Incidents

🇺🇲 MS Coast probation officer extorted offenders by demanding drugs and sex, authorities say

A Mississippi Department of Corrections probation and parole officer in Jackson County is jailed on federal charges of extortion under the Hobbs Act and witnesses tampering, according to records unsealed this week.

According to the charging document handed down in federal court in Gulfport, Steven Wood is accused of getting drugs from offenders he supervised and producing sexual videos and sexually oriented photographs of at least five offenders under his supervision as an MDOC probation and parole officer.

Wood allegedly took pictures and made videos of the sex acts with the targeted offenders in exchange for his promises to them that he would not take any action against them for any alleged probation or parole violation. Those crimes occurred between 2022 and August 2024.

Federal prosecutors have charged Wood with witness tampering for an incident in October 2024. According to the bill of information, Wood approached the victim in Harrison County and threatened, intimidated, and “corruptly persuaded” them to avoid speaking with investigators handling his case. The filings confirm this occurred in October 2024.


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🇺🇲 'You don't look 12 anymore': Math teacher fired after comments about students' bodies

Palm Beach County's school board voted to fire a math teacher of 25 years at John I. Leonard High last month after students reported nearly a dozen inappropriate comments he made in class, ranging from saying women rely on men to pay for their beauty services to stories about thong underwear.

Robert Glatt, 66, addressed a group of boys as "hoes" and told another student that he needed to stare at their photo in the school's attendance system "a little longer," according to investigations conducted by the school district.

Reached Wednesday, Glatt called the school district's investigation "unjust and unreasonable" and added that his comments in class were taken out of context by disgruntled students.

School board members voted unanimously to fire Glatt on Nov. 6. Although Glatt said he initially appealed his termination, he said he rescinded his appeal this month when he found new employment.


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🇺🇲 Woman caught, charged with murder in West TN shooting

A woman has been charged with murder, and two others arrested as accessories, after a man’s shooting death in Henning, Tennessee.

Iasia J Webster was arrested Wednesday and is charged with Aggravated Assault, First Degree Murder and Reckless Endangerment in the Dec. 5 death of Phillip Walker.

The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office said investigators identified a vehicle associated with Webster traveling in Henning. When they stopped the vehicle, Webster was found hiding inside.


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🇺🇲 Ex-Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson facing warrants for arrest in Texas

Former NFL MVP running back Adrian Peterson is facing legal trouble again in Texas, this time after two warrants were issued for his arrest related to his failure to appear in court for two different child support cases.

The former Minnesota Vikings star made more than $100 million in his NFL career from 2007 to 2021 and is considered a future Pro Football Hall of Famer. But warrants were issued this week in Fort Bend County, Texas, outside of Houston, where Peterson also has been facing property seizures to help pay off more than $12 million debt.

“The current legal case is related to a misunderstanding regarding Adrian’s court appearances as it relates to child support, and he is actively working with his legal team to resolve this matter as quickly as possible,” his publicist Denise White said in a statement. “He is committed to clearing up this situation and moving forward positively.”

In an unrelated case, he pleaded no contest in October to misdemeanor assault after being accused in the same county of slapping a woman from behind in May. He was sentenced to pay a $500 fine with no jail time in that case, according to court records.


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🇺🇲 Family Mourns 6-Year-Old Who Died After Escaping Home, Running Across Interstate

A family in San Jose, California, is mourning their 6-year-old son King Holguin, a nonverbal and autistic child who was fatally struck by a car Friday, Dec. 13, on Interstate 280, per ABC 7 News.

King was two weeks shy of his seventh birthday when he died.

“I just want to hold him,” the boy’s father, who was not identified, told the outlet Monday. “I want him back, but I know he is in a better place. He was always outgoing, loving and the house is quiet without him. But I know everyone misses him and I miss him.”

A news release from the California Highway Patrol obtained Wednesday by People confirmed a pedestrian “ran into the number three lane” of the northbound interstate that night and was struck by a 2024 Nissan Altima driven by a 36-year-old San Jose local.

