A young man shot dead in the back of a car just yards from his parents' home was a convicted drug dealer.
But detectives believe Dean Johnson, 20, operated on the fringe of the drugs scene and they are trying to establish a motive for his murder.
A lone gunman fired around five shots at Mr Johnson at about 9pm on Wednesday as he sat in the rear seat of a red Volkswagen Golf on Moorfield Avenue, in Clondalkin, west Dublin.
He was hit in the shoulder and head and was later pronounced dead at Tallaght Hospital.
The car was being driven by a girlfriend of Mr Johnson's friend who was picking up a group of people who were going on a night out.
Mr Johnson lived on Moorfield Avenue with his mother and father and younger brother. It is understood his mother rushed to the scene of the shooting after hearing the shots ringing out. He had a girlfriend of a few months.
One line of inquiry is that Johnson was involved in a row with gang members in the nearby Neilstown area at the weekend, but detectives have yet to establish whether the incident is relevant.
It is thought several witnesses would have seen the killer - who did not use a mask - as he fled from the scene on foot in the direction of the Neilstown Road. "There's no doubt he was seen," said one source. "It was broad daylight, there were people around."
Johnson was convicted of supplying drugs three years ago after being caught with ecstasy tablets with a street value of 30,000 euro. Because he was under-age at the time, in the eyes of the law, he was put on probation. But detectives said he was only a carrier. "He was not a big player," said one.
The murder happened about 400 metres from where two drug dealer brothers, Paul Corbally, 35, and Kenneth Corbally, 32, were shot dead last summer.

The night before he was to give his younger daughter a birthday party, Police Officer William C. Johnson went out for pizza and never came home. He died early Friday, apparently a random victim of a drive-by shooting.

Someone fired five or six shots into Texas Fried Chicken and Pizza on Thursday night, blowing out the front window, gouging bullet holes into walls, injuring two people and mortally wounding Officer Johnson, a single father of two who was off duty.

The police said that none of the three victims was the intended target, making this the sort of sudden, unexplained violence that has long been a scourge of this city.

A 19-year-old Newark man described as “a person of interest” in the case was arrested late Friday afternoon.

The shooting comes at a difficult time for the Newark Police Department and Mayor Cory A. Booker. The city laid off about 13 percent of its officers last fall. In recent weeks, Garry McCarthy, the Newark police director, left to lead the Chicago police, and federal authorities announced that they were investigating whether the Newark department had a pattern of mistreating citizens.

Mr. Booker took office in 2006 vowing to fight crime and restore trust in the department, and in his first two years, crime declined. But the murder rate rose in 2009 and 2010, defying a national decline. Crime has continued to rise this year.

“We all feel grievously wounded and harmed,” Mr. Booker said at a news conference on Friday about the slaying of Officer Johnson, a Newark native. “He was one of our own. He’s up from the bricks.”

“Do not misunderstand,” the mayor added. “We will find those people responsible for killing one of our officers. We will not let this cop killer stay on the streets.”

Carolyn A. Murray, the acting Essex County prosecutor, said that the young man who was arrested, Rasul McNeil-Thomas, faced charges in the carjacking of the vehicle that the police believe was used in the shooting, and gun possession charges, but so far has not been charged in the shooting. Officials said they were still looking for another person possibly connected to the shooting.

Officer Johnson, 45, worked in the department’s video surveillance unit, watching the streams of images from security cameras posted around the city. It may be just such cameras that help catch whoever killed him; police officials said they had the video recording from a camera at Texas Fried Chicken and Pizza, and were collecting others from neighboring businesses. The restaurant, at 250 Lyons Avenue, is a short drive from the quiet street where Officer Johnson lived, in the South Ward, near Beth Israel Medical Center. “He would come here every three days,” usually to pick up a pepperoni pie, said Adrees Nahiam, a cashier at the restaurant. “He was a really nice guy.”

Neighbors and patrons say that the restaurant, which stays open until 2 a.m., is a magnet for rowdy teenagers and young men, who are not usually shooed away, and that surrounding area has had a number of violent episodes in the past year.

