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WTF! 9 people dead, 27 injured, in another mass shooting in Dayton Ohio

WTF! 9 people dead, 27 injured, in another mass shooting in Dayton Ohio

(CNN)Nine people were killed and at least 27 injured Sunday in a shooting in a popular nightclub district of downtown Dayton, Ohio, police say.Officers killed the lone suspect after he fired for less than a minute from a “.223 high-capacity” gun, and he had additional magazines with him, Mayor Nan Whaley said. The .223 caliber is used in rifles like the AR-15 assault rifle used in previous mass shootings.

Witnesses comfort one another at the scene of a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio.Deb Decker, public information officer for Montgomery County, said the shooter used an assault rifle.The event followed by 13 hours a shooting that left 20 dead in El Paso, Texas.The Dayton shooting took place about 1 a.m. on East Fifth Street in the city’s Oregon District, Dayton Deputy Director and Assistant Chief of Police Lt. Col. Matt Carper said early Sunday morning.FOLLOW LIVE UPDATESThe gunman was identified as Connor Betts, 24, according to local and federal law enforcement sources. The FBI and local law enforcement served a search warrant at his family home in Bellbrook, Ohio.Brad Howard, a friend of Betts’, said he was quiet and kept to himself.”He was a really nice kid,” Howard told CNN affiliate WHIO. The two grew up together, he said, and knew each other for more than 20 years.Betts and Howard would talk music and pop culture, he said.”It’s a kick in the teeth” to the Bellbrook neighborhood, Howard said.

He wore body armor

Carper said the shooter fired multiple rounds from “a very large gun, in technical terms.” The shooting happened as the suspect was making his way toward a bar called Ned Peppers, Decker said.What we know about the shooting in Dayton, OhioSomeone from Ned Peppers grabbed the barrel of the rifle, and the shooter “picked up a handgun and was willing to continue shooting,” Decker said, when police arrived and killed the shooter.The shooter wore body armor, she said.No officers were injured, Carper said.

Authorities work the scene Sunday morning in Dayton.”In less than one minute, Dayton first responders neutralized the shooter,” Whaley said.”I really want to — think about that minute. The shooter was able to kill nine people and injure 26 in less than a minute. And if we did not have police in the Oregon District and the thousands of people in the Oregon District enjoying their Saturday evening, what we could have had in this city,” Whaley said.”The question has to be raised, why does Dayton have to be the 250th mass shooting this year?”Police believe that the suspect acted alone and that there is no remaining threat to the community, but the investigation is ongoing, Carper said, and the FBI is assisting. The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear.

‘Bodies all over the place’

Graham Hunter, 24, of Dayton said he and four friends arrived just as the incident was over and immediately came upon the body of the shooter outside.”Everyone was panicking and running around,” Hunter said. “After the shooter was dead, everyone was just crying and stuff,” and he saw “bodies all over the place.”A police officer told him and his friends to go into Ned Peppers.He said he and his friends consider the area a safe, fun place to hang out on weekends, where many people walk around outdoors and enjoy patios at restaurants and bars.”It’s a nice spot,” he said. “It’s where everyone goes to hang out.”The district will be open Sunday afternoon, the mayor said.A vigil is planned for 8 p.m. at a location to be named.

A deadly end to a deadly week in America

The shooting in Dayton was the fourth similar incident across the country in the past week. At least 34 people were killed in total.Saturday morning In El Paso, 20 people were killed and 26 injured when a gunman opened fire at a shopping center. Authorities are investigating a racist, anti-immigrant scree they believe was posted by the suspect.He has been identified by three sources as Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white man from Allen, Texas.

Tuesday in Mississippi, a shooting at a Walmart left two employees dead and a police officer wounded.On July 28, when a 19-year-old man wearing tactical gear opened fire at at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California, killing three people, including two children.

Hospitals respond to influx of wounded

The mayor said 27 people were treated at hospitals and 15 had been released by about 10 a.m. ET Sunday.Elizabeth Long, spokeswoman at Kettering Health Network, which operates several Dayton-area hospitals including Kettering Medical Center and Grandview Medical Center, said 13 people were taken to three of the network’s hospitals, many with gunshot wounds to the “lower extremities.”At least one person was shot in the abdomen, and at least two people were taken into surgery. She did not give an age range for the injured.Miami Valley Hospital received 14 patients, plus two others across its health system, emergency physician Dr. Randy Marriott said.Twelve had been treated and released by 10 a.m. ET Sunday.Most of the injuries were gunshot wounds, but there were others, like cuts received while people were fleeing the scene.”At this point, we can say we’ve had one critical, four admitted, none have gone to surgery,” Marriott said.Most people arrived via ambulance or police car, but several others arrived on foot or by personal vehicle later, Marriott said.

Congressman’s daughter was in the area

Dayton-based US Rep. Mike Turner tweeted that his daughter and a friend had just entered a bar across the street when the shooting began. “As they ran home, I followed their progress & prayed for them & our community. Thank you to @DaytonPolice for their bravery in stopping this evil.”

My daughter & a family friend had just entered the Tumbleweed Connection when the shooting began across the street. Both reported of the visible @DaytonPolice presence before the shooting and the bravery they witnessed as officers ran toward the gun shots.

— US Rep. Mike Turner (@RepMikeTurner) August 4, 2019

Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement that he was “absolutely heartbroken” and ordered flags flown at half-staff.US Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, tweeted, “It is beyond time for our leaders to do what is necessary to enact laws that keep guns out of the hands of people wishing to do harm. This has to stop. #EnoughIsEnough #EndGunViolence”

My heart is heavy after hearing the news of another shooting, this time in Dayton, Ohio – 13 hours following the El Paso shooting that robbed 20 innocent people of their lives. Sending prayers to the victims, their families, law enforcement and the entire Dayton community.

— Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (@RepMarciaFudge) August 4, 2019

President Donald Trump tweeted, “The FBI, local and state law enforcement are working together in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio. Information is rapidly being accumulated in Dayton. Much has already be learned in El Paso. Law enforcement was very rapid in both instances. Updates will be given throughout the day!”

The FBI, local and state law enforcement are working together in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio. Information is rapidly being accumulated in Dayton. Much has already be learned in El Paso. Law enforcement was very rapid in both instances. Updates will be given throughout the day!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2019

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20 people dead in El Paso shooting, 26 injured Texas governor says!

20 people dead in El Paso shooting, 26 injured Texas governor says!

(CNN)Twenty people were killed and more than two dozen were injured in a mass shooting at an El Paso shopping center on Saturday, according to Texas and local authorities.”Lives were taken who should still be with us today,” Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference.Twenty-six people were injured, according to El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen.What we know about the shooting in El Paso, Texas“The ages and genders of all these people injured and killed are numerous in the age groups,” Allen said. “The situation, needless to say, is a horrific one.”A 21-year-old white man from Allen, Texas, is in police custody, Allen said. Authorities are looking at potentially bringing capital murder charges against him.FOLLOW LIVE UPDATESThe case also has a “nexus to a potential hate crime,” he said.”Right now, we have a manifesto from this individual that indicates to some degree a nexus to a potential hate crime,” Allen said.FBI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie said more investigative work was needed before determining whether there was a possible hate crime.

Authorities on the scene of a shooting at a Walmart near Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso.CNN reported the suspect is 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, just outside Dallas, according to three sources.Two federal law enforcement sources and one state government source confirmed the suspect’s identity. The federal sources said investigators are reviewing an online writing posted days before the shooting that may speak to a motive.The online posting was believed to be written by Crusius, the sources said, but that has not been confirmed.

‘This was a massacre’

The first call of an active shooter went out at 10:39 a.m. local time, Allen said. The first officer arrived on scene six minutes later.El Paso Police Sgt. Robert Gomez previously told reporters police were initially given multiple possible locations for the shooting, at a Walmart and the Cielo Vista Mall next door.

WalmartCielo Vista Mall

“This is a large crime scene, a large area,” Gomez said of the scene Saturday afternoon.Multiple agencies responded to the scene, including the FBI, the sheriff’s department, the state Department of Public Safety and Border Patrol.The crime scene will “be in play for a long period,” Allen said. “Unfortunately, the deceased will remain at the scene until the scene is processed properly for evidentiary purposes to be gathered for later prosecution.”

El Paso Police Department Sgt. Robert Gomez briefs media on a shooting that occurred at a Walmart.Officials from two local hospitals said they had received at least 23 people.Thirteen people were taken to University Medical Center of El Paso, spokesman Ryan Mielke told CNN, and one of them has died. Two children with non-life-threatening injuries were transferred to a children’s medical facility, Mielke said.Eleven victims were transported to the Del Sol Medical Center, hospital spokesman Victor Guerrero said. Nine are in critical but stable condition, he said.At least two of the patients are in a “life-threatening predicament,” according to Del Sol Medical Center Dr. Stephen Flaherty. He said the patients ranged in age from 25 to 82. Two are in stable condition, he said, and seven required emergency operations.”This was a massacre,” US Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents the area, told CNN. Escobar has received conflicting reports on the numbers of casualties, she said, but added, “The numbers are shocking.”

Footage shows people lying on the ground outside Walmart

Walmart issued a statement regarding the shooting, saying, “We’re in shock over the tragic events at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso. … We’re praying for the victims, the community & our associates, as well as the first responders.”Inside the mall, crowds hid inside stores after hearing reports of an active shooter, according to 26-year-old Brandon Chavez, an employee at Forever 21.Chavez had just started his shift when he saw customers and staff members running to the stock room to take shelter.”There were about 20 children and adults, plus employees, hiding, all cramped like sardines,” he told CNN. “Most of us were desperate, some were on their phones. There were girls crying, people trying to talk to each other and women with babies in their arms.”

Shoppers exit with their hands up after a shooting in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday.Store employees had closed the glass doors but he could see police officers walking around the mall and evacuating people from other stores.After police officers knocked on the store’s doors, Chavez said his group had to leave the store, forming a line with their hands up and running.In a shaky Snapchat video aired by CNN, a woman holding the camera frantically runs with a small group of girls or women through a mall department store and into a parking lot.As the group hurries past racks of clothes and cases of merchandise, voices off camera shout, “Hands up!”Once in the parking lot, one member of the group asks, “What happened?””I don’t know,” the woman holding the camera responds. “I don’t know.”Another video, shot from outside the Walmart, showed people lying on the ground, some of them next to a table set up by the store’s entrance.

Authorities respond to an active shooter at a Walmart near Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso.”There’s a man lying down at the stand that a school set up,” the man holding the camera says in Spanish.”Help!” a man screams in English.”We need CPR,” someone else says. “We need CPR.”

‘Our community will heal,’ mayor says

Mayor Dee Margo said Saturday evening that his city would rise above this “senseless and evil act of violence.””We will be defined by the unity and compassion we showed in the wake of this tragedy,” he said. “United, our community will heal.”Nowhere was that spirit more on display than at blood donation centers. Authorities had said donations were urgently needed, and said if local residents wanted to help, they should make appointments to do so.Frances Yepez, waiting in line at one blood donation center, said the center was at max capacity and dozens of people were waiting to make appointments for Sunday or Monday.”It’s easy to make a dollar, but it’s harder to make a difference,” she said. “So I get out there and do whatever I can do to help.”She said the mood there was somber, and she could hear sniffling as the crowd of people learned updates over the television.

White House pledges ‘total support’

President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting, and the White House is monitoring the situation, deputy press secretary Steven Groves said in a statement.”Terrible shootings in El Paso, Texas,” the President tweeted Saturday afternoon. “Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement. Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government. God be with you all!”

Terrible shootings in ElPaso, Texas. Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement. Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government. God be with you all!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2019

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who once represented the area in Congress, addressed the shooting while at a speaking event in Las Vegas.”We know there is a lot of injury, a lot of suffering in El Paso right now,” he said. “I am incredibly sad and it is very hard to think about this.””But I’ll tell you, El Paso is the strongest place in the world,” he added. “This community is going to come together.”O’Rourke said he would be cutting short his trip to Las Vegas to return to El Paso.Gov. Abbott tweeted late Saturday afternoon that he had arrived in El Paso.”Texans grieve today for the people of this wonderful place. We united in support of all the victims. We thank First Responders for their swift action,” the governor said. “We ask God to bind up the wounds of all who’ve been harmed.”The scene was unfolding in the same week two employees were fatally shot at a Walmart store in Southaven, Mississippi, and three people were shot and killed at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California.

CNN’s Josh Campbell, Evan Perez, Ed Lavandera, Theresa Waldrop, Artemis Moshtaghian, Shawn Nottingham and Jay Croft contributed to this report.

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A Louisiana Man Killed 3 ‘Random Victims’ in Two Days, Authorities Say

A Louisiana Man Killed 3 ‘Random Victims’ in Two Days, Authorities Say

A Louisiana Man Killed 3 ‘Random Victims’ in Two Days, Authorities Say. Investigators with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office at the scene of a double killing in Metairie, La., on Tuesday.CreditMichael Democker/The Times-Picayune, via Associated Press

Investigators with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office at the scene of a double killing in Metairie, La., on Tuesday.CreditCreditMichael Democker/The Times-Picayune, via Associated Press

A Louisiana man has been accused of fatally shooting three people in a neighborhood just outside New Orleans this week in what appeared to be random attacks, the authorities said Wednesday, adding that he was also a suspect in a killing in the city earlier this month.

The suspect, Sean Barrette, 22, was arrested Tuesday at his home in Metairie, a community just west of New Orleans where the three killings took place, said Joseph P. Lopinto, the sheriff for Jefferson Parish.

“This was a subject that went around and was shooting indiscriminately,” Sheriff Lopinto said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We’re talking about random victims. We’ve not been able to identify any connection between the victims and the suspect himself.”

The killings in Metairie took place on Monday and Tuesday. The police were able to home in on Mr. Barrette after they found his cellphone near the scene of the first shooting, the authorities said.

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On Wednesday, Mr. Barrette was being held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on two counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder and two counts of obstruction of justice.

“We don’t really have a motive,” Sheriff Lopinto said. He added that Mr. Barrette “has had a history of mental problems. Recently, he had two physician emergency committals, one being in December of 2018 and another one in April of 2019.”

Capt. Jason Rivarde, a spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, said in an email that there was “nothing to indicate race was a motivating factor.” In Metairie, two of the victims were Hispanic and one was white; in New Orleans, the victim was black. Mr. Barrette is white.

The first shooting victim this week, Isai Cadalzo, 22, was found in his car in Metairie on Monday night.

On Tuesday afternoon, reports of another shooting came in. Two men in a vehicle in Metairie had been killed: Manuel Caronia, 45, and Nicky Robeau, 57. Witnesses told the authorities that a tan sport-utility vehicle had been involved.