The pedestrian was pronounced dead at a hospital, the news release confirmed, and was identified as King by the Santa Clara Medical Examiner. His parents are now hoping to contact the driver — to assure him that it wasn’t his fault.


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🇺🇲 Police suspect a Utah father killed his wife and 3 kids, wounded a son, then killed himself

Five people were found dead in a Utah home after a man apparently shot his wife and four children before killing himself, police said Wednesday. A 17-year-old boy survived but has a severe brain injury.

Police believe the shooting in a split-level house in a Salt Lake City suburb happened over the weekend. The victims weren't found until Tuesday, however, when a relative who’d been unable to reach the family went inside.

The woman found the badly wounded teen in the garage. Arriving officers then found the mother, 38, and two girls, ages 9 and 2, dead upstairs together in the same bed.

An 11-year-old boy was found dead in a downstairs living room with his father. A handgun underneath the 42-year-old man led police to believe he was the shooter.

Investigators believe the surviving teenage son made his way to the garage after being shot elsewhere.

“The father likely shot all of the members of the family and then himself,” West Valley City Police Department spokeswoman Roxeanne Vainuku said at a news conference.


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🇺🇲 ‘Drunk’ cruise passenger dies after staff detained him over violent outburst and injected sedative, family claims

A Royal Caribbean cruise ship passenger on a ship leaving Los Angeles died after being detained on board for ‘drunkenly attacking crew members.’

Now, his family is saying he was injected with a sedative and officials are probing his cause of death.

What should have been a peaceful Ensenada-bound cruise was disrupted when Michael Virgil started upsetting fellow passengers and crew members by threatening them, trying to kick down a door, and going on a profanity-laced rant, according to a Fox 11 report.

Passengers started noticing his behavior an hour outside the port of San Pedro in Los Angeles. One passenger, Christifer Mikhail, was on board the Navigator of the Seas with his wife to celebrate their birthdays with family and friends when the passenger in question – 35-year-old Virgil – threatened them.

“The gentleman that was drunk said he was going to kill us,”. “He started chasing us down the hallway.”


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🇺🇲 Baby was 'unaccounted for' after deadly car crash. Police now say he was missing for months.

Authorities have arrested the grandfather of a 1-year-old boy who was unaccounted for after a Dec. 8 crash that killed two of his family members and critically injured his mother.

It turns out, the boy was last seen in early September, authorities now say.

An emergency missing child alert was issued Tuesday in Alabama for Kahleb Rowan Collins at the request of the Fayette County Sheriff's Office, which reported the child missing Monday.

According to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency alert, Kahleb is from Winfield, a city in northwest Alabama about 75 miles northwest of Birmingham not far from the Mississippi state line.


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🇺🇲 Atlantic City mayor indicted and accused of asking daughter to retract claims that he abused her

The mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey, was charged with witness tampering this week after he was accused of asking his daughter to “twist up” her previous abuse allegations against him to the police, prosecutors said.

An Atlantic County grand jury indicted Mayor Marty Small Sr., 50, on Tuesday, County Prosecutor William Reynolds' office said in a news release.

Small and his wife, La’Quetta Small, the superintendent of Atlantic City Public Schools, were indicted in September on charges tied to endangering the welfare of their teenage daughter. The mayor was also indicted on charges of making terroristic threats and aggravated assault. The couple pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Prosecutors alleged Wednesday that while those charges were pending, Small asked his daughter in September to reverse her previous abuse claims against him, "specifically by asking her to state that she tripped and fell in her room when her head was injured."


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🇺🇲 Ex-Seabrook man gets 5 years for gun charge after deadly shooting

A former Seabrook man, who shot and killed a man in 2021 but was not charged with murder, was sentenced to five years in prison on a federal charge related to the case for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Garrito “Tony” Fort, 39, of Rhode Island, was sentenced Wednesday, Dec. 18, more than a year after he pleaded guilty to the crime on Oct. 16, 2023.

