Tag: crime

Suspect confesses to crucifying pastor in Arizona home – and had others on hit list

In a chilling jailhouse interview, the man accused of a gruesome, religiously motivated murder of a beloved pastor in Arizona said he had committed the crime and revealed he had a broader hit list of religious leaders he intended to kill during his murderous rampage.

Adam Christopher Sheafe, 51, told True Crime Arizona Monday that he crucified 76-year-old Pastor William Schonemann, known in the community as “Pastor Bill,” inside his New River home in April.

Sheafe said the attack was part of what he claimed was a divine mission to punish religious leaders who, in his view, were misleading followers.

“I drove from there (Phoenix) to Bill’s house, like two in the morning on a Sunday night, and I executed him,” Sheafe told the correspondent Briana Whitney, who sat across the table from him.

Schonemann was found dead in his bed, covered in blood, on April 28 during a welfare check.

During the interview, Sheafe spoke about the disturbing scene, which included details about a crown of thorns, which he said he made from what he found in the woods, and placed on Schonemann’s head.

“Because what I’m saying is, what you’re preaching is not what God said,” Sheafe explained. “It’s the opposite of what God said.”

Sheafe revealed that Schonemann was not his only target. Prior to the murder, he said he had followed a priest home after Easter services in Phoenix with the intent to kill him — the first of 14 intended “executions” across the country.

“Starting in Arizona, where I was born,” Sheafe said. “Where it starts is where it ends, like the Garden of Eden.”

But he claimed to have stopped that first attempt when two women unexpectedly entered the priest’s garage.

“I’m not interested in executing anyone other than the pastors or the shepherds leading the flock astray,” he said.

After killing Schonemann, Sheafe said he traveled to Sedona, where he planned to murder two more religious leaders. He would later be identified as the suspect in a burglary which led to a high-speed chase with Sedona police.

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DC government is faking crime data, systematically under-reporting violence

Despite triumphant claims of “historic drops” in violent crime, D.C. residents find ourselves kicking off the summer with feelings of uncertainty. As I explore a possible run for local office, I have learned that systematic undercharging is fueling some portion of these so-called declines in violent crime. In short, a manipulation of the crime statistics is causing them not to align with reality, which helps explain why people in Washington don’t feel safe. 

When a violent crime is reported as a “felony threat,” rather than “assault with a dangerous weapon,” it is not counted as a violent crime.

Our city leaders must act now to determine whether this is happening, to what extent, and how it impacts not only those within my own Ward 6, but also throughout the district.

On Feb. 20, to great fanfare, the Metropolitan Police Department Public Information Officer released the following statement: “Our initiatives and investments led to a historic 35 percent drop in violent crime in 2024, including a 32 percent drop in homicides and a 39 percent decrease in robberies. These decreases drove crime in Washington, D.C. down to its lowest levels in more than two decades.”

Similarly, the Department of Justice previously announced that “total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35 percent from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years, according to data collected by the [Metropolitan Police Department].”

And, not surprisingly, these statistics have worked their way into the community’s bloodstream. In a May 24 Ward 6 Update, Councilman Charles Allen trumpeted them in his public safety updates by noting “a consistent decline in violent crime that we want to sustain and continue to drive down even further.” 

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California vice mayor calls for GANGS to defend their ‘hood’ from ICE

The vice mayor of a Los Angeles County city is reportedly under federal investigation after posting a video to social media in which she called on gang members to defend their “turf” from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Cynthia Gonzalez shared the video to social media late last week, Fox News reported, in which she said, “Not for nothing, but I wanna know where all the cholos are at in Los Angeles. 18 Street, Florencia, where’s the leadership at? Because you guys are all about territory and this is 18 Street and this is Florencia, you guys tag everything up claiming hood and now that your hood’s being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain’t a peep out of you.

“It’s everyone else who’s not about the gang life that’s out there protesting and speaking up. We’re out there, like, fighting our turf, protecting our turf, protecting our people, and like, where you at,” she continued.

