Category: Security

Bright yellow, red and blue lights burst high across the L.A. sky. The baritone booms of M-80s mix with the staccato snap of firecrackers. Move over, Fourth of July — the New Year’s holiday is encroaching on your illegal fireworks extravaganza status.

Fire departments throughout the region, including Los Angeles city and county, Long Beach and Pasadena, are bracing for a midnight onslaught of illegal fireworks Dec. 31 and warning residents of the dangers and consequences of shooting them off. Air quality officials are monitoring for unhealthful particulates. Dog owners are planning comfort rooms for their spooked pets.

“Typically, we see some fireworks larger than what some professionals do in some of our neighborhoods,” said Lisa Derderian, spokesperson for the city of Pasadena, which is in the New Year’s spotlight as the host city for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game.

While midnight booms — including illegally firing guns into the air — have long been the dangerous scourge of New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles, illegal, home-ignited fireworks displays have exponentially increased in recent years, city and fire officials said.

And they blame the pandemic.

Leading into Dec. 31, 2020, officials fearing COVID-19 “superspreader” gatherings told people to stay home. Celebrants with little else to do turned to shooting off more fireworks than usual to ring in the new year. The same occurred in 2021, giving birth to a new trend.

Although New Year’s parties and large gatherings are back, the practice is lingering. Fire officials have seen a significant increase in fireworks displays this week and expect a surge of crackles and bursts at the midnight passage into 2023.

“We see them all over the place,” said California Department of Forest and Fire Prevention Battalion Chief Richard Cordova, warning that just like on the Fourth of July, setting off New Year’s fireworks carries the same risks, including fires, injuries and pets running away scared.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has also seen the unhealthful trend. In 2020 it warned fireworks would create unhealthful air. Older adults, young children and people with lung disease were especially susceptible to the bad air, according to the agency.

This week, the district ordered a stop to wood-buring fireplaces and will be monitoring the air, prepared to issue new warnings if needed.

Many residents are also annoyed with the winter pyrotechnics.

“It’s a nightmare because you have people shooting off fireworks from the corners of the streets and in front of my house all night, but you never see these people clean up,” said 71-year-old retiree Tony Marquez of Boyle Heights. “There’s just trash everywhere.”

In the last few New Year’s, residents have taken to the streets in the days before and after Jan. 1 to discharge “bombs” and improvised fireworks, Marquez said. His neighborhood is “filled with trash and smoke” the following morning.

Marquez said the poor air quality makes for labored breathing during his daily trek around the rubberized 1.4-mile path that surrounds famed Evergreen Cemetery. The routine helps soothe the arthritis in his right knee, first diagnosed in 2008.

He now spends a fair amount of his time knocking away discarded projectiles with his feet or a wooden cane.

“It’s also the neighborhood dogs who have to deal with this,” Marquez said.

At Heavenly Pet Resort in Temple City, manager Thomas Mendoza’s New Year’s Eve plans include turning the volume “way up” on soothing spa music to calm dog and cats.

“People celebrate by shooting fireworks, guns, M-80s and other things that are really loud and do bother the pets,” Mendoza said. “So we do what we can to distract them. … I don’t know if it’s gotten worse the last few years, but it’s louder and affects the animals.”

Warning against firework dangers has become a persistent admonishment, with additional concerns in December, fire officials said.

“Now our message is broad, for year-round,” Cordova said. “Year-round we’re confiscating fireworks.”

Sky rockets, cherry bombs, M-80s, and anything that blasts into the sky are illegal across California, but some jurisdictions allow for the use of “safe and sane” fireworks. However, California law allows for the sale of “safe and sane” fireworks only in the weeks before July 4. Their sale is illegal for the rest of the year.

That means “safe and sane” fireworks set off on New Year’s Eve were probably bought in the summer and stored for months, officials said. All other fireworks — such as those that shoot into the air and are prevalent on July 4 and New Year’s Eve — were probably bought out of state and smuggled in.

There’s no law against storing legally purchased fireworks for months, Cordova said, but there are definitely safety concerns about storing explosive material. Improperly stored fireworks can become unstable and unpredictable when used.

Cal Fire estimates that in 2022, fireworks were responsible for more than $25 million in property loss. Each fiscal year, the agency seizes more than 220,000 pounds of mostly illegal fireworks that need to be disposed of.

“There’s no sale of [‘safe and sane’] fireworks this time of year,” said Craig Little, spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. “Wherever they’re getting them from, they’re more than likely illegal.”

Numbers on how many firework-related calls the agency responds to at the end of the year were not immediately available.

“All we can do is monitor,” Little said. “There are a ton of people who still choose to make things go bang on New Year’s Eve.”

Fireworks are still far more popular on July 4, but for Los Angeles County Fire Department officials, New Year’s messaging now echoes the Fourth of July, Little said.

“Leave all fireworks to the professionals,” he said.

In Long Beach, police are increasing “high-visibility” New Year’s Eve patrols to monitor for illicit fireworks, drunk driving and other safety calls, a spokesperson said. Under the city’s municipal code, property owners can be cited as much as $20,000 if fireworks are found to be discharged on their property.

Pasadena has a similar law, which can mean jail time and a fine of up to $50,000 for property owners. The city expects hundreds of thousands of visitors for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game on Jan. 1, with police already in “all hands on deck” mode, but Derderian said fireworks on New Year’s Eve add to the work.

“We do see fireworks, and we do have police and fire patrolling for the 24-hour period leading up to the parade,” she said. “Illegal fires and fireworks, unfortunately every year we do find that.”

