Avengers: Endgame’ Is Unbeatable. Its $350 Million Opening Weekend Is Just The Start.

WATCH: Cop Shoots 14yo Boy multiple times. Through a Fence as He Played With His Friends!

Oklahoma City, OK — Disturbing body camera footage was released this week showing how normal childhood acts can and will lead to children being shot by police. Boys being boys is apparently now a reason for deadly force in the land of the free.

Lorenzo Clerkley, 14, was playing with his friends two months ago when Oklahoma City police officer Kyle Holcomb put two bullets in him. Lorenzo was playing with friends in an abandoned house and he was also playing with toy guns with his other friends, but this was no reason for a cop to open fire—especially when the cop knew the boys were playing with toy guns.

“Everything happened so quick,” Cherelle Lee, Lorenzo’s mother told CNN. “There was no reason he should’ve fired off anyway just because he could’ve ended up taking his life.”

Despite body camera footage showing how fast the officer was to open fire on a child he knew was playing with a “cap gun,” and despite the lack of evidence that Lorenzo was even holding a toy gun when he was shot, Holcomb has returned to full duty after a brief paid vacation.

As the video shows, as the officer walks along the fence, faint pops are heard in the distance. Holcomb then gets on the radio, saying, “I think it’s a cap gun, but they are shooting something off.”

The fact that the kids were heard shooting the toy guns in the house proves they had no idea anyone had called police on them and no idea that police were there.

When Holcomb walks up to a portion of the fence that is missing boards, he points his gun through it for just a few seconds before opening fire.

“Show me your hands! Drop it!” Holcomb says and then immediately begins firing without allowing Lorenzo any time to respond. Lorenzo was shot twice.

Police said in a statement in March that “the suspect did not comply with the orders and Sergeant Holcomb discharged his firearm and struck the suspect.” However, the officer gave Lorenzo exactly 0 seconds to comply with any order.

“Drop the gun!” the officer says. “Shots fired! Shots fired! Black male with a grey hoodie had the gun!”

When backup arrives, Holcomb tells another officer, “He’s the one that had a gun.”

That officer then asks the teen, “You had a gun?”

“I didn’t have a gun,” Lorenzo responds.

“Looks like just a flesh wound.” Another officer says, as Lorenzo lies face down in the grass with his hands cuffed behind his back, bleeding out. “Help me drag this guy.”

“My side,” Lorenzo says in pain as the officers probe him for bullet holes. “No, my other side. It’s, like, my hip,” he says of the bullet that entered his hip bone and exited through his buttocks.

As the video shows, Holcomb looks a the bullet wound and tells Lorenzo “you’re okay.”

It is not clear in the body camera footage whether or not Lorenzo had the toy gun. So, in this case it’s the officer’s word against the boy’s. Since there was a toy gun found nearby, police see this as a “good shoot.”

Naturally, the officer’s attorney and the department are backing the word of Holcomb and not the boy.

“I have not seen any information that shows anything other than the fact that the suspect was armed at the time he was fleeing the house after the police announced their presence,” the officer’s attorney Curt Dewberry said.

“Sergeant Holcomb could see the suspect had a gun in his hand and gave the suspect verbal commands to drop the gun,” a police statement said without showing any video evidence of this. “The suspect did not comply with the orders and Sergeant Holcomb discharged his firearm and struck the suspect.”

An attorney for Lorenzo, Dan Smolen, sees things differently. Smolen pointed out the fact that Holcomb is heard on the body camera footage, admitting that he knew the kids were playing with “cap guns,” yet he shot anyway.

Kids play with realistic toy guns all the time across this country, it’s why they are made. Most of them, however, are never shot.

“That officer heard what was being fired, acknowledged that it was a toy gun and still fired shots anyway,” Smolen said. “We know what his thoughts were just seconds before the shooting took place.”

“Further, Holcomb had the cover and protection of the wooden fence when he encountered Lorenzo, who was a safe distance away. And there is no evidence that Lorenzo verbally threatened anyone, physically threatened anyone, attempted to evade arrest or otherwise resisted arrest,” he added.

