Officer Betty Shelby tells us why she had to KILL Terrence Crutcher

Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby, identified as the officer who shot 40-year-old Terence Crutcher on Friday night, has offered her side of the story in the fatal encounter.

In dashcam and helicopter video released by police, Crutcher appears to have his hands up moments before he is shot by Shelby. Shelby's attorney, Scott Wood, maintains that Crutcher refused to follow more than two dozen commands and that he reached into the open window of the car before Shelby perceived a threat and shot him.

The Crutcher family's attorneys Benjamin L. Crump and Damario Solomon-Simmons said the window was up, evidenced by the blood spattered on it when he was shot.

The Department of Justice is investigating Shelby's use of force.

Here is Shelby's side of the story, according to her attorney and the police department.


SHELBY WAS RESPONDING TO A DIFFERENT INCIDENT

At about 7:36 p.m. Friday, dispatchers received a 911 call about an abandoned SUV in the middle of a street, with the driver's door open and the engine still running, Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said Monday. The caller said a man was running from the vehicle, saying it was "going to blow."

Shelby and another officer were on their way to a domestic violence call when she came across the SUV, Jordan said.

On her way to that call, Shelby saw Crutcher standing in the middle of the road, looking down at the ground, Wood said, adding that she would have stopped and checked up on him had she not been on the other call.



She then saw the SUV parked in the middle of the street, obstructing traffic in both directions, Wood said. The engine was running when she got there, which she found odd because she assumed it was either disabled or broken down, he said.



THE ENCOUNTER STARTED MORE THAN A MINUTE BEFORE WHAT IS SHOWN ON THE RELEASED VIDEO

Wood said "it's important to remember" that Shelby was on the scene with Crutcher for about a minute and a half before the start of the video clip released by police on Monday.

When Shelby approached the car, the doors were closed, and the windows were open, Wood said. She looked into the passenger's side to make sure no one was on the floor of the car, and as she was getting ready to move to the driver's side, she turned around and saw Crutcher walking toward her, Wood said.

Wood said that Shelby then said to Crutcher, "Hey, is this your car?"

Crutcher didn't respond, simply dropping his head while continuing to look at Shelby, "kind of under his brow," Wood said. Crutcher then began to put his hand into his left pocket, Wood said, adding that Shelby told Crutcher, "Hey, please keep your hands out of your pocket while you're talking to me. Let's deal with his car."

Crutcher did not respond, Wood said, so Shelby ordered him again to get his hand out of his pocket. He then pulled his hand away and put his hands up in the air, even though he was not instructed to do so, which Shelby found strange, Wood said.

Shelby tried to get Crutcher to talk to her, but he simply mumbled something unintelligible and stared at her, Wood said. He then turned and walked to the edge of the roadway and turned to look at her, his hands still in the air, Wood said. He put his hands down and started to reach into his pocket again, Wood said, and she ordered him again to get his hands out of his pocket.

At this point, Shelby, a drug recognition expert, believed Crutcher was "on something," Wood said, possibly PCP.

Shelby then radioed in that she had a subject "who is not following commands."

"You can kind of hear a degree of stress in her voice when she says that," Wood said.

Shelby then pulled out her gun and had Crutcher at gunpoint as she commanded him to get on his knees, Wood said. She pulled out a gun instead of a Taser because she thought he had a weapon, and she was planning to arrest him for being intoxicated in public and possibly obstructing the investigation, Wood said.

Shelby ordered Crutcher to stop multiple times as Crutcher walked toward the SUV with his hands up, Wood said.

But those orders cannot be heard in the audio from the dashcam video, which starts as another patrol car pulls up to the scene, showing Crutcher walking toward the SUV with his hands up as Shelby follows him, apparently with her weapon drawn and pointing at Crutcher.


CRUTCHER ALLEGEDLY ATTEMPTED TO REACH INTO THE SUV

As the video from the helicopter begins, Crutcher was "angling" toward his car while Shelby repeatedly commanded him to stop, Wood said. His hands were still in the air.

"As a police officer, you have to wonder - why would someone ignore commands at gunpoint to get to a certain location?" Wood said.

