Teen's mysterious death takes disturbing twist as axe with 'red marks' goes missing from scene and sick texts emerge
But she never got the chance to set foot on the court after her life was brutally cut short under mysterious circumstances, according to her family.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
Boyfriend charged with killing police officer in their Maryland home nearly 30 years ago
A man charged this week with fatally shooting a police officer in her Maryland home nearly 30 years ago was the officer's live-in boyfriend and had blamed her 1995 killing on a burglary, police officials said Wednesday. Amir Jalil Ali, who was arrested Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge, initially was charged in 1995 with killing 24-year-old Denna Fredericka Campbell, an officer for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. But the charges against him were dropped two months later by prosecutors in Maryland's Montgomery County. Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said he can't explain why the charges were dropped in 1995, when his office was led by a predecessor. 'I was not privy to, nor do I know, what the conversation was regarding why the charges were dropped at that point in time,' McCarthy told reporters at a news conference. Campbell, a four-year MPD veteran, was shot five times in her Silver Spring, Maryland, apartment. Her department-issued handgun was missing and hasn't been found. 'While this arrest won't erase the pain of losing Denna, we hope that it brings some resolution and sense of peace to everyone involved,' Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada said. Ali, 62, of Laurel, Maryland, was known as Kenneth Burnell Wonsom at the time of the killing. He legally changed his name in 2021, police said. Ali told investigators that he had left their apartment after 3 a.m. on Sept. 16, 1995, to go to a store and found her body when he returned home, a police report says. Ali called 911 to report a burglary and said his girlfriend had been shot, according to the report. Officers who worked with Campbell told police detectives that she was afraid of her boyfriend and had been sleeping with her department-issued weapon under her pillow, the report says. Campbell said she planned to leave Ali, adding, 'If I don't show up for work Saturday, you'll know he killed me and buried me somewhere,' one of those colleagues told investigators. Detectives didn't find any evidence of a burglary at Campbell's apartment and believe she was shot with her own gun, according to the report. Based on DNA evidence, investigators believe Ali was bleeding after an altercation with Campbell. Ali remained jailed on Wednesday pending a bond hearing in a county court. Online court records don't identify an attorney representing him. Montgomery County Police Detective Paula Hamill said she spoke to Campbell's father on Tuesday and told him about Ali's arrest. 'And the only words that he could get out were 'thank God,'' Hamill added. 'It was a long time coming.' MPD Executive Assistant Chief Andre Wright said Campbell had a promising career ahead of her but had already proved herself to be 'a hero in the community she served." 'In 1993, she selflessly pulled four victims out of a burning van on Pennsylvania Avenue,' Wright said. 'Those actions proved Officer Campbell was ready to place the safety of those in the community above herself.'
The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
Military base shootings have ranged from isolated incidents to workplace violence and terrorism
The shooting of five U.S. Army soldiers at a base in Georgia on Wednesday is the latest in a growing list of violent incidents at American military installations over the years. Shootings have ranged from isolated incidents between service members to attacks on bases to mass-casualty events, such as the shooting by an Army psychiatrist at Texas 's Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead. Here is a look at some of the shootings at U.S. military bases in recent years: In December, a National Guard soldier was charged with murder after authorities said he shot a man at a former girlfriend's residence on the grounds of Fort Gordon. The base outside of Augusta, Georgia, is home to the U.S. Army Cyber Command. It was formerly known as Fort Eisenhower. In June 2020, a woman and a man were killed in a shooting at the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. The woman's parents later told media outlet KJZZ in Phoenix that she was the victim of domestic violence. In May 2020, a gunman tried to speed through a security gate at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, opening fire and wounding a sailor who was a member of base security, authorities said. Security officers shot and killed the attacker, Adam Salim Alsahli, a Corpus Christi resident who had been a student at a local community college. The FBI said at the time that the shooting was being investigated as a 'terror-related incident.' A group that monitors online activity of jihadists said Alsahli voiced support for hard-line clerics. On Dec. 6, 2019, a Saudi Air Force officer who