Southeast
Gunshots ring out in Miami Beach, sending spring breakers fleeing
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Florida spring breakers ran for his or her lives early Sunday morning when a gunman fired a number of pictures in Miami Seashore, in accordance with a report.
“Two victims had been positioned with an obvious gunshot wound and had been transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital by Miami Seashore Fireplace Rescue with non-life-threatening accidents,” a spokesman with the Miami Seashore Police Division informed Fox Information Digital on Sunday.
The stampede of college-aged spring breakers made a run for it close to a well-liked bar and eating spot close to the intersection of Ocean Drive and ninth Road Sunday simply after midnight, in accordance with the Every day Mail.
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Movies on social media present the folks working from the scene.
One girl was shot within the leg and one other was seen being transported on a stretcher, in accordance with the report.
One other man was additionally reported with a gunshot wound at a neighborhood hospital. His accidents are non-life-threatening and are believed to have been brought on by the capturing, in accordance with authorities.
Police are at present investigating what led to the capturing. Individuals with data on the matter are inspired to contact the Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers.
The capturing comes days after 5 West Level cadets overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine in Florida whereas on spring break.
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Southeast
Virginia school picture photographer loses job after allegedly asking young students, 'Can I eat your soul?'
A Virginia elementary school photographer reportedly lost her job after being accused of making improper remarks to young students, including allegedly asking one boy, “Can I eat your soul?”
The principal of Chittum Elementary School in Chesapeake, Bridget Outlaw, said in an email to parents last week that a photographer hired to take school pictures was escorted off campus for making “inappropriate comments” to students, WTKR reported. The photographer, who was not named by school or company officials, was employed by Lifetouch, a family and school photography service owned by Shutterfly.
In an interview, parent Rachel Fjeld told WTKR that her son was sitting to have his school picture taken when the photographer allegedly asked him, “Can I steal your identity?” and “Can I eat your soul?”
“You can say all the things you want to say about good vs. evil, God vs. the devil, or demons or whatever, but at the end of the day what was said was not funny, and it wasn’t OK. It was a child in an uncomfortable situation,” Fjeld said. “I know people are trying to say, ‘Oh she’s just joking. It was just funny,’ but it’s not funny. That’s not funny. And what that doesn’t do is put any child at ease, it just scares them.”
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“She asked him, ‘Can I steal your identity?’ His response was just, ‘No.’ Her next question was, ‘Can I eat your soul?’ And, you know, when he was expressing it to us he was crying, he was very upset and he said ‘No, no,’” Fjeld said of the exchange between her son and the photographer.
“Her next question was, ‘Well, then what can I eat?’ He told me, he said, ‘Mommy I didn’t know what to say so I said the first thing that came to mind was, ‘You can have noodles, you can eat noodles,’ and her response was, ‘Demons don’t eat noodles.’”
The mother, who initially sounded the alarm about the alleged remarks in a since-privatized Facebook post, also thanked the elementary school for their swift response.
“It went to the principal, who is amazing, I will say. The school handled it – we so appreciate it. They were very quick. They immediately escorted her off the premises, they called us,” Fjeld told the outlet.
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Once the comments were reported, school administration “immediately addressed the issue, and this individual was escorted off of school property,” Outlaw said in an email to the school community last week, according to the local station. “Parents of students who reported the concern were notified.”
“We want to commend our students for quickly reporting the incident,” Outlaw said. “We are thankful that our message of ‘see something, say something’ was effectively used in this situation.”
On Friday, a Shutterfly spokesperson told WTKR that the photographer involved in the Chittum Elementary incident was no longer employed as a photographer by Lifetouch and an internal investigation is underway.
“At Lifetouch, our number one priority is the safety of every student we photograph,” the company said in a statement obtained by the outlet. “We have numerous policies and procedures in place to ensure that safety, including training and background checks on all of our photographers. We take any allegation about a photographer very seriously, and are conducting a thorough internal investigation. In the meantime, the employee in question has been removed from all photography duties.”
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Southeast
Blue city invests in police — and loses 'murder capital' moniker
New Orleans, which was dubbed America’s murder capital just two years ago during a post-COVID crime spike, has recorded a decrease in homicides by about 50% since 2022, including a 71% drop in juvenile homicides since 2023.
Anne Kirkpatrick, who was named superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department — the equivalent of a police chief — just last year, attributes the recent success in preventing violent crime to collaboration between local, federal and state officials.
“There has definitely been a turnaround in this city,” Kirkpatrick told Fox News Digital. “We are, by far, outpacing the national trend. … There is a national trend of a drop in these rates. Ours are twice what the national trend is. It is not by accident, and it is intentional. We actually are very strategic, and we can point to a couple of strategies that we know are making a difference.”
