Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania police looking at cold cases for possible links to Bryan Kohberger

Published

1 year ago

February 8, 2023

Pennsylvania police looking at cold cases for possible links to Bryan Kohberger

Two regulation enforcement workplaces in Pennsylvania are reportedly sifting by way of chilly case information in the hunt for any potential hyperlinks to Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger.

Northampton County District and Lehigh County began on the lookout for hyperlinks between unsolved instances and Mr Kohberger following his 30 December arrest, King5 reported. The Washington State College PhD scholar is accused of murdering Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin on 13 November in Moscow, Idaho.

Mr Kohberger, initially from Pennsylvania, was a scholar at Northampton Neighborhood School in Bethlehem earlier than he went on to spend 4 years finding out criminology at DeSales College in Lehigh County. Prosecutors within the two Keystone State counties advised King5 that though no hyperlinks have emerged to date, their workplaces are nonetheless working by way of chilly instances databases.

“Your pure query is to start out questioning, ‘is that this man wished?’” Northampton County District Lawyer Terence Houck advised the community. “Is his identify on the market? Did he do something right here in [my] county?”

Mr Houck mentioned his division had used Mr Kohberger’s top, weight and the alleged Idaho killer’s technique of operation to check with previous instances – to no avail to date.

Lehigh County District Lawyer Jim Martin additionally advised King5: “The very first thing I did was ask the director of the RIC [Regional Intelligence and Investigation Center] to see if we had any contact with Mr Kohberger … [We] haven’t any unsolved homicides that in any means meet the modus operandi of this occasion out in Idaho,”

Mr Martin mentioned his workplace sorted by way of a database with greater than six million police stories and case information, solely discovering one occasion during which Mr Kohberger referred to as 911 when his automotive locked behind a parked gate. Mr Martin mentioned that Mr Kohberger’s alternate with regulation enforcement was uneventful and that he was apologetic.

Following a number of days of a surveillance operation by the FBI, Mr Kohbergerwas arrested at his mum or dad’s residence in Monroe County pm 30 December. On the time, police mentioned he had no earlier legal historical past.

It has since emerged that Mr Kohberger was going through disciplinary motion in his instructing assistant job at WSU across the time of the murders of the 4 College of Idaho college students – earlier than he was in the end fired from the place days earlier than his arrest.

In line with an affidavit launched final month, cellphone information locations Mr Kohberger near the house of the murders at round 9am on 13 November – suggesting that he returned to the scene of the crime simply hours after allegedly murdering the 4 victims at round 4am.

Police additionally mentioned that his DNA was additionally discovered on a knife sheath left behind on the scene by the killer and his white Hyundai Elantra was caught on surveillance footage on the crime scene on the time of the murders, the affidavit reveals.

Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20 and Kaylee Goncalves, 21

(Instagram/Kaylee Goncalves)

One of many victims’ surviving roommates was additionally capable of partially describe the killer to investigators after she got here nose to nose with him within the aftermath of the murders.

Acquaintances of Mr Kohberger additionally spoke with King5 and recounted the suspected assassin’s struggles as a teen. Jack Baylis, who met Mr Kohberger once they had been eighthgraders, advised the Community that Mr Kohberger struggled with heroin dependancy, as different of his former buddies have beforehand claimed.

“He’s all the time been sort of fascinated with sort of how the how the mind works and the way folks assume and why they do what they do,” Mr Baylis mentioned. “I need to say he wished to be a cop since he was youthful.”

Vernard James additionally advised King5 that whereas engaged on a category venture with Mr Kohberger at DeSales, he realised the criminology scholar might be “manipulative” and “chilly”

“We’re approaching the due date and I used to be feeling like I used to be ignored to dry,” Mr James mentioned, including that Mr Kohberger gave him a “very intense stare” when confronted. “I do not forget that. I’ll always remember that wanting proper into my soul nearly, you recognize, as we had been having this backwards and forwards.”

James mentioned Kohberger was dismissive of his grievance and accepted no duty because the venture chief.

At DeSales, Mr Kohberger studied below famend forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland who interviewed the BTK serial killer and co-wrote the e-book Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer with him.

He additionally carried out a analysis venture “to know how feelings and psychological traits affect decision-making when committing a criminal offense”.

Mr Kohberger is ready to look in court docket for a preliminary listening to on 25 June.

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Pennsylvania

While Biden campaigns in Pennsylvania, some Democratic leaders in the House say he should step aside

Published

5 hours ago

July 8, 2024

Press Room

While Biden campaigns in Pennsylvania, some Democratic leaders in the House say he should step aside

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Pennsylvania

Biden makes campaign stop at Northwest Philly church

Published

13 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Biden makes campaign stop at Northwest Philly church

‘We thank God’

Morris founded Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ in 1966. It has since grown in size and influence, becoming an important and iconic place of worship for the region. Fenton, who watched Martin Luther King Jr. give his famous “Mountaintop” speech when he was 11 years old, now runs the congregation and often invokes King in his sermons, including Sunday’s.