Crutcher's arms came down, and he turned to face the car, Wood said, and he reached into the driver's side window with his left hand. That's when Shelby fired one shot and a fellow officer, Tyler Turnbough, deployed a Taser, Wood said.

Shelby believed that when Crutcher attempted to reach into the car, he was retrieving a weapon, Wood said. In her interview with homicide detectives, she said, "I was never so scared in my life as in that moment right then," according to Wood.

Source: ABC7

Keith Lamont Scott had a GUN and not a BOOK so Police SHOT him DEAD--Chief

Keith Lamont Scott

The armed man fatally shot by North Carolina cops Tuesday was given multiple warnings to drop his weapon, police officials said in the wake of violent late-night clashes between law enforcement and protesters. The killing of Keith Lamont Scott, 43, set off a night of protests and violence that left 16 officers injured as demonstrators threw rocks and blocked a highway, authorities said.

"The extent of injuries varied, but all are minor enough that they would be released," Putney said.

Scott had been sitting in his car at The Village at College Downs complex near the University of North Carolina at Charlotte when officers arrived before 4 p.m. ET.

READ MORE

This officer is DISTRAUGHT after shooting Keith Lamont Scott

Officer Brentley Vinson

"No matter if it's justified or unjustified, it's tough when you have to know that you had to take someone else's life," Michael Scurlock said during his appearance on "CNN Newsroom."

Scurlock, a former member of the NFL's St. Louis Rams and Carolina Panthers, said he spoke with Officer Brentley Vinson. The pair know one another from Bible study.
They spoke on the phone Tuesday evening, a development that came as a surprise to show host Brooke Baldwin.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

What exactly was Terrence Crutcher doing when he was SHOT and KILLED?

YAHOO NEWS DETAILS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THE TERRENCE CRUTCHER CASE. THE TULSA OKHLAHOMA POLICE HAVE RELEASED THE VIDEO. THE MAIN THING WAS THAT THIS GUY HAD HIS HANDS UP SO WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?WATCH THE VIDEO TO DETERMINE YOURSELF.

The father of Terence Crutcher says when he watched video footage of his unarmed son’s fatal shooting by a Tulsa, Okla., police officer, he was overcome with emotion.

“I lost it,” Rev. Joey Crutcher told CNN on Wednesday morning. “It was the most devastating thing that has ever happened to me in my life.”

On Monday, the Tulsa Police Department released videos from a police helicopter and a police cruiser dashcam that show the 40-year-old Crutcher as he walked to his SUV with his hands over his head when he was shot and killed Friday evening. Police had been responding to a stalled vehicle in the middle of a road.

The officer who shot Crutcher, 42-year-old Betty Shelby, was placed on paid administrative leave as police investigate the case as a possible homicide. An attorney for Shelby, Scott Wood, told the Tulsa World newspaper that she had recently undergone drug-recognition training and believed Crutcher was acting erratically and under the influence of PCP.

Tulsa police say they found the drug inside Crutcher’s car.

“I think that the police are trying to figure out a way to justify blaming Terence Crutcher for his own death,” Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the Crutcher family, said on CNN. “We don’t know what they found in the car. We will take it at their word because they got all the ‘evidence’ in their custody.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched its own investigation to determine whether a civil rights violation occurred during Crutcher’s death.

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#Houston mom Lee Kendra Childs SHOT & KILLED by Lady Kocaine says Internet Sleuths

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Maria Wilson of #Louisville #Kentucky FEARED for her life before gunned down!

Police in Kentucky released new details about a 19-year-old woman who was gunned down outside a Louisville apartment complex.

Police received a call of shots fired in the 3000 block of South Clay Street just before 6 p.m. Monday.

When police arrived at the scene, they found Mariah Wilson dead in a parking lot.

Wilson died from a single gunshot wound.

“I was watching TV and I heard some firecrackers. I thought it was firecrackers,” neighbor Sara Cowan told WLKY.

“It just sounded like furniture moving, so it didn’t really alarm me,” said neighbor Shekinah Armstrong, who lived in the Liberty Green apartments.

She said another neighbor was on the balcony adjacent to hers. The woman was hysterical and pointed to the ground below.

