Crime

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — It's a scene that's gone viral over and over, with social media videos showing groups of thieves brazenly stealing bags of merchandise from stores around the country.

Organized retail theft is a financial problem for businesses and a crime trend that police and lawmakers want to stop.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Bibb County Deputy Brad Johnson was shot and killed in 2022 by a man authorities said had his prison sentence shortened under Alabama's good-time behavior incentive law despite escaping from a prison work release center in 2019.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A shooter seemed to be driven by bias against the LGBTQ community in plotting an attack at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five and wounding 17 others, a judge acknowledged Thursday in finding that prosecutors showed enough evidence for trial on murder and ha te crime charges.

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — Florida executed a man on Thursday for murdering a woman in 1990 after he escaped from prison, stabbing her to death in a shopping mall parking lot in an attempted carjacking.

Donald Dillbeck, 59, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia senators want to require cash bail for many more crimes than under current law, a move that the bill's sponsor says will keep people from committing additional crimes.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A teenager has been charged as an adult in the case of Madison Brooks, a Louisiana State University student who was allegedly raped then left on the side of a road where she was struck and killed by a car.

NEW YORK (AP) — Emotions ran high Thursday in death penalty proceedings for a man convicted of killing eight people on a New York City bike path, as the man’s father professed both shame and love for his son and the defendant’s uncle shouted “dirty ISIS bastards!” and punched a door as he left the room.

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday rejected a call from prosecutors to keep R. Kelly behind bars until he is 100, instead telling the Grammy Award-winning R&B singer he would serve all but one of his 20 years on child sex convictions simultaneously with a previous sentence.

Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh denied killing his wife and son but admitted lying to investigators about when he last saw them alive as he took the stand in his own defense Thursday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge on Thursday sentenced Harvey Weinstein to 16 more years in prison after a jury convicted him of the rape and sexual assault of an Italian actor and model, furthering the fall of the onetime movie magnate who became a #MeToo magnet.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Senate voted Thursday to carve out a new crime that could punish hazing with jail time, responding to calls for action following the death of a university student.

Actor Alec Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie and waived his first formal court appearance, in court documents filed Thursday.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities in western Mexico said Thursday they are investigating the killing of an Indigenous anti-logging activist, the latest in a round of murders and disappearances in the region.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Democratic lawmaker who called the late pastor of Emanuel AME Church a friend is continuing his push to make South Carolina the 49th state with a hate crime law.

BERLIN (AP) — A German court on Thursday convicted a Palestinian man from Syria of a war crime and murder for launching a grenade into a crowd of civilians waiting for food in Damascus in 2014. He was sentenced to life in prison.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any other 10-year period since the 1970s, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The European Union's judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust, said Thursday that it is setting up a new center to support efforts to gather evidence of the crime of aggression in Ukraine.

LONDON (AP) — A senior Northern Ireland police officer was in critical but stable condition in a hospital after two masked men shot him after he coached a children’s soccer team, authorities said Thursday.

CANBERRA, Australia: (AP) — Kidnappers have released a woman who was held for several days in a remote area of Papua New Guinea, and security forces are continuing to negotiate for the freedom of four other hostages, police said Thursday.

A central Florida television journalist and a little girl were fatally shot Wednesday afternoon near the scene of a fatal shooting from earlier in the day, authorities said.

Orange County Sheriff John Mina said during a news conference that they’ve detained Keith Melvin Moses, 19, who they believe is responsible for both shootings in the Orlando-area neighborhood.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors charged a man Wednesday with killing a Catholic bishop in a crime that stunned Los Angeles religious and immigrant communities.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The 22-year-old accused of carrying out the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs in November ran a neo-Nazi website and used gay and racial slurs while gaming online, a police detective testified Wednesday.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Senate passed on Wednesday a law shielding the identity of pharmaceutical companies providing lethal injection drugs for state executions.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Charges are mounting against a “Dances With Wolves” actor who is accused of sexually abusing and trafficking Indigenous women and girls in the U.S.

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi grand jury has found “no criminal conduct” by a law enforcement officer who fatally shot a Black teenager last fall outside a discount store in Gulfport, state Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced Wednesday

PHOENIX (AP) — The prosecutor in the case against an Arizona rancher accused of killing a Mexican man on his land near the U.S.-Mexico border alleged during a court hearing Wednesday that the rancher fired that day on a group of about eight unarmed migrants who entered the U.S.

VISALIA, Calif. (AP) — Seven people between the ages of 16 and 51 have been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a teen boy in a central California park two years ago, authorities announced Wednesday.