“A lot of kids hang out in there,” said one neighbor, Kim Baker, 46. “It’s not that bad, but it has its moments.”

At 9:50 p.m. on Thursday, Officer Johnson was standing at the counter, apparently waiting for his order, according to officials who have watched the surveillance video.

Samuel DeMaio, the acting police director, said a vehicle pulled up in front of the restaurant with what appeared to be two people in it, and someone opened fire on the customers inside. Witnesses said five or six shots were fired, sending people in and around the restaurant scattering for cover.

Officer Johnson and a 21-year-old man were both struck in the torso, and taken to University Hospital. Officer Johnson died at 3:10 a.m., Ms. Murray, the prosecutor, said.

The other man, whose name was not released, was in stable condition Friday.

Another bullet struck the shoulder of a 19-year-old woman, a regular customer who was there with a toddler. The woman, whose name the police also withheld, fled on foot with the child, leaving her stroller behind in the restaurant. She reached Beth Israel, where she was treated and released.

In addition to his job with the Police Department, where he had worked for 16 years, Officer Johnson worked part time as a security guard at a Newark apartment complex. He lived in a modest house with his daughters — one just out of college and one in fifth grade.

By all accounts, Officer Johnson doted on the younger girl. “He was going to give her a birthday party today, and now what is that little girl going to do?” Shalonda Coleman, who lives on the next block, said on Friday.

Shakeema Brown, another neighbor, said the girl often told people, “My dad really cares about me; he really loves me.” People up and down the street said that despite a certain reserve, Officer Johnson was always helping neighbors, whether carrying packages or looking after their houses when they were away.

“He would always tell people, ‘Anywhere you go, you’ve got to watch your back,’ ” said Cheryl Newby, whose granddaughter often plays with Officer Johnson’s younger daughter.

He walked nearly every day to the Quality Mini Mart, two blocks from his house for food, toiletries, cigarettes or pipe tobacco, with a “Good evening, ladies” for the group of women he usually passed, chatting on a nearby porch. Often, he would take his younger daughter with him, walking hand in hand, to buy her snacks.

At Garden Towers, the apartment complex where Officer Johnson was a guard, Tyrell Lindsey recalled Officer Johnson reuniting lost children with their parents, and helping elderly residents buy groceries. “He was just a well-loved person,” Mr. Lindsey said.

man who called himself an “enforcer” with a once-prominent gang called the Freight Train Riders of America and who was wanted for murder in Texas was arrested last week in Clark County following a fight.

Michael Elijah Adams, 43, using the alias Michael Allen Thompson, was taken into custody at about 9:30 p.m. May 17 when Deputy Andrew Kennison of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office stopped him following what was reported as a “physical disturbance” in the 2300 block of Northeast 134th Street. A man was reportedly beating another man in the northeast corner of a construction site.

When Kennison ran the information provided by the man who identified himself as Michael Thompson through the FBI’s National Criminal Information Center, back came a “very close hit on a warrant” for Adams, according to the police report. And Adams, Kennison learned, was wanted by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office for the murder of a 51-year-old homeless woman March 15.

Adams was lodged in the Clark County Jail and extradited Friday to Eugene, Ore., where he was wanted on an outstanding warrant relating to charges he sold heroin. Attorneys in Lane County, Ore., and El Paso will work out in what order Adams will be tried.

“He mentioned being in Texas as recently as last summer,” Kennison wrote in the report.

When he was arrested, Adams, who has railroad tracks tattooed on the side of his face, had a folding black pocket knife in one of his pockets. He wore a black bandana around his neck signaling his elite standing with the Freight Train Riders of America, a loosely connected gang of about 1,000 homeless men known in the 80s and 90s for riding BNSF’s 1,500-mile High Line between Seattle and Minneapolis, sleeping in box cars, switching yards and under bridges.

An enforcer, Adams told Kennison this was the third time he had been arrested for murder and he had “beaten the rap on the previous two charges.”

He said he learned to be an enforcer from “Dogman Tony,” who Kennison discovered was implicated in multiple murders and made several appearances on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, according to the report. “Dogman Tony” was featured in a 2003 documentary about six hobos who hop trains across America.