“She just kept saying, ‘oh God, oh God, oh God.’ That’s all she could muster.”

“My first instinct was to go help her. She was moving but then I didn’t know where the gunman was,” Armstrong said.

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking … and it’s just broad daylight,” said Armstrong.

A friend told investigators Wilson feared for her life recently.

Police said Wilson received threatening text messages on her cell phone. But investigators did not say if she was targeted by the killer.

Friends and family mourned Wilson in comments on her Facebook page.

“I saw her yesterday morning, early in the morning,” said Natwiya Yearby, a friend of Wilson’s.

Like others Yearby went to the last place Wilson was seen alive.

“I need to know where she was,” she said. “Was it really her? Like, I still don’t believe it.”

Yearby and other friends placed lighted candles and flowers at the scene.

“She’s really gone because of a selfish person,” Yearby said.

“We’re not going to sleep until we get answers.”

With files from Sandra Rose

Homicide rate has rebounded in #WashingtonDC but violence down 25%

Overall violent crime has fallen by more than 25 percent in the Washington metropolitan area over the past 10 years, but homicides have reached their highest peak since 2006, according to a report by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

The report mirrors statistics compiled in other large urban centers, where total crime including robberies has declined but homicides have increased in the past two years.

The area covered in the report stretches from Frederick County, Maryland, to Prince William County, Virginia. In that region, the population has grown by nearly 10 percent, to 5.5 million people, since 2006. Over the same period, the per capita crime rate has dropped from 25 per 1,000 people to 21 per 1,000 people. That statistic includes violent and property crimes.

Violent crime across the region fell from 21,483 cases in 2006 to 15,543 in 2015 — a 28 percent reduction. Over the past five years, the number of violent offenses has remained relatively unchanged from year to year. The report notes 15,845 violent crimes in 2011 and 15,543 in 2015, with no significant spikes in the intervening years.

However, the homicide rates have rebounded. In 2006, the region recorded 364 homicides, and a decade later the tally is 307. But the number declined significantly from 2011 to 2014.

The report attributes the regional increase in homicides to a rise in slayings in the District and in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. Other jurisdictions recorded unchanged or lower homicide rates over the past five years.

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AGAIN: 2 women SHOT by someone in moving car at #Toronto's Islington and Finch area

Tony Smyth (CBC)

The gunfire continues in Toronto, Canada in what some are calling the worst year ever. Remember I started my gun violence activism here. last night it was in Etobicoke at Islington and Finch were bullets were fired. Have any info call 1800222TIPS aka Crimestoppers. Your tips are anonymous.

Two 21-year-old women were shot while out walking in northwest Toronto late Monday night.

The victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries when an assailant fired shots from a car in the area of Islington and Vanhill Avenues north of Finch Avenue West.

Toronto police said they received a call about the shooting just before midnight.

Const. Victor Kwong, spokesperson for the police, said it is not known whether the car was stopped or moving.

The women fled to a parking lot near Islington Avenue and San Pietro Way, where they were located by police and then were taken to hospital.

Kwong said police have not released any suspect information. The victims described the car as small.

Investigators are looking for witnesses and searching for surveillance camera video.

With files from CBC

Alleged VIOLENT gangster trial in #Chicago begins graphic SHOOTING testimony

This undated photo provided by the Violent Crimes Task Force, Chicago Division, shows Paris Poe. Poe is one of six defendants on trial for racketeering and other charges are purported leaders of the widely feared Hobos, a South Side gang that federal prosecutors say murdered, maimed and tortured their way into control of some of Chicago's most lucrative drug markets. Their federal trial begins Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016 with opening statements in Chicago. (Violent Crimes Task Force, Chicago Division via AP)

CHICAGO — Six purported leaders of the Hobos street gang went on trial Wednesday in a case that is expected to provide a rare look inside the criminal activity fueling gun violence in the nation’s third-largest city.

Prosecutors say the defendants murdered, maimed and tortured their way into controlling the most lucrative drug markets on Chicago’s South Side. Their trial is the biggest proceeding of its kind in recent city history, and testimony is expected to last for months.

Federal prosecutor Patrick Otlewski told jurors that the six men charged with racketeering are “an all-star team of the worst of the worst” who “terrorized the city.”

