On Q Professional Investigations

BRANCHBURG, NJ — A New Jersey man has been indicted on burglary charges after police say he inadvertently dialed 911 and let authorities in on his plans.

Police say they heard Scott Robert Esser and an accomplice talk about breaking into homes, emptying drawers and stealing goods.

NJ.com reports Friday that officials described the call as an errant, open-line emergency cellphone call “commonly referred to as a ‘butt dial.’”

The 42-year-old Esser was indicted on burglary, theft and other charges in connection with burglaries in Branchburg and Stafford townships and Berkeley Heights.

He’s jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail. Information on his lawyer wasn’t immediately available.

Esser was arrested July 29 on the Garden State Parkway. Police say they found jewelry, electronics, $11,300 in bonds and a handgun in his car.

View Source

Mountain View CA Aug 30 2015 Mountain View police thanked the community for helping officers track down a suspect in an assault on a Walmart security guard, after anonymous tips led to the man’s identification and arrest.

The suspect allegedly put on a pair of new shoes and left the Walmart store on Showers Drive without paying.

The man entered the store early in the afternoon on Sunday, Aug. 16, and reportedly put on the shoes and started to walk out without paying, according to police. When Walmart security tried to detain him, the man swung his arms multiple times and hit one of the security officers in the face, according to police spokeswoman Shino Tanaka.

The Walmart security officer declined medical treatment.

Police later arrested Gabriel Zuniga, 26, of Mountain Vie in front of the 7-Eleven at 276 N. Whisman Road after posting his photo and asking for help identifying him.

“Thanks to our community for helping us track down this suspect who was arrested for a warrant related to this incident,” Mountain View police wrote in the department’s blog on Aug. 27.

View Source

BELTON TX Aug 26 2015 — A Killeen woman was arraigned Thursday on a charge of fraudulent use of identifying information.

Jodi Marie Schimek, 28, of Killeen, was arrested Wednesday after police responded to 1400 Lowes Boulevard in Killeen.

According to an arrest affidavit, Schimek was caught on in-store cameras shoplifting at the location and, when police arrived, Schimek handed officers a New York driver’s license with another woman’s name.

Apparently not knowing the woman was Schimek, police said in the affidavit they arrested her and took her to the Killeen jail.

Later that day, the affidavit said, a New York woman called the Bell County Jail “and advised that a female who verbally identified herself as (name withheld) called and advised that a female in the Killeen jail was using her name and information and that a closer check by jail staff of the driver’s license provided by the female did not match the female in custody.”

The affidavit said the New York female identified herself and told jail staff she had not been to Texas for years and that Schimek did not have permission to use her ID.

Police later spoke with Schimek who admitted that she and the New York woman had been friends for years and that she previously had used the ID to buy cigarettes.

Schimek was arraigned by Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin, who gave her a $50,000 bond.

View Source

FITCHBURG, Mass. (AP) — Police in more than 20 North American cities are testing the latest in less-lethal alternatives to bullets — “blunt impact projectiles” that cause suspects excruciating pain but stop short of killing them. Or at least that’s the goal.

Police have long had what they considered “nonlethal” weapons at their disposal, including pepper spray, stun guns and beanbag projectiles. But even those weapons have caused deaths, leading to a search for “less lethal” alternatives. The quest has taken on new urgency in the past year amid furor over a string of high-profile police shootings of black men.

Micron Products Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arrhythmia Research Technology based in Fitchburg, makes the new ammunition, which are much larger than rubber bullets and have silicone heads that expand and flatten on impact, enhancing the pain and incapacitating a suspect. One executive of the company that patented the technology was a guinea pig and described experiencing the business end of a BIP as the “equivalent of being hit by a hockey puck.”

“It was like, ‘Ow!’ I had to shake it off,” said Allen Ezer, executive vice president of Security Devices International, a defense technology company that hired Micron to make the projectiles, which were developed by a ballistics engineering company in Israel.

