Southeast
Charlotte officer killed in line of duty remembered in memorial as man who'd give the 'shirt from his back'
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Officer Joshua Eyer was honored Friday with a procession and memorial in downtown Charlotte.
“What a beautiful experience it has been to see this community come together in support of the ones who chose every day to protect us, even though most of us don’t deserve it,” Charlie Sardelli, Eyer’s best friend of 15 years, said during the slain officer’s memorial service.
Eyer — a husband and father to a one-year-old son — was one of four officers killed in the line of duty in east Charlotte on Monday while serving a warrant for a felon in possession of a firearm at a residence on Galway Drive.
A horse-drawn carriage carries the flag-draped coffin of fallen CMPD officer, Joshua Eyer to First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday, May 3, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
The other three officers have been identified as Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas M. Weeks Jr.; North Carolina Department of Adult Correction (NCDAC) Officers Sam Poloche and William “Alden” Elliott, who were members of a USMS fugitive task force. Another four officers were injured by gunfire.
CHARLOTTE POLICE CHIEF BREAKS DOWN REMEMBERING 4 SLAIN OFFICERS, SAYS SUSPECT HAD ‘EXTENSIVE’ CRIMINAL HISTORY
CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer was one of four officers killed in the line of duty in east Charlotte on Monday. (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department)
“[I]f you needed the shirt from his back, he would have it off his body before you were done asking the question.”
“When he spoke to you, all he did was listen. . . . And if you needed the shirt from his back, he would have it off his body before you were done asking the question,” Sardelli said. “When I was 20, my family lost our home, and I was with Josh when I got that phone call that my mom was on the street with my dog and a shopping cart full of her stuff. Josh didn’t just drop me off. He stayed. He spent eight to ten hours making sure my family’s things were taken care of.”
A person holds the program for the memorial for fallen CMPD officer Joshua Eyer at First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday, May 3, 2024. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer was one of four officers shot and killed on Monday, April 29, while attempting to serve a warrant on a wanted suspect in east Charlotte. Eyer was part of a U.S. Marshals Task Force team executing a warrant for the arrest of Terry Hughes Jr. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Eyer then drove Sardelli’s mother to New York at 11 p.m. “But that’s just who Josh was,” Sardelli said before thanking Eyer’s parents for raising a good man and thanking Eyer’s wife, Ashley Eyer, for raising their toddler son.
Sardelli remembered how Eyer would often check in on him, sending a text that read, “How’s things?” and told memorial attendees to do the same for their loved ones.
CHARLOTTE SHOOTING: 4 LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS KILLED, 4 INJURED AS US MARSHALS TASK FORCE SERVED WARRANT
Police march behind the coffin of fallen CMPD officer, Joshua Eyer to First Baptist Church. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
“As one who received them so regularly, they’ll mean more than you can ever imagine to the person on the other side,” Sardelli said.
Ashley Eyer remembered her husband as her “very best friend.”
CHARLOTTE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS WHO DIED IN SHOOTOUT IDENTIFIED: ‘FOREVER INDEBTED’
A horse-drawn carriage carries the flag-draped coffin of fallen CMPD officer, Joshua Eyer to First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday, May 3, 2024. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer was one of four officers shot and killed on Monday, April 29, while attempting to serve a warrant on a wanted suspect in east Charlotte. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Police console each other at the memorial to fallen CMPD officer, Joshua Eyer to First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday, May 3, 2024. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer was one of four officers shot and killed on Monday, April 29, while attempting to serve a warrant on a wanted suspect in east Charlotte. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
“He was so, so good to me. I never have and never will question how much he loved me, and I will carry his love for me for the rest of my life. He loved all of you, too,” she said, adding later that the best way to honor and maintain her husband’s legacy would be to help her teach her son “who his daddy was and what he meant to each of you.”
“[T]hank you for giving me a beautiful life and our beautiful son.”
“Joshua, thank you for giving me a beautiful life and our beautiful son. We won’t let you down, OK?” she said.
Police console each other at the memorial to fallen CMPD officer, Joshua Eyer to First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday, May 3, 2024. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer was one of four officers shot and killed on Monday, April 29, while attempting to serve a warrant on a wanted suspect in east Charlotte. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
Hundreds of other officers took part in Friday’s possession and hundreds of onlookers watched.
Memorial services for the three other slain officers have yet to be announced.
CHARLOTTE RESIDENTS SHOCKED AFTER 4 LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS DIE, 4 OTHERS INJURED IN SHOOTOUT
Supporters line the streets for the memorial of fallen CMPD officer, Joshua Eyer outside First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday, May 3, 2024. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer was one of four officers shot and killed on Monday, April 29, while attempting to serve a warrant on a wanted suspect in east Charlotte. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings during a Tuesday press conference said more than 100 rounds were fired between the suspect or suspects inside the house and responding officers on Monday. Investigators recovered an AR-15 and a .40-caliber handgun from the scene.
