EL PASO, Texas – A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Matthew Joseph Contreras with kidnapping. According to court documents, Contreras is accused of taking the victim from El Paso to Alamogordo on his way to a detention facility. Federal officials say he was going there for a new job; earlier reports indicated he
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EL PASO, Texas – A 19-year-old man was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon Monday. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office says Johnathon Acosta was taken into custody after driving by a home several times near the 300 block of NW H Ave in Fabens. Investigators say Acosta fired at least one gunshot.
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By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN The leader of the West Virginia chapter of the Proud Boys pleaded guilty on Wednesday to illegally entering the US Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021. Jeffrey Finley, 29, faces up to one year in prison. The plea could be a significant step in one of the Justice Department’s most crucial
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By Omar Jimenez, Brad Parks and Peter Nickeas, CNN Prosecutors declined to file charges against the Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot Amir Locke or any other officers involved in the no-knock warrant service that led to the 22-year-old Black man’s death in early February. An officer shot Locke within a few seconds of entering
Continue Reading By Amir Vera, Taylor Romine and Cheri Mossburg, CNN Sacramento police say a Sunday mass shooting that left six dead was the result of gang violence and involved at least five gunmen. “We believe at this point there are five shooters and the five shooters included two groups where there was an exchange of gunfire
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EL PASO, Texas – A 57-year-old man was arrested after investigators said he set fire to a dumpster in an alley behind the 8900 block of Roberts Drive in northeast El Paso. According to the El Paso Fire Marshal’s office, Edward Darren Hunter was charged with criminal mischief. His bond was set at $1,000. The
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EL PASO, Texas – A 33-year-old man was arrested for arson due to an early morning fire March 30 in south-central El Paso. Police say witnesses identified Terry Donte Godfrey as the man who intentionally started a structure fire at the 4900 block of Alameda. Fire crews were able to put out the fire. There
Continue Reading By Amir Vera and Raja Razek, CNN The Dallas concert that left one dead and 16 injured did not have a permit, according to Dallas Police Chief Edgardo “Eddie” Garcia. “This crime is a prime example that non-permitted and promoted events can lead to violence,” Garcia said. “This, of course, can happen at any event,
Continue Reading By Chris Boyette, CNN Three people are facing capital murder charges after an off-duty Harris County deputy was shot and killed while leaving a grocery store with his wife, officials said. Deputy Darren Almendarez, 51, and his wife were walking to their truck at a Houston-area store around 8:35 p.m. Thursday when they saw a
Continue Reading By Susannah Cullinane, Holly Yan, Stella Chan and Cheri Mossburg, CNN Police on Monday said they have arrested one man who is a suspect in Sunday’s mass shooting in Sacramento that killed six people and wounded 12 others. Dandrae Martin, 26, was identified as a “related suspect” and was booked on assault and illegal firearm
Continue Reading By Kiely Westhoff, CNN The New York Police Department Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating an incident in which an unidentified individual was captured on video shouting anti-gay slurs and attacking a 22-year-old on the subway, the NYPD announced this week. The victim was riding the A-train near 190th street in Manhattan on the afternoon
Continue Reading By Chuck Johnston and Hannah Sarisohn, CNN Sacramento police are appealing for the public’s help to find multiple shooters who opened fire downtown early Sunday morning, killing six people and leaving the California city with “a broken heart,” according to the mayor. In addition to the six dead, another 12 people were wounded at the
Continue Reading By Eric Levenson, CNN A federal judge upheld Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction on sex trafficking charges Friday, ruling that a juror’s misstatements on a pretrial questionnaire should not cause a mistrial. Judge Alison Nathan issued the ruling nearly a month after the juror testified in court he made an “inadvertent” mistake when he indicated in the
Continue Reading By Tierney Sneed After several recent developments in the January 6 investigations that put the Justice Department in the center of the political whirlwinds, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that the only pressure his agency feels is to “do the right thing” by following “the facts and the law.” “The only pressure I feel,
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By Kristin Wilson, CNN The House has voted with a slim bipartisan majority to federally decriminalize marijuana. The vote was 220 to 204. Republicans Tom McClintock of California, Brian Mast and Matt Gaetz, both of Florida, joined the majority of Democrats in supporting the bill, while Democrats Henry Cuellar of Texas and Chris Pappas of
