Alleged killer of NYPD Officer Moore waives right to speedy trial as de Blasio proclaims 'city is in a better place today'
MSNBCMayor de Blasio said Wednesday that he spoke to the father of slain NYPD Officer Brian Moore.
Accused cop-killer Demetrius Blackwell waived his right to a speedy trial Wednesday, delaying grand jury proceedings in his case until next week at the earliest.
Court-appointed defense attorney David Bart announced the decision at a Queens Criminal Court hearing that followed a video conference with Blackwell.
“I was able to convince him that it might be better to explore other options,” Bart told Judge Elisa Koenderman without going into detail.
The move means the Queens District Attorney now has until June 11 to get an indictment, and Blackwell, 35, is due for his next court appearance May 27.
The legal maneuvering came as Police Commissioner Bill Bratton appeared at the second annual “Police Week” celebration just four days after the fatal shooting of Officer Brian Moore, 25.
“It’s just a very vivid reminder of the dangers officers face,” said Bratton. “This young officer was doing what we’d expect an officer to do, to basically see something and follow up on it.
“Unfortunately, it ended in tragedy.”
Police widow Cathy Guerra, whose husband, Dennis, died last year in a Coney Island arson fire, said she felt the anguish of the Moore family.
NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT
Officer Brian Moore was shot in the face in Queens on Saturday and died Monday.
“We understand firsthand what they’re going through,” said Guerra, 37, “It’s not easy. We’re there to support them and whatever they need.”
Dennis’ mother, Miriam, 65, said her heart “dropped to the floor” when she learned Moore had died two days after last Saturday’s shooting in Queens.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, I know what that family is going through. The pain. I know their pain,’” she recounted.
In an earlier interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, Mayor de Blasio recounted a Tuesday night conversion with Moore’s father — a retired NYPD sergeant.
“It was heartbreaking because the father had raised his son the right way and now we’ve lost him,” the mayor said. “I think New Yorkers feel this very, very deeply, and Brian Moore is someone we should all emulate.”
De Blasio, whose fractured relationship with the NYPD rank and file has improved of late, heaped praise on the slain 25-year-old cop killed by a career criminal.
“This man was a hero,” the mayor said. “I’ve gotten to know, his record was extraordinary, the kind of young police officer you can only dream of, a family of police officers who gave so much to this city.”
Grieving family members of Brian Moore, including his father, retired NYPD Sgt. Raymond Moore, watch as the slain cop's body is taken from the hospital.
City cops turned their backs on de Blasio at a pair of funerals after the December execution of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.
But De Blasio said “the whole city is in a better place today” as it again dealt with the murder of a cop.
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association head Patrick Lynch issued a statement praising de Blasio in the wake of the Moore killing.
Moore died Monday after the weekend shooting in Queens Village, with a manhunt quickly leading to the arrest of Blackwell — the cousin of former New York Giants defensive back Korey Blackwell.
Demetrius Blackwell faces a first-degree murder charge.
The wake for the 25-year-old hero cop was set for 2-4 p.m. and 7-9:30 p.m. Thursday at the Chapey & Sons Funeral Home in Bethpage, to be followed by an 11 a.m. Friday funeral at St. James Catholic Church in Seaford, L.I.
Florida mom held hostage by boyfriend uses online Pizza Hut order to call for help
Cheryl Treadway ordered a pie from a Florida Pizza Hut on Tuesday, asking employees to call 911 for her because she was being held hostage, deputies said.
Extra cheese and extra help, please.
A quick-thinking Florida mom held hostage by her boyfriend called for help by placing an online pizza order and begging for 911 in the comment section usually reserved for pie-making directions, deputies said.
Cheryl Treadway saved herself and her three children from her knife-wielding boyfriend, Ethan Nickerson, with the Tuesday afternoon order, the Highlands County Sheriff said in a statement.
Nickerson was high on narcotics when he grabbed a knife and took away Treadway’s phone Tuesday afternoon, deputies said. The couple had been fighting all day, and he became more aggressive when she tried to leave.
Eventually, she was able to coax him into letting her order them a Pizza Hut pie.
Ethan Nickerson was arrested after the Tuesday hostage situation.
He gave her back her cellphone back just long enough for her to request the delivery.
The Avon Park woman placed the order for a large pepperoni pizza online. At the top of the order, she typed: “Please help! Get 911 to me.” In the special directions section, where customers usually ask for extra sauce or light cheese, Treadway wrote, “'911 hostage help,”WTSP reported.
The Pizza Hut workers recognized Treadway as a regular customer and called 911 on her behalf.
Deputies swarmed her home minutes later. She ran out with one of her kids and explained two more were still inside with their father, Nickerson.
"His first words were, of course, 'I'm not coming out because I know I'm going to jail,'" lead negotiator Lt. Curtis Ludden said.
It took about 20 minutes for Ludden to talk Nickerson into coming out peacefully. The children were not harmed.
Nickerson was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a weapon without intent to kill, battery and false imprisonment. He is being held in a Florida jail in lieu of $45,000 bond.
Ferguson mulls removing Brown shrine from street
People view the memorial in the street where Michael Brown was shot dead.Photo: Getty Images
FERGUSON, Mo. — To some, a makeshift shrine in the middle of the Ferguson street where Michael Brownwas killed last summer is a hallowed symbol of a new civil rights movement over race and policing. To others, it has served its purpose and is now more of an eyesore and a road hazard.
Within hours of Brown’s Aug. 9 shooting death by a white police officer, people began placing stuffed animals, candles and other tributes in the middle of Canfield Drive, where the unarmed black 18-year-old’s body lay for about four hours before it was removed.
The shrine stretches several yards down the center of the two-lane road that bisects a housing complex, and city leaders are grappling with the thorny question of whether to remove or replace it and risk further inflaming racial tensions in the 21,000-resident St. Louis suburb, which is two-thirds black. Another section of the shrine sits along the curb a few yards away.
“It’s a very sensitive topic,” says Janie Jones, a black, Washington-based mediator who says she has been working behind the scenes with Ferguson municipal leaders and the Brown family on how to clear out the memorial without agitating the black community.
“It represents a community’s cry for justice — not just for Michael Brown, but for people all over the world,” Jones told the Associated Press on Monday. “The city has some serious decisions to make going forward.”
Brown’s killing by Officer Darren Wilson, who left Ferguson’s police force after a grand jury decided not to charge him, touched off weeks of sometimes-violent demonstrations and a national “Black Lives Matter” movement that only gained momentum with the subsequent police killings of unarmed black men in other US cities.