Marquez said he believes more fireworks are being set off during New Year’s celebrations now than in the previous decade.

“In Boyle Heights, they fire up fireworks for the Dodgers or if the soccer team wins,” he said. “This is just another reason to do the same.”

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© 2023 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

After New York City moved last week to slow the pace of migrant-filled charter buses from Southern states, roughly a dozen buses have arrived outside the city in New Jersey since Saturday, according to officials.

The wave of buses west of New York City, which continued Monday morning, appears to represent a response by Republican-led Texas to an executive order implemented by Mayor Eric Adams barring migrant buses from the city except during 210-minute windows on weekday mornings.

Over the weekend, about 10 migrant buses that originated in Texas and one bus that came from Louisiana arrived in New Jersey municipalities including Edison, Fanwood, Secaucus and Trenton, according to the government of Jersey City.

About 400 people arrived on those buses, said Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop.

“It’s the first time that buses have arrived in New Jersey. The buses are looking to circumvent that rule,” Fulop, a Democrat, said by phone, referring to New York City’s executive order.

The Secaucus Junction Train Station, which is located less than four miles from Midtown Manhattan, has served as a primary drop-off point for the migrant buses. Four buses arrived at the station on Saturday, according to the Town of Secaucus. Two more arrived early Monday, said Town Administrator Gary Jeffas.

Migrants who arrived at the station then traveled to New York City by train, according to Secaucus officials. Mayor Michael Gonnelli said in a statement that it “seems quite clear the bus operators are finding a way to thwart the requirements of the Executive Order by dropping migrants at the train station in Secaucus and having them continue to their final destination.”

The bus arrivals seemed to generally be centered on New Jersey Transit stations. A spokesman for Gov. Phil Murphy, Tyler Jones, said in a statement Monday that “New Jersey is primarily being used as a transit point for these families — all or nearly all of them continued with their travels en route to their final destination of New York City.”

Jones added that New Jersey is coordinating with New York on the arrivals. No migrant buses have arrived at New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal since at least Friday, according to Adams’ office.

Two buses arrived Sunday in Trenton, New Jersey’s capital city, which is located on the Pennsylvania border. Ten travelers waited to be picked up by family when they arrived in Trenton, and the rest of the group emptied out onto trains, said Mayor Reed Gusciora.

He said officials were carefully watching for buses at local train stations.

“Everyone is on the lookout,” Gusciora said in an interview. “It’s going to be a challenge.”

At least one New Jersey town said it would not cooperate with transfers. The Edison Township mayor, Sam Joshi, said he had instructed law enforcement to respond to any arrivals by chartering buses to take the migrants back to the southwestern border.

“I’m not going to pawn this problem off to another mayor,” Joshi, a Democrat, said by phone.

One bus arrived in Edison on Sunday but did not stay long, Joshi said. “I instructed our officers to make clear that they can’t stay,” the mayor said, adding that the arrivals initially appeared unaware that the town’s train station was not open 24/7.

Edison is located about eight miles west of Staten Island.

Texas, strained by a surge in migrant border crossings in recent years, claims to have sent more than 33,000 migrants to New York City since mid-2022. The effort has made Texas one of the drivers of the city’s migrant crisis.

Overall, more than 160,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since spring 2022, according to Adams’ office. Many of the migrants, fleeing poverty and political upheaval in South America, have voluntarily headed to New York, apparently aware that the city has a unique rule promising shelter for anyone who asks for it.

Still, Texas appears to be intensifying its busing effort: the state’s tally of migrants shipped to New York jumped by about 8,000 last month.

Adams, a Democrat, has repeatedly laced into Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, accusing Texas of mistreating the migrants and failing to communicate on its busing efforts with New York. The mayor has described Abbott as an “anti-American governor” and a “global embarrassment.”

Adams’ office said in a statement Monday that the city’s new executive order is intended to ensure the “safety and well-being of both migrants and city staff receiving them.”

“But instead of joining us in treating human beings humanely, Texas Governor Greg Abbott continues to treat asylum seekers like political pawns, and is instead now dropping families off in surrounding cities and states in the cold, dark of night with train tickets to travel to New York City,” said the statement.

Abbott’s office did not not immediately respond to requests for comment on New Jersey-bound migrant buses. The office said last week that it had also sent more than 28,000 migrants to Chicago and more than 12,000 to Washington, D.C., since summer 2022.

Louisiana is led by a Democrat, Gov. John Bel Edwards. His spokesman, Eric Holl, said the Louisiana government was not involved with busing migrants to New Jersey. Holl said in an email that a bus company linked to the transfers is based in Louisiana, but that “the migrants in question came from Texas.”

The New Jersey busing workaround mirrors a similar approach Texas has used in Chicago, where officials have also limited when asylum seeker-filled charter buses can arrive.

Chicago’s Democratic mayor, Brandon Johnson, said in a news conference with Adams last week that some “rogue buses” have arrived in “neighborhoods as far reaching as an hour and a half outside of the City of Chicago — buses sent by the governor of Texas literally dropping families off in the middle of nowhere.”

Chicago has a broader window for when migrant buses are allowed to arrive in the city: from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. New York City’s window lasts from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

Both Adams and Johnson have maintained that their rules are intended to create a more orderly system for receiving migrants — not to prevent asylum seekers from coming to their cities altogether.

New York City’s new rules also require migrant buses to arrive at city-approved locations, and to provide 32 hours’ notice before arriving in the city.

