Winnipeg street reopened to traffic around 4 p.m. Friday, in time for rush hour, following a lengthy closure while police investigated a fatal stabbing.

Police blocked a section of Osborne Street, between Wardlaw Avenue and Stradbrook Avenue, around 6:30 a.m. after a man was stabbed multiple times in Osborne Village.

Blood-stained clothing or gauze lies crumpled on the sidewalk in front of Ozzy's Bar. CBC
There was a major disturbance just before 3 a.m. involving about 50 people near Ozzy's Bar in the Osborne Village Inn, police said.

Officers responding to the calls found the stabbing victim, who was taken to hospital, where he later died.

According to area residents, the "major disturbance" was a street brawl. There are also reports of gunshots being fired at about the same time.

No arrests have been made.

The man's death is the city's 24th homicide of 2011.

No further information, such as the man's age, has been released by police.

The Osborne Village area has had its share of violence in recent days. On July 13, a tattoo parlour was damaged after a failed firebombing, which has been attributed to fighting between outlaw biker gangs the Rock Machine and the Hells Angels.

On Thursday, a 29-year-old man was sent to hospital in critical condition after a fight at River Avenue and Osborne Street. He was later upgraded to stable condition.

An area near the Toad in the Hole pub was surrounded with yellow police tape during the morning rush hour and a police cruiser was parked on the sidewalk.

Police officers and members of the emergency response team arrested two brothers with ties to the UN Gang following a raid at a house in the 31000 block of Wagner Drive on Wednesday.

Officers seized one kilogram of heroin worth an estimated street value of $170,000 inside the house, as well as another two kilograms of heroin following a search of a fully armoured 2001 Ford Expedition on Thursday, said APD Const. Ian MacDonald.

The overall amount of drugs seized could amount to as much as $500,000, said MacDonald, adding both brothers, aged 33 and 35, are well known to police.

"We obviously knew who these guys were and that this was a drug supply house," he said.

No charges have been laid yet and both are now free from police custody on promise to appear in court at a later date.

One of the brothers was arrested in the fortified SUV and the other brother, who was at a nearby residence, surrendered himself shortly after.

"I can't think of a better example of . . . our ability to make Abbotsford unpleasant and inhospitable for people who are involved in gangs and drugs," said MacDonald. He also confirmed that the house subject to Wednesday's raid was the site of a targeted shooting back in 2007.

It's only a matter of time before an innocent member of the public gets killed or injured in the organised crime wave spilling onto the streets of the Gold Coast, the Queensland Police Union warns.

With community concern running high after five shootings in less than two months, the Gold Coast's reputation as a safe place to holiday has taken a battering.

Three people, including detective Damian Leeding, have been shot dead on the tourist strip since May 29 while two other people have been shot and wounded.

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The Queensland Police Union says the Gold Coast has cemented its position as Australia's crime capital and needs a massive injection of officers to make Queensland's second largest city safe again.

Union president Ian Leavers says police know organised crime lords and outlaw bikie gangs have dug in on the Gold Coast but officers are so stretched they can't take effective action.

But Premier Anna Bligh is confident Taskforce Resolve, a new serious and violent crime squad set up after Det Leeding's murder, will address the situation.

"What is clear is that we have some issues with crime on the Gold Coast that potentially involve gangs and organised crime," she told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday.

"The sort of incidents we're seeing there are completely unacceptable on the streets of a city like the Gold Coast.

"I am very confident we're going to see major arrests out of this taskforce."

She said the streets of the Gold Coast had to be safe for everyone, and hoped its reputation as a holiday destination wasn't being tarnished.

"It is a big tourist city and that means that like some other places, like Kings Cross (in Sydney), it can often attract some very undesirable elements."

In the latest killing Colin Edgar Lutherborrow, 36, was shot dead in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

A security guard found him dying from a gunshot wound on Hooker Boulevard at Broadbeach about 2.40am (AEST).

Police dismissed reports he was gunned down in a gangland execution because of links to underage prostitution.

"We have not found any evidence whatsoever that the victim was involved in luring underage children into prostitution, and no evidence the victim is a pedophile," Regional Crime Coordinator Detective Superintendent Dave Hutchinson said.

"There's no evidence to suggest an execution-style killing."

