Second man charged with murder of Kings Heath homeless man
West Midlands Police said the family of Mr Dean, who was originally from San Diego in California, were being kept informed and are being offered support.Mr Dean was said to be popular among the Kings Heath community and would often be seen sitting outside the local Asda store.Hundreds of people attended a memorial service held for him at New Life Baptist Church, which included eulogies, poems and hymns. A slide show of photos of Mr Dean throughout his life was also shared while his favourite song played - California by Joni Mitchell.
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Sky News
27 minutes ago
- Sky News
Tasers to be used in prisons to tackle 'unacceptably high' levels of violence
Tasers can be used in prisons for the first time to tackle "unacceptably high" levels of violence, as part of a new trial. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she is "determined to keep prison staff safe". Specialist officers from two bases in Oxfordshire and Doncaster can now be deployed to incidents in adult male prisons in England and Wales, equipped with Tasers. Reporters attending a demonstration were shown how they could be used in certain scenarios, where there is a threat to safety, including hostage situations or riots, and where multiple people are involved in "mass disorder". One demonstration involved four prisoners who had become disruptive in the exercise yard. After staff were forced to withdraw, three inmates turned on one and it was deemed there was an "immediate threat to life." Officers gave verbal warnings before deploying the Tasers at a distance. This trial will use the Taser 7 model, which is what police officers currently use. It can generate 50,000 volts when triggered, but drops to about 1,500 volts when hitting the target. In a separate hostage situation, officers used pyrotechnics which produced loud bangs and smoke to distract an aggressive "inmate" before putting them in handcuffs. At first, specialist national officers from the two bases can be deployed if such incidents occur. It's understood at the moment these teams get 800 callouts a year - averaging just over two a day. The trial will run until enough data is collected to determine whether Tasers should be rolled out more widely. Ms Mahmood said she intends to have further updates in the autumn and will "consider" whether local staff inside jails can use them. "From my perspective, this is very much the beginning," she said. Violence in prisons has been rising. In the 12 months to December there were 10,605 assaults on staff, a rise of 13% on the year before and a new peak. Serious assaults were also up 10% on the previous 12 months. Earlier this year, Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi attacked prison staff at the high-security jail HMP Frankland, using hot cooking oil and homemade, or improvised, weapons. The justice secretary said the incident at Frankland "forced the pace" of further measures to tackle violence. Southport killer Axel Rudakubana also allegedly attacked a member of staff at HMP Belmarsh by pouring hot water over them from inside his cell. The Prison Officers Association (POA) union urged ministers to consider protective equipment and stab vests for staff. Last month, the government announced the use of body armour at certain units in high-security jails, which house some of the most dangerous inmates. But while "grateful" for a "step in the right direction", the POA don't think the new measure goes far enough - and instead want specialist staff inside jails trained to use Tasers. "It is pointless a national response being several hours away if, locally, Taser is needed to immediately preserve life and combat threat," Mark Fairhurst, the POA's national chairman said. Whitehall wants to consider the "lessons" from this trial before any potential further rollout. Ms Mahmood pointed out that while Tasers have been used for many years by the police, "a custodial setting is different to usage in other scenarios".
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
US landlord who killed Palestinian-American boy dies in Illinois prison
An Illinois landlord convicted of murdering his six-year-old Palestinian-American tenant in a violent hate crime has died in Czuba was sentenced to 53 years behind bars in May for the murder of Wadea al-Fayoume as well as the severe wounding and attempted murder of his mother Hanaan Shaheen in 2023. Police say the landlord targeted the pair for their Islamic faith shortly after the start of the Israel-Gaza war. He died at the Illinois Department of Corrections on Thursday, according to the Will County Sheriff's had served less than three months of his decades-long sentence when he died of a currently unknown cause at the age of 73. The family had been renting rooms from Czuba in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64km) from Chicago, when the attack took place. Police say Czuba stabbed al-Fayoume 26 times. The boy later died in was convicted of two counts of hate crime, one count of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and two of aggravated mother testified in court that Czuba had also attacked her with a knife before moving on to her son, telling her "you, as a Muslim, must die", Reuters did not attend her son's funeral as she was recovering in hospital from injuries received in the crime scene footage displayed during the trial was so explicit that the judge agreed not to show it to audience members. Al-Fayoume's family had been among the took less than 90 minutes to return a verdict in the case that received attention across the US and renewed fears of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian Rehab, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Chicago office, said in a statement after Czuba's death that while "this depraved killer has died, the hate is still alive and well".A memorial to al-Fayoume was unveiled at a playground in Plainfield in June. The city is home to a large and well-established Palestinian community.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Daughter of woman murdered by man who US deported speaks out: ‘He was denied due process'
