On Q Professional Investigations

The conviction of a Utah doctor in the murder of his wife was the culmination of a yearslong pursuit of justice by the family of the victim.

The daughters and sisters of Michele MacNeill hounded authorities to investigate Martin MacNeill amid an initial finding that the 2007 death was natural, possibly from heart disease. They attended court hearings and sat in the front row of the courtroom at a 2012 preliminary hearing holding photos of Michele MacNeill. They were in Provo again throughout this three-week trial, listening intently. Several of them testified.

When the verdict was read, they let out a loud yelp before dissolving in tears as the jury delivered its verdict to the tense, packed courtroom.

“We’re just so happy he can’t hurt anyone else,” said Alexis Somers, one of his older daughters and his main protagonist. “We miss our mom; we’ll never see her again. But that courtroom was full of so many people who loved her.”

The jury convicted MacNeill of first-degree murder about 12 hours after getting the case, returning the verdict after 1 a.m.

He faces 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 7. He also was found guilty of obstruction of justice, which could add 1-15 years.

MacNeill, 57, showed little emotion when the verdict was read. He hugged his lawyer and said, “It’s OK.” Deputies led him back to Utah County jail.

Randy Spencer, one of his lawyers, said he was disappointed before declining further comment.

The Utah doctor was convicted after prosecutors built a case based largely on circumstantial evidence. He was accused of hounding his 50-year-old wife to get a face-lift, pumping her full of drugs and helping her into a bathtub.

Prosecutors contend that MacNeill was “swapping” his wife for a new life with a mistress without having to go through a divorce.

Gypsy Willis’ testimony was the highlight of the three-week trial. MacNeill introduced her as a nanny within weeks of his wife’s death, but his older daughters quickly recognized her as his secret lover. They said her mother had been arguing with her husband over the affair.

The daughters went to work uncovering what they call their father’s secret life. They dogged county officials to open an investigation that local police never conducted. It wasn’t until MacNeill’s release in July 2012 from a federal prison in Texas on charges of fraud that Utah prosecutors moved to file charges of murder and obstruction of justice.

Willis also served a federal sentence for using the identity of one of MacNeill’s adopted daughters to escape a debt-heavy history. That daughter had been sent back to Ukraine, supposedly only for a summer.

For a time, MacNeill’s only family defender was his only son. Damian, a 24-year-old law student, committed suicide in January 2010, according to his sisters, who have said he was haunted by their mother’s death.

The case shocked the Mormon community of Pleasant Grove, 35 miles south of Salt Lake City, and captured national attention because the defendant was a wealthy doctor and a lawyer, a father of eight in a picture-perfect family and former bishop in his local congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Defense lawyers contend Michele MacNeill died of natural causes. They believe she had a heart attack and fell headfirst into the tub and noted the autopsy showed she had an enlarged heart, a narrowing of the heart arteries and liver and kidney deterioration.

“There’s simply no proof” of homicide, Spencer said. “The prosecution has presented to you their cherry-picked portion of the evidence.”

He called the testimony of a handful of prison inmates angling for early release doubtful. The men who spent time behind bars with the doctor testified he had acknowledged killing his wife — or suggested that investigators could never prove he did it.

Their testimony was the only direct evidence of murder, chief prosecutor Chad Grunander said. MacNeill lawyers argued he would never admit murder to strangers in prison.

Grunander said the largely circumstantial case was the most difficult he ever brought to trial and that many prosecutors wouldn’t bother trying, especially with medical examiners unable to produce a finding of homicide.

“It was an almost perfect murder,” Grunander said in his closing argument, asserting MacNeill “pumped her full of drugs” that he knew would be difficult to detect once she was dead.

An early mistress of MacNeill’s testified he once confided he could induce a heart attack in someone that would appear natural.

Family testimony suggested it was MacNeill who insisted his wife, a former local beauty queen in her California hometown, get the cosmetic surgery. Prosecutors said he used it as an excuse to mix painkillers, Valium and sleeping pills for her supposed recovery.

“Make no mistake, the defendant’s fingerprints, if you will, are all over Michele’s death,” Grunander said.

Prosecutors said MacNeill might have gotten away with a perfect murder, but his erratic behavior the day of his wife’s death and shortly afterward was “dripping with motive.”

They reminded jurors about testimony that MacNeill stood in the bathroom yelling what prosecutors called phony grief, “Why did you do this? All because of a stupid surgery,” as paramedics tried to revive his wife.

MacNeill was medical director of the Utah State Development Center, a residential center for people with cognitive disorders, who moonlighted in other medical jobs. He had a law degree but wasn’t known to practice law and has since surrendered his law and medical licenses.

Prosecutors say MacNeill contrived a medical condition in the weeks leading up to his wife’s death, telling many around him he was dying of cancer or multiple sclerosis to absolve him of any motive in the death. He also made use of a cane and could be seen limping at times.

Investigators who subpoenaed MacNeill’s own medical records found he was in good health.

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The family of a kidnapped Louisiana mother tracked down and killed the father of her child in the abandoned house where he was allegedly holding her prisoner, authorities said.

Bethany Arceneaux, 29, of Duson, La., was abducted in the parking lot of a daycare where she was picking up her 2-year-old at approximately 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Department Captain Kip Judice told ABCNews.com.

Witnesses saw the suspect, Scott Thomas, allegedly force Arceneaux into his white Buick LeSabre, before driving off, Lafayette Police Department spokesman Paul Mouton told ABCNews.com.

Thomas, 29, of Leonville, La., is the father of Arceneaux’s child, Judice said. The woman had a restraining order against Thomas, but Judice said he did not know when it was filed.

The child was left behind in the woman’s car, and was later taken into custody by the woman’s mother, Mouton said.

Later that evening, law enforcement officials found Thomas’ car near an abandoned sugarcane field in a rural area of Lafayette Parish, La., Judice said.

One of Arceneaux’s shoes was found in the car, while the other had been left in the parking lot of the daycare where she had been last seen.

