Three suspects were arrested in connection with the robbery and triple killing in the rural community of Farmville, N.C., the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.
The crime took place Sunday night at a convenience store on a sparsely populated road as three employees — the teen son of the owner and his two cousins — were preparing to close for the night. A customer discovered the shooting victims shortly after the perpetrators left, around 10 p.m.
The bloody crime shook this normally quiet community. Farmville has a population of about 4,500 and is more than an hour's drive east of Raleigh. County and town law enforcers had been on a 24/7 manhunt before the arrests.
Sheriff Neil Elks announced the arrests of the two men and an unnamed juvenile Wednesday morning: Antwan Andre Anthony, 29, of Bethel; Xavier Montel Shamble, 19, of Farmville; and a Farmville juvenile were brought in late Tuesday night for questioning.
Each was charged with three counts of murder on Wednesday morning, and each was charged with other charges, including first-degree kidnapping, robbery and possession of firearm by a felon.
The three victim, whose families came from Yemen, were Mokbel Mohamed Almujanhi, 16 — known at his high school as "Sam" — Nabil Nasser Saeed Al’mogannahi, 26, and Gaber Alawi, 24.
In the surveillance tape, the three men did not appear to put up any kind of resistance to the robbers, said Christy Wallace, public information director for the Sheriff’s Office.
"There wasn’t anything they could have done differently," she said.
Surveillance cameras in the Hustle Mart store captured the crimes in graphic "very disturbing" detail, according to Wallace, though faces of the perpetrators were covered or obscured.
Marine Sgt. Gary Stein, who started a Facebook page critical of President Obama, in an undated photo.
An unusual band of free speech groups on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to stop the Marine Corps from kicking a sergeant out of the service for posting statements critical of President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials on Facebook.
Sgt. Gary Stein, who has been a Marine for nine years, started a Facebook page called "Armed Forces Tea Party" in which he says he wouldn’t follow unlawful orders from Obama, and criticized Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for comments made about Syria. Stein has said he created the page as a way to encourage fellow service members to exercise their free speech rights.
The lawyers backing Stein are trying to halt a discharge hearing scheduled for Thursday at Camp Pendleton in California in order to give them more time to prepare for his defense. The hearing will determine if Stein should be discharged from the Marines when his enlistment ends in July. Stein has expressed his wish to stay in the service.
Lawyers fighting Stein’s removal from the Marines come from groups often at opposite ends of the political spectrum. The United States Justice Foundation is a conservative-leaning group frequently critical of the Obama administration. On its website the group tracks issues such as the president’s birth origin and his health care policies.
Joining the USJF in backing Stein is the American Civil Liberties Union, often considered liberal leaning. The San Diego branch of the ACLU on Wednesday issued a statement that it will join in defending Stein’s free speech rights.
"The military may be different from the civilian world, but it’s not exempt from the First Amendment," David Loy, legal director for ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, said in a statement. "Sergeant Stein didn’t say anything for which the Marine Corps has any right to punish him. He did not threaten order or discipline or take positions that anyone would attribute to the Corps. Indeed, the Corps is threatening loyalty and morale by persecuting a good Marine for exercising his free speech rights."
One Goh is seen in this booking photo from the Alameda County Sheriffs Department.
By NBCBayArea.com, msnbc.com
The man suspected in a shooting rampage at a small Oakland, Calif., Christian college was charged Wednesday with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder, prosecutors said.
One L. Goh also faces a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders that could make him eligible for the death penalty, The Associated Press reported.
The 43-year-old former nursing student was expelled from the school last fall, allegedly for anger issues. He surrendered to police at a Safeway store outside Oakland about an hour after the attack on Monday morning.
Oakland police continued to search for the murder weapon in Bay Area waters.
Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan told The Associated Press that the target of the attack was the nursing program director, who escaped the shooting spree and remains alive.
NBCBayArea.com and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Whitney Houston died on Feb. 11 in Beverly Hills from accidental drowning.
By Anna Chan
The Los Angeles County Coroner released the final coroner's report for Whitney Houston on Wednesday. The singer died on Feb. 11 at the Beverly Hills Hilton, one day before the Grammy Awards. The official cause of death was accidental drowning and "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use."
The 42-page document, obtained by TODAY.com, gives a detailed description of the scene inside her room at the hotel and details of the investigation.
According to the report, Houston's assistant suggested the star take a bath to prepare for the pre-Grammys activities occurring that evening. The assistant then left to pick up items at Neiman Marcus, and when she returned less than an hour later, she found Houston, 48, face down and unresponsive in the bathtub.
