El Cajon, California Police Officer Shot Bicycle Rider Raymond Goodlow in the Face

     At ten in the morning, while on routine patrol in the San Diego County city of El Cajon, a police officer saw Raymond Goodlow riding his bicycle on the sidewalk in violation of the municipal code. It was Friday, April 19, 2013.

     From the police car, the officer told the homeless man to pull over and stop. Goodlow ignored the order and pedaled into a used car lot. The officer got out of the cruiser and chased Goodlow down on foot.

     What should have been a minor, routine police stop took an ominous turn when the officer instructed Goodlow to move his hand away from his waistband. When the cyclist failed to respond to the order, the officer shot him in the face.

     Paramedics rushed the bleeding man to a nearby trauma center where doctors diagnosed him with a non-life threatening gunshot wound.

    At the site of the shooting, among pieces of Goodlow's clothing that had been cut off by the emergency personnel, investigators found two knives. (I assume they belonged to Goodlow.) The officer who shot this man is on paid administrative leave pending an internal review of the shooting.

     Routine police-citizen encounters like this should not result in the use of deadly force. Because the officer feared that Goodlow was armed with a handgun, police investigators will probably classify the shooting as justified. But that doesn't mean deadly force was necessary in this case, or that the shooting reflects ideal police work. Because Raymond Goodlow was a transient without influence in the community, this police involved shooting will probably not raise much of a stir. 

Historic Dates in American Crime and Terrorism

     The crimes, trials, arrests, and acts of terrorism listed below generated heavy media coverage as well as public fear. Some of these events caused major changes in law enforcement. They also influenced American culture and the way we live our daily lives.

February 14, 1929:  Chicago's St. Valentines Day Massacre

March 1, 1932:  Lindbergh Kidnapping/Murder

April 3, 1936:  Execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann for Lindbergh Murder

January 17, 1950:  The Great Brinks Robbery in Boston

July 4, 1954:  Murder of Dr. Sam Shepard's Wife Marilyn

November 30, 1957 to January 21, 1958:  Charles Starkweather/ Caril Ann Fugate murders

November 14, 1959:  Clutter Family Murders (Kansas)  that inspired Truman Capote's  In Cold Blood

November 22, 1963:  John F. Kennedy Assassination

April 7, 1967:  Henry Hill's Air France Kennedy Airport Heist that inspired Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy and the Movie "Goodfellas"

April 4, 1968:  Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination

June 6, 1968:  Robert Kennedy Assassination

August 9, 1969:  Charles Manson's Followers Kill Sharon Tate and Others

November 24, 1971:  D. B. Cooper's  Skyjacking of 727

May 28, 1972:  First Watergate Burglary in D. C.

January 4, 1974 to February 9, 1978:  Ted Bundy Serial Murders

July 29, 1976 to March 8, 1977:  Sam Berkowitz (Son of Sam) Murders

December 12, 1980:  John Lennon Murder

March 30, 1981:  Assassination Attempt on President Ronald Reagan

October 5, 1982:  31 Million Tylenol Bottles Recalled After 7 Poisoning Deaths

May 30, 1970 to March 30, 1987: Donald Harvey's Angel of Death Hospital Poisoning Spree

March 13, 1991:  Rodney King Police Beating

February 26, 1993:  First World Trade Center Bombing

April 19, 1993:  Deadly FBI Raid of Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas

June 12, 1994:  Murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman

April 19, 1995:  Oklahoma City Federal Building Bombing

October 3, 1995:  O. J. Simpson Acquittal

April 3, 1996:  Unabomber Ted Kaczynski Arrest

December 25, 1996:  Murder of JonBenet Ramsey

April 20, 1999:  Columbine School Shootings

September 11, 2001:  Terrorist Attack on New York's Twin Towers

December 22, 2001: Richard Reid Shoe Bomber Case

August 1 to October 24, 2002:  D. C. Beltway Sniper Shootings

December 24, 2002:  Scott Peterson's Wife Laci Goes Missing

August 28, 2003: Brian Wells Murdered by "Pizza Bomber"

