Homicides in Chicago plummet
Compiled from news services
CHICAGO — After the deadliest year in two decades, the first half of 2017 seemed just as grim in Chicago as homicides remained devastatingly high, raising fears that the spike in violence had become a new normal for the city.
Then in the second half of the year, homicides plummeted, particularly in two of the city’s most violenceplagued neighborhoods, contributing to about a 15 percent overall drop in killings over last year.
Why the second-half decrease?
PoliceSuperintendent EddieJohnson cited new technologyand tactics in those crime-plaguedneighborhoods, suggested that policerelations with the communitywere improving.
Anti-police sentiments were inflamed in 2016 after the release of a video showing a white police officer fatally shoot black teenager Laquan McDonald.
‘Swatting’ suspect arrest
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police in Los Angeles have arrested a man they suspect made a hoax emergency call that resulted in a SWAT police officer fatally shooting a man at the door of his own home in Kansas, a law enforcement official said Saturday.
Wichita Deputy Police Chief Troy Livingston on Friday characterized the hoax call as “swatting” and blamed a “prankster” who called 911 with a fake story about a shooting and kidnapping at the victim’s address. Authorities haven’t released the name of the man who was killed Thursday, but relatives have identified him as Andrew Finch, 28.
Tyler Barriss, 25, is suspected of making that call and was arrested in Los Angeles on Friday, according to the law enforcement official.
Banner greets Pences
ASPEN, Colo. — Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Aspen last week for a holiday vacation — but not without encountering a silent protest from his neighbors in the liberal ski resort town.
“Make America Gay Again,” reads a rainbow banner posted on the stone pillars at the end of the driveway of the home where Mr. Pence and his wife, Karen, are staying.
Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Buglione told the Aspen Times that Mr. Pence’s nextdoor neighbors posted the banners shortly after the vice president and his family arrived Tuesday.
Homicide charges lodged
TROY,N.Y. — Two men have been arrested on murder charges in the deaths of two women and two children in their upstate New York apartment.
Justin Mann and James White pleaded not guilty Saturday in Troy. Both are from Schenectady, N.Y.
Both men are being held in the county jail.
A property manager found 36-year-old Shanta Myers; her children, 11year-old Jeremiah Myers and 5-year-old Shanise Myers; and 22-year-old Brandi Mells in a basement apartment along the Hudson River, just north of Albany on Tuesday. Police say the two women were in a relationship.
City official shot to death
SAN DIEGO –– An official of the Southern California city of Imperial Beach was shot to death Thursday while vacationing in the resort city of Ixtapa in southern Mexico, city officials confirmed.
Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina said Administrative Services Director Doug Bradley was shot during a robbery.
Mr. Bradley, who lived in Playas de Tijuana, would have turned 50 on Friday.