Tag: murder

LA cops are hunting a SERIAL KILLER after three homeless people were shot dead by ‘hooded male suspect’ – as police warn locals to avoid sleeping outside alone at night

LAPD has warned that a potential serial killer could be on the loose after three homeless people were murdered in the past week. 

Police are asking the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect responsible for three murders that occurred on November 26, 27, and 29 around downtown and in South Los Angeles, California. 

The LAPD said the investigation is at the early stage, but noted similarities in those three killings. 

‘A single individual approached each one and shot and killed each one as they slept,’ LAPD Chief Michel Moore said. 

‘The suspect, hooded, targets lone, unsheltered individuals sleeping on the streets, shooting them before fleeing in a vehicle without any observed altercation’, LAPD reported during a Friday afternoon press conference. 

‘To the person responsible: We will find you, we will catch you and you will be held accountable,’ Mayor Karen Bass said. 

Keep reading

Los Angeles social justice group founder shot, killed by homeless woman who broke into his home

A homeless woman allegedly broke into the Los Angeles home of a 33-year-old social worker on Monday and shot him to death. The suspect, Jameelah Elena Michl, 36, was arrested on the scene. Michael Latt was taken to a hospital and later died of his injuries. Michl had reportedly been living in her car, and it’s unclear if Michl and Latt were acquainted. 

Latt was a social justice advocate and founder of the group Lead with Love. The marketing consulting group had a mission to elevate black and minority entertainers in Hollywood. Latt was associated with rapper Common, along with Ilhan Omar, Stacey Adams and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

Keep reading

Jabar Walker Exonerated After 25 Years of Wrongful Conviction in Manhattan Double Homicide

Jabar Walker was exonerated today in Manhattan after more than a quarter century of wrongful conviction and incarceration for a double homicide he did not commit. The exoneration came after a joint reinvestigation by the Innocence Project and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s Post-Conviction Justice Unit revealed new evidence of Mr. Walker’s innocence.

Mr. Walker was convicted in the 1995 murders of Ismael De La Cruz and William Santana Guzman on 148th Street in Manhattan, following an investigation by officers from New York Police Department’s 30th Precinct. The precinct was known at the time as the “Dirty 30” due to widespread corruption amongst its officers.  

Misconduct in the precinct was so rampant that an investigation by the Mollen Commission, formed by New York City to investigate allegations of NYPD corruption, resulted in the arrest of 33 officers  — a staggering one-sixth of the precinct — in the 1990s. The Mollen Commission found that officers in the “Dirty 30” routinely engaged in perjury, record falsification, thefts during searches and seizures, and distribution of narcotics.

The Innocence Project and Post-Conviction Justice Unit’s joint re-investigation revealed police from the precinct pressured a witness, John Mobley, to incriminate Mr. Walker by falsely saying that Mr. Walker had admitted to the crime. Police questioned Mr. Mobley, showing him photos of other crime scenes and implied that they would charge him with those homicides if he did not cooperate. On the day of Mr. Walker’s sentencing in 1998, Mr. Mobley went to Mr. Walker’s attorney’s office seeking to recant that testimony — and has recanted his testimony under oath a number of times since. 

Further new evidence of Mr. Walker’s innocence includes the fact that the prosecution’s sole eyewitness to identify Mr. Walker as the assailant, Vanessa Vigo, misidentified another innocent man in a different neighborhood shooting and received monetary benefits in connection with her testimony against Mr. Walker. Ms. Vigo’s account of the shooting was riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and key facts in her account changed from the time of her first conversation with police to the trial. Another eyewitness to the shooting who was familiar with Mr. Walker is adamant that he is not the person he saw committing the crime. 

“We thank DA Bragg’s Post-Conviction Justice Unit for a truly collaborative and transparent joint-reinvestigation, which stands as a model for how post-conviction innocence claims can and should be investigated in a non-adversarial process. The joint re-investigation, guided by a commitment to transparency and the ascertainment of truth, revealed a myriad of ways where the system failed Mr. Walker, and uncovered pervasive misconduct that led to his wrongful conviction and new evidence of what he has stated all along — he is innocent. He has now spent more than half of his life in prison for a crime he did not do,” said Vanessa Potkin, Innocence Project’s director of special litigation.

Keep reading

Colombian actor Kevin Munoz who appeared on Netflix and Apple TV is found tied up and tortured to death

A Colombian actor who appeared in a Netflix movie and Apple TV series has been found dead with his hands and feet tied.