A famed member of the FTRA, Robert Silveria Jr., known as the “Boxcar Killer,” was arrested in California in 1996. He confessed to killing 28 fellow train riders and is currently serving a double life sentence in Wyoming.

The FTRA was the subject of a 1997 investigative report by the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper looked at the group’s role in the about 70 to 90 deaths that were occurring along rail lines each year. Few of the deaths involving foul play were solved.

“Sure, some are natural causes. Some are accidents. But some aren’t. And the problem is, the suspects and all the witnesses disappear,” then Spokane Detective Bob Grandinetti, an expert on the FTRA, was quoted in the article.

Gus Melonas of BNSF said the FTRA and associated act of riding and living on the rails have gone largely extinct. BNSF has commissioned police officers who cracked down on that sort of activity in the late 1980s.

Deaths that once numbered near 90 have dropped off precipitously.

“We have records on a lot of the rail riders,” Melonas said. “We know their background. If somebody’s getting on or off a train, we will make arrests for criminal trespassing.”

He said Vancouver and Portland were at one time hubs with large hobo camps. One prominent camp was between Fruit Valley Road and 39th Street, Melonas said.

In recent years, a group cropped up called the Sunshine Kids, mostly young adults who weren’t known to cause much trouble but took to traveling from town to town by rail, Melonas said.

“It’s as rare today to see a hobo on the trains as common as it was when I started in 1976,” Melonas said. “We just don’t see the FTRA folks out in the Northwest.”

gun battle involving two vehicles was reported Sunday night, police said.

At about 5:17 p.m., witnesses told police they saw a silver sedan and a light colored van exchange gun fire in the area of Nebraska Street and El Dorado.

Both vehicles had left the scene before police arrived, but police said they found numerous shell casings on the ground.

There were no reported injuries, but police found a bullet hole in the side of a house in the 500 block of Nebraska Street.

Three people were stabbed in a long-simmering gang war that exploded amid the slides and swings of Tilles Park on Monday.
Fort Smith police were called to local hospitals in reference to three people who had been stabbed. Police learned that the three had sustained stab wounds during a gang battle involving 15 to 20 people, according to Sgt. Daniel Grubbs, public information officer for the Fort Smith Police Department.

"We feel this was the continuation of events from last week and maybe a month ago," Grubbs said.
The gangs involved were Florencia 13, a Hispanic gang, and Brick Squad, a mixed race gang, according to Grubbs.
Of the three people stabbed, one suffered a collapsed a lung, another sustained stab wounds to his back and shoulder area and the third sustained a stab wound to his upper buttocks, Grubbs said.
Gustavo Iraburo, 18, was the only suspected participant in the fight who was arrested, according to Grubbs. Officers with the Street Crimes Unit believe that as many as 13 more participants in the fight will be located and arrested.
Florencia 13 and Brick Squad have been going back and forth attacking each other, Grubbs said.
"If one gets jumped this fight, the other will get jumped the next fight," Grubbs said.

20-year-old Walla Walla man and known gang member was shot to death Tuesday by apparent rival gang members, according to city police. No arrests had been made as of early Wednesday morning.

Police say Julio Cesar Martinez was walking in an alley in the 300 block of Myrtle Street when he and a friend were approached by several people, and at least four shots were fired. Two bullets struck Martinez, while the friend was uninjured, police said.

The shooting marks the first homicide by firearm in the city for several years. 

The shooting is believed to have occurred about 6 p.m. The area of Myrtle Street between Chestnut Street, Willow Street, Sprague Avenue and Seventh Avenue was quickly closed off to traffic as law enforcement secured the scene and searched for the suspects.

Walla Walla police received support from the Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office, College Place police and Washington State Patrol to close off the area and conduct searches. The city’s Emergency Services Unit eventually arrived on scene and searched one residence where the suspects may have been hiding. A home in the 400 block of Sprague Avenue, just down the street from the shooting, was secured early on after the shooting, and remained closed past 8 p.m. as the unit prepared its search. 