As the authorities investigated, they found links to a fatal shooting that had taken place in New Orleans on June 6. The victim was identified as Bruce Reed, 61. Witnesses at the time had reported seeing a tan sport-utility vehicle, and the casings found in New Orleans matched the ones found after the Metairie shootings, Sheriff Lopinto said.Sean Barrette, 22, a resident of Metairie, La., is being held in jail in connection with three killings this week. He’s also a suspect in a June 6 killing in New Orleans.CreditJefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, via Associated Press

A Louisiana Man Killed 3 ‘Random Victims’ in Two Days, Authorities Say

Sean Barrette, 22, a resident of Metairie, La., is being held in jail in connection with three killings this week. He’s also a suspect in a June 6 killing in New Orleans.CreditJefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, via Associated Press

Calls to the New Orleans Police Department on Wednesday evening were not immediately returned.

As the authorities were surveilling Mr. Barrette’s residence in Metairie on Tuesday, he arrived in a tan sport-utility vehicle.

“Our SWAT team was activated and used to take Barrette into custody without incident,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “After obtaining warrants for the vehicle and residence, we were able to recover forensic evidence that links Barrette to both incidents.”

Included in that evidence was a handgun — a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson — that the authorities found at the bottom of Mr. Barrette’s laundry basket.

A lawyer for Mr. Barrette declined to comment but said that a bond and preliminary examination hearing was set for July 10.

Melissa Ann Romero, a daughter of Mr. Robeau, one of the victims, said her father, a truck driver, was a “fun-loving man. Hard-working man. Dedicated to his family. Didn’t do anything wrong.”

She added that she was thankful to the authorities who tracked down Mr. Barrette. “I did think they did a good job at apprehending the suspect and getting him as fast as they did,” she said.

Metairie, which sits on the northeastern edge of Jefferson Parish, is about 15 minutes from downtown New Orleans.

“It basically serves as a business district,” Terrie Birkel, the vice president of the Jefferson Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in an interview on Wednesday. “A lot of commerce. Many corporations are located within the ZIP code of Metairie.”

Ms. Birkel described the area as busy. “It’s a very highly trafficked area,” she said. “That area is a mix of residential, commercial businesses, auto dealerships, as well as schools. Very large, diverse area.”

Homicides in the Jefferson Parish area are on the decline. There were 44 homicides in 2016, 31 in 2017 and 24 in 2018, according to crime statistics from the sheriff’s office. The most recent data shows there were 12 homicides in the first four months of 2019.

Captain Rivarde of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said this case — with three killed, apparently randomly, in two days — was rare.

“We’re probably the largest law enforcement agency in Louisiana, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

A Louisiana Man Killed 3 ‘Random Victims’ in Two Days, Authorities Say

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‘Thought I made it obvious’ Lil Nas X seemingly comes out as gay on last day of Pride Month

Lil Nas X continues to break barriers. After scoring the song of the summer with his country/hip-hop crossover smash “Old Town Road” (which has been stationed at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks and has made Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Rhythmic Songs, and Dance/Mix Show Airplay charts), and even performing the tune with Billy Ray Cyrus at both the BET Awards and Stagecoach Festival, the genre-blurring Atlanta rapper has seemingly come out as gay on the last day of Pride Month.

“Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm [f*** with me] no more. But before this month ends I want y’all to listen closely to ‘C7osure,’” Nas tweeted Sunday, referring to a track on his recently released debut EP, 7. He notably punctuated the tweet with a rainbow emoji.

Key “C7osure” lyrics include “I want and I need to let go/Use my time to be free” and “Pack my past up in the back, oh, let my future take a hold/This is what I gotta do, can’t be regretting when I’m old… Embracing this news I behold unfolding/I know, I know, I know it don’t feel like it’s time/But I look back at this moment, I’ll see that I’m fine” — words whose meaning fans are now understanding with fresh ears.

Lil NasX has a message for his fans during #Pride Month 🌈 (Swipe) pic.twitter.com/FxU2us3Oi2

— BallerAlert (@balleralert) June 30, 2019

Nas followed up with a second tweet Sunday afternoon that simply stated, “Deadass thought I made it obvious,” with a closeup shot of rainbow imagery in his EP’s cover art.

deadass thought i made it obvious pic.twitter.com/HFCbVqBkLM

— nope (@LilNasX) June 30, 2019

Lil Nas X’s revelation is especially brave considering that the country and hip-hop fanbases have been historically conservative and sometimes downright reactionary when it comes to homosexuality, and it is very early in Nas’s career for him to take such a risk. But reaction on Twitter has been largely celebratory and encouraging.

some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month ends i want y’all to listen closely to c7osure. 🌈🤩✨ pic.twitter.com/O9krBLllqQ

— nope (@LilNasX) June 30, 2019

The only thing bigger for Lil Nas X’s career than making a collab with Billy Ray Cyrus is coming out as gay on the last day of #PrideMonth This dude is a marketing genius

— THE SCOOP (@TheScoop_US) July 1, 2019

Yes. He’s out. Congratulations and much love and happiness for the incredibly talented @LilNasX https://t.co/93u89c59BE

— Gerard Courcy (@hardcorehangout) July 1, 2019

To Lil Nas X 🏳️‍🌈❤️🤟 pic.twitter.com/7sG0QaW6l2

— Caleb Trent (@gayninja99) July 1, 2019

@lilnasx I am proud of YOU! No judgement, negative people will always complain. However, positivity will manifest when you live right! Be You! God loves and no one can rob you of your joy and smile if you allow it! #period

— MadStyleChica15 (@madstylechica15) July 1, 2019

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14 shot in 48 hours in suspected gang violence in Atlanta

14 shot in 48 hours in suspected gang violence in Atlanta

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — An MS-13 gang member who once was on the FBI’s top 10 list of most wanted fugitives has admitted killing a man on behalf of the gang and agreeing that a conspirator would commit multiple violent acts. Walter Yovany Gomez pleaded guilty Monday to racketeering conspiracy. Federal prosecutors will recommend that he receive a 25-year prison term when he’s sentenced July 31. A 2013 indictment charged Gomez and another man with the fatal beating and stabbing of a fellow gang member suspected of associating with a rival gang in Plainfield.

Two separate shooting scenes in two separate parts of Atlanta. Two days apart. Each with seven shooting victims. According to Atlanta Police, both shootings are believed to be gang-related.

Investigators said the two shootings are not connected. However, state officials said gang violence is at a crisis level in Georgia.

‘Certified gang member’ charged with second-degree murder in shooting death of 14-year-old

A 16-year-old is facing a second-degree murder charge after deputies say he was involved in the shooting death of a 14-year-old girl earlier this month. In the early morning hours of June 18, deputies said the girl was shot inside a vehicle near the intersection of Kingsway Road and East Clay Avenue in Brandon. The vehicle then drove about two miles to a Walgreens parking lot before someone called 911. Previous: 14-year-old girl dies after being shot in Brandon During a Wednesday morning news conference, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said the 16-year-old suspect is a “certified gang member.

In the first shooting, which took place early Thursday morning in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward area, investigators said several dozen shots were fired from two cars at a group of people standing in the 600 block of Parkway Drive, N.E.

According to police investigators, five men and one woman initially appeared to be targeted in the shooting. They later discovered that a seventh victim transported themselves to the hospital.

“Several of them are known, documented gang members,” said Atlanta Police Major Michael O’Connor. “They were out there in the very early morning hours.”

“The neighborhood itself, you know, it’s somewhat challenged – this particular series of apartment complexes that stretches for a while,” O’Connor said. “That’s been the case since I’ve joined the police department. The entire time I’ve been here it’s been something of a drug market over there.”

Guide murdered alongside American doctor had trouble with a local gang, police say

Dr. Gary Swank was visiting the Central American country and he was found dead Sunday alongside a local tour guide, identified as Mario Graniel.

He said it is not a new problem in that neighborhood, which is only a few blocks from the revitalized Ponce City Market area and the BeltLine.

“As we pick one person off, somebody else fills that spot,” O’Connor said. “So we continue to work on it diligently. It’s an ongoing effort; it has been for decades now.”

Police said they have several significant leads in the case. They are looking for multiple suspects and are searching for one silver car and one other dark-colored car.

The second shooting took place in the Mechanicsville neighborhood of Southwest Atlanta late Friday night in the 700 block of Ira Street, S.W. at about 11:15 p.m.

White said that seven people were hit by gunfire when, according to witnesses, a black SUV and a black sedan drove into the location and began firing into a group of people. He said that four vehicles were also damaged by gunfire.

So far this year, 1,229 people have been shot in Chicago, about 100 fewer than the first six months of 2018, and the lowest total since 2015. Police also said there have been 236 murders through the end of June, 21 fewer than the same time period last year. During the violence over the weekend, 17-year-old Jarise Baker was shot and killed early Saturday in the North Lawndale neighborhood. Baker was walking his girlfriend home around 12:30 a.m. near 18th and Keeler, when someone in a passing car shot them both. Baker was shot in the chest and upper body, and died at Mount Sinai Hospital.

The shooting victims took themselves to hospitals for treatment, according to White.

Police said that shooting is also believed to be gang-related. However, is not believed to be connected to the Parkway Drive incident.

In April, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp launched a gang task force, with the goal of reducing what state officials are calling a crisis.

“Nearly every county in Georgia has reported gang activity,” Kemp said. “I’ve made my position clear when it comes to street gangs and drug cartels. It is a serious issue in our state. One we cannot afford to ignore.”

Kemp said there are about 71,000 gang members in the state of Georgia.

“Most crimes are gang-related, specifically violent crimes – the aggravated assaults, the drive-by shootings, the murders,” according to Jaret Usher, the former Cobb County prosecutor who is leading the task force.

“When you look further into why these are happening and the motivation behind them and the evidence that comes out, the statistics do back up that they are gang-motivated and gang-related.”

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Who’s the victim, and who is to blame? A bullet, a miscarriage and an unthinkable question

A 27-year-old Birmingham woman was indicted on manslaughter charges Wednesday in the loss of her pregnancy, even though, police say, another woman pulled the trigger. The East Thomas neighborhood is shaken with the question of who is to blame. (Gheni Platenburg for The Washington Post)

A 27-year-old Birmingham woman was indicted on manslaughter charges Wednesday in the loss of her pregnancy, even though, police say, another woman pulled the trigger. The East Thomas neighborhood is shaken with the question of who is to blame.

BIRMINGHAM — As she recovered in a hospital bed on a chilly December night, Marshae Jones could only think about what she’d lost.

The 27-year-old was five months pregnant when she was involved in a fight that, authorities say, prompted a woman to fire a gun in self defense. The bullet tore through Jones’s abdomen and caused a miscarriage, anguishing the young mother — and the historic East Thomas neighborhood of central Alabama, where her family has lived for generations.

“As her pastor, I would ask whoever to prayerfully consider the heart of this young lady,” said Rev. George Robinson Jr., the pastor of First Baptist of East Thomas, where Jones and her family attend church. “Marshae is not the person that has been pictured or painted of her. She’s not that young lady.”

Robinson said he prayed with Jones in the hospital that night, and in the weeks leading up to Wednesday, when a grand jury indicted her on a manslaughter charge for the death of her own fetus.

The complex case has divided those seeking to place blame in the fetus’s death, a tension augmented by the abortion debate in Alabama and the state’s broad manslaughter law, which makes it a felony to “recklessly” cause the death of another person.

“She was really sorrowful about everything that actually transpired up to this point,” Robinson told The Washington Post, speaking of the woman’s reaction in the aftermath of the shooting. “Her words to me were she could not believe she lost the baby.”

In a Friday statement, the office of District Attorney Lynneice Washington said they have not decided whether Jones will be prosecuted for manslaughter, face a lesser charge or be cleared in the death of her fetus. A grand jury looked at actions by both women and declined to indict Ebony Jemison, the woman who fired the shot, prosecutors said. The jurors instead returned an indictment for Jones.

Robinson and others close to Jones, who has a young daughter, say it’s difficult to picture the “lovable and caring” mother as an aggressor. They say Jones may have been caught up in the heat of the moment on the afternoon of Dec. 4, 2018, when police and prosecutors allege she initiated a fight with Jemison outside a Dollar General.

In a phone interview late Thursday, Jemison’s mother, Earka, told The Post that her daughter was cleared by the grand jury because evidence and testimony was presented to suggest that Jones started the fight, causing Ebony to fire a warning shot out of fear. Jones worked at the same company as Ebony Jemison and the fetus’s father, and tension developed between the two women, according to Jemison’s mother.

She said things boiled over in December when Jones, who was driving with friends at the time, spotted Jemison and leaped out of the vehicle to attack her. Jones’s friends left the car soon afterward and began to move toward the scuffle, she said.

“Ebony was afraid for her life and reached in her purse for the gun,” her mother said, adding that her daughter had a license to carry the weapon. “She tried to fire a warning shot to get away from her.”

But the shot — which Jemison’s mother says was aimed at the ground — ricocheted into Jones. Earka Jemison told The Post that her daughter received threats after the indictment.

“If they weren’t sitting in the courtroom, let them talk,” the mother said about the people threatening her daughter. “I saw the evidence. I saw the evidence.”

Jones was released on $50,000 bond Thursday. In a statement Friday, Jones’s attorneys said their client was facing “unprecedented legal action” that had tarnished the reputation of both Jones and the state of Alabama. The law firm White Arnold & Dowd said it would fight vigorously for her exoneration to prevent a “grave injustice.”

“This young mother was shot in the stomach while five months pregnant and lost her baby as a result. She lost her home to a fire and lost her job,” the firm said. “Now, for reasons that defy imagination, she faces an unprecedented legal action that subjects this victim of violence to further distress and harm.”

In front of a modest blue home in Birmingham on a hot, sunny day, Jamal Jones identified himself as Marshae Jones’s second cousin. He told The Washington Post that Jones and Jemison had feuded in the past but that Jones has always been a quiet, soft-spoken person.

“She’s a good mom,” the 37-year-old said of Jones, who has a young daughter. “Her daughter is with her everywhere. She makes sure she gets her to school every day, picks her up, feeds her. She don’t try to put her off on anybody.”

Booking photo of Marshae Jones. (Jefferson County Jail)

He added: “She’s a good person. I’m not just saying that because she’s my cousin. She gets along with anybody.”

Jones’s mother, who declined to give her first name, said she was turning to her faith amid a trying time for her family.

Jones “is a fun-loving mom, churchgoing, a hard-working lady,” Jones’s mother said. “My child just doesn’t bother anybody.”

Speaking with AL.com, Jones’s grandmother, Patrice Jones, echoed those sentiments.

“It’s not fair,’’ the grandmother said. “Marshae didn’t have a gun. How did they turn it around on her?”

“We feel sympathy for the families involved, including Ms. Jones, who lost her unborn child,’’ the district attorney’s office said. “The fact that this tragedy was 100 percent avoidable makes this case even more disheartening.”

