An off-duty police officer in Vancouver, Washington was shot and killed while at his home while sheriff’s deputy pursued an armed suspect early Sunday morning.

In a statement on Sunday, Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnery-Ogle identified the officer as Donald Sahota and confirmed he had been with the Vancouver Police Department since 2014.  Said Mayor McEnery-Ogle: “The sudden death of Officer Sahota is devastating and we don’t have all the details of what occurred. This will be investigated by the Lower Columbia Major Crimes Team. It will likely be days before we know more.”

In a statement, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said that deputies were dispatched to a Chevron gas station and convenience store at 8:14 p.m. Saturday night after a suspect of a robbery was described as having a handgun, fleeing the area in a stolen vehicle. Deputies located the suspect “a short time later” and pursued him, after which he eventually abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot. The suspect then contacted a homeowner in a nearby residence and police contacted all parties, during which the officer discharged his weapon, police said. The sheriff’s office said the individual who was shot was pronounced dead at the scene after medical aid was provided but did not include further information about the person’s identity.

The sheriff’s office said the incident is being treated as an officer-involved shooting and confirmed it will be subject to investigation.

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Thirteen people were hospitalized for exposure to carbon monoxide at a Hampton Inn, shortly after a 2-year-old girl lost consciousness in the pool of the hotel.

Police Chief Tony Brooks confirmed that dispatchers in Marysville. Ohio received 911 calls that the girl had fallen into the pool or was found unconscious in the pool at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Dispatchers soon received more calls reporting people unconscious. Two of the patients were listed as being in critical condition after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning, but have since stabilized, hospital officials confirmed. Five patients are in serious condition and at least four other patients have since been released from the hospital. Six of the patients were children; it was not immediately clear what caused the high carbon monoxide levels. Officials stated that the hotel was evacuated, and hotel management booked guests at other hotels nearby.

Marysville Fire Chief Jay Riley said: “We did have life-threatening levels of carbon monoxide in the pool area of the hotel, and we transported several people to local hospitals. We continue the investigation into the source and glad that no one died as a result of their exposure.”

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Houston police took a man suspected of shooting three officers into custody, after an hours-long standoff ended Thursday evening.  Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner confirmed that the suspect, who police have not identified, came out at 7:45 p.m. CT with his hands raised and surrendered.  Houston police tweeted that the officers who were shot are being treated at Memorial Hermann Hospital, and all are in stable condition.

After fleeing the shooting scene in a Mercedes he carjacked, the suspect barricaded himself in a home for hours. Chief Finner said: “Officers surrounded that house. The suspect fired multiple times. Thank God he did not strike any of the officers. Officers returned fire. Again, we don’t know if that suspect is injured.” Finner said at a later press conference that authorities believe the man lived at the house and he fired multiple times at a SWAT team.

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The Michigan school shooting suspect who is accused of killing four people in a shooting at Oxford High School last November is planning on using an insanity defense at trial. The defense attorneys for the alleged shooter, Ethan Crumbley, filed a notice on Thursday saying that they plan to “assert the defense of insanity at the time of the alleged offense.”  Oakland County Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Williams released  a statement that Crumbley would be evaluated by a doctor from the Center for Forensic Psychiatry, saying:  “As expected, Ethan Crumbley’s attorney has requested an evaluation of his criminal responsibility. This is standard procedure.” At Crumbley’s arraignment last month, the judge entered a plea of not guilty at the request of Crumbley’s attorney.

Crumbley faces 24 charges, in connection with the shooting at Oxford High School, including one count of terrorism causing death and four counts of first-degree murder. Crumbley was 15-years-old at the time of the shooting, and is being charged as an adult.  Additionally, Crumbley’s parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were arrested days after the shooting and charged with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors allege that the parents disregarded signs their son was a threat, and gave him easy access to the gun used in the shooting. At a hearing earlier this month, prosecutor Mark Keast alleged Crumbley’s parents were negligent in addressing issues with their son, who allegedly texted his mother while his parents were not home, saying he saw demons or ghosts, or that he believed someone was inside the house. Crumbley’s parents have pleaded not guilty.

