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Police: Southgate man, 69, escaped kidnap plot by white 17-year-old 'girlfriend' and her two black accomplices
 "I thought this was going to be my last car ride," says a 69-year-old man. "My own personal car was going to be my hearse." Police say the Southgate man was the victim of a plan to be robbed and kidnapped, set up by his (white) 17-year-old girlfriend and two (black men in their 30s. The night of Jan. 2 police say the man's girlfriend, Destiny Marie Gerwatowski, came up with the plan with suspects Alphonso Lamarr Straughter Jr., 31, of Dearborn, and Tajick Lewis Jackson, 36, of River Rouge. "After they got my wallet, they were ticked off because there was only $90 in my wallet," the man says. That's when he says the attack became more vicious. "They threw me in the trunk of my car and started backing out the driveway," he says. As the victim was locked in the trunk, his prayers were answered when he found a lighter. He used it to find the emergency trunk release. "God finally answered a prayer about the lighter," he says. "I flicked it on and found the inside trunk release and when I felt the car creep forward I bailed out." The victim says once he was able to free himself, he ran across the highway to a liquor store to call 911. Gerwatowski, Straughter and Jackson are locked up facing charges including carjacking, armed robbery, home invasion and unlawful imprisonment. |
OLATHE, KS - Murder charges have been filed after a Shawnee gun shop owner died in a botched robbery that left three suspects wounded. Johnson County prosecutors have charged Hakeem Willie Malik, 18, Londro Emanuel Patterson, 19, Deanthony Armond Wiley, 19, and Nicquan Ke-Aaron Midgyett, 19, with felony first-degree murder. Their bonds have been set at $500,000 each. Malik is scheduled to face a judge Monday. The deadly shooting happened Friday afternoon at She's a Pistol when four men tried to rob the store that caters to female gun owners. The business is located at 5725 Nieman Rd. Co-owner Jon Bieker, 44, managed to shoot three of the suspects. One of the injured suspects fled along with the getaway driver. Police said they arrested those two as they tried to gain entry at a nearby home. Bieker later died at an area hospital after gunfire erupted when the suspects tried to rob him and his wife, Becky Bieker. Two of the suspects are in fair condition at Overland Park Regional Hospital. One had been listed Friday in critical condition. A third suspect remains hospitalized at the University of Kansas City Hospital.
Jon Bieker's family are now planning his funeral.
A GoFundme.com account has been created to assist with store expenses, including cleanup, repairs and other business expenses related to the crime. Click here for more information or visit http://www.gofundme.com/jzjvjo. The Kansas State Rifle Association has also established a fund to to help Becky Bieker with funeral and other expenses. Donations can be made on the KSRA website. Click here to donate or visit http://www.ksraweb.com/shop/Catalog-Bieker-Memorial-Fund_7.aspx.
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CHARLOTTE, NC - A man turned himself in to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Department in connection to shooting deaths of two people Thursday, according to Charlotte police. Police say Gerian Eugene Taylor turned himself in Sunday. He was taken to police headquarters to be interviewed, but according to police, he was returned to the custody of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's office. Police say the Thursday shooting of a man and woman dead was the result of a drug deal turned robbery. “Our investigation has revealed so far this was not a random act of violence. It was a drug transaction that turned into a robbery,” Captain Gregg Collins said. The call came in around 11 a.m. Thursday from a home on the 200-block of West Avenue, near Old Mt. Holly Road. When police arrived at the scene, they found a man and a woman, later identified as 52-year-old 
BREMERTON, Wash. — A teen driver may be headed to court Monday after a crash that killed three other teens this weekend. Deputies believe they had just left a party when they crashed in Seabeck. The 17-year-old driver is in the Kitsap Juvenile Detention Center on charges of vehicular homicide. On Monday, friends will be mourning at Olympic High School in Bremerton where the three victims were "standouts". According to the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, the three teens killed are 18-year-old 
The hunt for a suspected sex offender has ended as police capture the suspect after a six day search. Pitt County deputies arrested 52-year-old Terry Best of Bells Fork Road in Greenville after he returned to his home Sunday afternoon. Investigators said he was wanted for sex offense charges after a victim woke up last week with memory loss. That alleged victim reported the offense when
As Jawan Lloyd Billy awoke in a Baton Rouge home Saturday afternoon, he adjusted his pants — causing a gun tucked into his waistband to discharge, killing a man who also was waking up just feet away, according to police. Now Billy, 19, has been booked into Parish Prison and accused of negligent homicide. Billy and the victim,
WHITMAN COUNTY, Wash. - The man accused of going on a shooting spree and killing three people made his first court appearance in Whitman County Monday afternoon. 29-year-old 
Three suspects are being sought by the police after five aggravated robberies between Dec. 30 and Jan. 9 in Kansas City, Kan. 
ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. —A man responsible for leaving a 61-year-old woman beaten and robbed in the Towne Mall has been arrested, according to the Elizabethtown Police Department. Elizabethtown Police arrested 40-year-old Travis Jeter of Radcliff, Kentucky, on Saturday morning. Jeter is accused of targeting 
EVANSVILLE, IN - An Evansville couple is in jail after police found two videos of a 
Three suspects in a Vallejo home invasion who drove up in a U-Haul truck were arrested during a traffic stop, police said Thursday. Dahesi Roark, 34, Montie Henderson, 21, and 36-year-old Shanequia Miller are being held at Solano County Jail on suspicion of robbery, false imprisonment, conspiracy and elder abuse. All three have “extensive criminal histories,” said Vallejo police Lt. Sid DeJesus. The incident began when
A man was punched in the chest when he confronted a man for trying to steal his bike. New Bern police say the confrontation occurred outside of a convenient store on Cedar Street around 10 p.m. Friday. Police say suspect Kenneth Waters stole a man's bike when the man refused to give him money. Police were able to track down Waters and return the bike to the victim.
Police arrested 
Investigators found five guns and a laptop computer in the vehicle of a man suspected of killing three people in a shooting spree, a police chief said Sunday, but they hadn't yet uncovered any motive for the rampage. 
KANSAS CITY, MO - A 22-year-old Kansas City man was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for the 2013 murder of a University of Missouri-Kansas City student, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced Friday. Alonzo D. Ruff, pleaded guilty in October in the killing of 
The couple were never married in a civil ceremony – the only form of marriage legally accepted in France. She is from an Algerian background and altered her surname to ‘make it sound more French', according to an investigating source. Estranged from her father, she met him briefly once more and introduced him to Coulibaly. But all may not have been as settled as the young woman, radicalised by her husband, thought. It is understood he had made it clear he wanted to take a second wife. Today, questioned by police at his home in a Paris suburb, Boumeddiene’s father is said to be shocked and unable to believe that his daughter was involved with the terrorist cell. 
N.C. — A Greensboro man is in custody accused of several sexual offenses with a minor. Howard William Welch III, 38, of Greensboro, is charged with two counts of incest with a child, two counts of rape of a child, two counts of first-degree statutory sexual offense with a child and four counts of indecent liberties with a child. Welch was arrested on Dec. 17 by sheriff’s deputies following an investigation into the activities of the defendant and a juvenile victim. He is being held under a $301,000 bond.
Goldsboro, N.C. — Police on Friday arrested a Goldsboro man in connection with a sexual assault against a child that they say happened more than a year ago. James Lee McLaurin, 54, of 811 Argo St., faces several charges, including statutory rape of a child and indecent liberties with a child. The case stems from an investigation that started in August 2013, Goldsboro police said in a news release. McLaurin was jailed under a $500,000 secured bond 
A University of Oregon student who says she was raped by three players on the school's basketball team has sued the university, saying officials had known one of the men was suspended from another college over sexual misconduct claims, lawyers said on Friday. The woman, still a student at the University of Oregon, filed the lawsuit on Thursday in U.S. federal court in Eugene, Oregon. She is seeking monetary damages that include payment of her tuition and compensation for emotional pain and suffering, among other things. The students she accused of rape were dropped from the team in May and suspended from the school in June but were not criminally charged, the woman's attorney said. Damyean Dotson, Dominic Artis and Brandon Austin were suspended amid a police investigation of accusations that they sexually assaulted a female student on March 8 at an off-campus party and other locations in Eugene. 
CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Police say Juan Dunton who was fired from his job later returned to the Forest Park business, then kidnapped and raped one of his former co-workers. Police say Dunton took the co-worker to a park in DeKalb County, where he raped her. She tricked her attacker into bringing her back by telling him she could get money from the business. Police say when Dunton and the victim returned, Dunton saw the police officers that were there and then let the victim out.
Sioux Falls, SD - A 9-year-old child reported to Terry Redlin Elementary School staff that a relative had inappropriate sexual contact with him Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. Police arrested Manzi Janvier, 23, of Sioux Falls at his home on the 600 block of North Lewis Thursday night and later charged him with first-degree rape and sexual contact with a child under 16, police spokesman Sam Clemens said.
Well, this is awkward. What did Louisiana rapper Kevin Gates do when he found out that the woman he had been dating for the last three months is actually his cousin? Tell his 1.3 million Instagram followers, of course! The 28-year-old, who was born Kevin Gilyard, made the revelation in two profanity-laden videos posted to the social media site on Wednesday. Louisiana may bar them from marrying, but it doesn’t bar them from sleeping with one another.
A local rapper convicted of shooting and killing 
Michael Rodriguez, 25, of the 300 block of Delsea Drive, was charged on Thursday and taken into custody by Detective Bryn Wilden of the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office and Detective Warren Rivell of the Franklin Township Police Department.
SOUTH BEND - New information has been released regarding a double murder Sunday night in South Bend. Two people are dead, but police say it could have been worse. Roy Lee Walker is charged with two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and residential entry. Walker shot and killed two adults, 46-year-old
A defendant in a 2013 double-homicide case tearfully recalled the shootings as he pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter Monday morning, saying his eyes were filled with blood from being beaten at the time his attackers were shot. A jury trial was scheduled to start for co-defendants Dejerek Basil Smallwood, 22, of 807 W. Poplar St., and 23-year-old Laquan Anderson Pierrelouis in the double homicide of 
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia police officer’s right leg was injured after he was dragged by a car following a traffic stop Thursday morning. The incident began at about 11:30 a.m. at 32nd Street and W. Susquehanna Avenue in the city’s Strawberry Mansion section. According to investigators,
Thursday's attack, which came as officer 
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The man at the center of Wednesday's deadly shooting at Port Columbus had a history of mental illness and violence. Police say they shot and killed 41-year-old 
Summit County Prosecuting Attorney Sherri Bevan Walsh is asking for your help to keep Willie Lagway in prison. The Ohio Parole Board is considering Lagway's release at a parole board hearing in February. From February 10-14, 1983, Lagway, 27, went on a five-day crime spree
A man imprisoned for nearly 15 years for his roles in an East Side drug murder and a home invasion has been linked by DNA to a rape case from 1996. Roshawn L. Tatom, 35, is accused of raping a 46-year-old woman who had just gotten off a COTA bus on the South Side on Feb. 13, 1996, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said. He was indicted this week on charges of rape and kidnapping and faces up to 25 years in prison on each count. The woman was walking across the parking lot of Parsons Avenue Baptist Church when she was beaten unconscious, dragged to a nearby field and raped, O’Brien said.
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - DNA evidence is now linking a man in prison to a rape investigation that has been open for 22 years in St. Louis City. Gary Turner, who is already serving 50 years for robbery, attempted robbery and sodomy, is now linked to the rape that investigators say took place when he was 14-years-old. Investigators say Turner took a gun to
The teenager convicted with a rape inside Parkside High School was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison Friday in Wicomico County Circuit Court. Jocori Scarborough, 18, was sentenced to 10 years of active time for rape, plus one year and one day for a gun offense. Scarborough, of Delmar, was found guilty in October on all five counts he faced in connection with a May 5 rape of a fellow student at Parkside High School in Salisbury.
