Bad Day for Samurai Wannabes

[TaichiMantis]

Failed suicide by cop...

Do your swords have sharp edges?

[GeneChing]

Bad Day for ex-Power Ranger Samurai Wannabes. No wait...if Medina was on Power Rangers Samurai, we can't really call him a 'wannabe', right? This is very confusing.

[GeneChing]

Technically speaking, wouldn't it be seppuku by cop? Sorry, that's in poor taste. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

Samurai sword-wielding man dies in 'suicide by cop' in Ontario


Police said a man called police and told them he wanted to die in Ontario. He was later shot and killed by officers after he approached them wielding a sword. (OnScene TV)
By Joseph Serna contact the reporter
Man dies in 'suicide by cop' in Ontario shooting; had a sword, police say
Man killed by police in Ontario had a sword, officials say

A man who was shot to death by police in Ontario after approaching them with a samurai-style sword died in a case of “suicide by cop,” officials said Wednesday.

The man, whose identity was not being released until his next of kin were notified, had called Ontario police before the confrontation Tuesday night and said that “he wanted to die, he had a gun, he was going to shoot,” said Ontario police Sgt. Jeff Higbee.

The man called police just after 10 p.m. and also told them where he was, Higbee said. The man had just been in a fight with his family, added Higbee.

Officers went to the scene and found the man inside his parked truck with the lights off. When the officers pulled behind him in their own car, the man “took off,” Higbee said.

The chase ended about five minutes later at Fern Avenue and Phillips Street, Higbee said. When the man emerged from the car, he was carrying a samurai-type sword, Higbee said.

The man began to walk up to the officers and didn’t obey their commands to stop, Higbee said.

Police first fired non-lethal rubber bullets at him, but “they didn’t’ have any effect,” Higbee said.

“He started going to the officers with the sword and when he got close enough, he got shot,” Higbee said. The man was rushed to a local hospital, where he died.

Two officers were put on paid administrative leave after the shooting, which is standard protocol, Higbee said.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna.

[GeneChing]

'police collected floor samples, a sword, a beer bottle that was swabbed for DNA, a rock with a red stain, two smoking devices, a hammer head and a Virginia driver’s license'

Authorities find sword, bat nearby body
Warrant sheds light on homicide, arson; suspect had prior court record


Denice Thibodeau/Register & Bee

First responders wait outside a house on Wood Avenue Sunday, where a woman’s body was found after firefighters put out a fire.


Denice Thibodeau/Register & Bee

Posted: Wednesday, March 18, 2015 6:24 pm

BY ALLISON M. ROBERTS
aroberts@registerbee.com
(434) 791-7993

Investigators are still working to piece together the events leading up to the death of Donna Gail Hiatt-Lanier and the burning of her Wood Avenue home.

Around 4 p.m. Sunday, firefighters arrived at Hiatt-Lanier’s home at 107 Wood Ave. responding to a structure fire. When crews entered the home to extinguish the blaze, they discovered the body of a woman — later identified as Hiatt-Lanier — lying in the kitchen floor, according to a search warrant for the home.

Firefighters moved Hiatt-Lanier’s body from the house to the front porch to assess her condition, and she was declared dead at the scene, the warrant stated.

When Danville Assistant Fire Marshal Richie Guill entered the house, he saw “obvious blood spatter on the refrigerator near where the body was lying” as well as a baseball bat and sword nearby, the warrant stated.

While he was in the house, Guill noticed a “strong odor” of kerosene and saw no evidence of a heat source in the home that required kerosene, according to the warrant. Guill also noticed “irregular burn patterns and signs of slow burning, which are both indicators of arson.”

According to the warrant, Hiatt-Lanier, 50, had “obvious visible severe injuries to her unburned face” that didn’t appear to result from the fire.

Christy Michelle Beskin was identified as a suspect Hiatt-Lanier’s death. She admitted to police that she injured Hiatt-Lanier and set the victim’s house on fire, according to a search warrant.
Body found in Danville house fire; police probe incident as homicide

The Danville Police Department is investigating a Sunday afternoon house fire as a homicide.

Beskin, 39, of Pittsylvania County, was arrested Monday in connection with Hiatt-Lanier’s death. She was indicted by a Danville Circuit Court grand jury Monday and charged with first-degree murder and arson, according to court documents.

On Monday, detectives from the Danville Police Department took two DNA samples from Beskin in order to compare to DNA left at Hiatt-Lanier’s home and inside of Beskin’s car. In addition to DNA samples, police collected floor samples, a sword, a beer bottle that was swabbed for DNA, a rock with a red stain, two smoking devices, a hammer head and a Virginia driver’s license, according to the warrant.

The results of Hiatt-Lanier’s autopsy aren’t being released at this time. The medical examiner’s office declined to release the cause of death and a spokesman said they had been instructed to route all calls regarding Hiatt-Lanier to the Danville Police Department due to the open investigation.

This isn’t Beskin’s first brush with law enforcement. In 2003, she appeared in Danville Circuit Court on charges of attempting to purchase a controlled substance, according to court records. In 2001, she appeared in court on charges of attempting to purchase a controlled substance and possession of cocaine, according to court records.

In 2001, she was sentenced to four years on each charge with all of her time suspended. In 2003, she was again sentenced to four years with all of her time suspended, according to court documents.

