Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

House Seller Sued for Shooting Photographer Hired to Snap Pictures of Home

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The homeowner claimed she wasn’t expecting a photographer to take pictures of her house

WINSTON, Georgia — This is probably not the best way to start selling your house.

An Atlanta-based photographer is suing a Georgia homeowner after she shot him when he arrived to take photos of her house for a real estate listing.

Whitney Morris, who suffered serious injuries in the Feb. 2 shooting, is also suing the real estate agency that hired him and the agency employee who was supposed to let the homeowner know he was coming.

According to the lawsuit, Morris was initially booked by Real Estate Expert Advisors to do the shoot on Feb. 1, but had to reschedule, the Gwinnett Daily Post reported.

When he showed up at the house the next day, he began by taking pictures of the the exterior of Belinda Brooks’ home in Winston. He then took a key from a lockbox and let himself inside, triggering off an alarm. Brooks — who was inside a bedroom — picked up a handgun and fired through the door, striking Morris as he entered the house.

When Brooks realized what had happened, she called 911 and told the dispatcher that no  one had told her that a photographer was coming and that she thought Morris was an intruder.

But Morris’ suit accuses Brooks of to failing to “act as a reasonable person would under the circumstances.”

Mother Charged With Slamming Car into Pole to Prove God is Real to Kids

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Bakari Warren says God told her to wrap her car around a telephone pole with her kids in back

NORCROSS, Georgia (March 25, 2018) — A god-fearing mother is behind bars after she allegedly slammed her car into a pole to prove to her two kids in the back seat that God is real.

Cops in Norcross, Georgia say 25-year-old Bakari Warren told officers that she drove her SUV into a pole to show her kids, ages 5 and 7, that God will protect them if they have faith.

Warren’s children also told cops that their mother wrecked the car on purpose.

“Yeah, because she turned,” one of the children said. “Her eyes were closed and she was saying, blah, blah blah, ‘I love God.’”

Officers said Warren did warn the children to buckle up before she crashed and no one was hurt. Warren was arrested on the spot and charged with two counts of child cruelty .

Traffic cameras show the SUV crossing a road   and driving head-on into the concrete pole.

“It could’ve been a lot worse,” Norcross Police Sgt. Eric Butynski told WSB-TV. “It could’ve been heavier traffic at the time, she could’ve hit the pole at such an angle that she did more damage to the car.”

Warren is being held in jail on a $22,000 bond and her children are staying with their grandparents.

Cheapskate John Gets Life For Killing Prostitute Who Refused to Take $8 For Sex

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Felix Shirley (l) flew into a murderous rage when Misha Moore refused to take just $8 for sex

ATLANTA — A cheapskate john was sentenced to life in prison for killing a prostitute after he offered her just $8 for sex and she refused, authorities said.

Felix Shirley, 26, encountered 27-year-old Misha Moore in January 2017 as he was living his shift as a construction worker at Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium, the Fulton County District Attorney said.

As they approached a subway station, she offered him sex for money, but when he tried to give her just $8, she told him “it was not enough,” which sent him into a rage, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Shirley then threw her against a wall and when she fell to the ground, he began kicking and stomping on her. He then pulled out a .22 caliber revolver and fatally shot her in the face and neck, prosecutors said.

Her body was later found at the bottom of a stairwell by two Underground Atlanta employees.

The killing was captured by a subway surveillance camera and police quickly circulated images of Shirley. He was captured about three weeks later.

He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life plus five years.

 

Man Arrested for Threatening to Kill CNN Employees Over ‘Fake News’

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The caller threatened to attack CNN’s headquarters over ‘Fake News’

DETROIT — A Michigan man has been arrested for allegedly calling CNN nearly two dozen times and threatening to kill everyone who worked there, accusing them of producing “fake news,” amid hate-filled rants.

The menacing calls began pouring into the CNN switchboard in Atlanta on Jan. 9 from a number registered to a home in Novi, Michigan, the FBI said.

“Fake news. I’m coming to gun you all down. F — k you, f — king ni—rs,” 24-year-old Brandon Griesemer allegedly told the operator before hanging up.

Several minutes later, Griesemer called back and repeated his threat: “I am on my way right now to gun the f — kin’ CNN cast down. F — k you,” according to an FBI affidavit.

Griesemer allegedly called back 30 minutes later and whispered: “I’m coming for you CNN. I’m smarter than you. More powerful than you. I have more guns than you. More manpower. Your cast is about to get gunned down in a matter of hours.”