Mr Hutchinson said Lutherborrow had been involved in some minor criminal offences in NSW, where he lived until last year, but had no criminal history in Queensland.

He moved from Yamba, in NSW, to the Gold Coast with his mother in August.

He was unemployed and continued to live with his mother on the coast.

Mr Leavers said organised crime was spilling onto the streets and public safety was a real concern.

"Without doubt the Gold Coast has cemented itself as the crime capital of Australia and unless we get a rapid injection of 100 to 150 staff on the Gold Coast we're in trouble," he told AAP.

The union chief said the government was only planning to provide an extra 150 police for the entire state over the next year.

"The Gold Coast will be lucky to get 20," he said.

"I've heard the police service and the minister say it's only organised crime, and ordinary people shouldn't be concerned.

"But it's spilling out into the streets and the suburbs now, and it's only a matter of time before an innocent person gets injured or killed."

Early Thursday morning, a drive-by shooting occurred in the violence-plagued Liberty City neighborhood, leaving one dead and three injured. Reporter LuAnne Sorrell and photographer Ken Tolliver were doing a follow-up story on the shooting when gunshots rang out on Thursday afternoon, just feet from where the WSVN crew was working. Luckily no one was hurt.

Sorrell and Tolliver were able to capture footage of the gunman as he fled the scene

South Florida gangs are a ruthless and bloody bunch, whose names strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. Lately, however, those names have gone bilingual. And redundant.

Six members of the Lake Worth-based gang Krazy Locos -- not to be confused with the formerly caffeinated brand of booze-in-a-can Four Loko -- were sentenced yesterday to a combined 237 years in prison for their involvement in two murders, drug dealing, and weapons trafficking.

For those of you who don't habla español, the gang's title translates as "crazy crazies." And if their indictment is any indication, boy do these guys deserve the name.

The U.S. Department of Justice's Southern District Office describes the Krazy Locos as "a violent gang that committed ruthless murders and robberies" in addition to selling oxycodone, Xanax, methadone, cocaine, crack and marijuana.

According to the indictment, the Krazy Locos would "sponsor" a patient -- paying for his or her medical visit and prescription -- in exchange for a portion of the pills, then re-sell them.

Members also had to rob and sell drugs in order to pay "taxes" to the gang every week. Never has crime sounded so patriotic!

But that's where the IRS similarities stop.

Feds say that the gang's leader, Jonathan Gonzalez, ordered 17-year-old Manuel Medina to murder Rolando Franco when Franco tried to leave the Krazy Locos and move out of Florida to start a new life in January 2009.

One month later, the gang killed an innocent man and wounded another after trying to rob what they thought was the stash house of a rival gang.

Then in April 2009, Gonzalez ordered Medina and another gang member to shoot up the house of another Krazy Loco. But Gonzalez was furious when he learned they hadn't emptied their entire AK-47 clips and sent them back to do it again four days later.

Gonzalez was also caught selling weapons -- including 24 firearms, thousands of bullets, and a grenade -- to undercover agents.

He was sentenced to a whopping 135 years in prison; Medina got 35 years despite his young age; and four others received sentences from 3 - 30 years in federal prison.

At times, the Krazy Locos has been affiliated with another unfortunately named gang: Making Life Krazy, or MLK.

Southwest Side gang member nicknamed “Bear” stole a rival’s car, ran him over with it then “stomped” on his skull until he was dead, prosecutors alleged in court Sunday.

Lazaro Zapata, 24 — a member of the 2-6 street gang — stole Raul Medina’s 1994 Ford Escort, then murdered the 41-year-old in the 4000 block of South Kedzie in the early hours of Thursday, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Denise Loiterstein said. He tried to cover up the crime with a story about his girlfriend being kidnapped, it’s alleged.

Sentenced to 18 years behind bars for the 2nd degree murder of a 69-year-old corn vendor in 2004, Zapata had only recently been released from prison, records show.

Early Thursday morning, Medina and his ex-wife were driving Zapata’s girlfriend to her mother’s home when Zapata called and demanded she come home to him, Loiterstein said. When the girlfriend, who Zapata had beaten, refused, Zapata vowed to steal Medina’s ex-wife’s TV, Loiterstein said.

