(AP) A man was arrested Thursday in a case involving home surveillance video showing what appeared to be an abduction, police said Thursday.
The video released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department showed a a woman running from a car and screaming for help outside a home before she was hit, kicked and dragged back to the car early Wednesday.
Tips provided by the public enabled detectives to identify the people allegedly involved in the incident, the department said in a statement.
The woman's identity wasn't released but the statement said 23-year-old Darnell Rodgers was arrested and jailed on suspicion of kidnapping and domestic battery.
It wasn't immediately known whether Rodgers had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.
Damon Dash says Aaliyah wanted absolutely nothing to do with R. Kelly after they pulled the plug on their controversial marriage back in the day.
TMZ's obtained a clip of Damon's interview on the soon-to-be-released Lifetime documentary, "Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning" ... and the music insider makes some bombshell revelations about Aaliyah's life after Kelly.
Damon famously dated Aaliyah after she split from R. Kelly ... and now he says the singer wanted to keep Kelly "the fuck away" from her following the annulment.
"He married a child. That was a headline, that was a like rumor. That was something talked about like it was normal," Damon says. "It wasn't like ill disgusting, 'you married a 13-year old.' It was like, oh, uou married Aaliyah?' She was 13."
When reminded that Aaliyah was actually 15 at the time she and R. Kelly got married, Dame fired back.
"Yeah, but 15 is 13," he continued, "I don't have to be accurate because I don't care. 15, 13 ... anything under 18 is disgusting."
Not much is known about Aaliyah's feelings regarding Kelly -- she died way too young -- so Damon's claims are pretty shocking.
PHOENIX, Arizona -- A man's trip to Phoenix, Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl took a terrifying turn, and his desperate plea for help was caught on a home's surveillance system.
The 32-year-old from San Diego, identified as Anthony, told police he was in his car when three teenagers pointed a gun at him, pushed him to the backseat and drove him around for over an hour before forcing him to make withdrawals at various ATMs.
The teens then shot him several times and pushed him out of the car near an open field.
The victim then managed to walk to nearby homes and desperately knocked on doors and rung doorbells until he reached the front door of a Phoenix-area firefighter who called 911.
“Hey, I’ve been shot,” Anthony told the firefighter who had just turned off his 5 a.m. alarm. “I’ve been shot.”
“Who’s Anthony?” the firefighter, identified only as Jerry, replied.
“Just call 911, I’ve been shot,” Anthony said, according to video obtained by ABC News. “I swear to God.”
“Get the fuck out of here!” Jerry said.
The firefighter called 911, likely saving Anthony’s life, ABC News reports.
Three teenagers have been arrested for the crime, including an 18-year-old who, according to police, is already a convicted felon.
Las Vegas police are looking for a possible kidnapping victim and the man who attacked her, after a doorbell camera captured dramatic video of the apparent assault.
A resident in a neighborhood south of downtown reported the incident to police after their doorbell camera recorded the incident shortly after midnight on New Year's Eve.
In the video, a woman is seen running up to the house, where she bangs on the door and screams for help.
In the background, a man jumps out of a white sedan and sprints up to the woman. He grabs her and throws her to the ground, then kicks her in the stomach, sending her tumbling down the steps.
"Why would you do that?" he shouts, swearing at her as she sobs.
He then pulls the woman to her feet, shouting "Get in the car" and swearing at her again, before he drags her down the walkway into the car.
Authorities say they don't know either the identities or the current location of the victim and suspect.
Nick Gordon -- the boyfriend of Bobbi Kristina Brown who was found legally responsible for her death -- has died in Florida ... TMZ has learned.
Nick's brother, Jack Walker Jr., shared the news Wednesday by writing, "GOD WHY I DID I HAVE TO LOSE MY BROTHER ON NEW YEARS," and adding ... "All I can do is cry." He later shared a tribute post with several photos of himself with Nick.
It appears Gordon was hospitalized for a short time before his death ... Walker says he was at his brother's bedside and spoke to him in his final moments. Reports say Gordon died of a suspected drug overdose.
As you'll recall ... Gordon and a friend found Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown's daughter face down in a bathtub on January 31, 2015, and she was placed in an induced coma. Brown suffered irreversible brain damage and remained unresponsive, and passed way in hospice care on July 26, 2015.
Bobbi Kristina's family sued Gordon for wrongful death, and he was found responsible for her death in September 2016 when he no-showed in court. He was ordered to pay her estate $36 million.
Of course, he was also under criminal investigation for her death when he was accused of domestic violence with his new girlfriend ... but the case was later dropped.
We're told Gordon had moved to Orlando a few months ago.
Rich Homie Quan - Probation (Official Video) off the latest project Coma! Probation is a up tempo banger! Ain’t heard Coma get it now on all platforms, Rich Homie Baby
Atlanta recording artist, Rich Homie Quan, sits down with DJ Smallz and weighs in on fellow rapper Juice WRLD's death, how he heard about it, his personal experience with him, as well as his favorite song of his.