Though Lorenzo denies having the toy gun, his mother noted that even if he did have it, Holcomb gave him no time to respond to the commands.

“Even if he had a BB gun,” Lee said, “you still have a protocol to sit there and ask him and command him to do what you need him to do, and once he’s not following that first command, then you take action on what you need to do from there.”

“It traumatizes me, myself, to understand that: Hey, you were this close from taking my baby’s life — for nothing,” she said.

Lorenzo said he never heard the police officers identify themselves and was simply being a boy playing with other boys when he was shot.

“By the time, I went out the window, I heard a voice say, ‘Freeze!’ and I jumped and looked to the right of me, and then he didn’t even give me no time to do anything — put my hands in the air, anything — and he just fired,” Lorenzo said.

In an interview with CNN, Lorenzo said that if he could talk to Holcomb, he’d tell him “that I’m actually a good kid, that I follow directions and stuff like that. He just didn’t give me time to follow his directions.”

Below is a video that shows what playing with your friends looks like in a police state. Spoiler alert—it can be deadly.

Full video below:

Source:http://bit.ly/2YfIcDF

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Woman Says Online Romeo Scammed Her Out of $80,000 and Proposed After 1 Week and She’s Not Alone!

John Martin Hill, 35, is behind bars after allegedly meeting a woman online, proposing to her after a week and then swindling her out of $80,000.

John Martin Hill, 35 FRANKLIN POLICE DEPARTMENT

Love hurts.

It can also cost a bundle.

Just ask the Georgia woman who met an online Romeo who allegedly swindled her out of more than $80,000 after asking her to marry him just a week after they met.

On Tuesday night, police in Franklin, Tennessee, arrested the man, John Martin Hill, 35, on an outstanding warrant in connection with the alleged theft, the Gwinnett County, Georgia, Police Department says in a news release obtained by PEOPLE.

Hill is being held at the Williamson County Jail in Tennessee on a $500,000 bond and is awaiting extradition to Georgia, where he faces a felony charge of with theft by deception, the Gwinnett County Police Department says in the release.

John Martin Hill, 35 FRANKLIN POLICE DEPARTMENT

“By sharing this story, it is our hope that he is not able to victimize any other women using this scam,” police say in the release. “These types of con men are very good at manipulating their victims. They tend to say everything that a woman wants to hear.”

In this case, the alleged scam came to light when a woman from Alpharetta called the Gwinnett County Police Department to report that she met a man named John Hill on Match.com who bilked her out of more than $80,000.

John Martin Hill, 35 GWINNET COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT

Hill allegedly told the victim that he was a millionaire — and promised more.

“During their short romance, he convinced her that they were in love and wanted to buy a house together,” police allege in the release.

They allegedly went house-hunting and selected a home they liked. Within a week of knowing one another, they allegedly agreed to get married.

Preparing for her new life with Hill, the woman allegedly gave the suspect more than $80,000 to use to buy the house and furniture, say police.

She never heard from him again.

As authorities began looking into the case, they discovered that Hill was allegedly living a completely different life than the one he led the woman to believe.

Hill, one of the detectives learned, lives an apartment in Duluth — about 11 miles away from Alpharetta — with another woman and child.

Acting on a tip Tuesday night, police in Tennessee  arrested Hill — considered a fugitive out of Georgia — at the Cool Springs Marriott, Frankllin Police say in a news release.

Before he was ultimately arrested, Hill allegedly “attempted to evade arriving Franklin Police Officers by darting into a hotel conference room and hiding under a table,” the release says.

Suspect Allegedly Wooed Other Women

The Alpharetta woman wasn’t the only woman Hill had allegedly swept off her feet and scammed, police learned.

“Further investigation into John Hill revealed that he has changed his name over five times in the past two and a half years,” police say in the release, adding that women in  Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey have accused him of similar crimes.

It is not known if he has been charged in those cases.

Since authorities first alerted the public to Hill’s alleged scam, they say they’ve heard from other women who allege that they were either in a relationship with Hill or knew someone who was romantically involved with him, the release says.

It is unclear if Hill has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf. He has not yet entered a plea.

The department cautions people who meet others online to be careful not to share personal information, financial information, or cash with someone in the early stages of a relationship.