Authorities searched the sugarcane field Wednesday night and all day Thursday, but to no avail, Judice said. The cane towers as high as eight feet tall and was “a brutal search area” for officials, he said.

It wasn’t until Friday morning, when Arceneaux’s family members conducted their own search in the same area that they came upon a secluded, abandoned house behind a cluster of trees.

The house was directly across the street from the field where Thomas abandoned his car, but only the home’s roof was visible from the road, Judice said.

“[The family] converged on a piece of property about a mile from where the car was found,” Judice said. “One of the family members heard what he thought was a scream.”

Arceneaux’s cousin approached the home, kicked in the door in and entered, Judice said. Inside, he found Thomas with the woman. Thomas then began stabbing Arceneaux, and a confrontation ensued.

“The cousin, who was armed, began firing several shots at Thomas,” Judice said. “After a couple of shots, [Arceneaux] was able to get free of him and they escorted her out of the house.”

Arcenaux suffered several stab wounds and was taken by ambulance to Lafayette General Medical Center, where she is in stable condition, Judice said. It is not known if Arceneaux had been stabbed before her cousin found her inside the home, officials said.

Meanwhile, officers who heard the gun shots fired surrounded the home, Judice said. Upon entering, they found Thomas’ lifeless body on the ground. He had sustained several gunshot wounds.

Thomas’ cause of death is not known, Judice said. An autopsy on the body will be conducted by Lafayette Parish Coroner Ken Odinet, but it is not known when it will take place.

ABC News’ attempts to reach Odinet were not immediately successful.

Thomas did not own the abandoned home, Judice said. At this point, there is no known connection between Thomas and the property’s owners.

Arceneaux told investigators that the home was the only place she remembers being held hostage, Judice said. She said she had not eaten or drunk anything since her abduction on Wednesday.

No charges have been filed against the man who shot Thomas, and it is unlikely that the man will be charged, Judice said.

“In the state of Louisiana, you have a right to protect yourself and others from imminent bodily harm,” he said. “We believe at this point, based on evidence and statements collected, that this guy was acting in defense of Ms. Arceneaux and thus, was within the state law.”

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Arnold Redmond was waiting for a dice game to start when gunshots rang out.

He hugged the wall, then dropped to the floor. It was chaos in the east-side Detroit barbershop where police said 20 to 30 people were gambling in a small back room on Wednesday when someone outside started shooting in with an assault rifle.

Police said the violence may have stemmed from an ongoing feud between an individual and people at the gambling party.

Redmond, shot in the buttocks and left leg, bolted across 7 Mile Road and took cover in a party store.

“I was too scared to feel anything,” the 65-year-old West Bloomfield retiree said.

A person of interest in the shooting — which left three dead and six others wounded — was taken into custody on an unrelated felonious assault charge, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday. He said the man was wearing body armor at the time of his arrest.

The Free Press is not identifying the man, who is 31, because he has not yet been arraigned on charges.

A source familiar with the investigation said the man was stopped by police after attempting to force an officer, driving an unmarked vehicle, into oncoming traffic on Rochester Road in Rochester Hills. The man was pulled over in Rochester and arrested just after midnight Thursday, police said.

Craig called the shooting at Al’s Place Barber Shop “urban terrorism.”

Craig said that police received a 911 call about shots being fired at the business at 5:47 p.m. Wednesday, and by 5:49 p.m., police were at the scene.

He said the investigation has revealed that a man pulled up in a vehicle and started firing at a truck with a high-powered rifle. At some point, the rear door of the shop opened and the shooter began firing inside the barbershop.

According to a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, the three men killed in the shooting were: Bryan Williams, 29, Joezell Williams, 61, and Kevin Perryman, 40. All died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the office.

As police investigate the crime, relatives are mourning their loved ones.

Charzell Shields, Joezell Williams’ daughter, said her father was the patriarch of their family. She called the crime senseless and asked for anyone with information to step forward and go to the police.

“It don’t make sense for people to be losing their lives daily,” Shields said.

Local gathering spot

Redmond said he has frequented the barbershop for the last 30 years. He described the shop as a local gathering spot where regulars come to hang out, get a haircut, or play low-stakes dice games with $5 and $10 bills.

“It’s more like a family,” Redmond said of the clientele. “Everybody knows everybody.”

On Tuesday, the day before the shooting, Redmond had taken his three children to the barbershop for haircuts. The next day, he stopped by to say hello to a relative when all hell broke loose. Redmond was standing at a snack counter talking to a friend, waiting to play a so-called crumb game — a $5 and $10 dice game — when the gunshots rang out.

“I just heard a barrage of gunfire,” Redmond recalled. “I hugged the wall and dropped to the floor. After that, everybody was trying to get out the door.”

Redmond got out. He ran to a restaurant, but it was locked. He then tried a party store, whose owner let him inside.

“I’m angry that it happened. I’m angry that people are dead,” said Redmond, who doesn’t believe the shooting involved “the barbershop or any of the people associated with it.”

Outside the shop on Thursday, a handful of playing cards could be seen among some leaves near the front door, and broken window glass from a vehicle was in the alley.

Saifur Rahman, 19, said he was working at a fish and chicken shop across 7 Mile at the time of the shooting. He heard a series of shots that sounded like they came from an automatic weapon.

Three people — all male, one older and two younger — ran into his shop and locked the outer door. Rahman was behind an interior door and they began pounding on that, telling him to let them in. He thought he was being robbed.

“It was scary, you know,” he said.

More investigation

At one point, investigators were searching for two Chevrolet Impalas — one white, one black.

Hamtramck police impounded a silver Impala riddled with bullet holes, but it’s unclear whether it is connected to the barbershop shooting.

Craig said police are working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to determine whether the man in custody could be in violation of federal laws for being in possession of body armor.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said the federal government is working with the Detroit Police Department to solve the barbershop shooting through the so-called Detroit One partnership.

She said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went to the scene to collect and analyze ballistics evidence. ATF spokesman Donald Dawkins said roughly 20 shell casings were collected.