While Medina’s ex-wife called police to report the robbery threat, Zapata made a 911 call of his own, alleging his girlfriend had been kidnapped, Loiterstein said. Police quickly dismissed that allegation after speaking to the girlfriend on the phone, the prosecutor added.

But when Medina dropped off Zapata’s girlfriend at his ex-wife’s home, Zapata and several of his buddies were waiting, Loiterstein said.

After an argument in the street, Zapata and his buddies beat both women before Zapata jumped into the driver’s seat and ran down Medina, Loiterstein said.

Zapata then got out of the car and “started stomping the victim on his head,” she added. Medina died of massive blunt force trauma to the head and body, Loiterstein said.

This time Zapata and his girlfriend falsely reported to police that she had been kidnapped, it’s alleged.

Wearing turquoise slippers and a blue shirt in court Sunday, Zapata protested that his girlfriend was ready to bail him out after Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil denied him bond.

Records show he was just 17 when he killed corn vendor Antonio Rodriguez by hitting him in the head with a baseball bat in 2003.

Did the Swedish king visit strip clubs, and why did his friend seek a gangster's help to snuff out the scandal? Those questions have the nation in a tizzy and are posing the monarchy its most serious challenge during Carl XVI Gustaf's nearly four decades on the throne.
The media, much less enthralled by the royal family than the public, is attacking the 65-year-old monarch with unprecedented fury.
One leading newspaper has even urged the king to step down. Others suggest he should go if it turns out he was lying when he denied visiting strip clubs in the U.S. and Slovakia, claims first presented in a book published last year.
"His reputation has of course been hurt by this and he's had a difficult time defending himself," said royal commentator and writer Roger Lundgren. "But this has certainly taken on proportions that are approaching the grotesque."
At the heart of the scandal is "The Reluctant Monarch," a book released in November that for the first time put into print long-standing rumors about the private life of Carl Gustaf, who has three adult children with his German-born wife, Queen Silvia.
The book alleged that the king had a secret love affair in the 1990s and described how he and his friends frequented private night clubs in Stockholm where they were entertained by scantily clad women. It also claimed he visited exclusive strip clubs during foreign visits — in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics and in Slovakia in 2008 — citing former employees of those establishments.
Many of the allegations are poorly sourced and critics say the book, which was presented as a biography, amounts to nothing more than a gossip magazine in hard cover.
The king's supporters say he's the victim of a malicious slander campaign fueled by republican forces who normally don't get much attention in Sweden.
Most Swedes want to preserve the constitutional monarchy even though it's widely seen as contradicting the principles of democracy and equality that underpin Swedish society. The monarchy's survival hinges to a large degree on its popularity.
"The Swedish royal court, like the Danish and Norwegian, depends on widespread trust from the public," political editor Peter Wolodarski wrote in the Stockholm daily, Dagens Nyheter. "The day people start to doubt whether the top representatives of the royal court are telling the truth, they (the royals) live dangerously."
A recent poll showed about 44 percent of the Swedes wanted Carl Gustaf to remain king, while 17 percent said he ought to give way to his eldest daughter, the popular 33-year-old Crown Princess Victoria.
Research institute TNS-Sifo interviewed 1,000 people for the May 25-26 poll. The margin of error was 2 to 3 percentage points.
A similar poll around 12 months ago, showed 64 percent of Swedes wanting the king to stay on the throne.
Carl Gustaf first addressed the allegations in a somewhat confused monologue to reporters at his annual moose hunt in November, saying his family was "turning the page." He didn't deny the allegations, which was seen by many as a partial admission.
It might have been expected to end there. After all, the king was not accused of anything illegal and Swedes don't get into a moral panic about extramarital affairs. But the question of strip club visits — frowned upon in Sweden's egalitarian society — would not go away.
And suggestions the king may have spent hefty sums on such visits raised questions about whether the public should be provided more information about how the royal court uses its annual 122 million kronor (nearly $20 million) taxpayer-funded stipend.
In May, the story took a new twist when Swedish Radio aired a secret recording in which one of the king's friends, Anders Lettstrom, was heard discussing the scandal with a reputed gangland figure. Their conversation centered on Mille Markovic, a former night club owner and a key source in the book who claims to have pictures of the king's entourage in compromising situations.
Swedish Radio broadcast parts of a conversation where Lettstrom wanted to know exactly what material Markovic had and how much it would cost to make him hand it over.
After initial denials, Lettstrom issued a statement to Swedish news agency TT admitting he had contacted criminals in a misguided attempt to find out "how so many lies about me and others" could have been spread in the book about the king. Lettstrom said he had acted alone and that the king knew nothing about it.
Under mounting media pressure, the king agreed to an interview with TT about his private life on Monday. In the interview, Carl Gustaf rejected any knowledge of Lettstrom's contacts with criminals and said he no longer considered Lettstrom a friend. He also denied having visited the specific strip clubs mentioned in the book.
In answer to whether he had ever visited a strip club, the king asked the reporter to define what exactly he meant by one, then recalled a visit to a cabaret in Paris.
The interview didn't go down well with the public or the media.
Tabloid Aftonbladet, one of Sweden's biggest newspapers, called on the king to abdicate, saying his credibility had been tainted.
"If it turns out that the king lied straight into (Swedes') faces, we could be one step closer to a republic," another newspaper, Goteborgs-Posten, said in an editorial.
The TT reporter also asked the king whether the situation had made the monarch think about passing the crown to Victoria.
"I think that's hard to understand, that question. It's not relevant," the king said. "By tradition and custom, that's not how it works."