Anyone with information on Hill is asked to contact GCPD detectives at 770-513-5300.  To remain anonymous, tipsters should contact Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS (8477) or visit www.stopcrimeATL.com.

Source: http://bit.ly/2W4WudJ

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Woman Was Arrested For Turning In Her Husband’s Guns After He Was Charged With Abusing Her!

Woman Was Arrested For Turning In Her Husband’s Guns After He Was Charged With Abusing Her!

A 33-year-old woman from Lakeland, Florida, was arrested for trying to turn her estranged husband’s firearms in to the police after he’d been charged with domestic violence and attempting to run her over with his car.

Courtney Irby was charged with two counts of grand theft of a firearm and one count of armed burglary last week. She spent five days in jail.

According to an affidavit obtained by BF News, Courtney collected all of her estranged husband Joseph Irby’s firearms at his home while he was under police custody, and brought them into the Lakeland Police Department.

When an officer questioned Courtney about how she obtained the guns, she told him, “Well, he was arrested yesterday for trying to run me over with his car, and he is now in jail. So I went to his apartment since he is in jail and I searched his apartment for the guns I knew he had and I took them.”

The officer, Brent Behrens, stated that he proceeded to question her to confirm that she entered Joseph’s home without his permission. “So you are telling me you committed an armed burglary?” he said.

“Yes I am, but he wasn’t going to turn them in so I am doing it,” she then responded, according to Behrens. Courtney proceeded to tell Behrens that she has a temporary injunction against her ex, and that she knew he would not turn in his firearms himself — as reportedly mandated by a judge’s orders.

According to Joseph’s arrest record from the day prior on June 14, Courtney told an officer of the Bartow Police Department that her husband was repeatedly “ramming” his car into hers, and eventually off the road. She said she was “in fear for her life.” Behrens stated that on June 15, he “determined [Courtney] committed the Act of Armed Burglary” when she admitted to retrieving the guns from her ex’s residence, and charged and booked her at Polk County Jail.

Woman Was Arrested For Turning In Her Husband’s Guns After He Was Charged With Abusing Her!

The affidavit stated that Behrens contacted Joseph following his arrest of his wife. Joseph said he wanted to pursue charges as she “did not have permission to enter his dwelling and remove his firearms.”

Online and across the country, Courtney’s story has drawn confused and contentious reactions from citizens and lawmakers. Specifically, people are angry the Lakeland Police Department chose to arrest Courtney without consideration of other critical factors for her actions.

@LakelandPD Who was supposed to turn in the firearms in the #CourtneyIrby case? Did you expect her abusive husband, with a violent and aggressive record, to go to his apartment alone, get his guns, and bring them to you? I hope you realize this is absurd.

— Salt Mine (@SaltMine10) June 22, 2019

Some are demanding they drop the charges against her.

@LakelandChamber Why would any decent person with a choice spend their hard earned money in a town where the cops value a violent man’s gun stash over a woman’s safety? Tell @LakelandPD to drop the charges against #CourtneyIrby.

— Randy Childs (@RandyMathHippie) June 21, 2019

After hearing about what happened, Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando) spoke out in support of Courtney and her decision. “I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, and empowering our survivors to ask for help — not arrest them,” she tweeted on Tuesday.

I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, and empowering our survivors to ask for help — not arrest them. https://t.co/qWyCyIpDdS

— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) June 25, 2019

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Glaciers are losing billions and billions of tons of ice each year

Glaciers have lost more than 9 trillion tons of ice since 1961. Glaciers lost more than 9 trillion tons (that’s 9,625,000,000,000 tons) of ice between 1961 and 2016, according to new research. The loss led to a 27-millimeter increase in global sea levels over this period, researchers found

Source: http://bit.ly/2Vycmo3

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CA mom who allegedly locked special needs son in closet for 3 years, sedating and starving him until he died, faces key hearing in Los Angeles!

Verónica Aguilar (right) continued her preliminary hearing on whether there’s enough evidence to send her to trial for the murder of her 10-year-old son Yonatan (left).

The disturbing case of the California mom who allegedly sedated her special-needs son and locked him in a closet for three years, causing his death, was back in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday.