Fort was charged with the unlawful possession of a Taurus 9mm caliber pistol and assorted 9mm ammunition when he shot and injured Richard Janvrin, Jr. and fatally shot 35-year-old Christopher Coletti, both of Seabrook, during an altercation at a home on Boynton Lane on Nov. 1, 2021.


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🇺🇲 Man Who Was Body Double for Brad Pitt Is Sentenced for 'Stealthing,' a Form of Rape

A Scottish man who served as a body double for Brad Pitt — was sentenced to 16 years in prison by the High Court in Edinburgh, following a series of charges of abuse against women, including rape, according to a statement from the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland.

Ford, 35, preyed on women he met on dating apps over the course of 12 years, subjecting his victims to physical and sexual abuse. Ford’s abuse included strangling, smashing a partner’s head against a car window, slapping another across the face and blackmailing women by threatening to share illicit photographs he had taken of them with their employers or families, prosecutors said, according to the BBC.

“Ford is a dangerous and manipulative sexual predator,” said Scottish Police Detective Inspector Steven Gray. “I hope that knowing he is now behind bars for his crimes helps them continue to move forward with their lives.”

Among Ford’s 19 convictions was one on a charge of “stealthing” — "defined as not using a protective condom without a partner’s knowledge or consent, which is rape," according to the statement from prosecutors. According to the statement, Ford's conviction for the crime is the first of its kind in Scotland.


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🇺🇲 Man charged with mass shooting at Illinois parade loses bid to bar his statements at trial

A judge declined Wednesday to throw out statements made by a man charged with killing seven people at an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago in 2022.

Robert Crimo III willingly waived his right to remain silent while speaking to police, and there was no “coercion, deceit or intimidation” to prevent him from talking to a lawyer, Lake County Judge Victoria Rossetti said.

Crimo's defense team had argued that a lawyer hired by his family was at the police station following the shooting but that investigators wouldn't let them meet, a violation of constitutional rights.

The judge, however, noted that video shows Crimo saying he didn't want to stop the police interview to speak to a lawyer. Rossetti described the interview as “conversational and non-threatening with an informal and relaxed atmosphere.”


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🇺🇲 Classic Shelby Cobra crashes on Northern California highway

California Highway Patrol officers from the Sacramento area helped respond to a single-vehicle crash that involved a classic muscle car.

The crash involved a rare Shelby Cobra, according to a Facebook post by the CHP.

CHP said that the driver went through a wet patch on Highway 50 east of Sacramento while accelerating, lost control, and veered off the road, striking a metal guard rail.

The driver and the passenger were able to escape without any serious injuries, but the classic car did not fare so well.

If the vehicle is a legitimate Cobra instead of a replica, the owner will have to pay a hefty bill if the plan is to restore it to its former glory, as original cars are valued at up to $1,000,000.

According to the Dupont Registry, these cars can range from several thousand dollars to more than the price of an average home in California, depending on the car’s quality.


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🇺🇲 Men charged with aggravated kidnapping after victim rescued in Fabens

Two men were arrested and charged with aggravated kidnapping after a multi-agency task force rescued a victim on Thursday, Dec. 19, in Fabens, according to the news release by El Paso County Sheriff’s Office (EPCSO).

According to the Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a report of an aggravated kidnapping on Monday, Dec. 9 at the 12300 block of Clifton Hill Road.

EPCSO’s Major Crimes Unit, in collaboration with the El Paso Police Department, Horizon Police Department, the Texas Rangers, the FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force, and the United States Border Patrol Special Operations Group launched a joint investigation.

The Sheriff’s Office says at 11:35 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 18, joint task force officers did a residence search at the 600 block of Onate Drive where officers rescued the unharmed victim.


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🇺🇲 Abundant Life Christian School shooting latest: Motive appears to be combination of factors, police say

Officials are trying to determine why a 15-year-old girl allegedly opened fire at her school, Abundant Life Christian School, on Monday morning, killing a fellow student and teacher in a heinous crime that shocked the community of Madison, Wisconsin.

The motive appears to be a combination of factors, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said at a news conference Tuesday.

