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GBI: CDC shooter had no criminal record, used father's guns in attack

GBI: CDC shooter had no criminal record, used father's guns in attack

Axios2 days ago
Law enforcement officers collected more than 500 shell casings and five firearms from the scene of Friday's shooting that killed DeKalb County police officer David Rose near the CDC's Clifton Road headquarters and Emory University.
Driving the news: GBI director Chris Hosey said in a press conference Tuesday that the shooter, identified as 30-year-old Joseph Patrick White of Kennesaw, managed to strike six buildings with "close to" 200 rounds.
The latest: On the day of the shooting, White broke into his father's gun safe at the home where he lived with his parents, who are cooperating with the investigation, Hosey said.
The five firearms, which were a mix of rifles, handguns and shotguns, belonged to the father, Hosey told reporters.
The GBI director said law enforcement had previous contact with White, who has no known criminal history, several weeks prior to Friday shooting after he "verbalized thoughts of suicide."
State of play: Investigators found "written documentation that expressed the shooter's discontent ... with the COVID-19 vaccinations" while executing a search warrant at his home, Hosey said Tuesday.
The GBI's criminal profilers are analyzing those documents and they will be shared with the FBI Atlanta field office.
White died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the second floor of a CVS located across the street from the CDC and was not struck by any bullets fired by law enforcement, Hosey added.
Preliminary results from an autopsy show Rose's injuries were caused by weapons used by White, Hosey said.
What's next: Investigators are reviewing video evidence and electronic devices recovered at the scene.
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Rule by guerrillero: Petro's Colombia is reversing the logic of justice
Rule by guerrillero: Petro's Colombia is reversing the logic of justice

The Hill

time23 minutes ago

  • The Hill

Rule by guerrillero: Petro's Colombia is reversing the logic of justice

Former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe was sentenced to twelve years of house arrest earlier this month for alleged bribery and procedural fraud — a sentence he denounced as a political sham. It might just seem like a classic case of leaders weaponizing the judiciary against the political opposition. But it has an even darker twist to it, as the recent shooting death of the main opposition candidate for president, Miguel Uribe (no relation), demonstrates. In a nation now governed by former communist guerrillas, those who once fought against a narco-insurgency are being confined, whereas the kingpins who trafficked the drugs and roiled the nation with violence are being ushered into palaces and introduced into the vocabulary of reform. The threat in Colombia no longer radiates from stateless cartels and guerrilla armies in the jungle, but from Colombia's very presidency. For the U.S., partnership without strategic recalibration is no longer viable. Under Petro, a former M-19 guerrillero, Colombia's Ministry of Justice is giving away the store to his leftist friends and allies who did so much damage during their decades-long insurgency. It has proposed revisions to the 2005 Justice and Peace Law that extend benefits to narco-commanders, urban mafia leaders, and recidivists. Sentences for these would drop to a maximum of eight years, served not in maximum-security prisons but in 'agricultural colonies' — low-security compounds where their paramilitary command structures can persist. Confession and disarmament, once the moral core of these dangerous groups' demobilization, have been displaced by bureaucratic compliance — enrollment in 'territorial transformation' programs and good-conduct certificates. Under Petro, criminality is no longer being dismantled — it is instead being reclassified. The policy's symbolism is as revealing as its clauses. Petro recently shared a state stage with leaders of Medellín's most violent armed groups — some of them escorted from prison, one even addressing the crowd. Several had served five years, making them eligible for release under the proposed framework. To add insult to injury, the proposals would allow narcos who surrender assets to retain up to 12 percent of their ill-gotten gains. This will allow the nation's worst criminals to launder, legally, hundreds of billions of pesos into protected capital, labeled as reparation. Petro got himself elected despite being chummy with these criminals. This year, he made an unannounced visit to Manta, Ecuador — a trafficking hub associated with Los Choneros. Journalists reported a clandestine meeting with that organization's fugitive drug lord. Petro declined to answer questions about it directly and never released his itinerary. Colombian authorities did not investigate. To understand the pattern, one must trace M-19's relationship with drug trafficking. At first, they sought to selectively extort drug traffickers by kidnapping them. When the paramilitary group MAS formed in response to strike back violently, M-19 risked annihilation. So it adopted a strategy of leveraging the narco-economy instead. By 1985, that posture had matured into an alignment. In a covert pact with Pablo Escobar, M-19 received $2 million to storm the Supreme Court and destroy extradition records. Escobar supplied explosives and the late drug lord Fidel Castaño supplied rifles. More than 100 people died, including half of the justices. At that point, the boundaries between insurgency and narco-terrorism collapsed. Their joint logistics reinforced the fusion. They relied on maritime shipments — as on the Karina, one of the rare ships intercepted and sunk, laden with East German rifles. In the 'Zar' case, a Cuban-linked flight carrying armaments was intercepted. These operations, tolerated by Cuba and Nicaragua, brought the Cold War together with the Drug War. M-19 conducted fewer kidnappings than other leftist guerrilla groups like FARC and ELN — not from a sense of ethics, but because their cartel financing and smuggling routes made ransoms obsolete. For decades, Colombia's laws set a logical order: Armed groups had to stop attacks, follow basic humanitarian rules, and commit to compensating victims before the government would formally negotiate with them. Petro reversed that sequence with a series of warrant-suspension orders — first for 19 leaders of a FARC splinter group in March 2023, and later for six Clan del Golfo negotiators in July 2024. Each order paused arrests and extraditions before either group had been granted political status, turning a legal threshold into a discretionary amnesty. Colombia's intelligence service under Carlos Ramón González — now a fugitive believed to be hiding out in Nicaragua thanks to a corruption scandal — functioned less as a coordinator of intelligence and more as a tool of political control. Meanwhile, Petro shifted trillions of pesos to local committees operating in areas where criminal groups are entrenched — outside normal procurement rules. Sold as 'democratization,' this has outsourced authority to para-legal networks, diluting sovereignty where the state is already weakest. For the U.S., the consequences have been immediate. Colombia sits at the center of U.S. counternarcotics policy. If the presidency facilitates trafficking under the false pretext of peace, then the DEA, Justice Department and Southern Command face compromise of their surveillance activity, exposure of their sources, and contamination of their evidence. Cooperation with Colombia today is a liability. Washington has tools to deal with this. 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The test is no longer whether Washington can pressure cartels at the periphery, but whether it will use its legal arsenal when the center of impunity is the presidency of a partner state gone rogue.

