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The murderous white supremacist teenager who ruthlessly gunned down 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, last year will spend the rest of his natural life behind bars. And while that won’t bring the victims back to life, perhaps it will grant their family members some semblance of peace.
According to the Grio, Judge Susan Eagan kept things plain with 19-year-old Payton Gendron—whose adherence to the white nationalist “great replacement theory” helped inspire him to commit the massacre—when she told him, “There can be no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances,” before sentencing him Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Before Eagan handed down her sentence, the court heard emotional testimony from family members of the victims.
From the Grio:
Tamika Harper, a niece of victim Geraldine Talley, said she hoped Gendron would pray for forgiveness.
“Do I hate you? No. Do I want you to die? No. I want you to stay alive. I want you to think about this every day of your life,” she said, speaking gently. “Think about my family and the other nine families that you’ve destroyed forever.”
Gendron locked eyes with Harper as she spoke, then lowered his head and cried.
Kimberly Salter, the widow of security guard Aaron Salter, explained that she and her family were wearing “red for the blood that he shed for his family and for his community, and black because we are still grieving.”
Other family members made sure their rage was loud and clear when confronting Gendron.
One man charged at him and had to be led out of the courtroom.
After the victim testimonies, the court heard Gendron’s brief statement about how he “shot and killed people because they were Black,” just before sliding in an explanation literally nobody cared to hear about how the internet made him do it.
“I believed what I read online and acted out of hate, and now I can’t take it back, but I wish I could, and I don’t want anyone to be inspired by me,” he said, just before a woman in the courtroom who couldn’t take it anymore stood up and let it be known that “we don’t need” his useless mea culpa, and then she stormed out.
Good riddance to another violent white supremacist, and may they all share his fate.
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The search for three Michigan rappers who had been missing for over a week after their show in Detroit was canceled due to technical problems may have come to a tragic end.
Armani Kelly, Dante Wicker, and Montoya Givens, went missing over a week ago after their show in Detroit was canceled due to technical problems. According to The New York Times, the men have not been heard from since January 21 and both missing persons and homicide units with the Detroit Police Department and other police agencies participated in the investigation.
According to The Detroit Free Press, “multiple” bodies have been found in an abandoned apartment building in the city of Highland Park–an enclave near Detroit.
Per the Free Press, Antoine Woods, who identified himself as Wicker’s cousin, said police had not told his family whether Wicker was among the victims found, but that “we think it’s my cousin in there.”
Taylor Perrin, the fiancee of Oscoda rap artist Armani Kelly, said that she was notified that the bodies had been found though there had not been a positive identification she had been told to make the trip from Grand Rapids, Mich., to Detroit.
Wicker and Givens, both 31, were supposed to join Kelly, 27, who was performing at only his second show in his career. Kelly is from Oscoda, Mich. approximately three hours away from Detroit. He drove down for the show at a club called Lounge 31.
Woods said his cousin, “was excited about making music.”
According to the New York Times report, Kelly met Wicker and Givens while they were all in prison. While the police said that all three were to be at Lounge 31 on Jan. 21 for a rap event, it is still being determined if Wicker and Givens were also supposed to perform. The car that Kelly was driving which belonged to his mother was found in Warren, Mich., a Detroit suburb.
The Free Press spoke to Darnell Williams the owner of Lounge 31 the performances were canceled the night the men went missing because of technical failures with DJ equipment. He said there were too many people in the crowd to know whether or when the missing men arrived at the venue, but that police were reviewing video footage.
Detroit Police have said that there has been no activity on any of the men’s phones since January 21. “What was the most concerning, candidly, was the fact that there’s been no activity on their phones since they’ve been reported missing,” James E. White, the Detroit police chief, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “And that’s very, very concerning. That’s an unusual circumstance.”
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Three Black Michigan rappers have been missing for over a week after their show in Detroit was canceled due to technical problems.
Armani Kelly, Dante Wicker and Montoya Givens went missing over a week ago after their show in Detroit was canceled due to technical problems. According to The New York Times, the men have not been heard from since Jan. 21, and both missing persons and homicide units with the Detroit Police Department are investigating.
Wicker and Givens, both 31, were supposed to join Kelly, 27, who was performing at only his second show in his career. Kelly is from Oscoda, Mich., approximately three hours away from Detroit. He drove down for the show at a club called Lounge 31.
His fiancée, Taylor Perrin, of Grand Rapids, Mich., said that she spoke to him at about 5 p.m. on Jan. 21 and that he told her about the technical difficulties and that he was planning to look for another venue with an open mic.