Suspect Terry Clark Hughes Jr., 39, died at the scene Monday after firing at officers from the second floor of his Galway Drive home, on the front and back side, Jennings said. Two additional persons of interest – both female, one only 17 years old – were taken into custody. Authorities have yet to determine whether there are any additional suspects who can be charged in connection with the mass shooting.
The home where four law enforcement officers were killed remains destroyed in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Four officers were killed in a shootout on Monday while trying to serve a search warrant. (Audrey Conklin/Fox News Digital)
Hughes had an “extensive” criminal record in multiple counties and had spent a significant amount of time in jail, according to North Carolina public records and Chief Jennings.
It is unclear at this time whether any other shooters were involved or if any other charges will be announced.
CHARLOTTE SHOOTOUT: 4 SLAIN OFFICERS SERVING WARRANT HAD ‘GREAT DISADVANTAGE,’ EXPERT SAYS
Biden is meeting with the families of law enforcement officers shot to death on the job. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Biden visited Charlotte on Thursday to meet the fallen officers’ families and members of CMPD.
“We must do more to protect our law enforcement officers,” the president said in a Monday statement. “That means funding them – so they have the resources they need to do their jobs and keep us safe. And it means taking additional action to combat the scourge of gun violence. Now. Leaders in Congress need to step up so that we ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require safe storage of guns and pass universal background checks and a national red flag law. Enough is enough.”
Read the full article from Here
Southeast
Florida teens in custody after 14-year-old girl found shot to death, burnt: sheriff
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Two teen boys in Florida are accused of fatally shooting a 14-year-old girl and setting her on fire along a wooded walking trail last week in what authorities are calling a “horrific” killing.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson told reporters Thursday that the body has been identified as Danika Troy. He said Danika’s mother reported her as a runaway on Monday.
“Unbeknownst to the mother, Danika was murdered the previous night,” Johnson said.
A passerby discovered Danika’s body along a wooded area off Kimberly Road in Pace, a town about 16 miles northeast of Pensacola, and called 911, Johnson said.
MIGRANT TEENAGERS CHARGED IN FATAL STABBING OF HOMELESS MAN IN CHICAGO
Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson told reporters that the suspects were supposedly friends with the victim from school. He said investigators were still working to determine a motive. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Investigators quickly identified the suspects as 14-year-old Kimahri Blevins and 16-year-old Gabriel Williams and took them into custody.
“This is where it gets really horrific,” Johnson said.
Kimahri Blevins, 14, is facing premeditated first-degree murder charges. Authorities are seeking to charge him as an adult. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Williams allegedly stole his mother’s handgun and shot Danika.
“It’s bad enough you kill a 14-year-old. You’re 14. You’re 16,” Johnson said. “Shoot her multiple times, and then they set her on fire.”
Gabriel Williams, 16, is facing premeditated first-degree murder charges. Authorities are seeking to charge him as an adult. (Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office)
Johnson said investigators are still working to determine a motive.
“They have been interviewed, but the motive that they’re giving doesn’t fit the forensics or any facts of the case, so we don’t have a legit motive,” he told reporters.
TEEN ARRESTED FOR MURDER IN SHOOTING OF 11-YEAR-OLD BOY IN NEW YORK: ‘AN UNIMAGINABLE TRAGEDY’
Blevins and Williams supposedly knew the victim from school, according to Johnson. He believed the two teens have had previous “run-ins” with law enforcement, though he could not immediately say if they had earlier arrests.
Blevins and Williams are being held at the Department of Juvenile Justice on premeditated first-degree murder charges.
“You don’t want to go out and see a burnt child with bullet holes,” Johnson said. “That’s not something you sign up for.”
Johnson said no parents have been charged at this time, though investigators are “looking into it.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The sheriff’s office is working with the State Attorney to charge both teens as adults.
“If you do an adult crime, you gotta do adult time,” Johnson said.
Read the full article from Here
Southeast
Florida college student who allegedly shipped 1,500 rounds of ammo to dorm had AR-15 under bed
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A Florida college student who allegedly ordered 1,500 rounds of ammunition to his dorm room also had a semi-automatic rifle under his bed, according to authorities.
Constantine Demetriades, a 21-year-old senior at Rollins College, was arrested by Winter Park police on Wednesday and charged with possession of a weapon on school property after the ammunition order was reported to police by the school’s assistant campus safety director, according to an arrest affidavit, WKMG reported.
After the purchase was flagged, the assistant safety director searched Demetriades’ dorm and allegedly discovered an unloaded AR-15 under his bed inside an unsecured black carrying case with one loaded magazine and five empty magazines, as well as a tactical vest, knives, a black security vest and ear protection.
