Latest news with #violentcrime
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Early jail release of inmate who killed hours later reviewed
A review is under way into the early release of a prisoner who killed a man hours after walking free from jail, the government has Matthews, 26, was armed with a chisel when he joined two others to hunt down and kill Lewis Bell, 26, over a drug den feud in Stockton in the early hours of 19 had been released from prison the previous morning as part of a scheme to ease pressure on crowded prisons, having been jailed three and a half months earlier for his part in a group attack on another Ministry of Justice said its thoughts remained with Mr Bell's family who would be informed of the review's findings. At the sentencing hearing of Mr Bell's killers on Thursday, prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC told Teesside Crown Court that Matthews, of no fixed abode, had 25 previous convictions for 128 offences committed between 2015 and Makepeace said the majority were for "relatively minor dishonesty offences", most usually shoplifting, and he had a "record typical of a life of acquisitive crime to fund drug use". In June 2024, Matthews was jailed for 22 months for violent disorder for an attack six months earlier on a man in Stockton.A court heard the victim had been armed with an air rifle outside a house on Bowesfield Lane when Matthews and four others, armed with weapons including an axe, went out to confront man was knocked to the ground and kicked as he lay unconscious before Matthews approached from behind, stamped on him and went through his pockets, the court was armed with a "long, thin, silver metal spike type" item which was "not dissimilar" to the chisel he used in the attack on Mr Bell, Mr Makepeace was released from jail on 18 September, eight days after the government's early release prison scheme came into force, with Mr Bell being killed hours later. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Lewis Bell. "A review of what happened is under way and will be shared with his family."They said the Labour government elected in July 2024 introduced an emergency early release programme to "avert a crisis which would have led to the police being unable to arrest people nationwide".The spokesperson claimed the commission of serious offences by those released was "incredibly rare", with "less than 0.5% of offenders under statutory supervision convicted of one".They added the government "understands the devastating impact they have which is why they are all reviewed". Matthews was jailed for 15 years, with a further four years to be served on extended licence, after being found guilty of Mr Bell's McLeod, 23, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years for murder and Ashton White, 18, sentenced to 10 years youth detention for manslaughter.A fourth man, Macauley Wright, 26, who had been a close friend of Mr Bell's family, was jailed for two and a half years after he admitted assisting an offender by helping the killers escape in a taxi and dispose of evidence. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
CBS News
16 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
National Guard troops deployed to crime-plagued Albuquerque are unarmed and not in military uniform
Albuquerque, New Mexico — Outside his motorcycle shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, James Grice every day clears trash before he can open his doors to customers. "All around the building, it's just a daily thing," said Grice, owner of J&L Motorsports, who added that he also sometimes has to clear away unhoused people. "Yeah...I got someone sleeping right there right now." There are bullet holes in his shop's windows, and Grice and officers with the Albuquerque Police Department told CBS News they have a name for this part of the city, known as the Central Avenue Corridor: the "war zone." The Central Avenue Corridor has seen shootings, assaults and drug abuse, including fentanyl, which reached a level that drove Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina in late March to issue a memo asking New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for reinforcements. "As you may know, we have made significant progress in reducing shootings and aggravated assaults along Central Avenue Corridor through a comprehensive approach to public safety centered on proactive police activity," the memo read. "However, sustaining this momentum requires immediate reinforcement." According to a violent crime survey conducted by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, an organization representing police executives, the Albuquerque Police Department reported a drop in violent crime in recent months. It recorded 11 homicides in the first quarter of 2025, down from 21 in the same period in 2024. There were 48 rapes reported in the city in the first quarter of this year, down from 63 over the same period last year. The police department received 153 robbery reports, down from 232 robberies last year, and there were 895 aggravated assaults in the first quarter, down from 1,095 in the same period of 2024, the survey said. Grisham, a Democrat, responded to the memo by declaring a state of emergency in April and authorizing the deployment of about 70 New Mexico National Guard members to the city. The National Guard spent May in training and arrived on Albuquerque's streets on June 5. "I see drug dealing, drug use, prostitution," Grisham recently told CBS affiliate KRQE