The executive order could also push Texas and other states to charter buses to areas north of New York City that fought hard last year to stop the city from sending its own migrant-filled buses upstate.

The Adams administration has urged upstate municipalities — including Republican-led local governments that it has quarreled with — to issue their own executive orders limiting transfers from Texas to daytime hours, said Kayla Mamelak, an Adams spokeswoman.

City Hall has had several calls with nearby counties and towns, she said.

“We’re on the same page here,” Mamelak said. “We don’t want Gov. Abbott sending buses anywhere in the dark.”

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© 2024 New York Daily News

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Philadelphia City Council is poised to ban the wearing of ski masks in certain public spaces this week, a move that police say could help them solve more crimes and stop more pedestrians they suspect of being involved in criminal activity.

The measure is cosponsored by 10 members, more than the majority needed to pass the bill Thursday. Authored by Councilmember Anthony Phillips, who represents parts of Northwest and Northeast Philadelphia, the bill allows the city to fine people $250 for wearing ski masks in parks, schools and on public transit. There are carve-outs for religious expression and “First Amendment activities” like protesting.

It comes as the Council has raised a handful of measures aimed at showing it’s responsive to constituent concerns, especially around crime and public safety. But the ski mask ban has nonetheless drawn criticism from some, and the ACLU says it could violate free expression rights and be misused by officers stopping and frisking pedestrians — a controversial but legal law enforcement tactic that’s been embraced by Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker.

“This raises some serious concerns constitutionally,” said Steve Loney, senior supervising attorney at the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “We’ve seen situations where just the knowledge that face coverings are banned in a place can still chill First Amendment activities.”

Phillips defended his legislation, saying it’s “balanced and thoughtful.” There are also exceptions for people participating in winter sports, performing in a theatrical production or wearing them for safety purposes while working.

He said the idea isn’t to infringe on rights but to make people think twice before donning a ski mask, which he says “the majority of the city is in fear of.”

“I want them to come to the city of Philadelphia and walk by 10 individuals with a ski mask,” Phillips said, “and you tell me, in your high corporate offices, how you’re gong to feel.”

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the matter during its weekly session Thursday.

Phillips, who won an uncompetitive special election to replace Parker last year when she resigned from the Council to run for mayor, said during a hearing on the bill earlier this month that several recent shootings were committed by people in ski masks. He cited the September 2022 shooting at Roxborough High during a football scrimmage, when 14-year-old Nicolas Elizalde was fatally gunned down. Several of the shooters were seen on surveillance footage the same day, but their faces were obscured by ski masks.

Several states, including Virginia, Florida and Georgia, have similar bans on people wearing facial coverings that are intended to disguise their identity.

The Police Department is supportive of the legislation, but its leadership says enforcing the rule and issuing citations may be complicated given the exceptions.

Deputy Commissioner Francis Healy told the Council that the proliferation of mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic “seriously impacted policing,” saying: “There was a time not too long ago where any average police officer will see a person donning a mask before entering a convenience store or bank and they would believe a robbery was about to occur.”

Healy said officers are not likely to “cite every person” wearing a ski mask in violation of the code. But, he said, it provides a new mechanism for officers to stop individuals, which he said is critically important — the city is under a yearslong monitoring agreement with the ACLU and must document every pedestrian stop and the legal reasoning behind it.

That agreement was the result of a 2010 federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU, which found police were overwhelmingly stopping people of color, often without legal justification.

Pedestrian stops have plummeted since then, especially during Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration. The mayor ran on a promise to end illegal stop-and-frisk. Parker has said she supports the constitutional use of stop-and-frisk, but has vowed to root out any “misuse or abuse” by police.

Healy said that the ski mask ban would provide “lawful authority” to make stops. But Loney, of the ACLU, questioned that claim.

“It could potentially create another mechanism for profiling,” Loney said, “which we and people within the city have done a lot of work to put an end to.”

Loney said seeing someone donning a ski mask doesn’t rise to the level of suspecting that a crime is being committed or has been committed — the standard required to execute a legal stop — other than violating the ski mask ordinance. Frisking a person, or patting them down for guns or drugs, requires the officer to believe that person may be armed or is otherwise “presently dangerous.”

Phillips said he realizes some are concerned that the legislation could increase the number of interactions young people have with police officers. To mitigate that, he said he’s working to develop marketing campaigns that educate young people about the rule, plus encourage them to embrace their individuality and “reveal who they are under the mask.”

“The hope,” he said, “is that at some point it just becomes more of a psychological deterrent.”

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© 2023 The Philadelphia Inquirer

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has moved to fire two deputies involved in a wreck that killed two young boys and injured several other people when their patrol car crashed into a group of pedestrians in 2017, according to two law enforcement sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The Boyle Heights wreck sparked at least four lawsuits and more than $23 million in settlements, though the district attorney’s office ultimately decided not to prosecute the driver. Investigators found that the driver, Deputy Carrie Esmeralda Robles-Placencia, failed to turn on her siren when she crossed a busy intersection against a red light, hitting another vehicle and careening onto the sidewalk where a mother was walking her two sons home from school.

A trainee at the time, Robles-Placencia went on to become part of former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s inner circle and was later relieved of duty amid a gun permitting scandal that the FBI began investigating earlier this year.

Vincent Moran, the training officer supervising Robles-Placencia from the passenger seat was a deputy at the time of the crash, though payroll records show that he was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 2022, after the county already paid out several million in legal settlements in connection with the deadly incident.

