New Jersey Man Allegedly Pulled Gun on Neighbor Who Farted in His General Direction

72-year-old Teaneck, New Jersey resident was taken into custody by police last night after he reportedly aimed a gun at a neighbor who farted outside his door. Daniel Collins and the unidentified victim, 47, live in the same apartment complex, and had apparently been feuding for "some time" over "noise complaints" prior to yesterday's incident. According to Det. Lt. Andrew McGurr, Collins snapped and pulled out a handgun after "hearing [his neighbor] pass gas in front of his apartment door." He denied brandishing a weapon, but upon searching his vehicle, police officers uncovered a .32-caliber Taurus revolver under the front passenger seat. Collins was subsequently charged with aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a firearm and making terroristic threats.

Phoenix boy, 14, shoots armed intruder while watching three younger siblings

14-year-old Phoenix boy shot an intruder who broke into his home while brandishing a gun as the teenager watched his three younger siblings, police said. The teen and his brothers and sisters were at home alone at their residence at 55th Avenue and Baseline when a woman rang the doorbell Friday. The teen didn't open the door because he didn't recognize her, Police Officer James Holmes said Saturday. Soon after, the teen heard a bang on the door, rushed his siblings upstairs and got a handgun from his parent's bedroom. When he got to the top of the stairs, he saw a man breaking through the front door and point a gun at him. The boy shot the 37-year-old man, who is in critical condition but expected to survive and be booked into jail. Holmes said the suspect did not get a shot off. He declined to release his name until he is booked into jail. The woman who rang the home's doorbell got away. Holmes hailed the teen's actions and his parents for teaching the kids to never open the door to strangers. "The police and indeed our community does not ever want to see a situation where a teenager of that age has to take a weapon to protect his family ... but this young man did exactly what he should have done," he said. "I'm not sure he gave full thought about what he had to do. He just acted." Holmes said that the gun the teen grabbed was his father's, but did not know whether the boy had been trained to use it. He said the family, whose names were not released, is declining to speak to reporters about the ordeal, saying that they "are all pretty traumatized." "The dad was pretty much out of his mind with distress, officers couldn't even talk to him," Holmes said. "It's going to take them a while to recover mentally." He said police don't yet know what the suspect's intentions were and that will be one of the first questions they ask him when he is well enough to talk. "This was mid-block in a neighborhood, at 4:30 in the afternoon in summertime and children are there," he said. "They just took a heck of a gamble for this particular house, and we've got to try to figure out why." Holmes added that the family is lucky that the teen acted so swiftly and effectively. "As ugly as this is, and as much as this family is going through, we don't have injured children on our hands," he said.

One dead, another shot during overnight drive-by

One person is in the hospital recovering after being shot during a drive-by incident. Another victim was killed after being hit in the head by gunfire. It's not clear what sparked the confrontation between the occupants of two vehicles late Wednesday night, but the aftermath was horrifying to those living in the small community. The Catawba County Sheriff's Office said two cars were passing each other along Hope Road. As they got closer to each other, one of the people pulled a gun, and opened fire. The driver of the second car was struck at least once in the head. Another person inside was hit in the neck. The car veered off the roadway, and hit a power pole, snapping it in two. The gunman's vehicle sped off. Emergency crews arrived on scene and transported the passenger to an area hospital. The driver died a short time later after the shooting. It's unknown how the person who was shot in the neck is doing. Deputies report finding the suspect's car, and arresting two people inside. Charges are pending at this time.

shooting a cop dead is now legal in the state of Indiana.