New York police said an Uzi was the highlight of a weekend gun buyback program in the Bronx.

The buyback events generally collect junkers and Saturday Night Specials, but one fellow came in with the high-powered Israeli submachine gun immortalized as Tony Montana's "little friend" in the crime movie "Scarface."

"Any day that you get an Uzi off the streets of The Bronx is a good day," Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz told the New York Post.

A source told the Post the Uzi was one of 354 firearms collected at three churches in response to an uptick in shootings in the area.

federal grand jury has returned a new criminal indictment against once-prominent Newark lawyer Paul W. Bergrin that directly implicates him in a June 2007 bribery scandal aimed at helping a convicted felon escape gun charges.
The 138-page superseding indictment, returned last Thursday but made public today, charges Bergrin with four new criminal counts, including one which details allegations that Bergin and others pulled off a plan to use a fall guy — referred to in the indictment as “J.M.” — to confess to a gun possession charge involving a .22-caliber revolver against an alleged “criminal client” and employee of Bergrin’s law firm, who is referred as “A.W.”, federal authorities said.
The indictment says that J.M.’s false confession, made in exchange for a payment, helped A.W. get a parole-board hearing acquittal and get released from jail in 2007.
The 33-count indictment also says that once “A.W.” was released from the Essex County Correctional Facility, he returned to assisting Bergrin and others “in distributing kilogram quantities of cocaine.”
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Trial date set for ex-Newark lawyer accused of plotting to kill witnesses

• Racketeering charges are reinstated against N.J. lawyer accused of plotting to kill potential witness
• Prosecutors go mum in case of high-profile lawyer accused of plotting to kill witnesses
• Newark lawyer Paul Bergrin, charged with murder, witness intimidation, returns to federal prison
• Star-Ledger archives: The Paul Bergrin case

Bergrin, 55, a former federal prosecutor turned high-profile defense attorney, whose legal clients included entertainers like Lil’ Kim and Queen Latifah, is facing racketeering and other charges ranging from murder-for-hire to running a high-end Manhattan call-girl operation.
His trial, long delayed because of a series of appeals, is scheduled for Oct. 11.
Bergrin’s defense attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, said in an email today that the new indictment “appears to vastly expand the charges against Mr. Bergrin, beyond what was already a massive, unwieldy indictment, piling charge upon charge in a way that will make a fair trial, as a practical matter, impossible.”
The allegations made public Monday against Bergrin contains facts and dates that mirror facts surrounding a guilty plea by Clifford J. Minor, a former Essex County prosecutor and former Newark mayoral candidate.
In April, Minor admitted to trying to help Abdul Williams, 34, of East Orange, escape .22-caliber revolver gun-possession charges in June 2007 by serving as lawyer for Jamal Muhammad, 32, of Newark, when Muhammad went to falsely confess to police that he had illegally possessed the revolver. In pleading guilty, Minor admitted he knew Williams had a string of felony convictions before his June 2007 arrest and that Muhammad would face a lighter sentence for the crime.
Minor, 68, is slated to be sentenced on July 18 in federal court in Newark for counts related to the scandal, federal authorities said.
But Monday Minor’s defense lawyer, Thomas R. Ashley, said there is no connection between Minor and Bergrin.
“There was never any interaction whatsoever between Paul Bergrin and Cliff Minor with respect to Abdul Williams and/or Mr. Muhammad, who was Mr. Minor’s client,” he said.
Minor and Bergin never had any business relationship and had never talked about Williams and Muhammad, Ashley said.
The indictment also added a count related to a murder allegation against Bergrin that says that he aided in the killing of a key witness referred to as K.D.M. who may have testified against a cocaine trafficker.
Several people originally charged along with Bergrin have already pleaded guilty and implicated him, including a Monmouth County cocaine trafficker, Vincente Esteves.
Esteves said he worked with Bergrin to plot the assassination of a potential witness against Esteves himself known as “Junior the Panamanian.” The new indictment extended the time frame for some racketeering counts against Bergrin and dropped counts related to mortage fraud and witness tampering. The indictment also named Alejandro Barraza-Castro, an alleged criminal associate of Bergrin’s.

