Stupid people of the week

One dead after police chase ends at downtown Columbia convention center

This one’s got a real Wile E Coyote moment.

A man died after a fall from the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center following a police chase that began across the river in Cayce.

At approximately 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning, the man fell from the upper level of the convention center grounds while running from a car accident that occurred during a police pursuit.

The chase began in Lexington County, when Officer Vinton Gillerson with the Cayce Police Department noticed a silver Chevy Sonic with North Carolina plates parked at Guignard Park, which is closed after dark. The car was parked with its lights off and occupied by two individuals.

As Gillerson approached the car, it “accelerated away at a high rate of speed initiating a vehicle pursuit,” according to the police incident report. Shortly after crossing into the city of Columbia, the Chevy hit a curb and collided with a concrete planter outside of the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

The driver fled the vehicle, leaving the passenger behind, according to the incident report. Officers did not pursue the driver, who fled on foot before falling from an upper, exterior level of the convention center.

“Our officer responded in accordance with his training by calling for additional officers and first checking on the other individual from the single car accident. There was no foot chase initiated,” said Cayce Police Chief Chris Cowan.

Cayce Police say that the unnamed suspect had a warrant out in Georgia.

A call to the Richland County Coroner’s Office was not returned Saturday afternoon.

Source; Yahoo!

Chief: Man shot by Chicago police infiltrated SWAT training

A man climbed five stories of a fire escape to infiltrate a Chicago police facility Monday while officers were undergoing a SWAT training exercise and grabbed at least two guns before he was shot and wounded by police, the chief said.

Police Superintendent David Brown said the suspect was taken to the hospital with injuries not considered to be life-threatening. One officer was taken to the hospital with a sprained ankle.

Brown said the suspect was seen on video leaving the facility and then returning to infiltrate it. He asked where to go to retrieve personal property at the facility in Homan Square on Chicago’s West Side. Then he came back to the building and climbed the fire escape to the fifth floor, where a door had been propped open for ventilation because there are no windows on that floor.

Brown said it has not been determined if the man went to the building to retrieve property, saying that the man had an extensive record. It wasn’t immediately clear if property taken from the man was stored in the building.

He had no other information about the man, other than to say he was a resident of Waukegan, a suburb about 42 miles north of Chicago.

Police later said the man is 47.

Brown said investigators believe the man grabbed at least two guns that were on a table during the training exercise and pointed them at officers. He said the guns did not have live ammunition in them, adding that they were either empty or contained munitions, such as pellets that are used for training exercises, because they sting when they strike a person but do not cause serious injury or death. He said he did not know if the man attempted to shoot officers with the guns.

He said the investigation will reveal what officers in the room knew about the guns the suspect took.

Brown speculated on what officers in the training room saw as the man entered the room.

“These were guns that were being watched,” he said. “Obviously, someone coming from a stairwell outside startled everyone. Who is this person? Is this person associated with the training? We do have live actors sometimes who come in plainclothes.”

He also said that it was likely the officers said something to the man when they spotted him, but that, “We just don’t know what the offender said.”

He said most of those taking part in the training were tactical officers assigned to specialized units but that a few of them were uniformed officers assigned to City Hall or to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s home.

The officer was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and listed in good condition with the ankle injury. He was not shot, Brown said.

The suspect was initially described as being in critical condition with at least one gunshot wound. Later in the day, Brown said the man’s injuries were not life-threatening. Department spokesman Tom Ahern said the man has been placed under arrest and is under police guard in the hospital because he is a suspect in the incident. He did not know what specific charges he might face.

The shooting is being investigated by the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability. The officer or officers involved will be placed on routine administrative duties for 30 days, the police department said.

The police facility is in a large red brick building that houses evidence and recovered property on the first floor. Some of the police department’s specialized units also work out of the building.

Early Monday afternoon, crime scene tape was stretched across South Homan Avenue a block south of the police station and across the same street just north of the building.

A nearby school was placed on lockdown.

Source; WSFA

NYC robbers busted in wild Upper East Side car chase after one leaves behind debit card with his name on it

Armed robbers, take note: If you don’t want to get caught, don’t leave behind an ATM card with your name on it.

A pair of crooks who swiped $9,000 in cash after a wild Upper East Side caught-on-video car chase were nabbed with help from a debit card one of the men left behind in the stolen Mercedes Benz they used in the Sept. 3 crime, says a complaint in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Denis Piters, 29, of the Bronx was arrested Wednesday, and charged with robbery, criminal use of a firearm, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of stolen property.

