Bermudan Police officers descended on Princess Street, including officers armed with submachine guns.

young man was shot in an apparent drive-by shooting on Princess Street in Hamilton last night. Police had few details at presstime but neighbours reported that the man was shot by another man who fled as the pillion passenger on a cycle.
A source said the gunman fired several shots over his shoulder as he was being driven away at high speed. Dozens of Police officers descended on Princess Street, including officers armed with submachine guns. The victim was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for treatment. In a statement, a Police spokesman said Police were called at 9.26 p.m. with reports of gunshots.
"Details are sketchy, but a man is in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and being treated for non-life threatening injuries," the spokesman concluded. The violence comes just over a week since the stabbing death of promising student Kellon Hill. Five youths have been charged with his murder.
In April, 31 year old Matthew Clarke was stabbed to death in his Pembroke home. One man has been charged in connection with his death. Just over eight months have passed since the shooting death of Aquil Richardson and wounding of another man on Boxing Day. The day before, a man was injured in a shooting in Mr. Richardson's Southampton neighbourhood. Two men have been charged with Mr. Richardson's murder.

Heliberto Chi, 29, from Honduras, is set for execution Thursday evening. He'd be the second foreign-born convicted murderer in Texas this week to die

Chi, 29, from Honduras, is set for execution Thursday evening. He'd be the second foreign-born convicted murderer in Texas this week to die and the second to seek a reprieve because of what lawyers argued were international treaty violations when he was arrested.Prosecutors said there was no doubt of his guilt.
"Not only was there eyewitness testimony, but that assistant manager got out a 911 call, and you could hear Chi in the background on the phone," said Mick Meyer, a former Tarrant County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Chi. "It was pretty solid evidence right there."Witnesses said that when Paliotta, 56, shoved the gun-wielding Chi and started running, he was fatally shot.In September, Chi was spared from execution when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stopped his scheduled punishment after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether lethal injection procedures were unconstitutionally cruel. When the Supreme Court earlier this year upheld the method as proper, his date was re-set for Thursday.Chi was in the United States illegally at the time of Paliotta's 2001 slaying. Lawyers for the Central American country said Chi was unable to contact anyone from his government, a violation of an international treaty, after he was arrested in California and extradited to Texas.It's an argument similar to the one raised earlier this week by Mexican-born Jose Medellin, who was executed late Tuesday for his part in a gruesome gang rape-slaying of two teenage Houston girls 15 years ago.
Unlike Medellin, Chi was not among some 50 death row inmates around the country, all Mexican born, who the International Court of Justice said should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether the 1963 Vienna Convention treaty was violated during their arrests.President Bush asked states to review the cases, and legislation to implement the process was introduced recently in Congress, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year neither the president nor the international court could force Texas to wait. State attorneys had argued against a punishment delay, saying there was no certainty the legislation ever would pass.A divided high court agreed, and Medellin's punishment was carried out, making him the fifth inmate executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
On Tuesday, a state judge in Tarrant County refused a request from Chi's lawyer, Wes Ball, to withdraw Chi's execution date until legislation was enacted to formalize procedures for reviews of capital cases involving foreign nationals.
"It's a significant violation of international law," said Houston attorney Terry O'Rourke, who has been involved in the case. "It's just not good."
Chi's attorney also appealed Wednesday to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, citing the consular violations as reason to stop the punishment. In addition, Ramon Valladares, the Honduran consular assistance director, said from Tegucigalpa that his government was lobbying U.S. authorities to block the execution.Chi would say little about the crime in an interview with the Associated Press shortly before his execution date last year.
"My situation is not about being innocent or guilty," he said, saying only that his trial was unfair. "My rights were violated. I'm a Christian. I know about the Lord. If it's the Lord's will, things happen. I have great peace in my mind and soul."
He said he slipped into the United States through Canada.Chi was arrested in Reseda, Calif., northwest of Los Angeles, about six weeks after the robbery and shootings when his 18-year-old pregnant girlfriend turned him in, accusing him of assault. The couple had been on the run for 43 days, crisscrossing the country from Iowa to Minnesota to West Virginia and eventually to California. At the time of the arrest, authorities said the couple had been planning to flee to Honduras.
His girlfriend's brother, Hugo Sierra, is serving a life prison term for being Chi's getaway driver at the clothing store.Four other prisoners are set to die this month, including two more next week. They're among at least 15 Texas inmates with execution dates in the coming months.