Despite this recent spate of violence — including the barbershop shooting and the fatal shooting of a Wayne State University law student — Craig said homicides are down.

According to police, there have been 289 criminal homicides so far this year, down from 331 during the same time period in 2012.

“The senseless loss of life and the horror for the surviving victims should outrage all of us,” McQuade said. “This shooting is both depressing and motivating. We need to do all we can to prevent this kind of violence.”

Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. Call 800-SPEAKUP (800-773-2587).

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Even though the people being spied on are often totally innocent, the government stores their information for a very long time.

The U.S. surveillance debate is constantly distorted by the fact that national-security officials hide, obscure, and distort so much of what they do. Occasionally a journalist is able to expand the store of publicly available information, most recently thanks to Edward Snowden’s indispensable NSA leaks. But even public information about government surveillance and data retention is difficult to convey to a mass audience. It involves multiple federal agencies with overlapping roles. The relevant laws and rules are complicated, jargon is ubiquitous, and surveillance advocates often don’t play fair: They use words in ways that bear little relation to their generally accepted meaning, make technically accurate statements that are highly misleading, and even outright lie, as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper did before Congress.

Their distortions continue in part because no matter how many times President Obama, NSA Director Keith Alexander, Clapper and others egregiously mislead the public in their statements about surveillance, news organizations treat them as honest men and report on subsequent statements as if they’re presumptively true. For all these reasons, journalists who take the time to understand the truth and the way government officials are distorting it find that their work has just begun. They need to find comprehensible ways to explain complicated distortions, even as more hard to understand information becomes public each week. Absent this asymmetry, surveillance-state critics would be in a much stronger position.

Enter a new report published by Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. “What the Government Does With Americans’ Data” is the best single attempt I’ve seen to explain all of the ways that surveillance professionals are collecting, storing, and disseminating private data on U.S. citizens. The report’s text and helpful flow-chart illustrations run to roughly 50 pages. Unless you’re already one of America’s foremost experts on these subjects, it is virtually impossible to read this synthesis without coming away better informed.

The text gives detailed answers to questions like, “What does the NSA do with all the emails and phone calls of American citizens that it collects?”

Then the information is summed up in graphics.

The rules in place are often just as worrisome as the cases of national-security officials breaking them. “Policymakers remain under significant pressure to prevent the next 9/11, and the primary lesson many have taken from that tragedy is that too much information was kept siloed,” the report notes. “Often lost in that lesson is that the dots the government failed to connect before 9/11 were generally not items of innocuous information, but connections to known al Qaeda or other foreign terrorist suspects.” Nevertheless, the federal government is now awash in innocuous private details about the lives millions of innocents.

Often they can be legally retained for years or even decades—and shared with different federal bureaucracies in ways that make them virtually impossible to ever erase.

And it isn’t just the NSA. The FBI, the National Counterterrorism Information Center, and other agencies besides come in for criticism due to their alarming behavior. As Peter Moskowitz aptly put it, the report “synthesizes much of what Americans have been learning about piecemeal for the last few months,” and anyone looking to understand the facts more clearly ought to go give it a look. If there is ever a time when a majority of Americans understand its contents, this country will no longer accept the surveillance policies shaped by the Patriot Act, extralegal information hoovering, and what is effectively a massive coverup. As facts are better explained, the whole effort will only seem more imprudent.

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CHICO — The R-Town Downtown Coalition sprinted to a start Monday morning with the aide of a cleanup brigade and security patrols in the downtown core.

Before many businesses had even opened their doors for the day, clients from the Jesus Center were busy scrubbing walkways and picking up trash. As the day went on, armed security patrols went door-to-door to introduce themselves to store owners and see who is interested in their free services.

“It really was an effort that was needed and a lot of people pitched in to make it happen. It’s going to be a very exhaustive effort,” said coalition member Doug Guillon. “It will make a difference downtown.”

With help from business people, property owners and community support organizations, the program came together in a few short weeks. The goal is to make downtown Chico enjoyable for visitors and residents by addressing anti-social and criminal behavior on private property.

With private funding, the coalition is backing two months of private security patrols downtown and the cleanup brigade. After the holidays, it will examine the effort to determine if and how it should continue.

Dressed in green pants, black shirts, badges and waist belts that include various combinations of pepper spray, Tasers, batons and guns, the security officers started to make themselves known. At each stop, they explained R-Town’s goals and provided paperwork to grant authority for the security firm to provide patrol on the property.

A.G. Private Protection currently serves 100 sites in Chico, including the Chico Area Recreation District and supervision services for Chico Police Department. In its two years serving the community, its guards have had no instances of major force and made three arrests, said operations Lt. Ryan Spehling.

Many of the guards are graduates of a law enforcement academy and using it as a stepping stone for a career, Spehling said. The company’s owners are former police officers.

Until the guards spend more time downtown, he said they won’t know the problems they will be most effective in addressing, Spehling said. They’ll try to diffuse situations on their own, and if necessary, call Chico police for support.

“Just being a deterrent could be a huge impact,” he said. “And we are eyes and ears for local law enforcement.”

Business owners seemed supportive of the idea.

“We’ve had a lot of problems with street people,” said Trevor Joyner, co-owner of Bidwell Title & Escrow.

Homeless or transients regularly sit on the business planters, smoke marijuana and refuse to leave, he said, and employees who arrive early in the morning often have to use other entrances when the primary ones are blocked by sleeping people. In more than one instance, transients have grown aggressive when asked to leave.

Joyner said it’d be great to have a way to address such problems, which he knows plague other businesses, too.

On Monday, the patrols were accompanied by orange-vested R-Town volunteers. Similar to the Downtown Ambassadors, they will direct people to necessary services and report any problems they see to the security guards.

As volunteer Laurie Maloney walked with two guards Monday, addressing both the homeless and business owners by name, she said ultimately the city needs more law enforcement, but until then, maybe R-Town can be a starting point.