Sixteen law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and six in Canada have purchased the projectiles, including SWAT units of the Los Angeles County and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Departments in California, and police departments in East Hartford, Connecticut; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

“They want an option that bridges the gap between baton, Taser and their service weapons,” said Salvatore Emma, Micron’s chief executive officer.

The projectiles do not penetrate the skin, like conventional bullets, but they do cause pain and discomfort. Officers are trained to shoot the projectiles at arms and legs. A person hit in the torso at close range during a disturbance in Canada got a large bruise but no lasting injury, said Gregory Sullivan, SDI’s chief executive officer.

No one has been shot in the head with the projectiles at this point, and Sullivan acknowledged the possibility of a serious or deadly injury in the event of a close-range shot to the head.

But “because of the accountability factor that exists today in the law enforcement field … it just makes good sense and good risk management to use something that’s safer and the officers can have confidence in,” said Sullivan, a former Toronto police officer.

Read More

RICHMOND, Texas – Rosenberg Police arrested a man after a shooting incident Sunday morning at an elementary school in Fort Bend County.

Police arrested Christian Pieper, 20, after he allegedly fired shots in an unknown direction around 8 a.m. Sunday while standing on the roof of William Velasquez Elementary School in the 400 block of Macek Road in Richmond.

Pieper and another man were initially taken into custody, but police determined one of the men was not involved in the incident and was later released.

Police say there were no injuries during the incident, but they did discover some property damage.

Although the incident happened on a school campus, officials do not believe the suspect had intent to harm the school or students.

Lamar Consolidated Independent School District officials sent an e-mail to parents of Velasquez Elementary School students informing them of the incident.

Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office deputies determined the gun the Pieper had was later reported stolen.

Officials said Pieper faces charges of trespassing and criminal mischief, among others.

Investigators said there is surveillance video and Pieper never actually made it into the school. Officials said this was an isolated incident and there are no threats toward students and faculty of the school.

View Source

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -A man faces a number of sex crime charges after he attempted to meet a 10-year-old girl for sex, police said Friday.

Officers responded to the girl’s home around 3 a.m. Thursday after receiving a report that an acquaintance of the family was sending the girl nude photos of himself.

Police said Michael Bowen, 22, planned to meet the girl at noon near the Springwater Corridor trail and Southeast 82nd Avenue.

When Bowen arrived at the arranged location, police took him into custody.

During their investigation, police said they identified two other underage female victims.

Bowen was booked in the Multnomah County Jail on charges of online corruption in the first degree, luring a minor, attempted sex abuse in the first degree, attempted rape in the first degree and attempted sodomy in the first degree.

View Source

Gov. Nikki Haley has approved armed guards at S.C. National Guard sites as a response to last month’s ambush-style killings of four Marines and a sailor near Chattanooga, Tenn.

Haley signed an executive order Monday that calls for a variety of security upgrades at recruiting, armory and depot sites around the state.

Additionally, S.C. Adjutant General Robert E. Livingston Jr. has changed S.C. National Guard policy to allow personnel to carry a weapon while in uniform under certain circumstances.

Among the areas covered in Haley’s order are increased hard-site security, protection training to be coordinated through the State Law Enforcement Division, and assigning and arming individuals who successfully complete training for station at all guard facilities in the state.

The long-term effect is that all National Guard locations will have permanent protection measures in place, the governor’s office said.

The announcement came after lone gunman Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, drove to a military recruiting office and to a Navy-Marine operations center outside Chattanooga, opening fire at both places. Four Marines were killed, and a sailor wounded in the attack died, as well. Abdulazeez also died.

Read More

Schools in seven Tennessee counties were evacuated Friday morning due to bomb threats.

No explosives were found at any of the schools, said Lt. Bill Miller of the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Emergency crews were sent to schools in Murfreesboro, Millersville, Greenbrier and Columbia. Threats were also reported at schools in Wilson, Knox and Lewis counties.

Students, teachers and staff at Millersville Elementary were safely escorted to Millersville City Hall about 420 feet away on 31W Louisville Highway, Sumner County Sheriff Sonny Weatherford said. The sheriff’s office received a call at 9:48 a.m. on Friday, but nothing had been found nearly two hours later.