An attorney representing both of the deputies declined to comment. Without naming any of the employees involved, the Sheriff’s Department sent a written statement about the case early Friday.

“This was an absolute tragedy that had a profound impact on the victims and their families,” the statement said. “The Department has implemented corrective measures and strengthened policies to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. Sworn personnel are afforded certain employment rights and procedures, which limit the department from commenting until the process has been completed.”

Disciplinary actions are not considered final until employees have exhausted their internal appeals, a process that includes a hearing where the deputy can respond to the allegations against them.

Just after 7 p.m. on Nov. 16, 2017, Moran and Robles-Placencia were driving in a patrol cruiser near the border of East Los Angeles when a call came in about shots fired less than 2 miles away. Heading southbound on Indiana Street, Robles-Placencia sped up to 60 mph, then slowed as she reached the intersection at Whittier Boulevard, according to investigators.

Though Robles-Placencia turned on the cruiser’s emergency lights, investigators found she did not activate the sirens before proceeding into the intersection and hitting a Honda Accord, which in turn crashed into a Honda Odyssey van stopped at the light.

The deputies’ cruiser jumped the curb, careened off a nearby bank building and hit 7-year-old Jose Luis Hernandez and his 9-year-old brother, Marcos. Both children died from their injuries and their mother, Maria Veronica Solis Munoz, suffered a crushed pelvis and several broken bones. The cruiser also grazed a fourth pedestrian, hit a fifth and dislodged a large cement trash can that hit a sixth person.

The deputies’ vehicle was traveling only about 14 mph when the collision happened, but the force of the crash and the fact that Robles-Placencia may have accidentally stepped on the gas after her vehicle was struck caused it to speed up, investigators found.

One person who was nearby and heard the crash, Hector Lopez, told the L.A. Times in 2017 he felt the deputy’s driving was reckless.

“You’re supposed to turn on your lights, sirens and check before taking off,” Lopez said.

Several victims and their families filed lawsuits, including the mother of the two boys who were killed. That case settled for $17.5 million in 2019, and other cases have since agreed to settlements for smaller sums. This week, attorneys for all the plaintiffs either declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries.

Previously, a source told the L.A. Times that officials under Villanueva’s administration decided to delay the department’s internal investigation into the incident until the lawsuits had played out.

But before that could happen, Robles-Placencia was relieved of duty as the result of a separate investigation. Last year, authorities raided a Monterey Park gun store as part of a probe that officials said stemmed from the discovery of “irregularities” in the process for issuing licenses to carry concealed weapons, also known as CCW permits.

Announcing the investigation in a September 2022 news release, the department said detectives had served warrants at “multiple locations regarding weapon law violations.” They also seized evidence involving “individuals who appear to have been involved in a possible long-term scheme to defraud the citizens of Los Angeles County.”

A few weeks later, the L.A. Times published an investigation into the department’s handling of concealed carry permits, finding that dozens of Villanueva donors and other people linked to him were among the thousands who received such permits. Several gave questionable reasons for needing to be armed, received their permits more quickly than average or were assisted by two deputies who worked directly for the sheriff.

Those deputies — one of whom was Robles-Placencia — were relieved of duty that fall. They later sued the county in state court, alleging they’d been sexually harassed at work as early as 2020, and that they only faced criminal investigation in retaliation for reporting the harassment. In court filings, the lawyers for the county denied the allegations.

After Sheriff Robert Luna was elected last year, he said it would have been a “conflict of interest” for the department to keep handling the CCW permit investigation. Earlier this year, officials confirmed that Luna turned the case over to the FBI.

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© 2023 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A violent night in Allentown left two people dead — including a 1-year-old boy — and six others injured in three separate shootings late Friday night and early Saturday morning, police said.

Police do not believe the three incidents are related, and investigations are ongoing.

In addition to the child, a 44-year-old woman was shot and killed Friday night around 8:42 p.m. in a residence on the 100 block of Chestnut Street, according to Lehigh County Coroner Daniel Buglio and Allentown police. Buglio has ruled both deaths as homicides.

A 66-year-old man was also shot at the residence and is expected to survive, according to Allentown police. He was taken to a local hospital.

Police and Buglio said they are withholding the names of the victims to allow their families time to grieve.

Neighbors said the child was one of the couple’s grandchildren, who they watched at the Chestnut Street home.

“They were great people … loving, caring, would do anything to help out,” said one neighbor who declined to share their name. “I just don’t understand what happened.”

In addition to Allentown police and the coroner’s office, the Chestnut Street shooting is being investigated by the Lehigh County Homicide Task Force and the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office, Buglio said.

Several blocks away, a second shooting was reported about 9:03 p.m. in the 300 block of Ridge Avenue. A man and a woman were shot. They were taken to local hospitals and are expected to survive.

Demitrius Bashir Campbell, a 23-year-old man from Allentown, has been charged in the Ridge Avenue shootings. Police said there is also a second, unidentified shooter. Campbell was charged with attempted homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, recklessly endangering and carrying a firearm without a license.

On Saturday at 2:25 a.m., a man was shot in the 1600 block of Hanover Avenue and later found by police. He was taken to the hospital and is expected to survive. Two other men were shot in this incident and arrived at local hospitals on their own. They are expected to survive.

The shootings Friday capped off a deadly year for gun violence in Allentown. There were 16 homicides in Allentown as of October, the last one being 18-year-old Sian Cartagena, who was shot on Oct. 2 and died days later. This would be the 17th and 18th homicide of 2023, according to reporting by The Morning Call and statistics from the DA’s and coroner’s offices.