“You will look into the eyes of murderers ... every day,” he said in opening statements.

Among the defendants is alleged Hobos hit man Paris Poe, who prosecutors say killed a government witness in 2013, shooting the man 25 times at close range while his horrified stepchildren, ages 4 and 6 at the time, screamed in the back seat of a car. The 4-year-old later told investigators the “Boogie Man” had attacked them, according to court filings.

As the prosecutor told the story of the witness’ death to jurors, he walked toward Poe sitting behind a defence table, raising his voice.

“Who would do such a thing?” he asked about the killing and then pointing at Poe. “That man is in this courtroom ... in that blue shirt — a cold-blooded murderer.”

At one point, Otllewski held up two sleek, black rifles in each hand a few feet from the jury box, saying they belonged to the defendants. He also held up what he called a high-powered pistol with “special bullets” that “ripped through cars and ripped through human flesh.”

“In the hands of Hobos, these were killing machines,” he said.

Prosecutors will seek to prove that the defendants’ criminal conspiracy involved at least nine murders, including the killing of semi-pro basketball player, Eddie Moss Jr., in a case of mistaken identity and the fatal drive-by shooting of two rival gang members outside a funeral home.

Security was heavy at federal court in downtown Chicago. The judge ordered jurors’ names be kept secret to ensure they are not subject to intimidation. U.S. marshals have already said they are investigating reported threats against several likely witnesses.

The 36-year-old Poe, alleged Hobos boss Gregory “Bowlegs” Chester and four other co-defendants have all pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they each face up to life in prison.

Prosecutors say the Hobos formed from several fractured gangs with home bases in Chicago public housing complexes that have since been demolished.

Government filings cite one co-defendant, William Ford, as explaining in a secretly recorded conversation how the gang got its name from an early emphasis by its founders in 2003 on jewelry and other heists.

“After they kept robbin’ ... they like, ’Man, we Hobo,”’ Ford said, according to court filings. “And Hobos, all they do is sleep and rob.”

But the Hobos’ apparent willingness to resort to violence meant those goals changed over a decade to the point where they became one of the city’s dominant gangs. Another Hobos motto, which Poe has tattooed to his back, reflected that ambition — “The Earth Is Our Turf.”

While narcotics promised huge profits, robbery remained an aspect of their criminal enterprise, prosecutors say. They allegedly held up then-NBA basketball player Bobby Simmons at gunpoint outside a nightclub in 2006, getting away with the athlete’s $200,000 white gold necklace. Prosecutors say they also robbed other drug traffickers.

Court filings describe a gun battle between Hobos and rival Black Disciples during a summer picnic in 2007, when Chester was shot 18 times. The Hobos spent weeks retaliating, shooting one Black Disciple in face during a drive-by shooting and hitting another as he walked into a daycare centre.

SOURCE: The AP

President Reagan/Jim Brady Shooter John Hinckley Jr RELEASED today after 35yrs in prison

AP/Evan Vucci

WASHINGTON - The man who shot President Ronald Reagan is scheduled to leave a Washington mental hospital for good on Saturday, more than 35 years after the shooting. A federal judge ruled in late July that the 61-year-old John Hinckley is not a danger to himself or the public and can live full-time at his mother's home in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Hinckley had already been visiting Williamsburg for long stretches at a time and preparing for the full-time transition. He'll have to follow a lot of rules while in Williamsburg, but his longtime lawyer Barry Levine says he thinks Hinckley will be a "citizen about whom we can all be proud."

This is what life will look like in Williamsburg for Hinckley:
WORK

Hinckley will have to work or volunteer at least three days a week. He hasn't yet done paid work in Williamsburg, but he has volunteered at a church and a mental health hospital, where he has worked in the library and in food service.

HOME SWEET HOME

Hinckley will start off living with his elderly mother in her home in the gated community of Kingsmill. The unassuming home is on the 13th hole of a golf course. Hinckley's room has a king-size bed and TV and is decorated with paintings he has done of houses and cats, according to court documents. In the past, he has done chores like cleaning, dishwashing, laundry and leaf-raking. After a year, he may live alone or with roommates.

