Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

78-Year-Old Punches Out Bear in Terrifying Back Yard Attack

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Sonny Pumphrey wasn’t going to take no guff from some bear

WHITE OAK, North Carolina — Really, don’t mess with this guy.

A tough-as-nails 78-year-old punched out a bear that attacked him outside his North Carolina home, suffering only some cuts and bruises before driving the beast off.

Sonny Pumphrey said he was walking down his driveway in White Oak, when the mother beat wandered by with her two cubs. The cubs bolted, but the mother was ready to fight.

“She made a charging dead run at me. That sucker was eyeball-to-eyeball to me,” he told WLOS-TV.

But before it could get to him, Pumphrey says he punched the bear in the nose, casing the creature to duck down and bite his hip.

“She kind of shook me a little bit, and I’m still … I’m hitting her steady on the top of the head just as hard as I could swing, man, for dear life,” he said. “I just continue pounding and pounding and pounding and she’s continuing trying to bite me.

“And like I said, she got a hold of me and then shook me a little bit, then she let go and she took a swat at me. And when she took a swat at me she knocked me about eight feet over on the concrete,” he continued.

Hearing screams, his wife Betty ran outside with their Yorkshire Terrier and was shocked to see her husband trading blows with the angry beast.

“I saw her stand up and rear her paw back and all I seen was a mouthful of teeth,” she said. “And I just knew he was going to be gone.”

But between their dog barking and the two of them yelling, the bear got scared and ran off. Betty then got a shotgun and fired a shot in the woods to make sure the animal didn’t decide to return.

Wildlife officers tracked the bear but were unable to locate it. They say food has been scarce at higher elevations, so bears have been foraging lower.

Pumphrey had to get rabies shots, but was otherwise okay.

“I could have been dead. I could have been really cut up bad,” he said.

“We have a lot to be thankful for because we were both very, very lucky,” Betty said.

Handcuff Key in Cop’s Pocket Saves His Life in Police Shooting

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The bullet struck an officer’s handcuff keys, redirecting them into his bulletproof vest

VAN BUREN, Arkansas — It was the key to life.

An Arkansas police officer narrowly escaped death when a bullet fired at him struck his handcuff keys in his shirt pocket, deflecting the slug into his bulletproof vest, authorities said.

The chilling episode unfolded during a domestic dispute call in Van Buren between a husband and wife.

Two Van Buren Police officers arrived at the house and began speaking to the husband,  Johnny Fisher, 68, and asked him to step outside, but he refused, the Arkansas State Police said.

Fisher, who was standing with one of the officers, then pulled out two guns. When the second officer entered the room. Fisher pointed the guns at him and fired, prompting both cops to return fire, killing Fisher.

One of the bullets Fisher fired struck one of the officers in the chest, but the handcuff key in his pocket miraculously save his life, according to KHBS-TV.

The officer was taken to a local hospital and was later released with bruising to his chest. The second officer was unhurt.

Both officers have been put on administrative leave as the state police investigates the fatal shooting.

 

Two Cops Hurt in Accidental Shooting By Fellow Officer at Police Funeral

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Two officers were hurt at the funeral of Massachusetts police officer Michael Chesna who was killed in the line of duty

BRAINTREE, Massachusetts — Two cops were injured at the funeral of a slain police officer when a butter-fingered sergeant’s gun went off after he accidentally dropped it, officials said.

The incident occurred as thousands of cops gathered to lay Weymouth, Massachusetts Police Officer Michael Chesna to rest on July 20 after he had been fatally shot while investigating a car crash.

As Cranston, Rhode Island Police Sgt. Michael Patnaud, was removing his honor guard uniform aboard a police bus, his .40 caliber Glock 22 fell from his holster and went off when he tried to catch it, cops said.

“It was accidental,” Braintree Police Chief Paul Shastany told the Patriot Ledger.

The bullet passed through the side of the bus and ricocheted off the asphalt on the street below, sending debris flying which stuck two officers with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology police force.

One officer was hit on the hand and the other just above the eye, although neither was seriously hurt. Both refused medical attention.

Because no one was hurt, Patnaud remains on duty, the Cranston police said.

“Obviously, we feel terrible. I know he does, too,”  Cranston Police Col. Michael J. Winquist told the Providence Journal. “He’s a person that’s never had an incident like this, ever. He’s very proficient with firearms and has had a lot of training over the course of his career.”

Cop and Bystander Fatally Shot After Fleeing Crook Steals Officer’s Gun

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Officer Michael Chesna was killed with his own gun

WEYMOUTH, Massachusetts — A cop and an innocent bystander were killed after a man fleeing a car crash stole the officer’s gun and opened fire, authorities said.

Officer Michael Chesna, of the Weymouth Police Department in Massachusetts, was chasing after  Emanuel Lopes, 20, early Sunday after he ran from the scene of a car wreck.

