‘I just got scared’: Baltimore teen accused of killing classmate is found not guilty

Before Donte Crawford was accused of stabbing a classmate in the heart at their West Baltimore high school, he had been bullied for months, he and his relatives told a Baltimore jury.

Crawford, now 18, testified Friday at his trial for first-degree murder that 17-year-old Ananias Jolley and some of his friends had been tormenting him, according to the Baltimore Sun. They attacked him after school, he said, and ridiculed him about his mother, who would show up at Renaissance Academy High School intoxicated.

One of Crawford’s cousins testified that he was there when the teenager was kicked and punched repeatedly, the Sun reported. Another cousin told the jury that the family tried to remove the teenager from Renaissance because he was being threatened.

Relatives said they went with Crawford to Jolley’s house to try to make peace. But Jolley, a senior who dreamed of becoming an architect, wasn’t home.

Suicidal man shot by Burnsville police had a plan, 911 caller says

A man who threatened to kill himself and reportedly pointed a gun at Burnsville police is dead after being shot by an officer Monday night.

Officers responded about 8:20 p.m. Monday to a call of a suicidal man at Dahcotah View Apartments in the 1600 block of Cliff Road East, Burnsville police said in a statement issued early Tuesday.

Officers were told by a 911 dispatcher the man had threatened to kill himself and had left the apartment complex with a gun, police said.
The reporting party told the dispatcher the man drank at least one beer and that “he’s been planning this for days.”

“The reporting party is also stating that the suspect weighs about 200 pounds and he’s a convicted felon and he said he wasn’t going to go back to prison,” the dispatcher says on scanner audio of the incident captured by the website MN Police Clips. “He’s not violent, but he made it clear that the cops wouldn’t stop him.”

DC gun law gets hearing before Washington appeals court

WASHINGTON (AP) — Appeals court judges had tough questions Tuesday for attorneys defending a District of Columbia law that makes it difficult for gun owners to get concealed carry permits.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard arguments Tuesday in two cases involving the law, which requires people who want to carry a gun in public to show a "good reason to fear injury" or another "proper reason" to carry the weapon. Reasons might include a personal threat, or a job that requires a person to carry or protect cash or valuables. Fewer than 100 people have been granted a concealed carry permit under the law, and lower court judges have disagreed on whether it is likely constitutional.

During oral arguments Tuesday, Judge Thomas B. Griffith suggested that the law means that a woman who lives in a dangerous neighborhood, is frightened and wants to carry a gun for self-protection can't and is limited to "running" if attacked or "learning martial arts."

"Why should someone show a need for self-defense?" said Griffith, who asked numerous questions of lawyers arguing for the city. At one point he told a city attorney that her argument was "absurd."

Even cheerleaders are kneeling during national anthem


Athletes across the country have been sitting or kneeling during the national anthem in recent weeks to protest police brutality and racism.

But a football game in Washington, D.C. may mark the first time a squad of cheerleaders has taken a knee during the song.

Cheerleaders at Howard University joined a national protest on Saturday afternoon by kneeling during the anthem at the AT&T Nation's Football Classic at RFK Stadium.

Zachary Johnson, executive president of Howard's school of communications, posted a photo of the cheerleaders to Twitter during the game. It's since attracted more than 6,700 retweets and almost 10,000 likes.

You can now buy a real D-Day tank

A collection of 120 vehicles, including tanks, armored cars, motorcycles and warplanes, is going under the hammer in France on Sunday.

Auction house Artcurial said each of the vehicles played a role in key moments of the war, from the D-Day landings and the battle of Normandy to the liberation of Paris.

Hundreds of other military artifacts, including helmets, uniforms and other equipment, are also being auctioned.

The centerpiece of the auction will be a M4 Sherman tank, expected to fetch up to $440,000. The vehicle, which is in working order, was one of the tanks used in the battle for Paris in August 1944.

'Fault in Our Stars' couple: Dalton Prager dies

As the end approached, Katie Prager spoke to her husband from afar, unable to be with him.

Dalton Prager, the husband from the real-life "Fault in Our Stars" couple, died Saturday afternoon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis at the age of 25, his parents told CNN.

Katie was in hospice in Flemingsburg, Kentucky, when her husband passed away. The couple FaceTimed as Dalton was dying, said Debra Donovan, Katie's mother.

"She told him that she loved him," Donovan said. "We don't know if he heard her."

U.S. sailor gives birth on aircraft carrier after experiencing mysterious stomach pains

A third class petty officer on the Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier checked into the ship's medical clinic with stomach pains Saturday only to learn she was pregnant — and nine hours later, she delivered a healthy baby girl, Navy Times reports. "Both the mother and the baby are healthy and are doing well," said 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban.

Had the mother known she was pregnant, she would have left operational command at 20 weeks — and would never have been deployed to the Persian Gulf, where the Eisenhower was stationed. As such, the aircraft carrier wasn't exactly stocked for an infant: Baby formula, diapers, and an incubator were all flown out to the ship once it became clear the officer was pregnant. Luckily, the family practitioner on the carrier was certified in childbirth and a number of other personnel in the medical department also knew how to deliver and care for a baby. After a few hours, the mother and her newborn were airlifted to Bahrain.

"While it would have been preferred to send her to her homeport earlier, per policy, we are now focused on caring for the health and welfare of our sailor and the newest member of our Navy family," Urban said.

Time to ban one of America’s favorite weapons

NO matter how many times the gun lobby says it, more guns won’t make Americans safer.

That’s especially true of semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15. America has seen again and again the lethal cost of these weapons of destruction deployed in civil society, from Newtown, Conn., to Orlando, Fla., to San Bernadino, Calif., to Umpqua Community College to Mukilteo.


Although these so-called “assault weapons,” fitted with high capacity magazines, are used in a small fraction of America’s gun homicides, they are terrifyingly powerful when deployed. Such weapons resulted in 155 percent more people shot and nearly 50 percent more people killed compared to other mass shootings, according to an analysis by the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.

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Washington should join them. Attorney General Bob Ferguson did the state a favor this week announcing a plan to push a ban of semi-automatic, military-style weapons like the AR-15 rifle through the state Legislature. His advocacy should help lawmakers have a robust conversation about the trade offs of banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.