THERAPY

Hinckley will continue to go to therapy while in Williamsburg. For at least the first six months he'll see his psychiatrist twice a month and he'll have to attend weekly group therapy sessions. He'll also see a therapist individually. He'll return to Washington once a month to St. Elizabeths' outpatient department to discuss his mental health and compliance with the conditions of his leave.

ROAD TRIPPING

Hinckley got a driver's license in 2011. The court order in his case lets him drive within 30 miles of Williamsburg by himself, which gets him to Newport News but not Norfolk. He can go up to 50 miles from the city if accompanied by his mom, sibling or a therapist or social worker. He can also drive to and from Washington once a month for his outpatient meetings.

LEISURE

Hinckley has long considered himself a musician and an artist. He paints and plays the guitar and has been involved in both as part of his therapy. He'll continue to see a music therapist once a month while in Williamsburg. At court hearings in the case in late 2011 and early 2012, lawyers discussed the fact that Hinckley had recently developed an interest in photography.

There are limits to how Hinckley can spend his leisure time. He also can't drink or use illegal drugs. He can surf the web but, at least initially, he's not allowed to search for information about his crimes or victims, among other things. He can't have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn without permission. Social media may introduce him to the dark world of trolls so they probably don't want him moving back in life.

VOTING

Once Hinckley lives in Virginia he can register to vote there. Hinckley has expressed an interest in voting in the past and tried unsuccessfully to get a ballot in the 1980s and 1990s. Hinckley's longtime lawyer Barry Levine told a newspaper in early August that he suspects his client will register to vote. Virginia's deadline to register for the November presidential election is Oct. 17.

MEDIA

Don't expect to see Hinckley giving any interviews. He's barred from talking to the press. Wow! That right there is UNFAIR. Can he write a book? Just asking.

With Files from CTV News

#Mississippi Police Chief Mike DeNardo FATALLY SHOOTS himself after being SUSPENDED!

Chief Mike DeNardo

VIDEO Of FULL STORY


On Thursday September 8th 2016, Bay St. Louis, Miss., Police Chief Mike De Nardo was suspended from his duties as part of an investigation by the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office into an ongoing personnel issue.

Immediately after receiving the news, De Nardo turned in his city belongings and walked out to the parking lot, accompanied by two Hancock deputies. De Nardo grabbed a gun — it is unclear whether the weapon belonged to him or one of the two deputies — and shot himself in the chest.

Witnesses told the Sun Herald that De Nardo continued speaking after shooting himself and seemed alert as he was loaded into an ambulance. He was rushed to the Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, Miss., where he was pronounced dead at 3:15 p.m.

Bay St. Louis Mayor Les Fillingame told the Associated Press that De Nardo was under investigation, but he declined to give any more details concerning either the investigation or the suspension. Fillingame also told the Associated Press he believed De Nardo would have been cleared of any wrongdoing.

But he also told WLOX that the evidence against De Nardo seemed “credible.”

“We were made aware of what seemed to be credible evidence,” Fillingametold WLOX. “No charges were filed. Just the very initial phase of an investigation.”

The AP reported Friday that De Nardo was facing an investigation focused on the sale of weapons:

Hancock County Chief Deputy Don Bass told the Associated Press that Bay St. Louis police chief Mike DeNardo illegally sold one city-owned assault rifle, and that authorities were looking into allegations that other city-owned weapons were sold as well.

It wasn’t clear if the buyer knew the sale was illegal, and Bass said he could not discuss whether the weapon was evidence from a case or had been purchased for the department’s use.

According to the police department’s website, De Nardo spent 30 years in law enforcement before his death Thursday. He served as a patrol supervisor and SWAT commander for 18 years at the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana before taking a position as a patrolman at the Bay St. Louis Police Department in 2004. There, he quickly rose through the ranks to patrol supervisor, then deputy chief.

Fillingame appointed him as police chief in 2010.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been as shocked in my life,” Fillingame told the Sun Herald. “He lost his mother this weekend. He had just gotten back from New York.”

Fillingame called De Nardo a “tremendous chief” who was a mentor and a friend.