The detective on the scene noted that Houston had "possibly overdosed on a narcotic substance, prescription medications, over the counter medications, and alcohol." The coroner's report indicated that there were multiple items on the bathroom counter, including "an ashtray filled with multiple cigarette butts," "a small spoon with a white crystal like substance in it and a rolled up piece of white paper" and "a bottle of prescription medications." In one of the counter drawers, detectives found "remnants of a white powdery substance, and a portable mirror on the base."
TMZ reported on March 30 that official documents indicated that the "white powdery substance"
Houston's autopsy indicated that she had taken cocaine shortly before she died, and coroner spokesman Craig Harvey said in a March 22 news conference that her body showed signs of "chronic usage."
Ancient ice cores are stored at the National Ice Core Lab in Denver, Colo. A new study looked at ice and soil cores from around the world to conclude that carbon dioxide levels were followed by rising temperatures at the end of the last Ice Age.
By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com
A scientific paper published Wednesday aims to undermine an argument used by some who are skeptical of a connection between warming temperatures and rising carbon dioxide, but those skeptics weren't budging.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, the study concluded that during the end of the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago, global temperatures rose after carbon dioxide levels started to rise.
Earlier data using temperature records from Antarctic ice cores indicated that temperatures rose before C02 took off -- raising questions in the minds of some about how CO2 could then be blamed for warming, either then or over the last century, when emissions from manmade sources have skyrocketed.
For the new study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, researchers reconstructed temperature records from ice and soil cores at 79 other sites around the world and from around the same time period.
"That would end the argument," lead author Jeremy Shakun, a Harvard researcher, told msnbc.com. "It doesn't hold up."
Changes in Earth's orbit are thought to have triggered the warming trend by causing ice sheets to melt, but the researchers said the new study suggests C02 played a far more important role -- with C02 previously locked up under sea ice escaping out to add to the existing level.
Live Poll
Does this study change your view?
View Results
180513
Yup, I'm now more inclined to see a C02-temperature connection.
7%
180514
Nope, the connection was already clear to me.
69%
180515
Nope, I still don't think manmade CO2 is driving up temperatures.
24%
VoteTotal Votes: 193
But a website critical of the science was quick to post comments by other skeptics.
"The paper is based on many assumptions without supporting data," Whatsupwiththat.com quoted Don Easterbrook, a geology professor emeritus at Western Washington University, as saying.
University of Oslo geologist Tom Segalstad was quoted as citing a 1992 study that questioned any data from ice cores.
Shakun, for his part, said that "our study bolsters the consensus view that rising CO2 will lead to more global warming."
"CO2 was a big part of bringing the world out of the last Ice Age, and it took about 10,000 years to do it," he said in a statement released with the study. "Now CO2 levels are rising again, but this time an equivalent increase in CO2 has occurred in only about 200 years, and there are clear signs that the planet is already beginning to respond."
The Danziger Bridge in New Orleans was the site of a deadly shooting of unarmed civilians by police officers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
By NBC News and news services, msnbc.com
Five former New Orleans police officers were sentenced to long prison terms Wednesday for their roles in the shootings at a bridge that left two civilians dead and four others wounded in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
A federal judge sentenced four of the officers convicted of participating in the shootings to terms ranging from 38 years to 65 years, according to local media reports. The fifth officer received six years for covering up the killings.
U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt called it “a sad day for New Orleans” and also criticized the plea bargains that other officers got in exchange for cooperating with the government, NOLA.com reported.
"Using liars to convict liars is no way to pursue justice," Engelhardt said, according to NOLA.com.
The Justice Department hailed the lengthy sentences in a case that shed a national spotlight on New Orleans police corruption as testament that “no one is above the law."
“We hope that today’s sentences give a measure of peace and closure to the victims of this terrible shooting, who have suffered unspeakable pain and who have waited so patiently for justice to be done,” Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “The officers who shot innocent people on the bridge and then went to great lengths to cover up their own crimes have finally been held accountable for their actions. As a result of today’s sentencing, the city of New Orleans can take another step forward.”
Kenneth Bowen, 38; Robert Gisevius, 39; Anthony Villavaso, 35; and Robert Faulcon, 48, were convicted in August of civil-rights violations and firearms and other charges in the shootings, according to The Associated Press. Retired Sgt. Arthur "Archie" Kaufman, who was assigned to investigate the shootings, was convicted of helping orchestrate the cover-up.
Faulcon received the stiffest sentence, 65 years. Bowen and Gisevius each got 40 years, and Villavaso got 38 years. Kaufman got the lightest sentence, six years.