She’s hoping to see more businesses work together toward finding solutions, including those that go beyond security.

“We are dealing with a lot of different people out here so it’s going to take a lot of different resources to solve this,” Maloney said.

Bill Such, executive director of the Jesus Center, said he’s happy to be involved in R-Town. Admittedly nervous about armed guards, Such said he wants to be part of any solution that helps the homeless and the needy.

He identified four Jesus Center clients to participate in the cleanup brigade, where they are paid to clean downtown two hours a day, six days a week. On Monday, two other clients volunteered to help for free.

“It communicates to the community that people want to work and they just can’t find jobs at this point,” Such said. “This gives them an opportunity we hope to connect with the business community and find other work as well.”

It also helps erase negative perceptions people may have about the impact of the homeless, Such said. He eventually would love to see Jesus Center clients become full-time cleaners downtown.

“I’m just pleased to be able to get people out of their situation and into employment, even if just for a few hours,” he said. “Who knows what this could lead to.”

More R-Town volunteers are needed, and any financial support would be appreciated, Guillon said. For more information visit http://r-town.us/.

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The 20-year-old suspected in a New Jersey mall shooting was found dead early Tuesday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

The body of Richard Shoop, 20, of Teaneck, was found in a storage area inside the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus about 3:20 a.m., about six hours after the terrifying incident began.

Authorities say the 22-caliber assault-style rifle he fired was legally registered to his brother and that Shoop had taken it without permission, squeezing off at least six shots inside the crowded mall.

Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said the nutjob used all kinds of drugs and had a special fondness for Ecstasy.

“Hard drugs … everything,” Molinelli said. “MDMA [Molly] I think was his drug of choice.”Officials don’t believe Shoop – a pizza deliveryman with a history of drug abuse – intended to hurt anyone other than himself.

Shoop left behind a note suggesting the “end was coming,” Molinelli said. “That could mean going to jail, getting arrested, or it could mean suicide.”

The prosecutor said the gunman’s family also suspected trouble when his brother noticed his gun and motorcycle helmet were missing.

“[The brother] and his girlfriend started driving around looking at certain areas that [Shoop] might be,” Molinelli said.

“They heard on the radio about what was happening here with the active shooter. They suspected it was him. They came, they told us,” he said, adding that they didn’t confirm Shoop was the gunman until they found his body.

The developments concluded a frantic night that left shoppers panicked and scrambling – with the gunman terrorizing the huge mall by casually firing shots in the air.

The situation unfolded at about 9:20 p.m., when the Shoop, clad in black body armor and a biker helmet, taunted workers and shoppers as he squeezed the trigger.

“He was waving at people, doing wise-ass things,” said a worker at a mall kiosk who gave his name as Michael.

“People were running and screaming. I just ran. It happened so fast.”

The crazed gunman did not appear to target specific individuals, instead firing into the air and at security cameras.

“He didn’t take shots at anybody, he was just shooting in the air,” the worker said.

Another witness said the shooter was gently telling people that he wasn’t going to hurt anyone as he fired shots around them.

“He was just walking around the mall telling everybody that he was not going to hurt anybody,” said Samantha Davis, 20.

“He seemed very calm — like the f–king Halloween guy Michael Myers.”

Police worked to clear the two million square feet of mall, located about 15 miles northwest of Manhattan.

A massive manhunt followed the shooting. Cops in body armor swarmed the home in Teaneck, New Jersey, where they were greeted by a pit bull and a man brandishing a screwdriver.

Officials said there was only one confirmed shell casing recovered, but witnesses reported hearing multiple shots.

“I could hear the shots, they sounded like firecrackers going off one after the other,” said Mercedez Heggs, of Clifton, New Jersey.

Heggs, who works at the Uniqlo clothing store, said that security acted quickly to address the situation.

“I made sure to get all my people out off the store then we started running out of the mall with our hands up along with everyone else,” she said.

“Hordes of people in the mall were screaming and running. I didn’t see any blood or injuries thank God.”

Another worker at Uniqlo said they used the bank across the way to hide from the shots.

“We just dropped our things and got going,” said Andrew Flores, 24. “We ran towards Bank of America across the street and used it as a base.

A massive police presence swarmed the mall, as they tried to apprehend the shooter.

“I’ve never seen this many cops before,” Flores said. “There are hundreds of them here. The guy was wearing body armor. It’s insane. This is such a scary situation.”

Inside the Nordstrom close to where the shooting occurred, shoppers and employees huddled inside a stock room for safety.

A Nordstrom employee, however, told The Post that no one in the store was injured.

“Everyone is good,” the employee said. “We’re just waiting for the police to clear us so we could go home.”

The mall will remain closed Tuesday.
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Assault rifles at the ready, police in a speedboat scan the coastline as they slice through the slate-gray water, aware that the rocky shorelines and fishing villages that line parts of southern Jamaica are not always very sleepy these days.

Seizures of South American cocaine in Jamaica have doubled since last year, and that has prompted island authorities to step up their game, dispatching more patrols to locations that haven’t seen such sustained law enforcement activity in years.

“All these areas are constantly monitored for illegal contraband. We keep our ears close to the ground,” said Det. Cpl. Orville Welsh, the lead officer in the patrol boat, after his team searched a fisherman’s canoe and a village of wooden shacks for drugs and guns.

It’s not just Jamaica that’s on alert. The central Caribbean as a whole seems to be coming back into favor with transnational drug cartels, with authorities reporting sharp increases in cocaine seizures and scrambling resources to contain the apparent surge.

Long a smuggler’s paradise, the Caribbean was eclipsed by Mexico as the prime drug route to the U.S. in the 1990s when Colombian cartels retreated amid stronger enforcement off Florida. In recent years, cocaine seized in the Caribbean dropped to around 5 percent of the total found by U.S. authorities.