May 30, 2005:  Natalee Holloway Disappearance in Aruba

October 2, 2006:  Pennsylvania Amish School Shootings

April 16, 2007:  Virginia Tech Shootings

November 5, 2009:  Fort Hood (Texas) Shootings

January 8, 2011:  Shooting Spree Involving Gabrille Giffords

July 5, 2011:  Casey Anthony Murder Trial Acquittal

June 22, 2012:  Jerry Sandusky's Guilty Verdict in Penn State Child Molestations

July 20, 2012: Aurora, Colorado Theater Shootings

December 14, 2012:  Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings in New Town, Connecticut

April 15, 2013:  Boston Marathon Bombings

Crime Bulletin: "Celebrity Swatting" in LA

     The term "swatting" pertains to a dangerous practical joke involving a false 911 report of a shooting that riggers a SWAT team response to the home of the prankster's victim. (Many of these 911 callers disguise the origins of their messages by using multiple computer servers and other high-tech tricks.) Swatting defendants are usually charged with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor offense that usually brings a fine and up to 90 days in jail.

     While the law doesn't treat swatting as a serious offense, the crime involves the potential that a police officer or an occupant of the target dwelling could get shot.  SWAT raids are tense, hair-trigger operations that frequently go wrong. If a SWAT officer is accidentally shot and killed during a raid caused by a swatter, the offender cannot be charged under the felony-murder doctrine because the underlying crime is a misdemeanor.

     Last year in Los Angeles, several celebrities were targeted by these 911 pranksters. Victims of the so-called celebrity swattings included Justin Bieber, Tom Cruise, Simon Cowell, Ashton Kutcher, and the Kardashian family. In 2013, swatters victimized Russell Brand, Sean Combs, Selena Gomez, Clint Eastwood, Ryan Seacrest, and Justin Timberlake. Nationwide, the police have reported more than 400 of these 911 abuses. (On a less serious note, a 911 caller in Girard, Pennsylvania recently asked the emergency dispatcher to divorce her from her husband. The woman was charged with disorderly conduct.)

     In April 2013, the media relations spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department announced that the agency would no longer issue press releases regarding celebrity swatting cases. Police administrators believe that the publication of these incidents has produced copycat offenses. The media spokesperson, in further justifying the news blackout, expressed concern over how this reportage intruded on the celebrity victims' privacy. (Celebrities, by choice, are not private people. They are however, rich and wield a lot of influence in southern California.)

     On April 9, 2013, a California state Senate committee unanimously approved a bill to require people convicted of swatting pay for the cost of the police response. (Some of these SWAT deployments cost up to $10,000.) The Senate bill also imposes a stiffer sentence for convicted swatters. Under the proposed legislation, an offender will receive a minimum of 120 days in the county jail. (These local politicians are either unaware of California's shortage of jail space, or are simply grandstanding for attention and votes.)

   

     

Criminal Justice Quote: The Effect of Prison Overcrowding

Cramped quarters and a lack of privacy can lead to a heightened level of tension in correction facilities. In turn, as tension grows the incidence of violence against staff and fellow inmates increase. With minimum staffing and growing supervision responsibilities, corrections officers and inmates are more vulnerable.

Matthew T. Mangino, attorney and columnist 

Crime Bulletin: Fear of Terrorism Outweighs Fear of Crime

     A recent study by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland reveals that Americans are more concerned about a terrorist attack than being victims of violent crime. The prevailing view expressed in this study is that terrorists will find a way to carry out major attacks no matter what the government does to prevent such assaults. This reality regarding the threat of terrorism is illustrated by the Boston Marathon Bombings.

     Notwithstanding the recent carnage in Boston, Americans are at a much higher risk of crime victimization than terrorism. That of course is subject to change. 