Sean Gardner / Reuters
Sherrel Johnson, mother of James Brissette Jr., who was killed on the Danziger Bridge, is hugged by Rev. Aubrey Johnson after the sentencing of former New Orleans police officers on Wednesday.
Bowen, Gisevius, Villavaso and Faulcon were among about a dozen officers who responded to a radio call that someone was shooting at police near the Danziger Bridge in east New Orleans on Sept. 4, 2005. That was less than a week after Katrina made landfall, swamping a good part of the city and leading to televised scenes of looting and lawlessness in some neighborhoods.
Witnesses testified that the officers jumped out of a truck and fired with AK-47s and shotguns at unarmed civilians walking on the bridge.
The officers later claimed they shot only after being threatened or fired on and that they had seen weapons in the victims' hands.
Prosecutors said the people on the bridge were families seeking food.
A New Orleans couple, their daughter and their nephew were among those wounded, and a family friend, James Brissette, 17, was killed. He was shot in the back, the leg, both arms and the back of the head, and died on the bridge, according to the Justice Department.
At a second shooting a few minutes later on the west side of the bridge, Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old man with severe mental and physical disabilities, was shot in the back while running away. He died near the base of the bridge.
Kaufman, the lead investigator in the case, retired from the force in May 2011. He planted a gun at the scene and helped falsify official reports of the shootings, according to media reports.
The sentencing came after a morning of testimony from victims of the shootings as well as family members and friends of the former police officers.
Lance Madison told the court his brother Ronald was "gunned down and killed without mercy" by police that day, NOLA.com reported.
Madison told the five former officers: "You are the reason I can no longer trust law enforcement," according to NOLA.com.
Five other former NOPD officers who pleaded guilty before trial, admitting that they had participated in a conspiracy to obstruct justice and cover-up, were all sentenced previously. They got prison terms ranging from three years to eight years.
Information from NOLA.com., WDSU.com and The Associated Press is included in this report.
Amina Kocer-Bowman, a third-grader who was critically wounded in a February shooting at a Bremerton school, left Harborview Medical Center on Tuesday. April 3 has become a special day for the family -- last year, Amina's father returned home from a 13-month tour in Iraq on that day.
By Isolde Raftery, msnbc.com
The 9-year-old boy started his letter simply: “Dear Amina, I am sorry I hurt you because I brought a gun to school.”
He wrote in pencil on college-rule paper, skipping every other line. His spelling was impeccable and there were palm smudges and eraser marks.
On Feb. 22, the boy had gone to his school in Bremerton, Wash., with a .45-caliber handgun that prosecutors believe he took from the glove compartment of his mother’s truck. He had told classmates the week before that he wanted to run away because his family life had overwhelmed him.
Instead, his life took a tragic turn when he plopped his backpack down on his desk, one minute before the bell rang. The gun he had stowed went off, and the bullet critically injured a third-grade classmate, Amina Kocer-Bowman.
The boy was arrested and sentenced to probation and counseling, the Seattle Times reported. He also agreed to testify against his mother, Jamie Lee Chaffin, 34, and her boyfriend, Douglas L. Bauer, 50. Both face assault and firearm possession charges, according to the Kitsap Sun.
The boy was released from juvenile detention to his uncle, his legal guardian, the Seattle Times reported.
Ken Lambert / AP
The 9-year-old boy accused of accidentally shooting classmate Amina Bowman-Kocer at a Bremerton, Wash. elementary school school was sentenced to probation and counseling.
Amina was released from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Tuesday after undergoing five surgeries to repair injuries to her small intestine and other organs, the Seattle Times reported. She wore a gray-hooded sweatshirt and held a stuffed panda bear as she waved shyly to members of the press.
April 3 has become an important date for the Bowman family, King 5 noted. This year, Amina returned home on that day. Last year, her father returned from a 13-month deployment to Iraq.
Amina’s doctors believe that she will make a full recovery, although she has months of physical therapy ahead of her and the bullet remains lodged near her spine, according to the Seattle Times. She also still has a feeding tube in her stomach.
In a phone interview with the Kitsap Sun, Amina said that she most looked forward to eating her grandmother’s Filipino chicken soup when she returns, even if the soup will have to go through that feeding tube.
In the letter to Amina, obtained by the Seattle Times, the boy wrote that he did not mean for anyone to get hurt. He wrote the letter on condition of his sentencing.
“I wish you were out of the hospital Playing basketball and going back to school,” he wrote. “I wish everyone was okay. I made a bad choice. I was sad, scared and afraid and I did not solve my problem well.”
The boy concluded his letter: “I will stay away from guns. I should have told a grown-up. I will promise to learn better ways to solve my problems. Again I am sorry Amina.”