Alabama is among 38 states with laws that classify fetuses as victims in homicide or assault, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Alabama, a “person” includes embryos and fetuses at any stage of development. And rights groups say those laws are ensnaring pregnant women.

Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, says Alabama leads the country in mothers charged with crimes related to pregnancy. But she said this case was unique.

“This is the first time the idea that fertilized egg or fetal personhood has provided the basis for arrest of a woman because she was pregnant, and she herself was the victim of a criminal act,” Paltrow said. “Alabama has indicted Ms. Jones, claiming it is a crime for a woman to be unable to protect her own life and health.”

Randall Marshall, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, said the state “is one of the most dangerous places in the country for a black woman trying to carry her pregnancy to term, and this prosecution is just one more attack on the basic human rights and dignity of black women in our state.”

Rev. Robinson, the pastor at Jones’s church, said he did not see young woman as a criminal. He called the situation “shocking” and said the 200 or so members of his tight-knit congregation are equally concerned about the case.

As they struggle to answer unthinkable questions, the East Thomas community waits for a prosecutor to decide whether Jones should be held accountable for her lost pregnancy.

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Woman Was Arrested For Turning In Her Husband’s Guns After He Was Charged With Abusing Her!

Woman Was Arrested For Turning In Her Husband’s Guns After He Was Charged With Abusing Her!

A 33-year-old woman from Lakeland, Florida, was arrested for trying to turn her estranged husband’s firearms in to the police after he’d been charged with domestic violence and attempting to run her over with his car.

Courtney Irby was charged with two counts of grand theft of a firearm and one count of armed burglary last week. She spent five days in jail.

According to an affidavit obtained by BF News, Courtney collected all of her estranged husband Joseph Irby’s firearms at his home while he was under police custody, and brought them into the Lakeland Police Department.

When an officer questioned Courtney about how she obtained the guns, she told him, “Well, he was arrested yesterday for trying to run me over with his car, and he is now in jail. So I went to his apartment since he is in jail and I searched his apartment for the guns I knew he had and I took them.”

The officer, Brent Behrens, stated that he proceeded to question her to confirm that she entered Joseph’s home without his permission. “So you are telling me you committed an armed burglary?” he said.

“Yes I am, but he wasn’t going to turn them in so I am doing it,” she then responded, according to Behrens. Courtney proceeded to tell Behrens that she has a temporary injunction against her ex, and that she knew he would not turn in his firearms himself — as reportedly mandated by a judge’s orders.

According to Joseph’s arrest record from the day prior on June 14, Courtney told an officer of the Bartow Police Department that her husband was repeatedly “ramming” his car into hers, and eventually off the road. She said she was “in fear for her life.” Behrens stated that on June 15, he “determined [Courtney] committed the Act of Armed Burglary” when she admitted to retrieving the guns from her ex’s residence, and charged and booked her at Polk County Jail.

Woman Was Arrested For Turning In Her Husband’s Guns After He Was Charged With Abusing Her!

The affidavit stated that Behrens contacted Joseph following his arrest of his wife. Joseph said he wanted to pursue charges as she “did not have permission to enter his dwelling and remove his firearms.”

Online and across the country, Courtney’s story has drawn confused and contentious reactions from citizens and lawmakers. Specifically, people are angry the Lakeland Police Department chose to arrest Courtney without consideration of other critical factors for her actions.

@LakelandPD Who was supposed to turn in the firearms in the #CourtneyIrby case? Did you expect her abusive husband, with a violent and aggressive record, to go to his apartment alone, get his guns, and bring them to you? I hope you realize this is absurd.

— Salt Mine (@SaltMine10) June 22, 2019

Some are demanding they drop the charges against her.

@LakelandChamber Why would any decent person with a choice spend their hard earned money in a town where the cops value a violent man’s gun stash over a woman’s safety? Tell @LakelandPD to drop the charges against #CourtneyIrby.

— Randy Childs (@RandyMathHippie) June 21, 2019

After hearing about what happened, Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando) spoke out in support of Courtney and her decision. “I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, and empowering our survivors to ask for help — not arrest them,” she tweeted on Tuesday.

I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, and empowering our survivors to ask for help — not arrest them. https://t.co/qWyCyIpDdS

— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) June 25, 2019

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7 people found killed in 2 homes in Tennessee; suspect captured!

A suspect was taken into custody after seven people were killed in two separate homes over the weekend in Tennessee, authorities said.

Officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) responded to a home Saturday night on Charles Brown Road in Sumner County, where initially four people were found dead.

A fifth victim – a woman — was found in another residence on Luvy Daniels Road, authorities said. The woman lived at the home and her car was stolen, Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley told ABC News. It is unclear whether she had a connection to the suspect.

Two more bodies were later found at the Charles Brown Road home, authorities announced Sunday afternoon. One of the victims found at that scene was 12 years old, Whitley said.

UPDATE: Our Forensic Scientists, processing the scene on Charles Brown Road, have found a sixth body in the home. This brings the total to seven deaths and one critical injury. Efforts to identify the victims remain ongoing at this time. pic.twitter.com/8LU6cV9MhF— TBI (@TBInvestigation) April 28, 2019

The victims have not been identified. Another person at the initial scene was injured and transported to the hospital.

Police identified a suspect Saturday and launched a manhunt in which as many as 150 law enforcement agents fanned out across the surrounding rural area to search for 25-year-old Michael Cummins. Authorities also warned residents that he may be armed.

PERSON OF INTEREST: We are working to locate Michael Cummins in connection to the multiple homicides we are investigating in Sumner County.  He may be in the woods in the area near the scene and may be armed. If you spot him, call 911 immediately. pic.twitter.com/4MEelTIpyB— TBI (@TBInvestigation) April 28, 2019

Devine said a search plane flying over the region spotted an individual in a wooded area and sent officers to the location.

“He was found in a remote area very close to the scene where these events occurred,” Josh Devine, communications director for TBI, said Saturday night.

Cummins was hiding in a creek bed and drew his weapon as the officers approached, authorities said.

Police opened fire and struck Cummins at least once. He was later taken into custody and transported to a local hospital, police said.

He is expected to survive.

No officers were injured, authorities said.

Cummins is awaiting charges for the alleged shooting, authorities said.

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Toys ‘R’ Us, Back From the Dead, Will Open U.S. Stores in 2019

KINGSTON, MA – MARCH 15: The exterior of the Toys R Us store in Kingston, MA is pictured on March 15, 2018. The company is declaring bankruptcy and closing all of its stores.

Maybe American kids will only have to live through one Christmas without Toys “R” Us.

About a year after shuttering U.S. operations, the remnant of the defunct toy chain is set to return this holiday season by opening about a half dozen U.S. stores and an e-commerce site, according to people familiar with the matter.

Richard Barry, a former Toys “R” Us executive who is now CEO of new entity Tru Kids Inc., has been pitching his vision to reincarnate the chain to toymakers, including at an industry conference this week, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public.

The stores are slated to be about 10,000-square feet, roughly a third of the size of the brand’s big-box outlets that closed last year, the people said. The locations will also have more experiences, like play areas. The startup costs could be minimized with a consignment inventory model in which toymakers ship goods but don’t get paid until consumers buy them, some of the people said.

A spokeswoman for Tru Kids said the company wasn’t ready to publicly share details on its U.S. strategy.

New Rivals

It remains to be seen how much of a boost the retailer’s comeback will provide the toy industry, including giants such as Hasbro Inc. and Mattel Inc. The original Toys “R” Us, the only national toy chain, left a huge holewhen it went under. It had been generating about $7 billion in sales a year in the U.S. through more than 700 locations, including the Babies “R” Us brand.

Walmart Inc., Target Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. have swooped in to fill the void. They have all expanded toy assortments and marketing, including a printed toy catalog from Amazon. Other non-traditional chains jumped into the category, including grocery stores and Party City Holdco Inc.

There is also a question of how many toymakers will do business with the new Toys “R” Us after many lost money when the former company announced liquidation in March 2018, just months after filing for bankruptcy.

MGA on Board

MGA Entertainment Inc., one of the best-performing toymakers in the world, is already on board to sell at the re-imagined Toys “R” Us shops, said Chief Executive Officer Isaac Larian, who said he has been pitched the plan. His company’s properties include Little Tikes, L.O.L. Surprise! and Bratz dolls.

“This market needs a self-standing toy store, that’s for sure,” Larian said in an interview. “We will sell them inventory.”

Related: Tears ‘R’ Us: The World’s Biggest Toy Store Didn’t Have to Die

During the chain’s bankruptcy, lenders led by Solus Alternative Asset Management and Angelo Gordon took control of the company’s assets. After results didn’t improve, they opted to shutter operations in the U.S. Units in Australia and other regions also closed, with divisions in Asia and Canada acquired by new owners.

This group tried to sell the intellectual property, but opted to keep it to garner a better return. As owners of the intellectual property, they have been collecting licensing and other fees from the units still operating and selling them private-label goods. The lenders then formed Tru Kids with the goal of reviving the brand in the U.S. and other regions it exited. It has since hired several industry veterans and signed a deal to bring Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us back to Australia through a partner.

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CA mom who allegedly locked special needs son in closet for 3 years, sedating and starving him until he died, faces key hearing in Los Angeles!

Verónica Aguilar (right) continued her preliminary hearing on whether there’s enough evidence to send her to trial for the murder of her 10-year-old son Yonatan (left).

The disturbing case of the California mom who allegedly sedated her special-needs son and locked him in a closet for three years, causing his death, was back in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday.

Verónica Aguilar, 42, continued her preliminary hearing on whether there’s enough evidence to send her to trial for the murder of her 10-year-old son Yonatan.

The boy was found dead Aug. 22, 2016, after his stepfather called police. Authorities say little Yonatan showed signs of severe malnutrition and neglect.

In testimony Tuesday, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department said Yonatan weighed only 34 pounds at the time of his death.

“I saw a very gaunt, frail-looking child, who at that time to me looked like a 5-, 6- or 7-year-old boy,” LAPD Det. Abel Munoz testified, according to ABC 7.

Aguilar allegedly told the boy’s stepfather she sent Yonatan back to Mexico for treatment and then somehow successfully concealed the boy’s presence in the family’s one-bedroom house in Echo Park.

Sister is questioned about her dead 11 yr old brother Yonatan: “Are you happy that he is dead? “ Answer“No.” “Are you SAD that he is dead?” A – “No.” She recounts troubling behavior. The child eating ants. More ahead about Yonatan being kept in a closet.@ABC7Courts pic.twitter.com/25eNy2eJ8h— Miriam Hernandez (@abc7miriam) June 19, 2019

Stepdad Jose Pinzon testified this week that he had no idea the boy was still in the family home and that his wife would “cry a lot,” ABC 7 reported.

He claimed he never saw any signs of the child because he worked 18 hours a day and slept in an area separate from his wife and the other kids in the house, according to ABC 7.

Pinzon also testified he was shocked and despondent when his wife finally told him the boy was dead in the bedroom closet.

Aguilar allegedly fed Yonatan an alcohol-based cold medicine that made him sleepy and easier to deal with, the news station said.

When the hearing concludes, a judge will decide whether Aguilar should face a jury in the case.

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Pennsylvania nightclub shooting injures 10, police say!

Police look for evidence early Thursday, June 20, 2019, in Allentown, Pa., following a shooting outside a nightclub. The street shooting in eastern Pennsylvania that left 10 people wounded early Thursday is likely to be gang-related, authorities said. (Photo: Rich Rolen,The Morning Call, AP)

At least 10 people were wounded early Thursday in an apparent gang-related shooting as three gunmen opened fire on patrons leaving a nightclub in Allentown, Pennsylvania, according to police.

Allentown police Capt. Bill Lake said all the victims were expected to survive, according to The Morning Call newspaper and WFMZ.

Authorities believe there were three shooters.

“It appears that at least one individual was a target,” Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin and Allentown Police Chief Tony Alsleben said in a statement. “Although not confirmed, in our opinion based upon investigative information … it is more likely than not that the outcome of the investigation will reveal a connection to gang violence.”

Tashana Santiago, a witness who lives near the Deja Vu club, told the newspaper that many in the frightened crowd ran to a nearby shopping center as shots rang out just before 2 a.m. EST. After the last few shots were fired, Santiago said, she heard a car speeding away.

“When everything went silent all you could hear is the screaming and panicking,” Santiago told the Morning Call. “All I could think was someone is dying.”

Contributing: Associated Press More to come will be updated soon….

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Man holds women CAPTIVE for two decades! He also impregnated her nine times found guilty by federal jury!

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (KFSM) — A federal jury on Thursday (June 6) convicted an Oklahoma man of kidnapping his step-daughter in 1997 and holding her hostage for the next 20 years while he raped and abused her.

Henri Michele Piette, 63, was found guilty in U.S. District Court of kidnapping and travel with intent to engage in a sexual act with a juvenile.

“The victim endured two decades of horrific abuse by the defendant. Her courage led her to escape and rescue her children and allowed investigators and prosecutors to seek justice on her behalf. Ultimately her courage ended the defendant’s reign of terror,” said U.S. attorney Brian J. Kuester.

“I know this verdict cannot heal the countless wounds inflicted by the defendant. It should prevent him from ever inflicting more.”

Rosalynn Michelle McGinnis, now in her 30s, managed to escape from Piette in 2016 after being held captive by him for two decades in Mexico, according to KFOR.

5NEWS is only identifying McGinnis, a sexual assault survivor because she has spoken publicly about her case.

McGinnis’ mother was in a relationship with Piette in the 1990s when he began sexually abusing McGinnis while she lived in Wagoner County.

Henri Michele Piette

She told authorities that when she was 11, Piette took her to a van to marry her, having his oldest son, who was 15 at the time, perform the ceremony.

Piette’s son confirmed to investigators that his father had asked him to perform the ceremony. He said the “ceremony” consisted of him asking if Piette and McGinnis took each other in marriage.

Despite two attempts to escape, Piette was able to find the family. He kidnapped McGinnis from Poteau, then moved her throughout Oklahoma and eventually to Mexico, according to KFOR.

McGinnis said Piette beat and sexually assaulted her almost daily for years. He fathered eight children with her that span.

McGinnis told People magazine that she took eight of her nine children to the U.S. Embassy and obtained passports so they could enter the United States.

Once she made it to the United States, she immediately started meeting with federal officials and provided them with statements on what happened.

Federal officials interviewed Piette’s older children who confirmed they had witnessed him sexually abuse McGinnis.

Authorities were finally able to track Piette down in September 2017 when he visited the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City attempted to obtain a U.S. Passport.

“The FBI Oklahoma City Division, and the special agents who investigated this crime, hope that the guilty verdict delivered against Henri Piette will bring some sense of closure to those he inflicted immeasurable mental and physical abuse upon for over 20 years,” said Steven D’Antuono, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Oklahoma City Division.

“By bringing Mr. Piette to justice, the victims of his heinous acts can now begin the process of healing. The FBI is honored to have been a part of this long-term investigation alongside our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners.”