regarding the Central Avenue Corridor. "I worry about human trafficking. I see violence on the streets." Those Guard members have been training in crisis intervention and de-escalation. And unlike the California National Guard troops that were deployed by President Trump earlier this month in response to protests in Los Angeles, the Guard members deployed by Grisham in Albuquerque are not armed or in military uniform, according to city officials. "The intent of it all is to free Albuquerque police officers to be more available to the community, to answer calls for service, so that's in the capacity we'll be doing this," Maj. Gen. Miguel Aguilar, adjutant general for the New Mexico National Guard, said in briefing last month in Santa Fe. Aguilar also said that 53 of the 71 Guard members deployed are from the Albuquerque area. "We coach in the community, we work in the community, it's a little different when you talk about the national guard. I think it's important to understand that," Aguilar said. During two homicide calls and a SWAT activation this week in Albuquerque, the job of the Guard members was to secure a perimeter. That freed up police officers who would have done that job to go back on the streets and respond to other calls, according to Albuquerque police. "We need to stop playing games with crime," Det. Shaun Willoughby, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association, the department's union, told CBS News. Willoughby has his doubts about the effectiveness of the Guard's impact so far. He believes the violence is too fierce for unarmed Guard members to help with. "What are they going to do?" Willoughby asked. "They can't intervene. They don't have the authority to take anybody to jail. They're not armed. They're going to be in one of the most violent communities in this country, in a polo shirt, recognizing themselves as this helper, and they're limited onto what they can do." Civil liberty advocates are uneasy with any plan that increases policing. Still, Grice says the city needs all the help it can get. Grice said he has remained in Albuquerque because he needs to "make it work." "I've got to support my family," Grice said. "I've got employees to worry about." After CBS News finished speaking to Grice, it came across a crime scene in which Albuquerque police were investigating a possible homicide, just a block from the front door of Grice's business.
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Violent crime in Vancouver reaches 20-year low, according to VPD report
A Vancouver Police Department patch is seen on an officer's uniform in Vancouver, on Jan. 9, 2021. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press) Vancouver has recorded its lowest number of violent crimes in more than 20 years, according to a new report going before the Vancouver Police Board Thursday afternoon. The VPD's quarterly Public Safety Indicators report tracks a number of trends, including violent crime, property crime, and apprehensions under the Mental Health Act. According to data collected in the first three months of 2025, total crime decreased by nearly one per cent. Violent crime declined by 11.2 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2024, with the number of cases dropping from 1,342 to 1,192. It marks the lowest number of violent crimes on record in Vancouver since the implementation of the Police Records Information Management Environment in 2002, a system used for managing police records. 'This decrease is driven by record low quarterly assaults and robberies. Violent crime declined across all patrol districts except District 4, and decreased in 15 of the 24 Vancouver neighbourhoods,' reads the report. District four covers a large area of Vancouver, including Point Grey, Kitsilano, Fairview, Dunbar-Southlands, Arbutus Ridge, Shaughnessy, South Cambie, Riley Park, Musqueam, Kerrisdale, Oakridge, and Marpole. The drop in violent crime presented in the data is in stark contrast to what many residents and business owners have reported anecdotally in recent months, including a series of high-profile stranger attacks. Robberies decreased by more than 23 per cent, according to the report. 'This decrease was driven by a 39.5 per cent reduction specifically in the Downtown Eastside,' it reads. Assaults decreased 12.6 per cent, but assaults on peace officers increased 28 per cent. Sexual offences increased by more than 7 per cent, rising from 168 incidents in the first quarter of 2024 to 180 in the first quarter of 2025. This includes a 6.5 per cent increase in historical reports of sexual offences. Vancouver recorded two culpable homicides and there were three attempted murders in the first three months of 2025. Property crime dropped by 4 per cent, continuing a sustained post-Covid decline. Mental Health Act apprehensions increased by 7 per cent. Calls for service increased slightly by 2.4 per cent, with 56,698 calls made between January and March in 2025 compared to 55,393 across the same three months in 2024. The average response time to emergency priority one calls increased by nine seconds compared to the same period the previous year. There was a significant increase in on-view calls, which occur when an officer witnesses an incident. According to the VPD, that was driven by District 2 which saw a 94.0 per cent increase from 3,372 to 6,540 on-view calls. 