5 dead 8 injured in Berkeley balcony collapse

An apartment building balcony collapsed early Tuesday in Berkeley, killing five people and leave eight others injured, police said.

Many of the injured have critical, life-threatening wounds, said officer Jennifer Coats, a spokeswoman with the Berkeley Police Department.

Police received a call about the incident shortly before 1 a.m. PDT Tuesday, and when officers arrived they found that the balcony on the fourth floor of the building on Kittredge Street had disintegrated.

Coats said officers are still investigating and she doesn't have any information on how it occurred or what the people were doing on the structure at the time.

"We don't know what happened. Officers on scene talking with people," witnesses, she said.

Coats said she also didn't have information on the identities of the victims, including their ages and gender.

"We don't have a lot of specific detail at this point because they (investigators) are still trying to work through it all," she said in a telephone interview.

The building has apartment in the upper floors and retails shops on the ground floor.

Michael Slager ex-South Carolina police officer indicted in death of black man shot in back

A grand jury on Monday indicted a white former police officer on a murder charge for the shooting death of a black man in North Charleston, South Carolina, according to the prosecutor overseeing the case.

Michael Slager, 33, was fired from his patrolman job after being charged with murder in the April 4 death of Walter Scott, 50, who was fatally shot in the back as he was running from the officer following a traffic stop.
A bystander using his cellphone captured a video of the shooting, which was widely distributed in the media. The death reignited a public outcry over police treatment of African Americans that flared last year after killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City and elsewhere.
The video evidence does not guarantee the prosecution a conviction in the case, said Scarlett Wilson, solicitor for the Ninth Judicial Circuit.
"Just because you have video in this case, it doesn't mean it's the be-all and end-all," she said at a news conference in Charleston. "The issue is the people who were there who were involved, who saw or heard anything, who can demonstrate what they saw and heard."
If convicted of murder, Slager would face between 30 years and life in prison without the possibility of parole. No trial date has been set, Wilson said.Scott was driving a black Mercedes-Benz when Slager pulled him over for a broken tail light. Video from the dashboard camera in Slager's police cruiser recorded a respectful exchange between the two men before the officer returned to his patrol car.
A few minutes later, after being told by Slager to stay in the Mercedes, Scott emerged from his car and ran off, apparently unarmed.
The subsequent cell phone video showed the men in a brief tussle before Scott ran off again, Slager fired his handgun eight times and Scott slumped into the grass. There was a gap between the two videos.
Before Slager's arrest, he said through an attorney that he feared for his life when he shot Scott.
The ex-officer's current attorney, Andrew Savage III, said on Monday his legal team was still waiting to receive the state's investigative materials in the case.
"Until we have an opportunity to fully evaluate the state's case and to compare it with our own investigation we will not be commenting on any aspect of the case," he said.

Overzealous Racist police attack & threathens teenagers with a gun over use of a pool (RAW video w/ no blur) UPDATED