was training at a Navy base in Pensacola, Florida, killed three U.S. sailors and wounded eight other people in a shooting that U.S. officials described as an act of terrorism. The country's top federal law enforcement officials said the gunman, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, had been in touch with al-Qaida operatives about planning and tactics. Alshamrani was killed by a sheriff's deputy. On Dec. 4, 2019, a U.S. Navy sailor used his service rifle to shoot three civilian shipyard workers at the Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii, killing two of them before killing himself with his service pistol. Gabriel Antonio Romero, 22, of San Antonio, Texas, was said to be unhappy with his commanders and undergoing counseling, although a motive for the shooting was not determined. In February 2017, a sailor was fatally shot at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach by a security officer after he crashed through a station gate and went to his squadron's hangar. Seaman Robert Colton Wright was reported to be 'yelling and causing damage' and moving aggressively toward security officers until one of the officers fired, striking him. Wright worked as an information systems technician for Strike Fighter Squadron 81. In April 2016, an airman fatally shot his commander before shooting himself at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Military investigators said Tech Sgt. Steven Bellino, 41, confronted Lt. Col. William Schroeder in an office before the two struggled, and Schroeder was shot multiple times. The men, both veterans of the U.S. Special Operations Command, were in the Air Force's elite Battlefield Airmen program at Lackland. In July 2015, four Marines and a sailor were killed by Kuwait-born Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, of Hixson, Tennessee, who opened fire at a recruiting center in Chattanooga. He then drove several miles away to a Navy and Marine reserve center, where he shot and killed the Marines and wounded the sailor, who later died. Abdulazeez was shot to death by police. In April 2014, an Army soldier gunned down three other military men at Fort Hood in Texas before killing himself. Authorities said that Spc. Ivan Lopez had an argument with colleagues in his unit before opening fire. In September 2013, a defense contract employee and former Navy reservist used a valid pass to get onto the Washington Navy Yard. Authorities said Aaron Alexis killed 12 people before he was killed in a gunbattle with police, authorities said. The Washington Navy Yard is an administrative center for the U.S. Navy and the oldest naval installation in the country. In November 2009, Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 at Fort Hood. He said he was angry about being deployed to Afghanistan and wanted to protect Islamic and Taliban leaders from U.S. troops. It was the deadliest attack on a domestic military installation in U.S. history. The Department of Defense called the attack an act of workplace violence, not terrorism. ___ Finley reported from Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
A far-right ‘1st Amendment' group lost its defamation lawsuit. Now the New York Times is suing them back
The New York Times is firing back against the far-right 'paramilitary group' that accused the paper of defamation, filing a new lawsuit after the organization's $100 million case was thrown out of court. In a complaint that was filed in New York this week, the Times is suing 1st Amendment Praetorian for 'reasonable costs, attorney's fees, and disbursements pursuant to New York Civil Rights Law' while noting that the paper incurred at least $50,000 in legal fees defending against the organization's 'meritless' litigation. It is a lawsuit under anti-SLAPP provisions designed to protect First Amendment rights. 'Judge [Mary Kay] Vyskocil's careful opinion granting our motion to dismiss recognized that the claims against The Times were meritless,' a New York Times spokesperson told The Independent. 'New York's anti-SLAPP law therefore requires that 1st Amendment Praetorian pay the costs of The Times's defense. Fee shifting is an important deterrent to frivolous lawsuits against the press and The Times looks forward to recovering its costs.' The Independent has reached out to the 1st Amendment Praetorian for comment. 1st Amendment Praetorian, otherwise known as 1AP, initially brought its lawsuit against the Times in January 2023 in response to several articles the outlet published about the scrutiny the group had received surrounding the January 6 Capitol attack. These reports were in relation to the House committee that investigated January 6 issuing a subpoena to 1AP and its founder Robert Patrick Lewis in November 2021. 'The subpoena compelled 1AP to produce documents pertaining to the events leading up to and transpiring on that day. The Committee specifically sought documents related to the security that 1AP had provided to allies of President Trump—including Stop the Steal campaign organizer Ali Alexander and Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn—as well as various social media posts made by 1AP on or around January 6, among other materials,' the Times noted in its complaint this week. 