“I’m like, dude, they’re running amok all up on your streets, on your streets and in your city, and peep when the big gang guns come in, nothing but like, quiet. And we’re out here, the regular ones that have never been jumped in, out here calling things out, out trying to organize people, trying to do the thing. So don’t be trying to claim no block, no nothing if you’re not showing up right now, trying to like, help out and organize. I don’t want to hear a peep out of you once they’re gone, tryna claim that this is my block. This was not your block, you weren’t even here helping out. So whoever’s the leadership over there, just f*cking get your members in order.”

The video was reportedly deleted shortly after it was posted. Federal sources told Fox News that she was later visited by FBI agents at her home and is now under a federal investigation. The sources said that she went back on social media to say that the FBI had come to her home and she needed a lawyer. 

The Department of Homeland Security called Gonzalez’s comments “despicable,” adding, “She calls for criminal gangs – including the vicious 18th street gang—to commit violence against our brave ICE law enforcement. This kind of garbage has led to a more than 500 percent increase in assaults against our ICE law enforcement officers. Secretary Noem has been clear: If you assault a federal officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

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Campaign aide to socialist contender to become mayor of New York sympathized with Luigi Mangione in warped tribute

A campaign aide to socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani showed sympathy for alleged United Healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione in posts online, the Daily Mail has learned.

Mamdani’s political director, Julian Gerson, posted on December 29th of 2024 on Facebook that he was ‘looking forward to driving down Mangione Avenue a few decades from now.’

In social media posts obtained by the Daily Mail, Gerson made the remark replying to a comment after he shared a personal essay on the impact Mangione was having on public discourse in the weeks after he allegedly murdered United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.

In his essay, Gerson concluded that Manginone ‘is adored not only because he dared to target a leader of one of the most vile, self-enriching industries darkening our society today, but because he dared to defy the stasis of nihilistic rejection.’

‘The question is not whether he was right or wrong. It’s how many others he has shaken loose,’ Gerson concluded.

Per Gerson’s LinkedIn page, which bears the same profile photograph as his Facebook profile, he has worked for Mamdani’s mayoral campaign since March.

Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail about Gerson’s post.

Mangione became a global phenomena due to the fascination around his privileged background and Hollywood good looks. For many on the left, he morphed into a vessel for radical rebellion against a system of economic injustice. 

Mangione remains in custody and federal prosecutors have chosen to seek the death penalty if he’s convicted.

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Judge Rules MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia Should NOT be Detained on His Criminal Charges of Child Trafficking – DOJ Appeals

Federal magistrate judge Barbara Holmes on Sunday ruled MS-13 gang member and wife beater Kilmar Abrego Garcia should not be detained on his criminal charges.

Abrego Garcia will likely remain in custody on an ICE detainer.

“As required by the Bail Reform Act, the Court has reviewed the evidence presented at the June 13 hearing and considered the parties’ arguments and the Pretrial Services report. For the reasons detailed below, the government’s motion for detention is DENIED. Specifically, the Court finds that no detention hearing is authorized under the Bail Reform Act in this case because the government failed to prove that this case involves: (1) a minor victim within the meaning of § 3142(f)(1)(E); (2) a “serious risk” that Abrego will flee, as required by § 3142(f)(2)(A); or, (3) a “serious risk” that Abrego will obstruct justice or otherwise interfere with the integrity of this proceeding, as required by § 3142(f)(2)(B),” the judge wrote in a 51-page memo.

Earlier this month Kilmar Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to human trafficking charges as and fought for his release pending trial.

Abrego Garcia appeared in a Nashville court clad in a red jumpsuit.

A federal grand jury in Tennessee recently indicted Kilmar Abrego Garcia for “transporting undocumented migrants within the United States.”

He was charged with one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens.

According to the indictment, Kilmar Abrego Garcia and co-conspirators from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and the US were trafficking illegal aliens from 2016 through 2025.

Read the indictment here.

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Florida Police: Christian School Teacher May Have Used Student Images to Create AI Child Porn

A sixth-grade teacher in Central Florida was arrested this week on a host of charges for possessing child pornography, apparently created with online AI technology and possibly using student photos from his Christian school.

State Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office charged David McKeown of Holly Hill with 19 enhanced felony counts of possession of child sexual abuse material and six counts of possession of animal pornography, according to a statement released by the office.

