Crime

The Associated Press reports: A high-stakes gambler who rained a hail of gunfire down on a crowd of country music fans, killing 58, took any specific motive for the 2017 attack to his grave, the FBI said Tuesday as it concluded the investigation into the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The agency found no “single or clear motivating …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Empire star Jussie Smollett was attacked early this morning in Chicago in what police are saying is a possible hate crime, Deadline has confirmed. Chicago PD released the following statement on Twitter: “Overnight the Chicago Police Department received a report of a possible racially charged assault and battery against a cast member of the television show Empire. …

The Toronto Star reports: Accused serial killer Bruce McArthur has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of eight men, admitting to killings that began in 2010 and continued until late 2017. The plea, entered in Superior court before Justice McMahon Tuesday morning, brings to a close a tragic and disturbing case that was unprecedented in this city, and …

NBC News Washington reports: A D.C. restaurant that was once at the center of an online conspiracy theory dubbed “pizzagate” was intentionally set on fire, fire officials say. Firefighters responded to a small fire at Comet Ping Pong on Connecticut Avenue NW about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday night, D.C. Fire and EMS said. They found that employees had put out the …

The Christian Post reports: A Christian missionary may be charged with “genocide” by Brazillian authorities after he illegally came in contact with a remote tribe. Steve Campbell of Greene Baptist Church in Maine is being investigated by officials from FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s Indigenous Affairs Department, after traveling deep into the southern Amazon jungle with the intention of sharing the …

The New York Post reports: A Maryland white supremacist hobbled into Manhattan court Wednesday and admitted to fatally stabbing a black New Yorker. James Jackson, 30, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, terrorism, hate-crime and weapons charges in exchange for a sentence of life in prison for slaughtering Timothy Caughman, 66, in Midtown on March 20, 2017. “You stabbed Timothy Caughman …

The BBC reports: US singer Chris Brown has been arrested in Paris on suspicion of rape, French police say. A 24-year-old woman alleges that the star assaulted her in a hotel suite in the city earlier this month. She reportedly told police that the pair met at a nightclub in central Paris, close to the Champs-Elysées, before they returned to …

Provo’s Gephardt Daily reports: A 27-year-old Provo man has been arrested after he allegedly wrote on his Facebook page that he was going to kill “as many girls as I see,” because he had been rejected. Christopher Wayne Cleary is facing charges of third-degree felony threat of terrorism as well as probation violation, according to a probable cause statement from …

The New York Times reports: When Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) asked President Trump’s nominee for attorney general, William P. Barr, earlier this week whether it would be a crime if “the president tried to coach somebody not to testify, or testify falsely,” Barr was unequivocal: “Yes,” the nominee told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Under an obstruction statute, yes.” Now …

The Washington Post reports: Democratic leaders reacted with fury and demanded an investigation late Thursday following a new report that President Trump personally directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about the president’s push for a lucrative condo project in Moscow in the lead-up to the 2016 election. The Thursday night report from BuzzFeed News cites two …

The Dallas Morning News reports: Two men have been charged with federal hate crimes for using the Grindr app to lure at least nine gay men to a vacant Dallas apartment where they allegedly beat, robbed, threatened and humiliated them, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday. Daniel Jenkins, 19, and Michael Atkinson, 24, committed the armed assaults during the first …

CBS News reports: One of the few well-known openly gay rappers in Puerto Rico has become a victim of intensifying violence on the island. Kevin Fret, a 24-year-old musician and outspoken advocate for the LGBT community, was murdered early Thursday morning in Santurce, one of San Juan’s busiest and most densely populated neighborhoods, according to El Vocero, one the largest …

Raleigh’s NBC affiliate reports: Two women have been charged with assaulting a 29-year-old transgender person in a bathroom at a popular Glenwood South bar last month. According to investigators, the victim was inside the women’s bathroom at Milk Bar on Dec. 9 when she was sexually assaulted by two other women. Amber Harrell, 38, and Jessica Fowler, 31, are both …

The Associated Press reports: An Ohio man was sentenced Monday to just under four years in prison for his role in the beating of a black man the day of a white nationalist rally in Virginia. Daniel Borden was sentenced to 20 years, but most of that sentence was suspended. His active sentence amounts to three years and 10 months. …

CBS News Los Angeles reports: A man was found dead early Monday morning at the same West Hollywood apartment of prominent Democratic Party donor Edward Buck where another man died of a drug overdose about 18 months ago. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the apartment in the 1200 block of Laurel Avenue just after 1 a.m. where they …

Axios reports: In a lengthy and highly unusual letter to U.S. bishops on Thursday, Pope Francis wrote that the mounting child sex abuse crisis has jeopardized the Catholic Church’s credibility. He lambasted church leaders for focusing “more on pointing fingers than on seeking paths of reconciliation.” “This has led to a growing sense of uncertainty, distrust and vulnerability among the …

The Associated Press reports: The Vatican’s sexual abuse case against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has expanded significantly after a man testified that the retired American archbishop sexually abused him for years starting when he was 11, including during confession. The Vatican is under pressure to finalize its case against McCarrick before Francis hosts church leaders at a February sex abuse prevention …

Lawyers for actor Kevin Spacey say the groping incident that has resulted in a felony sexual assault charge was actually a consensual encounter initiated by the young man. Law & Crime reports: They pointed to an investigators’ report where the alleged victim said the groping went on for approximately three minutes without the him moving away or telling Spacey to …

USA Today reports: A 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman have been arrested in connection with the “criminal use of drones” that forced the shutdown of London’s Gatwick international airport for several days, affecting 140,000 holiday travelers. Police said the pair were from the small town of Crawley, near Gatwick. No one had claimed responsibility for the bizarre incidents that …

The Idaho Statesman reports: The Rev. W. Thomas Faucher, a longtime priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise who pleaded guilty to five felony crimes, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole and will be required to register as a sex offender. Faucher, 73, was accused of amassing thousands of child porn images and videos on …