But as Chesna drew close, Lopes allegedly bashed him on the head with a stone, knocking him to the ground. Lopes then grabbed Chesna’s gun and opened fire, hitting the officer multiple times on the head and chest, the Boston Globe reported.

As other officers gave chase, Lopes allegedly squeezed off three more rounds, fatally striking an unidentified elderly woman who was sitting inside her house.

Chesna, a 42-year-old Army veteran and father of two, later died at South Shore Hospital.

Lopes was caught soon after. He was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the leg and will be arraigned on two counts of homicide Monday.

Emmanuel Lopes

“This is an awful day for Weymouth and for Massachusetts,” said District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey.. “Our hearts are very much with the surviving families of these victims.”

Lopes has had several prior run-ins with the law. In September last year, he was arrested in Weymouth for vandalizing a dry cleaner. The following month he was arrested in North Weymouth for allegedly selling cocaine to minors. During that arrest, Lopes reportedly attempted to flee from cops before being caught in the woods by a police dog.

 

Missing Woman Found 7 Days After Plunging Down 200-Foot Cliff in California

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Angela Hernandez survived by drinking water from her radiator after plunging down a 200-foot cliff

BIG SUR, California — A woman who had been missing for seven days was miraculously found alive at the bottom of a 200-foot cliff where her car had landed after plunging off of a windy and remote stretch of coastal road.

Angela Hernandez, 23, had sat injured and dazed for a week on a small craggy beach at the bottom of a steep cliff along Central California’s picturesque coastline. She had survived by drinking water from her wrecked Jeep’s radiator.

She was finally found on Friday when a pair of hikers spotted her Jeep, which was partially submerged in the Pacific Ocean. When they came down for a closer look, they discovered Hernandez alive.

“My sister is alive, she’s talking, and she’s still trying to come to understand everything,” Angela’s sister Isabel Hernandez wrote on Facebook early Saturday. “She’s a fighter and she fought this long and she will continue to. It’s not going to be an easy recovery. I hope everyone will have patience for her and her recovery.

Hernandez’s disappearance had triggered a wide search. She had last been seen leaving a gas station in Carmel on July 6 as she drove from Portland, Oregon to visit her sister near Los Angeles.

Her family had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts as authorities searched on the ground and by air. Fog in the area had limited visibility for several days which likely slowed finding Hernandez.

She told rescuers that she had lost control of her Jeep Patriot along Highway 1 after swerving to avoid hitting an animal that morning and then plunged 200 feet over a cliff

After being found, crews worked for hours to hoist her back up the cliff face to the roadway.

Rescuers said Hernandez was found to be in fair and stable condition and was treated for a concussion and an injured shoulder. She was then airlifted to Twin Cities Community Hospital in San Luis Obispo County.

 

Lion Pride Eats Rhino Poachers in Attack on South African Game Reserve

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The rhino poachers didn’t stand a chance when they stumbled onto a pride of hungry lions

KENTON-ON-SEA, South Africa — Mother nature takes care of her own.

A group of rhino poachers was eaten by a pride of lions as they attempted to break into a South African game preserve to hunt for the endangered species, officials said.

At least three poachers made their way into the Sibuya Game Reserve sometime late Sunday, amed with a high-powered rifle and silencer, an axe, wire cutters, gloves and food supplies for several days.

The group had “all the hallmarks of a gang intent on killing rhino and removing their horns,” the reserve’s owner, Nick Fox, said in a post on Facebook.

At some point early the next morning a dog trained to sniff out poachers alerted her handler that something was amiss. But when the handler heard a “loud commotion coming from the lions,” she didn’t think much of it as it is not unusual to hear them hunting at night.

But what had really happened was that “they strayed into a pride of lions.”

“It’s a big pride so they didn’t have too much time,” Fox said. “We’re not sure how many there were – there’s not much left of them.”

It took until Tuesday for a field guide to discover what remained of the group, when he stumbled upon human remains, the gun and the poachers’ gear.

Officials had to tranquilize the lions in order to get to the remains.

“Clearly, the poachers had walked into a pride of six lions and some, if not all had been killed,” he said.

Officials used helicopters to see if anyone had gotten away and were hiding in the bush, but they found no sign of others.

In parts of Asia, rhino horn is erroneously believed to have aphrodisiac qualities and there has been a rise in poaching in Africa in recent years.

Nine rhinos have been killed by poachers in Eastern Cape province, where the reserve is located, this year alone. More than 7,000 have been killed in South Africa in the past decade.

 

Quick-Thinking Good Samaritan Lays Gunman Flat for Cops to Pick Up

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The brave bystander was happy to lend a leg to trip up a gunman cops were pursuing

COLUMBUS, Ohio — That’s some fancy footwork.

A Good Samaritan is being credited by cops with helping take an armed gunman off the streets when he stuck his leg out and tripped up the crook as he fled from police.

The brave bystander, identified only as Bill, was standing outside a public library in Columbus, Ohio when the suspect darted by with cops giving hot pursuit.