Piette faces up to live in federal prison. A sentencing hearing hasn’t been set.

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CAUGHT!: Snapchat gender swap filter helps student catch cop looking for teen hookup

A 20-year-old college student in the San Francisco Bay Area used Snapchat’s gender swap filter to expose a police officer allegedly trying to hook up with an underage girl, NBC reports. 

The filter, which allows people to see what they would look like as the opposite gender, has become immensely popular among Snapchat users, despite its problematic stereotyping. 

San Jose Police Department arrested Robert Davies for contacting a minor to commit a felony.SAN JOSE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Ethan, who did not disclose his last name in fears of retaliation, told NBC Bay Area that he was looking to catch pedophiles because his friend had been sexually assaulted as a child. But even he didn’t think he would end up catching a police officer. “I was just looking to get someone,” he said. “He just happened to be a cop.”

He set up his Tinder profile with his gender-swapped photo as a 19-year-old with the name Esther. Then, he matched with San Mateo police officer Robert Davies.

“I believe he messaged me ‘Are you down to have some fun tonight?’” Ethan said. “And I decided to take advantage of it.”

According to CBS, Ethan later matched with Davies on another app called Kik, which has a reputation as a shady platform for millennials and teens. Ethan and Davies then connected on Snapchat, as well.

Posing as Esther, Ethan told Davies that she was 16 and asked if it would be a dealbreaker. Davies said it wouldn’t.

According to screenshots shared by NBC Bay Area, once Ethan revealed she was 16, Davies said, “Yeah that might be an issue.” But he continued to engage in the chat even after learning Esther was a minor. Ethan said the messages soon “got a lot more explicit.”

“Through the messages, I would just—on purpose—get these little bits of information about him so it would be easier for the police to track him down,” Ethan told NBC Bay Area.

He would screenshot the chats on airplane mode, fearing that if Davies was being notified that his messages were being captured, he might block Ethan.

After Ethan tipped off Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers, San Jose detectives launched a month-long investigation into Davies, culminating in his arrest last week, Gizmodoreported. Davies has since been put on paid administrative leave and charged with communicating with a minor to commit a crime.

In a statement, San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer said this “is in no way a reflection of all that we stand for as a Department, and is an affront to the tenets of our department and our profession as a whole.”

Ethan has told NBC Bay Area that this was his first and last bust, but people on social media are applauding him.

Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear filters.

— Brian (@Protodude) June 11, 2019

With great filters, comes great responsibility

— KeyLow (@KeyLow920) June 11, 2019

use the filter for good 

— Proud Bulba (@ProudBulba) June 11, 2019

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Bushwick Bill Of The Geto Boys Dies At 52!

Bushwick Bill Of The Geto Boys Dies At 52!

Legendary Houston rapper Bushwick Bill, a founding member of the iconic Geto Boys, died Sunday night at the age of 52 after a brief fight with cancer. The diminutive hip-hop luminary from the genre’s golden age announced last month that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Rolling Stone confirmed the death late Sunday night after a day of confusing reports over whether Bushwick Bill had actually died.

“Bushwick Bill passed away peacefully this evening at 9:35 p.m. He was surrounded by his immediate family,” his publicist, Dawn P., told Rolling Stone. “There were incorrect previous reports that he had passed away this morning. We are looking into doing a public memorial at a later date. His family appreciates all of the prayers and support and are asking for privacy at this time.”

That announcement came hours after fellow Geto Boys founder Scarface’s Instagram post Sunday morning saying “RIP Bushwick Bill” seemed to imply that he had died.

That turned out to not be the case, Dawn P. told the Associated Press Sunday afternoon, saying that the rapper was on a ventilator at a Colorado hospital at the time.

Scarface’s post was consequently deleted as other reports quickly came out saying Bushwick Bill had not yet died. It was unclear what exactly led Scarface to post that tragic announcement.

Bushwick Bill, whose real name is Richard Stephen Shaw and was born with dwarfism, told TMZ in early May that doctors said, “‘We see a mass on your pancreas and we can’t understand because it’s not alcohol, it’s not sugar, it’s not diabetes — they went through all kind of stuff. Finally, by February they said it was stage four pancreatic cancer.”

He continued, “And I’m like, ‘Stage 4? I’ve been getting tested and they said it was just a mass but it was benign. And I’m like, ‘Does benign mean it could be cancer?’ And they were like, ‘It’s just a mass with no purpose.’ So it was crazy to find out that pancreatic cancer is undetected until it’s in the fourth or fifth state.”

He said he didn’t fear death, “It’s not like I’m afraid of dying. I know what it’s like on the other side. That’s not what it’s really about. It’s about life and loving life. I just want people to be aware so that when they set dreams or goals, they’re healthy enough to fulfill and live.” Bushwick Bill reportedly leaves behind four children.

Pancreatic cancer has long targeted Black people, but even more vexing was the fact that so little is known about it, including what causes it. The statistics for pancreatic cancer victims along racial lines are damning, with a lopsided number of Black people being diagnosed with the ailment. Scientists haven’t determined what causes pancreatic cancer, and treatment options are limited, according to the American Cancer Society. However, there were several risk factors that physicians have concluded were linked to pancreatic cancer, including tobacco use and being overweight or obese.

However, cancer has been proven to be more deadly for Black people, with that fact being resoundingly true for pancreatic cancer patients, statistics have shown since around 1970, when pancreatic cancer trends began reversing themselves along racial lines.

“In white men, pancreatic cancer death rates decreased by 0.7% per year from 1970 to 1995 and then increased by 0.4% per year through 2009,” according to research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. “In contrast, the rates among blacks increased between 1970 and the late 1980s (women) or early 1990s (men).”

The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine took it a step further and found through clinical research that the “incidence of pancreatic cancer is 50 – 90% higher in African Americans than in any other racial group in the United States. Not only is pancreatic cancer more common among African Americans, but African Americans also have the poorest prognosis of any racial group because they often are diagnosed with advanced, and therefore, inoperable cancer.”

The Geto Boys is most known for the hip-hop classic song, “Mind Playing Tricks on Me.” See the classic video below:

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A Former Cop Was Sentenced To 12 And A Half Years In Prison For Fatally Shooting An Unarmed Australian Yoga Teacher

“Uber took my daughter past the point of no return.”

The family of a 12-year-old Florida girl who died by suicide after taking an Uber alone is demanding the ride-hailing company make changes to enforce its policy of not allowing minors to use the service without an adult.

On the morning of Jan. 10 while her parents were sleeping, Benita Diamond downloaded the Uber app on her mother’s phone and requested a ride to a downtown Orlando parking garage, where she killed herself.

“I believe that if the driver had questioned or followed the rules or denied a ride, my daughter would be here today,” the girl’s mother, Lisha Chen, said during a press conference Thursday.

Uber requires all account holders to be at least 18 years old and prohibits children from riding without an adult. Drivers are instructed to decline ride requests if they suspect the person requesting the ride is underage and may request ID to confirm, according to the company.

“If a rider is underage, please do not start the trip or allow them to ride,” Uber’s website states.

But, according to her family, the 12-year-old was able to create an account without her parents knowledge on Jan. 8, using just a name, an email address, and a gift card she received for Christmas. Two days later, an Uber driver picked up the 4-foot-11-inch seventh-grader and drove her to the City Commons Parking Garage.

“At no point was she asked her name, was she asked her age — no questions were asked why a little girl under 5 feet tall dragging a polka-dot backpack was out in the wee hours of the morning by herself,” the family’s attorney, Laura Douglas, said.

An Uber spokesperson said in an email to BuzzFeed News that the incident had not been reported to the company over the last six months and that it was now investigating and planned to “take appropriate action.”

The spokesperson said that when the company receives a report of an underage rider it investigates to determine whether the driver or account holder should lose access to the app.

“Drivers are asked to report situations where a rider is underage to Uber for further review/investigation by our 24/7 customer support team,” the spokesperson said.

Benita’s parents described their daughter as a happy child who excelled in school and at playing the piano and performing jujitsu. They said she did not have a history of behavioral issues or mental illness.

“Everybody was shocked because nobody suspected she had any problems,” Chen said, adding that they still don’t know why she killed herself.

Ronald Diamond, the girl’s father, said their daughter wrote in a suicide note that she thought she would have more difficulty getting an Uber and that she was “basically … past the point of no return now.”

“I think if Uber had followed their policy, without a doubt our daughter would still be here. That would have been the one red flag that we would have caught,” Diamond said. “Uber took my daughter past the point of no return.”

The family is considering filing a lawsuit against the company in the hopes that Uber will better enforce its policies and make changes to prevent minors from creating accounts.

“I want other families not to go through this,” the girl’s grandfather Richard Diamond said. “It’s not just about suicide. It’s about all the other things that horrific happen to young kids when they’re on their own.”

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Florida thief tries to rob ATM with blowtorch, ends up welding it shut

Officials with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office say video surveillance shows two male suspects entering The Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island last week in the early morning hours of Friday.

One man, who appeared to be a lookout, was armed with a crowbar, while the other took the blowtorch to the ATM.

With the safe sealed shut, the pair left with nothing.

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A 600-pound drug dealer was sentence at court from an ambulance!

A 600lb drug dealer had to be sentenced in an ambulance that was designated as a courtroom because moving him from the vehicle would ‘endanger his health and well-being,’ an Ohio judge said. 

Kirk Lenell Smith, 42, pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and being a felon in possession of a gun on Wednesday outside the Hamilton County Courthouse. The sentencing occurred at the loading dock. 

Smith is believed to weigh more than 600 pounds and the decision to hold the proceedings outside were deemed the easiest by Common Pleas Judge Tom Heekin. 

Kirk Lenell Smith, 42, pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and being a felon in possession of a gun on Wednesday outside the Hamilton County Courthouse

‘Moving Kirk Smith from the ambulance would endanger his health and well-being,’ Heekin said as he read from a document, Cincinnati.com reports.

He was sentenced to two years in prison (mugshot from 2009)

He was sentenced to two years in prison (mugshot from 2009)

Heekin sentenced Smith – who had a blood oxygen monitor on his left index finger – to two years in prison.

The judge had one foot inside the ambulance as he spoke with Smith, with his court reporter setting up at the edge of the ambulance. 

Smith was only able to give brief answers that consisted of one or two words. And when asked if he wanted to make a statement, the man is said to have attempted to but was unable to speak. 

According to Sgt. Ryan Hudson with the Cincinnati Police Department, police first got information that Smith was selling drugs from his Hartwell residence in April 2018.   

‘We received a Crimestoppers tip and some information from the community that an individual up on Rosewood in Hartwell — the activity was consistent with drug trafficking,’ he explained to Local 12.

The ambulance took Smith from the courthouse to the prison after he was sentenced

The ambulance took Smith from the courthouse to the prison after he was sentenced

Police raided Smith’s home in April 2018 and found surveillance cameras, drugs and a gun that he was not allowed to own

Police raided Smith’s home in April 2018 and found surveillance cameras, drugs and a gun that he was not allowed to own

Police raided Smith’s home and found surveillance cameras, drugs and a gun that he was not allowed to own. They could not physically arrest him but did read him his rights. 

‘It was obvious that there were people running for him because he’s so large, as I mentioned 600 to 700 pounds, he wasn’t able to move around freely,’ said Hudson. ‘It made it kind of tough on us to maneuver or almost get him out of the house that particular day. In fact, it was impossible.’ 

A co-conspirator – named Isaac Collins – was convicted of trafficking in marijuana. 

Smith was taken straight to prison from the courthouse.  

They could not physically arrest him at the home but did read him his rights

They could not physically arrest him at the home but did read him his rights

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ON VACATION: A couple found dead in Dominican Republic!

An American woman died of respiratory failure in her Dominican Republic hotel room days before a Maryland couple was found dead of the same cause at the same resort, a hotel staff member told ABC News.

Miranda Schaupp-Werner was found dead at the Grand Bahía Príncipe hotel in La Romana on May 25 — five days before Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, were found dead in their hotel room.

Schaupp-Werner, 41, “died suddenly and inexplicably in her hotel room…after arriving and having a drink from the in-room mini-bar,” family spokesperson, Jay McDonald, said in a statement to ABC News. She was healthy before she died, McDonald said. She had arrived in the Dominican Republic the day she died, McDonald added.

Her husband, Daniel Werner, was with her when she began experiencing physical distress and collapsed, McDonald said.

Schaup-Werner died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, according to the hotel. An autopsy performed on the couple determined that they died of the same causes, according to the Dominican Republic National Police.

The family became alarmed after learning of the similarity of Holmes’ and Day’s deaths and the possible implications, such as whether they’d been poisoned, and has contacted the State Department to request an investiation, McDonald said.

“No toxicology report was done as part of the cause of death inquiry, nor were Mrs. Shaup-Werner’s glass and drink tested,” McDonald said.

A spokesperson for the hotel declined to comment further on Miranda Schaupp-Werner’s death.

The U.S. Department of State confirmed to ABC News that Schaupp-Werner was an American. ABC News has reached out to the State Department for additional comment on her death.

Local police said they are aware of Schaupp-Werner’s death but have not opened a criminal investigation into it because her death does not appear to be suspicious.

Police are investigating the deaths of the couple, as they were initially considered suspicious since Holmes complained of chest pains the day he died but refused to see the doctor that was called, police said.

The couple’s bodies showed no signs of violence, police said.

Holmes and Day arrived at the hotel on May 25 and were scheduled to depart on Thursday, police said. They were found unresponsive by hotel staff after they missed their scheduled check-out time on Thursday, according to a statement from the hotel.

“We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss,” a State Department official said on regards to Holmes’ and Day’s deaths.

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A Mississippi officer accused of sexually assaulting a minor has killed himself with another officer’s gun!

A Mississippi law enforcement officer accused of sexually assaulting a minor in his patrol car over a six-month period has killed himself with another officer’s gun, days after he was placed on administrative leave.

His body was discovered in a white Dodge Charger on Interstate 220 at 12.45pm on Monday – the same day a police conference was scheduled to detail the allegations against him. When asked if there was a connection between the two-hour highway closure, the Jackson Police Department spokesperson said at the time that it could not be confirmed.

James Hollins, 29, was removed from his duties this weekend pending an investigation into claims by the mother of a 15-year-old girl that her daughter was the victim of statutory rape. 

James Hollins died by suicide after allegations he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl in the back of his patrol car for six months emerged. He served in Afghanistan with the US Army

His body was discovered in a Dodge Charger on the Interstate 220 Monday 12.45pm

‘All matters involving assault we take very seriously. We want the family to understand that if at any point in time, there’s evidence of wrongdoing going on, we will not hesitate to take action,’ Sergeant Roderick Holmes had said in the press conference. 

The department said there would be an internal and criminal investigation into Hollins, who had been with them less than five years.