Verónica Aguilar, 42, continued her preliminary hearing on whether there’s enough evidence to send her to trial for the murder of her 10-year-old son Yonatan.

The boy was found dead Aug. 22, 2016, after his stepfather called police. Authorities say little Yonatan showed signs of severe malnutrition and neglect.

In testimony Tuesday, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department said Yonatan weighed only 34 pounds at the time of his death.

“I saw a very gaunt, frail-looking child, who at that time to me looked like a 5-, 6- or 7-year-old boy,” LAPD Det. Abel Munoz testified, according to ABC 7.

Aguilar allegedly told the boy’s stepfather she sent Yonatan back to Mexico for treatment and then somehow successfully concealed the boy’s presence in the family’s one-bedroom house in Echo Park.

Sister is questioned about her dead 11 yr old brother Yonatan: “Are you happy that he is dead? “ Answer“No.” “Are you SAD that he is dead?” A – “No.” She recounts troubling behavior. The child eating ants. More ahead about Yonatan being kept in a closet.@ABC7Courts pic.twitter.com/25eNy2eJ8h— Miriam Hernandez (@abc7miriam) June 19, 2019

Stepdad Jose Pinzon testified this week that he had no idea the boy was still in the family home and that his wife would “cry a lot,” ABC 7 reported.

He claimed he never saw any signs of the child because he worked 18 hours a day and slept in an area separate from his wife and the other kids in the house, according to ABC 7.

Pinzon also testified he was shocked and despondent when his wife finally told him the boy was dead in the bedroom closet.

Aguilar allegedly fed Yonatan an alcohol-based cold medicine that made him sleepy and easier to deal with, the news station said.

When the hearing concludes, a judge will decide whether Aguilar should face a jury in the case.

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‘Thought I made it obvious’ Lil Nas X seemingly comes out as gay on last day of Pride Month

Lil Nas X continues to break barriers. After scoring the song of the summer with his country/hip-hop crossover smash “Old Town Road” (which has been stationed at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks and has made Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Rhythmic Songs, and Dance/Mix Show Airplay charts), and even performing the tune with Billy Ray Cyrus at both the BET Awards and Stagecoach Festival, the genre-blurring Atlanta rapper has seemingly come out as gay on the last day of Pride Month.

“Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm [f*** with me] no more. But before this month ends I want y’all to listen closely to ‘C7osure,’” Nas tweeted Sunday, referring to a track on his recently released debut EP, 7. He notably punctuated the tweet with a rainbow emoji.

Key “C7osure” lyrics include “I want and I need to let go/Use my time to be free” and “Pack my past up in the back, oh, let my future take a hold/This is what I gotta do, can’t be regretting when I’m old… Embracing this news I behold unfolding/I know, I know, I know it don’t feel like it’s time/But I look back at this moment, I’ll see that I’m fine” — words whose meaning fans are now understanding with fresh ears.

Lil NasX has a message for his fans during #Pride Month 🌈 (Swipe) pic.twitter.com/FxU2us3Oi2

— BallerAlert (@balleralert) June 30, 2019

Nas followed up with a second tweet Sunday afternoon that simply stated, “Deadass thought I made it obvious,” with a closeup shot of rainbow imagery in his EP’s cover art.

deadass thought i made it obvious pic.twitter.com/HFCbVqBkLM

— nope (@LilNasX) June 30, 2019

Lil Nas X’s revelation is especially brave considering that the country and hip-hop fanbases have been historically conservative and sometimes downright reactionary when it comes to homosexuality, and it is very early in Nas’s career for him to take such a risk. But reaction on Twitter has been largely celebratory and encouraging.

some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month ends i want y’all to listen closely to c7osure. 🌈🤩✨ pic.twitter.com/O9krBLllqQ

— nope (@LilNasX) June 30, 2019

The only thing bigger for Lil Nas X’s career than making a collab with Billy Ray Cyrus is coming out as gay on the last day of #PrideMonth This dude is a marketing genius

— THE SCOOP (@TheScoop_US) July 1, 2019

Yes. He’s out. Congratulations and much love and happiness for the incredibly talented @LilNasX https://t.co/93u89c59BE

