Archive for April 5th, 2009
19-year-old man is shot to death at local nightclub
Walnet Creek, California – A 19-year-old Los Angeles man died after being shot during a dispute at a local nightclub.On Sunday, April 5, 2008, at about 1:05 a.m., at a club in the 5500 block of South Western Avenue, Damien Cordell White and the suspect became involved in a fight outside the club. During the struggle the suspect pulled a gun and shot White multiple times.
After being shot White got into his car and drove a short distance to a nearby gas station at Slauson Avenue and Western Avenue, where he collapsed. Los Angeles city paramedics responded and pronounced the victim dead at 1:30 a.m.
Detectives do not have a suspect description or motive in this case. The gun is still outstanding.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Detectives Kenneth White or Refugio Garza at (213) 485-1383. During off-hours, calls may be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247).
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )In St. Petersburg, street feud’s sad toll is an 8-year-old girl
St. Petersburg, Florida – For decades young men from Bethel Heights have warred with their rivals from Harbordale. No one even remembers how the feud started. But the city is once again mourning in its aftermath. An 8-year-old girl is dead, gunned down when her home was raked by semiautomatic rifles early Sunday morning. Paris Whitehead-Hamilton wasn’t the target. But she was the only one hurt, police say, when a heavily armed Bethel Heights crew looking for a Harbordale member opened fire on 771 Preston Ave. S.
Stephen Cortez Harper, 18, was arrested hours later by St. Petersburg police on a charge of being a principal to first degree murder. Three other suspects were the subject of a citywide manhunt on Monday.
Harper’s first arrest was at age 9. He now has an extensive criminal record — and a “bh4-life” tattoo. His sister blamed the shooting on those two street gangs.
“They fight just because they’re from two different hoods,” said Lecia Simmons, 24. “This has been going on since I was 13.”
The child’s murder in Bartlett Park touched a raw nerve in St. Petersburg, a city that has long seen more than its share of senseless violence. Ray Tampa, president of the St. Petersburg NAACP, said he’s hearing calls for a march to confront this “stupidity.”
That outrage has also revitalized an old debate: Is the city safe just because statistics say it is?
Pinellas-Pasco Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett likened St. Petersburg to a war zone.
“There is a definite crime problem in St. Pete, and it needs to be dealt with,” he said. “Don’t tell me we don’t have a problem if we’ve got this going on.”
Police Chief Chuck Harmon said he’s outraged, too. But once again he answered that outrage with numbers: “Crime in Bartlett Park is down” he said.
And, the chief said, four “thugs” shouldn’t be allowed to speak for an entire city. “I don’t think anyone should use this to say St. Pete is a war zone or is out of control,” Harmon said. “That’s totally wrong. You can’t define a community by the acts of four individuals.”
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Paris was shot in the back by three stray bullets, police said, around 2:20 a.m. Sunday. She died within the hour at Bayfront Medical Center. More on TampaBay.com
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Mother shot son, then turned the gun on herself
Casselberry, Florida – Marie Moore, a 44-year-old woman from Florida, has fatally shot and killed her 20-year-old son before killing herself at a shooting range.Marie Moore and her son Mitchell Moore were at central Florida gun range ‘Shoot Straight’ Sunday sharing a firing when Marie killed her and then herself.
According to Casselberry police, a security video at the range shows Moore, who seemed to be getting along fine with Mitchell, walk up behind her son and point a rented revolver to the back of his head. Marie then is seen firing a single shot, instantly killing her son.
She then turned the gun on herself. She put the revolver in her mouth and fired. She died later at a local hospital.
According to the family, Moore had a history of mental illness.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )15-year-old charged as juvenile in man’s death
Chicago, Illinois – Police said the 23-year-old victim, Deonta Mansheck, was shot in the chest about 10:45 a.m. Sunday in a residence in the 7100 block of South Marshfield Avenue.
Kathy Davis, who lives at the home, said Monday afternoon that she was told the teen was showing Mansheck a gun he was holding for someone else. As he tried to remove the bullets, one got stuck and went off.