Cincinnati beatdown suspects arraigned on new charges; bond changes spark courtroom drama
Cincinnati beatdown suspects arraigned on new charges; bond changes spark courtroom drama

Fox News

time36 minutes ago

  • Fox News

Cincinnati beatdown suspects arraigned on new charges; bond changes spark courtroom drama

CINCINNATI – Five of the seven individuals charged in the viral Cincinnati beatdown appeared in court Thursday morning to be arraigned on additional charges in a tense back-and-forth over the case. The first suspect to appear was Montanez Merriweather, who was slapped with an additional federal charge for illegally having a gun as a convicted felon earlier this week. Prosecutor Kip Guinan revealed there are two additional videos from nearby city cameras that show new angles of the fight but have not yet been made public. Guinan also said the alleged racial slurs made toward the perpetrators were said nearly two minutes after the attack began. The judge determined Merriweather's bond would remain at $500,000. Dekyra Vernon's bond was then knocked down from $200,000 to $25,000 at 10%, eliciting cheers from the gallery. She was also ordered to stay away from the city's downtown area. Vernon's attorney, Clyde Bennett, argued that the case against his client had been inflamed due to race and politics, but in reality it was just a fight fueled by alcohol. Guinan rebutted Bennett's argument, asserting that for him to believe the case is driven by race is offensive. Jermaine Matthews, who was initially released on bond shortly after the attack, was granted the same bond amount and is still permitted to go to work. Guinan argued that Matthews was the "leader" of the beatdown and one of the primary instigators, adding "this is the man who started it." However, Matthews' attorney, Brandon Fox, insisted his client was "slapped" by a White man when the fight began. Dominique Kittle was then ordered to remain in custody pending a mental health evaluation, but his bond was kept the same. Kittle's defense attorney revealed his client is a paranoid schizophrenic and was previously found not guilty on prior charges by reason of insanity. However, Guinan referred to Kittle as "a grave danger to the public" during his arraignment. Aisha Devaughn also received a lower bond, with the initial amount of $300,000 brought down to $25,000 after her attorney cited her lack of prior felonies. Guinan also said Devaughn allegedly inserted herself into the fight and was not initially provoked. Upon being led out of the courtroom, Matthews exclaimed, "[I'm going to] go get her," before leaving the courtroom after Devaughn's bond was lowered. Patrick Rosemond was expected to be present in court after being arrested in Georgia last week, but he has not yet been extradited to Ohio. He could potentially appear in court on Friday. Matthews, Merriweather, Vernon, Devaughn, Rosemond and Kittle are each charged with three counts of alleged felonious assault, three charges of assault and two charges of aggravated rioting, the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office confirmed to Fox News Digital. If convicted, they face the possibility of up to 30 years in prison. A seventh individual, Gregory Wright, was arrested earlier this week and is charged with alleged aggravated rioting and aggravated robbery. Each defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Man accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges is found guilty of sexual assault in Utah
Man accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges is found guilty of sexual assault in Utah