— Gerard Courcy (@hardcorehangout) July 1, 2019

To Lil Nas X 🏳️‍🌈❤️🤟 pic.twitter.com/7sG0QaW6l2

— Caleb Trent (@gayninja99) July 1, 2019

@lilnasx I am proud of YOU! No judgement, negative people will always complain. However, positivity will manifest when you live right! Be You! God loves and no one can rob you of your joy and smile if you allow it! #period

— MadStyleChica15 (@madstylechica15) July 1, 2019

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A 600-pound drug dealer was sentence at court from an ambulance!

A 600lb drug dealer had to be sentenced in an ambulance that was designated as a courtroom because moving him from the vehicle would ‘endanger his health and well-being,’ an Ohio judge said. 

Kirk Lenell Smith, 42, pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and being a felon in possession of a gun on Wednesday outside the Hamilton County Courthouse. The sentencing occurred at the loading dock. 

Smith is believed to weigh more than 600 pounds and the decision to hold the proceedings outside were deemed the easiest by Common Pleas Judge Tom Heekin. 

Kirk Lenell Smith, 42, pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and being a felon in possession of a gun on Wednesday outside the Hamilton County Courthouse

‘Moving Kirk Smith from the ambulance would endanger his health and well-being,’ Heekin said as he read from a document, Cincinnati.com reports.

He was sentenced to two years in prison (mugshot from 2009)

He was sentenced to two years in prison (mugshot from 2009)

Heekin sentenced Smith – who had a blood oxygen monitor on his left index finger – to two years in prison.

The judge had one foot inside the ambulance as he spoke with Smith, with his court reporter setting up at the edge of the ambulance. 

Smith was only able to give brief answers that consisted of one or two words. And when asked if he wanted to make a statement, the man is said to have attempted to but was unable to speak. 

According to Sgt. Ryan Hudson with the Cincinnati Police Department, police first got information that Smith was selling drugs from his Hartwell residence in April 2018.   

‘We received a Crimestoppers tip and some information from the community that an individual up on Rosewood in Hartwell — the activity was consistent with drug trafficking,’ he explained to Local 12.

The ambulance took Smith from the courthouse to the prison after he was sentenced

The ambulance took Smith from the courthouse to the prison after he was sentenced

Police raided Smith’s home in April 2018 and found surveillance cameras, drugs and a gun that he was not allowed to own

Police raided Smith’s home in April 2018 and found surveillance cameras, drugs and a gun that he was not allowed to own

Police raided Smith’s home and found surveillance cameras, drugs and a gun that he was not allowed to own. They could not physically arrest him but did read him his rights. 

‘It was obvious that there were people running for him because he’s so large, as I mentioned 600 to 700 pounds, he wasn’t able to move around freely,’ said Hudson. ‘It made it kind of tough on us to maneuver or almost get him out of the house that particular day. In fact, it was impossible.’ 

A co-conspirator – named Isaac Collins – was convicted of trafficking in marijuana. 

Smith was taken straight to prison from the courthouse.  

They could not physically arrest him at the home but did read him his rights

They could not physically arrest him at the home but did read him his rights

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What? YouTube Star Austin Jones Has Been Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison For Child Porn!

YouTube star Austin Jones was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Friday for persuading underage girls to send him sexually explicit videos of themselves.

Jones, 26, of Bloomingdale, Illinois, pleaded guilty in February to one count of receipt of child pornography. He admitted in a plea agreement that in 2016 and 2017 he enticed six girls, as young as 14 years old, to produce and send the videos to “prove” they were his “biggest fan.” ADVERTISEMENT

“Production and receipt of child pornography are extraordinarily serious offenses that threaten the safety of our children and communities,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Neff Welsh said in a sentencing memo. “Jones’s actions took something from his victims and their families that they will never be able to get back.”

Jones, who became famous for his a cappella covers of pop songs, was arrested on child porn charges in 2017, but rumors of his inappropriate behavior with fans circulated years before.

In 2015, several young women began publishing personal accounts, claiming Jones had asked them to make videos twerking for him and that the singer had made them feel uncomfortable.