The police superintendent noted that the police department speaks weekly with community organizations, state police, federal authorities and district attorneys.
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“We literally get together once a week in discussion, and then we use a policing strategy that has been around for a while,” Kirkpatrick explained.
That strategy is called Operation Ceasefire, which originated in Boston and which New Orleans has adopted with its own unique take on the model specific to New Orleans crime.
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“We have named it GRIP, which stands for Gun Reduction Intervention Plan. So, in a big-picture way, we know that we have certain repeat offenders who use guns. We call them trigger-pullers,” the superintendent explained. “These are people that are identified, and therefore, we focus on the offenders. So, when you have a small group of people who are responsible for most of the violent crime, it’s really a strategy that goes: identify them … try to intervene and disrupt that cycle. … We will arrest and incarcerate you if we have to, but we also are taking a holistic, public health approach.”
Michael Hecht, CEO of the Greater New Orleans Inc. nonprofit that aims to better the city’s businesses and overall quality of life, similarly said that while major cities across the United States have generally seen a decrease in homicides between 2020 and now, The Big Easy saw a particularly drastic drop in violent crime.
“Two years ago, New Orleans was really on the precipice. In 2019, we had enjoyed a 19-year low in homicides. So, it was shocking and really quite tragic, then, in 2022, we were suddenly on a trajectory to become the homicide capital of the country,” Hecht explained. “And that was deemed to be, first and foremost, morally unacceptable but also economically potentially devastating.”
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Hecht noted that on top of the murder surge, there was also an increase in carjackings and a general “sense of terror across all neighborhoods” during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Since those dark days of 2022, our murder rate is down 50%,” Hecht said. “And most importantly, over the last year, the juvenile homicide rate is down over 70%. Shootings have declined by a similar amount. Carjackings have declined by almost 70%. And armed robberies have declined by 55%.”
In response to arguments that other cities are seeing the same trend, Hecht noted that New Orleans “is actually enjoying the fourth-steepest average decline across all major categories of crime of any major city in the United States,” and the city is also doing “about three to four times better than the national trend,” citing an analysis from the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
How were city leaders able to accomplish such a feat? Hecht pointed to several different actions and organizations that stepped up to help curb crime, including Louisiana Gov. Jeffrey Landry’s efforts to sign legislation aimed at preventing violence and increasing punishments for fentanyl dealing and carjacking, as well as creating a specialized law enforcement unit called Troop NOLA.
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Hecht also noted three specific initiatives that Greater New Orleans believes helped lower homicide numbers: first, “more proactive policing, particularly targeting the worst of the worst to get them off the streets”; second, enhanced use of modern technology that helps improve the New Orleans Police Department’s “solve rate”; and third, more cooperation between federal, state and local authorities.
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“There have been ideologies or communities that have been just focus on policing or just focus on systemic issues. And we’ve said, ‘No, you need to focus on both of them simultaneously because, of course, there’s a feedback loop. If you don’t have safety today, then you’re not going to have resources to invest in tomorrow.”
As far as the significant drop in juvenile crime, Hecht pointed to the fact that public schools in New Orleans struggled during the pandemic, which led more juveniles to turn to crime and violence, but they have since “posted some of the strongest gains in the state.”
The New Orleans Career Center has put a heavy emphasis on helping local youth get jobs to keep them away from violence.
“There’s no question, as many say, that nothing stops a bullet like a job.”
Leaders have also made improvements to recreational sports, and faith-based communities have helped provide counseling services to “kids that are having trouble at home.” The CEO mentioned the NOLA Coalition, an organization made up of members of all walks of New Orleans life, including Greater New Orleans, that aims to “create a safer and more prosperous New Orleans for all residents.”
“What the NOLA Coalition did by representing a constituency that was so diverse — black and white, Republican, Democrat, rich and poor, that really represented the fabric of the city … is it created what I call ‘positive pressure’ on our leadership to do the right thing, whether that was investing more money in conditions for our police officers or investing more money in our schools, and we also put our money where our mouth is by raising this money from the local corporate community,” Hecht said. “We demonstrated that we weren’t just all talk.”
“We demonstrated that we weren’t just all talk.”
That increased investment in the city allowed New Orleans to hire Kirkpatrick, who Hecht said has “undoubtedly been part of the success story.”
The NOLA Coalition has also raised $8 million of its $15 million to support local youth programs like mentoring and mental health services, as well as recreational improvements.