The body was later confirmed to be Hollins who had served in Afghanistan with the US Army.

He was found dead in his personal vehicle after having shot himself with another officer’s revolver. While officers placed on leave do not always have their weapon confiscated, this may have been the case for Hollins.

‘It’s not known to us now if the officer even knew their weapon had been taken in the moment,’ Mayor Lumumba told WBLT.

The Facebook account of a woman who also appears to be an officer with Jackson Police suggests Hollins is a father and that she has two children with him. 

The Jackson Police Department said there would be an internal and criminal investigation after the mother reported her daughter had been a statutory rape victim over the past six months

According to the lawyer of the victim’s family, the teen was approached by Hollins and he befriended her. The alleged abuse took place several times a week over the course of half a year before the child’s mother found out.

Attorney Lisa Ross said the mother was asked if she had evidence when she made the allegation and she responded yes in regards to the videos obtained.

Police viewed the videos and initial statements were taken from the victim.

Attorney Ross said about the sexually explicit videos on Monday: ‘You wouldn’t find anything worse on Pornhub.’

‘We plan to ask the United States Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice to take over an investigation of a Jackson Police officer who has repeatedly sexually assaulted a minor,’ Ross said before Hollins’ death was confirmed.

‘What he did to this young girl was unconscionable and there’s no telling how many others are out there… We want people who have seen something to say something.’ 

The Facebook account of a woman who also appears to be an officer with Jackson Police suggests Hollins is a father and that she has two children with him. Hollins worked there less than five years

Ross reported the allegations to police on Saturday but has complained that Chief Davis ‘didn’t jump right out in front of this’. 

Mayor Lumumba said the police chief notified him that he had been presented with videos of the Hollins and his victim. The mayor said Chief Davis asked for permission to place Hollins on leave, which he granted.

Davis then contacted internal affairs and the department sent Hollins a letter, which he signed acknowledging the administrative leave.

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WATCH VIDEO: Where Are The Central Park 5 Now?

Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Kharey Wise were just teens when they were coerced into confessing to a rape they didn’t commit.

The “Central Park 5” case was one of the most publicized of the 1980s: five teens were falsely accused and convicted of raping a woman in Central Park and it would take years before they were exonerated.

Now, 30 years later, Ava DuVernay’s new four-part Netflix film “When They See Us” has prompted a reexamination of how the teens, mere boys, became victims of a vicious and false narrative that landed them behind bars. 

Trisha Meili was a 28-year-old investment banker out for a jog in Central Park on April 19, 1989. She was attacked by a serial rapist, Matias Reyes, but that wouldn’t be proven until years later following his confession from prison. Reyes, who was later convicted of raping multiple other women including a pregnant victim he also killed, hit Meili in the back of the head with a tree branch. He then dragged her off the jogging path and into the woods where he violently raped her, beat her with a rock, tied up with her own shirt and left her for dead.

Investigators chose to focus on a large group of mostly African-American boys who happened to be in the park around the same time of the rape. People had made 911 calls to police that night regarding groups of teens harassing people in the park.

As “When They See Us” shows, investigators honed in on five boys in particular: Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Kharey Wise. They all maintained their innocence and said they were coerced into confessing. The new series depicts the boys as confused, thinking that they could go home if they told police what they wanted to hear. The DNA found at the scene did not match any of theirs. Meili testified twice during the trial, under the identity “the Central Park Jogger,” and stated she didn’t remember the attack.

The boys, who came to be known as the “Central Park 5,” were sentenced to between seven and 13 years in prison for the attack. Their case became highly publicized and sensationalized, so much so that even Donald Trump weighed in on it. The five were exonerated in 2002 after Reyes confessed. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau withdrew all charges against the boys, by then men, and their convictions were vacated. Wise, who was still in prison, was released.

In 2014, the city of New York settled with the five wrongly convicted men for $40 million. Additionally they filed a $52 million lawsuit for extra damages, a suit that is still reportedly ongoing. Three of the members, Salaam, Richardson and Santana were given honorary diplomas from their former high schools in 2017, according to the New York Times.

So where are the “Central Park 5” now and how are they doing individually?

Raymond Santana

After spending five years behind bars, he is now the father of a teen daughter, according to “When They See Us.” He lives in Georgia but still appears to have strong ties to where he grew up. He founded his own apparel company called Park Madison NYC. Some of the apparel features the names of the “Central Park 5.” Musical artist Nas sports the gear in one of the company’s posts. One of the shirts even features a mugshot of himself. A post of that shirt states, “I created this shirt and called it the ‘Raymond Santana Tribute Tee’ because I wanted to recognize the ups and downs, the road I traveled, to become the man that I am today.”

Santana has pushed for criminal justice reforms in New York, including trying to mandate that all interrogations be recorded, according to AM New York.

Kevin Richardson

After five and a half years behind bars, Richardson is now married and the father of two daughters, whom he lives with in New Jersey. He travels to speak about his experience and advocates for changes in the system, according to the Innocence Project.

“There was such a media frenzy, during that time . . . we were physically scared to come outside,” he recounted during a 2017 talk.  He and Salaam talked about wrongful convictions and criminal justice reform at a Fashion Institute of Technology talk the same year.

Antron McCray

After six years behind bars, McCray is married and a proud father of six. He lives with his family in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the first of the five to leave New York City, according to “When They See Us.”

He has mostly stayed out of the spotlight. However in May, he did an interview with The New York Times, “I’m damaged, you know? I know I need help. But I feel like I’m too old to get help now. I’m 45 years old, so I’m just focused on my kids. I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do. I just stay busy. I stay in the gym. I ride my motorcycle. But it eats me up every day. Eats me alive. My wife is trying to get me help but I keep refusing. That’s just where I’m at right now. I don’t know what to do.”

He also told the publication he still struggles with complicated feelings towards his father, Bobby McCray, who testified in 1990 that he instructed his 16-year-old son to confess to a crime he knew he didn’t do.

Yusef Salaam

After spending seven years behind bars, Salaam also now resides in Georgia, where he lives with his wife and 10 children. He does public speaking, focusing on pushing for policy change in the criminal justice system. His website, Yusef Speaks, states that he “has traveled all around the United States and the Caribbean to deliver influential lectures and facilitate insightful conversations as he continues to touch lives and raise important questions about race and class, the failings of our criminal justice system, legal protections for vulnerable juveniles, and fundamental human rights.”

Salaam is a published poet and has been the recipient of several awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama in 2016 and an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Anointed by God Ministries Alliance & Seminary in 2014.

“Determined to educate the public, Yusef eagerly shares his story with others. In speaking out against injustice, he conveys the importance of continuing one’s education—whether formal or otherwise,” his site states. “He also touches on the effects of incarceration and the disenfranchisement of economically disadvantaged people and its devastating impact on both their families and the community at large.”

Kharey Wise

Wise was the eldest of the five and appeared to have been given the worst “deal” out of all of them. Because he was 16, he could be interrogated without a guardian present and, as the new Netflix series depicts, he may have been coerced the most. He may have also been particularly vulnerable, despite being the oldest.  In Sarah Burns’ 2011 book “The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind One Of New York City’s Most Infamous Crimes,” she wrote that he “had hearing problems from an early age, and a learning disability that limited his achievement in school.” Plus, he wasn’t even a suspect to begin with. He only went down to the station, as the series depicts, to support his friend Salaam. He spent most of his 14 years behind bars in adult facilities, including the infamously rough Rikers Island.

After he was released, Wise changed his first name from Kharey to Korey. He is the only member of the five who chose to stay in New York City. He both established and funded the Korey Wise Innocence Project at Colorado Law School which offers pro-bono legal counsel to wrongfully convicted people.

“You can forgive, but you won’t forget,” Wise in the 2012 Central Park Five documentary. “You won’t forget what you lost. No money could bring that time back. No money could bring the life that was missing or the time that was taken away.”

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WATCH: Alligator breaks into woman’s kitchen in Florida; video goes viral!

Clarifying that the red liquid in the video is not blood, the police department tweeted, “The male alligator was 10 to 11 feet in length. During the apprehension, the alligator knocked over several bottles of wine. The red liquid in the video is wine, not blood.”

When she went to investigate the place, she found herself facing the large reptile in her kitchen. “I had this beautiful face staring at me as though he belonged there,” Wischhusen told Spectrum News. A video of the large intruder was also shared by the official handle of the Clearwater Police Department. A homeowner in Florida was surprised when she found out that an 11-foot alligator had broken into her kitchen early Friday morning. According to a CNN report, 77-year-old Mary Wischhusen was woken up at around 3.30 am by a loud crash at her house in Clearwater, Florida.

e of the Clearwater Police Department.

An unwanted overnight visitor was removed from a home on Eagles Landing in #Clearwater. The 11-foot-long gator broke into the home through some low windows in the kitchen. @myclearwaterPD and a trapper responded to the scene. The gator was captured and there were no injuries. pic.twitter.com/MKNH0UPQXp

— City of Clearwater, FL (@MyClearwater) May 31, 2019

See you later, alligator 🐊 A scaly 11-foot-long gator broke into a Clearwater home overnight through some low windows in their kitchen. Clearwater Police officers and a trapper responded to the scene to capture and remove the gator. There were no injuries. pic.twitter.com/jsOxRNfkEV

— Clearwater Police Department (@myclearwaterPD) May 31, 2019

Clarifying that the red liquid in the video is not blood, the police department tweeted, “The male alligator was 10 to 11 feet in length. During the apprehension, the alligator knocked over several bottles of wine. The red liquid in the video is wine, not blood.” More visuals were also shared by a Twitter account @MyClearwater.

Once shared online, it did not take long for the video and the pictures to go viral, triggering many reactions online.

We know you've been chomping at the bit for more visuals from today's alligator trespassing in Clearwater🐊 The male alligator was 10 to 11 feet in length. During the apprehension, the alligator knocked over several bottles of wine. The red liquid in the video is wine, not blood. pic.twitter.com/x6ktib6ajl

— Clearwater Police Department (@myclearwaterPD) May 31, 2019

According to the news website, the police called a trapper and the animal was safely removed from the home. However, many wine bottles were knocked by the reptile.

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WOW! Jay-Z named world’s first billionaire rapper!

Nine years ago, two unlikely lunch partners sat down at the Hollywood Diner in Omaha, Nebraska. One, Warren Buffett, was a regular there. The other, Jay-Z, was not. The billionaire and the rapper ordered strawberry malts and chatted amiably, continuing the conversation back at Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway offices.

Buffett, then 80, walked away impressed with the artist 40 years his junior: “Jay is teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I’ll ever teach in. For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from.” This moment, which was originally captured in our 2010 Forbes 400 package, made it clear that Jay-Z already had a blueprint for his own ten-figure fortune. “Hip-hop from the beginning has always been aspirational,” he said.

Less than a decade later, it’s clear that Jay-Z has accumulated a fortune that conservatively totals $1 billion, making him one of only a handful of entertainers to become a billionaire—and the first hip-hop artist to do so. Jay-Z’s steadily growing kingdom is expansive, encompassing liquor, art, real estate (homes in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, Tribeca) and stakes in companies like Uber.

His journey is all the more impressive given its start: Brooklyn’s notorious Marcy housing projects. He was a drug dealer before becoming a musician, starting his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, to release his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt. Since then he’s amassed 14 No. 1 albums, 22 Grammy awards and over $500 million in pretax earnings in a decade.

Crucially, he realized that he should build his own brands rather than promote someone else’s: the clothing line Rocawear, started in 1999 (soldfor $204 million to Iconix in 2007); D’Ussé, a cognac he co-owns with Bacardi; and Tidal, a music-streaming service.

Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, the superproducer behind some of Jay-Z’s biggest hits (“On To The Next One,” Beyoncé’s “Upgrade U”), looks at Jay-Z as something others can model: “It’s bigger than hip-hop … it’s the blueprint for our culture. A guy that looks like us, sounds like us, loves us, made it to something that we always felt that was above us.”

“If he’s a billionaire now, imagine what he’s about to be,” Swizz Beatz says. “Because he’s only just starting.”

What’s Jay-Z Worth?

To calculate his net worth, we looked at the artist’s stakes in companies like Armand de Brignac champagne, applying our customary discount to private firms. (He owns 100% of Armand de Brignac and has partial ownership of the other companies.) Then added up his income, subtracting a healthy amount to account for a superstar lifestyle. We checked our numbers with a roster of outside experts to ensure these estimates were fair and conservative. Turns out, Jay-Z really is a business, man.

Armand de Brignac

$310 million

Jay-Z has used his music to shill the $300 gold bottles of the “Ace of Spades” champagne since launching the brand with the 2006 video “Show Me What You Got.” More recently, his verse on Meek Mill’s “What’s Free” put a half-billion-dollar value on the wine, which seems like a bit too bubbly a number.

Cash & investments

$220 million

A vast investing portfolio includes a stake in Uber worth an estimated $70 million. He reportedly purchased his piece for $2 million back in 2013—and then wired founder Travis Kalanick another $5 million in an attempt to increase his holdings, but was rebuffed.

D’Ussé

$100 million

Jay-Z’s cognac, a joint venture with beverage giant Bacardi, moves almost 200,000 cases and has grown nearly 80% annually. “Jay-Z resonates with consumers who are attracted to the ultra-premium lifestyle,” says Eric Schmidt, Beverage Marketing Corp.’s Director of Alcohol Research.

Tidal

$100 million

In 2015, Jay-Z submitted a bid to purchase the Scandinavian streaming service’s parent company for just shy of $60 million. He relaunched Tidal later that year with a roster of celebrity investors including his wife, Beyoncé, and other music luminaries, from Kanye West to Calvin Harris.

Roc Nation

$75 million

This wide-ranging entertainment company started over a decade ago as part of a joint venture with concert giant Live Nation. Roc Nation represents some of the top stars in the entertainment through its sports agency (Kevin Durant, Todd Gurley) as well as its record label and artist-management arms (Rihanna, J. Cole).

Music catalog

$75 million

Before the beginning of his stint as Def Jam’s chief in 2004, Jay-Z negotiatedthe eventual return of his master recordings from the aforementioned label that helped launch his career; in a separate deal with EMI, he clawed back his publishing rights. Wise move: his hits now clock close to 1 billion streams annually.

Art collection

$70 million

In the song “Picasso Baby,” Jay-Z boasted about a “Basquiat in my kitchen corner.” He probably wasn’t kidding. For over a decade, he’s been scooping up masterpieces like Basquiat’s “Mecca,” purchased in 2013 for a reported $4.5 million. “He’s rapped about it all in detail,” says Fab 5 Freddy, a contemporary and friend of the late painter. “Jay-Z helped educate millions of hip-hop fans mentioning Jean-Michel.”

Real estate

$50 million

After welcoming twins in 2017, Jay-Z and Beyoncé bought a pair of homes to match: a $26 million East Hampton mansion and a $88 million Bel Air estate. Jay-Z also owns a Tribeca penthouse, snagged for $6.85 million in 2004.