BROCKTON – As Elbert Richardson was being walked out of a Brockton courtroom Thursday in handcuffs, one of his many family members in court said, loudly said, “(Expletive) them. (Expletive) them all. (Expletive) the judge,” as he walked out of the courtroom. Judge Paul McCallum had just ordered Richardson, 54, be held without bail for 120 days following a dangerousness hearing. Richardson is accused of raping and impregnating 
Jawan T. Colson, 30, who was wanted out of Georgetown for raping a 29-year-old woman and stealing her SUV committed suicide by hanging after a standoff with police in Newport News, Virginia, Wednesday, police said. The situation involving Colson occurred after the Authorities attempted to arrest a suspect wanted in Georgetown. Colson barricaded himself in a room at the Midtown motel in Newport News and refused to come out. Negotiators at about 11:45 a.m. Wednesday unsuccessfully attempted to convince Colson to surrender himself peacefully, prompting the tactical operations unit to later deploy tear gas and forcing entry into the room. Police said officers found Colson unconscious. He was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Wayne County authorities have charged a 24-year-old man in connection with the sexual assault of
WEST PHOENIX - A teenager in West Phoenix says a man stopped her on her way to school and assaulted her before running away, according to police. Sgt. Jonathan Howard, spokesman for Phoenix police, said the 
WASHINGTON - A man has pleaded guilty to forcing his way into a woman's apartment and stabbing her more than 20 times. Twenty-one-year-old Demarco Myles of Washington pleaded guilty Wednesday to nine offenses in the 2012 attack. He entered an Alford plea to attempted first-degree sexual abuse while armed. According to government evidence, Myles forced his way into the woman's northeast Washington apartment in October 2012. Prosecutors say he tried to rape the woman at knifepoint, but broke away and tried to lock herself in a closet.
Authorities say Myles stabbed the woman more than 20 times and fled. The woman was able to call 911, and spent weeks in the hospital and underwent several surgeries.
Myles faces a maximum of 67 years in prison at sentencing April 24. 
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. - Jacky Berry admitted to raping a young girl and getting her pregnant despite already being registered as a level three sex offender. The 52-year-old Niagara Falls was arrested back in 1990 for having
BUFFALO, N.Y. - Three teens were arraigned Wednesday morning on charges that they repeatedly raped and sodomized a teen girl during a two-hour period last May. Daqwan Morris, 18; Shameek Young, 17; and Paul Brown, 17; all of Buffalo, are charged with first degree rape. Morris is additionally charged with first degree criminal sexual act, while Young faces an additional count of first degree rape and three counts of first degree criminal sexual act. If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for each count.
Denver Police are asking for the public's help in finding a 42-year-old who they say is wanted in connection to an attempted murder and sexual assault in the Curtis Park area. The suspect is identified as Don Walker. Details about the incident in Curtis Park were sparse. Anyone with information about Walker's whereabouts is asked to call 720-913-STOP. You can remain anonymous and could be eligible for a $2,000 reward.
SEATTLE — The King County prosecutor has charged two men with raping a woman in Capitol Hill in February, after DNA obtained in her rape kit came back matching the men who had previously been convicted of other crimes. 
Wildwood police are inve stigating a case in which 
NEW YORK – A judge has dropped the most serious charge against a Brooklyn man accused of viciously kicking a cat. A state Supreme Court judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors failed to demonstrate that the feline had been injured. Andre Robinson was caught on video in May allegedly kicking a stray cat. Police said he was seen on the video luring the gray and white cat, patting it on the head and then kicking it in the stomach, sending the feline sailing 20 feet through the air.
CHICAGO — A federal grand jury has indicted a 19-year-old Chicago-area man accused of trying to travel overseas to join Islamic State militants in Syria, federal law enforcement officials announced Friday. 
PORTLAND, Ore. – Homicide detectives arrested a man in connection to a Vancouver woman who was found dead in the DoubleTree Hotel in Portland.