The teen who was body-slammed by a Texas cop at a graduation pool party wants to see him fired — and more changes within the force.
Video from the Friday party-turned-fight shows McKinney police Cpl. Eric Casebolt yank 15-year-old bikini-clad Dajerria Becton onto her stomach and then kneel on her as he points his gun at other partygoers.
A fight at the community pool broke out after white adults told some black partygoers to “go back to their Section 8 Housing,” the party’s host said.
Police said they were originally called to the pool because neighbors reported that the swimmers didn’t have permission to use it. When they showed up, the partygoers refused to follow orders.
Becton said she was an invited guest at the party who had permission to use the pool. She was trying to leave the area and get away from the chaos when Casebolt approached her, she said.
The cop threw her on to the ground, rolled her over so her face was in the grass and sat on her back, video shows.
“He grabbed me, twisted my arm on my back and shoved me in the grass and started pulling the back of my braids,” Becton said. “I was telling him to get off me because my back was hurting bad.”
She struggled to get up, but Casebolt kept pinning her down, she said. The 15-year-old was eventually released when her family came to pick her up.
Casebolt has been placed on leave pending an investigation. The teen said he should lose his job and wants to see more done to prevent future police brutality.
“Him getting fired is not enough," she said.
Officers were initially called to the pool — a community facility open only to neighbors — because residents reported a group of juveniles fighting. Those teens did not have permission to be there, the callers said.
It’s not clear if the callers were referencing the group of teens at the pool for an end-of-the-school-year party.
The celebration’s host — a 19-year-old neighborhood resident named Tatiana — said her family invited a racially diverse group of friends to the poolside cookout and gave them all guest passes to swim.
While the friends were at the pool, a group of white women told the host’s black, invited guests to “go back to (their) Section 8 homes,” she said in a YouTube video after the ordeal.
Tatiana said some of the teens tried to explain that they were all either invited guests or residents, but the women continued to taunt them and ordered them to "go back to where (they're) from."
When Tatiana asked "Excuse me?" one of the women slapped her in her face, she said.
When police arrived on the scene, everyone fled, including the invited guests.
Becton said she was trying to leave the scene with the rest of the group when Casebolt grabbed her and forced her on the ground. Another neighbor claimed she saw the teen resist the cop when he tried to handcuff her, prompting his takedown.
Brandon Brooks, a 15-year-old at the party, shot video of Casebolt throwing Becton to the ground. He said that the cop only targeted minority teenagers.
“Everyone who was getting put on the ground was black, Mexican, Arabic,” said Brooks, who is white. “(The cop) didn’t even look at me. It was kind of like I was invisible.”
In the video, Casebolt pointed his weapon at some of the other teens.
“Y’all make me f--king run around here with 30 pounds of goddamn gear on in the sun, because you want to screw around out here,” Casebolt told a group of seated teens.
Video showed other cops more calmly tending to the scene.
Police said the video “raised concerns” and was being investigated.
McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller also found the video troubling.
“Having seen the You Tube video, I am disturbed and concerned by the incident and actions depicted in the video. Our expectation as a City Council is that our police department and other departments will act professionally and with appropriate restraint relative to the situation they are faced with,” he said in a statement.

2 inmates serving life for murders escape "Shawshank Redemption" style (RAW pics)

