What? YouTube Star Austin Jones Has Been Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison For Child Porn!

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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WATCH!: THE ORIGINAL STATUE OF LIBERTY WAS A BLACK WOMAN?

Did you know the Original Statue of Liberty presented to the U.S. was a Statue of a… “Black Woman”. There is a lot of history that didn’t make it into the history books for our schools. READ, get you a book and educate yourself.

A History Lesson It is hard to believe that after my many years of schooling secondary and post) the following facts about the Statue of Liberty was never taught. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people including myself have visited the Statue of Liberty over the years but yet I’m unable to find one person who knows the true history behind the Statue- amazing. Yes,amazing that so much important Black history (such as this) is hidden from us (Black and White). What makes this even worse is the fact that the current twist on history perpetuates and promotes white supremacy at the expense of Black Pride.

During my visit to France I saw the original Statue of Liberty. However there was a difference, the statue in France is Black. The Statue of Liberty was originally a Black woman, but, as memory serves, it was because the model was Black.

In a book called “The Journey of The Songhai People“, according to Dr. Jim Haskins, a member of the National Education Advisory Committee of the Liberty-Ellis Island Committee,professor of English at the University of Florida, and prolific Black author, points out that what stimulated the original idea for that 151 foot statue in the harbor.

He says that what stimulated the idea for the creation of the statue initially was the part that Black soldiers played in the ending of Black African Bondage in the United States. It was created in the mind of the French historian Edourd de Laboulaye, chairman of the French Anti-Slavery Society, who, together with sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi,proposed to the French government that the people of France present to the people of the United States through the American Abolitionist Society, the gift of a Statue of Liberty in recognition of the fact that Black soldiers won the Civil War in the United States.

It was widely known then that it was Black soldiers who played the pivotal role in winning the war, and this gift would be a tribute to their prowess. Suzanne Nakasian, director of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island Foundations’ National Ethnic Campaign said that the Black Americans’ direct connection to Lady Liberty is unknown to the majority of Americans,BLACK or WHITE.

When the statue was presented to the U.S. Minister to France in 1884, it is said that he remonstrated that the dominant view of the broken hackles would be offensive to a U.S. South, because since the statue was a reminder of Blacks winning their freedom. It was a reminder to a beaten South of the ones who caused their defeat, their despised former captives.

Documents of Proof:

1.) You may go and see the original model of the Statue of Liberty, with the broken chains at her feet and in her left hand. Go to the Museum of the City of NY, Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street write to Peter Simmons and he can send you some documentation.

2.) Check with the N.Y. Times magazine, part II_May 18, 1986. Read the article by Laboulaye.

3.) The dark original face of the Statue of Liberty can be seen in the N.Y. Post, June 17, 1986, also the Post stated the reason for the broken chains at her feet.

4.) Finally, you may check with the French Mission or the French Embassy at the U.N. or in Washington, D.C. and ask for some original French material on the Statue of Liberty, including the Bartholdi original model. — with Edwin Cobb, Gemini Hodge and Deverick Murray.

Source: http://bit.ly/ahsjdd

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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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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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FDA approves new nasal spray to treat depression

A new drug has been approved by the FDA for patients with treatment-resistant depression. The drug is called esketamine — it’s a chemical cousin to an illegal …

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Two Students Opened Fire On Their Colorado School, Killing One Classmate And Injuring Eight Others

“It was beyond awful and terrifying to be there during it, and several of my friends were shot,” said a student who survived the shooting.

Two students opened fire Tuesday inside a Colorado charter school near Columbine High School, killing one classmate and injuring eight others before being taken into custody, authorities said.

On Wednesday morning, authorities identified the deceased student as Kendrick Castillo, an 18-year-old senior who was due to graduate this week.

Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said the suspects, identified as 18-year-old Devon Erickson and an unnamed juvenile, were taken into custody without exchanging gunfire with police. Both are students at the STEM School, a K-12 charter in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch.

“At the time, the individuals we believed were in custody were two males,” Spurlock said Wednesday morning. It wasn’t until we got to this office that we were able to determine that one of the suspects [the juvenile] was a female.”

One of the shooters was being restrained by a school security officer when sheriff’s deputies arrived. Administrators reported hearing gunshots fired at 1:53 p.m.; deputies arrived on the scene two minutes later.