According to the report, Kelly met Wicker and Givens while they were all in prison. While the police said that all three were to be at Lounge 31 Jan. 21 for a rap event, it is unclear if Wicker and Givens were also supposed to perform. The car that Kelly was driving which belonged to his mother was found in Warren, Mich., a Detroit suburb.
Detroit Police have said that there has been no activity on any of the men’s phones since Jan. 21. “What was the most concerning, candidly, was the fact that there’s been no activity on their phones since they’ve been reported missing,” James E. White, the Detroit police chief, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “And that’s very, very concerning. That’s an unusual circumstance.”
Michigan police and police in three surrounding cities are actively working on the case.
“Our determination and love for him is what’s been driving us this whole time,” Perrin told The New York Times. “And not knowing whether the man I’m supposed to marry is dead or alive — I can’t stop until I see his face again, and I won’t.”
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In today’s episode of Now, Sis’, What Is You Doin’? a high school cafeteria worker in Louisiana has been arrested after being accused of selling cannabis edibles to students, which would indicate that she has taken the “high” part of “high school” far too literally. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Please don’t block me.)
According to WAFB, 45-year-old Tymetrica Cohns was actually a temporary cafeteria worker at Jewel M. Sumner High School in Kentwood, Louisiana, before she was arrested Friday for allegedly selling homemade baked goods laced with cannabis to teenagers, which, you know, is like selling Scooby snacks to Scooby and Shaggy for the most part (I mean, it’s still wrong, but I’m jussayin’).
Tangipahoa Parish said they were notified about Cohns’ alleged extra-illegal-curricular activities through a Crime Stoppers app. In fact, apparently, it was a student who blew the whistle on the alleged operation, which, well, might have made them somewhat unpopular around the lunch table if anyone found out. (Again, jussayin’)
“I want to commend this student who saw something and used the app to bring this threat to the attention of our school officials and law enforcement,” Tangipahoa Parish School Superintendent Melissa Stilley said in a statement. She also explained that Cohns was a substitute worker hired by Education Staffing Solutions (ESS), a staffing service that places substitute employees in schools.
“The safety and well-being of our students are paramount,” Police Chief Jimmy Travis of the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office said. “We encourage using the P3 app to report anything they feel threatens their ability to learn in a safe environment.”
Yeah, man, you can’t, as a middle-aged adult especially, be out here selling weed to kids while they’re in their learning environment. Imagine adding 4/20-friendly pastries to a high school lunch menu. People are while, bruh.
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Nothing quite says, “yeah, I’m guilty AF” like when a convicted criminal’s mugshot is indistinguishable from a high school yearbook photo.
As you all know, Tory Lanez was found guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot, and now his mugshot has recently been released and is currently being dragged up and down Black Twitter for looking like a stock photo used for Devry University ads.
If Lanez ever gets out of prison, he can use his mugshot as a headshot when he auditions to play Ron Johnson in the A Different World remake.
Tory Lanez’s mugshot is what you get when you order “Prison Bae” on Wish.
This mugshot just tried to sell me a stolen gold chain for a buck-fiddy.
I blame Jay-Z and Roc Nation for this display of photographic wickedness.
Lanez needs to stop playin’ like that’s him in this mugshot. We know Stephan Urkel when we see him. (That one was for the ’90s kids who two years ago were saying, “Who TF is Tory Lanez?”)
OK, now that I’ve got you all warmed up, here are some of our favorite Black Twitter reactions to Lanez’s mugshot.
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IKYFL!
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Honestly, this would be far less funny if Lanez wasn’t being held accountable for his violent actions. But since he is, it’s probably OK to laugh at this GAP diversity day-a** mugshot photo. We’ll see if he keeps that same energy when he appears in court for sentencing.
Editor’s note: the following story contains descriptions of gun violence.
Grammy-winning Nashville recording engineer Mark Capps was shot and killed by police on Thursday (Jan. 5) at his home just hours after his wife and stepdaughter fled the residence and told police that Capps had been holding them hostage at gunpoint.
In a critical incident briefing from the Metro Nashville Police Department’s Don Aaron, officials said that a SWAT team had been called in to assist in an incident involving Capps, 54, who was wanted on two counts of aggravated kidnapping and two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly holding his 60-year-old wife and 23-year-old stepdaughter at gunpoint in the home the previous night.
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Police said Capps allegedly awakened the women around 3 a.m. and gathered them at gunpoint in the home’s living room and would not let them go, repeatedly pointing his pistol at them and threatening that if they tried to call for help he would kill them, as well as any police that showed up at the house.