“I figured OK, this is a chase,” Bill said of watching officers chasing the man and yelling, “Gun, gun, gun!”

“I saw who you guys were chasing and I could see he was holding something in his waistband but he had a pretty good lead,” Bill said. “So I got in his way to slow him down.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXK4Re7VS2Q

As the man passed, Bill craftily stuck out his leg, which sent the teenage suspect flying and allowed cops time to catch up.

Police said the teen was armed with a Glock 9mm pistol with an extended clip, which he dropped as he fell to the ground. The department thanked Bill “for sticking your leg out for us” and added that the move may have saved the 18-year-old’s life in the process.

“Community involvement, be it by courage, bravery and/or fancy footwork, helped take a criminal off the streets of Columbus,” said the Columbus police, according to WCMH-TV.

 

Slain Baltimore Cop Died Just Before Testifying in Corruption Case Against Other Cops

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Sean Suiter was shot with his own gun last week

BALTIMORE — A Baltimore homicide detective who was gunned down last week, died just before he was set to give grand jury testimony in a corruption case against eight other officers, authorities said.

Sean Suiter was shot once in the head with his own gun on Nov. 15 after stopping a man acting suspiciously while he and his partner were conducting a follow-up investigation of an earlier triple homicide, police said. The shooter has not yet been identified.

Baltimore Police Chief Kevin Davis said there was no evidence to suggest that the killing was anything but random and that nothing had surfaced to connect Suiter’s death to the corruption case.

“The [Baltimore Police] and FBI do not possess any information that this incident is part of any conspiracy,” he said.

Davis also said that Suiter was no under investigation in the corruption probe and there was no evidence that he “was anything other than a stellar detective, great friend, loving husband and dedicated father.”

Eight officers of Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force, which aims to get illegal guns off the streets, were indicted earlier this year on federal racketeering charges, alleging that they shook down ordinary citizens and conspired with drug dealers. Four have pleaded guilty and the others are scheduled to go on trial in January.

Davis said Suiter was scheduled to testify in the case related to an incident that occurred several years earlier, but would not elaborate.

 

Mexican Cartel Hit Men Convicted in ‘Fast & Furious’ U.S. Agent Slay

By HardBoiledNews Staff

WASHINGTON — Two drug cartel hit men have been convicted of gunning down a U.S. immigration agent and wounding his partner in a roadside ambush in Mexico in 2011.

Jose Emanuel Garcia Sota, 35, known as “Safado,” and Jesus Ivan Quezada Piña, 29, known as “Loco,” were members of Los Zetas cartel hit squads and had been on a mission to steal cars the day of the shooting, prosecutors said.

On Feb. 15, 2011, the two men were among a group that spotted an armored Chevrolet Suburban bearing diplomatic plates driven by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila.

The agents were on their way to Mexico City on official business, when the cartel members opened fire with AK-47s and AR-15s on a busy highway south  of San Luis Potosi. Zapata, 32, was fatally shot, and Avila was wounded. Investigators later found approximately 90 shell casings at the scene, according to the trial evidence.

Five other cartel members have already pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy charges in the shooting. All are awaiting sentencing and face up to life in prison.

Slain ICE agent Jaime Zapata

A jury found Sota and Piña guilty on counts of murder, attempted murder and firearms charges. The judge scheduled a hearing for Aug. 29 to select a sentencing date in order to accommodate for when Avila and Zapata’s family would be able to attend. The hit men also face up to life in prison.

The gang members have said they believed the vehicle was being driven by members of a rival cartel, apparently not noticing the diplomatic plates. The shooting has proven to be exceedingly damaging to the Los Zetas cartel, leading to the arrest of over 100 of its top bosses.

Zapata’s family has filed a wrongful death suit against the U.S., alleging that ICE sent the men into Mexico with inadequate security, and that some of the weapons used in the shooting were trafficked by suspects under ATF surveillance, but who had not been arrested as part of the controversial “Operation Fast & Furious.”

Hero Teddy Bear Saves 2-Year-Old Boy From Fall Out of Window

By HardBoiledNews Staff

This teddy was just cuddly enough to save the boy

CHELSEA, Massachusetts — Here’s a good reason to let a kid cling on to a favorite stuffed animal for just a bit longer.

A 2-year-old Massachusetts boy was miraculously saved from serious injury after tumbling out a second-storey window when his beloved stuffed cow broke his fall.

“God saved him,” the boy’s great uncle Luis Estrada told the Boston Globe. “The cow helped.”

Authorities say the boy, Luis Eduardo Gomez, was jumping up and down on a bed in a room on the second floor of the family house in Chelsea when an energetic bounce sent him flying out an open window.

But fortunately, the boy was clinging to his favorite stuffed animal, a 2 ½ foot long cow, which went tumbling with him and broke his fall.

All the boy suffered were a few bruises and scrapes from the 16-foot drop.

Estrada says he believes “God was watching over us.”