Activity is picking up, possibly a result of the violent drug war in Mexico and Central America. The frequency and size of cocaine seizures in the Caribbean, particularly off the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, have been steadily climbing. In the first half of the year, Caribbean seizures accounted for 14 percent of U.S.-bound cocaine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The DEA says 87 tons (79 metric tons) of cocaine were seized in the Caribbean corridor in 2012, nearly double the year-earlier total. The high pace is continuing, with 44 tons (40 metric tons) seized in the first half of this year.

“I don’t think it’s just a one- or two-year blip,” said Vito Guarino, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Caribbean division.

DEA officials and others say the Caribbean surge is partly a result of efforts such as the U.S.-led Central America Regional Security Initiative, launched in January 2012, which increased enforcement in Central America, often the first stop on the export route for South American cocaine. At the same time, there was a crackdown along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Whenever those two get squeezed, the movement is toward the Caribbean,” said Ricardo Martinez, an associate police superintendent in Puerto Rico.

Islanders fear growing bloodshed and drug use. “The violence is overwhelming and it has been increasing,” said a man who would give his name only as Kike in La Perla, a slum perched above the sea in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan. “Young kids who are coming up the ranks think they’re James Bond.”

A similar anxiety is expressed by a few residents of the tiny fishing village of Forum, on Jamaica’s southern coast, where the main road leads past rickety wooden shacks to a rocky shoreline lined with small boats.

“If the drugs take over, this place will never be the same. It will be bad, bad,” fisherman Oneal Burke said as he scaled fresh red snapper.

Police in Puerto Rico say about 75 percent of homicides _ which hit a record of 1,135 in 2011 _ are tied to drug trafficking in the U.S. territory of 3.7 million people.

In recent years, smugglers often took off by plane from Venezuela en route to Honduras or elsewhere in Central America. U.S. officials say those clandestine flights have dropped by 33 percent since 2011. Some of that slack is being picked up by speedboats racing across the Caribbean.

Angel Melendez, a Puerto Rico-based special agent for Homeland Security Investigations of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said cocaine is increasingly trafficked in larger amounts directly north from Venezuela on boats that refuel at sea during the roughly two-day voyage. Just last week, federal authorities seized more than 1,100 kilograms (2,425 pounds) of cocaine from a speedboat off St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, just east of Puerto Rico.

“It’s a bigger risk, but it’s a bigger profit,” Melendez said.

The Dominican Republic is now the region’s biggest transit point for drugs. A U.S. military assessment projected that 6 percent of the cocaine destined for the U.S. this year will pass through the Dominican Republic alone.

In Jamaica, authorities saw seizures doubled to 354 kilograms (780 pounds) in the first half of the year, according to police statistics. Police Commissioner Owen Ellington says he fears transnational criminals are funneling resources into Jamaica because they see the country as “a soft spot that can be exploited.”

But Guarino and regional anti-drug agents say they are confident that island governments and law enforcement can effectively battle smugglers with assistance. DEA figures show Caribbean drug seizures doubling from 2009 to this year, and increased seizures are perceived as a sign of progress against traffickers.

“We’re here, we’re ready, we’re focused,” Guarino said. “We know how it’s coming and so I think we’re equipped to handle it.”

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When Absalom Jordan hears the crack of gunfire outside his home in Southeast Washington, he reacts in an instant. “You get away from the windows and get down,” the 72-year-old said. “I have learned to live with it.”

Police are listening as well. Rooftop sensors monitor his neighborhood around the clock for the distinctive bang of a gun. The inconspicuous devices have logged hundreds of incidents over the past eight years near his apartment as part of a gunfire surveillance network called ShotSpotter.

About 39,000 separate incidents of gunfire have been documented by ShotSpotter’s unseen web of at least 300 acoustic sensors across 20 square miles of the city, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. The data, obtained through a public-records request, offer an unprecedented view of gun crime in a city where shooting a firearm is illegal in virtually all circumstances.

The gunfire logged by ShotSpotter overshadows the number of officially reported felony gun crimes by more than 2 to 1. More than one-half of the incidents detected by the network have involved multiple rounds of gunfire. In 2009 alone, ShotSpotter captured more than 9,000 incidents of gunfire. That number has fallen by 40 percent in recent years as gun homicides have declined sharply.

The system has been helpful to law enforcement, but no one claims that it captures every shot. The network covers only a third of the city, focusing on the police districts with the most violent crime. It occasionally misses gunfire because of circumstances that can cloak acoustic signatures, such as the canyonlike structures of an urban landscape. Some sounds, such as fireworks, can be mistaken for gunfire, although technology and human review help weed out false positives.

When ShotSpotter’s remote monitors — microphones and circuitry in a weatherproof shell — detect a loud noise, a central computer program analyzes the acoustic signature, providing a more accurate location than people usually can. It classifies the source, pinpoints the suspected location to within a few yards and notifies police. City personnel verify the alert and dispatch officers.

“ShotSpotter gives you a specific location,” said Kristopher Baumann, president of the D.C. police union. “You can go there and get out of the car. You can find a victim or shell casings.”

ShotSpotter’s coverage is most extensive in the eastern half of the city. By quadrant, the network has captured 18,700 incidents in Southeast, 10,600 incidents in Northeast, 6,400 in Northwest and 1,600 in Southwest, which is primarily waterfront and contains large stretches of undeveloped industrial areas. The network has logged an additional 1,600 shootings along the edges of the city.

Weather appeared to influence the pattern. The month of February had the fewest incidents, and July had the most. Work schedules also played a role. By day of the week, Saturday, Sunday and Friday had the most and Wednesday the fewest. As did sleep: The quietest hour was from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.

A disproportionate number of incidents, about a third, have been logged on and around New Year’s Day and July 4. Much of this, officials said, is likely the result of celebratory gunplay.

The District is the biggest client of SST of Newark, Calif., which produces ShotSpotter. It’s also the only city in the region to use the system, although Prince George’s County police are testing it. Other companies provide listening technology for gunfire, but SST says it is the only one that can pinpoint shots over wide areas.

District officials praise the system.

