Author: Dave Hardin

From Washington D.C.

A man who kicked his way through two plexiglass doors at the Fox 5 television station in Northwest Washington

was shot and wounded by a security guard Monday afternoon, D.C. police said.

Police identified the man as George Odemns, 38, and said he has no fixed address. Odemns was admitted to George Washington University Hospital in critical but stable condition, and he was charged with second-degree burglary, police said.

News media have been on higher alert after a gunman walked into the Annapolis office of the Capital Gazette news­papers in June and killed five staff members.

Police said Odemns was not armed.

Video from two surveillance cameras, aired by Fox 5 News, showed the man wearing a red hooded sweatshirt walking up to the door, turning his back to the door and with one hard kick knocking out a panel that appears to be plexiglass. Police said the incident happened at 3 p.m.

The intruder then entered a small vestibule and began kicking a second door opening to the lobby, the surveillance video shows. After five kicks, he was able to pull down the plexiglass from the second door. He then climbed through the door and into the lobby of the longtime WTTG offices at 5151 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

Police Cmdr. Melvin Gresham declined to describe what happened next between the intruder and the security guard or whether she exchanged words with the man or used any less-than-lethal weapons. The security guard fired once and hit the man in the upper torso, Gresham said.

Court records show that Odemns has filed more than two dozen federal lawsuits in recent years alleging that he is being controlled by a microchip planted in his head. All have been dismissed.

In 2014, Odemns sued Fox 5 in D.C. Superior Court, also claiming that the station controlled him with an “illegal nano-chip” and seeking $100 billion in damages.

In November, records show that Odemns was placed under emergency psychiatric care in the District after emailing death threats to D.C. police and the D.C. Office of Human Resources and threatening a federal judge who had dismissed one of his suits. In addition, he was involuntarily committed in 2015, court records show.

Odemns was charged with murder in the District in 2002, but court records indicate that the charge was dismissed soon after he was arrested.

From Lancaster, PA

One of two robbery suspects was shot during an attempted robbery at Smithgall’s Pharmacy on Tuesday afternoon, according to a releasefrom Lancaster Police Public Information Officer Lt. Bill Hickey.

The first dispatch went out around 2:40 p.m., for a robbery in progress at the pharmacy at 536 West Lemon Street, Hickey said. Former Lancaster Mayor Charlie Smithgall owns and runs the pharmacy.

While officers were en route, dispatchers received information that an armed suspect was shot by a clerk, police said.

Police found the suspect suffering from a gunshot wound outside the business, but still close to the scene, Hickey said. The man had multiple gunshot wounds, and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Police did not have an update on the condition of the suspect at the time of their release.

Hickey said the second suspect was a man dressed in black who fled the scene in an unknown direction.

Inside the pharmacy, police spoke with witnesses who confirmed both suspects fled and that the shots were fired as one of the suspects.

A handgun that was possessed by a suspect was recovered at the scene, as well as the handgun used by the clerk, police said.

Officers and detectives are canvassing the area for evidence, witness, and any surveillance video that could have caught something.

From ENCINITAS, CA

A North County drifter was behind bars Monday for allegedly attacking a homeowner during a predawn weekend robbery in a neighborhood near Batiquitos Lagoon.

The events that led to the violent encounter began at about 5 a.m. Saturday, when the victim, 62-year-old Fred Weston, was awakened by a security system on his property in the 500 block of La Costa Avenue in Encinitas, according to officials with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

“Weston’s one-acre property had been targeted several times in the past by people stealing copper cable, leading him to set up the system,” Sgt. Joe Tomaiko said.

After arming himself with a shotgun, Weston went into his yard, where he allegedly found 43-year-old Chuck Edward Neil, a drifter from Escondido, trying to hide in the darkness. Weston ordered the intruder to stand up and get off the property.

Neil initially complied, but as the two men were walking toward a front gate, the transient grabbed the barrel of the gun and began trying to wrest it away, Tomaiko said.

Following a struggle during which the homeowner fired a shot into the air in an attempt to scare off the attacker, Neil was able to pull the weapon away and allegedly punched the victim in the face repeatedly, knocking him to the ground, after which he got on top of him and began choking him with the barrel of the shotgun, authorities said.

Alerted to the altercation by surveillance cameras, Weston’s 58-year- old wife and 19-year-old son hurried outside and drove down their long driveway to intervene in the fight. Neil allegedly refused their demands to release Weston, at which point the teenager shocked the homeless man with an electric stun gun, incapacitating him. The family used a belt to bind Neil, then made a 911 call, the sergeant said.

Deputies arrested the suspect and determined that copper cable “had been cut and was being collected nearby on the property,” Tomaiko said.

Weston was treated at a hospital for a broken nose, scrapes and bruises.

After being treated for minor injuries, Neil was booked into county jail in Vista on suspicion of robbery and grand theft, with the latter charge stemming from a previous alleged incident at the same home. He was being held on $120,000 bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.