Crime Bulletin: Angel of Death Doctor and Her Team accused of Murdering Seven ICU Patients in Brazil

     During the past seven years, at Hospital Evangelico in the city of Curtiba in the south of Brazil, 1,700 intensive care patients have died. These patients were under the care of Dr. Virginia Helena Soares deSouza and her ICU team of three doctors, three nurses, and a physiotherapist. Dr. deSouza and members of her staff have been charged with murdering seven critically ill patients between 2006 and 2013.

     According to homicide investigators, Dr. deSouza ordered members of her medical team to kill these patients in a variety of ways. Some patients died of asphyxia when their oxygen levels were reduced. Others were either given muscle-relaxing drugs or simply had their plugs pulled. The authorities believe these patients were murdered to free up hospital beds.

     Dr. deSouza and her seven assistants have each been charged with aggravated first degree murder. According to the authorities in charge of the homicide investigation, detectives have identified an additional twenty suspicious ICU deaths, and will be reviewing another 300 cases.

     Dr. deSouza, a 56-year-old widow, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Following her arrest in February 2013, she posted bail and was released.

     When all is said and done, this case could end up being one of the worst angel of death serial murder sprees in Brazilian history. 

Christopher Knight: Maine's North Pond Hermit Burglary Case

     In 1986, a year after Christopher T. Knight graduated from Lawrence High School in Fairfield, Maine, he took to the woods where he lived as a hermit for 27 years. From his Kennebec County campsite in the central part of the state, the so-called North Pond Hermit managed to survive in the wilderness without hunting, fishing, or foraging for food, clothing, or shelter. He stole what he needed from camps and cottages around the town of Rome. To avoid detection, Knight never started a fire. He stole propane to cook and keep warm on stolen propane stoves.

     Christopher Knight lived in a tent covered by tarps suspended between two trees. He slept in a LL Bean sleeping bag on a raised, homemade bed. In addition to his propane heating and cooking stoves, he had a battery-operated radio with an antenna that ran up a tree. Over the years the hermit burglar had stolen shovels, rakes, Nintendo Game Boys, a battery-operated TV set, coolers, coffee pots, and all of his clothing. He didn't even buy his own toilet paper.

     On April 4, 2013, Knight stole $283 worth of food from the Pine Tree Camp for Children with Disabilities located near the village of Rome. Knight had broken into this camp fifty times. On this occasion, however, he got caught when he activated a surveillance camera sensor that had been installed by a game warden. State troopers arrested Knight later that day at his campsite.

     Charged with one count of burglary and a single count of theft, Knight is in the Kennebec County Jail under $5,000 cash bond. Police officers have dismantled and hauled-off the hermit's campsite. The job required two pickup trucks, and will probably lead to more burglary charges.

     While Knight's long suffering burglary victims should be happy he's in custody, the North Pond Hermit will probably become, in the eyes of many, some kind of folk hero. You know, a real-life Robin Hood who steals from the rich and gives to himself.

     In this unusual case, I'm having trouble figuring out how a man in the woods got away with 1,000 burglaries over a period of 27 years. One would think that hunters and game wardens had stumbled upon his campsite many times. Others must have seen him walking on roads around Rome. In the world of crime, I can't image any burglar not getting caught well before his 1000th break-in. I'm guessing that Mr. Knight's activities and location were known by a number people who chose not to turn him in.  

UPDATE

     On April 13, 2013, a man who doesn't known the hermit burglar, showed up at the Kennebec County Jail and offered to pay his $5,000 bond. (Charged with additional burglaries, the authorities have raised Knight's bail to $250,000.) A woman has called the jail with a marriage proposal. It won't be long until literary agents, movie producers, and reality TV executives arrive at the jail with proposals of their own.  

Criminal Justice Quote: The Root Cause of Pathological Violence In America

In the United States, 26.2 percent of Americans ages 28 years and older suffer from some form of diagnosable mental disorder....In 2012, nearly 312.8 million people were living in the Untied States with only an estimated 412 psychiatric hospitals....These numbers are very alarming [because] there are not enough mental facilities to cover half of the population diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Many with depression, anxiety, and other...disorders do not seek medical attention because of lack of knowledge, embarrassment, or [lack of money]. (No wonder there are so many murder-suicides, spree shootings, spree knifings, hostage situations and police involved shootings.)