'This increase in on-view calls is likely attributable to Task Force Barrage and Project Brighthaven, which involved the deployment of additional officers in the Downtown Eastside,' reads the report. The VPD launched Task Force Barrage in February of this year. The initiative was intended to focus on targeting organized crime, violent offenders, and street disorder, particularly in the Downtown Eastside. The task force has been controversial. Critics have argued it disproportionately affects vulnerable populations in the Downtown Eastside. Advocates are concerned the increased enforcement could push these people into other parts of the city, which could disrupt their access to resources and support systems. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has also sidestepped questions on how the budget for the $5 million task force was approved. A presentation on Task Force Barrage is also on the agenda for Thursday's police board meeting.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Have drug and gang-related crimes grown in Corpus Christi? Here's what police said
Corpus Christi mostly saw a decline in violent and property crimes between 2020 and 2024, though one City Council district was an outlier, according to data that police presented to the City Council on June 17. The presentation came about two months after officers from the Criminal Investigation Division presented other data on crime to the council. Mayor Paulette Guajardo and several council members requested additional data to show how local law enforcement is tracking, addressing and preventing crime in the area. The department's presentation on June 17 broke down crime by all five City Council districts for each of the last five years and delved into specific categories of crime involving homeless people, gangs and narcotics. According to the data, violent crimes have decreased in four of the districts, dropping from 414 in 2020 to 393 in 2024. District 2 saw a slight increase in violent crimes, rising from 105 in 2020 to 112 in 2024. Four districts also saw a reduction in property crime during that period, though property crimes also increased in District 2 from 355 in 2020 to 358 in 2024. Corpus Christi Police Assistant Chief of Investigations Todd Green noted the department's creation of a Violent Crime Unit in November 2024 under the leadership of Police Chief Mike Markle. Designed to address an increase in violent gun-related crimes involving young people between the ages of 16 and 24, it has enabled the department to mobilize 13 officers from various units, who employ tactics such as high visibility sweeps of known crime areas, increased traffic enforcement and investigating of crime hotspots. 'They go after both the areas where there's an increase in violent gun crime and they also identify the repeat offenders,' Green said. The presentation also included a comparison between Corpus Christi crime rates and other U.S. cities with a similar population size. It reflected Corpus Christi Police Department data that is reported to the FBI indicating that the city ranks high in violent crimes such as aggravated assault. Corpus Christi, a city where 316,603 lived in 2023, ranked No. 7 out of 19 cities for the rate of aggravated assault. It ranked No. 13 for both murder and rape and No. 7 in the overall violent crime rate. In terms of property crimes, it ranked No. 8 for larceny, with a total of 6,603 thefts in 2023, or 209 for every 10,000 people. Green said that while the city's crime rates may be higher than some of the other cities on the list, the city does an excellent job with clearance rates of crimes. The term refers to the percentage of crimes that are resolved, typically through an arrest. 'Although we're similar populations, there's no city on this list that is identical to Corpus Christi,' he said. 'Every one of these cities has different makeups and different factors that impact their crime rate.' He noted that the number of sworn officers working in some of the other cities was much higher than in Corpus Christi. For example, while Corpus Christi had 458 police officers in 2023, Cincinnati had 916 officers, though it has a population of about 5,000 fewer people. The police department tracks and compiles the number of crimes involving drugs to observe trends and target drug-related crimes in specific areas. Hollis Bowers, a deputy chief in the Narcotics and Vice Investigations Division, presented citywide totals on total drug arrests over the last two years. Bowers noted 1,211 cases involving possession of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin or fentanyl in 2024 — a 3.7% increase in cases due to penalty group 1 drugs, a classification of drugs that tend to carry the highest penalties, since the year before. There were 837 cases of marijuana possession last year and 429 involving THC products. Uniform patrol officers arrested 2,598 people for drugs in 2024 compared to 2,522 the year before. Most of these arrests were made when officers were pursuing people for other crimes and found that they had drugs, he said. Bowers noted an increase in drug delivery cases, with 67 people attempting to manufacture or deliver penalty group 1 drugs in 2024 compared to 54 the year before. While the numbers might make it look as if police found more drug dealers, they actually mean the department did a better job of catching drug dealers in 2024 than 2023, the officer said. The city's Gang Unit, formerly known as the Juvenile Enforcement Unit, arrests people who committed crimes carried out by a gang or on behalf of a gang. The two main violations that officers see are drug violations due to possession and