The calls carried on the next day, when authorities say Griesemer spouted out slurs about Jews, before stating: “You are going down. I have a gun and I am coming to Georgia right now to go to the CNN headquarters to f — king gun every single last one of you. I have a team of people. It’s going to be great, man . . . You gotta get prepared for this one, buddy.”

CNN managed to figure out who the caller was after bringing in an investigators who was able to trace the number back to Griesemer’s family home in Michigan.

The terrifying calls come at a time of heightened tension for the news media, with President Donald Trump frequently attacking critical press as “fake news,” with CNN being a regular target. Last week, the president unveiled his “Fake News Awards,” naming CNN numerous times. He has also shared several images on Twitter showing him attacking the CNN logo.

Griesemer’s father told the Washington Post that “this whole thing has been a mistake, he really didn’t mean any of it.”

“He didn’t know what he was saying, the seriousness of it. We’re not even gun owners or anything like that. We don’t have any, neither does he,” his father said.

The FBI affidavit also says Griesemer had earlier admitted to phoning in threats to a Michigan mosque in September last year.

Ninja in Training Breaks Into Georgia Target to Steal Ninja How-To Books

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Christopher Atkins calls himself a ninja in training

DUNWOODY, Georgia — Practice makes perfect.

Police arrested a burglar in Georgia who had broken into a Target store and made off with a stack of books that teach how to be a ninja and enter into secured areas.

Christopher Zahyeer Atkins, 25, of Altamonte Springs Florida, was busted around 1 a.m. Monday as he walked away from the store with a pile of ninja books, DVDs and some electronics, the Dunwoody Police department said.

Officers had been brought there by a burglar alarm and officials at the alarm company spotted a man on security cameras attempting to get inside the store. When officers arrived, they say they spotted Atkins walking away from the shop with a bunch of things tucked under his arm.

“Officers interviewed the suspect and he admitted to making forced entry into the business because he was reading the book Naruto, Volume 5. In this book it was teaching him to be a ninja and how to enter secured areas,” the Dunwoody police department said in a post on Facebook.

Naruto is a series of Japanese manga books about a young ninja.

Atkins was arrested and charged with first degree burglary

Escaped Circus Tiger Gunned Down in Suburban Atlanta After Attacking Dog

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Cops had no idea where the cat had come from when it was found in a residential neighborhood outside Atlanta

McDONOUGH, Georgia — An escaped circus lion was gunned down by police in Georgia after it ran into an area crowded with homes and attacked a dog, authorities said.

Police in Henry County encountered the big cat near a highway overpass south of Atlanta around 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. As they called for help from animal professionals, the cat ran into a nearby backyard where it tussled with a pooch.

“With the tiger in close proximity to a school bus route in a densely populated area, officers made the decision to put the animal down with gunfire fearing that occupants of the home could be in danger,” the Henry County Sheriff’s office said in a statement.

At first it was a mystery where the animal had come from. A check of nearby big cat sanctuaries turned up no missing cats.

Later in the day, it was revealed that the cat was a 6-year-old Bengal tiger named Suzy who had escaped from a truck transporting her and 13 others from Florida to Tennessee for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Officials with the transport company, Feld Entertainment, said the truck had stopped in Georgia at some point overnight and Suzy had managed to escape unnoticed. The truck’s crew didn’t noticed she was unaccounted for until they reached their destination.

Sheriff Suspended After Flashing Bust in Atlanta Park

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Jeff Mann was elected Dekalb County Sheriff in 2014

ATLANTA– A Georgia sheriff has placed himself on suspension after he was busted for exposing himself in a public park and then fleeing from police.

DeKalb County Sheriff Jeffrey Mann was caught with his pants down late Saturday in a part of Atlanta’s Piedmont Park known for people committing “sexual acts after dark,” Atlanta police said.

According to a police report, Mann had exposed himself and was walking towards and officer. As they got close, the officer turned on his flashlight, and commanded Mann to stop. But Mann fled instead and led the officer on a quarter-mile chase before giving up, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

He was charged with indecency and obstruction.

DeKalb County Commissioner Nancy Jester said the arrest was “certainly not a good headline for DeKalb County.”

She said Mann — who has been with the department for more than a decade and was elected sheriff in 2014 — had always been considered professional, but “now we have this, so I don’t know.”

“We’ll see where this takes us,” she told the paper.

In a memo to his staff, Mann said he had no choice but to place himself on suspension for conduct unbecoming an officer.

“I cannot ask my employees to abide by a code of conduct unless I am willing to subject myself to it as well.  In fact, I must be held to an even higher standard than my employees,” he wrote.

Still, he said the suspension didn’t qualify as an admission of guilt and that he planned to defend himself against the charges.

