Free Republic

An Iowa football fan in town for the Gophers final game at the Metrodome helped Minneapolis police catch a criminal Friday night. As bars were closing in the Warehouse District early Saturday morning, officers responded to shots fired in a parking lot near 5th Street and Hennepin Avenue. At the parking lot they found Christopher Scott Sinclair, 29, of Minnetonka shooting up a car. “For him to start firing off five shots randomly, we're very lucky he didn't hit somebody,” Sgt. Jesse Garcia said. Sinclair took off running when he saw police. Police chased Sinclair for about two city blocks,...

RIVERDALE, Utah - The police chief who shot himself in the ankle was waving a loaded pistol and being careless, according to two students who were attending his class to qualify for a concealed-weapons permit. "We were told the gun is the chief's personal sidearm, but it looked to me like he didn't know anything about the gun," Lewis Walker said. Bart Ulm, another student seeking certification to carry a concealed weapon, said he was surprised Chief Dave Hansen was using a loaded gun to show how it worked. "Right then, I was very leery, because there's no need to...

Missouri: Police Roadblock Harassment Caught on TapeSt. Louis County, Missouri threaten to arrest a teenager for refusing to discuss his personal travel plans. A teenager harassed by police in St. Louis, Missouri caught the incident on tape. Brett Darrow, 19, had his video camera rolling last month as he drove his 1997 Maxima, minding his own business. He approached a drunk driving roadblock where he was stopped, detained and threatened with arrest when he declined to enter a conversation with a police officer about his personal travel habits. Now Darrow is considering filing suit against St. Louis County Police. "I'm...

Boy charged with felony for carrying sugar BY JUSTINA WANG A 12-year-old Aurora boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project this week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug, Aurora police have confirmed. The sixth-grade student at Waldo Middle School was also suspended for two weeks from school after showing the bag of powdered sugar to his friends. The boy, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile, said he brought the bag to school to ask his science teacher if he could run an experiment using sugar....

Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue SAN MARCOS, Texas - A man who rescued a swimmer caught in swirling river currents found himself in trouble soon afterward when he was arrested by authorities who claimed he was interfering. Dave Newman, 48, disobeyed repeated orders by emergency personnel to leave the water, police said. He was charged with interfering with public duties. "I was amazed," Newman said Monday after his release on $2,000 bail. "I had a very uncomfortable night after saving that guy's life. He thanked me for it in front of the police, and then they took me to...

A North Texas dog lands his owner in a heap of trouble. J.D., the Labrador retriever was playing Frisbee with his owner and two other people at a golf course. A police officer went to see what they were doing and apparently he smelled burning marijuana. J.D. wandered off into a nearby creek, retrieved a plastic bag containing marijuana, and brought it to the officer. J.D.`s owner and another man are charged with drug possession. The 3rd person was not charged.

  Woman Faces Perjury Charges After Men Jailed In Bogus Attacks Tony Pipitone, WKMG-Local 6 News POSTED: 10:03 pm EST February 3, 2005 UPDATED: 3:56 pm EST February 4, 2005  ORLANDO, Fla. -- At 5-foot-9, 140 pounds, 25-year-old Beate Faanis cut a stunning figure as a University of Central Florida golfer, and she quickly caught the eye of fellow golfer Trason Brooks.       "Tall girl, blonde hair, blue eyes, pretty girl," Brooks recalled of his first impression of the Norweigian-born clinical social worker. They would date off and on over 18 months, but after their last break-up things turned...

An Egyptian Christian father, Hossam Armanious, his wife and two daughters were found knifed to death in their home on Jan. 14. Police are investigating several theories, but religious tensions have been suggested as a potential motive. Armanious had been threatened during an Internet chat-room session, following his critical comments on Islam.Hossam Armanious (47), his wife Amal Garas (36), and their daughters Sylvia (15) and Monica (8) were found in their house in Jersey City, bound and gagged with their throats slit and knife wounds to their heads and bodies. While police are suggesting a robbery as the possible motive,...

Mayor Anthony A. Williams last night declared that juvenile car thieves have created a crisis in the District, and he pledged to add law enforcement resources and increase social services for the troubled families and neighborhoods in which so many of the offenders grow up. ... D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey commissioned a study last year that showed that some car thieves keep cycling through the system. The review covered about 1,600 juveniles arrested in a three-year period that ended in 2003. It found that more than 670 of the youths had at least one prior arrest for car...

Muskego - Police officers responding to a burglar alarm at the wrong house shot and killed a 100-pound family dog that bounded toward them, the dog's owner said Friday. Muskego At his mother's home Tuesday afternoon, Jacob Davida was working on his computer when he heard a knock at the front door. With Bongo, the family's Mastiff, St. Bernard and German shepherd mix at his side, Davida opened the door to find police officers with guns drawn. As usual, Bongo, 9, was without a leash because he didn't run off and never harmed anyone, Davida said. Bongo, with golden fur...