The allegations caused him to be pulled from the lineup at the Warped Tour that year after more than 9,000 people signed a petition calling for his removal.

In his plea agreement, Jones also admitted to attempting to persuade other underage fans “on approximately 30 other occasions” to send him sexually explicit photos and videos.

According to prosecutors, he also told some of his victims that the videos were part of a modeling opportunity and said he could help them gain followers on social media.

“Today’s sentencing of Austin Jones represents a major step towards justice for the young victims whom he manipulated and exploited,” Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent-in-Charge James Gibbons said in a statement.

Source:http://bit.ly/2H3ljO0

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Who is this alien? Why, it’s the psychedelic frogfish.

“Who is this alien?” is Mashable’s enduring series about the exceptionally peculiar critters that inhabit a relatively small, ocean-dominated world in the outer realms of the Milky Way galaxy, called Earth. Many of these lifeforms, you’ll find, are quite alien.

Hiding in the nooks and crannies of dead piles of Indonesian coral is a pudgy fish, wholly covered in swirls of orange and white. Seen from the right perspective, the critter might be mistaken for a vibrantly colored brain. 

But amid the explosion of whirling lines are cryptic, aquamarine eyes and a camouflaged frown. Inhabiting shallow seas around the tropical Ambon Island, this creature was mostly unknown to the scientific world until 2008. 

It’s the psychedelic frogfish. 

“It’s an incredibly vibrant frogfish,” said Rachel Arnold, a marine scientist who coauthored the research that identified the kaleidoscopic creature as a new species. 

Many frogfish — a stocky group of fish notorious for violently gobbling their prey — are also known for blending into their undersea worlds. Some look like sponges, and others like seaweed, noted Arnold. The psychedelic frogfish — or Histiophryne psychedelica — certainly takes camouflaging to an extreme level. “They do aggressive mimicry,” she said. The fish take on an appearance similar to species of tropical coral with whirling, orange patterns. “It reminded me of many patterns of corals I have seen,” said David Hall, an underwater wildlife photographer who captured the first shots of the frogfish. 

A psychedelic frogfish in Ambon, Indonesia.

This allows the lumbering, ungainly fish to hole up in the shadowy coral as unassuming prey comes near. At the right time, perhaps when naive prey swim near or inside a fateful cavern amid the coral, the psychedelic frogfish will promptly “swallow them whole,” said Arnold.  

Curiously, when Arnold traveled to Ambon to see these astonishing critters, hiding out amid coral rubble some 10 to 15 feet beneath the ocean surface, the psychedelic frogfish didn’t match the surrounding environment, which was devoid of the brain-like, orange corals that the psychedelic frogfish often resembles. 

It’s unknown why the psychedelic frogfish live in these particular dark holes, then, and also why the fish seem to vanish from their Ambon homes for extended lengths of time, only to turn up once again. 

“They’re still a bit of an enigma,” said Arnold. “It shows up and disappears for long periods of time.”

What’s more, the fish are fantastically-patterned, but never easy to find here — even when they’re known to be around. “If I had to search for these fish on my own, I would never have found them,” said the photographer Hall, noting that he relied upon a local guide who had previously spotted a psychedelic frogfish. 

Though relatively new to science, the psychedelic frogfish are well-known to Indonesian locals — though before Hall no one had a camera in the right place at the right time. 

A pair of psychedelic frogfish in Ambon, Indonesia.

“It’s the local people that really knew about its existence,” said Arnold. “The local people really understand more about this fish than we do.”

Yet with limited time diving around these elusive frogfish, Arnold and her team deciphered a good deal about the species. Most known frogfishes have a lure hanging from their head, which they hold out to attract prey, said Hall. But the psychedelic frogfish doesn’t carry a lure. It just waits for unwitting prey to pass by.

“The local people really understand more about this fish than we do”

True to its name, the psychedelic frogfish often “hops” around to get places, using its fins to push off the bottom of the seafloor. Curiously, when egg-bearing females emerge from their dark holes, they wrap their dorsal (back side) and tail fin around a peach-colored clutch of some 200 eggs, looking for safe harbor to place the priceless sacks of life. 

