Murders, Attempted Murders and Homicides

Subterms

    More stories

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      ‘Rust’ Armorer Asks for New Trial After Dismissal of Alec Baldwin’s Case

      by

      Lawyers for the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, are seizing on a judge’s dramatic dismissal of the actor’s case to argue for her release from prison.The armorer who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for loading a live round into a gun on the “Rust” movie set, resulting in the fatal shooting of its cinematographer, asked a court in New Mexico on Tuesday for a new trial following the collapse of the case against Alec Baldwin.On Friday, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer halted Mr. Baldwin’s manslaughter trial and dismissed the case against him permanently after determining that the state had intentionally withheld new evidence that could have shed light on how live rounds ended up on the movie set, leading to the death of the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.Now lawyers for the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, whose case was handled by the same prosecutor and who was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the same judge, are seizing on the problems exposed during Mr. Baldwin’s case to seek a new trial.“This court stated on July 12 that the integrity of the judicial system demanded that the court dismiss Mr. Baldwin’s case with prejudice,” the lawyers wrote. “How can it be any different with Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s case, with this proven litany of serious discovery abuses?”The dramatic dismissal of the case against Mr. Baldwin followed a hearing in which the judge herself examined the new evidence in the Santa Fe County District Courthouse: a batch of live rounds that someone had dropped off to the local sheriff’s office around the time the armorer’s trial ended in March.Law enforcement officials acknowledged during testimony that when the ammunition was turned in, it was put in a separate case file from the rest of the “Rust” evidence. Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers said they had never received it despite asking the state for all ballistics evidence.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Brother of Rachel Morin, Mother Killed While Jogging, Speaks at R.N.C.

      by

      As Republicans focus on crime and immigration during the second night of their convention, Michael Morin, the brother of Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five who was killed while exercising on a scenic trail in Maryland last August, took the stage. The death of Ms. Morin, who the authorities said was raped, has become one in a series of deaths that Republicans have seized on in criticizing the Biden administration’s immigration policies. An unauthorized 23-year-old immigrant from El Salvador was arrested in the killing, according to the police. “Open borders are often portrayed as compassionate and virtuous, but there is nothing compassionate about allowing violent criminals into our country and robbing children of their mother,” Mr. Morin said to the crowd in Milwaukee.Erin Layman, Ms. Morin’s 49-year-old half sister, said Tuesday ahead of the convention appearance that the “Biden administration does not do anything to protect us Americans,” and that the federal government’s immigration policy is “not fair to immigrants who came to our country legally.” Ms. Layman, of Abingdon, Md., said the family was attending the convention “to show the American people that we do have a crisis.” Facing record levels of border crossings and under pressure from some in his own party on the matter, President Biden toughened America’s immigration policies in the last year. A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, Alex Floyd, argued in a statement that “Donald Trump represents nothing more than empty words and broken promises when it comes to creating safer communities and securing our border.’ More

    • 125 Shares139 Views

      in Elections

      Six People Dead, Apparently by Poisoning, in Thailand, Police Say

      by

      The dead did not show outward signs of injury. Mass violence is unusual in the capital, Bangkok.Six people were found dead on Tuesday in a hotel room at a Grand Hyatt in the heart of downtown Bangkok, according to police officials, who said they appeared to have been poisoned.Two of the dead were Americans of Vietnamese descent and four were Vietnamese nationals, according to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. Police Maj. Gen. Theeradej Thumsuthee, chief investigator of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, who was being interviewed on Nation TV, a Thai news channel, said three of the dead were men, and three were women.“From the preliminary examination of the scene, it was assumed that they had been poisoned,” General Theeradej said. He added that there were traces that all six drank coffee or tea. A preliminary autopsy did not find any injuries, he said.A guide was being questioned, he said.Police Lt. Gen. Thiti Saengsawang, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, told reporters that there were no signs of a struggle. The bodies were found in the same room, a suite. All six were supposed to check out on Tuesday and had their bags packed.Mass violence is unusual in Bangkok, but the capital was shaken by a shooting last October when a 14-year-old gunman opened fire in a luxury shopping mall, eventually killing three people.The Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel is on a busy intersection in Bangkok’s city center. It sits opposite the Erawan Shrine, the site of a deadly bombing in 2015 that killed 20 people. More

    • 163 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      The Last Time a Former President Was Shot at While Seeking a Comeback

      by

      One hundred and twelve years ago, Theodore Roosevelt was campaigning to return to the presidency when a gunman opened fire. He gave his speech anyway with a bullet in his chest.Donald J. Trump is not the first former president to survive an assassination attempt while trying to reclaim his old office. More than a century ago, Theodore Roosevelt was shot just before he was scheduled to go onstage at a campaign event — and went ahead to give his speech anyway with a bullet in his chest.Roosevelt’s gritty response to the attack in 1912 proved to be the stuff of legends and helped cement his reputation for toughness. To that point in American history, three other presidents had been killed by assassins, including William McKinley, whose death elevated Roosevelt, then the vice president, to the presidency. But as of then, no current or former president had been shot without dying.Roosevelt, like Mr. Trump, was staging a comeback attempt, running again four years after moving out of the White House. Unlike Mr. Trump, Roosevelt had left office voluntarily, declining to run in 1908 after serving nearly two terms. Instead, he had helped elect his protégé, William Howard Taft. But within four years, the two had a falling out and Roosevelt decided to challenge Taft for the presidency.Although Taft beat him for the Republican nomination at the G.O.P. convention, Roosevelt broke off from his old party to form the Progressive Party, also known as the Bull Moose Party, so that he could compete in the fall contest against Taft and Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic governor of New Jersey.On Oct. 14, 1912, Roosevelt was in Milwaukee, coincidentally the same city where Mr. Trump is scheduled to be nominated this week. As Roosevelt left the Gilpatrick Hotel to head to a nighttime speaking event, a man named John Schrank approached and opened fire with a Colt revolver. Several men tackled Schrank, but Roosevelt stopped the crowd from killing him on the spot.Roosevelt’s bloodstained shirt, photographed after an assassination attempt on Oct. 14, 1912.Harlingue/Roger Viollet,via Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 163 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      ‘Signs of Scorching Prejudice’ Doomed the Case Against Alec Baldwin for ‘Rust’ Shooting

