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LITTLE ROCK — The 19-year-old man charged in the Christmas Eve shooting death of a Salvation Army major pleaded guilty Friday to a murder charge and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Laquan Fitzpatrick was arrested March 16, nearly three months after the Dec. 24, 2009 killing of Philip Wise outside a Salvation Army community center in North Little Rock. Wise was shot in front of his three young children. Fitzpatrick entered the court shortly after 9:30 a.m. and told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims he understood his rights and was entering the plea. Sims accepted the agreed...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Three teenage girls with no prior criminal history appeared in court Tuesday after they were accused of involvement in a spectacularly bad bank robbery attempt on Indianapolis' northeast side...

http://www.gazette.com/articles/hospital-101610-monday-face.html

Irate with a reporter's question on the effectiveness of the city's handgun ban, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley offered to give a first-hand lesson following the shooting of an off-duty police officer. Oh, it's been very effective," Daley said, according to MyFoxChicago.com. "If I put this up your butt, you'll find out how effective it is. If I put a round up your … you'll know."

Below are excerpts from the online chat between Jolie and Ogundele as they plotted murder Jolie: Bruv that girl won't leave me alone. She's taking it far now. It gives me a bellyache thinking about her. Ogundele: Oi I will ****ing kill her yeah, **** her bruv, she's a ****ing ***** Jolie: You're ****ing telling me mate. She's trying to **** up my life. She needs to get out the equation somehow. I don't care if she lives or dies because the consequences of her having a child are too big for me to handle Ogundele: I'm serious, we will...

SEATTLE — A sheriff's spokesman in Washington state says Seattle police have fatally shot the man suspected of gunning down four police officers.

Police Seek Fourth Teen in LR Burglary-Homicide Reported by: KARK 4 News Wednesday, Jul 1, 2009 @10:30am CST Little Rock Police are looking for local teen they're calling a person of interest in Tuesday's residential break-in that left a homeowner dead. The suspect is identified as Antonio Demetrius Terry, 16, of Little Rock. He is named in police reports read in court this morning when three other suspects were arraigned in the case. Maurice Clark, 67, was shot when the suspects broke into his home. Thomas Stacy Caffery, 17, Craig Deshaun Woods, 15, and Mashawn Kendrick, 14, all pleaded not...

Jerome Ersland was back at work Thursday filling prescriptions and hoping that by taking the life of a 16-year-old boy two days earlier, he had saved others. Rubbing an oversized bandage on his left forearm, where he said he was grazed by a robber’s bullet, Ersland related details of what he said was a highly organized hit on the Reliable Discount Pharmacy. "I just regret anybody would get killed,” Ersland said. "But if I wouldn’t have been here, there would have been three people killed — the other pharmacist and the two techs.” He also recalls the angry voices of...

OAKLAND - A grand jury today voted to indict Yusuf Ali Bey IV, the scion of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, for ordering the killings of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men in 2007, authorities familiar with the situation said. Prosecutors are likely to bring the case with special circumstances - allowing them to seek the death penalty against Bey IV, 23. He allegedly told two of his followers that in exchange for killing Bailey, he would teach them how to file fraudulent loan applications that could reap hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another man, Antoine Arelus Mackey,...

Jay-Z reportedly "hit the roof" when he heard that Chris Brown allegedly beat up girlfriend Rihanna. The 19-year-old star handed himself in to police after officers responded to a phone call at around 12.30am on Sunday morning from an unnamed woman - believed to be Rihanna - who accused him of hurting her. The Umbrella hitmaker - who was taken by Officers on Sunday to the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment - reportedly suffered two "huge contusions" on both sides of her forehead, a bloody lip and bloody nose.

NEW YORK (AP) - News organizations that cover the White House sparred with the Obama administration on Thursday over access issues for photographers and rules for briefings. Representatives from Obama's press office held a conference call with photo editors, who are concerned that the administration prefers distributing photos taken by a White House photographer in cases where photojournalists have been permitted access in the past. It was unclear whether the two sides had reached any accommodation. The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse refused to distribute photos taken by the White House of the new president on his first day...

President-elect Barack Obama greets onlookers after working out at the Semper Fit Center at Marine Corp Base Hawaii in Kailua, Hawaii, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008.

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Republicans called for a criminal probe of Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith for allegedly threatening lobbyists who fail to contribute to Democratic campaigns. "It borders on criminality," said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. "You cannot threaten people to give contributions. That's thuggery. Quid pro quo is a crime - you go to jail." Senate Investigations Committee Chair George Winner said Smith, of Queens, "may have broken several laws - including coercion, official misconduct, attempted bribery and even conspiracy." Smith told a group of lobbyists at a fund-raiser for Senate Democrats in that their clients would be shut out of a...

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. (myfoxatlanta.com) -- A burglary suspect is in the hospital after a Riverdale police officer shot him. Police say the suspect broke into the Foot Locker on Highway 85 Tuesday morning. Police responded to a burglary call around 5:00 a.m. and found a silver Escort station wagon parked next to the back wall of the building. Police say the back wall had a huge hole broken through the wall, and the vehicle was filled with various items in boxes. Two suspects ran away, and one police officer drove his squad car closer to the station wagon without realizing...

You've heard of resume inflation? You've heard of people who lie about having Ph.D.s or Ivy League pedigrees in order to get ahead? The world of thug culture has its own perverse equivalent, in which middle-class men with minor legal transgressions exaggerate their bad behavior, claiming to be hard-core degenerates in order to impress youngsters looking for outlaw role models. In this destructive environment, the more violent and predatory you are, the more heroic you seem. That helps to explain why a metro Atlanta hip-hop star known as Akon wove a tall tale of malevolence and criminal activity, claiming to...

Map Of Recent Shootings Wednesday afternoon's shooting comes on the heels of a particularly violent weekend in the city. Between Friday night and early Monday morning, 36 people were shot in Chicago, nine fatally, and two people were stabbed.

The rap star Juvenile is "shocked and devastated" by the shooting death of his young daughter, the girl's mother and another child, his manager said Saturday. The 32-year-old rapper is still trying to cope with the death of 4-year-old Jelani; her mother, 39-year-old Joy Deleston; and the woman's daughter Micaiah, 11, whose bodies were found Thursday night in their home, said manager Aubrey Francis. "It really shocked him and devastated him to the point where I've never seen him before," Francis said. "Right now he is relaxing and trying to grasp everything of what has happened." Meanwhile, 17-year-old Anthony Tyrone...

He forgot it was there: TIA Passenger Had Box Cutter In Hollowed-Out Book. TAMPA — A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said. About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, airport security ran Benjamin Baines Jr.’s backpack through an X-ray machine and saw the image of a box cutter, according to a report from the Transportation Security Administration. When searching the backpack, a security officer found a book titled “Fear Itself.” The book was hollowed out, and the box cutter was inside. After Baines was read...

GARY, Ind. -- A teenager shot to death by an officer as he fled a burglary scene may have tried to pull up his sagging pants, causing the officer to mistake the movement for a reach for a weapon, according to newly filed court documents. In a motion to dismiss a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Vincent Smith Jr.'s father, the city of Gary suggests the 16-year-old was shot as he was reaching down to hoist up his drooping pants and sprint away from Officer Levi Randolph. "Police officers have to make a lot of split-second decisions," said city...