The Hill

timean hour ago

  • The Hill

Man accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges is found guilty of sexual assault in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Rhode Island man accused of faking his death and fleeing the United States to evade rape charges was found guilty late Wednesday of sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in his first of two Utah trials. An eight-person jury in Salt Lake County found Nicholas Rossi guilty of a 2008 rape after a three-day trial in which his accuser and her parents took the stand. Rossi, 38, declined to testify on his own behalf. He will be sentenced on Oct. 20 and is set to stand trial in September on another rape charge in Utah County. First-degree felony rape carries a punishment in Utah of five years to life in prison, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. 'We are grateful to the survivor in this case for her willingness to come forward, years after this attack took place,' Gill said in a statement. 'It took courage and bravery to take the stand and confront her attacker to hold him accountable.' Utah authorities began searching for Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, when he was identified through a decade-old DNA rape kit in 2018. He was among thousands of rape suspects identified and later charged when Utah made a push to clear its rape kit backlog. Months after he was charged in Utah County, an online obituary claimed Rossi died on Feb. 29, 2020, of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But police in his home state of Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer and a former foster family, cast doubt on whether he was dead. He was arrested in Scotland the following year while receiving treatment for COVID-19 after hospital staff recognized his distinctive tattoos from an Interpol notice. Extradited to Utah in January 2024, Rossi insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed. Investigators say they identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to evade capture. He appeared in court this week in a wheelchair, wearing a suit and tie and using an oxygen tank. Rossi's public defender denied the rape claim and urged jurors not to read too much into his move overseas years later. 'You're allowed to move, you're allowed to go somewhere else, you're allowed to have a different name,' attorney Samantha Dugan said. She declined further comment following the verdict. Prosecutors painted a picture of an intelligent man who used his charm to take advantage of a vulnerable young woman. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly. The woman was living with her parents and recovering from a traumatic brain injury when she responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist. They began dating and were engaged within about two weeks. She testified Rossi asked her to pay for dates and car repairs, lend him $1,000 so he wouldn't be evicted, and take on debt to buy their engagement rings. He grew hostile soon after their engagement and raped her in his bedroom one night after she drove him home, she said. Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Brandon Simmons told jurors Wednesday that the woman did not consent. 'This is not romantic, this is not her mistaking things.' The woman said her parents' dismissive comments convinced her not to go to the police. She came forward a decade later after seeing him in the news and learning he was accused of another rape from the same year. Rossi's lawyers said the woman built up years of resentment after he made her foot the bill for everything in their monthlong relationship. They argued she accused him of rape to get back at him years later when he was getting media attention, and sought to undermine her credibility with jurors. Rossi's accuser in the Utah County case, who testified at this week's trial, is also a former girlfriend. She went to police at the time of that alleged rape. He is accused of attacking her at his apartment in Orem in September 2008 after she came over to collect money she said he stole from her to buy a computer. When police initially interviewed Rossi, he claimed she raped him and threatened to have him killed. Rossi grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island and returned there before allegedly faking his death. He was previously wanted in the state for failing to register as a sex offender. The FBI says he faces fraud charges in Ohio, where he was convicted of sex-related charges in 2008.

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