Ashley Chapman, The Guardian Express 

Criminal Justice Quote: Fudging Crime Statistics

As [New York City mayor] Michael Bloomberg made the rounds last spring touting the Big Apple as "the safest big city in America," an internal NYPD report confirmed that more than a dozen crime reports had been manipulated--including felonies downgraded and incident reports deep-sixed--to lower the [city's] crime rate. As punishment for exposing the tampering and corruption, the whistle-blowing officer, Adrian Schoolcraft, who secretly taped the manipulation, was suspended and forced into a psych ward.

Michelle Malkin, Journalist

Crime Bulletin: Serbian War Veteran Murders Thirteen in Village Shooting Spree

     A 60-year-old veteran of the 1991-1995 Serb-Croat War named Ljubisa Bogdanovic went on a early morning house-by-house killing spree in the Serbian village of Ivanca 25 miles southeast of Belgrade. Between five and five-thirty on the Morning of April 9, 2013, Mr. Bogdanovic, using a 9 mm pistol, shot and killed thirteen people. He murdered them as they slept in their beds, in five separate dwellings. His victims included six women and a 2-year-old toddler.

     Bogdanovic began his deadly rampage by killing his son. Before being taken into custody, the spree-killer shot himself and his wife. Both survived their wounds but are in critical condition.

     According to the police, Bogdanovic was a "quiet" man with no history of mental illness. He had a government permit to own the murder weapon.

     In 2007, a Serbian villager with a hunting rifle shot nine people to death. The Bogdanovic murder spree is the deadliest shooting incident in Serbia since the end of the Balkan Wars.

UPDATE

     On April 11, 2013, Bogdanovic and his wife Javorka died from their gunshot wounds.
   

     

Criminal Justice Quote: Creative Writing Students Who Stalk Their Professors

For creative writing teachers, stalkers are such a basic condition of employment that, in the interest of full disclosure, they should probably be included in the job ad: Poor pay; negligible benefits (if any); and yes, you will be stalked.

Scott Bradfield, novelist

Crime Bulletin: The Great American Ammo Shortage

     There is currently a nationwide shortage of handgun ammunition. The handful of gun stores and online sites that have ammo in stock are charging gun enthusiasts an arm and a leg for .22, .38, and .45 caliber and 9 mm rounds. Many stores limit purchases to one box per person per day.

     Six months ago, standard .22 caliber rounds--the most common type of round produced--could be purchased in bulk for about five cents apiece. But that price has gone up to fifty cents each.

     When Obama first took office, gun and ammunition sales went through the roof because Obama is perceived by many to be a left-wing politician who doesn't like guns or gun owners. His re-election, along with several high-profile shooting incidents liberals have tried to exploit, reignited fears of severe gun control legislation. Once again the demand for guns and ammo has shot up significantly.

     There have been rumors that the Department of Homeland Security is buying up tens of millions of rounds to keep ammo in short supply for gun owners. There is also speculation that the federal government has limited the quantity of ammunition that manufacturers are allowed to produce. People who believe the federal government is manipulating the ammo market see it as a sneaky, backdoor form of gun control. You can have your handguns, but you have nothing to load them with.

     Government bureaucrats who have spoken about the bullet drought blame it on hoarding and speculation. They say it's a simple matter of supply and demand. Whatever the cause, the shortage is real, and it's making a lot of gun owners uneasy, and suspicious.

Rape in Egypt: Blame the Women

     On January 25, 2013, the second anniversary in Egypt of President Hosni Mubarak's removal from office, eighteen Egyptian women, in Tahrir Square demonstrating against the new Islamist-led government, were gang-raped. Six of the victims were hospitalized.

     Rape has always been a problem for women in Egypt. Under President Mubarak, however, an omnipresent police force kept the crime behind closed doors. Islamist elected officials in the Morsi government brought back Egypt's traditional hostility toward women, particularly women who participate in politics. Quite often this hostility manifests itself in rape.