I enter the New Year thankful to be here, still standing. January 1st, 2020 is "Day One" of the new decade.
I shot this video with Todd Angkasuwan for the "Spoils of War" album, which came out last year.
It pays homage to 62 East 190 in the Bronx (if you know, you know) and legends from the era I grew up listening to.
I appreciate all the real ones and DAY ONES!!! who support my music. It's the first LP I've been able to press on vinyl myself - and it's available over at awar.bandcamp.com. It's up on iTUNES and Apple Music and other dope platforms as well.
I wrote the raps.
The song is produced by J-Clyde and Davel "Bo" Mckenzie of The Bossmen.
Lord Finesse put me on to the beat.
My dude Scott Stallone engineered and mixed it.
Todd and his son killed the visuals, per usual.
If you love the music or you owe me money (LOL) feel free to hit me up at awarmusic@gmail.com
Pope Francis was greeting visitors in Vatican City on Tuesday when he slapped a woman's hand after she grabbed his hand and yanked him toward her. The 83-year-old Pontiff used his New Year’s Day address to denounce violence against women after apologizing for what he called a “poor example” the day before. "Every form of violence inflicted upon a woman is a blasphemy against God, who was born of a woman,” he told worshipers gathered at St. Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday.
Watch the official trailer for A Quiet Place Part II. In theaters March 20.
Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.
Lenny Grant a.k.a. Uncle Murda drops off his year recap titled "2019 Recap." The Brooklyn rapper literally covers everything that went down in the past 12 months. Check it out.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Angered by deadly airstrikes targeting an Iran-backed militia, dozens of Iraqi Shiite militiamen and their supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, smashing a main door and setting fire to a reception area in one of the worst attacks on the embassy in recent memory.
American guards fired tear gas, and palls of smoke rose over the embassy grounds.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw flames rising from inside the compound and U.S. soldiers on the roof of the main embassy building with their guns pointed at protesters.
A man on a loudspeaker urged the mob not to enter the compound, saying, “The message was delivered.”
There were no reports of casualties. The State Department said all American personnel were safe and that there were no plans to evacuate the embassy. The government planned to send more troops to protect the compound.
The breach followed U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah. The U.S. military said the strikes were in retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that the U.S. blamed on the militia.
President Donald Trump blamed Iran for the embassy breach and called on Iraq to protect the diplomatic mission.
“Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!” he tweeted from his estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
By early evening, the protesters had retreated from the compound but set up several tents outside where they said they intended to stage a sit-in. Dozens of yellow flags belonging to Iran-backed Shiite militias fluttered atop the reception area and were plastered along the embassy’s concrete wall along with anti-U.S. graffiti. American Apache helicopters flew overhead and dropped flares over the area.
Trump, who is spending the holiday week at his Florida home, is in “close touch” and receiving regular updates from his national security team, said White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham. She echoed the sentiment contained in Trump’s tweet earlier Tuesday.
“As the president said, Iran is orchestrating this attack, and they will be held fully responsible,” Grisham said in an emailed statement. “It will be the president’s choice how and when we respond to their escalation.”
The developments also represent a major downturn in Iraq-U.S. relations that could further undermine U.S. influence in the region and American troops in Iraq and weaken Washington’s hand in its pressure campaign against Iran.
Iraq has long struggled to balance its ties with the U.S. and Iran, both allies of the Iraqi government. But the government’s angry reaction to the U.S. airstrikes and its apparent decision not to prevent the protesters from reaching the embassy signaled a sharp deterioration of U.S.-Iraq relations.
Iraqi security forces made no effort to stop the protesters as they marched to the heavily fortified Green Zone after a funeral for those killed in the airstrikes. The demonstrators were allowed to pass through a security checkpoint leading to the area.
The marchers, many of them in militia uniforms, shouted “Down, down USA!” and “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” outside the compound, hurling water and stones over its walls. The mob set fire to three trailers used by security guards along the wall. AP journalists saw some try to scale the walls.
Others then smashed the gates used by cars to enter, and dozens pushed into the compound. The protesters stopped in a corridor after about 5 meters (16 feet), and were only about 200 meters away from the main building.
The sprawling embassy compound enjoys a prominent position on the banks of the Tigris River in the heart of the Iraqi capital. Resembling a fortified college campus, the complex is rimmed with thick blast walls and cylindrical watch towers, lending it the look of a modern-day castle.
Gates visitors use to enter the complex consist of an airlock-like vestibule fortified with heavy doors and bulletproof glass. Even if protesters breached the first set of doors, they would have to force past heavily armed military contractors and U.S. Marine guards and a second set of heavy doors before entering the main compound.
Numerous buildings are inside the walls, including dormitories for staff, well-stocked dining and recreation facilities, and a power station.
The protesters taunted the embassy’s security staff, which remained behind glass windows in the gates’ reception area. They hung a poster on the wall declaring “America is an aggressor” and sprayed graffiti on the wall and windows reading, “Closed in the name of the resistance.”
