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Officer-involved shooting victim was a convicted sex offender

11-13-2014 Mississippi:

"We were coming outside last night and the cop that was standing over there told us to get back in. And then about 10, 15 minutes later a cop came banging on the door and told us we needed to get our kids, that there was a man over there who had a gun to his head, and SWAT was coming in, and they needed us to get our kids and get out," says Jessica Grant.

Grant lives next door to the home where 42-year old Mark Bartlett was fatally shot by a Pearl Police Officer Friday night. The officer had to use deadly force to subdue Bartlett.

Bartlett was shot in the chest after posing a threat to his wife and the officers who responded to the domestic disturbance call earlier in the evening. A bullet hole is visible in a window of the home.

The incident took place at the Highlands Mobile Home Park in Pearl.

Grant says her children play outside quite a bit, running from yard to yard. She lives in the home with her husband, children, her friend Crystal Farrar, and Farrar's children. They were forced to leave the area until the threat was gone.

Homicide victim once indicted for failure to register as sex offender

11-13-2014 Georgia:

The same day patrol officers found him fatally shot in the head, the Muscogee County Superior Court indicted Chad Aaron Herring of failure to register as a sex offender, according to court documents.

Wednesday's indictment came more than two years after 32-year-old Herring was arrested and charged with the offense. He was booked into the Muscogee County Jail on April 5, 2012, after he falsely reported that he lived on the 1500 block of 15th Avenue.

Herring's body was discovered around 11:47 p.m. Wednesday when officers investigated a Chevrolet Impala parked on Roosevelt Street near Brewer Elementary School, Columbus Police Lt. Consuelo Askew said Thursday morning. Askew said there was no evidence of other shots fired in the area and reported no damage to the vehicle.

Muscogee County Chief Deputy Coroner Freeman Worley said Herring was pronounced dead at 12:26 a.m. He will be transported Friday for autopsy, Worley said.

Sex offender shot to death in Cleveland, TN after daylight abduction

11-26-2014 Tennessee:

A kidnapped woman and three children were in the house where Cleveland, Tenn., police shot to death a convicted sex offender who lunged at them with a knife, authorities said.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is still piecing together what happened on Tuesday that led to the death of Robert Edwin Eaves, 51, a self-described "jack of all trades" who was convicted of attempted rape in 2006.

The TBI and Cleveland police said Eaves, who lived on Vista Drive NW, abducted a 28-year-old woman who lived nearby at about 11:30 a.m. -- broad daylight -- and took her to a house on Phillips Street, halfway across town and a few blocks off of South Lee Highway in Cleveland.

He took the woman inside the house, authorities said, where there were three children, including a 16-year-old baby sitter. It's not known what relationships, if any, Eaves had to any of the other people involved, but TBI officials said Eaves was threatening the safety of everyone in the home.

One of the children managed to call their mother, who called 911, authorities said. Cleveland police showed up in just minutes.

When the two officers, identified as 25-year-old Jacob Varnell and 45-year-old Jody Musselwhite, arrived at the Phillips Street address, Eaves pulled a knife and attempted to assault them, TBI officials said.

The officers drew their weapons and "one or both of the officers" fired on Eaves, killing him, the TBI said.

State jail standards rarely enforced

The Springfield News-Sun has been investigating the death of David Piersol at the Tri-County Regional Jail for more than eight months. Coverage has included stories about overcrowding at the jail and the progress of the criminal charges against Butler.

November 2014 Ohio:

Tri-County Regional Jail leaders said all state-mandated procedures have been followed at the facility where an inmate’s fatal assault went unnoticed and no changes to staffing or surveillance methods are planned.

But a Springfield News-Sun investigation found that the current Ohio Administrative Code jail standards deviate from recommendations in a 2012 state-commissioned report, are subject to little oversight and are largely left to the discretion of the individual sheriff or jail director to implement.

“If they followed the standards, then the second question is, are the standards adequate?” said Ohio Rep. Bob Hackett R-London, who serves on the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee that’s tasked with legislative oversight of the prison system, but which has no authority over Ohio jails.

“It’s up to the experts, the sheriffs and the directors to recommend changes,” said Hackett, who represents eastern Clark County. “If the sheriffs say the system is fine, then I support the sheriffs.”

Tri-County leaders said they believe the current policies and procedures are sufficient to maintain security at the Mechanicsburg facility, and that the death of 39-year-old David Piersol in April was a tragedy that could have happened no matter how much security was in place.

Anita Smithey murder trial: Jury selection underway for woman who says she killed rapist

11-10-2014 Florida:

Jury selection is underway this afternoon for Anita Smithey, an Oviedo woman accused of murdering her estranged husband, a man she says she shot while he was raping her.

Smithey, 46, is charged with second-degree murder. She's accused of killing Robert Cline III, May 4, 2010. She says she shot him in self-defense while he was raping her in her bed. He had put a knife to her throat, she said, and punched her.

But prosecutors say there was no rape. They contend the couple was having consensual sex, that Smithey got tired then angry when Cline would not go home, so she shot him twice.

Although Smithey had moved out three months before, the couple still got together on Monday nights for sex, she told Oviedo police. Cline was shot in the early morning hours of a Tuesday, a few hours after he had come over to her house with a bottle on tequila.

Forty potential jurors were called to the courtroom this morning. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. and attorneys need a panel of six.

Dog brings home sex offender's skull, U.S. marshals say

11-17-2014 Texas:

AUSTIN, Texas — The case of a former Army specialist who escaped from federal supervision was closed Monday after officials said the sex offender's skull was found in a field two months ago.

The skull of Kevin Patrick Stoeser, 41, was discovered Sept. 8 when a woman's dog, who had escaped from the backyard overnight, returned with a pile of animal bones and a human skull. The skull appeared "weathered" and likely was there for some time, officials said.