“It is a valuable tool that provides almost instantaneous alerts that allow officers to be dispatched quicker for the sound of gunshots,” Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said in a written statement. “It has also been instrumental in determining crime trends and establishing information in investigations.”

The system can help police identify turf battles between gangs or other gun-related crime affecting particular neighborhoods, said Cmdr. James Crane, ShotSpotter program manager.

The gunshot detection technology, advocates said, also helps law enforcement address two problems: People misidentify sounds, such as cars backfiring, as gunshots, and true gunfire often goes unreported. ShotSpotter officials said that studies among clients elsewhere have found that about four out of five gunfire incidents are never reported to police.

The company guarantees that the system will capture at least 80 percent of all audible, outdoor gunfire in coverage zones, but company officials said they typically achieve a rate of 90 to 95 percent.

ShotSpotter’s inventory of shooting incidents provides another measure of gun-related crime in the District. In May, The Post reported that more than 28,000 firearms, mostly handguns, have been confiscated by D.C. police since 2000, though in smaller numbers in recent years.

The gunfire documented by ShotSpotter — an average of 17 incidents a day in the District since 2009 — offers a fuller view of the “pyramid” of gun violence, said Daniel Webster, who directs the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.

“At the top, you have the incidents when someone dies. Then you have those when somebody gets wounded,” Webster explained.

The biggest category of gun violence, he said, is also the most underreported and poorly documented: when a shooter misses the target or shoots to intimidate.

“It gives a much better picture of how prevalent gun violence is,” Webster said.

BALLOONS AND A PIANO

ShotSpotter grew out of one man’s concern about gun violence on the West Coast in the early 1990s.

An engineer and expert in acoustic sciences, Robert Showen, then in his early 50s, was working at a research institute in Menlo Park, Calif. Showen said he was troubled by the deadly gang wars in nearby East Palo Alto.

“I thought, with my knowledge I can do something,” Showen said.

He said he asked local police whether a system to detect gunfire could help fight crime. They directed him to scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey who were working to apply earthquake location systems to gunfire. Their research showed promise, Showen said, but they had not figured out how to apply it to an urban environment in real time.

Showen experimented: He set microphones atop a piano in his living room and connected them to a laptop outfitted with software that he and a business partner wrote. Using a child’s clicker toy, he made a noise to see whether the software could detect where the sound originated. He conducted the same test outdoors, popping balloons at various spots in his yard. His system worked.

In the mid-1990s, he took his idea to police in nearby Redwood City, Calif., who became the first to deploy ShotSpotter. Contracts soon followed in Los Angeles County and Glendale, Ariz. Showen is now chief scientist for SST and co-holds a patent on the technology. Today, 65 police agencies use ShotSpotter in the United States, as do police in Rio de Janeiro. It’s also being tested in a South African safari park to see whether it can help identify illegal rhinoceros poaching.

The District began using ShotSpotter in late 2005 after the FBI gave the city the opportunity to test the technology. A federal grant paid $2 million to place sensors across the 7th Police District in Southeast Washington.

“The 7th District was selected for ShotSpotter because it led the city in homicides,” said Joel Maupin, who was police commander of the district and has since retired.

The technology enabled officers to respond to shootings more quickly. It became a safety issue. In short order, the department had to revise its dispatch policy to ensure that officers knew whether the report of gunfire came from ShotSpotter or from a person who thought he heard a gunshot, said former D.C. police chief Charles Ramsey.

“Because the odds [with ShotSpotter] of finding a person armed was a lot higher than with a normal 911 call,” Ramsey said. “It could distinguish cars backfiring from gunshots.”

In 2007, the District assumed ownership of the detection system, expanding its coverage in the years that followed. ShotSpotter now reaches into six of the seven police districts and covers about one-third of the city. Its greatest coverage is in Southeast and Northeast, records show.

Over the past six years, the city has spent about $3.5 million to maintain and expand the system, records show.

ShotSpotter is also linked to a system of closed-circuit cameras, which police hope will capture the aftermath of shootings in real time. To guard against vandalism, officials do not publicize the sensors’ appearance or reveal their locations.

‘GET THE COP TO THE DOT’

Wrapped in a weatherproof container roughly the size of a watermelon, each ShotSpotter sensor combines microphones, hardware, software and a clock linked to the Global Positioning System, which uses satellites and radio navigation to pinpoint precise times and locations.

In the cacophonous urban environment, sensors are calibrated to ignore all sounds except for those that most closely match the “impulsive” sound of an explosion, said James Beldock, a senior vice president for ShotSpotter.

“It’s a very, very sharp wave,” Beldock said. “No other sound works that way.”

The blast of a gun is different from other explosive sounds because it is directional, meaning that the noise changes its frequency as the bullet moves through space. A person may hear a gunshot a half-mile away if the gun is fired toward him. But a person 200 yards away may hear nothing if the gun is fired away from him.

Once sensors register a potential gunshot, they transmit the data to the ShotSpotter computer network for analysis. The computer server compares the time that each sensor logged the sound to calculate the likely location of its source, a process of triangulation and multilateration.

“That sound will reach a sensor 100 yards away at a different time than it reaches a sensor 200 yards away,” Beldock explained.

The more sensors that capture the noise, the more accurate the location. A sound detected by 10 sensors can be located to within two feet, he said.

The computer system also classifies the likely source of the sound based on its sharpness, frequency and consistency across sensors. This is critical, because other impulsive sounds — including fireworks, backfires and helicopters — can also trigger the remote sensors.

Pile drivers, for example, initiate an alert because the machinery is elevated and the noise radiates over a long distance, Beldock said. But it can often be filtered out.

“The pile driver does not sound like gunfire in one critical respect: The frequency component, the pitch of the sound is not right,” Beldock said.

The software will try to determine whether the source of the gunfire was in motion and might have been a drive-by.

After the network classifies the sound, a person will review it. “The job of the review team is to use their knowledge of other things that the computer is not yet good enough to do,” he said.