After Capps fell asleep, the women fled the home with their pets and drove to a local police precinct, where they told authorities what Capps had done and said they were afraid of him. Aaron said arrest warrants were issued around 2 p.m. on Thursday, after which SWAT officers were alerted. As three SWAT team members were attempting to set up positions outside the home, Aaron said Capps opened the front door “with pistol in hand.”
A veteran officer then asked Capps to show his hands, and, in a bodycam video, can be seen opening fire and shattering the glass storm door with three shots as he repeatedly shouted for Capps to show his hands, believing that the engineer’s movements posed an immediate threat; Capps noted that a mandatory use of force investigation has been initiated following Capps’ killing.
At press time no additional information was available about the incident.
Capps — who worked with artists including The Chicks, Big & Rich, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow and Olivia Newton-John, among others — was the son of late Grand Old Opry lead house band guitarist Jimmy Capps. Mark Capps shared Grammy Awards for best polka album with Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and 2009.
A Hermitage man wanted on outstanding aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault charges was fatally wounded by a SWAT officer Thursday afternoon after he suddenly opened the front door of his home armed with a pistol. More here: https://t.co/iPeGjcyGMg— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) January 6, 2023
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Malachi Love-Robinson, the fake teen doctor from Florida who has been arrested so many times he might as well start renting Air BnB cells at the local county jail is now 25 years old and, well, he’s still getting himself locked up for being a grifter.
According to NBC News, Malachi Love-Robinson pleaded guilty in Palm Beach County, Florida, to charges of grand theft and organized scheme to defraud, and he was sentenced to two years and four months in prison. Love-Robinson pleaded guilty, specifically, to stealing more than $10,000 from his employer.
From NBC:
Court documents show that in 2020, Robinson was working as a salesperson for a company that connects shippers with trucking companies. Instead of having customers make payments to the company, Love-Robinson would have them send the money to accounts he controlled.
Love-Robinson first came to national attention in 2016 as an 18-year-old when he was arrested after opening The New Birth New Life Medical Center, identifying himself as “Dr. Love.”
He stole $30,000 from a patient in her 80s during house calls and an additional $20,000 from a doctor. He was arrested after he examined and prescribed treatment to an undercover police officer who was impersonating a patient.
Later that year while out on bail, Love-Robinson was arrested in Virginia after he tried to buy a Jaguar automobile with a stolen credit card.
I mean, I get that a guy who can go full Frank Abagnale as a teenager and start his own highly illegal medical practice might also make for a convincing salesman, but who the hell hired a known conman for a sales job like this? Was Love-Robinson so smooth during the job interview that he was able to talk a company into overlooking his resume-slash-rap sheet and giving him a job that involved handling money?
I swear this man is going to be in prison selling chrome-plated handcuffs to the corrections officers.
But seriously, hopefully, after this last stint behind bars, Love-Robinson will start making better life decisions.
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A family in an Oregon suburb is speaking out about a neighbor targeting them because they’re Black – by spraying a slur on their own house.
According to reports, the Channel family has been for years dealing with the unhinged antics of a neighbor of theirs in West Linn, a suburb just south of Portland, Oregon. But the neighbor, a woman who has not been identified publicly, has ramped up her disturbing behavior and directed it toward the Channel family, who is Black by recently spray-painting the N-word on her own house.
Andre Channel spoke to local news outlets about the incident, which apparently took place on Christmas Day. He had received a call from another neighbor named Jason while traveling outside of the country. “He was like hey, just want to let you know, your neighbor wrote the n-word all across their house,” Channel said to KPTV. “This is the crossing the line for me, this is new.”
The family stated that the neighbor also directed the slur toward their son earlier in the month. A representative of the West Linn Police Department confirmed they were called to the scene, and that they spray painted over the slur with the homeowner’s consent. But Channel says that action didn’t occur until after him and other neighbors repeatedly called the police to come back. His neighbor Jason stated, “the cops have been here pretty much two or three times a week for the past two months, three months. They’re doing all they can do about it, but we all know the system is broken.”
Channel feels that law enforcement should be doing more. “It seems like we keep getting the run around in regards to there’s a process to this, a process to that,” Channel said. “My daughters shouldn’t have to be at home wondering what’s going to happen next.”
“Incidents such as this cause actual harm, both to those specifically targeted and the wider community at large. We stand firmly against hate and bigotry in all of its forms, and in solidarity with our community members,” the West Linn Police Department said in a statement.
They’ve also said that they’ve notified the Oregon branch of the Department of Justice. Andre Channel is insistent that this ugly incident won’t force him and his family to leave. “I’m not going to let one person force me out of a neighborhood in a city that I love,” he said. “We should be able to come home and feel safe, period.”