FULL STORY

Why was #Ferguson Activist Darren Seals SHOT and KILLED, left in burning car?

Darren Seals (Facebook)

When the gunfire stopped on Aug. 3, 2013, Darren Seals had six gunshot wounds. The then-26-year-old, known for running with a rough crowd, had been hit as he stood outside his cousin’s house, waiting for a ride. The first tore through his stomach. Three more hit his hands, which he had thrown up to block his face. As he fell to the ground, two more bullets struck his feet.

It was the second time he’d been shot, according the account Seals would later provide in interviews and social media posts.

The third, and final time, came earlier this week.

St. Louis County Police say the remains of Seals’s lifeless body, which had at least one gunshot wound, were found early Tuesday morning inside his vehicle, which had been set aflame. Police are investigating his death as a homicide.

During the past three years, Seals had become among St. Louis’s most prominent anti-violence advocates and a co-founder of Hands Up United, an activist collective formed after the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

“Every time he talked about getting shot, he would say that moment forever changed his life,” said Mya Aaten-White, a St. Louis-based activist and close friend of Seals’s. “In that moment he made an agreement with himself to give his life to his community.”

Seals decided that once he got out of the hospital after his 2013 shooting he would join the ranks of local anti-gun-violence activists, according to accounts he gave in previous interviews and recollections of those who knew him. Not long later, he added police brutality to his list of causes. He was a “day-one” Ferguson protester — among the first to take to the streets to demand justice after Brown’s death.

“After Mike Brown, we saw it as our responsibility to step up,” said Aaten-White, who first met Seals on Aug. 9, 2014, the day Brown was killed, as they both stood with the crowd that was gathering at the QuikTrip gas station.

THE DERAY MCKESSON TENSIONS

“His Facebook page shows how controversial he was, under every post there was some kind of argument over what he was saying,” said Bradley Radford, a photojournalist who is among those who spent the most time covering the young activists who took to the streets after Michael Brown’s death. “He was always on 100.”

Those online tensions boiled over physically in February 2015 when, during a protest outside of the Ferguson Police Department, Seals confronted Mckesson in the parking lot of Andy Wurm Tire & Wheel autoshop, where demonstrators often gathered. According to previous interviews with both men, Seals approached and accused Mckesson of stealing money from local protest groups — an accusation often leveled at Mckesson and other prominent activists, but that has never been substantiated. When Mckesson smirked in response, Seals smacked him across the face.

MORE IN THE WASHINGTON POST

2 women SHOT in 8 hrs as Gang Wars brewing in #Manchester, United Kingdom

Two women have been shot ­within eight hours of each other amid fears of ­escalating gang warfare in Greater Manchester.

A 65-year-old was blasted in the leg in Clifton area on Friday evening with what are thought to be shotgun pellets and is in a stable condition in hospital.

And a 33-year-old woman was shot in Middleton in the early hours of yesterday ­while getting out of a car. She too was hit in the legs and is being treated for serious wounds in ­hospital, although her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Detectives are treating the incidents separately but have not ruled out if one or both are connected to gang warfare.

FULL STORY HERE

2 Veteran California officers SHOT by Jail Visitor and former inmate in #Fresno

Corrections Officers Juanita Davila (L) and Toamalama Scanlan Fresno County Sheriff's Office

Thong Vang (Fresno County Sheriff's Office)

Juanita Davila, with 18 years of experience, and Toamalama Scanlan, with 10 years of experience, both underwent surgery after suffering bullet wounds to their heads and their necks, according to a statement from the Fresno County Sheriff's Office.

The suspect, Thong Vang, 37, was also hospitalized with minor injuries after the incident, which occurred at 8:30 a.m., the statement said.

Vang is a known gang member who served 14 years in prison for multiple rape charges before he was released in 2014. The sheriff's office said he was at the jail to visit someone Saturday morning and became disgruntled when he was told he could not cut the line. He was told to take a seat but refused, and a "struggle ensued between Vang and the officers," at which point, Vang pulled out a handgun and shot Davila and Scanlan, the sheriff's office said.

Vang first fled and didn't surrender until after a Taser was deployed on him, but he finally "conveyed to officers he was giving up and wanted to be arrested," the sheriff's office said. He was being held on felony charges.