A car drives past a memorial in the middle of the street where Michael Brown was shot.Photo: AP
A nearby resident puts his hands together in prayer at the makeshift memorial at the site where Brown was shot.Photo: AP
Although Wilson wasn’t charged, the US Justice Department released a scathing report citing racial bias and racial profiling in the Ferguson Police Department and in a profit-driven municipal court system that frequently targeted blacks.
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III, while appreciative of the memorial’s status as a nexus of protests and prayers, said it is now a public safety issue that arises “any time you leave items in the middle of the roadway.” Knowles, who is white, pointed to last Christmas Day, when an unidentified motorist — whether intentionally or accidentally — plowed through the shrine. Neighbors and Brown supporters swiftly cleaned up the damage and rebuilt the site.
Now, Knowles said, “the city would like it moved,” adding that “we’re working on getting a buy-in with the family and community” to make it happen. He said no decisions have been made and there isn’t a deadline to decide the matter.
During a Ferguson City Council meeting last month — the first since city elections tripled black representation on the governing board that had been largely white — Jones proposed replacing the shrine with a permanent dove-shaped marker embedded in the street.
That would “take a very tragic situation and use it as a teachable moment to encourage community healing and symbolize the unity that is very much needed,” said Jones, president and CEO of the Joint Council on Policy and Social Impact. “The way we deal with this memorial is how we move forward in Ferguson, because that memorial represents the best and the worst of Ferguson.”
Jones said Brown’s mother wants a portion of the road where the memorial rests carved out and repaved because “she feels like her son’s blood is still in the streets.”
Jeff Small, a Ferguson city spokesman, said discussions about the memorial’s fate likely would go to the city’s traffic commission, composed of various Ferguson residents and newly elected Councilwoman Ella Jones, who did not return telephone messages seeking comment for this story.
The Brown family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, also did not reply to messages seeking comment.
Debate about the memorial’s fate comes as Brown’s parents are pressing a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city of Ferguson, Wilson and the former police chief. Dorian Johnson, who was with Brown at the time of the shooting, also sued those same parties last week, accusing Wilson of being the aggressor who used excessive force and “acted with deliberate indifference or with reckless disregard” for Johnson’s rights.
Capital murder indictment returned in Hannah Graham case
Jesse Matthew Jr. was indicted on capital murder charges in the death of Hannah Graham.Photo: AP
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The man accused of abducting and killing a University of Virginia student has been charged with capital murder and a prosecutor said Tuesday she will seek the death penalty if the case goes to trial.
The indictment accusing Jesse L. Matthew Jr. of capital murder in the death of Hannah Graham is based on new forensic evidence, Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford told reporters after a hearing in which new defense attorneys with experience in death penalty cases were appointed. She declined to elaborate on the evidence.
Matthew, a former hospital worker and taxi driver, already was charged with first-degree murder and abduction with intent to defile and is being held without bond.
Shackled and handcuffed, Matthew showed no expression at Tuesday’s hearing. He had been served the new indictment earlier in the day, Lunsford said.
Lunsford said that while the new forensic evidence was crucial, many factors go into pursuing a death penalty case.
“I would consider the nature of the offense, the history of the defendant, the exact nature of what happened,” said Lunsford.
Graham, 18, disappeared in September after a night out with friends in Charlottesville, where the school is located. Her remains were found weeks later in a wooded area about 12 miles from the campus. The case shocked the campus and came amid rising national concern about sexual assaults and other serious crimes around universities.
She died from “homicidal violence” but the exact cause is unknown, authorities have said.
University of Virginia student Hannah GrahamPhoto: AP
In surveillance video, Graham can be seen walking unsteadily and running at times, past a pub and a service station and then across a seven-block strip of bars, restaurants and shops. Another video captured her leaving a restaurant with Matthew, who had an arm around her. He was the last person seen with Graham, according to authorities.
Graham’s disappearance prompted a monthlong search that ended last Oct. 18 when a searcher found her remains roughly six miles from a field where another missing student, Morgan Harrington, was found nearly five years earlier. Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student, disappeared while attending a rock concert in Charlottesville in October 2009.
After police named Matthew a person of interest in Graham’s disappearance, he fled and was later apprehended in Texas. He was initially charged with abduction with intent to defile, a felony that empowered police to swab his cheek for a DNA sample. That sample connected Matthew to a 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax County, a Virginia suburb of Washington, DC, according to authorities. His trial in that case is set for June 8.
The DNA evidence in the Fairfax sexual assault, in turn, linked Matthew to the Harrington case, authorities have said. He has not been charged in Harrington’s death.
“As long as we’re alive, we will bear this grief and this burden,” said Morgan Harrington’s mother, Gil Harrington, who attended Tuesday’s brief hearing in the Graham case. “You want to ask why, but there’s no answer for that.”
Graham’s parents didn’t attend the hearing, and Lunsford declined to talk about her conversations with them leading up to the new charge. Graham, a sophomore, was born in England and moved to Virginia at age 5. She was a member of the university’s ski and snowboard team and a French culture enthusiast, according to her parents.
Matthew previously had been accused of raping students at Liberty University and Christopher Newport University in 2002 and 2003. Matthew had played football at both schools. The cases were dropped after the women declined to press charges.
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Cheryl Higgins appointed regional capital defender Doug Ramseur and Charlottesville attorney Michael Hemenway to replace the lawyers who represented Matthew on the first-degree murder charge. State law requires at least two lawyers for all capital murder defendants. Lunsford said this will be her first capital murder prosecution. The jury also would have the option of convicting Matthew of the lesser murder charge, Lunsford said.
Ramseur declined to comment after the hearing.
A June 25 hearing has been scheduled to set the trial date.
ISIS threatens controversial blogger Pamela Geller in message boasting of '71 trained soldiers in 15 different states'
ISIS appears to threaten blogger Pamela Geller in a message that also claims the terror group has 71 trained fighters in 15 states.
ISIS appears to declare war on controversial blogger Pamela Geller on Tuesday in an ominous online message claiming it has fighters across America ready to attack "any target we desire."
The threat, posted on anonymous message board JustPasteIt, singles out Geller, who helped plan a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest that was attacked by two gunmen in Garland, Texas, over the weekend. ISIS claimed responsibility for the shooting early Tuesday, marking the first time the terror group called an American attack one of its own, though lawmakers believe the two men were influenced by the group, not guided directly by it.
"This is the textbook case of what we're most concerned about," Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told the Associated Press.
Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were aware the contest was a potential terror target and issued a joint bulletin on April 20. Organizers, including Geller - who has become a lightning rod for critics who think she promotes anti-Islam views - knew they'd be targeted but refused to back down.