A reviewer will listen to the sound and visually inspect its wave on a monitor. A gun blast looks like a Christmas tree tipped over on its right side: “The bushier the tree, the more likely it is to be a gunshot,” he said.

Fireworks are among the most difficult sounds to discern, but they can often be identified because, unlike gunfire, the intensity of the explosion is the same in all directions. Some of these invariably slip through. In April, ShotSpotter logged 39 gunfire incidents in the middle of the Washington Channel during the Cherry Blossom Festival fireworks display.

A reviewer will also try to determine whether the gunfire came from an automatic weapon and whether more than one gun was fired. “The musical analogy is that if the rhythm is not completely even, then it’s likely to be multiple shooters,” Beldock said.

In the District, city personnel review alerts. For many other cities using a different version of the ShotSpotter network, that work is done by company personnel in a command center in Newark, Calif. They pass additional information gleaned from maps or satellite photos to local dispatchers.

The entire process of detection through review for ShotSpotter personnel takes less than 40 seconds, on average. Once a gunshot is verified, police are dispatched. ShotSpotter officials call this “get the cop to the dot.”

D.C. police declined requests to demonstrate the system. Since its installation, police have not publicized the amount of gunfire captured by the network in their annual reports. And they said they do not track arrests made as a result of ShotSpotter’s alerts.

Nationwide, criminologists say they are not aware of recent academic research on the effectiveness of such systems. A 2011 study commissioned by the company found that seven agencies using its technology reported better shooting response times and more efficient investigations.

For investigators in the District, ShotSpotter played a key role in a high-profile 2007 shooting in which an off-duty D.C. police officer killed a 14-year-old boy on a stolen minibike. ShotSpotter’s audio captured gunfire from two sources, evidence that police said indicated that someone other than the officer fired first. That conclusion provided a strong defense for the officer. A department review said the police use of force was justified and that the officer did not violate department policy. The family sued the District, which ultimately paid a settlement to end the case.

ShotSpotter information is “not frequently used at trials” but has helped prosecutors establish the number or sequence of shots, the time of gunfire and whether more than one gun was fired, said William Miller, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

Prosecutors said the technology helped win a voluntary manslaughter conviction in the slaying of 20-year-old Deuante Ray in the early morning of Oct. 30, 2009. Prosecutors called it a “difficult circumstantial evidence case.”

A gunman shot Ray in the head and chest, killing him in an alley behind the 1100 block of 48th Street NE. A witness last saw Ray entering the alley that night with Terrell Patton. Patton denied shooting Ray but admitted that he lent Ray his cellphone.

Records showed that two calls were made from the phone that night. The second call by Ray, to his girlfriend, ended about 12:35 a.m. ShotSpotter detected a gunshot in the alley about 15 seconds after the call ended. That, prosecutors said, was one of the shots that killed Ray. Patton, they said, lured Ray into the alley and shot him.

“Technology provided key evidence,” prosecutors noted.

A VIRTUAL CLOUD OF GUNFIRE

The thousands of incidents logged by ShotSpotter stress one fact: Many D.C. residents can’t escape the crack of gunshots, though they have become less frequent, falling to 5,385 in 2012. The Post plotted eight years of incidents on a map of the city, using the latitude and longitude of each.

A cloud of virtual gunfire emerges, flecked by hot spots.

In Northeast, the neighborhood surrounding Clay Terrace has been subjected to 302 incidents in the five years since 2008. In 2009, the number peaked at 129. Last year, it dwindled to 17. The area is home to a public housing complex flanked by the Arts and Technology Academy and Marvin Gaye Park.

Greg Stewart, who lives nearby and serves on the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission, noted the change.

“Right now, you don’t really hear complaints,” said Stewart, who said he was aware of ShotSpotter from news reports and had noticed an increased police presence in the area.

In Northwest, where ShotSpotter’s coverage is more limited, a portion of the Columbia Heights neighborhood east of Georgia Avenue between Princeton Place and Lamont Street experienced 299 incidents over the past five years. The number peaked at 99 in 2009, dropping to 46 last year.

Southeast has the greatest number of hot spots. It also has the greatest ShotSpotter coverage.

ShotSpotter has captured 329 incidents in a part of the Washington Highlands neighborhood near the 4300 block of Fourth Street SE, just north of the Maryland border.

“There were times when I was awakened by shots. Shootings are a constant thing in my area,” said Jordan, the 72-year-old who lives there and is a member of the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission. In August, a man was shot to death in front of a nearby apartment.

A few miles away in Southeast, ShotSpotter has recorded a surge in shootings this year along Bruce Place, a short residential street on the edge of Fort Stanton Park. In the first half of the year, sensors had logged 63 incidents, 22 of them involving multiple rounds of gunfire. In all of last year there were only 45.

“The amount of gunfire in this area highlights the challenges we are facing and addressing,” D.C. police Cmdr. Robin Hoey said. Police did not provide an explanation for the increase.

Over the eight years of its operation in the District, ShotSpotter has logged more than 50 incidents each within a quarter mile of a dozen schools during weekdays.

In Northeast, for example, ShotSpotter recorded 94 shootings within a quarter mile of the Friendship Blow Pierce Junior Academy on 19th Street since 2008. The shootings occurred between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on school days.

“We hear about the incidents. But when we are inside the school, we don’t have a sense of violence,” said Patricia Brantley, the chief operating officer of Friendship Public Charter School, which runs the Blow Pierce Junior Academy.

Some gunfire still escapes ShotSpotter’s net.

The Post identified about a dozen gun homicides that took place outdoors in the coverage area that the system failed to detect. ShotSpotter officials and police confirmed the findings.

On Clay Terrace NE, ShotSpotter missed a high-profile shootout on Oct. 13, 2009, that left two dead and three wounded. Gunmen opened fire shortly before 4 p.m. on a group of people standing in a courtyard between two buildings. Some in the crowd drew guns and returned fire, records show.

“I heard about 30 gunshots, and it sounded like three different guns,” Darryl Profit, who was inside his house a half-block away, told The Post at the time. Another witness likened the fusillade to a “war.” Police at a school nearby also heard the gunshots.