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Husband of missing mom Jennifer Dulos, his girlfriend arrive in court

The estranged husband of a missing Connecticut mom and his girlfriend arrived in court Monday to face charges of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in what is now being called a homicide case.

Fotis Dulos, 51, was hauled into Norwalk Superior Court, shackled and under police guard, for his arraignment. He wore an orange prison jumpsuit and kept his head down to try to avoid the cameras.

His gal pal, Michelle Troconis, 44, was taken to court separately in a black police car. She was dressed in a blue and white shirt, black pants and sneakers and also kept her head bowed as she was led inside by police.

The pair was arrested Saturday night, more than a week after Dulos’ wife, mom of five Jennifer Dulos, 50, disappeared after dropping their kids off at school near her home in New Canaan.

Jennifer filed for divorce from her wealthy real estate developer hubby in 2017, and the pair have been embroiled in a vicious court and custody battle ever since.

Police sources have said they are treating the case as a homicide and have launched an interstate search for Jennifer’s body.

A large truck from the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad pulled up in front of the mansion that Fotis and Tronconis share in Farmington, Conn., on Monday morning, and detectives went inside.

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‘I gotta check on everybody else’: VB shooting witness recalls heroic moment of victim Ryan ‘Keith’ Cox

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Before he was known as one of the dozen victims killed in Friday’s mass shooting, Keith Cox was known as a hero.

Christi Dewar was one of the city employees at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center in Building 2 that was spared from the rampage — and she says she owes it to her late friend, Cox.

It began with popping sounds. Dewar says she thought it was the sound of construction. Special Coverage: Virginia Beach Mass Shooting

But then Dewar saw people running down the halls, yelling “active shooter!” She and seven other people began to run too. That’s when they came across Cox.

“He said ‘get in Lori’s office now. Barricade the office. Get in there.’ and I said ‘come on Keith’ and he said ‘I gotta check on everybody else.’ And we closed and locked the door and we pushed the cabinet up against the door and it was not too long after that DeWayne tried to come in and he fired four shots. And I looked out and two of the shots had almost come through the cabinet, the back of the cabinet,” said Christi.

Virginia Beach Police identified the shooting suspect as longtime city employee DeWayne Craddock, 40, who had submitted his resignation earlier that day.

After the gunfire stopped, Dewar says police came to escort them out of the building.

“They took us down the south stairwell. There was a body there and I didn’t know who it was, couldn’t tell. There’s so much blood everywhere and I started just shaking and crying, just heaving,” said Dewar. “The officer said ‘you’re strong, you can do this. You need to step over and come with me.’ I said ‘I can’t.’ He said ‘yes you can.’ I found out later that the person I had to step over was one of my friends Missy.”

After the shooting, Dewar reached out to Cox’s parents. She wanted to let them know how brave their son was.

Dewar said, “If it wasn’t for him there would have been several more people that had perished. He was a hero. A guardian angel that walked this earth that didn’t deserve to leave us so soon.”

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UPDATE: 13 dead, including gunman, in shooting at Virginia Beach Municipal Center

VIRGINIA BEACH

A longtime city employee shot and killed 12 people and injured at least four others after opening fire Friday afternoon in the public works building, making it the country’s deadliest mass shooting this year. 

Police said officers killed the man, whom they did not name, after he fired at them in the city’s scenic Municipal Center in Princess Anne, a campus of about 30 brick Colonial-style buildings.

The four injured were all in surgery Friday, Police Chief James Cervera said during a news conference a couple of hours after the massacre.

One officer was shot during the exchange but was saved by his bulletproof vest, the chief said.

“This is the most devastating day in the history of Virginia Beach,” Mayor Bobby Dyer said in the news conference. “The people involved are our friends, co-workers, neighbors and colleagues.”

Friday’s rampage is believed to be the worst mass killing in Virginia Beach’s history. Prior to this week, a shooting on June 30, 1994, at the Witchduck Inn held that distinction: Four people — the business owner, two employees and a patron — were shot to death at the restaurant. It also came on the heels of a shooting in Chesapeake’s Holly Cove community over Memorial Day weekend that left one dead and nine others injured.

In the U.S., it is the deadliest attack since the November 2018 shooting at Borderline Bar & Grill in California, when 12 people were killed. 

L. Todd Spencer/Staff Police work the scene where 12 people were killed during a mass shooting at the Virginia Beach city public works building on Friday evening, May 31, 2019. The shooter, a current and longtime public utilities employee, also was killed. An officer was shot, but was saved by his bulletproof vest.

The gunfire in Virginia Beach began shortly after 4 p.m. as workers were preparing to leave for the weekend. The shooting occurred in building 2, next to City Hall near the intersection of Nimmo Parkway and Princess Anne Boulevard. The planning, public utilities, public works departments and others are located there. The three-story brick building on Courthouse Drive houses about 400 workers.

Many of the employees work out of small office spaces along long hallways. The doors are typically unlocked and open to the public.

The shooter on Friday was a current employee of the public utilities department, Cervera said. He came armed with a .45-caliber handgun with a sound suppressor on it and shot one victim in a vehicle outside before entering the building. The rest were shot inside.

Cervera said police found victims on every floor of the building.  

Four officers responded, found the gunman almost immediately and then initiated what became a long gunfight with the suspect, Cervera said. After an officer shot the suspect, they administered first aid.

Virginia Beach police are investigating with help from the FBI and state police, he said. They’re still working to identify victims and contact family members. They’re also still working to notify the suspect’s next of kin. Once that is done, Cervera said, his department plans to name the suspect only once out of respect for the victims. 

Cervera said the city offices now resemble a “war zone.”

Megan Banton, an administrative assistant in the public utilities office where the man worked, said her supervisor heard a noise then shouted for everyone to get down.

The supervisor then pulled Banton and others into her office and shoved a desk against the door while Banton called 911.

“It felt like forever,” Banton said. 

Zand Bakhtiari was one of only five people left in the geographic information services department — located on the first floor of the building — at the end of the day Friday when his supervisor, who had left the office, texted to say there was an active shooter and to shelter in place.

Bakhtiari wasn’t nervous until he heard the gunshots — lots of them, one round in quick succession. He said it sounded like an automatic weapon.

“It was repeated, rapid gunfire,” he said. It sounded like it was coming from above or below him on the second floor or the basement, he said.

After a few minutes — Bakhtiari doesn’t know how much time passed — the bullets stopped, but the fire alarm had been set off. And he could smell the gunpowder.

He assumed it was over when he heard the fire alarm, but he and his co-workers didn’t know whether to evacuate or stay put, so they all came out of their individual offices and huddled together.

L. Todd Spencer/StaffA police officer stands out in front of City Hall next to the building where 12 people were killed during a mass shooting at the Virginia Beach city public works building on Friday, May 31, 2019. The shooter, a current and longtime public utilities employee, also was killed.

After about 10 minutes, officers and SWAT team members came in, told them to duck down and keep their hands up as they escorted employees out and checked every room.

Arthur Felton, an 18-year employee in the planning department, was also inside when the shooting started. He evacuated the building after a co-worker heard gunshots. 

“I never thought this would happen in my building,” Felton said. “The people who were shot — I’m sure I know most of them.”

Employees’ family members were sent to Princess Anne Middle School to reunite with loved ones. 

Jonathon Gruenke/Staff Police personnel from various agencies stand outside Princess Anne Middle School in Virginia Beach on Friday evening, May 31, 2019.

Paul Swain’s fiancee sent him a text message at 4:17 p.m. that said, “They are shooting on my floor.” He said he drove to the Municipal Center so fast he was pulled over for speeding. 

The officer let him go when he told him why he was driving fast.

Swain made it to the area but was directed to reunite with his fiancee at Princess Anne Middle School. 

“My heart is just pounding,” he said as he waited to see her again. Swain reunited with her in the parking lot.

Police did not allow media on the school’s property. When he walked into the school, he said, he was greeted by staff who had a checklist of names. People were waiting for their families in the cafeteria, he said.

Vicki Cronis-Nohe/Freelance Emergency vehicles fill the parking lot at the Princess Anne Middle School in Virginia Beach, Va, on Friday, May 31, 2019. A longtime city employee opened fire at a municipal building in Virginia Beach on Friday, killing 11 people before police shot and killed him, authorities said. Six other people were wounded in the shooting, including a police officer whose bulletproof vest saved his life, said Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera.

Amy Woody is trying to find her neighbor of 20 years who didn’t come home from her job at the city. She said her neighbor always returns home around 4 p.m. but wasn’t answering her text messages or phone calls. Woody arrived at the school shortly after 8:30 p.m. with her two dogs.

“I just want to make sure she is OK,” she said. “It’s definitely a very solemn feeling right now. It’s hard.”

Cheryl Benn rushed to the school after getting a frantic call from her husband, David, who is a traffic engineer and works in the building. At first all she could hear when he called was sirens.

She said her husband barricaded himself in a room away from the shooter and held the door shut until police told him it was safe to leave. 

“He was definitely a little freaked out,” Benn said.

While her husband gave detectives a statement, Benn waited outside the school with her dog.

“Some of those people could be his co-workers,” she said.  

Public Works spokesman Drew Lankford, who works in the building where the shooting occurred, left the office on Friday afternoon to get a haircut. While he was gone, his daughter called and said there had been a shooter in his work building. 

His daughter, who works in the City Hall building nearby, said security told people to get under their desks. He rushed back to the office and saw police taking cover behind parked cars with their guns drawn.

City Councilwoman Barbara Henley had pulled up to the City Hall building just after 4 p.m. to pick up the agenda as she does every week when she heard sirens and saw police cars.

“I thought it was an accident,” Henley said.

As she parked in the lot between buildings 1 and 2, she noticed city employees standing outside using their cellphones. Someone told her there was a shooting and she should leave. Henley had gotten back in her car when she heard a male voice shout, “Get down!”

People scattered.

“I was scared to death,” said Henley, who quickly drove home.

Henley said she’s never seen a situation like this before at the Municipal Center, adding that security has recently been beefed up in the City Hall building as a result of shooting incidents across the nation. Not all the municipal buildings at the complex take the same security measures, she said.

Late on Friday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who arrived in Virginia Beach a few hours after the shooting, said the people who died were heading into the summer weekend.

“That they should be taken in this manner is the worst kind of tragedy,” Northam said. “Their families are facing painful loss and grief. They each leave a hole and a family in their neighborhood, in this community and in our Commonwealth.”

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50 Cent Claims Rotimi Owes Him Money: ‘I Want to Punch This N***a Nose’ (UPDATE)

UPDATED 5/29 AT 4:00 pm EST: After being ambushed by 50 Cent, actor Rotimi has taken to social media to clear the air regarding the rapper’s claims that he owes him money.

In a video uploaded to his Instagram, Rotimi insists that he doesn’t owe 50 Cent any cash.

“I feel like I need to address this. N****s calling me saying I owe 50 money, 50 saying I owe him money. I don’t owe 50 Cent any money,” Rotimi said before listing out his recent accomplishment. “Why now? Why wait until Walk With Me is no. 1 on the charts? Why would you wait until my project is no. 1 on the R&B charts to bring something up like this? I don’t owe you bread.

Yet, 50 states otherwise. Shortly after Rotimi’s post went public, 50 Cent added a video to his account where he gave more information on the alleged debt.

“You do owe me money,” 50 said in caption. “My man you owe a outstanding balance of $300,000 now WALK WITH ME to the bank. That’s right. You owe me 300,000 thousand… You no. 1. Now, you can pay me my money.”

See original story below

Since morphing into “FOFTY” 50 Cent has become worse than the IRS. The rapper has dedicated a good portion of his time to tracking down people that owe him various amounts of money and using his social media presence to bully them into paying back their debt. Now, it appears the FOFTY has found a new target as he claims Power star Rotimi has his bread. POST CONTINUES BELOW

Like his other victims, 50 took to Instagram on Wednesday where he gave the entertainer a deadline to cough up the cash.

“Man fuck all that I want my money by Monday,” 50 captioned a video of Rotimi promoting his new album. “Cash n***a where the bag at.”

Of course, this was just the beginning of 50’s tirade. In the following posts, the rapper referenced the success of Rotimi’s album as proof the singer has the bread to pay him back.

“I want to punch this n***a nose [Rotimi] got the #1 RNB album time to pay me on gang,” Fif wrote before continuing to use Rotimi’s album as fuel for his beef. 

“Walk with you, yeah I’m a walk with you to the bank,” 50 captioned a picture of the album’s cover art. “I need to see that bag.”POST CONTINUES BELOW

Although 50 has yet to detail the nature of Rotimi’s debt, he did explain that the entertainer gave him “some” of the money. But, it seems like FOFTY wants all his bread back now that Rotimi’s album is a success.

Unlike 50’s previous squabbles with actors Jackie Long and Teairra Mari, Rotimi has yet to respond to Fif’s antics. Yet if history is a good indicator, Rotimi will likely explain the source of their issues and pay the rapper back before the banks close on Monday. 

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Shady secrets McDonald’s doesn’t want you to know

For a company that specializes in food, folks, and fun, it’s pretty amazing how shady McDonald’s actually is. You might think it’s no big deal to walk in, order a burger, get it in two minutes, and then leave. But apparently such a thing can only be accomplished by bending (or outright breaking) every rule in the book. Some genuine sociopathy from the people in charge helps too, as you’re about to find out.

They once got (and still might get) their nuggets from lethally abused chickens

Obviously, to enjoy meat of any kind, some animal had to sacrifice its life. But it’s always refreshing to know the animal lived peacefully and died in its slumber. But, according to summer 2015 footage released by activist group Mercy For Animals, McDonald’s cares not one iota for that, working with farms that openly, brazenly, and possibly gleefully abuse their chickens before murdering them into almost-food. The farm that Mercy For Animals targeted, T&S Farm, was recorded beating chickens to death with spiked clubs, with the occasional curb-stomping for variety’s sake. The workers knew full well what they were doing, with one outright asking the cameraman, “you don’t work for PETA, do you?” like a kid caught with his hand in an extremely bloody cookie jar.

Since the video, McDonald’s has disavowed the chicken-killing farm, giving the usual PR responses to assuage as many disgusted customers as humanly possible. But not even the slickest press release can answer three burning questions: how long has this happened, why did it take this video for a major company to realize bludgeoning food to death for fun is evil, and since it’s been a year already, are they secretly working with that farm again?

They won’t pay workers overtime for working major holidays

For a long time, McDonald’s understood what Thanksgiving and Christmas meant, and so they allowed their workers to enjoy both the holiday and all the turkey they can stomach. But money cares not for our arcane traditions and emotions, and so in 2012 McDonald’s started opening on the holidays. This was always a thing company-owned stores did, but now they were “urging” (or, really, forcing) franchisees to do the same. Apparently, doing so rakes in thousands per restaurant, which is all that matters anymore. And yes, if you’ve hit McDonald’s either of these days, you’re officially part of the problem. Commence feeling bad…now.