“We haven’t seen this type of violence in some time,” Jeani Garcia, operations director at Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, an anti-violence nonprofit, said Saturday.

“The loss of life in the city of Allentown is tragic and weighs on all of us,” Mayor Matt Tuerk said. “When an infant is part of that, that’s particularly challenging for our community to handle.”

Tuerk said he is thinking about the victims’ family and the first responders who are traumatized by the violence they witness.

“Allentown is a resilient city, and I know we won’t let these tragedies define us,” state Rep. Joshua Siegel said in a Saturday statement. “I have endless faith in our community partners, our police department, and our stakeholders to work together to bring safety and security to every neighborhood and every block. I stand ready to support them in whatever way they need.”

Tuerk said homicides are on the rise, but said violent crimes overall have decreased in the city over the last year.

“Any number higher than zero is unacceptable to my mind,” he said. “We can’t as a community accept homicide and death like this, death of one person at the hands of another.”

Tuerk said APD confiscated more than 300 guns in 2023.

Garcia said community members are feeling rattled by the violence. Staff members from Promise Neighborhoods were out canvassing Friday night at two of the locations impacted by the shootings.

“This is really going to hit harder because of the death of a child and a woman,” she said. “This is something that’s definitely going to impact the entire city.”

Mercedes Roldan, a 28-year-old mother of two, lives nearby the home of the Chestnut Street shooting. She said she heard at least five gunshots Friday night when she was standing in her family’s kitchen.

“Allentown has just gotten a lot worse since when I was a kid,” she said. “I just try to stick to myself so something doesn’t happen to me or my kids.”

Multiple Chestnut Street neighbors said they thought the gunshots were firecrackers. One neighbor who has lived on the block since the 1990s said there were many drug dealers who lived in the area back then, but in recent years the neighborhood has been safe and occupied mainly by families.

On Ridge Avenue, one resident said they heard about 30 gunshots Friday night, and thought at first they were firecrackers.

“There’s a lot of people who come to our neighborhood, who shouldn’t be in our neighborhood and start problems,” the resident said. “They make our neighborhood look like a bunch of thugs, but we go to work everyday.”

The resident described the community as multiracial and full of working families.

“Everybody knows everybody. It’s all family.”

The person, who’s also an employee at the nearby Sportsmen’s Cafe, said the bar isn’t the cause of such violence and management has worked to remove that stigma in recent years as shootings have become more frequent.

From her experience working to combat violence in Allentown, Garcia said Promise Neighborhoods tries to mediate issues before they result in violence, she said, urging community members to reach out if they know “things are stirring” between individuals.

“The goal is to get neighbors and community members active in making their communities safer,” she said.

Tuerk said community engagement work is also a priority of the city’s police officers, but they face a “manpower issue.”

There will be about 215 officers on the Allentown police force to start 2024. The size of the police force has been trending upward since 2019, but an ideal number of officers is about 230, Tuerk said.

Garcia said community members are more likely to trust “credible messengers” than law enforcement and suggested a formal collaboration between Promise Neighborhoods and the city.

Tuerk said he is open to the idea and noted funding for such collaborations is helpful. He’s also interested in state and federal violence interruption programs Allentown may be able to participate in.

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© 2023 The Morning Call

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A Lancaster County man who was sentenced in secret for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol provided information to authorities in exchange for a shorter prison term, court documents unsealed this week reveal.

Samuel Lazar, 38, was charged in July 2021 for assaulting a police officer, obstructing law enforcement, and entering a restricted building after a trove of photos and images posted to social media helped prosecutors identify the Ephrata man as a participant in the violent mob.

Dressed in camouflage tactical gear, ski goggles and face paint, Lazar doused Capitol and D.C. Metro police officers with pepper spray as rioters pushed through an area barricaded by metal gates, court records show.

“They attacked the people,” Lazar later said to another person in a video cited in a criminal complaint. “We have a right to defend ourselves. (Expletive) the tyrants. There’s a time for peace and there’s a time for war.”

Until now, little was known about Lazar’s legal proceedings before a federal judge in Washington, D.C.

Records that would typically be made public detailing Lazar’s guilty plea and March sentencing to two and a half years in prison had been sealed at the request of prosecutors, even after Lazar was released from custody in September, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

It was unclear what information Lazar provided to federal prosecutors in exchange for a shortened sentence, but NBC News reported Wednesday that court documents stated it was “valuable information with respect to other Jan. 6 defendants.”

Lazar also agreed to testify in an unrelated murder case, the outlet reported.

Lazar’s lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment Friday. The lead U.S. attorney in the case declined to comment.

The documents show that Lazar admitted to spraying officers with a chemical irritant during the riot and using a bullhorn to urge rioters to steal guns from law enforcement officers who were attempting to protect the election proceedings.

For months, news outlets such as NBC News and the AP had urged the court to unseal Lazar’s case information, as most cases tied to the Jan. 6 attack have unfolded in public.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson briefly ordered those documents unsealed on Tuesday, though confusion over when lawyers had submitted documents for redaction led the court to remove the unsealed files from public view by Thursday, according to NBC News.

Court documents show that in early 2021, local FBI agents were tipped off to Lazar’s Facebook postings by someone who claimed to have known him for 28 years, though agents already possessed some information pointing to Lazar as a suspect.