The chilling Tuesday post also boasts of ISIS having "71 trained soldiers in 15 different states ready at our word to attack." It specifically names Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, Michigan and California.
"The attack by the Islamic State in America is only the beginning of our efforts to establish a wiliyah (authority or governance) in the heart of our enemy," the message reads.
WHO IS PAMELA GELLER, THE MUHAMMAD DRAWING CONTEST HOST?
Officer Brian Moore was shot in the face in Queens on Saturday and died Monday.
“We understand firsthand what they’re going through,” said Guerra, 37, “It’s not easy. We’re there to support them and whatever they need.”
Dennis’ mother, Miriam, 65, said her heart “dropped to the floor” when she learned Moore had died two days after last Saturday’s shooting in Queens.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, I know what that family is going through. The pain. I know their pain,’” she recounted.
In an earlier interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, Mayor de Blasio recounted a Tuesday night conversion with Moore’s father — a retired NYPD sergeant.
“It was heartbreaking because the father had raised his son the right way and now we’ve lost him,” the mayor said. “I think New Yorkers feel this very, very deeply, and Brian Moore is someone we should all emulate.”
De Blasio, whose fractured relationship with the NYPD rank and file has improved of late, heaped praise on the slain 25-year-old cop killed by a career criminal.
“This man was a hero,” the mayor said. “I’ve gotten to know, his record was extraordinary, the kind of young police officer you can only dream of, a family of police officers who gave so much to this city.”
Grieving family members of Brian Moore, including his father, retired NYPD Sgt. Raymond Moore, watch as the slain cop's body is taken from the hospital.
City cops turned their backs on de Blasio at a pair of funerals after the December execution of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.
But De Blasio said “the whole city is in a better place today” as it again dealt with the murder of a cop.
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association head Patrick Lynch issued a statement praising de Blasio in the wake of the Moore killing.
Moore died Monday after the weekend shooting in Queens Village, with a manhunt quickly leading to the arrest of Blackwell — the cousin of former New York Giants defensive back Korey Blackwell.
Demetrius Blackwell faces a first-degree murder charge.
The wake for the 25-year-old hero cop was set for 2-4 p.m. and 7-9:30 p.m. Thursday at the Chapey & Sons Funeral Home in Bethpage, to be followed by an 11 a.m. Friday funeral at St. James Catholic Church in Seaford, L.I.
Florida mom held hostage by boyfriend uses online Pizza Hut order to call for help
Cheryl Treadway ordered a pie from a Florida Pizza Hut on Tuesday, asking employees to call 911 for her because she was being held hostage, deputies said.
Extra cheese and extra help, please.
A quick-thinking Florida mom held hostage by her boyfriend called for help by placing an online pizza order and begging for 911 in the comment section usually reserved for pie-making directions, deputies said.
Cheryl Treadway saved herself and her three children from her knife-wielding boyfriend, Ethan Nickerson, with the Tuesday afternoon order, the Highlands County Sheriff said in a statement.
Nickerson was high on narcotics when he grabbed a knife and took away Treadway’s phone Tuesday afternoon, deputies said. The couple had been fighting all day, and he became more aggressive when she tried to leave.
Eventually, she was able to coax him into letting her order them a Pizza Hut pie.
Ethan Nickerson was arrested after the Tuesday hostage situation.
He gave her back her cellphone back just long enough for her to request the delivery.
The Avon Park woman placed the order for a large pepperoni pizza online. At the top of the order, she typed: “Please help! Get 911 to me.” In the special directions section, where customers usually ask for extra sauce or light cheese, Treadway wrote, “'911 hostage help,”WTSP reported.
The Pizza Hut workers recognized Treadway as a regular customer and called 911 on her behalf.
Deputies swarmed her home minutes later. She ran out with one of her kids and explained two more were still inside with their father, Nickerson.
"His first words were, of course, 'I'm not coming out because I know I'm going to jail,'" lead negotiator Lt. Curtis Ludden said.
It took about 20 minutes for Ludden to talk Nickerson into coming out peacefully. The children were not harmed.
Nickerson was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a weapon without intent to kill, battery and false imprisonment. He is being held in a Florida jail in lieu of $45,000 bond.
Ferguson mulls removing Brown shrine from street
People view the memorial in the street where Michael Brown was shot dead.Photo: Getty Images
FERGUSON, Mo. — To some, a makeshift shrine in the middle of the Ferguson street where Michael Brownwas killed last summer is a hallowed symbol of a new civil rights movement over race and policing. To others, it has served its purpose and is now more of an eyesore and a road hazard.
Within hours of Brown’s Aug. 9 shooting death by a white police officer, people began placing stuffed animals, candles and other tributes in the middle of Canfield Drive, where the unarmed black 18-year-old’s body lay for about four hours before it was removed.
The shrine stretches several yards down the center of the two-lane road that bisects a housing complex, and city leaders are grappling with the thorny question of whether to remove or replace it and risk further inflaming racial tensions in the 21,000-resident St. Louis suburb, which is two-thirds black. Another section of the shrine sits along the curb a few yards away.
“It’s a very sensitive topic,” says Janie Jones, a black, Washington-based mediator who says she has been working behind the scenes with Ferguson municipal leaders and the Brown family on how to clear out the memorial without agitating the black community.
“It represents a community’s cry for justice — not just for Michael Brown, but for people all over the world,” Jones told the Associated Press on Monday. “The city has some serious decisions to make going forward.”
Brown’s killing by Officer Darren Wilson, who left Ferguson’s police force after a grand jury decided not to charge him, touched off weeks of sometimes-violent demonstrations and a national “Black Lives Matter” movement that only gained momentum with the subsequent police killings of unarmed black men in other US cities.
A car drives past a memorial in the middle of the street where Michael Brown was shot.Photo: AP
A nearby resident puts his hands together in prayer at the makeshift memorial at the site where Brown was shot.Photo: AP
Although Wilson wasn’t charged, the US Justice Department released a scathing report citing racial bias and racial profiling in the Ferguson Police Department and in a profit-driven municipal court system that frequently targeted blacks.
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III, while appreciative of the memorial’s status as a nexus of protests and prayers, said it is now a public safety issue that arises “any time you leave items in the middle of the roadway.” Knowles, who is white, pointed to last Christmas Day, when an unidentified motorist — whether intentionally or accidentally — plowed through the shrine. Neighbors and Brown supporters swiftly cleaned up the damage and rebuilt the site.
Now, Knowles said, “the city would like it moved,” adding that “we’re working on getting a buy-in with the family and community” to make it happen. He said no decisions have been made and there isn’t a deadline to decide the matter.
