Murders, Attempted Murders and Homicides

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      Arizona Man Plotted Mass Shooting to Trigger ‘Race War,’ Officials Say

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      Prosecutors said Mark Adams Prieto of Arizona planned to target Black concertgoers at an Atlanta venue. He was indicted on hate crime and firearm charges.An Arizona man who planned to commit a mass shooting at an Atlanta rap concert as a way of inciting a “race war” has been indicted by a federal grand jury on hate crime and firearm charges.The man, Mark Adams Prieto, hatched a plan in several discussions with two people working with the F.B.I. who posed as racist extremists to carry out a mass shooting targeting Black people and other people of color at a concert in Atlanta on May 14 and May 15, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.Mr. Prieto intended for the shooting to incite a “race war” before the presidential election, prosecutors said in a news release.Mr. Prieto, 58, was reported to the authorities last year by an acquaintance who said he had made concerning comments calling for mass shootings targeting Black people and others, according to officials.Mr. Prieto faces two counts of trafficking in firearms, one count of transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime and one count of possessing an unregistered firearm.He faces a maximum 15-year prison sentence for each firearm trafficking and transfer charge and a maximum 10-year sentence for the unregistered firearm charge, prosecutors said. Mr. Prieto also could be fined $250,000 for each count.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

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      Police Identify Suspect in Miami Building Fire

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      An arrest affidavit said the man shot a building employee and then started the worst fire in Miami in 25 years.Moments before a Miami apartment complex was engulfed on Monday morning in what the mayor called the worst fire in the city in 25 years, residents of the building heard loud noises that sounded like gunshots.An arrest affidavit released Tuesday said that after hearing the sounds at around 8 a.m., a resident found an employee of the four-story building’s management company lying on the first floor, shot in the abdomen. The employee told him, in Spanish, that he had been shot by the occupant of Unit 307, the witness later told the police. The victim also said that he had seen an explosion after being shot.That information helped officers track down and arrest a man who they say shot the management company employee and intentionally set fire to the complex, the Temple Court Apartments near downtown Miami. On Tuesday, the Police Department identified the suspect, who was arrested on Monday afternoon, as Juan Francisco Figueroa.Mr. Figueroa, 73, was charged with attempted felony murder with a firearm, first-degree arson and displaying a firearm while committing a felony, according to the arrest affidavit. Mr. Figueroa was also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition as a felon. The Police Department said he had been convicted of second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault in 1992.The affidavit identified the shooting victim as Feder Biotte. He was hospitalized on Monday in critical condition.The authorities have not said what events might have led to the shooting, or specifically how they believe the devastating fire was ignited.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

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      Robert Pickton, Notorious Canadian Serial Killer, Dies at 74

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      Convicted in the murder of six women (though he boasted of killing many more), he died of unspecified injuries after being assaulted in prison.Robert Pickton, one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers, whose crimes called attention to police and societal disregard for the violent deaths of Indigenous women, died on Friday after a fellow inmate attacked him in prison in Quebec, where he was serving a life sentence. He was 74.His death, in a hospital, was announced by Correctional Service Canada, which said he had been assaulted on May 19 at Port-Cartier Institution and had died of unspecified injuries. The announcement did not give a motive for the attack.In 2007, Mr. Pickton was convicted in the murders of six women, though he boasted to an undercover police officer that he had killed 49 in all.The remains of his victims were found at a ramshackle pig farm he owned outside Vancouver, where authorities conducted what at the time was the largest crime-scene investigation in Canadian history. After 18 months, they found the remains of 33 women.The victims were mainly members of Indigenous groups, and most were sex workers and drug addicts whom Mr. Pickton encountered in the Downtown Eastside, an underbelly of the scenic, affluent Vancouver.Mr. Pickton was able to continue killing for so long, according to an investigation by the provincial government of British Columbia, because of police bias toward the race and marginalized status of his victims.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