He was later charged with attempted murder, being a felon in possession of a gun, and a bringing drugs into jail. He was also placed on a parole hold.

Davila is a grandmother and Scanlan is a father of six, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said.

SOURCE: NBC News

Annabelle Flores, 15 was TARGETED in #Oceanside #SanDiego park SHOOTING

Police say a 15-year-old girl Annabelle Flores was shot and killed at a San Diego County park.

Oceanside police spokesman Ryan Keim says officers responded to calls about gunshots at Joe Balderrama Park in Oceanside shortly after 2:30 a.m. Saturday.

A spokeswoman for the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office on Sunday said the case was sealed and no further information would be released at the request of law enforcement.

Oceanside police officers responded to reports of shots fired at Balderrama Park, in the 700 block of San Diego Street at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday. They found the girl on a playground structure with at least one gunshot wound, Officer Ryan Keim said.

The girl was pronounced dead at the scene despite officers' attempts to save her life, according to Keim.

The preliminary investigation indicated that witnesses were most likely present during the shooting, Keim said. More information as I get it.

With files from AP and CBS8

Help @TPSHomicide #Toronto Police solve the KILLING of 61yo Grandmother Peggy Ann Smith

Peggy Ann Smith Smith (Toronto Police handout)

Toronto police say they believe a shooting that left a grandmother dead in a Riverdale community housing complex on Saturday was targeted, but that the 61-year-old woman wasn't the person the gunmen wanted to kill.

Police originally said Peggy Ann Smith was found with an apparent gunshot wound in an alleyway behind a home near Don Mount Court and Kintyre Avenue shortly after 6:15 p.m. on Saturday and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Speaking near the Smith family's home on Tuesday, homicide Det. David Dickinson told reporters Smith was found on the steps of her family's home. At least ten shots were fired in the incident, he said.

Dickinson said police are seeking two suspects and have released some surveillance footage that captures the men approaching the scene. Toronto Community Housing security as always were absent on duty. That area is a heavily Somali area of Toronto from when I lived in Canada and not new to crime.

Dickinson described one suspect as a male with a brown complexion in his twenties, approximately 5'6 tall with an average build. The man has a full beard and was wearing dark pants, a grey hoodie with the hood up and black cap at the time, the detective said.

The second suspect is described as black, of Somali descent in his late teens or early twenties, approximately 5'11 with a skinny build. Dickinson said he he was wearing dark pants and a grey hoodie with hood up at the time. The hoodie may also have have had dark band on it running horizontally.

In the video, the two men are seen calmly walking southbound toward the alleyway before fleeing northbound moments later. The two were last seen running on Hamilton Street, near Dundas, Dickinson said.

Dickinson said a group of men who were also in the alleyway at the time were likely the intended targets, but police haven't been able to speak to all of the men as yet.

There has been a recent spate of shootings over there I heard and most are gang related. Anyone with information is asked to contact Toronto police's homicide unit at (416) 808-7400 or 55 Division at (416) 808-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

With files from CBC

Why were #Aurora Massacre SHOOTING survivors SUED for $700,000?

James Holmes Aurora Mass Shooter

DENVER — They had survived brain damage, paralysis and the deaths of their children. For four years, they met in secret as a group. Now, they were finally prepared to settle with the Aurora movie theater that became the site of one of the deadliest massacres in U.S. history.

Marcus Weaver kept a calm facade, but writhed with anxiety within. His dreams often return him to the theater, the sounds of gunshots and the feeling of his friend's lifeless body slumped against him. After he escaped, he found a bullet hole in his shoulder.

On a conference call, the federal judge overseeing the case told the plaintiffs' attorneys that he was prepared to rule in the theater chain's favor. He urged the plaintiffs to settle with Cinemark, owner of the Century Aurora 16 multiplex where the July 20, 2012, shooting occurred. They had 24 hours.

But before that deadline, the settlement would collapse and four survivors of the massacre would be ordered to pay the theater chain more than $700,000.

The Los Angeles Times corroborated this account with four parties who were present at the settlement conference but declined to be identified because the negotiations were private.