The body of Kevin Andres Munoz Tovar was found in La Playita, in the Colombian city of Tulua on Monday. 

The actor was found tied at the hands and feet, and suffered several machete wounds in what appeared to be an act of torture, local media reported. 

A 19-year-old teenager, who has not yet been named, was arrested as a suspect for the murder, according to local police.

Major Nicolas Guillermo Suarez Plata, of the Tulua Police District, said: ‘The Valle Police Department reports that,thanks to the timely information provided by citizens, in an operational deployment of the Police, the capture of a 19-year-old man was achieved who, minutes before, had allegedly participated in the homicide of Kevin Andres Munoz Tovar, a renowned actor from a Colombian film.

‘The subjects who caused the injuries then fled the scene, but thanks to information from the community, one of them was captured.’

Tovar participated as a secondary actor in the 2020 Netflix film titled ‘Lavaperros’, which was called ‘Dogwashers’ when released to Western audiences, directed by Carlos Moreno, which focuses on the conflict of a man in financial trouble with a loan shark looking to kill him.

He also participated in the Apple TV series ‘Echo 3’, in which he also had a secondary role.

The show is about an American scientist in Colombia who is kidnapped, and the attempts by her husband and brother to rescue her. 

Keep reading

Florida Trantifa activist allegedly murdered man, set his home on fire

Antifa-linked far-left militants are fundraising for the release and legal aid of a Florida far-left trans activist accused of murdering a man, setting fire to his home and burglarizing his property. 

Matthew Daniel Temael, who uses the alias and trans name “Dandelion,” was arrested in September over the March murder of a man in Hawthorne, Putnam County, Fla. The 23-year-old Minnesota native is accused of stabbing Louis Stackhouse to death and then setting his mobile home on fire before going on the run with the victim’s vehicle. Temael was found driving the stolen 2008 Saturn Sky in Tampa during a traffic stop. Temael attempted to flee but was caught.

The website of extremist antifa-linked group, Anarchist Federation, put out a fundraising notice on Nov. 19 about Temael, who uses “she/her” pronouns.

“Dandelion is a transfemme Palauan youth anarchist incarcerated in Florida,” reads the post. “We aim to free her and help support her needs while she is inside.” 

Temael was indicted by a Putnam County grand jury on charges of first-degree homicide, first-degree arson, burglary and vehicle theft. Because a judge denied Temael bond, the far-left activists say funds raised for their comrade will go to “maintaining inside contact, software, or other materials,” as well as support for other “marginalized relatives in captivity with her.” Toward the end of the campaign, it says the money will also go to the unnamed people running the campaign.

Keep reading

Fears ‘woman with the flower tattoo’ Rita Roberts’ murder could be linked to serial killer known as The Scalp Hunter and The Canal Murderer


The family of “the woman with the flower tattoo” has been told her murder may be linked to a serial killer known as The Scalp Hunter and The Canal Murderer.

John Sweeney dismembered two former girlfriends before dumping their bodies in canals in Rotterdam and London.

He was known to be living in Belgium and Holland at the same time as the body of Rita Roberts was found washed up at a water treatment plant in Antwerp.

Police say she met with an extremely violent death – similar to Sweeney’s two victims who were about the same age as Cardiff-born Rita.

Interpol are already looking at Sweeney who is serving a whole life sentence for hacking to death Melissa Halstead, 33, and Paula Fields, 31.

The remains of Miss Halstead, whose head and hands were missing, were found in the Westersingel canal in Rotterdam after she vanished from her Amsterdam flat in 1990.

She was only identified in 2008 after Dutch detectives carried out a cold case review and matched familial DNA.

Keep reading

Mystery over ‘the woman with the flower tattoo’ deepens as friend reveals she’d been told of her death 30 years ago – as Rita Roberts’ body was identified this week

The mystery around a British woman murdered in Amsterdam 31-years-ago deepens as an old school friend has come forward with new information. 

31-year-old Rita Roberts, know as the ‘woman with the flower tattoo’, was violently killed and her body was dumped in the Het Groot Schijn river in Antwerp, Belgium, on June 3, 1992.

However, she remained nameless for over three decades until an international appeal for information from Interpol lead to her identification this year because of her distinctive flower tattoo. 

Now an unnamed person has come forward saying they were told she drowned in a canal in Amsterdam thirty years ago. 

‘I was confused to see the stories about Rita because I was told she had drowned in a canal in Amsterdam 30 years ago,’ the school friend told the Mirror.

‘I got on with my life not thinking anything other than it was a tragedy. 