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      Chad Daybell Sentenced to Death in ‘Doomsday’ Killings

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      Chad Daybell was convicted on Thursday in the murders of his first wife and two children of his current spouse, Lori Vallow Daybell. The couple’s extreme beliefs drew attention to the case.An Idaho judge on Saturday sentenced a man to death, two days after he was found guilty of first-degree murder and other charges in the 2019 killings of his first wife and two of his current wife’s children, capping a case that drew scrutiny because of the couple’s “doomsday” religious beliefs.The decision came after jurors took more than a day to deliberate during the special sentencing proceeding in the case against the man, Chad Daybell, 55, in Ada County District Court in Boise, Idaho.Earlier on Saturday, the jury had recommended the death penalty before the judge ordered a short recess to make a final sentencing decision.As the judge, Steven W. Boyce of the Seventh Judicial District, read his decision, Mr. Daybell sat with his hands in his lap, expressionless at the defense table. Defense lawyers did not have any questions when asked by the judge.“The court typically would address the defendant further,” Judge Boyce said. “But in this special sentencing proceeding, the victim-impact statements and the evidence has already demonstrated on the record, I think, the seriousness of what’s occurred.”“I don’t find any reason to further delve into the court’s rationale, other than what was listed in the statute,” he added.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

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      Florida Deputy Who Fatally Shot Airman Roger Fortson Is Fired

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      The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said that the use of deadly force during the May 3 encounter at the airman’s apartment was unreasonable.The Florida sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a U.S. Air Force senior airman in the airman’s home this month has been fired, the sheriff’s office said on Friday, describing the deputy’s use of deadly force, which was captured on body camera, as “not objectively reasonable.”The deputy, Eddie Duran, was responding to a physical disturbance call in Fort Walton Beach in the Florida Panhandle on May 3 when he killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson in his apartment. Sheriff Eric Aden of Okaloosa County said in a statement on Friday that his decision to fire Mr. Duran had come after an internal affairs investigation and a review of the body camera footage.“This tragic incident should have never occurred,” Sheriff Aden said, adding: “Mr. Fortson did not commit any crime. By all accounts, he was an exceptional airman and individual.”The sheriff’s comments were a stark departure from the language that his office used in the initial aftermath of the shooting. At that time, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said Mr. Duran had “reacted in self-defense.”The footage, released a week after the shooting, showed that Mr. Duran was told by a worker at the apartment complex to go to Apartment 1401 because of an apparent domestic dispute there.When the deputy arrives at that apartment, the footage shows, he first knocks without identifying himself. Mr. Duran then knocks again, announces himself and steps away from the door. Seconds later, the deputy shifts to the other side of the door, knocks and announces himself again.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

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      18 Charged in Gang Violence That Killed Two 16-Year-Old Boys

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      The authorities said those charged were as young as 15 when they committed crimes around Brooklyn that included murder.Eighteen teenagers and young men who the authorities said belonged to street gangs were charged on Wednesday with unleashing a wave of gun violence in Brooklyn that killed two 16-year-old boys and injured 10 others over a three-year period.Fifteen of those charged belonged to two gangs, made up of people from Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, that formed an alliance against other gangs in the same neighborhoods, as well as in Brownsville and Flatbush, the authorities said. The rivalry led to a rash of shootings between August 2021 and May 2024, with gang members shooting at each other on streets populated with pedestrians, cyclists and families, according to the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.Some of the people charged were as young as 14 when they committed crimes that included firing guns at people, according to prosecutors. During a news conference, Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, played a series of surveillance videos that showed young men and boys, wearing hoods or masks, opening fire on busy streets, often in broad daylight.One video showed a young couple walking with a stroller on a sidewalk just before shooting erupted. In another clip, people could be seen scattering, running into stores or ducking behind garbage cans to avoid bullets.“All these videos make one thing clear: These defendants simply don’t care,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “They fire indiscriminately whenever they think that a member of an opposing gang is in the area, not thinking for a minute of the damage and trauma they’re causing to their own community.”The rivalry led to the deaths of two boys: Jaquan Gause, who was shot to death as he sat behind the wheel of a car on Aug. 16, 2021; and Nayshawn Campbell, who was shot on June 25, 2022, at about 3 a.m. as he walked in his neighborhood in Brownsville. The boys, both 16, were considered rivals of the gang alliance and were targeted by the group, according to the indictment.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