The body of the Linden man who is said to have been shot to death over an argument with his boss over stolen ganja seeds was recovered late yesterday.
The decomposing body of 21-year-old Clifton Bonus, called Motty, was pulled from the backlands of Linden next to the location of the old Mackenzie airstrip known by locals as a marijuana farm.
Reports indicate that the man, wearing just black short pants, was dumped in a gully in the bushes, after he was shot dead.
Bonus’s killer is said to be on the run from police. An eyewitness to the killing is among two persons assisting police with the investigations. The other person in custody is said to be one of the persons on the ganja farm at the time of the incident.
Bonus was missing since last Friday, and on Sunday last relatives were reportedly informed that the man had been killed.
Both relatives and police subsequently scoured the area where Bonus was reportedly killed, but came up empty handed every time.
The grueling searches came to an abrupt end sometime before 17:00 hrs,
yesterday, after his grotesquely swollen and muddied body was discovered in a shallow grave,
Informed sources indicated that a gunshot wound was visible on one of Bonus’s leg and at the side of his head.
His body was subsequently taken to the Linden Hospital Complex wrapped in a grey tarpaulin, and later to the Wismar Mortuary.
Persons who were present at the hospital when the body was taken there for examination said that persons just stood around in shock; there was no emotional outburst or anything like that.
The eyewitness is reported to have told police that Bonus and his assailant had an argument over stolen ganja seeds last Friday. The argument escalated to the point where the man is said to have shot Bonus in the chest.
The eyewitness, who was washing dishes at the time, was threatened by the assailant to leave the area, sources told Kaieteur News.  However, the eyewitness, on Sunday, decided to tell police what he saw.
Karen Lashley, the slain man’s mother, had said she last saw her son two Mondays ago. Clifton Bonus, her only son, reportedly lived with her at Silvertown, until he moved out and went to live with the mother of his child at Nottinghamshire. The mother of his child is said to be his killer’s sister.
He reportedly worked with the woman’s brother.
Lashley said she did not know where her son worked or the nature of his job.
Karen Lashley told media operatives that when she  visited the suspect mother’s house, where her son resided until recently, one of the suspect’s  brothers blurted out, “Mommy tell the lady wha you son do she son, tell she is you own son kill she son!”

 criminal street gang member the Crips pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to charges of conspiring to conduct a racketeering enterprise related to his membership in a Pittsburgh Crips criminal enterprise, according to a report obtained by the Organized Crime Control Committee of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

 
Nicklas Gay, 23, aka “GK,” pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond to one count of conspiracy to engage in a racketeering conspiracy.   

According to the guilty plea, Gay and others participated in a pattern of racketeering activity that included multiple acts involving robberies at gun point; attempted murders; distribution of controlled substances, including cocaine, heroin and crack cocaine; and acts of obstruction of justice and witness intimidation.

According to his allocution and court documents, Gay was a member of the Northview Heights/ Fineview Crips, a criminal street gang operating out of the Northview Heights public housing facility in the Northside neighborhood, and in the nearby Fineview neighborhood of Pittsburgh. 