During a Ferguson City Council meeting last month — the first since city elections tripled black representation on the governing board that had been largely white — Jones proposed replacing the shrine with a permanent dove-shaped marker embedded in the street.
That would “take a very tragic situation and use it as a teachable moment to encourage community healing and symbolize the unity that is very much needed,” said Jones, president and CEO of the Joint Council on Policy and Social Impact. “The way we deal with this memorial is how we move forward in Ferguson, because that memorial represents the best and the worst of Ferguson.”
Jones said Brown’s mother wants a portion of the road where the memorial rests carved out and repaved because “she feels like her son’s blood is still in the streets.”
Jeff Small, a Ferguson city spokesman, said discussions about the memorial’s fate likely would go to the city’s traffic commission, composed of various Ferguson residents and newly elected Councilwoman Ella Jones, who did not return telephone messages seeking comment for this story.
The Brown family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, also did not reply to messages seeking comment.
Debate about the memorial’s fate comes as Brown’s parents are pressing a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city of Ferguson, Wilson and the former police chief. Dorian Johnson, who was with Brown at the time of the shooting, also sued those same parties last week, accusing Wilson of being the aggressor who used excessive force and “acted with deliberate indifference or with reckless disregard” for Johnson’s rights.
Capital murder indictment returned in Hannah Graham case
Jesse Matthew Jr. was indicted on capital murder charges in the death of Hannah Graham.Photo: AP
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The man accused of abducting and killing a University of Virginia student has been charged with capital murder and a prosecutor said Tuesday she will seek the death penalty if the case goes to trial.
The indictment accusing Jesse L. Matthew Jr. of capital murder in the death of Hannah Graham is based on new forensic evidence, Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford told reporters after a hearing in which new defense attorneys with experience in death penalty cases were appointed. She declined to elaborate on the evidence.
Matthew, a former hospital worker and taxi driver, already was charged with first-degree murder and abduction with intent to defile and is being held without bond.
Shackled and handcuffed, Matthew showed no expression at Tuesday’s hearing. He had been served the new indictment earlier in the day, Lunsford said.
Lunsford said that while the new forensic evidence was crucial, many factors go into pursuing a death penalty case.
“I would consider the nature of the offense, the history of the defendant, the exact nature of what happened,” said Lunsford.
Graham, 18, disappeared in September after a night out with friends in Charlottesville, where the school is located. Her remains were found weeks later in a wooded area about 12 miles from the campus. The case shocked the campus and came amid rising national concern about sexual assaults and other serious crimes around universities.
She died from “homicidal violence” but the exact cause is unknown, authorities have said.
University of Virginia student Hannah GrahamPhoto: AP
In surveillance video, Graham can be seen walking unsteadily and running at times, past a pub and a service station and then across a seven-block strip of bars, restaurants and shops. Another video captured her leaving a restaurant with Matthew, who had an arm around her. He was the last person seen with Graham, according to authorities.
Graham’s disappearance prompted a monthlong search that ended last Oct. 18 when a searcher found her remains roughly six miles from a field where another missing student, Morgan Harrington, was found nearly five years earlier. Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student, disappeared while attending a rock concert in Charlottesville in October 2009.
After police named Matthew a person of interest in Graham’s disappearance, he fled and was later apprehended in Texas. He was initially charged with abduction with intent to defile, a felony that empowered police to swab his cheek for a DNA sample. That sample connected Matthew to a 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax County, a Virginia suburb of Washington, DC, according to authorities. His trial in that case is set for June 8.
The DNA evidence in the Fairfax sexual assault, in turn, linked Matthew to the Harrington case, authorities have said. He has not been charged in Harrington’s death.
“As long as we’re alive, we will bear this grief and this burden,” said Morgan Harrington’s mother, Gil Harrington, who attended Tuesday’s brief hearing in the Graham case. “You want to ask why, but there’s no answer for that.”
Graham’s parents didn’t attend the hearing, and Lunsford declined to talk about her conversations with them leading up to the new charge. Graham, a sophomore, was born in England and moved to Virginia at age 5. She was a member of the university’s ski and snowboard team and a French culture enthusiast, according to her parents.
Matthew previously had been accused of raping students at Liberty University and Christopher Newport University in 2002 and 2003. Matthew had played football at both schools. The cases were dropped after the women declined to press charges.
On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Cheryl Higgins appointed regional capital defender Doug Ramseur and Charlottesville attorney Michael Hemenway to replace the lawyers who represented Matthew on the first-degree murder charge. State law requires at least two lawyers for all capital murder defendants. Lunsford said this will be her first capital murder prosecution. The jury also would have the option of convicting Matthew of the lesser murder charge, Lunsford said.
Ramseur declined to comment after the hearing.
A June 25 hearing has been scheduled to set the trial date.
ISIS threatens controversial blogger Pamela Geller in message boasting of '71 trained soldiers in 15 different states'
ISIS appears to threaten blogger Pamela Geller in a message that also claims the terror group has 71 trained fighters in 15 states.
ISIS appears to declare war on controversial blogger Pamela Geller on Tuesday in an ominous online message claiming it has fighters across America ready to attack "any target we desire."
The threat, posted on anonymous message board JustPasteIt, singles out Geller, who helped plan a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest that was attacked by two gunmen in Garland, Texas, over the weekend. ISIS claimed responsibility for the shooting early Tuesday, marking the first time the terror group called an American attack one of its own, though lawmakers believe the two men were influenced by the group, not guided directly by it.
"This is the textbook case of what we're most concerned about," Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told the Associated Press.
Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security were aware the contest was a potential terror target and issued a joint bulletin on April 20. Organizers, including Geller - who has become a lightning rod for critics who think she promotes anti-Islam views - knew they'd be targeted but refused to back down.
The chilling Tuesday post also boasts of ISIS having "71 trained soldiers in 15 different states ready at our word to attack." It specifically names Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, Michigan and California.
"The attack by the Islamic State in America is only the beginning of our efforts to establish a wiliyah (authority or governance) in the heart of our enemy," the message reads.
WHO IS PAMELA GELLER, THE MUHAMMAD DRAWING CONTEST HOST?
MIKE STONE/REUTERS
Controversial blogger Pamela Geller helped organize a Prophet Muhammad drawing contest in Garland, Texas, over the weekend that was targeted by two armed men. ISIS claimed responsibility for the shooting.
"Our aim was the khanzeer (pig) Pamela Geller and to show her that we don't care what land she hides in or what sky shields her; we will send all our Lions to achieve her slaughter."