Leaving hundreds of eggs on the coral-littered seafloor, however, poses modern-day problems. “Conservation-wise, it’s a pretty big red flag,” explained Arnold, noting that it would be easy for collectors — perhaps eager to capture the hallucinatory fish — to sleuth out the eggs and over-harvest the species. 

Each psychedelic frogfish — while all almost fantastical and brilliantly patterned — is markedly distinct. Though, amid the profusion of lines and swirls, their unique line expressions might be indiscernible to the human eye. 

“Their striping is like their fingerprint,” said Arnold. 

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UPDATE: 13 dead, including gunman, in shooting at Virginia Beach Municipal Center

VIRGINIA BEACH

A longtime city employee shot and killed 12 people and injured at least four others after opening fire Friday afternoon in the public works building, making it the country’s deadliest mass shooting this year. 

Police said officers killed the man, whom they did not name, after he fired at them in the city’s scenic Municipal Center in Princess Anne, a campus of about 30 brick Colonial-style buildings.

The four injured were all in surgery Friday, Police Chief James Cervera said during a news conference a couple of hours after the massacre.

One officer was shot during the exchange but was saved by his bulletproof vest, the chief said.

“This is the most devastating day in the history of Virginia Beach,” Mayor Bobby Dyer said in the news conference. “The people involved are our friends, co-workers, neighbors and colleagues.”

Friday’s rampage is believed to be the worst mass killing in Virginia Beach’s history. Prior to this week, a shooting on June 30, 1994, at the Witchduck Inn held that distinction: Four people — the business owner, two employees and a patron — were shot to death at the restaurant. It also came on the heels of a shooting in Chesapeake’s Holly Cove community over Memorial Day weekend that left one dead and nine others injured.

In the U.S., it is the deadliest attack since the November 2018 shooting at Borderline Bar & Grill in California, when 12 people were killed. 

L. Todd Spencer/Staff Police work the scene where 12 people were killed during a mass shooting at the Virginia Beach city public works building on Friday evening, May 31, 2019. The shooter, a current and longtime public utilities employee, also was killed. An officer was shot, but was saved by his bulletproof vest.

The gunfire in Virginia Beach began shortly after 4 p.m. as workers were preparing to leave for the weekend. The shooting occurred in building 2, next to City Hall near the intersection of Nimmo Parkway and Princess Anne Boulevard. The planning, public utilities, public works departments and others are located there. The three-story brick building on Courthouse Drive houses about 400 workers.

Many of the employees work out of small office spaces along long hallways. The doors are typically unlocked and open to the public.

The shooter on Friday was a current employee of the public utilities department, Cervera said. He came armed with a .45-caliber handgun with a sound suppressor on it and shot one victim in a vehicle outside before entering the building. The rest were shot inside.

Cervera said police found victims on every floor of the building.  

Four officers responded, found the gunman almost immediately and then initiated what became a long gunfight with the suspect, Cervera said. After an officer shot the suspect, they administered first aid.

Virginia Beach police are investigating with help from the FBI and state police, he said. They’re still working to identify victims and contact family members. They’re also still working to notify the suspect’s next of kin. Once that is done, Cervera said, his department plans to name the suspect only once out of respect for the victims. 

Cervera said the city offices now resemble a “war zone.”

Megan Banton, an administrative assistant in the public utilities office where the man worked, said her supervisor heard a noise then shouted for everyone to get down.

The supervisor then pulled Banton and others into her office and shoved a desk against the door while Banton called 911.

“It felt like forever,” Banton said. 

Zand Bakhtiari was one of only five people left in the geographic information services department — located on the first floor of the building — at the end of the day Friday when his supervisor, who had left the office, texted to say there was an active shooter and to shelter in place.

Bakhtiari wasn’t nervous until he heard the gunshots — lots of them, one round in quick succession. He said it sounded like an automatic weapon.

“It was repeated, rapid gunfire,” he said. It sounded like it was coming from above or below him on the second floor or the basement, he said.

After a few minutes — Bakhtiari doesn’t know how much time passed — the bullets stopped, but the fire alarm had been set off. And he could smell the gunpowder.