Authorities say that teachers at the high school had reported concerning behavior from Crumbley. Hours before the killings, Crumbley was found with a drawing that essentially depicted a shooting.  The teen’s notebooks also included concerning content including entries about how he wanted to shoot guns, shoot up a school and other dark thoughts. Crumbley searched online for information about guns and school shootings so much that he started to get spam advertisements regarding guns and mental health, the prosecutor said.

Four students — Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17 — were killed at Oxford High School, located 40 miles north of downtown Detroit. Another six students and one teacher were wounded in the attack, making it the deadliest school shooting since 2018 in the United States.

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Justice Stephen Breyer will step down from the Supreme Court at the end of the current term. Breyer is one of the three remaining liberal justices, and his decision to retire after more than 27 years will allow President Biden to appoint a successor who could maintain the current 6-3 split between conservative and liberal justices. CNN reports that Breyer does not plan to leave until a new nominee is confirmed to the nine-member court.

Breyer, at 83, is the court’s eldest member. He was appointed by former President Bill Clinton and joined the court in 1994. Prior to that he served on the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for from 1980 to 1994, the last four years of which he was chief judge. He was nominated to the appellate court by former President Jimmy Carter. Prior to his judicial career, Breyer served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg and as a special assistant to the attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. During his career he also worked on the Warren Commission and the Watergate Special Prosecution Force.

Liberal activists have urged Breyer to retire while Democrats hold both the White House and the Senate; an appointment by Biden could keep Breyer’s seat on the liberal side of the court for years or decades to come. President Biden declined to comment, saying that he will leave it to Breyer to formally announce his retirement. White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted saying, “It has always been the decision of any Supreme Court Justice if and when they decide to retire, and how they want to announce it, and that remains the case today.”

During his 2020 campaign, Biden pledged to select a Black woman to be his first nominee to the Supreme Court should there be an opening. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Biden plans to stick to that promise: “The president has stated and reiterated his commitment to nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court and certainly stands by that. For today, again, I’m just not going to be able to say anything about any specifics, until, of course, Justice Breyer makes any announcement, should he decide to make an announcement.”  Among likely contenders are U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, a former Breyer law clerk; and Leondra Kruger, a justice on California’s Supreme Court.

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One body has been recovered as a search continued Wednesday for 38 other passengers on a boat that capsized in the northern Straits of Florida.  The boat, carrying 40 people, left the Bahamas in a suspected human smuggling attempt, the U.S. Coast Guard said.  Officials say that a man was found clinging to the overturned hull of the boat Tuesday morning.

During a news conference Wednesday morning, a U.S. Coast Guard official said search and rescue crews are in a race against time to find any survivors. Capt. Jo-Ann F. Burdian said that finding the other migrants alive is their highest priority: “It is dire. The longer they remain in the water … exposed to the marine environment … with every moment that passes, it becomes much more dire and more unlikely that survivors will be found.” 

The 25-foot capsized boat was discovered around 8 a.m. on Tuesday roughly 40 miles east of Florida’s Fort Pierce Inlet. A commercial tug-in barge operator radioed in that one survivor was found clinging to the hull of the overturned vessel.   The man said he was part of a group of 40 people who left the island of Bimini in the Bahamas on Saturday evening in what the maritime security agency suspects was a human smuggling operation The man said they capsized shortly thereafter, and none of them were wearing life jackets.

The survivor was brought to a hospital for symptoms of dehydration and sun exposure. Capt. Burdian wouldn’t provide more details about him, saying he’s now in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security. Burdian said searchers saw indications of more victims, but no more bodies yet. “The aircraft have reported items in the debris field that’s consistent with a number of people being on the vessel,” she said.

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