selling, though weapons violations are more common, said Austin Jochec, a detective within the department's Gang Unit. In May, the unit had detected more than 2,463 gang members, he said. Of these known gang members, 1,638 were in a prison gang, 205 drove outlaw motorcycles and 620 belonged to street or hybrid gangs, which often include mixed groups of gang members and which police investigate due to their high level of gang activity and lack of leadership structure. Two-year data from the police department on homeless offenders showed that 586 homeless people committed crimes in 2024 compared to 594 in 2023. In 2024, police arrested 164 people for criminal trespass and 106 for drug possession. They arrested 138 for warrants. Additional data showed that 23 homeless people were victims of aggravated assault last year, while 20 became victims of larceny and 48 were assaulted. Green pointed out that because homelessness is not a crime, law enforcement agencies do not track it as such or report it to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program. Police data on homelessness indicates instances in which homeless people were either arrested or victimized by a crime. More: Corpus Christi's rate of violent crime is high. What's the story? This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: What to know about drug and gang-related crimes in Corpus Christi
CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
Massive Fort Worth crime crackdown leads to 76 arrests, seizure of hundreds of guns and drugs
Dozens of alleged criminals, hundreds of illegal firearms, and a massive amount of narcotics are off the streets of Tarrant County after a major two-month law enforcement operation aimed at reducing violent crime. Local, state and federal agencies announced the results of "Operation Showdown" during a news conference Tuesday, calling it one of the largest enforcement initiatives in recent Fort Worth history. The operation led to the arrest of 76 individuals on firearm crimes, 56 of whom are also facing federal drug charges for trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl. "Our intention was to reduce violent crime in Fort Worth, Texas," said Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson for the Northern District of Texas. "And we did it together." Larson added that many of those arrested were convicted violent felons. "Others are in our country illegally and have suspected ties to the Venezuelan transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua, also known as TDA," she said. In total, agents seized 287 firearms, including 147 machine gun conversion devices that can turn semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic ones. According to Bennie Mims, special agent in charge of the ATF Dallas Field Division, one of the guns had been used in a shooting just three hours before it was recovered. Three other firearms were tied to homicides, and 22 had previously been reported stolen. In addition to the weapons, law enforcement recovered more than 22 kilograms of narcotics, including enough fentanyl for an estimated 240,000 potentially deadly doses. "With the amount of contraband seized here, it's very apparent that there are some neighborhoods where parents can freely let their kids maybe have an afternoon play day out in that front yard or in that apartment complex parking lot without fear that a drug transaction is transpiring just a few parking stalls away," said Eduardo Chavez, special agent in charge of the DEA Dallas Field Division. Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells said the arrests send a strong message. "If you choose to poison our streets, you will be met with the full force of the law," he said. "No exceptions, no excuses." Law enforcement officials say they conducted more than 200 operations throughout April and May, including undercover gun and drug purchases. They believe the crackdown will have a lasting impact. "And I can assure you, if you look at this table, you look at the criminal histories of these people, you look at the guns and drugs pretty clearly here on this table — there are people that will be alive in the future because all these people did their jobs today," said Keith Brown, executive director of the Texoma High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The announcement comes just days after a violent weekend in Fort Worth, when five people were killed in four separate, unrelated shootings. Officials acknowledged Operation Showdown won't put an end to all violent crime but said it's a meaningful step in the right direction. "I can tell you that our communities are safer today than they were 60 days ago," said Interim Fort Worth Police Chief Robert Alldredge. "Yes, we did have a deadly weekend. It's very tragic. Many innocent people lost their lives. We have some great officers out in the field that are working tirelessly to make sure this doesn't happen. Granted, one loss of life is too many. But unfortunately, whenever those things happen, I can tell you the Fort Worth Police Department is dedicated to continue the work to prevent those from occurring in the future." The people arrested during Operation Showdown have all made their first appearances in court, according to Larson. Their trials will likely happen in late summer or early fall. Larson said the defendants who are in the country illegally will be turned over to ICE after they serve their sentences, if convicted. This operation was made possible through $300,000 in federal funds.