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      Johnny Wactor, ‘General Hospital’ Actor, Reported Killed in Shooting in Los Angeles

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      Johnny Wactor was fatally shot when he interrupted a person who was stealing his vehicle’s catalytic converter, his mother told a news outlet.Johnny Wactor, an actor best known for his role in “General Hospital,” was shot and killed on Saturday, reports said, amid what his family described as an attempted theft of a catalytic converter in Los Angeles.The fatal shooting took place around 3 a.m. on Saturday, when Mr. Wactor approached three men in downtown Los Angeles, The Associated Press reported, citing the Los Angeles Police Department.His mother, Scarlett Wactor, told the local news station ABC7 that Mr. Wactor left the rooftop bar where he worked late in the evening and was walking with a co-worker toward his vehicle when he interrupted someone who was in the process of stealing the vehicle’s catalytic converter.Ms. Wactor said her son thought his car was being towed at first, and when he approached the person to ask, the person “looked up, he was wearing a mask, and opened fire.”Three men fled the scene in a vehicle, and Mr. Wactor was taken to a hospital, where he died, The A.P. reported. No arrests have been made.Representatives for the Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.Mr. Wactor had played Brando Corbin in more than 160 episodes of the soap opera “General Hospital,” according to his IMDB page. He also appeared in episodes of “Westworld,” “The OA” and “Station 19.”In a statement on social media, a page for “General Hospital” said the show’s cast and crew were “heartbroken to hear of Johnny Wactor’s untimely passing.”Many of Mr. Wactor’s co-stars from the show posted tributes on social media, including Kirsten Storms, who played the character Maxie Jones. Ms. Storms wrote in an Instagram post, “I just cannot believe that his life was stolen from him the way it was.”There has been a jump in the number of thefts of catalytic converters, or “cats” for short, in recent years. These critical emission-control devices are valuable because they contain rare metals, like palladium and rhodium, that can be extracted and resold. More

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      Why Do Aid Groups Stay in Lawless Haiti?

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      Two American missionaries and a Haitian aid director were killed, the latest gang violence against aid groups in Haiti’s capital.Haiti’s bleak humanitarian situation is once again in the spotlight after gangs on Thursday attacked an Oklahoma-based missionary group working in the capital, Port-au-Prince, killing two Americans and the Haitian director of the organization, Missions in Haiti.The attack left many asking why American missionaries are still working in Haiti considering the immense violence that has paralyzed the country and the grip gangs have over most of Port-au-Prince. Thursday’s incident follows the 2021 kidnapping of 17 missionaries who were working in Haiti with Christian Aid Ministries. A Haitian gang kidnapped 16 Americans and a Canadian in that attack; weeks later, 12 of the hostages escaped and the others were freed.While Haiti is no stranger to violence and instability, the situation has worsened considerably since the 2021 assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse. Since then, the state has collapsed and gangs have proliferated, filling the vacuum.The killings this week come as Kenyan-led forces are set to arrive in Haiti in the next few weeks to confront the gangs and help stabilize the country. They are being funded by the United States and other members of the international community.The gangs now control much of the capital, including vital infrastructure, like national highways and seaports. They are able to hold up imports of basic food items and other necessities for a country that produces very little and relies heavily on foreign goods.What is the current humanitarian situation?Gangs now control or can exert their influence over about 90 percent of the capital, according to research groups. In many respects, Port-au-Prince is a giant, open-air prison, with much of the population of six million unable to move freely, gang violence dictating their everyday lives.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