A separate set of survivors had just suffered a devastating defeat in state court, where a jury of six decided that Cinemark could not have foreseen the events of that night, when James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 others in a 10-minute rampage at a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises."

The survivors, some of whom had two or three attorneys with them, were told that the state case had decided the issue — Cinemark was not liable for the shooting, and U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, who oversaw the federal case, was about to issue an order saying as much.

The federal lawsuit was effectively over.

But Jackson wanted the survivors and Cinemark to end the case with a settlement. It was 8 a.m. June 23. For the next eight hours, attorneys for both sides inched closer to a deal.

At 4 p.m., Cinemark's attorneys presented a settlement offer. Before it was read, a federal magistrate cornered Weaver to speak with him one-on-one. He asked Weaver to remember the slow pace of change in the civil rights movement, and told him that changing theater safety would also be slow.

"It was the biggest smack in the face," Weaver said. "He was basically telling us, you're right, they're basically at fault, but there's justice and then there's true justice."

It wasn't a good deal, Weaver thought: $150,000 split among the 41 plaintiffs.

Weaver leaned in close to his attorney.

"That's it?" he asked.

"That's it," Phil Hardman replied.

But the settlement would achieve the one thing Weaver had been pushing for, an acknowledgment that the theater chain would take new measures to protect patrons. Still, something was worrying him.

"It was the 12th hour, we were all feeling the same way. We all knew they were liable. We knew they were at fault," Weaver said. "(The settlement) was a slap in the face. But I said, 'Let's go for it because it's better than nothing.'"

The deal came with an implied threat: If the survivors rejected the deal, moved forward with their case and lost, under Colorado law, they would be responsible for the astronomical court fees accumulated by Cinemark.

The choice for the survivors was clear, Weaver said.

"Either seek justice and go into debt, or take that pitiful offering of money and the improved public safety," Weaver said.

The plaintiffs and their attorneys all seemed to agree. They decided on a split of $30,000 each to the three most critically injured survivors. The remaining 38 plaintiffs would equally share the remaining $60,000.

Attorneys with Cinemark drafted a news release to distribute the next day.

Then one plaintiff rejected the deal.

The plaintiff, who had been gravely wounded in the shooting, wanted more money than the proposed share of the settlement. The Times is not naming the plaintiff because the plaintiff could not be reached for comment.

Weaver's vision briefly blurred. The eight hours they had spent negotiating the deal, the weeks of the failed state court trial, the four years of anger at the theater since the shooting — all of it was for nothing.

"It was done then," Weaver said.

He removed himself as a plaintiff immediately. So did 36 other people. Four plaintiffs remained on the case the next day, June 24, when Jackson handed down the order that Cinemark was not liable for the damages.

The court costs in the state case were $699,000. The costs in the federal case are expected to be far more.

"A blind guy in a dark alley could have seen (the state verdict) coming," Hardman, Weaver's attorney, said.

Several plaintiffs and attorneys, including those who would not comment on the settlement negotiations, expressed frustration with the way the state case was handled.

In that case, a New York attorney representing 27 people paid one expert $22,000 to testify. Cinemark paid five experts $500,000 to testify. Most damaging to their case, the state plaintiffs were not permitted to enter a crucial piece of evidence before the jury — a May 2012 warning from the Department of Homeland Security to theater chains nationwide concerning the potential for a mass-casualty attack on a theater.

"I strongly think that this guy was trying to make a name for himself and he wanted to get ahead of the curve," Weaver said. "You've got this guy from New York representing people in Colorado who were probably misguided, to be honest."

The case put forward in state court was so weak, the federal plaintiffs felt, that a rumor circulated among them that the case was a setup by Cinemark designed to fail.

"That's ridiculous," said Marc Bern, the attorney who argued the state case and is known for representing rescue workers from the Sept. 11 attacks. "We had all the resources possible. The only expert we needed was a security expert."

In August 2015, Holmes was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, avoiding the death penalty.

Weaver, 45, has married and had a child since the shooting, a blue-eyed girl named Maggie. He still goes to therapy, which he said has helped him. The way the case ended, however, will never leave him.

"Theaters aren't any safer," Weaver said. "It's almost like everything was for naught."

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