That’s pretty sucky of them, but at least franchise owners can pay holiday overtime. Workers at the company-owned stores, unfortunately, are fresh out of luck—McD’s flat-out refuses to pay them extra for working on a day that, as far as many are concerned, should only be worked by those who deal in emergencies. (No, Big Mac withdrawal doesn’t count.) They hide under the excuse that, because workers volunteer to work those days, they’re not entitled to overtime pay. Because when you’re dirt-broke, struggling to raise a family, and living from minimum-wage paycheck to minimum-wage paycheck, you definitely have the option of not volunteering to get paid for something.

Like so many other thieving rich folk, McDonald’s has apparently devolved into filthy, leeching tax cheats. According to the wonderfully titled Golden Dodges: How McDonald’s Avoids Paying Its Fair Share of Tax, between 2009 and 2013, McDonald’s avoided paying over $1.8 billion in taxes. The company used a series of barely legal (and something not even that) loopholes and cleverly shifting profits from whatever country they earned them in, to low-tax havens in countries they didn’t. This seems to especially be true overseas, where McDonald’s is looking at charges that they stole a billion euros ($1.1 billion American) from the European Union by sending their profits through Luxembourg, a country barely big enough to physically store all that money. Australia claims McDonald’s did the same thing there, sending their profits through Singapore and magically pocketing about a half billion in would-be taxes.

Even Brazil has a McBone to pick with the company, claiming they regularly bribe tax officials for minor favors like, oh, ignoring all laws so suddenly the company pays fewer taxes with no issues. But hey, they might have to charge ten extra cents per box of nuggets if they can’t deprive the world’s schools and hospitals of much-needed funding, and we can’t have that.

For some reason, enough people hit McDonald’s with their health in mind for the company to make mad bank selling food meant to trim your waistline on the cheap. That sounds great, except that it’s wrong in every conceivable way. The chicken kale Caesar salad, for example, clocks in at a cool 730 calories, 53 grams of fat, and 1,400 milligrams of sodium—numbers that absolutely should not be attached to a bunch of leaves. For comparison’s sake, a Double Big Mac has 680 calories and 1,340 mgs of sodium, meaning they’re touting a healthy salad that’s unhealthier than their unhealthiest hunk of cow. But don’t worry, you can skip the dressing, eat a plain dry salad, and save 200 calories, so now it’s only unhealthier than a single Big Mac. Small victories are still victories.

For the breakfast crowd, McDonald’s oatmeal has got you covered, and hornswoggled. Thanks to “fun” additives like cream, “natural flavor,” and sugar, the McOatmeal clocks in at 290 calories, with 32 sugar grams. You would literally do better with candy for breakfast—a regular-size Snickers bar, for example, only has 280 calories and 30 grams of sugar. Plus, Snickers doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. You can trust a Snickers bar, unlike anything Ronald McDonald touts as good for your abs.

They’ll sue anyone with the gall to run a business with ‘Mc’ or ‘Mac’ in its name

Once you get greedy enough, any threat to even a dime of your profit must be fought tooth-and-nail, even if it means losing more money to lawyers than you ever would’ve to the “competition.” It’s the principle that counts. In this case, we have McDonald’s going after literally any small business that uses “Mc” or “Mac,” because that’s their thing, and they don’t customers getting confused by seeing it anywhere else. The customer is apparently both always right, and the dumbest people on the planet.

Sometimes, they sue fast food joints, like McJoy in the Philippines or Mac Dooglas in Colombia (which was destroying McDonald’s bottom line with three whole restaurants in a tiny village no one outside the tiny village had even heard of.) But other times they just get petty, like when they sued a coffee shop called McCoffee—which had that name for 17 years—until they finally agreed to change their name and stop leeching tens of dollars from poor little McDonald’s. Though probably the stupidest case was when they went after a hot dog stand called McAllan. Like, a single hot dog stand, which is a product McDonald’s doesn’t even serve. That’s like Budweiser suing some kid’s lemonade stand. They lost that case, after the judge returned with a verdict of “really?” But usually, McDonald’s wins hands-down, valiantly beating back the evil little guy with the almighty power of Unlimited Wealth.

McDonald’s would rather use self-serve kiosks than pay employees a higher wage

Does McDonald’s food actually taste good? Who cares? It’s cheap! One of the primary ways that McDonald’s pulls that off is by paying the majority of its employees the least that it’s legally allowed to do so. In most places, that’s right at, or close to, the federal standard of just $7.25 an hour, an amount economic experts prefer to as “a complete tease.”

However, many cities and states have recently opted to raise their local minimum wages, in the hopes that workers can finally afford more than a closet inside a studio apartment. In Arizona and Colorado, it’s set to rise to $12 an hour, Washington’s will soon be $13.50 per hour, and Los Angeles workers will get a minimum of 15 bucks an hour. These states that have the audacity to pay workers a living wage could severely cut into McDonald’s bottom line, so the company has responded by threatening to replace its employees with robots: specifically, self-service kiosks. Robots work for free! At least, until the Uprising.

Here’s how it works: Customers come into a McDonald’s, enter their order on a touchscreen, the company CEO buys another 500-foot yacht and vacations in Bermuda. RoboClerk then sends the order to the kitchen, where an actual human (for now) puts the food together. Yes, they do have to pay somebody for that job (for now), but it does mean McDonald’s no longer has to staff a person at the counter—a great savings to the company, even at minimum wage.

They’ll roll these kiosks out nationally and internationally, if they prove to be efficient and cost-effective in test runs. What a golden time the future will be, when a screen instead of a human will ask “do you want fries with that?”

Their burgers don’t decompose

Burgers taste best when they’re hot and freshly prepared, but if you order those things at Mickey D’s and for some reason can’t get to them for a while, like say, a few months, don’t worry about it, they’re still “fine.” Or at least, they look fine. Eerily, McDonald’s small hamburgers don’t seem to rot at a regular pace. Or much at all, really.

In 2008, a health blogger named Karen Hanrahan posted a photo of a McDonald’s hamburger … that she’d bought in 1996 and saved, just to see what would happen. What happened is that, after twelve years, it looked the same as it looked in 1996, and it also looked the same as a brand-new McDonald’s hamburger.

Hanrahan argued that the immortality of the burger must be due to the vast array of preservatives in the burger, which rendered it “chemical food” that lacked any sort of natural nutrition. But according to food scientist J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, writing for Serious Eats, regular McDonald’s hamburgers don’t decompose normally because they don’t — and can’t — dry out. A typical McBurger is a non-perishable food on the level of dried beans, saltines, and other pantry staples. Paranoid of the apocalypse? Building a fallout shelter? Install a McDonald’s. Wasteland be damned, you’ll never starve.

How is this possible, though? Simple — there’s nothing to dry. A small McDonald’s hamburger is thin but flat, making for a high surface area-to-volume ratio. Then, it’s cooked until well-done on a hot grill, sucking out all the tasty, delicious, mortal moisture. No moisture means no bacteria—decaying agents—can propagate. Ever. And thus, the food lasts forever. Basically, you’re eating a mummy.

The company receives hundreds of millions in government cheese

The 2015 launch of all-day breakfast at McDonald’s led to two things: the meaningless of time, with regards to breakfast being a morning thing, and increased sales at McDonald’s nationwide. During the last quarter of that year, the company raked in a whopping $6.22 billion, attributable largely to the novelty of being served an English muffin with eggs on it just in time for Jeopardy!

That being said, it’s much easier for a company to rake in the profits if they’re getting free money from the government so it can play with its menu and experiment with late-evening hash browns. And they do — between 2003 and 2013, McDonald’s got subsidies from 42 state and city governments totaling nearly $4 million. McDonald’s even got a piece of the big federal “bailout” package in 2008 and 2009: a $203 million piece to be exact. McDonald’s: Too big to fail, and as long as government fatcats get literally fat off of midnight snack McGriddles, it never, ever will.

There’s a whole herd of cattle in that one burger

McDonald’s store signs claim “billions and billions served,” which means the number of burgers sold as much as it does the customers who have eaten those burgers. To serve that many burgers, McDonald’s has to slaughter and prepare an incredibly high volume of cattle in incredibly large and sophisticated meat-processing facilities. McDonald’s calls this burger creation the “blending process,” and it somehow gets more appetizing when you learn the step-by-step process.

In a nutshell, just so, so many cows are slaughtered. Their meat gets mixed together, and then formed into patties, but it’s done so haphazardly that a single beef patty may contain the meat of up to 100 different cows. A Bessie is a Bessie is a Bessie, apparently. But hey, even if you eat nothing but McDonald’s burgers, you’re still eating a wide variety of food from all over the globe.

The truth behind the “hot coffee” lawsuit

It’s the case most associated with “frivolous lawsuits” or an overly litigious society: the woman who successfully sued McDonald’s after she went and spilled a cup of their coffee on herself. The reality of the case, however, is quite complex, and, frankly, horrifying.

In 1992, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck went through a McDonald’s drive-through and pulled up on the lid to put in some cream—which, you know, cools it down—and wound up dumping it all over her sweatpants-covered lower half. But coffee, especially McDonald’s coffee, is hot: Even with clothes on, the brown stuff caused third-degree burns on over 16 percent of Liebeck’s body, including her thighs and genitals, burning the skin away completely in some places. During her eight-day hospitalization Liebeck underwent painful skin graft surgery.

Liebeck sued McDonald’s, initially wanting just $20,000 to cover medical costs and lost income during her recovery. That’s not so bad, but as we’ve made perfectly clear thus far, McDonald’s is both cheap and petty. The company offered $800 (roughly 800 cups of McDonald’s coffee), which was so insulting, Liebeck’s lawyers took them to court. Ultimately, she was awarded about $3 million by a jury who did find her partially responsible, because she pulled up on the lid too hard, but McDonald’s mostly responsible, for serving coffee way too hot for human consumption and/or handling.

Among the information that came out in the trial: McDonald’s required its restaurants to serve coffee at around 185 degrees, which is way hotter than what Mr. Coffee produces. In fact, a thermodynamics expert testified a liquid that temperature can burn through human skin in as little as two seconds. Even more shocking: In the decade before the Liebeck case, McDonald’s had received more than 700 complaints from people who had burned themselves on the coffee—and yet the company still refused to lower the temperature. They could’ve lost no money, then could’ve lost just 20 K, then lost 3 million, all because they were stubborn. Food, folks, and fantastic stupidity.

The weird history of Ronald McDonald

It is seemingly impossible to escape the lure of McDonald’s. Much like Jason Voorhees, run as hard as you want, but everywhere you turn, there it is, staring at you with its golden arches. Resistance is futile. At the center of the McDonald’s universe, holding it all together for generations, is the cherry-red smile of the infamous Ronald McDonald. While the mere mention of McDonald’s invokes images of pure Americana, Ronald’s white face-paint, carrot-top hair and peering smile masks a more oddball history. Grab your fries, kids.

Ronald was a replacement

Let the truth be told: Ronald started life as a scab.

In the Washington, D.C., area, Bozo the Clown, a children’s TV character that was franchised locally and played by different performers in different markets, was used to help promote the local McDonald’s franchise, owned by Oscar Goldstein and John Gibson. When Bozo went off the air in the D.C. marketplace, “Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown” appeared faster than The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air could recast Aunt Viv. One second, Bozo was there, then Ronald burst upon the scene. Gullible children were none the wiser, and they continued to gobble burgers.

Clad in a yellow jumpsuit and striped shirt, early Ronald wore a paper cup for a nose and a tray for a hat while a complete McDonald’s meal hung from his belt buckle. Today, the Fashion Police would be blasting sirens, but the 1960s were a more colorful and accepting time. At least for clowns.

While Bozo faded into the past as a warmly-regarded nostalgia act, Ronald began to build his empire upon the foundation his predecessor had left behind. After just three local D.C. commercials, the clown was plucked from obscurity to star in national commercials. A star was born, but poor Bozo would never be publicly credited as Ronald’s forefather. Pie to the face for you, Bozo!

His creator was ignored for decades!

While credited by McDonald’s as the first performer to portray Ronald McDonald, the fast food kings have been less than forthcoming with the role famous television weatherman Willard Scott had in creating Ronald. They never told you the truth, Ronald. He is your father.

In his 1982 book Joy of Living, Scott wrote that the owners of the local Washington, D.C., McDonald’s franchise hired him to come up with the burger-boosting replacement for Bozo the Clown. A local radio personality at the time, Scott took center stage in a trio of McDonald’s commercials as the clown, including one ensuring the flower power generation was indeed aware of Stranger Danger.

Ray Kroc, responsible for the franchise’s expansion nationally and beyond, sensed potential, promoting Ronald to national mascot. Scott, however, was cast aside, and the role was recast. Much as Kroc left the McDonald brothers in the dust, Ronald abandoned Scott, who was uncredited for the role he originated, without as much as an Extra Value Meal to show for it.

Scott famously had a decades-long run as an NBC weatherman, but even he couldn’t forecast that after he went public with his claims, McDonald’s would remain silent, beyond a brief acknowledgement Scott was the first to portray Ronald. Brrrr. Talk about a cold front. Even more insulting, the official credit for Ronald’s creation went to Oscar Goldstein, one of the franchise owners that tapped Scott to create Ronald to begin with.

Scott’s role would continue to be ignored until March 2000, when NBC’s Today Show aired a tribute to Scott that featured Henry Gonzalez, at the time President of McDonald’s Northeast Division, finally thanking Scott for his role in creating Ronald. Scott would retire from television in 2015, but had he received royalties for siring Ronald, certainly he’d have been long gone, lounging on some giant tropical island and basking in all his creative glory.

His best friend was evil

Everyone loves Grimace. He’s Ronald’s best friend, that jovial blob who popularized purple decades before Prince was singing about rain. However, it’s been a deep-harbored secret that Grimace was not always as fun-loving — he used to be straight-up evil.

Evil Grimace, as he was originally coined, debuted as a four-armed thief out to steal milkshakes and sodas, only to be thwarted by Ronald, who tricked him into leaving all of the stolen goods behind by pretending to be a mailman delivering a fake invitation for a McDonald’s beauty contest. Yes, this is how they sold burgers in the ’70s. Groovy, man.

While Grimace may have been the scourge of McDonaldland when he debuted back in 1971, his reign of terror did not last long. After a few appearances, he was retconned into the dim-witted, happy right-hand man for Ronald we know today. They even cut off two of his arms.

Exactly how this happened in-universe has never been revealed. Was Evil Grimace apprehended and reprogrammed, A Clockwork Orange-style? McDonald’s isn’t talking, but it’s possible. Such treatment might kill a mere mortal, for as we know, nothing can kill the Grimace.