The daughter of a woman murdered by a man from Laos who is among those controversially deported from the US to South Sudan has spoken out about her family's pain but also to decry the lack of rights afforded to those who were expelled to countries other than their own. Birte Pfleger lives in Los Angeles and was a history student at Cal State University in Long Beach when her parents came to visit her from their native Germany in 1994 and ended up shot by Thongxay Nilakout during a robbery while on a sightseeing trip. Pfleger's mother, Gisela, was killed and her father, Klaus, wounded. Nilakout, now 48, is Laotian and was among eight convicted criminals from countries including Mexico, Cuba, Vietnam and Myanmar who were deported to the conflict-torn African country, amid uproar over Donald Trump's extreme immigration policies. In an interview with the Guardian, Pfleger said: 'It's been 31 years living with the irreparable pain and permanent grief, so, on the one hand, I wanted him gone. On the other hand, I'm a historian and I have taught constitutional history. He was denied due process and that's a constitutional problem.' The government of South Sudan has not disclosed the men's exact whereabouts since arriving in the country earlier this month, after legal problems had caused them to be stuck in nearby Djibouti after legal wrangling, or provided any details about their future. A lawyer representing the men said 'their situation is fragile,' noting their relatives have not heard from the deportees since a US military plane flew them to Juba, South Sudan's capital, before midnight on 4 July. A police spokesperson in South Sudan, Maj Gen James Monday Enoka, indicated that the men may ultimately be moved on. 'They will be investigated, the truth will be established and if they are not South Sudanese they will be deported to their rightful countries,' Enoka said. But few details are forthcoming. The US Department of Homeland Security called the men 'sickos'. The deportations had been initially blocked by US district judge Brian Murphy, who had ruled that the group needed to receive notice and due process before being taken to South Sudan, including the opportunity to express fear of being harmed or tortured there. But in a 7-2 ruling, the US supreme court paused Murphy's orders, clearing all obstacles preventing the Trump administration's plan. Just days after the ruling, the administration issued a memo suggesting officials would ramp up deportations to third countries with little notice and due process. The directive by Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), said US officials may deport migrants to countries other than their own with as little as six hours' notice, even if those third party nations have not made assurances about their safety. Legal experts have objected. 'We are going to continue to fight the policy that conflicts with the statute, the regulations and with the constitution,' said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, an organization leading a class-action lawsuit against Ice. The UN human rights office denounced the action and urged the US to halt deportations to third-party countries. More than 250 Venezuelans have just been repatriated after being deported by the US without due process to a brutal anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador. Previously a multinational group of migrants was sent to Panama from the US and ended up trapped in a hotel then caged in a jungle setting, while more recently another group was deported to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, which critics there described as 'human trafficking' and lamented the prospect of more to follow. 'International law is clear that no one shall be sent anywhere where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to serious human rights violations such as torture, enforced disappearance or arbitrary deprivation of life,' the UN said in a statement. Nilakout was 17 when he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his murderous attack on Birte Pfleger's parents. In 2012, the US supreme court ruled that life without parole was unconstitutional for minors. After nearly 30 years behind bars, Nilakout became eligible for parole in 2022, despite a challenge from Pfleger, and was released from a California state prison the following year. He was picked up in Trump's mass deportation dragnet after the Republican president returned to the White House in January. Pfleger, now a history professor at Cal State University in Los Angeles, said she felt conflicted when she found out that Nilokaut had been deported to South Sudan. 'The moral dilemma here is that he should have never been let out of prison. But once he was released from prison, Ice should have been able to deport him, or he should have self-deported to Laos. But of course, what happened is he was put on a Gulfstream jet headed for South Sudan that violated a federal judge's orders to give notice. He and the others were denied due process,' she said. Pfleger continued: 'I am not involved in victims' rights organizations or anything like that. I have not gone to law school, but I have read the constitution and the history of it. And I think that due process rights are fundamental. And when they're no longer fundamental, we all have a problem.' The pain for Pfleger and her sister of losing their mother and their father being wounded having watched his wife get shot and being unable to help her persists, and the family had not expected Nilakout to be freed, she said, adding that her father, Klaus, is 93 and frail. My mom was everything to him,' she said. In a statement, the government of South Sudan cited 'the longstanding support extended by the United States' during its fight for independence and its post-independence development, for the latest cooperation. Between 2013 and 2016, a civil war killed 400,000 people in South Sudan. Earlier this year, the threat of a new war breaking out pushed the US embassy to issue a level 4 warning to Americans not to go to South Sudan because of crime, kidnapping and armed conflict there. The German government recently warned, via the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, posting on social media that: 'After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is again on the brink of civil war.' The UN commission on human rights in South Sudan warned 'We are witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won public progress.' The UN added that a humanitarian crisis was looming with half the country already suffering food insecurity and two million internally displaced, with a further two million having fled the violence to seek sanctuary in neighboring countries.
