Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

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

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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.

 

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Teen Psycho Tears Out Relative’s Eyes, Teeth in Disturbing Attack

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Police thought the elderly victim wouldn’t pull through without his eyes

ROCHESTER, Minnesota — A deranged teenager flew into a fit of rage, tearing an elderly relative’s eyes out before knocking out many of his teeth, police said.

Police arrived at the man’s home after receiving reports from neighbors of loud fighting coming from inside the apartment.

Once inside, they found 18-year-old Mahad Aziz on top of a 74-year-old man who had been beaten to a bloody pulp and whose eyes were missing. He also had lost many of his teeth, the Rochester Post Bulletin reported.

According to cops, Aziz was combative and non-verbal and fought with officers trying to handcuff him. Police said at first they believed the victim had suffered life-threatening injuries and was rushed to the famed Mayo Clinic, but he managed to pull through and was able to give cops a basic statement

Investigators say they do not believe Aziz used a weapon in the assault, but tore the relative’s eyes out with his own hands. The eyes were not recovered.

Aziz was initially booked on felony first-degree assault charges, but prosecutors later signalled they may not charge him by seeking to have him committed to a mental hospital.

“It was pretty clear that based on the nature of the assault and based on information from family members and our own officers’ observations that there was a significant mental health aspect,” prosecutor Geoff Hjerleid said.

Police said they had had no prior contact with Aziz.

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Polish Charity Gets Giant Phone Bill Due to Migrating Stork

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A SIM card taken from the GPS tracker on the stork was used to make thousands of dollars in calls

WARSAW, Poland — No good deed goes unpunished.

A Polish ecological charity got hit with a gigantic phone bill when a GPS tracker it had placed on a migrating stork was stolen and the SIM card used to make thousands of dollars in calls.

The environmental organization, EcoLogic Group, had tracked the white stork some 3,700 miles from Poland to the Sudan last year, when it lost the signal somewhere in the Blue Nile Valley.

The group assumed that the GPS device had fallen off the bird, but it appears someone found the device and pulled the SIM card out of it, placing it into a phone and then running up 20 hours worth of long distance calls, the BBC reported.

Next thing the charity knew, it had received a bill for 10,000 Polish zloty (approximately $2,700).

Tagging migrating birds has played a big role in scientists’ understanding of how better to protect endangered animals.

While the white stork is not currently at risk, it had been pushed to near-extinction in Europe in the middle of last century due to industrialization and habitat loss.

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Air Force Captain Who Disappeared With Top Secrets Found After 35 Years

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Air Force Capt. William Hughes deserted in 1983 and had been feared to have defected to Russia

FAIRFIELD, California — An Air Force captain with top secret clearance whose disappearance 35 years ago raised the specter he had given sensitive missile secrets to the Russians, has been found, authorities said.

Capt. William Howard Hughes, 66, was declared missing in 1983 after failing to return to Kirtland Air Force base in Albuquerque, New Mexico following  a temporary assignment at NATO headquarters in the Netherlands.

A probe revealed that Hughes had withdrawn $28,500 from his accounts at 19 different bank locations in Albuquerque before he disappeared. His car was found at the Albuquerque airport.

He was finally located on June 5, when investigators conducting a passport fraud probe in California interviewed a man who claimed to be Barry O’Beirne. But after questioning him about inconsistencies in his story, he admitted he was Hughes.

He told investigators that at the time of his disappearance, he had been depressed about being in the Air Force and decided to leave. He said he moved to California and had lived there since as Barry O’Beirne.

 

At the time of his disappearance, Hughes had top secret security about matters relating to NATO. His family told reporters at the time that they thought he had been abducted.

In 1984, a report in the Los Angeles Times speculated that Hughes had possibly defected to the Soviet Union and given them sensitive information about NATO defense systems.

Authorities say they have no reason to believe at this point that Hughes had given information to the Russians but were continuing to investigate.

He is being held at Travis Air Force Base in California.

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Teen Loses Hand in Sword Fight, Is Then Slapped With Severed Limb

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What started as a road rage incident quickly escalated into a full-on sword fight

SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates — Well, that certainly got out of hand.

A teenage motorist lost his hand after a road rage incident in the United Arab Emirates sparked an out-of-control sword fight, authorities said.

To add insult to injury, the man who chopped the teen’s hand off, picked up the severed extremity and used it to slap the victim across the face, Gulf News reported.

A criminal court heard this week how the road rage incident in January led to the sprawling, bloody sword fight in a park in the UAE’s third largest city of Sharjah.

The rumble involved two groups of teens, a dozen in all and all of them under the age of 16, prosecutors said.

The victim who had his hand chopped off had been trying to protect himself from a sword blow and had put his hands up in front of his face, his lawyer, Abdullah Salman, told the court.

After his hand hit the group, his attacker allegedly picked it up and began beating him with it, the court heard.

The victim’s pals were able to rush him and his severed hand to a local hospital where doctors were able to reattach it.

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Drunk Narrowly Avoids Being Squashed After Passing Out on Texas Road

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Cops fortunately spotted this woman passed out drunk on the road before she was run over

FULSHEAR, Texas  — Drunk and stupid is no way to live, and for this woman it was almost the way she died.

Texas police were shocked to discover a drunken woman passed out in the middle of a country road in the dark, forcing motorists to swerve unexpectedly to avoid running her over.