      by

      A high-pressure manslaughter case against a movie star turned into an interrogation of the prosecution’s conduct.While dismissing the involuntary manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin on Friday, the judge did not hold back.She delivered a searing criticism of the prosecution and state law enforcement officials who oversaw the case, declaring that they had intentionally and deliberately withheld from the defense evidence related to the fatal shooting on the set of the film “Rust.”“If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching prejudice,” Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said.The judge’s decision to end the case against Mr. Baldwin — without the option for the prosecutors to revive it — was the conclusion of a shocking day at the Santa Fe County Courthouse, in which a high-pressure trial against a movie star turned into an interrogation of the prosecution’s conduct. And it came after a series of missteps by different teams of prosecutors left Mr. Baldwin in legal limbo for more than two years.Shortly before the case was thrown out, the lead prosecutor, Kari T. Morrissey, took the unusual step of calling herself to the witness stand to defend how she handled the situation when a batch of live rounds with a possible connection to the “Rust” shooting was brought to the local sheriff’s office in March.Law enforcement officials testified on Friday that they had inventoried the evidence under a separate case number from other “Rust” evidence. Defense lawyers said they were not told about the ammunition despite asking for all ballistic evidence in the case.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      U.K. Police Searching for Man Suspected of Killing 3 Women With Crossbow

      by

      The women died at the scene near London on Tuesday, the police said. The BBC identified the victims as the wife and children of one of its commentators. The authorities in England were hunting on Wednesday for a man who was suspected of killing three women the previous night with a crossbow and possibly other weapons in a small, leafy town north of London, according to Hertfordshire Police.The police said they arrived at the scene just before 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday and found three women with serious injuries. The victims, aged 25, 28 and 61, died shortly afterward at the scene.The BBC reported that the victims were the wife and two daughters of one of its horse-racing commentators. “As we’ve just reported, the three women killed in a crossbow attack in Bushey, near Watford, are Carol Hunt, the wife of the BBC commentator John Hunt, and two of their daughters,” the broadcaster wrote.The police were searching for Kyle Clifford, 26, they said, warning people that “he may be in possession of a crossbow, do not approach.” It was not immediately clear on Wednesday what the relation was between Mr. Clifford and the three women.The police said Mr. Clifford could be in Bushey, the town where the crime happened, or in nearby North London. They had deployed armed officers and specialized search teams across both areas.“Our overarching objective today is to protect public safety and to locate Kyle Clifford,” Chief Superintendent Jon Simpson of Hertfordshire Police said during a news conference, adding that the police believed the murders were a “targeted incident.”Mr. Simpson said that the man had probably used a crossbow in the killings, but that other weapons might also have been used.Mr. Simpson also addressed Mr. Clifford directly during the news conference: “Kyle, if you are seeing or hearing this, please make contact with the police.”For the residents of the quiet corner of England, the killings came as a big shock. A local councilman, Laurence Brass, told the BBC that it was a traumatizing event. “The most dramatic thing that has ever happened here is a bit of illegal fly-tipping,” he said. “And suddenly we are told there are three murders.” More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Street Erupts When Man in a Wheelchair Is Taken Into Custody in Killing

      by

      The body of Yazmeen Williams, 31, had been found on a Manhattan curb, wrapped in a sleeping bag.A Manhattan street erupted in anger on Monday when a man in a wheelchair was taken into custody in the killing of a young woman, whose body had been found wrapped in a blue sleeping bag days before.At least 50 neighbors and family members of the woman, Yazmeen Williams, 31, swarmed the police officers who placed the man on a stretcher and whisked him out of an apartment building in the Straus Houses, a public housing development on East 28th Street near Second Avenue. Some got close enough to punch him in the face, grab his jeans and rip the back of his blue-and-yellow striped shirt. Officers and emergency service workers held out their arms to keep the crowd at bay.Some of the loudest screams were from Ms. Williams’s mother, Nicole Williams.“You killed my daughter! Please kill him!” she cried out.“She didn’t deserve that,” her mother said. “She was a good daughter. She was my best friend.”The man, who has not yet been named by the police, was considered a person of interest in the woman’s death on Monday but has not been charged. Neighbors said he and Yazmeen Williams were a couple, but the family said they were not familiar with him.On Friday, just before 5 p.m., officers responded to a report of a suspicious package outside an apartment building on East 27th Street in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan. When the police arrived, they discovered Ms. Williams’s body wrapped in a sleeping bag next to a pile of trash.The city’s medical examiner found that Ms. Williams had been shot in the head, and her death was ruled a homicide, the police said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More