Robert Perez Jr. was found guilty by a jury on Tuesday of threatening his former live-in girlfriend with a gun

Former Oxnard police officer Robert Perez Jr. was found guilty by a jury on Tuesday of threatening his former live-in girlfriend with a gun and causing her bodily injury during a domestic disturbance last year that resulted in an armed standoff with Ventura police. Perez, who had been free on bail, was taken into custody after the verdicts were announced in Ventura County Superior Court. He will remain in jail until sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 3. He faces a maximum of 12 years in state prison, prosecutors said. The jury found Perez guilty of five felony counts, including one count of assault with a firearm, three counts of dissuading a witness from reporting a crime, and one count of causing bodily harm to a spouse or co-habitant. He was also convicted of a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest. The jury found him not guilty on one misdemeanor count of battery. A charge of false imprisonment by violence was dismissed. "It's never a good situation when a police officer is charged with a crime, but it does show that the law applies equally to everyone," prosecutor Andrea Tischler said in an interview after the verdicts were announced. Perez, 35, had denied that he assaulted his former girlfriend, Oxnard police officer Denise Shadinger, or refused to let her leave the couple's Ventura house after an argument last year... They had planned to ride motorcycles with a group of other riders, but Shadinger said she refused to go riding. The arguing escalated and Shadinger told Perez she was moving out. She testified that at one point Perez refused to let her leave and he became so upset with her for calling 911 that he stood over her and pointed a gun at her head...

Damien Lake arrested pointed a gun at a deputy as he exited his cruiser

arrested Damien Lake, 27, at 410 Lawnsdale Ave. at 6:21 a.m. In addition to seizing 8.7 ounces of suspected cocaine, authorities recovered 10 bindles of suspected heroin and drug paraphernalia.Lake, who reportedly was hiding in an attic at his girlfriend’s residence, was arrested for felonious assault on a peace officer. Barbara A. Neace, 21, of the same address was arrested for felony obstruction of justice.
Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Frazier was on patrol near the Forest Hill Mobile Home Park on Ashland Road around 8 p.m. July 27 when he saw a disturbance.
Frazier said Lake pointed a gun at him as he exited his cruiser, then turned and ran up a hill. Frazier said Lake pointed his gun at him a second time before escaping to a nearby apartment complex.

Teon Thomas of Seneca was sentenced today to 110 months in prison on one count of transporting stolen firearms

Teon Thomas of Seneca was sentenced today to 110 months in prison on one count of transporting stolen firearms, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy and federal court records.The 23-year-old was arrested in May 2006 and last February pleaded guilty along with other conspirators involved in the commission of gun trafficking, records show.On March 15, 2006, "experienced" burglars used a sledgehammer to smash a hole in the wall of Trader's Guns Store in Taylors and, to avoid surveillance detection, cast a fishing net to retrieve the 31 guns that were stolen, according to the sentencing memorandum. Three guns were either dropped or discarded and found near the gun store. Two weeks later, two of the ultimately nine recovered guns in the case were found in Connecticut, according to records. Two of the guns were found in a New York City bus terminal restroom, discarded by one man making a return trip to Seneca from Middletown, Conn. From April to September 2006, the remainder of the guns were found after drug and shooting arrests and execution of a search warrant, records show. The guns had been sold in the Middletown area.
Thomas has been convicted on several previous theft and burglary charges in the Upstate, including the theft of condoms from a Wal-Mart and a car wash coin machine in Anderson, as well the burglaries of a bowling lane, food store and another business, according to court records.

Victor Needleman, Pembroke Park gun shop was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison

Victor Needleman, 56, whose popular Pembroke Park gun shop counted local police officers as clients, was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in federal prison for selling dozens of weapons destined for drug dealers and other criminals. He also must forfeit $44,600 in cash and all rights to the American Range & Gun shop.
The 70-month sentence follows Needleman's guilty plea to selling high-powered rifles and automatic weapons to felons. To avoid detection, Needleman used phony "straw" buyers and falsified records to make it appear the guns were headed to lawful owners.
In truth, they were headed to Guatemala and members of powerful drug cartels involved in street battles, according to prosecutors.
"This crime was primarily based on the defendant's greed in operating what was otherwise a very profitable business," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Walleisa said in court, arguing for the maximum seven-year prison term. "He caused dozens of weapons to be put on the streets to criminals with no concerns for how they would be used."Earlier this year, federal agents arrested a convicted felon in Miami on charges of trying to smuggle weapons to Guatemala. All of the guns came from Needleman's shop and were bought by a straw buyer with a clean record, who in turn passed them to the unidentified felon, records state.Needleman directed the purchase and taught the man and others how to subvert federal background checks and laws prohibiting felons from owning guns, according to court records. One of Needleman's students was an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent posing as a straw buyer, who bought dozens of weapons in transactions recorded on tape.Besides the Central America-bound weapons, Needleman and American Range & Gun sold more than 50 guns used in the United States and elsewhere for violent crimes such as bank robbery and assault, Walleisa said.U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas followed defense attorney Fred Haddad's recommendation for the minimum sentence under federal guidelines, making Needleman eligible for parole in about five years. Haddad emphasized his client had no criminal record and cooperated with authorities almost immediately after his April arrest.Needleman, of North Miami Beach, has a history of depression and has battled substance abuse over the years, Haddad said, adding his client has shown "great remorse."
Walleisa questioned how genuine the remorse was. Under terms of his plea agreement, Needleman must sell American Range & Gun, but prosecutors said he organized a scheme from his jail cell that would allow him to secretly keep control. He has been detained without bail since his arrest.
American Range & Gun is under new ownership and now is called Pembroke Park Range & Gun. Needleman is not affiliated with the new entity, a woman who answered the phone at the shop said Thursday. She would not give her name but derided what she called the prosecutor's "unsubstantiated allegations about Victor" trying to retain control.
American Range & Gun was one of the busiest ranges in South Broward, frequented by police officers from surrounding communities and various federal agencies.