The gang had been operating in Northside since 2002, and in 2003 it formed an alliance with the Brighton Place Crips to expand the gang’s drug trafficking territory and increase the gang’s capability for violence.   The Brighton Place Crips is a criminal street gang formed in the early 1990s that controlled the area of Brighton Place and Morrison Street, also known as the Mad Cave, and Federal Street in the Northside area of Pittsburgh.

The Brighton Place/Northview Heights Crips gang maintained exclusive control over drug trafficking in these neighborhoods through continuous violence and intimidation of rivals and witnesses.  Members of the gang support each other through payment of attorneys’ fees and bonds, as well as payments to jail commissary accounts and support of incarcerated members’ families.   

In addition, the Brighton Place/Northview Heights Crips gang maintains an ongoing feud with the Manchester Original Gangsters, a criminal street gang located in the Manchester area of the Northside Section of Pittsburgh.  

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Brighton Place/Northview Heights Crips gang members identify themselves by wearing blue, using Crips gang hand signals, and using phrases such as “Cuz,” “C-Safe,” “Loc” and “G.K.”   According to court documents, members and associates of the gang obtain greater authority and prestige within the gang based on their reputation for violence and their ability to obtain and sell a steady supply of illegal drugs.

According to court documents, Gay acted as a “hustler” or distributor of controlled substances including heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine, for the gang.   He also acted as a “soldier/ gorilla” or enforcer for the gang, providing protection for the enterprise through the commission of violent crimes.         

Also yesterday, Michael Wade, 25, aka “Swade,” and Michael Henson, 29, aka “Henne,” members of the Northview Heights/ Brighton Place Crips, were sentenced to 70 and 110 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the criminal enterprise.   Wade and Henson pleaded guilty on February 2, 2011, and February 1, 2011, respectively, to one count of conspiracy to engage in racketeering before Judge Diamond.                

Gay, Wade and Henson are three of 26 defendants charged in February 2010 with being members of, and conducting racketeering activity through, the Brighton Place/Northview Heights Crips gang.  This prosecution resulted from a Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force investigation that began in 2005. 

To date, more than half of the Brighton Place/ Northview Heights Crips members who were charged in this indictment have pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.          

Gay faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.   He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 7, 2011.

Chicago police made numerous arrests this week connected to a drug-trafficking operation run by the Black P Stones street gang on the Southeast Side, authorities said at a news conference Thursday.

Among 15 arrested Wednesday morning, 13 were charged with felony criminal drug conspiracy, including the operation’s alleged ringleader, 32-year-old Eric Gauthreaux.

Authorities said he’s a reputed high-ranking leader of the P Stones and a nephew of the gang’s imprisoned co-founder Jeff Fort, who also founded the gang’s El Rukn faction.

Police said the $15,000-a-day operation dealt mostly heroin and cocaine in an area dubbed “Terror Town” that is loosely bounded by East 75th and 79th Streets, Yates Boulevard and Colfax Avenue.

“This is probably the most active (drug-dealing area) on the South Side and the most organized,” Sgt. Tom Cronin of the Chicago police gang investigations unit, which led the eight-month probe, said at the news conference at police headquarters.

The investigation also resulted in the arrests of 16 additional people who tried to buy drugs from undercover officers, authorities said. Four other suspects in the probe remained at large.

Police also seized roughly $25,000 in cash during the investigation as well as 900 grams of heroin, 125 grams of cocaine, 13 vehicles and 10 guns, authorities said. Inside Gauthreaux’s home, they said, police found clothing, hats and various types of handwritten artwork related to the Fort family or the P Stones.
 
The investigation began last September after a rash of violent crimes in the area, authorities said. The investigation was stepped up two months later after Chicago police Officer Michael Flisk, an evidence technician, was fatally shot in the area while on duty, authorities said.
 
Gauthreaux lives down the alley from where that slaying took place, but Flisk’s death wasn’t connected to the drug operation.

On May 19, however, Chicago Police Officer Paul Nauden was taken to a hospital complaining of chest pains while working on the investigation. The 46-year-old narcotics unit officer and 21-year department veteran died the following day at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

In addition to officers from the narcotics unit, those from the gang enforcement unit and Calumet Area assisted in the probe.

“There’s a reason that this area is called ‘Terror Town,’” said Brian Sexton, chief of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office’s narcotics prosecutions section. He offered a stern message for gang members who are still active in that area: “We’re not done yet.”

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.