QUOTE OF THE DAY
“In terms of the processes and procedures that are in place now we think they worked. This is sort of an effect of the post-9/11 world that we live in that these checks
and facilities are in place and the system worked.”
New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly on a ricin-laced letter sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that was intercepted before it reached Bloomberg’s office Article, 2A
Runaway trailer kills seven in New York
TRUXTON, N.Y. - A runaway trailer hauling crushed cars slammed into a minivan carrying two families in upstate New York, killing four young children and three adults in their early 20s, authorities said Thursday.
All seven victims, including four children ages 4 to 7, were killed and a man was injured when their van was hit by a trailer that broke away from a truck on New York 13 around 6 p.m. Wednesday in the rural town of Truxton, about 25 miles south of Syracuse.
The accident Wednesday night claimed the lives of 26-year-old Teresa Bush and her daughters, 4-year-old Alexis and Jasmine, 5. Also killed were 21-year-old Lena Beckwith;
Carino Vanorden, 24; Alyssa Mead, 7; and Tyler Mead, 4.
Shawn Mead, the father of the two Mead children, was transported to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse where he was in good condition.
Officials said the trailer disconnected from the southbound rig and slammed into the northbound van, ripping it apart. Both vehicles came to rest on the shoulder of the twolane road.
Disneyland vendor charged in blasts
ANAHEIM, Calif. - Two dry-ice bombs exploded at Disneyland earlier this week, prosecutors said Thursday as they filed a felony criminal count against an employee who worked at a vending cart near the Toontown section of the theme park.
Christian Barnes, 22, pleaded innocent to possession of a destructive device in a public place, and his bail was set at $500,000, said Farrah Emami, spokesman for the Orange County district attorney’s office.
Authorities initially reported that a dry-ice bomb had detonated Tuesday in a trash can. But a statement from the district attorney’s office announcing the criminal filing said there were two explosions.
Prosecutors allege Barnes placed dry ice in two water bottles and locked one inside the vending cart. When a co-worker came to take over the cart, Barnes purportedly opened the cart and one bottle exploded, Emami said in the statement.
Barnes then took the second bottle from the cart and walked through Toontown, placed it in a trash can and left the area, according to the statement. The bottle exploded a short time later after a janitor removed the trash bag and put it on the ground.
No one was injured in the blasts, although several bystanders reported ringing in their ears, prosecutors said.
1 day, 3 Philadelphia police shootings
PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia police were involved in a trio of shootings the same day the city’s police commissioner discussed details of a planned review of the department’s use of deadly force.
The latest shooting happened during a gun battle Wednesday night in the city’s Germantown section while officers were pursuing at least three suspects, authorities said. One suspect was killed and a 2-year-old boy also suffered a graze wound. Officers were searching for the remaining suspects.
Earlier in the day officers shot a man in the buttocks after police say he pointed a gun; another man was critically injured after he was shot by officers who said he fired at them.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey cited similar reviews done for the Las Vegas and New York police departments that had led the departments to adopt new training curriculums and new or revised policies.
Terror report names Iran worst offender
WASHINGTON - Iran last year boosted its support for global terrorism to levels not seen for two decades, the Obama administration said Thursday as it released its annual report on international trends in extremist violence. The report said the core elements of al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan are headed for defeat but stressed that the network’s various affiliates remain severe threats to the U.S.
The State Department’s “Country Reports on Terrorism” for 2012 left unchanged the U.S. list of “state sponsors of terrorism.” Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria remain on that blacklist, although Iran was singled out as the worst offender and Syria was taken to task for the ongoing brutal crackdown on opponents of President Bashar Assad.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 05/31/2013