“We all make mistakes, however, this mistake almost cost this young woman her life,” the Fulshear, Texas police department wrote on its Facebook page.

Cops say the woman appeared to have “bedded down” on the road after driving into a ditch about 200 yards from where she was found.

Dashboard video shows the stunning moment when officer on patrol happened upon her prone body after noticing a motorist swerve to avoid hitting her.

“Sergeant Scott immediately realized that ‘the object’ in the road was a person and quickly stopped to render aid,” the department said.

The woman was charged with public intoxication and given a lift to jail.

“However, this unfortunate mistake could have ended tragically and the ride could have been to the morgue,” police said.

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Guitar Heist Leads to Wild Machete Melee on Seattle Street

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What began with the theft of an axe quickly turned into a standoff between a machete and gun

SEATTLE — Well, that escalated quickly.

The theft of a guitar from a Seattle shop led to a wild chase and multi-car pileup that ended in a standoff between two of the suspects, with one wielding a machete and the other brandishing a gun, cops said.

Police say a group of three men and a woman snatched a $1,600 axe from a Guitar Center in downtown Seattle.

The suspects then fled in two separate cars but allegedly began chasing each other, getting into a wreck and causing a pile up that ground rush hour traffic to a halt. No one was hurt.

But the situation grew even more tense when one of the suspects pulled out a machete and confronted another of the suspects who then whipped out a gun.

Cops soon arrived and arrested the two men and a woman who had been with them. A four male suspect managed to get away, cops said.

The guitar was later returned to the shop.

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Man Who Dropped Pants in Court to Prove Innocence in Rape Case Found Not Guilty

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Desmond James had the evidence in his pants all along

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — Call it a case of junk justice.

A Connecticut rape suspect was acquitted after dropping his pants and exposing himself to the jury to prove that his member didn’t match the description given by the victim.

Desmond James, 26, was cleared of three counts of sexual assault  showing that his equipment didn’t fit the accuser’s description of her attacker being a black man whose penis is lighter than the rest of his skin.

“If it’s not the light one, it’s not the right one,” his lawyer, Todd Bussert, told the New York Post.

James became a suspect after the victim picked him out of a photo lineup in 2012. At the time she said she had been raped by a “dark-skinned black male with big lips and black-people hair,” Bussert said.

“There were a number of troubling aspects in terms of the allegation. It evoked negative racial stereotypes,” he said. “We felt in general that it didn’t describe our client.”

In the end, the only evidence Bussert presented was to have James stand in the middle of the courtroom and drop his pants.

Bussert said the whole thing was very “embarrassing” for James, because court workers had filled the room to watch his testimony.

“If your liberty is at stake, he was willing to do that,” Bussert said.

While he was exonerated in this case, James is already serving a 65 years for breaking into a house and raping a 10-year-old girl.

 

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Man Walks Out of Court Just Ahead of Murder Conviction, Remains on Loose

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Verlaine LaGuerre walked out of court just ahead of his guilty verdict and has not been seen since

ATLANTA — He got out in the nick of time.

A man on trial for murder managed to walk out of a court building and disappear just before he was found guilty of killing a man.

Verlaine LaGuerre, 26, remains on the lam after walking out of the Fulton County courthouse during the the lunch break last month, and not returning to hear the verdict in bis case.

LaGuerre had been on trial for the 2011 death of star football player, Matthew Hardeman,  who was shot more than 50 times.

Prosecutors said LaGuerre and Hardeman had exchanged “dirty looks” in front of Hardeman’s home and then got into a fist fight, prompting LaGuerre to later return with a pal and open fire with an assault rifle and a handgun.

Hardeman bullet-riddled, lifeless body was later found by his family in the front yard.

LaGuerre and his buddy, Prentice Baker, were sentenced to life in prison for the slaying.

Hardeman’s family told WAGA-TV that they fear that LaGuerre may come after them.

 

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11 Arrested in Bizarre Animal Sacrifice Ritual in Texas

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Cops say they found 11 people in a Texas garage engaged in the ritual sacrifice of animals

SAN ANTONIO — Police were stunned to discover nearly a dozen people gathered in a packed Texas garage involved in the ritual sacrifice of several chickens, goats and other animals.

Deputies with the Bexar County Sheriff’s office arrived at the home late Friday after getting receiving an animal cruelty complaint, and found 11 people huddled around a table, dismembering the animals with knives.

“It appears that they were having some sort of unknown ritual,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Elizabeth Gonzalez told the San Antonio Express. “One of the other persons was holding up a chicken and draining blood into a container. There was containers there. There was heads of what looked like goats and animals dead and alive inside.”

She said the responding officer speaks fluent English and Spanish, but the group was “speaking a different language the officer did not recognize.”

Multiple dead and mutilated animals were found inside the home, including goat heads, Gonzalez said.

Eleven men and women — ranging in age from 23 to 65 — were charged with cruelty to livestock animals.

They were identified as Alexander Gene Campos, 23; Ivan Felipe Gonzalez, 24; Carmen Maria Gonzalez-Trujillo, 41; Cynthia Gabriell Martinez, 29; Liza Mercado, 46; Marie Galan Murcia, 65; Ramon Patino Jr., 65; Luiz Rodriguez Ortiz, 41; Robert Talamantez, 55; Irma Garza Talamantez, 64; and Arteaga Ariel Torres, 39.

 

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