Continue Reading By Holmes Lybrand Concluding one of the more unnerving cases surrounding January 6, a man who brought multiple firearms, Molotov cocktails and other weapons near the US Capitol that day was sentenced to 46 months behind bars on Friday. Lonnie Coffman, 72, parked his truck — filled with 11 Mason jars filled with gasoline and
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HOUSTON (AP) — An off-duty Texas deputy sheriff has been killed in a shooting on the northern outskirts of Houston. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez says 51-year-old Deputy Darren Almendarez was fatally shot Thursday night when he interrupted three men apparently trying to steal the catalytic converter from Almendarez’s vehicle in a grocery store parking
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UPDATE (03/31) – The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office released the mug shot of the man Border Patrol arrested for trying to drive across the Rio Grande in his SUV. The Sheriff’s Office has identified the suspect as 32-year-old Patricio Gomez. EL PASO, Texas – United States Border Patrol agents say they arrested a US
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Las Cruce police are searching for 40-year-old Rodrigo Villegas after an early morning incident on the 1800 block of Sexton Street. Police say they responded to a report of a domestic disturbance just before 1 a.m. When officers arrived, they found a woman with a stab wound. She was taken
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EL PASO, Texas – A visiting judge has granted the State’s motion to remove Judge Marcos Lizarraga from the Moises Galvan murder re-trial. In January, KVIA reported the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct was investigating 21 complaints against Judge Lizarraga of the 168th District Court. The complaints centered around Lizarraga’s handling of the Galvan trial,
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EL PASO, Texas — An El Paso woman pleaded guilty to stealing money from a union. Court documents state Dorothy Ferguson, 58, took out 29 unauthorized cash withdrawals totaling $16,604. She served as the treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees Local Union located in Fort Bliss. Ferguson held that position from December 2019
Continue Reading By Kate Sullivan and Maegan Vazquez, CNN President Joe Biden signed a bill into law on Tuesday that makes lynching a federal hate crime, acknowledging how racial violence has left a lasting scar on the nation and asserting that these crimes are not a relic of a bygone era. At a White House Rose Garden
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EL PASO, Texas – Two people were arrested during an FBI El Paso Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Taskforce inter-agency operation. Investigators say Marlene Gallegos, 25, propositioned a girl she believed was under the age of 18 online. Gallegos made arrangements to meet with the girl and drove from Socorro to West El Paso. The
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EL PASO, Texas – City Council today received an update on the research and study of best practices for the composition and scope of the El Paso Discipline Review Board (DRB) and the ShootingReview Board. Various opportunities for improvement were identified to include training for DRB members, Border Network for Human Rights’ recommendations for police
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MESILLA, New Mexico – Authorities arrested an educational assistant at Zia Middle School who they accuse of inappropriately touching a special needs teenager in the bathroom. “It’s very disturbing,” said Danny Garcia, a detective in the Mesilla Marshal’s Office. “As a parent, grandparent, you would expect an official of the school to behave. In a
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EL PASO, Texas – Law enforcement agencies from both sides of the border attended a binational coordination meeting today. The Juarez Secretary of Municipal Public Safety, Cesar Omar Munoz Morales, was joined by FBI, ICE, CBP, and the U.S. Marshal’s office who provided information on interventions conducted along the border. The head of the Mexican
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EL PASO, Texas – Social media is used by many to reach out to friends and keep in touch with family, but there are many in the community who have been using it to scam people out of money according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations El Paso Division. One local woman, Melissa Ponce Gardea
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — An abandoned mobile home caught fire in Las Cruces Wednesday evening, threantening other homes that were occupied. Las Cruces police say they had one person in custody, but did not identify that person since charges had not been filed. The fire happened at 900 East Madrid Avenue, close to Solano
Continue Reading EL PASO, Texas — The Council of Judges in El Paso county are discussing how to implement Texas Senate Bill 6, which among other things, does not allow people accused of violent crimes to be released from jail unless they can pay their bail in cash. SB 6 will not allow those accused of a
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EL PASO, Texas – The FBI announced the arrest of an El Paso man for receiving and distributing images involving the sexual exploitation of a minor. Officials say they received a tip in February that 26-year-old Brendan Bradford has been distributing child sexual abuse material on social media platforms over the past three months. Officials
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