A 19th Precinct detective said in the criminal complaint that he recovered a cash app card that bore Piters’ name from inside the Mercedes.

Piters has been unable to make $250,000 cash bail, and as of late Saturday remained at Rikers Island awaiting his next court hearing.

Piters’ alleged accomplice, fellow Bronx resident Cristian Santana, 32, was arrested Sept. 21. He was released on a $75,000 bond, court records say.

Piters and Santana are accused of using the Mercedes to chase a man driving a Toyota RAV4 through the Upper East Side in an attempt to rob him of cash.

The caught-on-video chase included a stint of wrong-way driving on Second Ave. near E. 91st St. Piters and Santana slammed the stolen Mercedes into the Toyota on Second Ave. near E. 92nd St., police and witnesses said.

One of the suspects got out of the Mercedes and banged a pistol on the victim’s windshield, before swiping a bag of $9,000 cash from the victim’s car. Police said the suspects targeted the victim because they knew he was likely to have a large sum of cash.

The scene was about two and a half long blocks from Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s residence.

The robbers sped off, and police found their car a few blocks away — with the ATM card and other evidence, including fingerprints, the complaint says.

Source; Yahoo!

Uvalde school district fires officer after CNN identifies her as trooper under investigation for her response to massacre

Since this story broke just yesterday, the Uvalde School District has now suspended the whole PD.

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District fired a newly hired school officer on Thursday after CNN identified her as one of the officers under investigation for her actions during the Uvalde school massacre in May.

Crimson Elizondo was one of the state troopers who arrived at Robb Elementary within two minutes of a gunman entering the school and opening fire last May.

She is seen in her Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) uniform, handgun drawn, outside the school building in Uvalde, and then briefly in the hallway on the body camera footage from another law enforcement officer.

Later, she can be heard on body camera footage talking to fellow officers when someone asks if she had children at the school that day.

“If my son had been in there, I would not have been outside,” she said. “I promise you that.”

Elizondo was one of the first of the 91 DPS officers to arrive, one of the 376 total law enforcement personnel who went to the school where the shooter was left for 77 minutes – with dead, dying and traumatized victims – before he was stopped. The response to the attack in which 19 children and two teachers were killed has been denounced as an “abject failure” with enough blame to be spread widely.

The school police chief was fired and now seven DPS officers are being investigated for what they did – or did not – do. CNN has uncovered exclusively that Elizondo is one of those officers being investigated. A source close to the investigation also confirmed that to CNN.

She no longer works for DPS. During the summer, she was hired as a police officer for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, where her role is to protect some of the very same children who survived the Robb Elementary shooting.

Elizondo declined to speak with CNN in person, on the phone or by direct message.

Following this CNN report, the school district issued a statement announcing her termination effective Thursday.

“We are deeply distressed by the information that was disclosed yesterday evening concerning one of our recently hired employees, Crimson Elizondo,” the statement from the district said. “We sincerely apologize to the victim’s families and the greater Uvalde community for the pain that this revelation has caused. Ms. Elizondo’s statement in the audio is not consistent with the District’s expectations.”

“Regarding the remaining UCISD Police Department employees, we continue to make personnel decisions based on verifiable information. An independent investigation is underway to evaluate the actions of the current officers on May 24, 2022. Additionally, we are awaiting results of a management and organizational review of the UCISD Police Department that will aid the district in taking informed actions to further ensure the safety and security of our schools,” the statement added.

However, the Uvalde School District Police were informed as early as July 28 that Elizondo was subject to investigation by the department’s Office of Inspector General for actions “inconsistent with training and department requirements,” according to documents obtained by CNN in a public records request.

It is not clear from the letter which actions were subject to investigation.

More at the source; CNN

Coroner: Man Dies in Fall from Balcony While Doing Handstand During Hurricane Ian

Lastly, we have a real Darwin Award contender here.

A man died when he fell from a hotel balcony in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, while performing a handstand as Hurricane Ian swept through the area on September 30.

Horry County Chief Deputy Coroner Tamara Willard said 34-year-old Ohio resident Markell Hope plunged from the 15th floor of the Patricia Grand Hotel, WYFF reported Thursday.

Hurricane Ian was moving through the area at the time and “Willard said Hope was trying to do a handstand on the balcony when he fell,” the outlet continued, adding law enforcement is investigating what happened.

Source; Breitbart

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime, Darwin Awards, Stupid Criminals, WTF?