     In response to the Tahrir Square sexual assaults, a police general named Adel Abdel Maqsoud Afifi said, "a girl contributes 100 percent to her own raping when she puts herself in these conditions." (Politically demonstrating in public.)

     While there are no official statistics on rape in Egypt, it's an accepted fact under the new government, more women are being attacked. Rapists have also become bolder, and more violent. 

Targeting Pilots With Laser-Beam Pointers

     According to the Civil Aviation Authority, from 2009 to 2012, there had been more than 4,500 reports of pilots being targeted by laser-beam pointers. These commercially available devices produce a narrow, high-intensity light that grows in diameter with distance. If hit in the eyes, pilots could be temporarily blinded. In February 2012, Congress made aiming a laser-beam at an aircraft a federal crime.

     On March 29, 2012, a 19-year-old North Hollywood, California man named Adam Gardenhire aimed his laser pen at the pilot of a NetJet Cessna Citation as it approached for landing at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. According to the pilot of the business jet, the beam impaired his vision for several hours.

     Gardenhire compounded his crime when he targeted the pilot of a Pasadena police helicopter dispatched to locate the source of the laser-beam. Because he wore protective eye gear, the chopper pilot was not affected by Gardenhire's laser attack.

     In April 2012, following his identification by Los Angeles County detectives, a federal grand jury indicted Gardenhire for pointing his laser-beam device at the aircraft. He faced a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. Six months later, the laser pointer pleaded guilty to the federal charges.

     The Assistant United States Attorney, at Gardenhire's March 2013 sentence hearing, characterized the defendant's behavior as a criminally reckless disregard for aircraft safety. Gardenhire's attorney claimed that his client had no idea the borrowed laser pen was powerful enough to distract a pilot thousands of feet away. The defense attorney asked that Mr. Gardenhire be sentenced to two years probation, a fine, and community service.

     The federal judge sentenced Adam Gardenhire to thirty months in federal prison. Targeting that police helicopter had not been a good idea.

     Adam Gardenhire was the second person to be convicted of this federal crime. In August 2012, a Florida man went to prison for six months for the same offense. If one of these laser pointers actually causes a plane to crash, Congress would probably ban the device.

    In May 2015, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Adam Gardenhire's prison sentence was too harsh. The appellate court justices rule sentence should not have exceeded ten months.

Will Race be an Issue in the DeMarquis Elkins Murder Case?

     On Thursday morning, March 21, 2013, in the small southeastern Georgia coastal town of Brunswick, Sherry West pushed her 13-month-old son in a stroller not far from her house in the Old Town historic district. Two young black males approached the 41-year-old mother and her child a quarter after nine that morning. The older kid, described by Sherry West as between 13 and 15-years-old and five-foot-seven to five-nine, pulled a handgun and demanded money. The robber's companion, as described by the victim, looked to be between 10 and 12-years old. The older boy, who was wearing a red shirt, when told by the mother that she didn't have any money, said, "Well, I'm going to kill your baby."

     The terrified mother tried to use her body to protect her son. "Please don't kill my baby," she pleaded.

     The young robber, after pushing the mother aside, shot the sleeping child in the face. Before fleeing on foot, the gunman shot Sherry West in the leg. A second bullet grazed her head. As the boys ran off, the wounded mother called 911, and tried in vain to save her son by administering CPR. (Sherry West was no stranger to the tragedy of violent death. In 2008, in Gloucester County, New Jersey, her 17-year-old son Shaun was stabbed to death in a street fight.)

     The next day, the police arrested 17-year-old DeMarquis Elkins and his 15-year-old friend, Dominique Lang. Elkins was charged with murder, and was held without bail. The authorities have charged Dominique Lang, as an adult, with felony-murder. The juvenile was denied bond as well. Under Georgia law, Elkins is considered an adult.

