Society's ChildS

Pistol

Two dead in daycare shooting, Gatineau, Quebec

Quebec daycare shooting
© The Canadian Press / Sean KilpatrickPolice officer carries child from a safehouse to waiting parents and guardians in Gatineau, Que. after Friday's shooting.
Terror-stricken parents and caregivers scrambled to retrieve their children from a Quebec daycare Friday after a brazen daylight shooting that left two adults dead - violence police say was likely witnessed by some of the kids.

Police in the city of Gatineau, Que., across the river from Parliament Hill, say they safely evacuated 53 children - five of them infants - from the Montessori daycare after responding to a report of shots being been fired.

Two people were found dead at the scene - a man who worked at the daycare and the suspected gunman himself. Gatineau police Chief Mario Harel said it's likely at least some of the kids witnessed the violence.

Stormtrooper

Pregnant woman tasered by cops after calling for help in parking lot fender bender incident in Springfield, Illinois

Lucinda White
© ksdk.comLucinda White, 29, who is eight monthsโ€™ pregnant, was tasered and arrested by Springfield police after she reported a minor car accident in the parking lot of a Best Buy store.
Cell phone footage shows Lucinda White, 29, being wrestled to the ground of a Best Buy parking lot in Springfield, Ill. on Saturday.

Shocking video shows the moment cops tasered and forced a heavily pregnant woman to the ground after she'd called them for help in a fender bender incident.

Cell phone footage shows Lucinda White, 29, being wrestled to the ground of a Best Buy parking lot in Springfield, Ill. on Saturday.

She had dialed 911 after she and boyfriend Frederic Thomas, 31, started arguing with another man they accused of hitting her car.

Pistol

New York Dad's pistol license suspended over something his 10-year-old son said

pistol
© Shutterstock

A New York father has had his firearms all but confiscated after the Suffolk County Pistol License Bureau suspended his pistol license indefinitely over a perceived threat made by his 10-year-old son and two of his classmates at school.

John Mayer, of Commack, N.Y., told TheBlaze that the incident occurred on March 1. It was like any other day, the father explained. He put his son on the bus and sent him off to school.

Later that day, Mayer got a call from school officials at Pines Elementary School informing him that his 10-year-old son and two other students were talking about going to a boy's house with a water gun, "paint gun" and a BB gun. There had reportedly been a school yard pushing incident the day before involving the boys, excluding Mayer's son, and they were seemingly talking about getting even in some way.

Mayer told TheBlaze that a teacher overheard the students talking and informed the principal, who then immediately called police and filed a report. He said the principal told police something to the effect of, there's a "kid with a gun, ready to go." Mayer maintains that no serious death threats were made by the students. The Hauppauge Public School District has not returned several messages left by TheBlaze, therefore, it is not clear what they are claiming was said.

School officials then "interrogated" the boys, Mayer explained. It was later determined that the 10-year-old boys did not have access to a BB gun, paintball gun or any actual firearms.

Bizarro Earth

Italian appellate judge stands by Amanda Knox's acquittal

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© AP Photo/Ted S. WarrenAmanda Knox talks to reporters, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011, in Seattle. Knox was freed Monday after an Italian appeals court threw out her murder conviction for the death of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.
The Italian presiding appellate judge who acquitted American student Amanda Knox in the murder of her British roommate says he remains certain there is no evidence of her guilt.

Now retired, Judge Pratillo Hellmann was quoted Thursday by Italian newspapers as saying the only evidence that tied Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito to the crime was refuted by new expert testimony entered on appeal.

Family

As U.S. economy flails, debtors' prisons thrive

prison
© iStockphoto
Thousands of Americans are sent to jail not for committing a crime, but because they can't afford to pay for traffic tickets, medical bills and court fees.

If that sounds like a debtors' prison, a legal relic which was abolished in this country in the 1830s, that's because it is. And courts and judges in states across the land are violating the Constitution by incarcerating people for being unable to pay such debts.

