Feud between residents led to fatal shooting of firefighter

A 77-year-old man suspected of shooting and killing a Long Beach Fire Department captain during an emergency call at a high-rise senior living facility had set off an explosive device in an apparent attempt to kill a neighbor, according to prosecutors.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office charged Covenant Manor resident Thomas Kim with one count of murder, one count of attempted murder of a firefighter, two counts of attempted murder and one count each of arson of an inhabited structure and explosion with intent to murder.

“Kim also faces a special circumstance allegation that the murder was committed while a firefighter was on duty and the special allegation that he personally and intentionally discharged a handgun that caused great bodily injury and death,” said Greg Risling, spokesman for the district attorney’s office.

According to prosecutors, Kim had been feuding with a female neighbor who lived above him at the 11-story housing complex for seniors and disabled people.

On Monday morning, Kim set off an explosive device in his apartment “with the intent to kill her,” prosecutors said. how tech giants like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Uber collect and monetize consumers’ personal data – a set of reforms that could ripple throughout the country.

The Golden State Legislature is due to vote today on the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which would require tech companies to disclose the categories of data they collect about consumers as well as the third-party entities, like advertisers, with whom they share that information. Web users would also gain the ability to opt out of having their data sold, and companies wouldn’t be allowed to charge users a fee or provide them less service if they made that choice.

And the proposal comes with some teeth: California’s attorney general would be empowered to fine companies that fail to secure consumers’ sensitive details against cyber threats.

If it passes, California’s proposed privacy rules would only apply to its citizens. But it still could force companies like Facebook and Google to change some of their practices across the country, given the difficulty in maintaining two sets of privacy protections – one in California, the most populous state in the country, and a second for everyone else. Many tech giants in Silicon Valley took precisely that approach in May, adapting their data-collection practices worldwide when Europe began implementing its own strict privacy rules.

California’s new regulations also could add to the pressure on other regulators, including federal lawmakers in Congress, to follow suit and adopt fresh datacollection protections, responding to web users who have grown furious with a series of recent privacy mishaps, particularly at Facebook.

– Appeal-democrat news services