When the system appears to miss a shooting, “there is a very formal and rigorous review,” said Crane, the ShotSpotter manager for D.C. police.

Officials have worked with ShotSpotter to fill any gaps in coverage, installing additional sensors as needed.

Certain circumstances can thwart detection, officials said.

If a silencer is used or shots are fired into a car and the vehicle absorbs the acoustic energy of the blast, the sound may elude the sensors, said Ralph Clark, ShotSpotter’s chief executive. The same is true, he said, for an “execution style” shooting in which the gun is inches away from the victim. He also said that gunfire in a canyonlike area could be clouded by ambient noise.

“We don’t offer a 100 percent ironclad guarantee to capture 100 percent of all the shootings,” Clark said. “What we provide is a lot of gunshot intelligence that otherwise would not be attainable by any agencies.”

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SAN JUAN — Alicia Gonzalez was arrested for interfering with flight crew members and attendants.

On October 31, 2013, Alicia Gonzalez was taken into custody by the FBI and charged with interference with flight crew members and attendants, according to Special Agent in Charge Carlos Cases of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), San Juan Division.

A federal complaint states that on October 31, 2013, Gonzalez traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico, via JetBlue Airlines Flight 1503. This flight originated in New York at John F. Kennedy International Airport on October 30, 2013, at approximately 11:49 p.m., and arrived at San Juan, Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport on October 31, 2013, at approximately 3:16 a.m. Gonzalez, a United States citizen, was initially assigned seat 7D but was later on moved to 24C after an incident involving two flight attendants.

During boarding and beginning portion of the flight, Gonzalez was observed acting rude toward the flight crew. During flight, Gonzalez made a visit to the aircraft’s lavatory. Upon exiting, Gonzalez sat in an empty seat identified by the flight attendants as a premium seat. A premium seat is a seat that requires the client/passenger to pay an extra fee due to the fact that it provides more legroom to the traveling public. MAMC, a flight attendant employed by JetBlue Airline who was on duty during JetBlue Airline Flight 1503, advised Gonzalez that she needed to move back to her original seat because that seat was a premium seat and required an extra fee. At approximately 1:00 a.m., prior to scheduled landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico, flight attendant MAMC was offering snacks and refreshments to the passengers when Gonzalez hit the chips basket with her hand. Several bags of chips fell on the aircraft’s aisle/deck, and some of the bags hit passengers that were sitting in the vicinity of Gonzalez’s assigned seat. Gonzalez became very upset at MAMC and began swearing at her (MAMC). MAMC ignored the comments in an attempt to defuse the situation. Thereafter, Gonzalez bumped MAMC with her shoulder while walking down the aircraft’s aisle.

Gonzalez started to yelled derogatory comments and swear words at MAMC for no apparent reason. Gonzalez stated, “Bit**, get out of my face”; “She doesn’t belong here to this airline”; “Get this bit** away from me”; “Get this nasty bit** away from me”; “F***ing bit**; “F*** you, I don’t want you here”; and “You shouldn’t be here,” while pointing her finger toward MAMC. Because of her derogatory comments, MAMC felt that Gonzalez was expressing racially motivated verbal abusive comments directly at her. MAMC was physically described as a dark-skinned young female.

At some point, Gonzalez attempted to come up to MAMC, but DB, a flight attendant employed with JetBlue Airline who was on duty during JetBlue Airline Flight 1503, stood between Gonzalez and MAMC. Gonzalez was acting in a very aggressive manner, kept bumping DB while pointing her finger at MAMC, and continued yelling derogatory comments. DB advised Gonzalez that she needed to calm down and offered her another seat in the back rows of the aircraft. Gonzalez was allowed to switch seat after the offer made by DB. This action defused the situation until arrival.

The incident was reported during the flight to JetBlue Security Department, which was subsequently relayed to Police of Puerto Rico (POPR) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

If convicted, the defendant faces up to a maximum of 20 years for interference with flight crew members and attendants.

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More air travelers try to bring guns aboard their flights at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport than any other Florida airport, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The surveillance video exclusively obtained by NBC 6 leaves little doubt about the TSA’s findings. Checkpoint agents who are screening the passengers and their carryon bags intercept the weapons before they can make it aboard.

One passenger tried to make it through with this small caliber weapon and six bullets. It turns out Fort Lauderdale has been the number one place in Florida for passengers trying to get weapons past security checkpoints or on board in their luggage.

“Florida leads the nation in the number of concealed weapons permits that people have. I think that drives the numbers up. Plus, I think more people are carrying on a day-to-day basis,” said Broward Sheriff’s Office Capt.Roy Liddicott.

TSA agents at the airport in Fort Lauderdale said so far this year they’ve found 38 weapons. Last year, they found a total of 43. At the Miami airport, agents have confiscated 30, more than double the number from the previous year.

A review of TSA and local police reports found that all types of people show up ready to fly, while packing heat. Authorities say Broward pastor Edward Brinson brought his loaded .380 Kel-Tec. He had a valid weapons permit and was allowed to fly after taking his gun back to his car, authorities said.

Others, though, end up under arrest, like Atis Clifford. He wound up in jail instead of on his flight to Pittsburgh. Clifford was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, authorities said. There was no flight to Baltimore for Angel Ward either. Police say she had her 25 caliber Colt with six bullets in her carryon bag. She told police she forgot to take it out but was still charged.

“Most people tell us they forgot, but you can still be arrested and we have arrested people in the past,” said Liddicott.

One senior citizen had his vacation ruined when he tried to get to the Bahamas with this Kel-Tec handgun. The TSA saId technology and screeners are working around the clock to make sure the weapons don’t slip through.

NBC 6 reached out to the pastor for comment, but he didn’t want to talk about what happened. The two other people who were arrested say they’re not guilty and have court dates coming up.

While some of the weapons taken come from those making mistakes, the security teams don’t have any room for error in case there is someone out to do real harm.

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