Governor Mitch Daniels, a Republican, has authorized changes to a 2006 legislation that legalizes the use of deadly force on a public servant — including an officer of the law — in cases of “unlawful intrusion.” Proponents of both the Second and Fourth Amendments — those that allow for the ownership of firearms and the security against unlawful searches, respectively — are celebrating the update by saying it ensures that residents are protected from authorities that abuse the powers of the badge. Others, however, fear that the alleged threat of a police state emergence will be replaced by an all-out warzone in Indiana. Under the latest changes of the so-called Castle Doctrine, state lawmakers agree “people have a right to defend themselves and third parties from physical harm and crime.” Rather than excluding officers of the law, however, any public servant is now subject to be met with deadly force if they unlawfully enter private property without clear justification. “In enacting this section, the general assembly finds and declares that it is the policy of this state to recognize the unique character of a citizen's home and to ensure that a citizen feels secure in his or her own home against unlawful intrusion by another individual or a public servant,” reads the legislation. Although critics have been quick to condemn the law for opening the door for assaults on police officers, supporters say that it is necessary to implement the ideals brought by America’s forefathers. Especially, argue some, since the Indiana Supreme Court almost eliminated the Fourth Amendment entirely last year. During the 2011 case of Barnes v. State of Indiana, the court ruled that a man who assaulted an officer dispatched to his house had broken the law before there was “no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers.” In turn, the National Rifle Association lobbied for an amendment to the Castle Doctrine to ensure that residents were protected from officers that abuse the law to grant themselves entry into private space. “There are bad legislators,” the law’s author, State Senator R. Michael Young (R) tells Bloomberg News. “There are bad clergy, bad doctors, bad teachers, and it’s these officers that we’re concerned about that when they act outside their scope and duty that the individual ought to have a right to protect themselves.” Governor Daniels agrees with the senator in a statement offered through his office, and notes that the law is only being established to cover rare incidents of police abuse that can escape the system without reprimand for officers or other persons that break the law to gain entry. “In the real world, there will almost never be a situation in which these extremely narrow conditions are met,” Daniels says. “This law is not an invitation to use violence or force against law enforcement officers.” Officers in Indiana aren’t necessarily on the same page, though. “If I pull over a car and I walk up to it and the guy shoots me, he’s going to say, ‘Well, he was trying to illegally enter my property,’” Sergeant Joseph Hubbard tells Bloomberg. “Somebody is going get away with killing a cop because of this law.” “It’s just a recipe for disaster,” Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police President Tim Downs adds. “It just puts a bounty on our heads.”

Gang-motivated shooting in Watsonville leaves man in critical condition

Police followed leads Tuesday in the shooting of a 19-year-old Watsonville man who was targeted by rival gang members. The man was shot several times but was expected to live, said Watsonville police Sgt. Saul Gonzalez. About 10:40 p.m. Monday, two men in a car arrived at an apartment complex on the 200 block of Clifford Avenue, according to police. The victim was walking home with his younger sister to an apartment when two men approached them. One of the men then shot him several times in the torso, Gonzalez said. The victim's sister screamed as the men fled in the car, Gonzalez said. She was not injured. Gonzalez said the suspects "were there looking for a victim - just an opposing gang member." Police declined to say how many times the 19-year-old was shot. The victim was taken by helicopter to a Bay Area trauma center. He was in critical condition early Tuesday morning but was expected to live, Gonzalez said. Police declined to describe suspects or their car because of the ongoing investigation. It is being treated as an attempted homicide, said Gonzalez. The victim's name also was not released. Police were investigating whether the victim knew the suspects. The apartment complex has been the scene of two homicides since 2008. However, both slayings were linked to parties in Unit C that appears unrelated to Monday's shooting.