He lived in a psychedelic nightmare

Everyone needs a place to hang their hat, right? Spokesclowns are no different, and in trippy days of the 1970s, his home, McDonaldland, was revealed. Featuring anthropomorphic characters designed to espouse the enrichment of the world through fast food, McDonaldland was complete sensory overload to children, with bright, colorful characters that looked as if they escaped Disney purgatory. Even better, you didn’t need to go on vacation to see them — they were broadcast right to you, originally in a memorable series of commercials, before evolving into VHS adventures that McDonald’s used to enrapture guests at children’s birthday parties, along with some of the trippiest playgrounds of all time.

Presided over by Mayor McCheese, a politician who remains so beloved he was actually endorsed in the 2016 Presidential Election, McDonaldland was a fantastic fever dream, filled with apple pie trees and thick shake volcanoes — the magical place where Ronald and Grimace foiled the sinister plots of Hamburglar and others who sought to swipe McDonald’s meals for themselves. These colossal battles of good vs. evil deftly balanced delivering moral lessons to kids while also accomplishing their true task: They Live-style subliminal advertising that McDonald’s is yummy and awesome and kids should ask for it all the time. Indoctrinating the young is the key to repeat business. Ask the WWE.

Like Atlantis before it, McDonaldland was lost to time and the ever-changing whims of corporate America. Modern campaigns put the gang out to pasture. Still, future civilizations may one day come across the ruins of McDonaldland and assume we worshiped at the altar of a crazy clown in a yellow jumpsuit. Stranger things, indeed.

He was sued by H.R. Pufnstuf

When the McDonaldland ad campaign was launched, the colorful characters starring in madcap adventures certainly delighted thousands of children, but there was one family it didn’t delight — The Kroffts. Brothers Sid and Marty Krofft ruled over their own magical puppet kingdom, and were at the height of their popularity at the time. They were the kings of the psychedelic ’70s Saturday morning genre, so it was hardly a surprise when they were approached by McDonald’s ad agency Needham, Harper and Steers and asked to sprinkle some of that unbridled creativity over Ronald’s head. The two sides came to terms, but the agency soon yanked those plans.

So imagine The Kroffts’ surprise when McDonaldland debuted and Mayor McCheese bore a striking resemblance to their own top creation, H.R. Pufnstuf. To make matters worse, the Krofft brothers later learned some of their former employees had also worked on the campaign, and the Ice Capades later declined to renew the usage of Kroft characters, in favor of the McDonaldland copycats. Faster than you can say Freddy the Flute, a lawsuit was launched from the Land of the Lost, with all parties soon sitting before a magical jury that was to decree whether The Kroffts’ copyrights had been infringed.

The jury agreed with the Kroffts, but only awarded $50,000 in damages. Both sides flew like Birdie the Early Bird to an appeals court — The Kroffts, to get more of that Fry Guy cash, while McDonald’s, like Captain Crook, wanted to escape scot-free. Testimony indicated that representatives of Needham had toured Krofft HQ even after they had opted not to go with the family, leaving McDonald’s in quite the bind, legally. In the end, it was decided that The Kroffts were indeed owed some of that McDough, to the tune of $1,044,000. On top of that, McDonaldland commercials were shuttered. The Hamburglar did not escape this time, folks.

Moral of the story, kids? Who’s your friend when things get rough? Lawyers, that’s who.

McDonald’s tried to put a real-life Ronald McDonald out of business

McDonald’s is extremely protective and litigious over their brand. Just open any business that features a “Mc” and watch McLawyers descend upon you for a McBeating. So, it probably came as no surprise when McDonald’s attempted to legally smack down Fairbury, Illinois, eatery McDonald’s Family Restaurant over the use of the McDonald’s name.

What was unique was that the owner and proprietor was one Ronald McDonald. No kidding. Ronald McDonald opened his 240-seat eatery in 1956. When corporate McDonalds became aware of this establishment, it began firing off legal letters and phone calls, warning the McDonald family that they were trading on McDonald’s good name. In response, the family slightly changed the title, removing the possessive “s” from their name.

Not good enough for McDonald’s: it then descended upon Fairbury and opened its own outlet, seeking to plant a flag and become the dominant local McDonald’s. It was McDavid vs. McGoliath, for the hearts and stomachs of fair Fairbury.

The battle lasted three years, and, despite their corporate might, McDonald’s found itself unable to uproot Ronald. They finally tapped out, shutting down their location. This led Ronald to snark, “Most of our customers tried it once and never went back. They say they don’t miss it and they are glad we won out.” A McDonald’s spokesperson gave it their best spin, noting, “Closings rarely happen, because we are normally very good at site evaluation.” Hey, Mike Tyson was great at knocking people out, too, but then he met Buster Douglas.

Victorious, Ronald even kicked a little dirt on his clownish cousin post-victory, adding the possessive “s” right back to the name of his own eatery, where it has remained to this very day. Fairbury remains McNugget-free for two decades and counting.

The Hamburglar is real

Debuting in 1971, the Hamburglar joined the Ronald’s rogue’s gallery, attempting, over and over, to commit grand theft burger and hoard McDonaldland’s finest all for himself, but falling short every time. He’s received a few makeovers over the years, going from red-headed stepchild to his most recent incarnation, where he came to life and swapped his trademark bush hat for a Twitter-trending fedora, until dropping off the radar again. Or did he?

In April 2016, international headlines were made when a mysterious hat-wearing suspect broke into a Five Guys restaurant in the Washington, D.C., area and promptly cooked himself a meal. Despite calls to the public for help in identifying this hardened criminal, authorities were unable to apprehend this menace to society. Officer Big Mac, asleep on the job. Robble robble!

The McMarketing may have gotten out of hand

Ronald and McDonaldland were specifically designed to market McDonald’s to children, and in that regard, it did gangbuster business, not only in keeping registers ringing across the country, but in getting the characters out of the restaurants and into the hands of children as tangible playthings. There were action figures, plush dolls, McWrist Wallets, novelty records, McDonaldland playsets, VHS tapes, and playgrounds, some of which as dangerous as they were colorful.

In the late-’80s and early-’90s, that weirdness spread to the world of videogames. There was 1993’s McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure for the Sega Genesis, where Ronald fights off pirates en route to tracking down a treasure map so they could return home via an intergalactic rainbow. Or, 1992’s multi-platform MC Kids, where our heroes chase down Ronald’s magic bag after it was stolen by the Hamburglar. Does Felix the Cat know about this?

All of this madness pales in comparison to the insanity of 1988’s Japanese Famicom-only title Donald Land, where Ronald has to rescue all of his kidnapped friends from an evil clown named Gumon, fighting his own brainwashed friends and evil animals along the way. How did corporate approve this?

The licensing of Ronald across the board was all over the place, to be sure, but hey, it doesn’t matter what we think. He’s enshrined in the National Museum of American History — at least in doll form — forever, and we’re not. So there.

He’s a failed actor

While he’s starred in countless commercials and home videos designed to build upon McDonald’s propaganda, Ronald is also a failed film actor, with just one lone credit to his name. Box office bomb Mac & Me was released in 1988 as an attempt to cash-in on the hot alien craze that followed the release of Spielberg classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. One can almost smell Hollywood deal-making in the air as the film unspools, taking the E.T. plot point that used Reese’s Pieces to forge a bond between E.T. and Elliot, only attempting to Xerox that strategy to the umpteenth degree, throwing in any and all product placement the producers could force-feed the audience.

None of these attempts are more traumatizing than an entire sequence that takes place at a mythical McDonald’s, where local children have congregated outside to break-dance. Ronald himself is there as the master of ceremonies for a children’s birthday party that our hero, Eric, attends, secretly bringing his alien pal Mac along for the ride. With Mac safely hidden inside the skin of a teddy bear, this fever dream of a sequence leads to a huge dance number, because, well, it’s the ’80s.

Ronald was heavily involved in promoting the film, but, in the end, it’s become a forgotten relic of the era, sucking the life out of viewers and Ronald’s cinematic dreams alike. The Flashdance reboot will have to wait. Until that day, Ronald will have to settle for motivational speaking gigs.

There have been calls for his retirement

Ronald has been around for generations, a welcoming face to wave families in the door before they scarf down their McNuggets. In recent years, however, his once rock-solid show of support has slipped. As Aaron Eckhart famously said in The Dark Knight, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” To some, Ronald has become the sneaky villain, tricking generations into making terrible choices, like that last shot at closing time.

“This clown is no friend to our children or their health,” proclaimed Corporate Accountability International, who called for Ronald’s unceremonious retirement in 2010, bemoaning him as the key ingredient in the secret sauce of obesity. To some, Ronald, not irresponsible parenting, was the root cause of a fast food nation brimming with health issues.

While McDonald’s did blink, in some regard, adding healthier fare on their menu, and introducing a slightly more grown-up hipster Ronald, in the end, the Southwest Salad and dialing down the kid-friendliness did little to change a nation’s craving for a late night Big Mac. Pass the diabetes.

Creepy clowns almost did him in

Every Superman has his kryptonite. In 2016, it appears that Ronald McDonald’s was discovered: creepy clowns. For inexplicable reasons, a plethora of creepy clowns descended upon planet Earth, popping up in major metropolitan cities and quiet towns alike.

Although there was no evidence that Ronald was culpable in this rising army of sinister clowns, he still shouldered some of the blame, since, for the first time, McDonald’s decided it was going to distance itself. Admitting it was “mindful of the current climate around clown sightings in communities,” the company opted to downplay Ronald’s appearances in the company’s many community and charity events. Although innocent, he was a persecuted clown.

Eventually, the sightings diminished, yet Ronald remains relegated to the shadows, his commercial run apparently far behind him. Until the tides change, one envisions him quietly waiting for the day when he gets to hold court while championing Big Macs yet again. Until then, tears of a clown. An innocent clown. Or was he?

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Iggy Azalea Topless Pics Leak then Rapper Deletes All Social Media Accounts

“I feel blind sided, embarrassed, violated, angry, sad, and million other things,” says the rapper, who intends to press charges!

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – FEBRUARY 07: Recording artist Iggy Azalea attends the Pre-GRAMMY Gala and Salute to Industry Icons honoring Martin Bandier at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 7, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Iggy Azalea came back from a brief social media hiatus on Monday, issuing a statement on Twitter regarding some topless photos of her that leaked online over the weekend, only to disappear from social media again moments later.

The 28-year-old Australian rapper, who’s real name is Amethyst Amelia Kelly, suspended her Instagram and Twitter accounts on Monday, one day after partially nude photos from a GQ photo shoot with her were leaked online. She reactivated her Twitter account hours later to issue a statement on the leak before deleting the account again minutes later.

In the statement, Azalea said she plans to press criminal charges against the person or persons responsible for the leak.

“I feel blind sided, embarrassed, violated, angry, sad, and million other things. Not solely because I did not consent to this, but because of the vile way people have reacted,” Azalea said in a statement posted to Twitter. “The outright wicked things people say is overwhelming and makes me feel like throwing up.

“I fully intend to find out where the leak originated from and pressing criminal charges in regards to this,” she continued. “It’s important to me that someone actually be held accountable for their actions and the way it impacts my life.”

Representatives for Azalea did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s requests for comment.

The photos, Azalea said, were from a 2016 GQ cover shoot. “There was no reason for anyone to have kept the outtakes from the shoot,” she said.

The leak of Azalea’s photos joins a string of others female celebrities who’ve had similar problems, such as Jennifer Lawrence, Gabrielle Union, Leslie Jones and Kate Upton, among others.

It also comes as the artist prepares to release her second studio album “In My Defense.” Azalea, who also appeared in Universal Pictures’ “Furious 7,” released the first single, “Sally Walker,” from the album in March and a second single titled “Started” earlier this month.

The “Fancy” rapper’s new album, the follow up to her 2014 breakthrough album “The New Classic,” is expected to come out in June.

Source: bit.ly/30SyCc7

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DABABY KNOCKS OUT RAPPER CAM COLDHEART IN MALL!

DaBaby had to put the paws on Cam Coldheart inside the Louis Vuitton store on Saturday.

The videos kick off with Cam recording and talking hot. “You a b*tch. Y’all look at the n**ga DaBaby. That n**ga DaBaby in here talking some shit,” Coldheart can be heard saying. “He walking up on me and shit like he about to do something. What you gon’ do? What you taking your shit off for?”

“When bullying Baby on the internet goes wrong,” the “Suge” rapper said. Cam is seen in the video with a bloody face and his pants around his ankles.

There’s no telling how that happened but he went online claiming that he was jumped by DaBaby and his security guard.

After posting the footage of the fight, the “Baby on Baby” rapper posted another video to his Instagram account. It was a clip from his “Suge” music video where the lyrics say “I’ll slap the shit out a n**ga/No talkin’, I don’t like to argue with n**gas (I don’t).”

This who drama stems from Cam saying DaBaby is falsely repping North Carolina and he’s originally from Ohio. The Billion Dollar Baby CEO simply laughed at Cam’s claims and told him to “DO SUMN.” Well he tried to and things just didn’t end too well for him.

Source: http://bit.ly/2X90Uwv

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“Ghost” In Student’s Closet is a Man Wearing Her Clothes

Imagine if you were living in your students-only apartment building near to campus and kept noticing that your clothes and other items had gone missing. This happened even when you made sure your door was always locked, and you didn’t see any signs that someone had broken in.

A student at the University of North Carolina had this happen to her for a few weeks. When her clothes kept going missing, and she found mysterious handprints on the bathroom walls, she and her roommate were freaked out and thought they might have a ghost in their apartment.

And One Saturday Afternoon…

One Saturday afternoon the student kept hearing a rustling from her closet that sounded like a raccoon. She was like “Who’s here?” and got a fright when someone answered her.

When she opened the closet door, she found a guy sitting inside wearing her clothes. He was wearing her socks, shoes and even had a book bag filled with her clothes.

The student said the intruder, who called himself “Drew”, tried on her hat, went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror and said, “you’re beautiful, can I give you a hug?” He didn’t end up touching her. It’s possible that he was ‘high’ at the time.

Who was Andrew Swofford?

The police took the guy, Andrew Swofford, to jail and discovered he had a record. His rap sheet included identity theft, breaking, larceny and failing to appear in court on other cases.

Swoffard had probably got into the apartment through an open window. After his arrest, when he went quietly without putting up a fight, the maintenance manager of the complex found a living room window unlocked and a bit open with a damaged screen.

The student and her roommate didn’t feel safe after what happened, and they asked for a different apartment. One student who has lived in the apartment building for three years said it hadn’t changed her mind about staying there and it was the first time anything like this had happened.

The property management company is doing some damage control as the incident made the national news and may cause other students to think twice before renewing their leases.

They are taking steps to ensure that other students don’t find strange men in their closets in the future. Everyone is on window inspection duty to make sure no-one gets into an apartment in this way again.

Source: http://bit.ly/2X78xDI

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