Pistol

Intruder killed while breaking into Colorado prosecutor's home

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An intruder who forced his way into the mountain home of a Colorado deputy district attorney was shot dead by either the prosecutor or her police officer husband, authorities said on Tuesday.

The shooting, shortly before midnight Monday, comes two weeks after Colorado's prisons director was slain as he answered the front door to his home, and two days after the district attorney of Kaufman County in Texas was found shot to death with his wife.

An assistant prosecutor in the Kaufman County district attorney's office was shot to death on January 31, and authorities have said both Texas murders and the March 19 slaying of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements appeared to be targeted killings rather than random acts of violence.

In light of the three previous cases, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation is leading the probe into the latest shooting, which occurred in Hot Sulphur Springs, about 95 miles northwest of Denver.

"There are no apparent ties to recent shootings; however, investigators continue to pursue all possible leads and background information on this (dead) person," the bureau said in a written statement.

Health

Ft. Knox civilian shot and killed, investigation expands to Radcliff

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U.S. Army Human Resources Command headquarters at Fort Knox
An Army civilian employee is dead after a shooting incident that occurred Wednesday afternoon in a parking lot outside U.S. Army Human Resources Command headquarters at Fort Knox.

The victim, who was an employee of U.S. Army Human Resources Command, was transported by ambulance to Ireland Army Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead, officials said.

"Special Agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command are investigating a personal incident and not a random act of violence," said Chris Grey, spokesperson for the independent Army investigative agency, in a news release.

The incident prompted a lockdown of post, and security still is heightened at entrance and exit gates overnight. Those coming to Fort Knox should expect delays.

The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of family, the post statement said.

Sheriff

West Virginia sheriff shot and killed outside courthouse

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© eugene.crum/FacebookSheriff Eugene Crum is seen in this photo from his Facebook page.
A West Virginia sheriff with a reputation for cracking down on drug dealers was shot in the head at point blank range and killed outside a county courthouse today, officials and witnesses said.

Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum was shot and killed while sitting in his vehicle during his lunch break in the town of Williamson, state Delegate Harry Keith White told ABC News.

A witness told ABC News that he watched the suspect approach Crum's car, where he was known to eat lunch, and fire twice into the vehicle. The suspect then calmly walked to his truck, described as a tan Ford ranger, and drove away.

Another witness, Larry Dove, told the West Virginia Gazette he saw a man shoot Crum "right in the head."

Attention

Carnival Triumph shipyard worker missing after cruise liner breaks free

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© Bill Starling/APTug boats maneuver around the Carnival Triumph on the Mobile River after it broke free on Wednesday.
One of two men still missing after winds also topple guard shack at Alabama port where troubled cruise ship is being repaired

Authorities were searching for a shipyard worker who was thrown into the water in strong winds that also tore a troubled Carnival cruise ship away from its mooring at an Alabama port.

The man was one of two people in a guard shack that blew into the water Wednesday at the shipyard in downtown Mobile, Alabama, where the 900-foot (275-meter) Carnival Triumph had been moored for repairs after being stranded off the coast of Mexico for five days in February.

A second worker was rescued, a US coast guard spokesman said. Aside from the weather, the two incidents were unrelated, the coast guard said. Both men work for BAE Systems, which runs the shipyard.

Authorities are unsure of how deep the water is where the men fell in, but Carnival Cruise Lines said on its website that its ship-repairing operation is adjacent to a 42-foot (13-meter), deep-ship channel.

Apple Red

School forces 25 hungry students to throw away lunches when they couldn't pay

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A group Massachusetts parents are outraged and at least one worker has been placed on administrative leave after about 25 students Robert J. Coelho Middle School in Attleboro were forced to throw away their lunches over concerns that they could not pay for the food.

Parents said that some students cried and went home hungry.

School officials told The Sun Chronicle that Whitson's, the contractor responsible for providing lunches, made the decision to stop students from eating their lunch if there was not enough credit in the student's pre-paid account or they were not able to provide cash for the meal.

Superintendent Pia Durkin on Wednesday said that the on-site director had been placed on administrative leave and Whitson's had been instructed not to deny lunch to any student in the future.