Category: Metro

BLAINE, Wash. (TCD) — A 76-year-old man allegedly shot and killed his neighbor amid an ongoing dispute about making too much noise.

According to a news release, on Wednesday, Oct. 4, at approximately 4 p.m., Whatcom County deputies and Blaine Police Department officers were dispatched to a home off California Trail Road after a 911 caller reported that Wayne Mahar had shot his neighbor.

A neighbor reportedly heard the gunshots, went outside, and saw Mahar on his porch holding a firearm. The neighbor told officials she saw the victim lying on his driveway and asked Mahar if he shot the man, to which he replied, “Yeah.”

At the scene, deputies found the victim and performed CPR but were unsuccessful.

Officials arrested Mahar without incident.

The Sheriff’s Office learned Mahar had allegedly “threatened to kill the victim because he was throwing rocks at his house and making too much noise.”

The statement said Mahar “claimed the victim was an ‘a–hole’ who deserved to be dead.”

Mahar also confessed that he wished to kill his neighbor but failed to provide any alleged threats or other previous types of harassment that the victim allegedly made toward him.

According to KING-TV, Mahar told officials he consumed one shot of alcohol on the day of the shooting. His blood alcohol level was .189, which is more than two times Washington’s legal limit.

Mahar was booked into the Whatcom County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder. He remains held on $2 million bond.

Mahar had previously threatened to kill his neighbor, KING reports. On Nov. 17, 2022, Mahar reportedly made a noise complaint against the victim. Mahar allegedly told officials he wanted to kill the victim, but authorities told him to let the Sheriff’s Office to deal with the issue.

A day before the victim’s shooting death, Mahar allegedly threatened to kill the victim again.

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TATUM, S.C. (TCD) — A 39-year-old man is in custody after allegedly assaulting his mother during a dispute about his GPS ankle monitor.

On Sept. 26, the Marlboro County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home on Platt Road after a 911 caller reported that her brother was “actively beating their mother.”

Deputies made contact with the victim and witness at the scene and learned Gordon Love allegedly struck his mother in the head with a pool stick. He also reportedly slammed her head repeatedly into a countertop.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, Love became upset with his mother “due to him being on GPS ankle monitor and demanding family members pay for it to be removed.”

Deputies obtained an arrest warrant for Love, who fled the scene prior to their arrival.

On Monday, Oct. 9, officials located Love at a home in the Bennettsville area and arrested him on charges of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. Love was out on bond for failure to stop for a blue light and malicious damage to property at the time of his arrest.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, Love appeared for a hearing Oct. 10, and was denied bond.

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SAVANNAH, Ga. (TCD) — A 33-year-old woman pleaded not guilty last week to murder and other charges two months after her young child was found dead in her couch.

On Aug. 3, Chatham County Police Department officers responded to a home on the 100 block of Quacco Road and located a deceased child. The infant’s mother, Jennifer Cooper, was still on the scene, and she was arrested on charges of murder, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of and use of drug-related objects.

Court records show Cooper was denied bond.

WSAV-TV reports she appeared in court Thursday, Oct. 5, and entered the not guilty plea.

Both Cooper and the child reportedly had meth in their system.

According to WSAV, a detective testified at Cooper’s hearing and said another detective “observed suspicious injuries to the baby’s neck, back, swelling near the eyes, blood on the baby’s face, and then an indentation on top of the head of the baby.”

The child was reportedly discovered deceased in the couch cushion. A year ago, another of her children died on the couch from sudden infant death syndrome. WSAV reports Cooper has not faced any charges in connection with that infant’s death.

Noble reportedly said Cooper “did not recall how any of the injuries occurred to the baby and stated that they must’ve happened when she was laying on top of the child,” according to WJCL-TV.

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DURHAM, N.C. (TCD) — A 37-year-old father recently turned himself in after allegedly kidnapping his 4-year-old daughter over the weekend.

According to the Durham Police Department, on Saturday, Oct. 7, Mitchell Grayson allegedly broke into a residence in the 800 block of Angier Avenue and beat up one of his daughter’s family members before abducting the child, Paisley Grayson.

Police issued an Amber Alert for Paisley, stating that her father had fled the scene in a gray 2000 Chevrolet Astro Van. He reportedly threatened to take the young girl out of state, but police believed he could have traveled to Wilkes County.

On Monday, Oct. 9, police said Grayson turned himself in and was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, breaking and entering, and injury to personal property.

According to WRAL-TV, Grayson brought Paisley with him when he surrendered, and she appeared unharmed.

Grayson told the news source he took his daughter because he was concerned for her safety and said, “They had her locked in an apartment for like three days.”

He said he was “worried about her,” which is why he took her.

WRAL reports Grayson argued the place from where she was taken is “not really her home. Her home is with me. She got taken from me.”

Grayson reportedly brought Paisley to the mountains in the Wilkesboro area, and they tie-dyed shirts and played in a park.

Grayson’s grandmother reportedly gave him access to the building. A cousin of Paisley’s mother allegedly tried to stop him, so Grayson punched the family member.

In a phone interview with WRAL, Grayson said he saw the Amber Alert and decided to surrender because investigators told him that was the only way he’d be able to see his daughter again.