It says the militants will target Geller and anyone who hides or hosts her.Another high-profile target of terrorists, controversial Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, made a brief appearance at the contest, where he spoke to the 200 attendees before leaving with his security team.
Wilders, who is an outspoken critic of Islam and is on Al Qaeda's hit list, will headline the Palm Beach County Republican Party's "Lobsterfest" in August in Florida. Geller's upcoming scheduled public appearances are unknown.
GERMANS ARREST FOUR RIGHT-WING EXTREMEIST SEEMING TO ATTACK ISLAMIC TARGETS
"This threat illustrates the savagery and barbarism of the Islamic State," Geller told the Daily News in a statement she later posted on her website."They want me dead for violating Sharia blasphemy laws. What remains to be seen is whether the free world will finaly wake up and stand for the freedom of speech, or instead kowtow to this evil and continue to denounce me."
Asked if she would increase security or cancel any public appearances, Geller told the News, "Of course," but said she could not elaborate for security reasons.
Who is Pamela Geller?
NY Daily News
The authenticity of the post, as well as the group's claim to the Texas shooting, have not been independently confirmed, and it is possible the threat is a hoax or a message from an ISIS sympathizer. ISIS has frequently used JustPasteIt to publish propaganda, including the names and addresses of 100 U.S. service members in a call for an American jihad.
STASI: PAMELA GELLER SOWS SEEDS OF HATE IN TEXAS
EDITORIAL: PAMELA GELLER PLAYS WITH FIRE
The armed attackers who stormed the Sunday cartoon contest, 31-year-old Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, 34, were both shot dead by an off-duty officer outside. The Phoenix roommates were the only fatalities in an attack that also gave another guard a minor injury.
Controversial blogger Pamela Geller helped organize a Prophet Muhammad drawing contest in Garland, Texas, over the weekend that was targeted by two armed men. ISIS claimed responsibility for the shooting.
"Our aim was the khanzeer (pig) Pamela Geller and to show her that we don't care what land she hides in or what sky shields her; we will send all our Lions to achieve her slaughter."
It says the militants will target Geller and anyone who hides or hosts her.Another high-profile target of terrorists, controversial Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, made a brief appearance at the contest, where he spoke to the 200 attendees before leaving with his security team.
Wilders, who is an outspoken critic of Islam and is on Al Qaeda's hit list, will headline the Palm Beach County Republican Party's "Lobsterfest" in August in Florida. Geller's upcoming scheduled public appearances are unknown.
GERMANS ARREST FOUR RIGHT-WING EXTREMEIST SEEMING TO ATTACK ISLAMIC TARGETS
"This threat illustrates the savagery and barbarism of the Islamic State," Geller told the Daily News in a statement she later posted on her website."They want me dead for violating Sharia blasphemy laws. What remains to be seen is whether the free world will finaly wake up and stand for the freedom of speech, or instead kowtow to this evil and continue to denounce me."
Asked if she would increase security or cancel any public appearances, Geller told the News, "Of course," but said she could not elaborate for security reasons.
Who is Pamela Geller?
NY Daily News
The authenticity of the post, as well as the group's claim to the Texas shooting, have not been independently confirmed, and it is possible the threat is a hoax or a message from an ISIS sympathizer. ISIS has frequently used JustPasteIt to publish propaganda, including the names and addresses of 100 U.S. service members in a call for an American jihad.
STASI: PAMELA GELLER SOWS SEEDS OF HATE IN TEXAS
EDITORIAL: PAMELA GELLER PLAYS WITH FIRE
The armed attackers who stormed the Sunday cartoon contest, 31-year-old Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, 34, were both shot dead by an off-duty officer outside. The Phoenix roommates were the only fatalities in an attack that also gave another guard a minor injury.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The New York Daily News on Aug. 31 predicted ISIS would soon attack in the U.S.
The JustPasteIt post claims both men knew they would be killed, and were only testing the waters for future terror.
"We knew that the target was protected. Our intention was to show how easy we give our lives for the Sake of Allah," it says.
The ISIS radio announcement about the shootings also alluded to planned America attacks, promising "even bigger and more bitter" actions to come.
Simpson, who previously was convicted of lying to federal agents in an Arizona terror probe, was already on the FBI's radar. The agency had an open investigation into his activities, though it's unclear why he was not stopped.
He'd been tweeting pro-Islamic State messages from an account under the name "Shariah is Light." Among the tweets was a picture of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric killed in 2011 in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.
Simpson's final message, with the hashtag #texasattack, was posted 20 minutes before the shooting.
"May Allah accept us as mujahideen. Make dua."
"Was he on the radar? Sure he was," said McCaul, a Texas congressman. "The FBI has got a pretty good program to monitor public social media."
NYPD cop Kenneth Healey refuses to ‘give up’ months after taking hatchet to head
Kenneth Healey, the NYPD officer attacked by a man wielding a hatchet, discusses his remarkable recovery Wednesday on "Today."
The deranged man who nearly killed NYPD Officer Kenneth Healey is now the recovering cop's reason to live.
"I'm not giving up," Healey said Wednesday on the "Today" show, seven months after he was attacked by a hatchet-swinging maniac. "If I give up, that means that he won and I'm not giving up."
Healey recounted his belief that death was imminent after deranged Queens man Zale Thompson attacked while the rookie cop posed for a photo with three NYPD colleagues on Oct. 23, 2014.
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Enlarge
Zale Thompson, foreground, charged a group of cops in Queens on Oct. 23, striking one in the head with the hatchet he's carrying.
"One second you're taking a picture, and the next I'm staring at my skull on the floor in a puddle of blood," said Healey.
"I didn't think I was going to live. I tried to get up two or three times, and I collapsed."
The New York Daily News on Aug. 31 predicted ISIS would soon attack in the U.S.
The JustPasteIt post claims both men knew they would be killed, and were only testing the waters for future terror.
"We knew that the target was protected. Our intention was to show how easy we give our lives for the Sake of Allah," it says.
The ISIS radio announcement about the shootings also alluded to planned America attacks, promising "even bigger and more bitter" actions to come.
Simpson, who previously was convicted of lying to federal agents in an Arizona terror probe, was already on the FBI's radar. The agency had an open investigation into his activities, though it's unclear why he was not stopped.
He'd been tweeting pro-Islamic State messages from an account under the name "Shariah is Light." Among the tweets was a picture of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric killed in 2011 in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen.
Simpson's final message, with the hashtag #texasattack, was posted 20 minutes before the shooting.
"May Allah accept us as mujahideen. Make dua."
"Was he on the radar? Sure he was," said McCaul, a Texas congressman. "The FBI has got a pretty good program to monitor public social media."