Atlanta Man Sentenced to Life in Prison In Hot Pockets Slaying

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ATLANTA — He thought Hot Pockets were to die for.

An Atlanta man was sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting his sister’s boyfriend eight times in 2016, saying “I just snapped,” after they failed to bring home Hot Pockets from the store.

Prosecutors say Nathaniel Mathis had asked his sister and her boyfriend, Rodney Benton to pick up the frozen snack when they went shopping on June 11, 2016.

But when they got to the store, they found that the Hot Pockets had sold out so Mathis sister called him to let him know. They then tried to check out using Mathis’ EBT card but it didn’t work so they drove home empty handed, WGHP-TV reported.

“The defendant was home and still upset when he approached the SUV”, a Fulton County District Attorney spokesperson told the channel.

Nathaniel Mathis

Mathis then walked toward the passenger side of his sister’s SUV and shouted, “You know what’s going on, before opening fire and striking the 34-year-old Benton eight times.

As he fled the scene, Mathis stopped a woman and asked her to tell his sister that, “I just snapped. I love her and didn’t mean for it to happen this way.”

Cops eventually caught up to Mathis in a wooded area, pointing a gun at his head. After several hours of negotiations, Mathis was shot with a beanbag gun and taken into custody.

 

Couple Ran Prison Taxi Service for Inmates to Buy Booze, Smokes: Feds

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The U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta is a minimum-security facility

ATLANTA — Hard time, it wasn’t.

A federal prisoner and his girlfriend have been charged with running a taxi service for minimum security jailbirds in Atlanta, driving them to buy booze, smokes and other contraband before returning them to jail.

Prosecutors say Deldrick Jackson, who is serving time in the Atlanta penitentiary on a cocaine and money laundering rap, and his girlfriend, Kelly Bass, collected $4,000 over six months for shuttling inmates out of the minimum security prison camp through a hole in the fence.

Bass, 38, would sit outside the prison fence in her Acura SUV and would sometimes drive prisoners to go shopping, or to a local hotel, or would just hand them the contraband goods they had asked for, according to court documents.

Among the items they would sneak in included bottles of alcohol, cigarettes and cigars, mobile phones and even nail clippers, prosecutors said.

In January, prison officials installed cameras near the holes in the fence and captured footage of Bass picking Jackson, 41, and other prisoners up and then returning them hours later.

In April, officials stopped Bass’ vehicle after a pickup and arrested her and Jackson. A search of the car turned up two cell phones, a box filled with packs of cigarettes, and several bottles of alcohol, prosecutors said.

The pair were charged with escaping from a federal prison  and assisting others to escape.

Federal officials said the scheme underscored the “very clearly the problems at the federal camp of the U.S. Penitentiary Atlanta but also the efforts underway by the FBI, working with the Atlanta Police and its other law enforcement partners, to remedy the matter.”

 

5-Year-Old Boy Crushed in Tragic Hotel Spinning Restaurant Mishap

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The view from the Sundial Restaurant at Atlanta’s Westin Peachtree

ATLANTA — A 5-year-old boy was killed in a tragic mishap at a rotating restaurant in Atlanta when his head got trapped between the spinning section of the eatery and the stationary part, police said.

The boy, who was in town visiting with his family from North Carolina,  was eating at the 72nd floor Sun Dial restaurant at the top of the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, when he wandered away from his parents table.

“They were up enjoying one of our favorite attractions, the restaurant and just things went horribly wrong,” Sgt. Warren Pickard of the Atlanta Police Department told WAGA-TV.

“The child was in the restaurant having lunch with his family and doing what small children do, the child’s 5 years old,” Pickard said. “He wandered away from the table and was somehow able to get lodged in between the rotating floor and the wall and the table.”

“People in the restaurant, everyone ran to the child’s aid. Pulling furniture, turning over tables, trying to administer first aid, but just were not successful in saving the child’s life,” Pickard said.

Hotel officials said the restaurant’ spinning mechanism shut off automatically and rescuescrews worked for about 30 minutes to free the child from a 4-inch gap. But by the time the boy made it to a local hospital, it was too late.

The hotel stands 72 stories tall

Westin Hotel manager George Reed said the restaurant was closed as the investigation continued and that hotel staff were devastated by what he called a “tragic accident.”

“We are working with the authorities as they look into this tragic accident and we will continue to assist them in any way we can,” he said in a statement. “Words cannot express the depths of our sorrow. Our thoughts remain with the family.”

The Sun Dial revolving restaurant and cocktail lounge has been in business since 1976. It has 360-panorama views of Atlanta from 720 feet up.