And over the next six months, even as Lazar’s name and photo topped the FBI’s most-wanted list of insurrection suspects, more images continued to circulate, among them photos of him posing with prominent Pennsylvania GOP candidates like 2022 gubernatorial hopeful Doug Mastriano at a fundraiser, and a video of Lazar using a Donald Trump campaign sign as a battering ram to break police lines during the riot.

More than 1,200 people have been charged in relation to the Jan. 6 attack, and over 60 Pennsylvanians have been convicted for their actions during the riot.

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© 2023 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Iran dispatched a warship to the Red Sea after the U.S. Navy destroyed three Houthi boats, a move that risks ratcheting up tensions and complicates Washington’s goal of securing a waterway that’s vital to global trade.

The Alborz destroyer traversed the Bab El-Mandeb strait, a narrow choke point between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, on Monday, Iranian state media said without providing further information on the vessel’s mission.

Iran’s foray into the Red Sea a day after the U.S. action compounds a highly volatile situation in the channel that handles about 12% of the world’s commerce. The move could be seen as a challenge to the U.S.-led maritime task force established last month to halt attacks on ships by the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels who control a swath of Yemen’s northwest, including the capital Sanaa and the Red Sea port of Al-Hudaydah.

The Houthis, in November, began attacking vessels they claimed were headed to or owned by entities in Israel in a bid to end an Israeli offensive in Gaza, after Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, staged a shock attack inside Israel on Oct. 7.

In one month, the Houthis hijacked one container ship and launched more than 100 drone and ballistic missile attacks, targeting 10 merchant vessels involving more than 35 different nations, according to the Pentagon.

Operation Prosperity Guardian, involving the navies of the U.S. and nine other nations, swung into action from Dec. 19 and had a fierce encounter with the militants on Sunday.

Helicopters aboard two U.S. destroyers in the Red Sea, the USS Eisenhower and the USS Gravely, responded to a distress call by the Maersk Hangzhou as Houthis in four speedboats tried to board the vessel, according to the U.S. military. Houthi fighters ignored verbal warnings, fired at the aircraft and triggered a lethal response in which three of the boats were sunk.

It was the Houthis’ second major shipping attack in less than 24 hours and came after Denmark announced it was sending a frigate to the Red Sea to join the U.S.-led maritime coalition.

The U.S. has accused Iran of being “deeply involved” in the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, which Tehran has denied, but said that it understood the reason for their actions. Iran hasn’t denied supporting the Houthis since the group ousted the internationally recognized government of Yemen in 2014.

A Houthi spokesperson, Yahya Saree, confirmed the incident and said 10 of the group’s fighters were dead or missing. He called on Yemenis, Arabs and Muslims to be “ready for all options in confronting the American escalation.”

Iran’s show of force in the Red Sea coincided with a visit to Tehran by Mohammed Abdulsalam, a Houthi movement spokesperson and chief negotiator. On Monday, he met with officials at Iran’s foreign ministry following talks with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, according to Iran’s Nour News.

On Sunday Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian denounced what he called double standards by the U.S. and some Western governments after a telephone conversation with the U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who urged Iran to rein in the Houthis. “Israel can’t be allowed to massacre women and children and carry out a genocide in Gaza and set fire to the region, but consider stopping an Israeli ship in the Red Sea as endangering the security of this economic waterway,” said Amirabdollahian.

Tehran’s moves are ultimately in the service of its own agenda of projecting power and driving Washington out of the region, says Joel Rayburn, a former US diplomat and military officer.

“This is what the Iranian regime has always been intending to do with their outpost in Yemen,” said Rayburn. Iran thinks it can establish itself as “a great power sitting astride the region and its waterways.”

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Two days after Brian Laundrie killed Gabby Petito, he called his parents in a panic and told them the victim was “gone,” according to documents filed by a Petito family attorney.

Despite that reported Aug. 29, 2021, phone call, Petito wasn’t reported missing until 13 days later, Sept. 11, when her own mother alerted police.

Laundrie also told his parents he needed a lawyer and they heeded his advice and contacted their own attorney, Steve Bertolino, according to Petito family attorney Pat Reilly. A few days later, the family allegedly took a group vacation, even before Petito was reported missing.

Brian Laundrie himself disappeared after the two lovers went on a cross-country trip together. He was found dead by suicide in October 2021 on a Florida nature preserve near his parents’ home in North Park, Florida. He admitted to killing Petito in his personal notebook.

Investigators believe Laundrie killed Petito on Aug. 27, 2021. Two days later, he called his parents, told them Petito was “gone” and said he needed a lawyer, according to the court documents.

Laundrie’s parents then contacted Bertolino, who reached out to several lawyers in Wyoming about representing Brian and came to an agreement with one firm, Fleener Peterson LLC, the documents say.

Petito’s family said they also received a text on Aug. 27, 2021, from Gabby’s phone number that referred to her grandfather by his first name, Stan. The family said Gabby never would have done that.

The Petito family was also furious about a Sept. 14 statement released by Bertolino on behalf of the Laundrie family in which they expressed “hope” for Gabby to be found safe. Both Gabby and Brian were missing at the time.

“For the Laundries and Steven Bertolino to express their ‘hope’ that Gabrielle Petito was located and reunited with her family, at a time when they knew she had been murdered by Brian Laundrie, was beyond outrageous,” the complaint reads.

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A former high-ranking official at the University of Notre Dame was ordered temporarily held without bond Friday after federal prosecutors alleged he tried to abduct an ex-girlfriend in Metro Detroit and was caught with a kidnapping kit that included a gun, handcuffs, rope, a knife and a stun gun.