Grayson appeared in court on Tuesday, Oct. 10, and was given a $25,000 bond.

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (TCD) — A man will spend 50 years behind bars for killing his 18-year-old girlfriend in 2022 and trying to cover her body.

According to an Oct. 6 news release from the Florida State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit, Isaiah Greene was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty last month for the murder of Gabrielle Bolton.

On Sept. 19, 2022, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded to the 1500 block of West 33rd Street after being contacted by the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department because they found a body. Law enforcement searched the home and found Bolton’s body in a bedroom “wrapped in a shower curtain and towel” with apparent signs of head trauma.

Greene fled the home when first responders arrived, but police located him elsewhere “a short time later.”

When speaking with police, Greene’s mother reportedly said her son called her upset and said, “I didn’t mean to do it.”

Greene’s mother went to her son’s home, and he allegedly made suicidal remarks and told her again he “didn’t mean to do it.”

According to the Attorney’s Office, Greene told detectives he and Bolton had been in a relationship for approximately a year. He admitted “he had been both physically and mentally abusive toward her.”

On the day of the incident, Greene and Bolton argued in the bathroom and it became physical. The Attorney’s Office said Greene then struck Bolton with a metal object multiple times and brought her body to the back bedroom, where she was found.

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LOS ANGELES (TCD) — Police shut down the world-famous Santa Monica Pier this week after a man climbed on the Ferris wheel and made multiple bomb threats.

On Monday, Oct. 9, at 2:35 p.m., Santa Monica Police Department officers received a call about a “distraught” male scaling the Ferris wheel and claiming he had a bomb in his backpack. Police located 37-year-old Juan Gonzalez as he was about two-thirds up the ride. Gonzalez reportedly wore steel supports to help him climb.

Police said 10 riders were on the Ferris wheel at the time of the incident. Officials stopped the ride, and Santa Monica Fire Department rescuers helped bring the other riders down to safety. The department’s Crisis Negotiation Team came to the scene and communicated with Gonzalez to come down.

According to Santa Monica Police, Gonzalez “was very agitated and upset and continued to make bomb threats to the officers negotiating with him.”

After an hour, he reportedly made his way down the Ferris wheel and police took him into custody. Video taken by KTLA-TV shows officers tackling Gonzalez and arresting him.

Santa Monica Police said Gonzalez did not have a bomb or any other explosives with him. He was arrested on charges of criminal threats, making a false bomb threat to authorities, and resisting arrest.

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BANNOCK COUNTY, Idaho (TCD) — A 32-year-old woman has been charged with multiple felonies after her newborn child was found deceased inside a suitcase in a doghouse on her property.

A Bannock County Sheriff’s Office activity report shows Jessica Weeks was taken into custody for injury to a child, failure to notify or delaying notification of death, and destruction, alteration, or concealment of evidence. She has previously been arrested on drug-related charges.

Court documents cited by East Idaho News say Weeks allegedly called her friend “in a panic” Jan. 27 and said she was in labor. Her water reportedly broke two days prior, but she refused to go to the hospital due to her history of drug use. While giving birth, Weeks allegedly “insisted on stopping and having a cigarette.”

The friend reportedly noted Weeks was “not really showing any interest” in the child after its head came out. The woman reportedly tried saving the child by performing rescue breaths. The child’s father, Robert Ramsey, also attempted to resuscitate the newborn, but the child did not survive.

The affidavit says the friend wrapped the child in a baby blanket and put the child in the suitcase because there was “no other flat surface in the house to place the baby.” Weeks’ home reportedly had an “extreme amount of clutter everywhere.”

Both the child and Weeks tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamine.

According to the Idaho State Journal, law enforcement officials from the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office received information from an inmate that Weeks had a child, placed the newborn’s body in the piece of luggage, then left the suitcase in a doghouse. Another inmate reportedly told investigators he found the child’s body while cleaning.

A woman contacted law enforcement after her son, who is incarcerated, told her a “deceased infant [is] possibly going to be located in a piece of luggage near the doghouse in the back of the residence.”

The son reportedly told officials he inmate spoke with the friend who was at Weeks’ home when she gave birth. Another male inmate allegedly saw the child in the bag when he was cleaning Weeks’ home. When he went to the doghouse, he opened the suitcase and noticed an “infant’s leg that flopped onto his arm.”

The child was reportedly placed in a garbage bag.

After talking to the inmates, deputies executed a search warrant at Weeks’ residence and arrested her for the drug charges. While there, they reportedly smelled the “odor of decomposition” and discovered a “purple carry-on style suitcase” in the doghouse.

The front of the doghouse was reportedly piled with trash bags and a tire. Deputies took the top off the structure and took the suitcase out, where they found a “blueish baby blanket” and “numerous types of insects.”

The child’s body and bodily tissue were reportedly decomposed.

According to East Idaho News, the child was born at 36 to 40 weeks and there was no evidence of trauma. The child’s father is also facing a charge of failure to notify or delaying the notification of a death.

Weeks is in custody at the Bannock County Jail with bond set at $50,000. She could face a maximum of 25 years in prison if she is found guilty.

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