     On March 27, 2013, a Glynn County grand jury indicted three members of DeMarquis Elkins' family of offenses related to interfering with the investigation of the murder of Sherry West's son. The defendant's mother, 36-year-old Karimah Aisha Elkins, and his aunt, Katrina Latrelle Elkins, 33, were charged with making false statements to the police regarding a false alibi. DeMarquis' sister, 19-year-old Sabrina Elkins, has been indicted for helping her mother dispose of the murder weapon, a .22-caliber pistol.  (Police recovered the gun from a pond two miles from the murder scene.)

     Brunswick City Commissioner James Henry Brooks, an Elkins' family distant relative, was charged with influencing a witness and obstructing law enforcement in the murder case. The 59-year-old is free on $5,000 bond.

     On Monday, March 25, 2013, Commissioner Brooks, at DeMarquis Elkins' arraignment hearing, had informed members of his family that they did not have to cooperate with homicide detectives investigating the baby's murder. (What would compel a city official to do that?)

     In another development in the case, Wifredo Calix-Flores, the pastor of a small church in Brunswick, identified DeMarquis Elkins as the young gunman who shot him in the arm on March 11, ten days before the murder of the West child. According to the preacher, Elkins had come to the church to rob him of his cellphone and his wallet.

     On July 15, 2013, Elkin' s attorney filed a motion asking the judge to force prosecutors to hand over the entire Georgia Bureau of Investigation file on the case. According to the defense attorney, investigators, after the murder, found gunshot residue traces on Sherry West and on the baby's father, Louis Santiago. At the time of the killing, Louis, according to Sherry West, was at the local Walmart store. In the GBI report, an investigator noted that Sherry West could have picked up the GSR traces because of her proximity to the shooting. Regarding Mr. Santiago, his GSR traces could have "originated from occupational and/or industrial sources." Neither of the parents were considered suspects by GBI detectives. (The couple is no longer together.)

     Here comes the touchy part. Following O. J. Simpson's acquittal in 1995, it became clear that a large segment of the black community cheered the verdict. Many were surprised to learn that this support was not based on a belief that Simpson was innocent of the double murder. His supporters simply didn't like the police. These feelings about the Simpson case revealed a racial divide in the country that white people were not aware of. (This is a bit ironic given the fact that whites had liked and admired Simpson as an athlete and TV personality. He was hardly a black activist.)

     On July 13, after the jury of six women in Sanford, Florida found George Zimmerman not guilty or second degree murder or manslaughter in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, protestors broke windows and set fire in Oakland, California. In Los Angeles, Trayvon Martin supporters who believed that nightwatchman shot the unarmed 17-year-old because he was black, blocked traffic on a major Los Angeles highway. Not long after the February 2012 shooting, President Obama injected race into the case by noting that Trayvon Martin could be his son. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and others held "Justice for Trayvon" rallies. The national media covered the case as a race story when in fact, as revealed by defense attorneys at the trial, Trayvon Martins race had nothing to do with his getting shot.

     One would hope that in Brunswick, Georgia, race won't become an issue in such a heinous murder. But the gratuitous interference in the case by Commission Brooks is not, in my opinion, a sign of community cohesion.  

Arcangelo Bianco: The Walmart Deer Hunter

     On November 26, 2012, at two in the afternnon, Arcangelo Bianco, Jr. was sitting in his pickup truck parked at the Walmart store in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, a small town 43 miles east of Pittsburgh in the southwestern part of the state. From his truck, Bianco spotted a 10-point white-tailed buck emerge from behind the building. The 40-year-old grabbed his handgun and jumped out of his truck. As the animal ran for cover across the parking lot, Bianco opened fire. Shortly after the deer crossed a nearby highway, Bianco brought it down.

     After killing the deer, Bianco got back into his pickup, pulled up to his kill, and loaded the carcass onto the truck. From there he drove to a meat processing plant where the deer would be butchered.

     The parking lot deer hunter was charged with reckless endangerment, hunting without a license, shooting across a highway, and unlawful killing of big game. If he pleads guilty to these misdemeanors he can expect a large fine. I doubt the judge will send this man to jail. What Bianco did, however, was extremely reckless.

      Walmart parking lots are dangerous enough without idiots running around shooting at deer.