The teen is charged as a juvenile and was not named. A resident of the home said the shooting was accidental.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )South Tulsa Teen Shot To Death
Tulsa, Oklahoma – Police are investigating the murder of a South Tulsa teen. They say another teenager shot and killed 18-year-old Kaitlyn Finnegan Saturday night.
“It’s not supposed to happen that your child dies before you do,” Jeanne Finnegan said between sobs. She was their oldest and only daughter. Jeanne and Jim are trying to accept that she’s gone. “It’s hard to see your daughter in the hospital and you can’t even touch her,” Jim Finnegan said. His daughter died at the hospital before he could say goodbye.
“I don’t understand how it could happen, why it happened. It doesn’t make sense- kids with guns,” Jim said.
Tulsa police told Fox 23 the Bishop Kelly High School student was shot at a friend’s house. No one called police after the shooting; instead a friend drove her to the hospital.
Officers arrested 17-year-old Theo Fleming on a first-degree murder complaint. They say he shot Kaitlyn.
Her parents say the two were beginning to date.
“He knew what he was doing. He had a gun. He knew what a gun would do. To point it at her and pull the trigger, just to be screwing around. He still should go to jail for murder,” Jeanne said.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )Man charged in brother’s death in Baltimore
BALTIMORE, Maryland – Baltimore police say a Pittsburgh man has been charged with fatally shooting his brother.
Officers responding to a report of a shooting in the 4700 block of Homesdale Avenue in Baltimore on Sunday found the brothers in the basement of a home.
Police say 31-year-old Curtis Pounds was suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Pounds was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Police wrote in charging documents that Pound’s brother, 36-year-old Curtis Warren, admitted that he shot Pounds and disclosed the location of a gun.
Warren has been charged with first-degree murder and related charges. A motive was not disclosed. More on Philly.com
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )3 found shot dead inside West Kendall home
Jose and Nolvia Salazar lived quiet lives in their shady West Kendall neighborhood.
The silence was shattered early Sunday when the couple and Nolvia Salazar’s daughter, Karla Valle, 27, were found shot dead in a scene that Miami-Dade police called “domestic in nature.”
Police would not call the deaths a case of murder-suicide, but said they were not looking for a shooter.
Neighbors in the 7400 block of Southwest 159th Place said they believed it was a murder-suicide, with Jose Salazar, 68, shooting his 57-year-old wife and stepdaughter.
If true, Sunday’s killings would continue a morbid streak of murder-suicides, following two others and a third attempted in Miami-Dade County since February.
The shootings at the Salazar home took place shortly before 2 a.m. Neighbor Steve Murphy, 51, said he woke up to the sound of fighting.
”We heard five shots, pretty close together, then about two minutes later another gunshot,” Murphy said. “And then silence.”
Murphy ran outside to pull his barking dog indoors, and called 911.
Police officers flooded the neighborhood, residents said. The sirens and the helicopters buzzing overhead were the first clues most had that something was wrong.
Inside the house, officers found all three people dead.
Sunday afternoon, neighbors said they had no idea what provoked the shootings. Jose Salazar never spoke of any financial problems and bragged about having paid off his cars and the house, said Belkis Barrios, 44, who lives a few houses down the street. More on Miami Herald
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )5 children, father die in murder-suicide
GRAHAM, Wash. – A father apparently shot to death five of his children, ages 7 to 16, at their mobile home and then killed himself near a casino miles away, police said Saturday.
Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff, called it a domestic violence situation and a murder-suicide.
“We believe they all died of gunshot wounds,” Troyer said.
Police early Saturday found the father slain from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was in his car, parked near the Muckleshoot Casino in Auburn, about 30 miles south of Seattle. Later in the day, Pierce County deputies checked the mobile home, which is about 20 miles southeast of the casino, and found four of the children dead in their beds and the fifth in the bathroom.
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Gun Deaths in the United States 