NYPD cop Kenneth Healey refuses to ‘give up’ months after taking hatchet to head
Kenneth Healey, the NYPD officer attacked by a man wielding a hatchet, discusses his remarkable recovery Wednesday on "Today."
The deranged man who nearly killed NYPD Officer Kenneth Healey is now the recovering cop's reason to live.
"I'm not giving up," Healey said Wednesday on the "Today" show, seven months after he was attacked by a hatchet-swinging maniac. "If I give up, that means that he won and I'm not giving up."
Healey recounted his belief that death was imminent after deranged Queens man Zale Thompson attacked while the rookie cop posed for a photo with three NYPD colleagues on Oct. 23, 2014.
PreviousNext
EnlargeZale Thompson, foreground, charged a group of cops in Queens on Oct. 23, striking one in the head with the hatchet he's carrying.
"One second you're taking a picture, and the next I'm staring at my skull on the floor in a puddle of blood," said Healey.
"I didn't think I was going to live. I tried to get up two or three times, and I collapsed."
ANTHONY DELMUNDO/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Healey is shown the day he was discharged from Jamaica Hospital.
The critically injured cop underwent lifesaving surgery at Jamaica Hospital, spending six days in the facility before he was finally sent home.
Long wolf attacker Thompson, 32, was shot to death by the other cops at the scene. The self-radicalized terrorist also whacked another officer in the right arm with the hatchet before he was gunned down.
"I guess in this day and age, these are the threats that police and law enforcement have to look out for," said Healey. "It's sad, but this is the world we live in right now."
4 ‘extremists’ in Germany arrested in ‘plot’ to attack Islamic targets
A suspected right-wing extremist is taken into custody in Augsburg, Germany, on May 6.Photo: EPA
BERLIN — German authorities conducted raids across the country on Wednesday, seizing explosives and arresting four people accused of founding a right-wing extremist group to attack mosques and housing for asylum seekers.
Police arrested three men and a woman accused of leading the group during raids by some 250 investigators on homes in Saxony and four other states, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors allege the four helped found the “Old School Society” group and were planning to attack asylum-seeker housing, mosques and well-known members of the Islamic-extremist Salafist scene in Germany.
The four arrested, identified only as Andreas H., 56, Markus W., 39, Denise Vanessa G., 22, and Olaf O., 47, are being held on terrorism charges and are also accused of having procured explosives.
The statement identified Andreas H. and Markus W. as the group’s president and vice president.
“According to current investigations, it was the group’s goal to conduct attacks in smaller groups inside Germany on well-known Salafists, mosques and asylum-seeker centers,” the statement said. “For this purpose the four arrested procured explosives for possible terror attacks by the group.”
Evidence is removed from a suspected right-wing extremist’s apartment.Photo: Getty Images
Prosecutors said they are still trying to determine whether the group had concrete attack plans and refused to comment beyond their written statement.
Inquiries made to an apparent cellphone number and email address for the group were not immediately returned.
Referring to the raids and arrests, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin that “as worrying as the development is, we are glad about the success of the investigation.”
Right-wing extremists have been a renewed focus for German intelligence agencies after it came to light that a neo-Nazi group calling itself National Socialist Underground, or NSU, allegedly killed eight Turks, a Greek and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007. It is also believed to be behind two bombings and 15 bank robberies.
The group’s sole survivor, Beate Zschaepe, and four alleged supporters are currently on trial in Munich.
The group’s existence only came to light in late 2011, after Zschaepe’s alleged accomplices, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boenhardt, died in an apparent murder-suicide following a botched bank robbery.
De Maiziere said statistics released Wednesday showed a sharp increase of 22.9 percent in violent crimes by right-wing extremists in 2014 to 1,029 — including 175 attacks on refugee homes, three times the number in 2013.
“Crimes that have a xenophobic, anti-Semitic and racist motive have especially increased,” de Maiziere said. “Increasingly, asylum seekers and refugee homes are being targeted. This development is worrisome and must be stopped.”
Afghan judge sentences 4 to death in mob killing of woman
Some of the 49 suspects at a hearing on May 3.Photo: AP
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced four men to death for their role in the brutal mob killing of a woman in Kabul in March — a slaying that shocked the nation and spurred calls for authorities to ensure women’s rights to equality and protection from violence.
The sentences were part of a trial of 49 suspects, including 19 police officers, over the March 19 killing of the 27-year-old woman named Farkhunda who was beaten to death in a frenzied attack sparked by a bogus accusation that she had burned a copy of the Quran.
The trial, which began Saturday, only involved two full days of court proceedings — an unusual swiftness in the slow-moving Afghan judicial system. It was broadcast live on national television, reflecting huge public interest in the case.
Judge Safiullah Mojadedi handed down the four death sentences at Afghanistan’s Primary Court in Kabul on Wednesday. He also sentenced eight of the defendants to 16 years in prison and dropped charges against 18. The judge will rule on the remaining suspects — the 19 policemen — on Saturday and their verdicts will be announced on Sunday, Mojadedi said.
Farkhunda’s relatives attended the court hearing on Wednesday.Photo: AP
The defendants have the right to appeal. The charges included assault, murder and encouraging others to participate in the assault. The police officers were charged with neglecting their duties and failing to prevent the attack.
Those sentenced to death include a peddler who made the Quran-burning accusation that sparked the attack against Farkhunda; a man who threw two large rocks at her; the driver of the car that ran over her and the man who set her body alight.
Farkhunda’s brother, Mujibullah, told the Associated Press that her family was angered by the leniency of the court toward the majority of the defendants.
“The outcome of the trial is not fair and we do not accept it — you saw just four people sentenced to death but everybody knows that more than 40 people were involved in martyring and burning and beating my sister,” said Mujibullah, who like many Afghans, including his sister, uses only one name.
“Eighteen people have been freed. The court should punish them and that should be a lesson for anyone who would commit this sort of crime, anywhere in our country, in the future,” he added.
Afghan women’s rights activists carry the coffin of Farkhunda during her burial ceremony on March 22.Photo: Reuters
Farkhunda’s killing shocked many Afghans, though some public and religious figures said it would have been justified if she had in fact damaged a Quran. A presidential investigation later found that she had not damaged a copy of the Muslim holy book.
The last agonizing and brutal moments of her life were captured on mobile phone cameras by witnesses and those in the mob that attacked her. The videos of the assault circulated widely on social media. They showed her being punched, kicked, beaten with planks of wood, pushed by police onto a roof and dropped from it, thrown in the street and run over by a car. She then had a lump of concrete dropped on her and her body was dragged along the road outside the mosque where the assault took place and tossed onto the bank of the Kabul River. A crowd watched as her body was set on fire.