Two murderers who used power tools to escape from prison must have taken days to cut through steel walls and pipes and break through the bricks, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday as a $100,000 reward was posted for information leading to their capture.
Authorities were investigating how the inmates obtained the power tools they used in the "Shawshank Redemption"-style breakout over the weekend.
"It was a sophisticated plan," Cuomo said. "It took a period of time, no doubt, to execute."
David Sweat, 34, was serving a sentence of life without parole for the 2002 killing of a sheriff's deputy. Richard Matt, 48, had been sentenced to 25 years to life for kidnapping, killing and dismembering his former boss in 1997.
"These are killers. They are murderers," the governor said. "There's never been a question about the crimes they committed. They are now on the loose, and our first order of business is apprehending them."
Officials gave no details on how the men managed to avoid detection while cutting their way out. "They had to be heard," Cuomo told ABC's "Good Morning America."
After the search is over, "we'll go through the exact details of what they did and how they did it to ensure this never happens again," Cuomo said later.
Authorities set up roadblocks and brought in bloodhounds and helicopters. Hundreds of law enforcement officers fanned out around the prison, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border, following up on dozens of tips.
But authorities acknowledged they did not have a good idea where the convicts could be. They may have crossed into Canada or headed to another state, Cuomo said.
"This is a crisis situation for the state," he said. "These are dangerous men capable of committing
grave crimes again."
Prison officials found the inmates' beds inside the 150-year-old Clinton Correctional Facility stuffed with clothes on Saturday morning in an apparent attempt to fool guards making their rounds. On a cut steam pipe, the prisoners left a taunting note containing a crude Asian caricature and the words "Have a nice day."
Officials said the inmates cut through the steel wall at the back of their cell, crawled down a catwalk, broke through a brick wall, cut their way into and out of a steam pipe, and then sliced through the chain and lock on a manhole cover outside the prison.
To escape, the inmates had to cut into the steam pipe then shimmy "some distance," Cuomo said, before cutting themselves out again. Their path brought to mind "The Shawshank Redemption," the 1994 adaptation of a Stephen King story about an inmate's carefully planned prison escape.
It was the first escape from the maximum-security portion of the prison, which was built in 1865.
The men may have had assistance outside the prison, perhaps meeting up with someone who helped them leave the area, investigators said.
Cuomo said investigators were confident the men obtained the tools inside the prison. Acting Corrections Commissioner Anthony Annucci said an inventory of prison tools had so far shown none missing and he was in contact with contractors who were doing or had done work at the prison.
Steven Tarsia, brother of slain sheriff's Deputy Kevin Tarsia, said that finding out his brother's killer had escaped "turns your world upside-down all over again."
He said that just the other day, he found he couldn't remember the names of the men responsible for his brother's death.
"All of a sudden, I remember them again," he said.
Tarsia said he couldn't imagine how the men could have gotten power tools and escaped without help, but "I don't know why anybody would help them."
Prison escapes "are a relatively rare event," said Martin Horn, former New York City corrections commissioner who is now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "That tells you that a great deal of planning is involved because it's not an easy thing to accomplish."
In 2003, two convicted murderers Timothy Vail and Timothy Morgan escaped from a maximum-security prison in Chemung County. They were caught the next day, hiding in an abandoned mobile
home not far from the prison.
A state investigation concluded that "staff complacency" allowed the inmates to smuggle tools from a
prison carpentry shop to enable their escape. Two corrections officers and a carpentry shop instructor were disciplined.
The two inmates had spent a month chiseling a hole through the concrete ceiling of their cell with a sledgehammer head and other shop tools and made dummies with papier mache heads sporting their own clipped hair, which they left in their bunks the night of their escape.
Saturday's escape had law enforcement swarming the town of Dannemora in the Adirondacks.
Beth Nichols, an employee of a Dunkin' Donuts across the street from the prison and a few hundred yards from the manhole where authorities said the men emerged, said their escape was "nerve-wracking."
She said one employee had a panic attack Saturday after being told about the prisoner breakout.
"She got really scared and she cried," Nichols said. The employee lives a walk away on the same road, but authorities would not immediately allow her to enter her home; her mother picked her up.
Dannemora covers just over 1 square mile within the northern reaches of the Adirondack Forest
Preserve and is surrounded by woods and farmland. The stark white perimeter wall of the prison, topped with guard towers, borders a main street in the town's business district.

Fremont Bay Area man beaten & robbed after hiring prostitute (PHOTO for all you johns)

FREMONT, CA 

Things didn't go as planned when police say a man hired a prostitute to come to his home. He says he was drugged, tied up, beaten and then robbed. And now the search is on for the call girl crook.

Fremont police are looking for a woman who called herself "Krissy."

If there are more victims out there, police think they're too embarrassed or scared to report the crime. But at least one man has come forward with a picture of the suspect and police now police want to know if you know who this woman is.

Police say the victim admitted he solicited a prostitute on a "casual encounters" website. She emailed this picture to him and he says the same woman showed up at his home, in the Irvington area of Fremont.

He thinks she drugged him and when he woke up his hands were tied behind his back. Three men were now in his house and they, along with the woman, beat him until he told them where his cash and valuables were located.

Fremont resident Kathy Schoggins said, "It doesn't surprise me... because all of these things that are all online, and you're hooking up online, you have no idea what you're walking into."

Union City resident Ricky Kumar told ABC7 News, "It is prostitution." He says his friends solicited a prostitute from a similar website that openly advertises for it. "But after that... today I'm seeing this. No, I don't think it's safe."

Now police want your help in finding the female suspect, she's described as Italian or Hispanic, 18-22 years old, 140-160 pounds with red highlights in her hair. She has tattoos on her back, wrists and arms, as well as three stars on her chest.