“This is a victory in retaliation to the American airstrike. This is the initial retaliation, God willing, there will be more,” said Mahmoud, a fighter with the Imam Ali Brigades who was carrying a black bag filled with electricity cables that he said he took from the reception area.
A video obtained by the AP showed militiamen trashing the reception area and taking away paperwork.
The embassy, on its Facebook page, urged American citizens not to approach the compound and “to review their personal security and emergency preparedness.”
An Iraqi employee at the embassy told the AP that the embassy’s security team had evacuated some local staff from a rear gate while others left by helicopters and the rest remained inside “safe” areas within the embassy. The employee spoke on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to speak to journalists.
The U.S. ambassador was traveling outside Iraq at the time of the attack and planned to return, the State Department said.
Some commanders of militia factions loyal to Iran joined the protesters outside the embassy in a strikingly bold move. Among them was Qais al-Khizali, the head of one of the most powerful Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq who is on a U.S. terror list, and Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the state-sanctioned paramilitary Popular Mobilization Units, the umbrella group for the Iran-backed militias.
Jaafar al-Husseini, a spokesman for Kataeb Hezbollah, said the protesters had no intention of storming the embassy. He told the AP that the sit-in will continue “until American troops leave Iraq and the embassy is closed.”
The U.S. airstrikes — the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia in recent years — and the subsequent calls by the militia for retaliation, represent a new escalation in the proxy war between the U.S. and Iran playing out in the Middle East.
The attack also outraged the Iraqi government, which said it will reconsider its relationship with the U.S.-led coalition — the first time it has said it will do so since an agreement was struck to keep some U.S. troops in the country. It called the attack a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty.
___
Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in West Palm Beach, Florida, Adam Schreck in Chicago, Samya Kullab in New York and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on December 31, 2019 at 12:57pm
Video After The Jump
All of the West Virginia correctional cadets seen apparently giving a Nazi salute will be fired, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced.
The image, discovered in early December, shows the members of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation Basic Training Class 18 with one arm raised. The text above reads “HAIL BYRD!” in a reference to a training instructor for the class, according to the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.
The governor condemned the training group’s behavior in a statement on Monday.
“We have a lot of good people in the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety,” Justice said. “But this incident was completely unacceptable. Now, we must continue to move forward and work diligently to make sure nothing like this happens ever again.”
Three staff members at the training academy will also be fired. Four other instructors who failed to report the photograph will be suspended without pay, he said.
The Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety released the image, with the faces of the trainees and employees blurred, earlier in December. A number of employees were suspended amid an investigation into why the group picture was taken.
Jeff Sandy, cabinet secretary for the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, recommended the cadets’ firing to Justice.
He noted in his letter to the governor that some of the cadets “were aware of the connotations associated with the gesture, that they were uncomfortable with the practice … and/or that they only followed what they perceived to be an order” because they feared they wouldn’t graduate.
“Nonetheless,” Sandy wrote, “their conduct, without question, has also resulted in the far-reaching and harmful perceptions that are the antithesis of the values we strain to attain.”
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on December 31, 2019 at 11:28am
Video After The Jump
(CNN) A Kansas police officer who initially claimed McDonald's employees wrote "Fucking pig" on his cup has resigned, the city's police chief said.
"In (our) investigation we have found that McDonald's and its employees did not have anything whatsoever to do with this incident, this was completely and solely fabricated by a Herington police officer who is no longer employed with our agency," Herington Police Department Chief Brian Hornaday said in a news conference Monday.
The incident, the chief said, has been an "obvious violation of ... public trust." "Our job is solely to do this job with the utmost integrity because if you can't trust the cops, who can you trust," he said.
After McDonald's conducted its own investigation, the owner and operator of the Junction City franchise said in a statement the fast food chain was "glad that the evidence confirmed our evaluation that McDonald's and our crew members were absolutely not involved."
"We took seriously our role to be transparent and fully cooperative with Chief Hornaday throughout his investigation, and we look forward to continuing a strong relationship with the department," Dana Cook said.
The police chief said the department's investigation concluded that the incident was "meant to be a joke."
He did not release the officer's name, saying the matter was now "a personnel issue." He said the officer was a resident of Junction City and had been with the department for about two months. He is not facing any criminal charges at this time, Hornaday said.
Offset got the drip from a popular jeweler in L.A. but hasn't squared his tab with the guy in over a year ... according to a new suit.
Peter Marco of Extraordinary Jewels Beverly Hills is going after the Migos rapper for $47,000, for what he claims are unpaid fees from an October 2018 transaction at his store.
The legal docs -- obtained by TMZ -- include a copy of an invoice allegedly showing Offset bought some bling for $110k, but only paid $63k at the time ... leaving the balance of $47k.
According to Marco ... his legal team sent Offset a letter in early December demanding the payment within 7 days, but it looks like they didn't get it. So now, the jeweler wants the full amount ... plus interest and attorney fees.
The lawsuit also lists Quality Control Music COO Kevin "Coach K" Lee. The record label reps Migos.
We've reached out to Offset and Coach K ... no word back so far.
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