The footage also showed policemen largely standing and some even participating in the attack.
The incident sparked nationwide outrage and soul-searching, as well as a civil society movement seeking to limit the power of clerics, strengthen the rule of law and improve women’s rights.
Farkhunda’s parents addressed the court before the sentences were handed down, asking that the accused be dealt with according to the law.
“Everybody saw what happened and I insist on justice,” her mother, Bibi Hajira, told the court. “That’s all I want.”
Defendants attend a May 6 hearing in the case.Photo: AP
Afghanistan’s judicial system has long faced criticism over its inability to provide the majority of Afghans access to justice. Women especially are sidelined, despite constitutional guarantees of equality and protection from violence, a recent report by the United Nations concluded. The attack on Farkhunda was widely seen as symptomatic of the general low regard for women in Afghan society, where violence against women often goes unpunished.
Some conservative lawmakers have in recent years sought to dilute a law that penalizes violence against women, sparking fears of a rollback in legislative gains since the extremist Taliban were overthrown in 2001.
Activist Barry Salaam, who organized mass demonstrations in the days after Farkhunda’s death, said Wednesday’s verdicts validated laws aimed at protecting women.
“The trial was far from perfect but it was held in open court, which definitely contributes to the strengthening of rule of law and gives the Afghan people the feeling that at the end of the day, the law does prevail,” Salaam said.
Afghans hold banners as they shout slogans during a rally to protest Farkhunda’s killing in front of the Supreme Court in Kabul on March 24.Photo: Getty Images
But lawmaker Farkhunda Zahra Naderi criticized the judge’s decision to separately hand down verdicts against the policemen in the case, saying such a move could foment more mistrust of the police.
Afghanistan’s daily drumbeat of violence continued Wednesday with the deaths of two people when the minibus they were traveling in hit a roadside bomb, according to Asadullah Ensafi, deputy police chief of troubled eastern Ghazni province.
The explosion in Dih Yak district also wounded three people, Ensafi said, blaming the Taliban, who have a significant presence in the region.
Woman slashed face of boyfriend’s dead ex: cops
Shaynna SimsPhoto: Splash News
TULSA, Okla. — Authorities say a Tulsa woman reached into the casket of her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend at a funeral home and slashed the dead woman’s face.
Shaynna Sims, 26, was arrested after the alleged incident last Thursday on a preliminary complaint of illegally dissecting a human body, which is a misdemeanor.
She had not been formally charged as of Monday, and online jail records show she remained in jail Monday and has an initial court hearing scheduled for this Thursday. It was unclear whether Sims had an attorney, and a number listed for her home was disconnected. Police declined to provide the name of the deceased and said they didn’t know the name of Sims’ boyfriend. A lawyer who represented her in a prior case didn’t immediately respond to a phone request for comment.
Sgt. Shane Tuell, a police spokesman, said investigators don’t know what led Sims to slash the body of her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. He said he didn’t know Sims’ boyfriend’s name and he declined to give the dead woman’s name. John Wilson, the manager at the Moore Funeral Home Eastlawn Chapel, also declined to give her name, saying the woman’s family had asked for privacy.
“I was hoping by now this young lady would have talked and given her motivation behind why she did what she did, but apparently she’s keeping that to herself,” Tuell said.
Witnesses told officers that they saw Sims reach into the casket. The dead woman’s face was cut from her hairline to the tip of her nose, her makeup was smeared and her hair was on the floor, police said.
Wilson said staff there called police after they were alerted to the vandalism by a visitor.
“It’s never happened,” Wilson said Monday. “We have 100 years of experience in this building and nobody’s ever experienced anything like that.”
Officers arrested Sims later Thursday at the dead woman’s apartment, and that she had on her a folding knife with the dead woman’s hair attached to it.
Healey is shown the day he was discharged from Jamaica Hospital.
The critically injured cop underwent lifesaving surgery at Jamaica Hospital, spending six days in the facility before he was finally sent home.
Long wolf attacker Thompson, 32, was shot to death by the other cops at the scene. The self-radicalized terrorist also whacked another officer in the right arm with the hatchet before he was gunned down.
"I guess in this day and age, these are the threats that police and law enforcement have to look out for," said Healey. "It's sad, but this is the world we live in right now."
4 ‘extremists’ in Germany arrested in ‘plot’ to attack Islamic targets
A suspected right-wing extremist is taken into custody in Augsburg, Germany, on May 6.Photo: EPA
BERLIN — German authorities conducted raids across the country on Wednesday, seizing explosives and arresting four people accused of founding a right-wing extremist group to attack mosques and housing for asylum seekers.
Police arrested three men and a woman accused of leading the group during raids by some 250 investigators on homes in Saxony and four other states, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors allege the four helped found the “Old School Society” group and were planning to attack asylum-seeker housing, mosques and well-known members of the Islamic-extremist Salafist scene in Germany.
The four arrested, identified only as Andreas H., 56, Markus W., 39, Denise Vanessa G., 22, and Olaf O., 47, are being held on terrorism charges and are also accused of having procured explosives.
The statement identified Andreas H. and Markus W. as the group’s president and vice president.
“According to current investigations, it was the group’s goal to conduct attacks in smaller groups inside Germany on well-known Salafists, mosques and asylum-seeker centers,” the statement said. “For this purpose the four arrested procured explosives for possible terror attacks by the group.”
Evidence is removed from a suspected right-wing extremist’s apartment.Photo: Getty Images
Prosecutors said they are still trying to determine whether the group had concrete attack plans and refused to comment beyond their written statement.
Inquiries made to an apparent cellphone number and email address for the group were not immediately returned.
Referring to the raids and arrests, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin that “as worrying as the development is, we are glad about the success of the investigation.”
Right-wing extremists have been a renewed focus for German intelligence agencies after it came to light that a neo-Nazi group calling itself National Socialist Underground, or NSU, allegedly killed eight Turks, a Greek and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007. It is also believed to be behind two bombings and 15 bank robberies.
The group’s sole survivor, Beate Zschaepe, and four alleged supporters are currently on trial in Munich.
The group’s existence only came to light in late 2011, after Zschaepe’s alleged accomplices, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boenhardt, died in an apparent murder-suicide following a botched bank robbery.
De Maiziere said statistics released Wednesday showed a sharp increase of 22.9 percent in violent crimes by right-wing extremists in 2014 to 1,029 — including 175 attacks on refugee homes, three times the number in 2013.