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As cliche as it may sound, not all heroes wear capes—or even police badges.
In Indianapolis, two civilians. who happen to be Black women, have been credited with finding a 5-month-old baby who went missing last week in Columbus, Ohio, and his alleged kidnapper.
According to Indy Star, it all started when two twin brothers, Kason and Kyair Thomas, were reported missing in Columbus. It’s unclear how Kason was found, but Kyair’s discovery includes a wild story that began when Indianapolis resident Shyann Delmar bought toys from a random woman at a gas station, then agreed to give the woman a ride to the store.
From Indy Star:
After dropping the woman off, Delmar shared the story and a video she’d taken of the woman with her cousin, Mecka Curry, and they realized the woman seemed eerily similar to the Columbus, Ohio, kidnapping suspect being shown in the news. Following what they chalk up to motherly intuition and sleuthing, the 27-year-old women followed their instincts and decided to take action.
Delmar said she met the woman who called herself “Mae,” bought toys from her and then gave her a ride to a Family Dollar down the street. When the woman started acting erratically, Delmar recorded video of her on her phone.
On Wednesday, Delmar pulled out her video when she saw several mugshots of Nalah T. Jackson, 24, on Facebook that triggered her memory of the strange woman the day before. Delmar compared the images from her phone with the mugshot of Jackson and said she noticed similarities, but didn’t want to jump to conclusions. She asked her family and friends for their input.
“I wanted just to verify it before I got her locked up,” Delmar said.
Curry and Delmar—who had previously exchanged phone numbers with the woman she came to suspect was a kidnapper—were eventually convinced “Mae” was, indeed, Nalah Jackson and, as luck would have it, “Mae” reached out to Delmar about selling her more toys, providing them with a chance to turn her over to the authorities. But they didn’t want “Mae” to figure out the plot until she was in handcuffs, so they had to be kind of slick about things.
More from Indy Star:
Delmar and Curry said they came up with a plan to take the woman to a store and call police to arrest her there so they wouldn’t be traced as the people who called her in. First the cousins called Columbus police, who told them to call the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. When they called Indianapolis police, the women struggled to get the point across that they believed Jackson was in their car.
They got frustrated and hung up, and took the woman to several more stores hoping she would shoplift and draw authorities’ attention. They worried taking her to a police station might cause her to run.
Curry said throughout the shopping trips, she made calls to detectives trying to relay all the information she received from her cousin about their belief “Mae” was the suspected kidnapper.
At one point the police called while the women were in the car, the cousins said. Not wanting to tip off the woman, Curry said she pretended to be talking to a friend and indicated they were driving on I-65 south. The women said police found their car and conducted a traffic stop. “Mae” at that point went quiet, the women said. Curry said a police officer initially seemed skeptical about whether it was Jackson, and said they should take her to a shelter.
Curry said she showed the doubtful cop Jackson’s mugshots and at that point, the officer agreed “Mae” was Jackson. (Either every Law & Order episode ever has been completely wrong, or a civilian showing a cop mugshots to identify a suspect is backward as hell, but OK.)
So, the next thing was to find the missing child, which Delmar and Curry had to do knowing the child was likely in a car Jackson is accused of stealing and abandoning in freezing temperatures. And the only lead they had was a bus schedule “Mae” had left behind before her arrest.
Here’s the rest from Indy Star:
The first stop was 16th Street and then they drove to a shopping center in Speedway and checked out several cars there without success.
The women were about to give up, they said, and were getting hungry. They saw a Papa John’s on Indiana Avenue and were thinking about getting food when they saw a Honda in a parking lot covered in snow.
Curry said she ran to the car and saw baby legs in the back seat and the baby’s face in the rear-view mirror, and her heart began racing, knowing this had to be the vehicle. The back car door was locked, and she feared the worst after hearing no sound. Delmar said she saw a couple officers inside a Blaze Pizza nearby and rushed to tell them about the baby.
“We’ve been alerted that the missing child may be located over here at the vehicle at 10th and Indiana,” an officer is heard saying at about 6:40 p.m. in police radio communications.
Seconds later, “We have custody of the child that’s missing.”
Delmar and Curry deserve medals, a crime documentary, and all the accolades for their efforts. Slute!
Juror Spotted In Elevator With Tory Lanez & His Team With the Megan Thee Stallion assault trial entering its second week, we have yet another twist, as a juror was reportedly spotted alongside Tory Lanez and his team in a courthouse elevator. Despite The Close Proximity, They Didn’t Discuss The Case According to Los Angeles Times […]