'The subpoena also compelled Mr. Lewis to appear for a deposition before the Committee.' Following the subpoena of Lewis, the Times published an article in January 2022 that reported on the close ties 1AP had with allies of Donald Trump who were looking to undermine confidence in the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. 'By their own account, members of the 1st Amendment Praetorian helped to funnel data on purported election fraud to lawyers suing to overturn the vote count,' Times reporter Alan Feuer reported in that article. 'They guarded celebrities like Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump's former national security adviser, at 'Stop the Steal' rallies, where huge crowds gathered to demand that Mr. Trump remain in office. And they supported an explosive proposal to persuade the president to declare an emergency and seize the country's voting machines in a bid to stay in power.' In subsequent articles by Feuer later that year, it was noted that 1AP had provided security for Flynn amid Trump's efforts to overturn the election results, adding that the group also helped former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell gather open-source intelligence about claims of election fraud. Additionally, citing the House committee's description of the organization, 1AP was described as 'far-right,' 'extremist,' and a 'paramilitary group' similar to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. 1AP filed a $100 million lawsuit in January 2023 against the Times and Feuer, alleging that the articles and social media posts sharing the pieces defamed the group by 'stating or implying to their Twitter followers and readers that 1AP 'stormed the Capitol' on January 6, 2021.' The paper would reply in court that none of the social media posts presented in the complaint mentioned 1AP and that the articles in question never stated that the group stormed the Capitol. 1AP would later file an amended complaint that alleged the Times made 24 materially false statements about the group, once again seeking $100 million in compensatory and punitive damages. In March of this year, the court granted the Times' motion to dismiss the complaint with prejudice. In its ruling, the court stated that 1AP not only failed to sufficiently show that the Times published any alleged defamatory statements with actual malice, but also didn't show 'any level of specificity' with its defamation claim. Beyond that, many of the supposed defamatory statements the group highlighted were not 'of or concerning' 1AP, with the group also failing to even show that many of the statements were false. Meanwhile, at the time of its lawsuit, Rolling Stone suggested that 1AP was taking on a highly litigious stance in an effort to distance itself from other right-wing organizations and figures associated with the Capitol attack. Instead, the organization was attempting to rebrand itself as a 'civil liberties group' and 'non-partisan.' 'The litigation is part of a pattern of high-dollar defamation suits brought by 1AP that are ostensibly attempting to clear its reputation,' the magazine reported in February 2023. 'Seen in another light, the lawsuits present a vivid irony: They are filed by an organization that presents itself as a protector of first amendment rights, against parties who've leveraged their own freedom of the press to raise concerns about 1st Amendment Praetorian.' Rolling Stone added: 'The court blitz complicates efforts to scrutinize 1AP, which the Jan. 6 Committee's final report describes as a 'paramilitary group,' and whose founder Lewis has touted the need for a 'second American revolution.'' Citing New York's anti-SLAPP law, which gives publishers increased protections against frivolous lawsuits and allows them to recover damages incurred in defending against those complaints, the Times is now demanding that 1AP pay its attorneys' fees in the dismissed case. ' The Times incurred more than $50,000 in legal fees and costs to defend against 1AP's lawsuit that had no basis in law or fact,' this week's complaint alleges, adding: 'The District Court's opinion makes clear that 1AP both commenced and continued its Action without a substantial basis in fact and law.' The New York Times pushing back against a Trump-adjacent organization over what was ultimately deemed a frivolous and baseless complaint comes at a time when the current president has used the courts to bully media companies with his own 'meritless' lawsuits. Trump, who is currently suing the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion over a Jeffrey Epstein article, recently obtained a $16 million settlement from Paramount in his lawsuit over a CBS News interview with Kamala Harris. That settlement – which was similar in the amount Disney paid Trump to settle his ABC News lawsuit – came shortly before his administration approved Paramount's $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, which also came just days after CBS announced it was cancelling the late-night show of outspoken Trump critic Stephen Colbert.