FLORIDA OFFICER SHOT IN FACE DURING SERVICE CALL TIED TO MENTAL HEALTH DISPUTE; SUSPECT KILLED
Constantine Demetriades, 21, was charged with possession of a weapon on school property. (Winter Park Police Department)
Demetriades, who said he likes to shoot as a hobby, told police he had the rifle on school property because he had recently returned from a Thanksgiving trip to New Jersey, where he said the guns were purchased and registered legally, according to the affidavit.
He said he did not have ill intentions and that he usually stores the firearm at a friend’s home off school property, the affidavit stated. He also said he only brought the gun to campus on one other occasion.
Constantine Demetriades said he did not have ill intentions. (Getty Images)
While Florida allows open carry, Rollins College bans all weapons on campus. Demetriades allegedly said he is aware that weapons are not allowed on campus and that his New Jersey concealed carry permit does not apply in Florida.
The college said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital that he is banned from campus until the situation is resolved, adding that an internal investigation has been opened.
FLORIDA MAN ARRESTED IN WEALTHY BEACH TOWN OVER ALLEGED TIKTOK SCHOOL-SHOOTING THREAT
While Florida allows open carry, Rollins College bans all weapons on campus. (Getty Images)
“On Wednesday, the College received a report indicating a violation of our weapons policy,” Rollins College said in a statement. “After receiving this information, we immediately initiated an investigation.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“We quickly identified and contacted the student, who cooperated fully with College officials and local law enforcement as we investigated the matter further,” the statement continued. “The student was arrested and is not permitted to be on campus while the College proceeds with the student conduct process.”
The school said Demetriades was additionally charged with a violation of the college’s weapons policy, and will go through the on-campus conduct process.
Read the full article from Here
Southeast
Marjorie Taylor Greene spars with ’60 Minutes’ host over ‘accusatory’ questions
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., briefly sparred with “60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl over what she claimed was “accusatory” behavior from the journalist.
Greene gave her first sit-down interview with Stahl since announcing her resignation from Congress last month. During the segment, Stahl and Greene spoke about the Georgia lawmaker’s apology for taking part in “toxic politics.”
“I would like to say humbly, I‘m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics,” Greene told CNN in November. “It’s very bad for our country, and it’s been something I’ve thought about a lot, especially since Charlie Kirk was assassinated, is that we, I’m only responsible for myself and my own words and actions, and I am committed, and I’ve been working on this a lot lately to put down the knives in politics.”
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE TO APPEAR ON ’60 MINUTES’ AHEAD OF EXIT FROM CONGRESS
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., gave her first sit-down interview with “60 Minutes” since announcing her resignation. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“But you contributed to that,” Stahl asked Greene Sunday. “You. You, you were out there pounding, insulting people.”
Greene pushed back, claiming that Stahl had contributed to toxic politics herself.
“You’re accusatory, just like you did just then,” Greene said.
“I know you’re accusing me, but I’m smiling,” Stahl responded.
“You’re accusing me,” Greene said. “But we don’t have to accuse one another.”
The two continued to go back and forth, with Greene repeatedly insisting that Stahl should also acknowledge her own contribution to toxic politics.
“I don’t insult people,” Stahl said.
TRUMP SAYS HE’D ‘LOVE TO SEE’ GREENE RETURN TO POLITICS DESPITE RECENT ATTACKS
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., previously apologized for her role in “toxic” politics. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
“You just, you do in the way you question,” Greene said. “And you are, you’re accusing me right now.”
Fox News Digital reached out to CBS News for comment.
Greene previously sat down with Stahl in April 2023, when the two had a fiery exchange over the congresswoman’s claim that Democrats are the “party of pedophiles.”
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE SAYS SHE HOPES TO ‘MAKE UP’ WITH TRUMP AMID ONGOING FEUD
“They are not pedophiles. Why would you say that?” Stahl exclaimed.
“Democrats support — even Joe Biden, the president himself — supports children being sexualized and having transgender surgeries. Sexualizing children is what pedophiles do to children,” Greene said.
“Wow,” Stahl reacted.
“60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl had a tense exchange with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., over her claim that Democrats were the “party of pedophiles” during an April 2023 interview. (Screenshots/CBS News)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Greene shocked the political landscape last month when she revealed she would leave Congress Jan. 5. Many believe her abrupt exit was the result of her soured relationship with President Donald Trump.
Fox News’ Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
Read the full article from Here
-
Iowa4 days agoAddy Brown motivated to step up in Audi Crooks’ absence vs. UNI
-
Washington1 week agoLIVE UPDATES: Mudslide, road closures across Western Washington
-
Iowa6 days agoHow much snow did Iowa get? See Iowa’s latest snowfall totals
-
Maine3 days agoElementary-aged student killed in school bus crash in southern Maine
-
Maryland4 days agoFrigid temperatures to start the week in Maryland
-
Technology1 week agoThe Game Awards are losing their luster
-
South Dakota5 days agoNature: Snow in South Dakota
-
Nebraska1 week agoNebraska lands commitment from DL Jayden Travers adding to early Top 5 recruiting class