McKeown was arrested Friday by the Holly Hill Police Department at his home in Volusia County. He was a sixth-grade teacher at United Brethren in Christ (UBIC) Academy, a school affiliated with the UBIC church.

Holly Hill Police Department’s investigation alleges that McKeown shared and downloaded pornographic images depicting child porn via Discord, an online chat service, while at school and connected to the school’s Wi-Fi network.

Some 30 images were allegedly shared, including six files depicting McKeown sexually abusing animals, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLA) reported.

Uthmeier said in the statement:

As a teacher, parents trusted Mr. McKeown to impart knowledge to their children. Instead, he spent parts of the school day sending and receiving child sex abuse material and providing other pedophiles with UBIC Academy students’ personal information. What he did is beyond betrayal — it’s devastating and sick.

The investigation was launched early this month after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which tracks the internet for exploitative content involving minors, Orlando’s Fox 35 reported.

The news outlet also reported authorities believe McKeown used AI technology to create the pornographic images and may have used photos of real children, perhaps his own students. The investigation is continuing.

Detectives seized a number of devices from the teacher’s home in Holly Hill and from the school. He was booked into the Volusia County jail and a judge denied him the possibility of bond.

If convicted, he faces up to 315 years in prison, officials said.

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Now We Know Why the Minnesota Assassin Story Disappeared Overnight

Have you wondered why the story of the Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter has suddenly vanished from the news? Now we have a pretty good idea why.

Boelter, who murdered State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband while also shooting State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, unleashed terror that sparked a massive manhunt before his capture late Sunday. Initial media coverage was rife with speculation, with left-leaning outlets eager to cast Boelter as a MAGA Republican, hastily blaming the GOP and even President Donald Trump for inciting his shooting spree. 

Yet the letter found in Boelter’s abandoned vehicle tells a radically different story, one that not only exposes the media’s rush to judgment and political opportunism but sudden drop in coverage.

According to Minnesota’s largest newspaper, the Star-Tribune, Boelter believed he was acting under the supposed orders of Democrat Gov. Tim Walz. Boelter’s incoherent letter, about a page and a half long, bizarrely claimed that killing Sen. Amy Klobuchar was necessary to clear the way for Walz to run for the U.S. Senate. 

The letter is the clearest evidence yet of Boelter’s mindset after the targeted violence against Minnesota politicians last week. It is incoherent, one and a half pages long, confusing and hard to read, according to two people familiar with the letter’s contents. It includes Boelter alleging he had been trained by the U.S. military off the books, and that Walz, who is not running for Senate, had asked him to kill Klobuchar and others.

Asked to comment about the letter, Hennepin County Attorney spokesperson Daniel Borgertpoepping said the office cannot comment on an open investigation but “due to the seriousness of the allegations it contains, we will state only that we have seen no evidence that the allegations regarding Governor Walz are based in fact.”

What’s more, as we previously reported, Walz appointed Boelter to a government workforce board, a fact that seemingly fueled his delusion of a personal relationship with the governor. But this imagined relationship was the extent of any link, as the letter’s ramblings make clear. There is no evidence that support for Trump or any conservative cause motivated Boelter’s actions. Instead, his violent spree was rooted in a deranged fixation on Walz, a far cry from the media’s initial narrative that sought to weaponize the tragedy against the pro-Trump right.

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Top blue city councilor is arrested by FBI over arson and fraud plot

A city councilman in a small northern California community was arrested for allegedly burning down a farmhouse he owned so he and his accomplices could fraudulently collect on the insurance money.

Live Oak Vice Mayor Aaron Pamma, 30, was taken to jail Thursday along with his brother Simren Pamma, 28, who is a Live Oak Unified School District board member.

Also arrested for the alleged scheme was Gurtej Singh, 28, the Butte County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

The fire in question happened in February of 2024, authorities say Singh purchased the property in April 2023 under a Department of Agriculture mortgage scheme.

One month after the purchase, Singh transferred half of the ownership of the land to the two brothers, the Butte County DA’s office said.

The office confirmed to CBS Sacramento that the two are brothers and are friends with Singh.

Cal Fire Investigators said they discovered that Singh had purchased insurance for the property three months before the blaze. 

After the fire, he then allegedly filed a false insurance claim on the property, officials said.