SPOKANE, Wash. - In front of a packed courtroom filled with friends of murder victim 
EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. —Hours after a woman was gunned down outside a popular El Dorado Hills pub, a picture is emerging of the man accused of killing her. Investigators and witnesses are painting Anderson Swift, 41, of Oakland, as someone who appeared to be desperate to get money and a car. Swift approached the victim and her friend outside 36 Handles Pub after midnight Wednesday, demanding money and keys to their car, said El Dorado Sheriff's Lt. Tom Murdoch. The women turned around to get back into the pub when the man fired shots, killing one woman, then taking her keys and taking off in her car, Murdoch said. Swift was arrested minutes later when he crashed the stolen car, a Subaru Legacy into a backyard on Deakin Way and Silva Valley Parkway, investigators said. "This was a random act of violence, where a suspect or criminal from the Oakland Bay Area had hijacked or carjacked another vehicle somewhere along the line," said Vinal Perkins, a partner in the pub and owner of the surrounding shopping center. 
LAS VEGAS -- 
MADISON, Wis. - A judge sentenced a Massachusetts steelworker to 20 years in prison and eight years of extended supervision in connection with his former girlfriend's shooting death. Forty-year-old Phillip Byrd pleaded guilty in July to one count of second-degree intentional homicide. Sheriff's deputies discovered 
New Orleans police are looking for a "person of interest" in the October murder of a 31-year-old woman found shot to death in a Treme vacant lot. April Davis, 31, may have "critical information" about 
A San Francisco transgender woman is recovering from a brutal stabbing attack over the weekend. It began when a man starting shouting slurs at the woman and her partner, but police say they won't investigate it as a hate crime. Two victims got off a Muni bus on Saturday at Golden Gate and Van Ness avenues to get away from a man screaming insults at them. However, once they were on the sidewalk, he was right behind them with a knife. The victim, 
A couple was arrested in West Palm Beach after trespassing in a car sales lot and having sex on top of a car Tuesday morning, according to an arrest report. A passerby said he saw Ramon Mitchell, 29, and Erin Byrd, 18, having sex on top of the car, the report said. The man, who lives next to Mike’s Auto Sales, said Mitchell yelled at him as he was walking past. When the West Palm Beach police officer arrived the couple was inside a white van putting their clothes back on. As they were being arrested, Mitchell spit in the officer’s face. The officer went to St. Mary’s Medical Center for 
A newly promoted New Jersey police captain has been charged with trying to run down a councilman from a nearby city with her car, authorities said Tuesday. Monique Smith, an Irvington police captain, faces aggravated assault, stalking, criminal mischief, harassment and two weapons charges stemming from her Monday night encounter with Newark Councilman 
Harlem Assemblyman Keith Wright’s senior staffer took a plea deal Tuesday in Manhattan court, dodging a criminal record for a June drunk-driving incident where she blew a .113 on a Breathalyzer. Jeanine Johnson, 35, pleaded guilty to driving while her ability was impaired – a violation not a crime. She also agreed to a 90-day suspension of her license, four days of community service, a drunk driving program and a $300 fine. Johnson allegedly refused to get out of her 2001 Acura and name-dropped her boss, Wright.
She then threatened to call NYPD brass to get the responding officers in trouble, according to sources. The assemblyman is the brother of Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Wright, who is suing the city over a $115 ticket he got for driving in a bus lane.
Shasta Himelrick
A Kenner police officer cruising down Williams Boulevard in Kenner got an eyeful when he spotted a man and woman engaged in oral sex in a moving car. The officer pulled behind the car, which was still moving, and activated his overhead lights. Instead of pulling over, the driver continued on for about four blocks as he and his passenger, later identified as Arletha Alexander, 46, began to "scramble" around in the vehicle. The officer saw Alexander make her way back to her own seat. The driver, later identified as
Three men were in custody and being questioned in connection with the shooting of two cops in The Bronx, law enforcement sources said Tuesday. One man, 
MOUNT CLEMENS - A judge has ruled that two young men will stay in prison for the rest of their lives without parole for murdering a man days after abducting him from a metro Detroit sub shop. Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Diane Druzinski on Tuesday decided that
A federal weather service employee charged with stealing sensitive infrastructure data from an Army Corps of Engineers database met a Chinese government official in Beijing, according to court documents that reveal the case to be part of an FBI probe of Chinese economic espionage. 
Inside and outside a Pensacola courtroom Friday, two families wept for the lost lives of two young men. The family of 