Spurlock said authorities were still investigating a possible motive.

“We know that two individuals walked into the STEM School, got deep inside the school, and engaged students in two separate locations,” Spurlock told reporters Tuesday night. “There were a number of students that were shot and injured.”

On Wednesday, Spurlock said that at least one student “encountered” the suspects during the shooting, not elaborating on the specifics of exactly what the student did.

“We are going to hear about very heroic things that have taken place at the school,” said Spurlock.

Eight victims, ages 15 and older, were being treated in local hospitals. No employees or teachers were injured in the shooting, Spurlock said.

Littleton Adventist Hospital received five patients. One patient was in a serious condition, while another had their condition downgraded from serious to fair. The three others have been discharged from the hospital.

Linda Watson, a spokesperson for Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree, Colorado, said the hospital was treating two juvenile victims. One remained in stable condition Tuesday night, while the other was discharged. Another victim was treated at Children’s Hospital of Colorado’s South Campus in Highlands Ranch and later released.

“Quite a few shots were fired, and police officers, sheriff’s officers were on scene almost immediately,” Douglas County Undersheriff Holly Nicholson-Kluth told reporters, adding that deputies could still hear gunshots as they arrived at the scene and entered the school.

Spurlock said he believed the deputies’ quick response to the shooting saved lives.

“I want to think that that is something that helped,” he said.

The school does not have a resource police officer assigned to the campus but does have private security, Spurlock said.

He declined to provide additional information about the suspects but said they were not on the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office’s radar. A car with graffiti on it was later removed from the home of one of the suspects.

A motive for the shooting has not been determined, and Spurlock said officials did not have any information about anyone at the school being specifically targeted.

The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Denver were assisting in the investigation. The White House said President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting.

“Tragically, this community and those surrounding it know all too well these hateful and horrible acts of violence,” Judd Deere, the White House deputy press secretary, said in a statement. “We offer our full support to local law enforcement and first responders and thank them for their heroism.”

The school was placed on lockdown for several hours, according to the Douglas County School District. All other Highlands Ranch schools were placed on lockout.

“It was beyond awful and terrifying to be there during it, and several of my friends were shot,” Lillian Duarte, a student who survived the shooting, told BuzzFeed News. “This was so horrible to me, and it felt surreal to walk out of the building with our hands up in the same way I saw Parkland kids doing on the news.”

More than 1,800 students in elementary, middle, and high school attend STEM School, according to its website.

Nicholson-Kluth said many students self-evacuated after the shooting began. Parents were later reunited with students at a nearby recreation center. Hyoung Chang / Getty Images

Students are escorted to a school bus in front of STEM School Highlands Ranch after the shooting.

Speaking on air to the Denver ABC affiliate, a sixth-grade boy named Christian said he was in study hall when he saw several students running and yelling, “School shooter, school shooter!”

“I’m like, what … is this real or fake?” he said. “I just ran after them. … I just got out of there.”

Rocco DeChalk, who lives down the street from the Highlands Ranch school, said he was working from home when he looked out his window and saw crowds of kids running down the street.

“At first I thought it was a gym class,” DeChalk, 50, told BuzzFeed News.

But then he saw the kids’ faces. They looked nervous and scared.

When he stepped out onto his patio, a neighbor told him there had been a shooting at the school and alerted him to a young man who was sitting in the grass by his mailbox and appeared to have been shot.

DeChalk said he and the boy’s friend helped him into his house.

He said the boy, who he guessed was between 12 and 15 years old, was conscious and able to walk. He had one gunshot wound in his back near his armpit.

“He was having a hard time breathing, so I didn’t ask him any questions,” DeChalk said.

He then waved down a police officer outside, who summoned an ambulance to transport the boy to a hospital.

“It’s just unbelievably scary,” DeChalk said. David Zalubowski / AP

Parents gather in a circle to pray at a recreation center where students were reunited with their parents.

STEM School is located less than 8 miles from Columbine High School, where 13 people were killed by two students on April 20, 1999. The shooting was, at the time, the deadliest in the nation’s history.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he was monitoring the situation and making all public safety resources available to assist the Sheriff’s Office.

District officials said the school would be closed for the remainder of the week.

“The heart of all Colorado is with the victims and their families,” Polis said on Twitter.

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

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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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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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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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