Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Sheriff says 2 arrested in Calif. massacre of 6 including mom, baby
VISALIA, Calif. — Two gang members were arrested early Friday, one after a gunbattle, in the January massacre of six people including a baby at a central California home associated with a rival gang, the Tulare County sheriff said.
Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said Noah David Beard, 25, was taken into custody and Angel “Nanu” Uriarte, 35, was wounded in the shootout with federal agents and was undergoing surgery, but was stable and expected to survive.
The suspects and members of the victims’ family have a long history of gang violence but the motive for the shooting “is not exactly clear,” Boudreaux said at a news conference at the sheriff ’s headquarters in Visalia.
The Tulare County District Attorney’s Office charged both suspects with six counts of murder and other crimes. They face a potential sentence of the death penalty or life in prison without parole, prosecutors said.
The six victims, including a teen mother and her baby, were gunned down on Jan. 16 in Goshen, a rural community of 3,000 in the San Joaquin Valley.
Authorities said both suspects had been under around-the-clock surveillance since Jan. 23 in a massive investigation that culminated in Friday’s arrests and involved sheriff ’s detectives, prosecutors, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other law enforcement agencies.
Search warrants were served at locations in Goshen and Visalia, and about eight inmate cells associated with the Nuestra Familia prison gang were searched in five state prisons, Boudreaux said.
He said sheriff ’s authorities waited until they had DNA evidence to make the arrests to bolster the case. No further details of the evidence were provided.
Both suspects had prior run-ins with the law. Uriarte was convicted in 2015 of assault with a firearm in association with a street gang, and Beard had juvenile convictions, prosecutors said in the court filing.
EV tax credits: The Treasury Department said Friday it is making more electric vehicles — including SUVs made by Tesla, Ford and General Motors — eligible for tax credits of up to $7,500 under new vehicle classification definitions.
The revised standards for EV tax credits follow lobbying by automakers that had pressed the Biden administration to change vehicle definitions to allow higher priced vehicles to qualify for a maximum tax credit. Tesla CEO Elon Musk met with top aides to President Joe Biden in January to discuss the EV industry and the broader goals of electrification.
Under the sweeping climate law approved last summer, pickup trucks, SUVs and vans with a sticker price up to $80,000 qualify for EV tax credits, while new electric cars, sedans and wagons can only be priced up to $55,000. The rule had disqualified some higherpriced EVs, such as GM’s Cadillac Lyriq, prompting complaints from Tesla and other automakers.
Missing zoo animals: The man charged in the taking of two emperor tamarin monkeys from the Dallas Zoo has also been charged in two other recent incidents there involving holes that were cut in the fences for enclosures housing langur monkeys and a clouded leopard, authorities said Friday.
Davion Irvin, 24, has been charged with two counts of burglary to a building in connection with the cutting of the enclosure fences for the leopard and langur monkeys, Dallas police spokeswoman Kristin Lowman said during a news conference.
Irvin was arrested Thursday on six counts of animal cruelty — three each for the two emperor tamarin monkeys, police said. His bail was set at $25,000.
The tamarin monkeys went missing Monday and a cut was found in their enclosure’s fencing.
After getting a tip, police found the small monkeys named Bella and Finn the day after they were taken in the closet of a vacant home south of the zoo.
Pope in South Sudan: Pope Francis, on a novel ecumenical peace mission to the world’s youngest country, warned South Sudan’s political leaders on Friday that history will judge them harshly if they continue to drag their feet implementing a 2018 peace accord.
South Sudan gained independence from Muslimmajority Sudan in 2011, but has been beset by civil war and conflict.
In his first address on South Sudanese soil, Francis addressed President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar, former rivals who were gathered in the garden of the presidential palace.
“Future generations will either venerate your names or cancel their memory, based on what you now do,” Francis said.
Kiir, Machar and other opposition groups signed the peace agreement ending five years of civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. But the deal’s provisions, including the formation of a national unified army, remain largely unimplemented. The delays have forced the postponement of the country’s first presidential election for another two years.
Meanwhile, clashes continue, including attacks this week in the south that killed 27 people.
Iran drone attack: Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press on Friday showed damage done to what Iran describes as a military workshop targeted by Israeli drones, the latest such assault amid a shadow war between the two countries.
While Iran has offered no explanation yet of what the workshop manufactured, the drone attack threatened to again raise tensions in the region. Already, worries have grown over Tehran enriching uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, with a top United Nations nuclear official warning that it had enough fuel to build “several” atomic bombs if it chooses.
Israel has not commented on this attack. However, Israeli officials rarely acknowledge operations carried out by the country’s secret military units or Mossad intelligence service.
Ex-pop star freed: Former pop star Gary Glitter was released from prison in England on Friday after serving half of a 16-year prison sentence for sexually abusing three young girls in the 1970s.
The 79-year-old singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was freed from a prison in Dorset, in southwest England. It is common for offenders in the U.K. to be freed halfway through their sentences and then be placed on probation.
The singer, best known for the hit “Rock & Roll (Part 2),” released in 1972, was found guilty of one count of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13.