NYPD lieutenant accidentally shot and killed the driver of a stolen car

NYPD lieutenant accidentally shot and killed the driver of a stolen car Thursday night when the car clipped him after the driver crashed into a parked SUV and drove up on a sidewalk while trying to escape, police and witnesses said.Two members of the Brooklyn auto larceny unit in an unmarked car followed the 2004 Ford Mustang GT after learning that it had been stolen several days earlier from an East Brunswick, N.J., auto dealership, police said. They called for backup, and two officers from the unit, who were watching a stolen car parked nearby, showed up to box in the sports car on Lenox Road at about 8 p.m., police said.
Four uniformed cops approached with their guns drawn, ordering the driver to stop.
During his attempt to flee, the 25-year-old driver of the Mustang, whose name wasnot immediately released, repeatedly slammed into a parked SUV, tearing off the vehicle's rear wheel and forcing its rear half onto the sidewalk.
One of the two passengers in the Mustang got out and tried to run, but officers nabbed an 18-year-old, who has prior arrests, within a block, police sources said. He had been shot in April and refused to cooperate with a police investigation, a source said. The Mustang then jumped the curb and drove into the gate of an auto mechanic's shop, police said. "I heard a boom, screeching wheels and he went up on the sidewalk," said Steven Olivo, 14, who lives nearby. "Then there was another boom." Throwing the car into reverse, the driver, who also had been arrested several times, sped back into traffic and spun the car about 270 degrees, striking the lieutenant, police said. As the car hit the cop, he accidentally fired his gun, sending a bullet through a rear window and striking the driver, a police source said. "When he got hit by the car, his gun went off," the source said. The car traveled a few hundred feet before crashing into a beauty salon, where the second passenger, 14, was arrested. The driver was taken to Kings County Hospital, where attempts to save him failed, police sources said. The lieutenant was also taken to Kings County with minor injuries.

Found the body of Joseph Clifford Johnson, 36, of the 900 block of North 30th Street in Richmond, inside the bedroom with a fatal gunshot wound

A man was shot and killed early yesterday morning in central Goochland County after he allegedly entered an unlocked mobile home and tussled with the owner, authorities said. Adam Stone, the homeowner, called the Goochland Sheriff's Office just after 3 a.m. to report that he'd shot a man with a 12-gauge shotgun. Sheriff's deputies responded to the 2300 block of Grape Ridge Court off Dogtown Road, where Stone told investigators the intruder had entered the bedroom where he and his girlfriend were sleeping before the struggle took place. When deputies arrived, they found the body of Joseph Clifford Johnson, 36, of the 900 block of North 30th Street in Richmond, inside the bedroom with a fatal gunshot wound to the neck. No arrests or charges have been made in connection with the shooting as of last night."

One of several men who stormed a suburban home Friday was shot dead by one of the residents, who blasted the intruders as they entered,

"One of several men who stormed a suburban home Friday was shot dead by one of the residents, who blasted the intruders as they entered, in an incident police were calling a home-invasion robbery attempt. Three or four men kicked in the door of the house in the 24300 block of Burbank Boulevard, setting off the gunfight, Los Angeles police said. Aside from the one intruder killed, no one was injured. "Obviously, these residents here do have a right to protect themselves," said Los Angeles police Lt. Steven Sambar. "Those people are extremely lucky." Police were searching for two or three other suspects, described as African-American men in their 20s. Gunfire and screams pierced the neighborhood's usual quiet about 2:45 p.m., after the men first knocked on the home's front door - then kicked it in, Los Angeles police Sgt. Jeff Nuttall said. Inside was a couple in their 60s and their two sons in their 20s. At least one of the sons was armed, and he opened fire, hitting one of the intruders. The man died in the doorway, clutching a revolver, Nuttall said. His identity was not immediately available. The intruders shot back, but didn't hit anyone, then fled."

"A would-be bank robber was shot with his own gun this afternoon during a botched heist attempt in Van Nuys,

"A would-be bank robber was shot with his own gun this afternoon during a botched heist attempt in Van Nuys, police said. The gun-toting man walked into a branch of Wells Fargo bank in the 6800 block of Van Nuys Boulevard around 12:30 p.m. and tried to pull off a one-man caper, said Officer Kate Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. A security guard confronted the man and "a struggle ensued," Lopez said. The robber, whose identity has not been released, was shot as the two wrestled for control of the weapon. No other details of the altercation were available and no bank patrons or employees were injured. The suspect was transported to a local hospital and his condition is not known. The guard suffered minor injuries that did not require medical attention."