Parishioner Handsome Newton called the event “an amazing experience.”

“It’s something that’s surreal and something that some people have never gotten to experience in their lifetime,” he told WHYY News. “This is something I’m going to tell my grandkids and great-grandkids about one day.”

Newton downplayed Biden’s age, adding, “I don’t care what people said about the debate. He actually spoke extremely well today and I was blessed to be here.”

Zetta Butler, another parishioner, called Biden’s visit “God’s given gift to the church.”

“We’re seeing so much evil that goes on in the world,” she said. “This is a man of integrity and we are so proud to have him here with us today of all days, any day. I know the election is coming up and we’re going to vote for him. He’s going to be a second-term president, and so we thank God for him and everyone.”

Down in Pennsylvania

While Biden has made Pennsylvania a regular stop in his drive for a second term, this was his first visit since the debate for which his performance has given many Democrats — including prominent elected officials — cause for concern about his ability to win the election.

Earlier in the day, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, a Democrat, told MSNBC that Biden’s TV appearance did not assuage those concerns.

The first major post-debate poll, by Bloomberg, shows Biden moved up in every swing state except Pennsylvania, where he is now down seven points — well outside the margin of polling error. With 19 electoral votes, the Keystone State may be essential to any hope for victory.

In particular, polling suggests Biden is down among Black voters in Pennsylvania and around the country. Whereas he received 92% of the Black vote in 2020, only 50% of Black voters in Pennsylvania say they would vote for him today.

Therefore, the trip to the Church of God in Christ appears to be a strategy to try to win some of those votes back.

“Black history is American history,” the president said at the church.

Fenton noted that Biden’s visit would be reported as such an attempt, saying, “I know the media says President Biden is visiting a Black church. There’s nothing on our program that says a Black church.”

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Pennsylvania

Biden to campaign in battleground Pennsylvania as Democrats mull his candidacy

Published

20 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Biden to campaign in battleground Pennsylvania as Democrats mull his candidacy

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – An increasingly embattled U.S. President Joe Biden will hit the campaign trail in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Sunday, as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries meets with senior House Democrats to discuss the president’s candidacy.

Biden, 81, facing growing calls from fellow Democrats to end his re-election campaign after a halting performance in a June 27 debate with Republican Donald Trump, 78, has vowed to stay in the race and win the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The president is struggling to put down a slow-boil uprising among some congressional Democrats and some influential donors who fear he lacks the capacity to defeat Trump in light of the debate. A much-anticipated interview with ABC News did little to put those concerns to rest.

Biden kept a low profile on Saturday, attending a church service in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, accompanied only by his sister and key adviser, Valerie Biden Owens.

In Friday’s interview, Biden said only the “Lord Almighty” could persuade him to drop out, dismissing the prospect that Democratic leaders could join forces to try to talk him into standing down. He spoke with the national co-chairs of his campaign on Saturday, the White House said, without providing any details.

On Sunday, Biden will address a Black church service in northwest Philadelphia before traveling to the state capital, Harrisburg, for a community organizing event with union members and local Democrats, his campaign said.

Pennsylvania is one of the half-dozen or so states that can swing Democratic or Republican, which are expected to determine the outcome of what has been a tight race.

He will be joined during the day by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, U.S. Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and other elected and community leaders, it said.

The trip is part of a July voter outreach blitz by the Democratic Party that includes a $50 million paid media campaign aimed at events such as Olympic Games and travel by Biden, his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband to every battleground state.

The campaign said it aims to have volunteers and staff knock on more than 3 million voters’ doors in July and August.

It will be Biden’s 10th visit to Pennsylvania during the 2024 election cycle.

Pressure from Congress seems likely to ramp up in the coming days as lawmakers return to Washington from a holiday recess, and donors mull their willingness to keep funding his campaign.

The political crisis is unfolding as Biden prepares to host dozens of world leaders at a high-stakes NATO summit in Washington and hold a rare solo news conference.

Five U.S. lawmakers have called for Biden to end his re-election bid, including Representative Angie Craig of Minnesota, the first Democratic member of the House of Representatives from a battleground district, with others said poised to join in.

“Given what I saw and heard from the President during last week’s debate in Atlanta, coupled with the lack of a forceful response from the President himself following that debate, I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump,” Craig, a top 2024 target of House Republican efforts, posted on X.

Two letters are circulating among House Democrats calling for Biden to step aside, House Democratic sources have said. Many of those lawmakers had been waiting to see the ABC News interview before moving forward.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia was contacting some fellow Democratic senators to invite them to a possible meeting on Monday to discuss Biden’s campaign. Biden told reporters he had spoken with 20 congressional Democrats, who urged him to stay on, and said knew of no senators ready to join Warner.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Wilmington; Editing by William Mallard)

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