A grand jury indicted a Charlotte, NC police officer for voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed Florida A&M football player, Jonathan Ferrell (above). Ferrell wrecked his car on a back road in September and went to a nearby residence for help. He banged on the door, frightening the resident, who called police. Three officers responded, including Randall Kerrick, who fired 13 shots, 10 of which struck Ferrell. Kerrick was the only officer to fire his weapon. This is the second grand jury that the case has been before; the first refused to indict Kerrick, but the AG decided to put it before a second grand jury because the first one was missing four members. Voluntary manslaughter carries a prison sentence of up to 11 years . . .
Your Lockdown of the Day™ comes from New York City, and it’s more of an Overreaction of the Day™. At 12:45 p.m. Monday, police received reports of a “small explosion” in the lobby of the building at 88 Lexington Avenue in Gramercy Park. A large response of fire, police, and EMS ensued, closing the streets and began evacuating the building. After finding nothing in the lobby, they made their way to the 16th floor. Eventually, investigators determined that a tire blew on a dolly during a delivery. No injuries were reported.
There has been a spate of home invasions in the Phoenix area recently, and in response, a local radio station published a short article titled How to protect your home from a home invasion. See if you can tell what’s missing. [h/t: NYC2AZ]
A Brevard County (FL) college student shot one of two men he said attacked him today in the parking lot at Eastern Florida State College. The 24-year-old man, Landrick Hamilton, said the two men approached him about 1:30 p.m. and began beating him with a pool cue. During the altercation, Hamilton retrieved a gun from his vehicle and opened fire on the attackers, hitting one in the chest with what is described as a non-life-threatening injury. Hamilton was also taken to the hospital. Campus and local police responded and secured the gun. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the fight was instigated by a verbal disagreement, and all three men claimed they were acting in self-defense. No arrests have been made as of the time of this writing. Note that Mr. Hamilton’s possession of the gun in his car would have been illegal less than two months ago, and he’d probably be (at least one of the ones) under arrest.
Iowa legislators are proffering a bill that would let active duty military buy handguns without going through the usual permit process. Under current law, any person buying a handgun must first obtain a permit, meet certain requirements and pay a fee. Rep Dwayne Alons said the bill would match Iowa’s law to that of 37 other states. Military training these individuals receive and the firearm knowledge they possess makes the permit process obsolete, he said. The bill is a watered down version of the one that Alons proposed last year, which would have allowed veterans to buy handguns without acquiring a permit; that bill stalled in committee. The current bill would affect an estimated 10,000 National Guard members in the state.
FPSRussia brings a 3-round burst AUG to the table. I gotta be honest, I haven’t even watched it. Someone tell me if I should.
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