The property was sold on after the fire and the three collected an insurance payment which gave them a profit of $200,000, the DA’s office said.

The three are facing charges of arson, Aaron Pamma is facing additional charges of fraud, perjury, supporting a false insurance claim and conspiracy to destroy insured property for fraud.

Simren Pamma is facing a charge of conspiracy to destroy insured property for fraud. 

Singh meanwhile faces charges of fraud, wire fraud, destroying an insured property for fraud, presenting a false insurance claim and perjury. 

Another man, Javier Molina-Bravo, 37, was charged with felony counts of check fraud last March.

Authorities say Molina-Bravo runs Big Dog Handyman and was hired to renovate the farmhouse. 

It is alleged that he purchased thousands of dollars’ worth of goods and materials from multiple businesses using checks on a non-existent bank account.

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Alleged Minn. Assassin Says Gov. Tim Walz Wanted Him To Kill Sen. Amy Klobuchar

The man accused of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses reportedly wrote in a letter to the FBI that Gov. Tim Walz also wanted him to assassinate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, according to a bombshell report from the Minnesota Star Tribune. A Walz did not deny the allegation when commenting on the report.

Citing two people familiar with letter’s contents, the Star Tribune reported Friday that Boelter claimed “Gov. Tim Walz instructed him to kill U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar so that Walz could run for the U.S. Senate.”

Boelter does have a loose link to Walz, who ran for Vice President last year on Kamala Harris’s ticket. Boelter was appointed to the workforce development board by then-Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton in 2016 and then reappointed in 2019 by Walz to a four-year term that expired in 2023.

However, the Star Tribune reported that Boelter’s letter reflected the ramblings of a mentally ill man, downplaying the likelihood that what he says about Walz is true.

“The letter is the clearest evidence yet of Boelter’s mindset after the targeted violence against Minnesota politicians last week. It is incoherent, one and a half pages long, confusing and hard to read, according to two people familiar with the letter’s contents,” the newspaper reported. “It includes Boelter alleging he had been trained by the U.S. military off the books, and that Walz, who is not running for Senate, had asked him to kill Klobuchar and others.”

Hennepin County Attorney spokesperson Daniel Borgertpoepping reportedly responded to the letter, saying that “due to the seriousness of the allegations it contains, we will state only that we have seen no evidence that the allegations regarding Governor Walz are based in fact.”

Instead of denying the allegation, a Walz spokesman reportedly gave a rambling non-answer.

“This tragedy continues to be deeply disturbing for all Minnesotans,” said the spokesperson, Teddy Tschann

“Governor Walz is grateful to law enforcement who apprehended the shooter, and he’s grateful to the prosecutors who will ensure justice is swiftly served,” Tschann said.

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To Defeat Drug Cartels, Corrupt Bankers Must Be Jailed

“There are far more ‘bad apples’ in the banking sales industry, in the legal profession, in the financial service provider industry and in the international business community than the world can comprehend.” – Robert Mazur

Drug cartels are menacing on two levels: they mass produce and sell extremely addictive drugs literally by the ton, and they leverage highly effective global money laundering systems to plow their illegal profits into mainstream commerce. Too often, corrupt bankers are actively or passively complicit. If we can stop the bankers, we throw a huge wrench into the cartels’ ability to function.

For decades, law enforcement has valiantly fought drug smugglers but to little avail. Consider this 2024 statement from the U.S. Treasury:

During the assessment period, Clan del Golfo (CDG), a Colombia-based TCO and paramilitary organization, remained a significant producer and trafficker of cocaine destined for U.S. drug markets and earned a significant amount of proceeds in U.S. dollars. According to the DOJ, CDG is one of the most violent and powerful criminal organizations in Colombia, and it is one of the largest distributors of cocaine in the world.

Mostly, America’s fight against the cartels has been done using a tactical troops on the ground approach that sends some of the most vicious cutthroat criminals to prison. However, the bankers who knowingly handle the cartels’ money rarely pay a price. And it’s a lot of money: “The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates between 2 per cent and 5 per cent of global GDP—up to $2 trillion—is laundered every year.” According to a DEA agent, the cartels are “undermining [America’s] financial stability.”

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