A former law partner of Alex Murdaugh testified at his double murder trial Wednesday that more than a dozen people walked around the scene of the killings of Murdaugh's wife and son before state-level law enforcement arrived.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Three Oklahoma Republican lawmakers joined a former corrections official on Wednesday to call for a moratorium on the death penalty amid growing concerns about the state's brisk pace of lethal injections.

HAMMOND, La. (AP) — A 30-year-old Louisiana man is in custody following his arrest on a murder charge in a nearly 13-year-old cold case.

The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office said deputies arrested Montrey Paige Sr.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Republican-controlled South Carolina House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to allow lawful firearm owners to carry handguns openly or concealed without a state permit.

The 90-30 vote brings the conservative state one step closer to joining 25 others with some form of so-called “constitutional carry” laws.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Fox News, CNN and other major news outlets didn't defame former coal executive Don Blankenship when they referred to him as a “felon” after he served a year in prison on a misdemeanor charge in connection with the worst U.S.

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York woman who admitted aiding an ex-convict’s decade-long plot to extort and sexually abuse his daughter's Sarah Lawrence College schoolmates was sentenced Wednesday to over four years in prison by a judge who called her critical to his scheme.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho could bring back firing squads as a method of execution under legislation introduced by a panel of lawmakers Wednesday.

The state eliminated its never-used firing squad option in 2009, but has been unable to secure the drugs needed for lethal injection executions.

CAMBRIDGE, Ohio (AP) — A reserve offensive lineman for the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles will make his initial court appearance in Ohio on rape and kidnapping charges next month after waiving his arraignment in the case.

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) — A former Schenectady jail guard who beat and seriously injured a detainee has been sentenced to six months behind bars, to the dismay of prosecutors who sought a stiffer sentence.

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A former suburban Chicago girls gymnastics coach has been sentenced to 96 years in prison for sexually assaulting a teenage gymnast about a decade ago, prosecutors said.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Senate moved Tuesday to restore voting rights to convicted felons as soon as they get out of prison instead of continuing to require them to complete their parole before they can cast a ballot.

PORTERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A man with alleged ties to a California prison gang pleaded not guilty Tuesday to killing six people, including a teenage mother and her baby, last month at a central California home connected to a rival gang, prosecutors said.

MIAMI (AP) — A man who police say was driving the car of a dead South Florida Lyft driver was charged with murder and other counts Tuesday in a separate case.

A grand jury in Hardee County indicted Matthew Flores, 35, on charges of first-degree murder, grand theft auto, possession of a firearm by a felon and tampering with evidence, according to court records.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A top city official said Tuesday that a fourth Memphis Fire Department employee is being investigated as part of the probe into the violent arrest and death of Tyre Nichols.

Alex Murdaugh's defense called his surviving son to the stand Tuesday to poke holes in evidence prosecutors have presented in the disgraced South Carolina attorney's double murder trial.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge barred the general public and media from a courtroom Tuesday where defense lawyers claim emotional testimony from victims has spoiled the death penalty phase of the trial of a man who admits that he killed eight people on a bike path on behalf of a terrorist group.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A teenager pleaded guilty Tuesday in the drive-by shooting death of another teen outside a Des Moines, Iowa, high school and was sentenced to a life prison term with the possibility of parole.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Authorities say the quick apprehension of two youths after a Temple University police officer was shot and killed near the north Philadelphia campus led to an arrest just hours later in a neighboring county.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Chicago man was convicted Tuesday of shooting and seriously wounding an Iowa sheriff's deputy during a robbery at a convenience store in 2021.

Stanley Donahue, 38, was convicted of several charges, including attempted murder, stemming from the shooting in Coggon, a town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Cedar Rapids.

PHOENIX (AP) — The first-degree murder complaint against an Arizona rancher suspected of killing a Mexican man on his land was amended Tuesday to include two counts of aggravated assault against a pair of other people.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A court in Romania's capital agreed Tuesday to extend social media influencer Andrew Tate's detention on suspicion of organized crime and human trafficking by another 30 days, an official said.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A judge on Tuesday recused himself from overseeing DUI charges against former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs in connection with a crash that killed a woman.

Ruggs, 24, is accused of driving up to 156 mph seconds before slamming into 23-year-old Tina Tintor’s car in November 2021.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s chief Supreme Court justice is warning lawmakers that staff shortages in the state’s judiciary branch and untenable backlogs in the mental health evaluations of those charged with crimes need to be addressed.