“Crimes that have a xenophobic, anti-Semitic and racist motive have especially increased,” de Maiziere said. “Increasingly, asylum seekers and refugee homes are being targeted. This development is worrisome and must be stopped.”
Afghan judge sentences 4 to death in mob killing of woman
Some of the 49 suspects at a hearing on May 3.Photo: AP
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced four men to death for their role in the brutal mob killing of a woman in Kabul in March — a slaying that shocked the nation and spurred calls for authorities to ensure women’s rights to equality and protection from violence.
The sentences were part of a trial of 49 suspects, including 19 police officers, over the March 19 killing of the 27-year-old woman named Farkhunda who was beaten to death in a frenzied attack sparked by a bogus accusation that she had burned a copy of the Quran.
The trial, which began Saturday, only involved two full days of court proceedings — an unusual swiftness in the slow-moving Afghan judicial system. It was broadcast live on national television, reflecting huge public interest in the case.
Judge Safiullah Mojadedi handed down the four death sentences at Afghanistan’s Primary Court in Kabul on Wednesday. He also sentenced eight of the defendants to 16 years in prison and dropped charges against 18. The judge will rule on the remaining suspects — the 19 policemen — on Saturday and their verdicts will be announced on Sunday, Mojadedi said.
Farkhunda’s relatives attended the court hearing on Wednesday.Photo: AP
The defendants have the right to appeal. The charges included assault, murder and encouraging others to participate in the assault. The police officers were charged with neglecting their duties and failing to prevent the attack.
Those sentenced to death include a peddler who made the Quran-burning accusation that sparked the attack against Farkhunda; a man who threw two large rocks at her; the driver of the car that ran over her and the man who set her body alight.
Farkhunda’s brother, Mujibullah, told the Associated Press that her family was angered by the leniency of the court toward the majority of the defendants.
“The outcome of the trial is not fair and we do not accept it — you saw just four people sentenced to death but everybody knows that more than 40 people were involved in martyring and burning and beating my sister,” said Mujibullah, who like many Afghans, including his sister, uses only one name.
“Eighteen people have been freed. The court should punish them and that should be a lesson for anyone who would commit this sort of crime, anywhere in our country, in the future,” he added.
Afghan women’s rights activists carry the coffin of Farkhunda during her burial ceremony on March 22.Photo: Reuters
Farkhunda’s killing shocked many Afghans, though some public and religious figures said it would have been justified if she had in fact damaged a Quran. A presidential investigation later found that she had not damaged a copy of the Muslim holy book.
The last agonizing and brutal moments of her life were captured on mobile phone cameras by witnesses and those in the mob that attacked her. The videos of the assault circulated widely on social media. They showed her being punched, kicked, beaten with planks of wood, pushed by police onto a roof and dropped from it, thrown in the street and run over by a car. She then had a lump of concrete dropped on her and her body was dragged along the road outside the mosque where the assault took place and tossed onto the bank of the Kabul River. A crowd watched as her body was set on fire.
The footage also showed policemen largely standing and some even participating in the attack.
The incident sparked nationwide outrage and soul-searching, as well as a civil society movement seeking to limit the power of clerics, strengthen the rule of law and improve women’s rights.
Farkhunda’s parents addressed the court before the sentences were handed down, asking that the accused be dealt with according to the law.
“Everybody saw what happened and I insist on justice,” her mother, Bibi Hajira, told the court. “That’s all I want.”
Defendants attend a May 6 hearing in the case.Photo: AP
Afghanistan’s judicial system has long faced criticism over its inability to provide the majority of Afghans access to justice. Women especially are sidelined, despite constitutional guarantees of equality and protection from violence, a recent report by the United Nations concluded. The attack on Farkhunda was widely seen as symptomatic of the general low regard for women in Afghan society, where violence against women often goes unpunished.
Some conservative lawmakers have in recent years sought to dilute a law that penalizes violence against women, sparking fears of a rollback in legislative gains since the extremist Taliban were overthrown in 2001.
Activist Barry Salaam, who organized mass demonstrations in the days after Farkhunda’s death, said Wednesday’s verdicts validated laws aimed at protecting women.
“The trial was far from perfect but it was held in open court, which definitely contributes to the strengthening of rule of law and gives the Afghan people the feeling that at the end of the day, the law does prevail,” Salaam said.
Afghans hold banners as they shout slogans during a rally to protest Farkhunda’s killing in front of the Supreme Court in Kabul on March 24.Photo: Getty Images
But lawmaker Farkhunda Zahra Naderi criticized the judge’s decision to separately hand down verdicts against the policemen in the case, saying such a move could foment more mistrust of the police.
Afghanistan’s daily drumbeat of violence continued Wednesday with the deaths of two people when the minibus they were traveling in hit a roadside bomb, according to Asadullah Ensafi, deputy police chief of troubled eastern Ghazni province.
The explosion in Dih Yak district also wounded three people, Ensafi said, blaming the Taliban, who have a significant presence in the region.
Woman slashed face of boyfriend’s dead ex: cops
Shaynna SimsPhoto: Splash News
TULSA, Okla. — Authorities say a Tulsa woman reached into the casket of her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend at a funeral home and slashed the dead woman’s face.
Shaynna Sims, 26, was arrested after the alleged incident last Thursday on a preliminary complaint of illegally dissecting a human body, which is a misdemeanor.
She had not been formally charged as of Monday, and online jail records show she remained in jail Monday and has an initial court hearing scheduled for this Thursday. It was unclear whether Sims had an attorney, and a number listed for her home was disconnected. Police declined to provide the name of the deceased and said they didn’t know the name of Sims’ boyfriend. A lawyer who represented her in a prior case didn’t immediately respond to a phone request for comment.
Sgt. Shane Tuell, a police spokesman, said investigators don’t know what led Sims to slash the body of her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. He said he didn’t know Sims’ boyfriend’s name and he declined to give the dead woman’s name. John Wilson, the manager at the Moore Funeral Home Eastlawn Chapel, also declined to give her name, saying the woman’s family had asked for privacy.
“I was hoping by now this young lady would have talked and given her motivation behind why she did what she did, but apparently she’s keeping that to herself,” Tuell said.
Witnesses told officers that they saw Sims reach into the casket. The dead woman’s face was cut from her hairline to the tip of her nose, her makeup was smeared and her hair was on the floor, police said.
Wilson said staff there called police after they were alerted to the vandalism by a visitor.
“It’s never happened,” Wilson said Monday. “We have 100 years of experience in this building and nobody’s ever experienced anything like that.”
Officers arrested Sims later Thursday at the dead woman’s apartment, and that she had on her a folding knife with the dead woman’s hair attached to it.
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