Beskin is being held under no bond at the Danville City Jail.

Roberts reports for the Danville Register & Bee.

[GeneChing]

Second Myrtle Beach woman arrested in knife, sword attack
By Claire Byun cbyun@thesunnews.com
04/09/2015 1:39 PM
04/09/2015 1:46 PM

A second Myrtle Beach woman is facing charges in connection with the stabbing of another woman, who used a sword to fight back during an argument about the victim’s boyfriend, according to authorities.

Hakina Tinakwa Alston, 26, of Myrtle Beach is charged as a co-defendant in the attempted murder case, according to Lt. Raul Denis with Horry County police. Alston is charged with being an accessory after the fact and an accessory before the fact, to the attempted murder.

Alston provided Laqueta Enaj Harrell – who is charged with attempted murder in this incident – with transportation to and from the victim’s house, “with prior knowledge of the incident,” according to arrest warrants.

She is currently being held at J. Reuben Long Detention Center, Denis said.


Hakina Tinakwa Alston | Wilson, Brian

Harrell, 21, of Myrtle Beach was booked into J. Reuben Long Detention Center at 8:20 p.m. Thursday on charges of attempted murder, first-degree burglary, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime and malicious damage to personal property with a value of $2,000 or less, according to jail records.

Earlier this week, Horry County police got arrest warrants for Harrell and said she was to be considered armed and dangerous, Lt. Raul Denis said.

Horry County police charged Harrell in connection with officers being called at 4:30 a.m. Monday to an apartment on Claypond Road after a 31-year-old woman reported she was stabbed.

The victim said Harrell came to her apartment, and she tried to close the door on Harrell, who kicked it open, according to a police report.

The women fought and Harrell stabbed the victim, who had grabbed a sword to protect herself.

I just hope that the next time I'm attacked, there is a sword lying around that I can grab to protect myself

[GeneChing]

Woman Wounded In Hookah Lounge Sword Assault Released From Hospital


The scene outside 1001 Arabian Nights hookah lounge in West Hartford. (David Owens/ Hartford Courant)
By Christine Dempsey

WEST HARTFORD — A woman wounded this week in a sword assault at her husband's Park Road hookah lounge has been released from the hospital, police said Friday.

Najeh Frehi, 24, who was found suffering from serious stab and slash wounds down the street from the 1001 Arabian Nights Hookah Lounge early Wednesday, was discharged from St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center Thursday, Capt. Don Melanson said.

Her husband, George Ayoub, 47, remained in the hospital, where he underwent a second round of surgery Thursday, Melanson said. Ayoub's condition was upgraded to stable.

Ayoub suffered a "serious abdominal injury" during the incident at the hookah lounge he owns, Melanson said. His wife has cuts to her hands and stab wounds to her shoulders.

No arrests have been made and police are investigating, Melanson said. Police have not finished gathering evidence at the hookah lounge at 134 Park Road.

Melanson said no one else was involved in the slashing. He wouldn't talk about who might be arrested.

"The biggest thing in a case like this is not to rush to judgment," Melanson said. "It is important to gather all of the facts and make a determination based on the facts alone."

Police said Ayoub called 911 at 3:17 a.m. Wednesday reporting his wife had stabbed him.

The first officers to arrive found Frehi outside and began treating her, while others went to the hookah lounge and could see Ayoub through the window, police said.

He was still on the phone with a police dispatcher asking for help. The business door was locked and Ayoub was bleeding heavily and was too badly injured to unlock it, so officers smashed their way through the glass door to reach him, Melanson said.

A large sword was found at the scene, he said.

Detectives are working to determine what led up to the assaults.

hookahs and swords. works for me.

[GeneChing]

I love calzones.

Teen fends off woman's attacker



Posted: Apr 28, 2015 10:56 AM PST
Updated: Apr 29, 2015 10:57 AM PST
By Brian Wilson, Fox 29 Web Producer

EUSTIS, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) -Eighteen-year-old Steven Conway doesn't think what he did Sunday night is such a big deal, but it is. In all likelihood, officials say this high school senior saved a woman's life.

"I helped a woman that needed help and that's pretty much it," is how he described it.

Steven and his buddy had just left bible study and were waiting on their calzones when then ran into a Dollar General store in Eustis to get some sodas. That's when a blood curdling cry stopped him in his tracks.

"I have no words to describe it, but it was more of a loud shriek that caught my attention."

He ran to the front of the store to see what was going on.

"I saw the woman, the man on top of the woman in front of the freezer sections, which are in the front of the store," he explained, "and I knew she had just, she just needed some help. So I pulled the guy off of her and thinking it was a fight at first."

But it was much more serious than that. According to this arrest affidavit, police said 26-year-old William Edward Cowan slashed the clerk in the jaw line, before stabbing her in the cheek and in the chest with a six inch butterfly knife.

"When I pulled him off of her, he actually left the knife in her. It was over in the big lots that they had taken it out to start packing the wound," Steven said.

Cowan left the scene. With a face full of tattoos and blonde dread locks, he was easy for officers to find. According to this arrest affidavit, when they confronted him, he was still armed. Police said he he was carrying two samurai style swords, more than 2 feet in length.

The victim in this case was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center. At last check, her injuries are not life-threatening.

Cowan is charged with attempted murder. He is being held on a $250,000 bond.