The order came one day after prosecutors filed a criminal case against George Mandarakas, 36, the former director of corporate relations at Notre Dame, that describes a soured relationship that started at the prestigious college. The case involves allegations of a prolonged stalking, a hidden tracking device, aliases, apparent plans to escape the country and, finally, a Christmas Day ruse involving the woman’s family that ended with Mandarakas being arrested by Trenton (Michigan) Police officers.

Following the investigation by Trenton police, Mandarakas, a resident of Randolph, New Jersey, was charged in federal court with one count of attempted kidnapping, a felony that involves traveling across state lines. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

The case against Mandarakas is a rarity in Michigan. There were only 19 people convicted of kidnapping in federal courts in Michigan from 2015-22, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. That includes the 2020 case against four men convicted in federal court of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Mandarakas was emotional while making an initial appearance in federal court via Zoom on Friday from the Livingston County Jail. He was ordered to spend the long holiday weekend in jail while awaiting a detention hearing Wednesday when federal prosecutors are expected to argue that he should stay in jail pending trial.

“I’m just going to say I miss my daughter. I have a 21/2-year-old,” Mandarakas said before appearing to start to cry.

U.S. Magistrate Judge David Grand cautioned him against making additional comments.

Fabian Renteria, the court-appointed lawyer for Mandarakas, did not respond immediately to a message seeking comment Friday.

“The judicial process will now proceed, and we trust that it will provide a fair and just resolution in this matter,” Trenton police Chief Michael Hawkins said in a statement.

The criminal case traces the roots of the alleged crime to 2019. That is when Mandarakas met a woman at Notre Dame. According to an online biography, public records and a LinkedIn profile, Mandarakas graduated from Notre Dame in 2009 with a degree in chemical engineering, and by 2019, he was working at the university leading corporate fundraising for his alma mater, according to his LinkedIn profile.

However, Mandarakas told the woman he was a student, and they dated for 41/2 years, according to the FBI.

Two months ago, in October, the woman — now 27, according to Trenton police — learned Mandarakas was lying to her about his age, according to an FBI special agent affidavit filed in federal court.

“She told him she did not wish to continue their relationship or to have further any more contact with him,” the FBI agent wrote.

That same day, Mandarakas drove from his home in New Jersey to a hotel in Trenton, about 23 miles southwest of Detroit. While there, he sent numerous texts and tried to call the woman, who is identified as “AV-1,” an acronym for “adult victim 1,” according to the government.

She agreed to meet Mandarakas in an area park and reiterated that she did not want to have additional contact with him, the FBI agent wrote.

“As AV-1 attempted to walk to her vehicle, Mandarakas blocked her path,” the agent wrote. “AV-1 pushed Mandarakas out of the way and was able to get her driver’s door shut. Mandarakas attempted to grab a hold of the vehicle and did not let go until AV-1 started to drive away. Mandarakas then attempted to run after the vehicle for a short distance.”

More than one month later, on Nov. 22, Mandarakas approached the woman outside Daybreak Salon & Spa in Woodhaven, the complaint alleges.

The woman did not understand how Mandarakas could have known she was at the salon since they had not talked for almost two months.

“Mandarakas wedged his body in between the driver’s door so that (she) could not shut her driver’s (door),” the FBI agent wrote. “Mandarakas attempted to hug and kiss (her). (The woman) asked Mandarakas to leave her alone multiple times.

“Mandarakas then pulled out a diamond ring and began to propose to (her),” the agent added.

The woman managed to drive away.

Later that night, the woman was with friends at RiverTown Tavern in Trenton when she spotted Mandarakas standing near the rear exit, the FBI agent wrote.

She told Mandarakas to leave. Her friends confronted him, and Mandarakas left but sent a stream of texts to the woman, writing that “he would not stop until he had her back, and that he was going to marry her,” according to the affidavit.

Earlier this month, Mandarakas started mailing the woman gifts, including a laptop, old clothes and a Christmas card, the agent wrote.

On Dec. 23, she received a card from Mandarakas postmarked from Trenton. Later that night, she missed a phone call from a former roommate of Mandarakas, a man identified in the court filing as “B.V.”

“B.V.” later told investigators that he spoke monthly with Mandarakas and that he had started to make odd comments this fall.

Mandarakas repeatedly mentioned a podcast about a man who kidnapped his girlfriend and took her to Mexico where “it all worked out in the end,” the agent wrote.

“B.V. told Mandarakas not to do anything foolish or he would go to jail, and Mandarakas stated that all things were on the table and that he did not care if he went to jail,” the agent wrote. “Also, Mandarakas said if he could not be with AV-1, no one can.”

The conversations took a darker turn Dec. 22, according to the FBI.

That day, Mandarakas told “B.V.” he was watching the ex-girlfriend’s home and following her vehicle, the FBI agent wrote.

On Christmas Eve, “B.V.” contacted the woman and said he was concerned Mandarakas was going to hurt or kidnap her and take her to Mexico, the FBI agent wrote.

Later that day, the woman called a relative who works as a private detective. The relative suggested she search her car for a tracking device.

The FBI says this tracking device was hidden underneath the woman’s vehicle.

“When (her) vehicle was searched, they located on the inside driver’s side bumper a white tracking tile (taped) to the vehicle with white tape, ostensibly to mask its appearance against the white plastic of the bumper,” the FBI agent wrote.