‘I don’t know why this has only come out now.’

This friend is now working with the police to see if it will help catch Ms Roberts killer.  

Ms Roberts had moved there from Cardiff and her last known correspondence was a postcard sent home in May 1992. 

When an appeal to uncover her identity began in May this year, detectives described her as being aged between 20 and 50 years old, around 170cm in height and of a stout build.

She had light-skin and had mid-length dark hair, and was wearing a t-shirt and dark blue Adidas training trousers.

Keep reading

FBI digs up two upstate NY horse farms for bodies possibly buried by Gambino crime family members – one week after huge extortion ring linked to garbage trucks was exposed

The FBI is digging up two horse farms in upstate New York as it searches for bodies potentially buried by the notorious Gambino mob crime family.

Federal authorities have turned their attention to the properties in Orange County amid an ongoing investigation into the crime syndicate.

They used shovels and diggers to comb the farm in Campbell Hall on Tuesday and one in Goshen on Wednesday.

It comes after ten people with connections to the Gambino organization were arrested on a slew of racketeering charges last week.

No bodies were found during the search on Wednesday, a source confirmed to NBC New York, however it is scheduled to resume on Thursday.

The FBI declined to reveal who they believe could be buried at the farms, which list a Giovanni DiLorenzo as the property owner, the outlet reports.

Salvatore DiLorenzo was named as among the ten alleged Gambino members on an explosive 16-page indictment which claimed the Sicilian syndicate used violence and intimidation to try and dominate New York’s garbage hauling and demolition businesses.

Others charged were Vito Rappa, 46, and Francesco Vicari, 46 – who is known as ‘Uncle Ciccio.’ 

Vincent Minsquero, 36, known as ‘Vinny Slick,’ Kyle Johnson, 46, known as ‘Twin,’ and Angelo Gradilone, 57, known as ‘Fifi,’ were also arrested. 

The alleged captain of the Gambino crime ring – 52-year-old Joseph Lanni – was also charged with the slew of federal crimes. He is known by nicknames ‘Joe Brooklyn,’ and ‘Mommino.’

Diego ‘Danny’ Tantillo, James LaForte and Robert Brooke were also charged.

The infamous Italian-American crime syndicate made up one of the ‘Five Families’ known for their racketeering, gambling and loansharking. 

The defendants now variously face maximum sentences between 20 and 180 years’ imprisonment if convicted. 

Keep reading

Suspect arrested in murder of Jewish synagogue leader Samantha Woll in Detroit was released because cops FAILED to file paperwork – including warrant for arrest

A suspect arrested in connection with the stabbing death of a prominent Jewish community leader was released after cops did not file the necessary paperwork, prosecutors have confirmed.

The revelation, offered this week by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, comes almost a month after 40-year-old Samantha Woll was found stabbed to death outside her Detroit home, spurring an investigation that led to the suspect’s arrest.

On Friday, after being held for 72 hours, the suspect was released – days after the city’s police chief announced to reporters they had taken in a person of interest, without specifying what led to their arrest.

A dayslong interrogation ensued, culminating with the suspect being cut loose. The decision was reportedly made after the suspect made an ‘ambiguous’ statement to cops – one that sources told The Detroit News was not enough to warrant charges.

A warrant was never filed, and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office’s hands were tied. A spokesperson for the office confirmed the situation in a brief statement.

Keep reading

Daniel Williams, 22, dies after being ‘tied up, beaten and sexually assaulted for two days’ by prison gang – two weeks before he was due to be released from Alabama facility after a 12-month sentence for theft

An Alabama inmate has died after days of being tortured, beaten and sexually assaulted by a prison gang – just two weeks before he was due to be released, his family claim.

Daniel Williams, 22, was serving a 12-month sentence for second-degree theft at Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore, Alabama when a warden found him unresponsive in his dorm on October 22.

The father-of-two was declared brain dead upon his arrival at the hospital and provided palliative care, his family said in a GoFundMe campaign. He was taken off life support on November 5 and died four days later.

The warden allegedly told his family that Williams suffered a ‘drug overdose’, but insiders at the prison told the Alabama Political Reporter that he had been ‘kidnapped, bound, assaulted and sold out’ by another inmate for ‘two or three days’.

At least 12 prison cops at Staton Correctional Facility – along with adjoining Elmore and Draper prisons – have been arrested for assaulting inmates in the last two years. 

Federal investigators have also been probing the state of Alabama and its prisons since a scathing lawsuit was lodged by the Department of Justice in 2019. 

Keep reading