- A self-described jihadist who killed a soldier outside a Little Rock recruiting station speaks. He had a history of addiction and violence before he turned to radical Islam. He said he was arrested in Yemen, and came to the attention of the FBI and CIA, which he said, “dropped the ball with me,” even after he returned to the U.S. to plot terrorist acts. The Memphis Commercial Appeal describes his “one-man jihad” and how he slipped through the cracks. [via Commercial Appeal]
- A federal jury in Washington Monday convicted a former Air Force senior airman in the fatal beating of an Army sergeant during a “jumping in” gang initiation in Germany. The airman, believed the leader of the Gangster Disciples in Ramstein, Germany, is the sixth person to be convicted in Johnson’s death. [via UPI and Stars and Stripes]
- An Iraq vet and MP turned Riverside, Calif., police officer pleaded for his life before he was murdered, according to the prosecutor. The murder charges against a 44-year-old career criminal make him eligible for the death penalty. “He assassinated my son. He does not deserve to be breathing the same air as you and I are breathing right now,” the officer’s father said. [via Los Angeles Times]
- Pennsylvania lawmakers want to investigate a policy that allowed the state to seize assets of veterans who died at six nursing homes. Under the program, veterans pay a reduced rate for their care based on their income, but when they die, the state makes a claim against their estates for the balance of the actual cost. [via Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]
- Bad day for law enforcement in Iraq. The commander of the Badoosh prison and his body guard where killed when twin car bombs outside a residential complex housing prison guards and staff in northern Iraq. Another bomb killed an Iraqi policeman in downtown Baghdad, and still another bomb wounded wounded four policeman in eastern part of the capital. [via Associated Press/CBS News]
- A Tennessee Army National Guardsman accidentally shot himself the night before a ceremony to honor his unit’s service in Iraq. The 21-year-old specialist, of the Cleveland-based 252nd Military Police Company, was cleaning his gun and evidently didn’t know a round was chambered. “He loved his guns, he babied his guns, he named them, he took care of them, cleaned them and that was kinda his heart and soul,” a friend said. [via WRCB-TV]
- A 35-year-old father and NYPD officer was killed in an alleged drunken driving crash caused by a 50-year-old former soldier. The driver, who served in the Army for ten years, was driving the wrong way in Babylon, N.Y. [via New York Newsday and NBC New York]
- Lawyers for an Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people during a shooting rampage at Ft. Hood a year ago declined to put on a defense case, ending a military hearing to determine whether the defendant should face murder charges. The defense attorney said he was unable to present a proper defense because the government had denied his requests for internal reports related to the shootings. [via Los Angeles Times]
- What started out as a homecoming celebration for a young Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., soldier and his wife ended up with both of them arrested for “investigation of drunken driving.” The 21-year-old soldier was arrested, and the wife was allowed to go, but when she drove to pick him up, she was arrested. [via KOMO-TV]
- Army prosecutors have told a military hearing that a Boise, Idaho, private should face a court-martial in a plot that killed an Afghan civilian. But a defense lawyer says his client was following a team leader’s order to fire, questions whether his client’s bullets hit the victim, and wants experts to examine a photo of the defendant kneeling over the victim. [via Associated Press/Seattle Times]
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A Note About the Blotter: I want to make a crime blotter a regular or semi-regular feature of the blog, but I’ve got to help put out a newspaper too, so let’s just see how this goes. Also, if you see something we missed, send me a link and I’ll do my best to get it into the blotter.