The discovery prompted the woman’s family to participate in a plan to lure Mandarakas.

On Christmas Day, the woman and relatives drove her vehicle with the tracking tile to St. Joseph’s Church in Trenton.

They waited nearby and watched the woman’s vehicle.

“A short while later, Mandarakas was observed arriving at the parking lot and circled AV-1’s vehicle,” the FBI agent wrote.

He was driving a black Kia rental car.

Mandarakas spent 20 minutes inside the church, went outside and spotted Trenton police officers, the FBI agent wrote. Mandarakas told investigators his ex-girlfriend attended the church.

Mandarakas was arrested for stalking, and Trenton police investigators searched the rental car.

Inside, investigators found a large amount of cash and Canadian currency, cellphones, a magnetic tracking device, a map of times and distance to sail from Florida to Cuba, and a map to sail from New Jersey to Morocco, according to the FBI.

The police officers also found a supply list that included water, food, antibiotics, a satellite phone and aliases. One alias was handwritten and appeared to list the name Josh Tulls.

That is nearly identical to the name of Mandarakas’ former supervisor at Notre Dame, Josh Tullis.

Tullis is referenced in a civil lawsuit Mandarakas filed against Notre Dame in federal court in May in New Jersey. The lawsuit alleges university officials violated the Family and Medical Leave Act and wrongfully terminated Mandarakas in May 2021.

Mandarakas alleges his managers, including Tullis, “exhibited extreme frustration with (his) need for FMLA leave, pressuring him to take only one week of leave because ‘(his) wife should be able to do it on her own,’” the lawsuit alleges.

“(Notre Dame’s) management, including but not limited to Tullis, then began to subject (Mandarakas) to increased hostility and animosity…,” the lawsuit adds.

University officials have denied the accusations and asked a federal judge to dismiss the case, which is pending in federal court.

In a brief text exchange Friday, Tullis said he was unaware of the apparent reference to him in the Mandarakas criminal case.

“I’m stunned and appalled at the allegations and I have no further comment,” Tullis wrote in a text to The Detroit News.

After finding the rental car, investigators located Mandarakas’ registered car in Woodhaven. Investigators searched the car Tuesday.

Inside, they found a firearm, ammunition, handcuffs, rope, a knife, a stun gun, field dressing kit and a tarp with a shipping tag addressed to Mandarakas, the FBI agent wrote.

“While the harm the defendant is alleged to have committed cannot be undone, all of the investigative efforts resulting in today’s court appearance is a first step towards justice,” Cheyvoryea Gibson, special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Michigan, said in a statement.

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Ukraine said at least four people were killed in Russian missile strikes in the early hours of Tuesday that mainly targeted the country’s largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv.

Another 92 people were wounded, though the casualties would have been in the hundreds if Ukraine’s partners hadn’t boosted the country’s air defenses, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on social media platform X.

An exchange of aerial strikes has intensified in recent days as the Kremlin’s invasion approaches its third year and the ground conflict is mired in a stalemate, with neither Russia nor Ukraine able to make a significant breakthrough. Kyiv has pleaded with Western allies for more support to tilt the war in its favor.

Attacks against Ukrainian cities flared up after a cruise missile claimed a large Russian landing ship at the eastern Crimean port of Feodosia last week. A deadly strike on Belgorod, a Russian city near the Ukrainian border, prompted warnings from President Vladimir Putin that more assaults would follow.

The area was targeted again on Tuesday, shortly after Moscow’s forces sent almost hundred missiles toward Ukraine. Russia’s military claimed it downed 17 missiles over the Belgorod region, the Defense Ministry said on its Telegram channel. One person was killed and five injured, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Meanwhile, two people were left dead in Kyiv and at least 49 wounded as result of Russia’s latest assault, which resulted in several districts of the capital without electricity or water, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

Air raid sirens could be heard across the country as the military sought to repel the barrage. Neighboring Poland scrambled two pairs of F-16 jets earlier on Tuesday in response to Russia’s long-range targeting of Ukraine, the country’s operational command said on X.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had targeted Ukraine’s defense-industry facilities near Kyiv, according to the state-run Tass news service.

As was the case during a record year-end barrage, Russia fired a combination of various types of missiles from several directions, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Telegram. Ukraine downed 72 of the 99 missiles launched on Tuesday, he said.

As hostilities spike, there was no immediate sign of the conflict approaching its endgame. Putin, who is facing election in March, said on Monday that Russia doesn’t want to fight “endlessly” in Ukraine, but won’t give up its positions and is ready for peace only on its own terms.

As missiles pounded Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said an “emergency discharge of ordnance” from a warplane led to a village inside Russia being hit, according to Interfax. There were no casualties, but several buildings were damaged in the Voronezh region village of Petropavlovka, Governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Tuesday’s bombardment follows large-scale drone attacks around New Year’s Eve. Ukraine shot down 87 Russian explosive-laden drones in the night of Jan. 1 and another 35 drones the day after, launched from occupied Crimea peninsula and Russian territory, Ukraine’s military said.

Russia also launched missiles on Tuesday at the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, killing one person and wounding more than 40, regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said.

Kyiv has come under growing strain as more than $110 billion in total aid from the European Union and the US is held up by political infighting. In a letter to donors last month, Ukraine’s premier said his country confronts “exceptionally high uncertainty” over its budget at the start of the year.

The UK last week said it’s shipping about 200 missiles to bolster the country’s air defenses in the wake of Russia’s intensified strikes.

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