Although police dogs searched areas nearby after the find, they did not recover additional human remains.

Stoeser was added to the U.S. Marshals Service 15 Most Wanted fugitives list in May after running Oct. 24, 2013, from a halfway house in Del Valle, Texas, about 7 miles from Austin. At the time, staffers had confiscated a smartphone that he was not authorized to have and found more than two dozen images of scantily clad young girls.

Convicted MH child rapist found dead at state park

11-9-2014 Arkansas:

The Baxter Bulletin has confirmed that the man's body found near Pinnacle Mountain State Park in Roland on Saturday was that of 44-year-old Mountain Home native Thomas James Lovelady.

Lovelady — who was a member of the Class of 1989 at Mountain Home High School — was the subject of a highly publicized child rape case in the 1990s, during which he was convicted in Baxter County Circuit Court of raping his 7-year-old stepdaughter.

A registered Level 3 sex offender, Lovelady was living in Little Rock at the time of his death, according to an address listed on the Arkansas Crime Information Center sex offender database.

Little Rock television station KLRT first reported that two women walking along a highway in the area of the state park discovered the body around 7 a.m. Saturday and contacted authorities. State police investigators spent most of the morning at the scene in western Pulaski County collecting evidence.

Coroner identifies man killed in Loris shooting Wednesday night

11-6-2014 South Carolina:

LORIS — The body of a man found shot in Loris was identified Thursday as Dashadre Jacorey Sampson, according to Horry County Deputy Coroner Tony Hendrick.

Horry County Police found the body of the 21-year-old Myrtle Beach man Wednesday night at an abandoned area off Bennett Loop in Loris.

Horry County Police spokesman Lt. Robert Kegler confirmed the death is being investigated as a homicide. Horry County has had 25 homicides this year, according to the Coroner’s Office. Homicides in 2013 totaled 17.

Police were called to the 1000 block of Bennett Loop, where the body was found, around 5 p.m. Wednesday. Bennett Loop is off Airport Road in Loris.

Grandpa Shoots & Kills Man, 20, For Attempting To Rape Granddaughter

10-21-2014 North Carolina:

Kenneth Byrd, 67, found himself in a scary situation when three men invaded his home and kept him and his wife, Judy, 65, hostage at gunpoint. When the three men attempted to force themselves on his 19-year-old granddaughter, Kenneth snapped and somehow managed to retrieve his own gun and defend his family.

This is truly a heroic story.

When a young man knocked on Kenneth’s door looking for help with his car, the grandfather became alarmed when two more men appeared out of nowhere and forced their way into his home.

The three home invaders then forced Kenneth and his wife, Judy, towards the back of the home at gunpoint while demanding the couple open a private safe and give them their money, reports The Inquistr.

However, it was when the three men attempted to “gang rape” Kenneth’s teenage granddaughter that he decided to fight back. Although it’s not known where the the gun came from, Kenneth retrieved his own personal gun and used it to shoot all 3 of the intruders.

Cleveland woman charged with murder in death of longtime abuser

10-27-2014 Ohio:

Teisha Frederick suffered at the hands of Deshawn Creer for years, and now she's charged in his killing.

Frederick, 24, was charged with one count of aggravated murder Sunday after police found the 27-year-old man stabbed in the chest in her West 174th Street apartment early Friday morning.

Frederick's older brother said that Creer came back to the apartment sometime late Thursday or early Friday morning, saying he wanted to see the couple's 8-year-old boy and 6-year-old girl. At some point overnight, the two began fighting.

The fight turned physical, and Creer began to rip out Frederick's hair. Frederick picked up a knife and stabbed Creer in the chest, police said.

Man shot, killed when Cumberland County deputies try to serve warrants

10-24-2014 North Carolina:

A man was shot and killed by a Cumberland County sheriff's deputy Friday when the deputy tried to serve a warrant.

Deputies stopped a vehicle at 11:53a.m. near the Sonic Drive-In at 5938 Cliffdale Road, according to a news release from the Sheriff's Office. When deputies approached the vehicle in the parking lot of the restaurant, they saw that the driver had a knife or some type of straight-edged weapon.

The man, who has not been identified by authorities, became confrontational and did not obey the deputies' commands, the Sheriff's Office said. When he started cutting his arms and neck, deputies stunned him with a Taser gun.

The Taser reportedly had no effect. While deputies struggled with the man, one of them shot him.

One of the deputies suffered a minor injury to his hand.

Former Scout Leader had child porn on computer when stabbed to death by former scout, court filing says

10-23-2014 New Jersey:

A former Boy Scout troop master, allegedly killed by a former scout who claims the man molested him decades earlier, had child pornography on his computer at the time of his death, according to court testimony.

Dennis Pegg, a 68-year-old Stillwater man who was stabbed to death on June 12, 2012, had numerous photos of child pornography on his computer, prosecutors said in court this morning, according to John Vazquez.

Vazquez is an attorney for Robert Reynolds, one of the two suspects charged with first-degree murder in connection with the killing.

Vazquez said that that Gregory Mueller, first assistant Sussex County Prosecutor, listed the photographs of child pornography as part of the evidence in the case.

Mueller did not comment.

South Euclid officer fatally shoots man involved in domestic incident

10-18-2014 Ohio:

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- A South Euclid officer shot and killed a man who was involved in a domestic incident at an Avondale Road home early Saturday, according to police.

Ronnie D. McNary, 44, of Cleveland, died at Hillcrest Hospital after being shot at the home, a Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's spokesman confirmed Saturday.

The officer's name has not been released.

Officers went to the home at 4:13 a.m. to investigate a domestic dispute. When they arrived, the heard a woman yelling for help, South Euclid Chief Kevin Nietert said in a statement.