“The closure of the schools, combined with the national pullback on proactive policing, combined to create this toxic environment that was very dangerous. And so the fact that we’ve reversed it so dramatically is encouraging, but it’s also pretty startling,” Hecht said. “I mean, when we started the NOLA Coalition two years ago, our intention, our hope, was to abate the violence. If you had said success is going to look like in two years, you’re going to be number four in the country for the most rapid decrease, I would have said … that’s a nice North Star. But we’re dealing with a lot of complexities here. So, it’s been pretty head-snapping.”
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Compared to national numbers from the Major Cities Chiefs Association, New Orleans has seen an approximate 45% decrease in homicides since last year (about 50% compared to 2022), whereas there was an average 18% drop in homicides nationally across major cities. New Orleans also recorded a 44% decrease in robberies and a 21% decrease in aggravated assaults this year compared to last, whereas nationally, cities recorded an average 8% decrease in homicides and a 5% drop in aggravated assault.
The positive change is welcome news for The Big Easy, which is hosting Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9. Hecht said New Orleans leaders, including himself, are making infrastructure improvements leading up to America’s most-watched event, but they plan on maintaining and continuing those improvements after the game.
FBI Director Christopher Wray praised the city’s work during a visit this month, describing their results in combating violent crime as “extraordinary.”
“It’s something we want to replicate going forward,” Wray said, according to Nola.com.
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Southeast
Fani Willis crisscrosses country fundraising with Democrat allies in DC, LA
Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has been crisscrossing the country to attend fundraisers for her re-election campaign with Democratic allies in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and beyond.
Earlier this month, Willis traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend her own “2024 Re-Election Fundraising Reception” on Sept. 13.
“All contributions up to $3,300 are appreciated,” the invitation read.
Willis also headlined a panel in Washington, D.C., during the Annual Congressional Black Caucus Weekend with Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, where they discussed ways to “clapback against MAGA.”
Last week, Willis continued her fundraising swing, holding another “Re-Election Fundraising Reception” in Los Angeles on Sept. 17.
That event drew different levels of contributions.
“Team Fani” donors were asked to give $101; “Ally” donors were asked for $250; “Partner” donors were asked for $500; and “Supporter” donors were asked for $1,000, with maximum contributions of $3,300 requested.
Willis, on Sept. 13, had been subpoenaed to testify before Georgia’s State Senate Special Committee on Investigations.
That committee was holding a hearing as part of its investigation into allegations that Willis had profited off former President Donald Trump’s prosecution and colluded with Democrat officials to bring charges against the former president.
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The subpoena compelled Willis to testify and also to provide documents related to the investigation, and to her relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade. Willis reportedly had an “improper affair” with Wade, who she hired to help bring the case against Trump. Wade later resigned from his position.
Willis filed an emergency motion to stop the subpoena from compelling her testimony before the Georgia State Senate committee.
A Fulton County judge, however, denied her motion.
While in Washington, D.C., Willis also headlined a panel during the Annual Congressional Black Caucus Weekend with Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, where they discussed ways to “clapback against MAGA.”
This week, Willis continued her fundraising swing, holding another “Re-Election Fundraising Reception” in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
That event drew different levels of contributions.
“Team Fani” donors were asked to give $101; “Ally” donors were asked for $250; “Partner” donors were asked for $500; and “Supporter” donors were asked for $1,000, with maximum contributions of $3,300 requested.
There were more fundraisers for Willis on Friday and Sunday in Houston.
“Instead of doing her job, Fani Willis is gallivanting across the U.S. raising money and rubbing elbows with her radical cronies in California and Washington — abandoning the families of Fulton County, and her oath to uphold the law,” Greater Georgia Chairwoman and former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler told Fox News Digital.
“Time and time again, she puts her financial and political interests above serving our citizens,” Loeffler said. “No amount of blue state cash can hide the fact that she’s only fighting for herself.”
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Loeffler launched Greater Georgia in 2021. It is the only organization in the state working to oust Willis ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
The conservative advocacy group launched a $100,000 ad campaign against Willis earlier this month, aimed at exposing her “failures” ahead of Election Day.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee dismissed two criminal counts in Willis’ Georgia 2020 election interference case against Trump, ruling that Georgia prosecutors had no authority to bring the charges that related to the alleged filing of false documents in federal court.
McAffee, earlier this year, dismissed six other charges against Trump, saying Willis failed to allege sufficient detail.
Trump had pleaded not guilty to all counts.
In June, the Georgia Court of Appeals paused the proceedings until it hears the case to disqualify Willis in October.
The Georgia Court of Appeals said it would hear Trump’s argument to have Willis disqualified on Dec. 5 — a month after the 2024 presidential election.
In a separate decision earlier this month, though, McAfee upheld the racketeering charge in the case, which has been brought against all the defendants.
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