He assumed it was over when he heard the fire alarm, but he and his co-workers didn’t know whether to evacuate or stay put, so they all came out of their individual offices and huddled together.

L. Todd Spencer/StaffA police officer stands out in front of City Hall next to the building where 12 people were killed during a mass shooting at the Virginia Beach city public works building on Friday, May 31, 2019. The shooter, a current and longtime public utilities employee, also was killed.

After about 10 minutes, officers and SWAT team members came in, told them to duck down and keep their hands up as they escorted employees out and checked every room.

Arthur Felton, an 18-year employee in the planning department, was also inside when the shooting started. He evacuated the building after a co-worker heard gunshots. 

“I never thought this would happen in my building,” Felton said. “The people who were shot — I’m sure I know most of them.”

Employees’ family members were sent to Princess Anne Middle School to reunite with loved ones. 

Jonathon Gruenke/Staff Police personnel from various agencies stand outside Princess Anne Middle School in Virginia Beach on Friday evening, May 31, 2019.

Paul Swain’s fiancee sent him a text message at 4:17 p.m. that said, “They are shooting on my floor.” He said he drove to the Municipal Center so fast he was pulled over for speeding. 

The officer let him go when he told him why he was driving fast.

Swain made it to the area but was directed to reunite with his fiancee at Princess Anne Middle School. 

“My heart is just pounding,” he said as he waited to see her again. Swain reunited with her in the parking lot.

Police did not allow media on the school’s property. When he walked into the school, he said, he was greeted by staff who had a checklist of names. People were waiting for their families in the cafeteria, he said.

Vicki Cronis-Nohe/Freelance Emergency vehicles fill the parking lot at the Princess Anne Middle School in Virginia Beach, Va, on Friday, May 31, 2019. A longtime city employee opened fire at a municipal building in Virginia Beach on Friday, killing 11 people before police shot and killed him, authorities said. Six other people were wounded in the shooting, including a police officer whose bulletproof vest saved his life, said Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera.

Amy Woody is trying to find her neighbor of 20 years who didn’t come home from her job at the city. She said her neighbor always returns home around 4 p.m. but wasn’t answering her text messages or phone calls. Woody arrived at the school shortly after 8:30 p.m. with her two dogs.

“I just want to make sure she is OK,” she said. “It’s definitely a very solemn feeling right now. It’s hard.”

Cheryl Benn rushed to the school after getting a frantic call from her husband, David, who is a traffic engineer and works in the building. At first all she could hear when he called was sirens.

She said her husband barricaded himself in a room away from the shooter and held the door shut until police told him it was safe to leave. 

“He was definitely a little freaked out,” Benn said.

While her husband gave detectives a statement, Benn waited outside the school with her dog.

“Some of those people could be his co-workers,” she said.  

Public Works spokesman Drew Lankford, who works in the building where the shooting occurred, left the office on Friday afternoon to get a haircut. While he was gone, his daughter called and said there had been a shooter in his work building. 

His daughter, who works in the City Hall building nearby, said security told people to get under their desks. He rushed back to the office and saw police taking cover behind parked cars with their guns drawn.

City Councilwoman Barbara Henley had pulled up to the City Hall building just after 4 p.m. to pick up the agenda as she does every week when she heard sirens and saw police cars.

“I thought it was an accident,” Henley said.

As she parked in the lot between buildings 1 and 2, she noticed city employees standing outside using their cellphones. Someone told her there was a shooting and she should leave. Henley had gotten back in her car when she heard a male voice shout, “Get down!”

People scattered.

“I was scared to death,” said Henley, who quickly drove home.

Henley said she’s never seen a situation like this before at the Municipal Center, adding that security has recently been beefed up in the City Hall building as a result of shooting incidents across the nation. Not all the municipal buildings at the complex take the same security measures, she said.

Late on Friday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who arrived in Virginia Beach a few hours after the shooting, said the people who died were heading into the summer weekend.

“That they should be taken in this manner is the worst kind of tragedy,” Northam said. “Their families are facing painful loss and grief. They each leave a hole and a family in their neighborhood, in this community and in our Commonwealth.”

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