Guns more than gangs are fueling violence in Seattle

Seattle police officials Tuesday said the outbreak of violence through Memorial Day weekend and since the beginning of the year has more to do with guns than with gangs. Deputy Police Chief Nick Metz and Assistant Chief for Operations Paul McDonagh said that, while gang activity has played a role in the jump in homicides this year — 15 to date compared with 21 in all of 2011 — the common denominator is the use of firearms. "A person who has a gun is more likely to use a gun," Metz said after the weekly council briefing. The pair addressed the City Council on Tuesday to talk about the recent spate of shootings and the Police Department's stepped-up response. Police are trying to pinpoint a reason or reasons for the recent violence and are combing through cases as far back as October, when they noticed an uptick in seemingly random incidents. "We don't know" what has prompted the violence, said Jim Pugel, assistant police chief of investigations. "If we knew, we'd be able to put a stop to it, and that's the frustrating part." Metz and McDonagh outlined to the council plans to curb violence that dealt with people — not firearms. Those include putting more officers on the street in areas with high crime and a high number of violent incidents. They also called on community members with information about crime to contact police, even anonymously. Community-outreach officers also are planning a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Garfield Community Center with the East Precinct Advisory Council. The meeting is in response to the shooting of Justin Ferrari, a Madrona father who was killed Thursday afternoon at a busy Central Area intersection while running errands with his children and parents. Police said the shooter was aiming at someone else across the street. That crime in particular, Metz told the City Council, has created a great deal of concern because of "its randomness and the fact that it could have been just about anybody." No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing, police officials said. An alleged Seattle gang member, meanwhile, was arrested on suspicion of the Saturday-night shooting near the Space Needle that left one bystander wounded. And one of four drive-by shootings that night was at the former home of a gang member, Metz told City Council members. On April 22, Nicole Westbrook, who had just moved to Seattle to attend culinary school, was fatally shot as she walked home to her Pioneer Square apartment, apparently by someone shooting at another person. Pugel said special-emphasis patrols, which were deployed to high-crime areas in the East, West and South precincts last weekend, will continue. SWAT officers assigned to anti-crime teams, gang detectives and some traffic units are being added to patrol units to "change up the delivery of officers to problem areas," he said. At the session, Councilmember Tom Rasmussen noted that the Police Department's response is not new. It previously has tried deploying more patrol officers and asking community members to report suspicious activity. "I have some skepticism about whether this will have any effect," Rasmussen said. "We have seen many community vigils, community mobilizations. We've heard about these strategies before. What's going to change?" Carmen Best, acting captain for community outreach, said renewed efforts would help ease community fears and get more neighbors actively involved in fighting crime. "Whenever community members come together and talk about crime," she said, "it does have a positive effect." A few years ago, the city experienced a rash of shootings involving children younger than 18, and the gang violence centered on rivals battling it out in the Central Area and Rainier Valley, Pugel said. Now though, he said, "most of these aren't school-aged kids" involved in the violence, but adults in the 19-to-30 age range. He said there seems to be "no inhibition by people to resolve whatever dispute they have by resorting to firearms." During both Westbrook's slaying and Saturday's nonfatal shooting of a bystander near the Space Needle after a dispute between two gang members, "police officers were within a couple hundred feet," Pugel said. "The presence of the officer doesn't seem to be deterring someone bent on shooting someone," he said. Councilmember Nick Licata said that though Seattle has one of the lowest homicide rates among the nation's big cities, the increase this year is "not good." He questioned how police can break the "code of silence" that prevents some community members from reporting suspected criminals to police. He told those at the meeting that the lack of community trust and unwillingness to assist police is "one of the biggest barriers to effective policing." "How do we demonstrate to them that they can trust us," Licata asked, "that we will be treating them with respect and keeping our agreements to bring them into" discussions and collaboration about crime and police response? After the council briefing, James Bible, local leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said reducing violence would have to come from the community. He said police react to immediate incidents, but that offering alternative choices to youth needs to come from churches, community centers and respected elders. He called on the city to not reduce funding for youth-violence-prevention initiatives including after-school programs and parks and recreation activities. "Are we funding the things that give kids opportunity and hope?" he asked. But Bible was critical of the Police Department's relationship with the community and noted the U.S. Department of Justice currently is negotiating an agreement with the city over its finding of excessive use of force by Seattle police. He said community members would be more willing to come forward and give information about crime if they trusted police. "If you punch a kid one day and come to talk with him about what he knows another day, he might not be motivated to help," Bible said. Councilmember Tim Burgess also said after the briefing that settling the Justice Department's findings against the Police Department and implementing recommended changes would be the best way to restore community trust. "That doesn't seem to be happening," he said, alluding to stalled settlement talks between Mayor Mike McGinn's office and federal officials. "It's extremely important to our community and to our police," Burgess said.

Targeted gang member is Fugitive of the Week

suspected MOB member has been named the Fugitive of the Week by the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force. Reward money is being offered for information that would lead to the capture of Eric Echols, 21, who is believed to be hiding in Lorain, according to the task force. He is a targeted gang member of MOB, which stands for Members of Bloods or Money over Bitches. Eighteen suspected leaders out of 22 targeted members have been arrested. A warrant has been issued for Echols for participating in a criminal gang. Lorain Police have said that the gang may be responsible for nine out of the city’s 12 murders and other crimes such as home invasions, shooting and drug trafficking.