Police are talking to students to determine if bullying was one of the factors, he said.

"Everyone was targeted in this incident and everyone was put in equal danger," Barnes said.

Two students were hospitalized in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, police said, while another three students and a teacher suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

A candlelight vigil was held Tuesday night at the state capitol for the victims of the shooting.


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🇺🇲 Judge: Pardoning Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes for Capitol riot plot would be 'frightening'

The federal judge who presided over the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keepers members said Wednesday that it would be "frightening" if the anti-government group's founder, Stewart Rhodes, is pardoned for orchestrating a violent plot to keep Donald Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 presidential election.

President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly has vowed to pardon rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol nearly four years ago. Rhodes is serving an 18-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him and other Oath Keepers members of seditious conspiracy, the most serious charge stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of Trump supporters.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta alluded to the prospect of Rhodes receiving a presidential pardon as he sentenced William Todd Wilson, a former Oath Keepers member from North Carolina who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy.

“The notion that Stewart Rhodes could be absolved of his actions is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country,” Mehta said.


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🇺🇲 Inmate who killed Oklahoma girl says if execution could 'change what I did, I would gladly die'

Oklahoma death row inmate Kevin Ray Underwood is a day away from execution in the brutal 2006 rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl.

Underwood, 44, is set to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday for killing his neighbor, 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin. The little girl was beaten with a wooden cutting board, suffocated to death and later raped and mutilated at his apartment in Purcell, a small community about 40 miles south of Oklahoma City, on April 12, 2006.

Underwood is set to be executed after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously voted 3-0 against a clemency recommendation early Friday morning.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the board to reject clemency in mid-November for Underwood, whom he called a “child sexual predator and murderer who committed one of the most depraved and gruesome crimes in Oklahoma history.”


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🇺🇲 Cause of beloved Arizona news anchor's sudden death at 28 revealed

A TV news station in Tucson, Arizona, is mourning the sudden death of one of its young anchors.

KOLD 13 News announced 28-year-old Ana Orsini unexpectedly died last week from a brain aneurysm.

"Ana Orsini, you were one in a trillion; wise beyond your years, full of practical insight, smart, compassionate, quick-witted, and possessed a contagious love for animals," Dan Marries, an evening anchor at KOLD 13 News wrote in a post on Facebook.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Orsini family during this incredibly tragic time. As a parent, I can’t even begin to imagine their pain and anguish with the sudden, unexpected, and tragic loss of Ana," Marries added. "Her positive impact on those around her will last a lifetime. Ana, you are, and will, be missed so much."


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🇺🇲 Texas jailer dies after being assaulted by incarcerated man, sheriff says

A Texas man being held in jail fatally assaulted a detention officer who was returning him to his cell following the one hour he was allowed out of his lockup each day, a sheriff said Tuesday.

Isaiah Patrick Bias, a 28-year-old who worked at the Ellis County Sheriff's Office for over six years, was assaulted Monday afternoon at the county jail in Waxahachie, south of Dallas. Sheriff Brad Norman said during a Tuesday news conference that Arron Semeion Thompson, 45, from nearby Ennis, has been charged with capital murder in Bias' death.

“Most of the time, law enforcement officers and detention officers deal with good folks having a bad day. Occasionally, we deal with bad folks,” Norman said. “I can honestly say that my staff, over the last day, has dealt with pure evil."

Norman said Bias was a family-oriented person and beloved by colleagues.


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🇺🇲 Madison school shooter pictured with shotgun at firing range just months before her deadly rampage

The father of school shooter Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, who killed two people and wounded six others at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, encouraged the 15-year-old to practice her weapons-handling skills in the months leading up to Monday’s bloodshed, according to a review of his online activity.

In August, Jeff Rupnow - who was unable to be reached on Tuesday - posted a photograph on Facebook of what appears to be his shotgun-wielding daughter shooting clay pigeons at a local gun club.

“Is that kiddo?” a friend commented.

“Sure is!!!!” Rupnow replied. “We joined NBSC this spring and we have been loving all [sic] every second of it!”


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