Category: Crime

Mick sends us a link from Fox News about a mother who distracted Juan Rodriguez, who was pretending to be a police officer while he robbed a family that was enjoying Taco Sunday at a taco truck;

The mother, going for the “taco tactic,” offered the 38-year-old suspect a taco and told him she needed to grab napkins from the food truck.

“The man with the gun continued to flash his gun and ransack through the mother’s purse as she walked away,” the news release stated.

The mother approached customers at the taco truck, told them not too look a back and told them a man with a gun was threatening her family. The taco truck employees and customers immediately called 911.

Police found Rodriguez standing next to the family’s van when they arrived at the scene. Rodriguez allegedly tried to escape by tossing his gun in the van and trying to get in.

“Deputies were able to detain the suspect before anything further occurred. Deputies recovered the gun and made sure all family members were unharmed,” police said.

Who among us could resist the offer of free tacos?

Adios, Juan. Enjoy those free tacos in prison, ‘mano.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Eric Alan Cabrera a twenty-year-old gang member has been charged with defacing a mural in a Mexican-American neighborhood that honored veterans who came from that neighborhood;

In March, Cabrera allegedly tagged graffiti on the exterior wall of La Chiquita Market on Washington Avenue in Santa Ana, which hosts a mural called “Among Heroes.” The mural displays nearly 200 portraits of mostly Latino and Latina U.S. veterans — the majority of whom served during World War II.

Cabrera, who authorities say is a member of the Lopers gang, was also charged with a gang enhancement.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at a news conference Tuesday that the graffiti wasn’t just an act of vandalism. It also “disrespected heroes who made Santa Ana and Orange County proud.”

Juan Villegas, a veteran and Santa Ana councilman, called the vandalism to a “crime against our culture. It’s a crime against our heritage.”

The mural was painted over the course of five years and became an artistic centerpiece in the Logan neighborhood — a longtime Latino neighborhood that dates back to the late 1800s.

Cabrera, the master criminal, was tracked down using video of his license plate, and he was in custody for another crime when he confessed to defacing the mural.

According to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, four people operating the website Mugshots.com have been charged with extortion, money laundering, and identity theft for their “pay for removal” business.

The website mines data from police and sheriffs’ department websites to collect individuals’ names, booking photos and charges, then republishes the information online without the individuals’ knowledge or consent. Once subjects request that their booking photos be removed, they are routed to a secondary website called Unpublisharrest.com and charged a “de-publishing” fee to have the content removed. Mugshots.com does not remove criminal record information until a subject pays the fee. This is the case even if the subject had charges dismissed or had been arrested due to mistaken identity or law enforcement error. Those subjects who cannot pay the fee may subsequently be denied housing, employment, or other opportunities because their booking photo is readily available on the internet.

“This pay-for-removal scheme attempts to profit off of someone else’s humiliation,” said Attorney General Becerra. “Those who can’t afford to pay into this scheme to have their information removed pay the price when they look for a job, housing, or try to build relationships with others. This is exploitation, plain and simple.”

The defendants named in the complaint are Sahar Sarid, Kishore Vidya Bhavnanie, Thomas Keesee, and David Usdan. They are the alleged owners and operators of Mugshots.com. Over a three-year period, the defendants extracted more than $64,000 in removal fees from approximately 175 individuals with billing addresses in California. Nationally, the defendants took more than $2 million in removal fees from approximately 5,703 individuals for the same period.

The AG’s office is attempting to extradite the four who all live outside California.

Arrest warrants were served with the assistance of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, working with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office; the Connecticut State Police, working with the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice – State’s Attorney’s Office; and the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General.

Tchaasu Taylor was killed by a homeowner last week in Trinity, Alabama when he tried a home invasion. Two days prior, he was released on $31,000 bail for kidnapping and assault on a woman.

WAAY 31 asked the Madison County District Attorney why Taylor was back on the street so quickly.

Robert Broussard told us it’s simple, anyone is innocent until proven guilty and the bond that was set for Taylor is fair.

“I don’t look at an incident like this and think man this system is so broke,” he said.

The Madison County DA is talking about Tchaasu Taylor’s arrest in Huntsville and eventual death days later in Morgan County.

Huntsville police say Taylor kidnapped a woman from a business off Highway 72 after seeing text messages on her phone about a week and a half ago.

Investigators said Taylor hit, kicked, and stabbed the woman. He then beat her with weapons while he drove from Huntsville to Muscle Shoals, according to police.

Days later, police arrested Taylor but he was out on about a $31,000 bond in about a day.

“I hate to say it, but it’s not uncommon that somebody who is out on bond ends up committing another crime. The natural question is why were they out on bond? You’re entitled to it. You’re presumed innocent until proven guilty,” said Broussard.

Decatur Police said Taylor did commit another crime. He broke into a home in Trinity, and police say the homeowner shot and killed him.

“I believe the system works pretty good. I really do. You can always point to the one that maybe if somehow this guy was locked up certainly he wouldn’t commit another crime in Morgan county and he wouldn’t have got killed, but there’s no way to forecast that,” Broussard added.

The Decatur Daily says that Taylor has a long history of violent crime;

Also, a hearing had been set for May 21 in Madison County on the state’s motion to revoke bond for Taylor, according to circuit court documents. Taylor was indicted last month by a Madison County grand jury on a first-degree burglary charge, documents state.

Taylor was arrested in August and released from jail the next month after he made bond, documents show. According to documents, Taylor had entered a dwelling and struck another man in the nose and mouth.

The only justice I see is that which an armed citizen dealt Taylor.

An 11-year-old girl escaped from a fellow who had been waiting for a victim in the stall of a ladies’ room in a mall in Cobb County, Georgia, according to Fox 5 Atlanta;

Police said around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, a girl was with her family in the food court at Town Center at Cobb when she asked to used the restroom. Her father walked her to the hallway leading to the women’s room, and then waited for her to return.

The girl told investigators she didn’t see anyone when she went into the bathroom, but after coming out of the stall, the door for another one opened. She told police a black male came out of the stall and grabbed her. According to police, the attacker put a knife to the girl’s throat. She screamed and managed to escape.

The girl ran back to her father and pointed out the attacker as he left the women’s room. Other shoppers saw what was going on, and helped tackle the man and held him until mall security arrived.

Mr Perv (Danzell Mitchell) is safely behind bars.

Mick sends a link to the story of Marion Samuel Corba who tried to force his way into a South Carolina armory;

Police said Corba’s spree started when the “man with a message” struck two vehicles with his minivan after apparently growing impatient with a traffic jam. The crash left Corba’s vehicle without one of it’s tires — but he kept driving until he ended up in front of the South Carolina National Guard Armory, where Corba took out a sign and struck a parked car, officials said.

Then, Corba, with nowhere else to go, attempted to flee on foot and break into the armory, authorities said. But military police officers rushed in and detained Corba until the Springdale Police Department arrived. Corba, however, put up a struggle with cops, trying to wrestle the officers after they found a dagger in his pocket, police said.

From the Springdale Police Department’s Facebook page;

The man wrestled with officers who were assisted by the soldiers in detaining the man until he could be strapped to a bed to be transported to the hospital. In the midst of wrestling though, he would bless us all with his singing auditions. Then he would call us evil spirits and told us that he was the “Messenger of Meth”….He was eventually transported to the jail to share the message that meth leads to jail.

Luckily, no one was injured in the incident and the messenger of meth is safely locked away.