Residents living around the scene of the shooting reported hearing what sounded like fireworks from their homes, then seeing a bloodied man lying in the alley outside. By 7 p.m., the are around the alley had been taped off with yellow crime scene tape while officers searched and collected evidence. About 8 p.m., yellow tape was used to close off Myrtle at Sprague to prepare for the Emergency Services Unit operation.

As word spread in the neighborhood that the shooting victim would had likely died, many expressed grief at the loss of life. 

One woman, speaking in Spanish, described the shooting as sad and tragic. 

“If he dies, for whatever reason, it’s sad,” she said. “He’s still a human being.” 

Judy Thompson, a long-time resident of the area, said something needed to be done to stop gang activity and violence, particularly in the neighborhood. Some residents said the neighborhood had known affiliations to the city's largest gang, and they thought the shooting victim may have belonged to a rival gang. 

Thompson said it would take the community getting involved and becoming active to really make a difference.

“If we don’t get involved, we don’t conquer it,” she said. “If we don’t stand up for society, we don’t have nothing.”

At least two men displayed weapons Tuesday during what police are describing as a gang shootout.

As of late Tuesday, two men had been taken into custody. Erick D. Butler, 20, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault. A 16-year-old male was also arrested. Charges against him have not yet been determined, police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said in a press release.

A shooting victim, also a man, was taken to Southwest Washington Medical Center. His injuries were not life-threatening; he was treated and released. He was described only as a male in his 40s, with police declining to release his identity at this point in their investigation.

Police responded around 7:15 p.m. to reports of shots fired in the 3700 block of East 18th St., Kapp said. Callers to 911 reported hearing several gun shots, Kapp said in the release.

They learned through interviews that two men displayed guns during an altercation and at least one of them fired several shots. A third man was struck.

A suspect was initially described as a dark-skinned man, about 20 years old, about 5 foot 9 inches, with a heavy build and tattoos on both arms.

An officer was heard over the emergency radio system saying three bullet casings were found in the area.

A neighbor told police he shot video on his cellphone of people running from the scene.

Police said detectives with the Safe Streets Task Force are continuing their investigation and want to talk to anyone who may have information on the incident.

The hospital went into lockdown mode because the victim was believed to be a “security risk,” said Southwest Washington Medical Center spokesman Ken Cole. He said employees were required to show badges, and families and patients were screened before entering the medical center.

The lockdown ended at about 10:15 p.m. when the patient was released.

Mercer County Sheriff’s officers tracking a fugitive gang member wanted in the city on weapons offenses followed his trail to Willingboro, Burlington County, where they arrested their man and three other people, while also happening upon a loaded weapon, drugs and funny money.

The hunt began April 6, when sheriff’s officers spotted a suspect on Kirkbride Avenue in Trenton with what appeared to be a gun.

When officers went to investigate, the suspect, later identified as James Hughes, ran in through the front of a home on Kirkbride, then ran out the back door, officials said.

The suspect managed to get away, officials said, but during the chase the officers reported seeing him discard a gun. The loaded .40-caliber Taurus handgun was recovered with a defaced serial number.

Officials said detectives managed to identify the 26-year-old Hughes, and warrants for weapons offenses and other charges were issued. Officials called him a “documented member of the Bloods Street gang.”

As they searched for Hughes, officials said, detectives received information that the fugitive may be hiding out at a girlfriend’s house on Granby Lane in Willingboro. Officials identified the girlfriend as 29-year-old Monet Muse.

Officers went to the Granby Lane home Thursday, but Hughes wasn’t there. They did find Muse, another woman named Kyla Muse, 28, who also lived at the home, and her boyfriend, 31-year-old Sultan Freeman, of Camden.

During their investigation, officials said, detectives recovered 57 grams of marijuana, $980 worth of counterfeit $20 bills, and what turned out to be a stolen .357 Magnum revolver, fully loaded with hollow-point bullets. A check of the gun showed it was reported stolen from Burlington in 2009.

Officials said Monet Muse was charged only with possession of marijuana, and she was released on her own recognizance.

Freeman and Kyla Muse are facing multiple charges in connection with gun possession and the counterfeit cash. Freeman was additionally charged as a previously convicted felon in possession of a weapon.