Millersville students were dismissed, but teachers were allowed back in the building to finish the day, Miller said.

Robertson County investigators spent most of the day at Greenbrier Middle School but found nothing, according to Greenbrier Deputy Chief Randy Pack. School officials there were notified that that a person was inside the building with a bomb, officials said.

Pack said the threat was called into the school at about 11:05 a.m. Students were transferred to nearby Greenbrier High.

Read More

Law enforcement officials from the Washington area and across the country said Monday that there has been a recent increase in shootings in several major cities but that they haven’t pinpointed what’s causing the spike in violence.

Officials from several cities, including the District, St. Louis, Chicago and Baltimore, met at the Newseum in the District to discuss the trend and possible solutions to the violence. They were joined by criminology professors, attorneys and others.

“We had this meeting as an urgent summit because we felt a sense of urgency because people are dying,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said at a news conference after the summit. “We have not seen what we’re seeing right now in decades.”

The event was hosted by the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA), which said a survey of its members showed that police in many cities are seeing more guns on the streets and more killings. Four of the nation’s largest cities — New York, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia — recorded a rise in homicides by mid-
July compared with the same period in 2014.

The District has experienced the same trend. The city’s homicide toll for 2015 is now 87; the total for all of 2014 was 105. Violent crime in general also is on the increase compared with last year, police said.

The summit was organized by Lanier, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and MCCA President J. Thomas Manger, the police chief in Montgomery County, Md., following a conference call in late July, Darrel Stephens, executive director of MCCA, said in an e-mail.

During the summit, the group identified several issues prevalent across many of the major cities, with the proliferation of guns high among them.

Manger said at the conference that 40 percent of the 35 cities surveyed reported shooting scenes with multiple firearms, with an increased number of shell casings found at the scenes.

Among the recommendations that came out of the summit, the chiefs called for more stringent gun laws, including harsher penalties for gun crimes and the use of high-capacity magazines.

Read More

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In the jewelry world, the name of Doris Payne commands, if not respect, at least concern.

Police said Payne, who’s 84, is a world renowned thief who’s been stealing high-end jewelry for more than 50 years.

Her crimes have been traced to Greece, Britain, France, Switzerland, Monte Carlo, and the United States.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department believes that on July 11, Payne took a $33,000 diamond engagement ring from David Yurman jewelers at South Park Mall.

They would not confirm that with Channel 9, but we obtained a copy of an email sent from police to several local jewelers following the heist.

“We’re talking about Doris Payne, and her reputation walks far ahead of her,” said Dovy Klarberg, co-owner of Diamonds Direct SouthPark. After receiving an email from CMPD naming Payne as the suspect in the theft at the mall, Klarberg alerted his staff to be on the lookout for her.

Payne is known to use slight of hand. She will ask to see a piece of jewelry, then slip it on her finger while a store employee is distracted. Klarberg even watched a documentary made about her life, and called her a clever person.

“It’s a difficult level of sophistication, or I guess from her end, a level of professionalism,” he said.

Some jewelry shoppers were stunned to think such a person could be in Charlotte, and still committing crimes.

“I guess she’s had lots of time to practice,” said Myra Southwell. “Still, it’s sad that she’s had to resort to that her whole life.”

Payne has served prison time, and was apparently released within the last year. USA Today has reported that actress Halle Berry was considering playing her in a movie about her life story.

“That’s just unreal. I can’t imagine that happening,” said Kellis Wiseman, also out shopping for jewelry Monday. “I can’t believe she’s gotten away with it for so many years.”

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police will not discuss suspects in the heist at SouthPark Mall, and have not released any surveillance video of the crime. The email to local jewelers states that a Tiffany & Co. employee saw Payne and tried to alert another employee at David Yurman, but it was too late.

So far there have been no arrests. Employees at David Yurman would not comment when reached Monday afternoon.

View Source