BROOKHAVEN, Ga. (AP) — A stray bullet struck and killed an English astrophysicist while he was inside an Atlanta-area apartment, authorities say.
Matthew Willson, 31, of Chertsey, Surrey, England, was visiting his girlfriend in the United States when he was hit by a bullet that pierced the wall of the apartment. The shooting happened early Sunday morning, only three days into his visit.
"He was supposed to be here for three months because we’ve been long distance for a while," Katherine Shepard, his girlfriend of three years, told WSB-TV. "I picked him up from the airport, took him to his favorite eating location, and the next day, he’s gone."
Shepard, whose apartment is in the Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven, who told the television station that the couple woke up on Jan. 16 to the sound of more than 30 gunshots coming from an apartment complex directly behind Shepard’s. A bullet traveled through Shepard’s wall, hitting Willson, she said.
[AP via Politico] WASHINGTON — The Justice Department dropped its case Thursday against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor charged last year with concealing research ties to the Chinese government, saying it could "no longer meet its burden of proof at trial." Like Fauci's International Harmony™
The department revealed its decision in the case against Gang Chen in a single-page filing in federal court in Boston.
U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, said the move was "in the interests of justice" and was the result of new information the government had received about the allegations.
"After a careful assessment of this new information in the context of all the evidence, our office has concluded that we can no longer meet our burden of proof at trial," Rollins said. "As prosecutors, we have an obligation in every matter we pursue to continually examine the facts while being open to receiving and uncovering new information."
The outcome, which had been expected and had been earlier recommended by prosecutors in Boston, is a further setback to the Justice Department’s pursuit of academics in the U.S. accused of concealing research relationships with China.
The move comes as the department completes a review of the China Initiative, an effort it launched during the Trump administration to crack down on Chinese economic espionage and trade secret theft but one critics say has unduly targeted researchers based on ethnicity.
Chen was accused last year of concealing ties to Beijing while also collecting U.S. dollars for his nanotechnology research. Prosecutors accused him at the time of entering into undisclosed contracts and appointments with Chinese entities, including acting as an "overseas expert" for the Chinese government at the request of the People’s Republic of China Consulate Office in New York.
#1
It was a Trump initiative. Befehl ist Befehl! She is simply following orders.
Rachael S. Rollins Confirmed as United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts
BOSTON – The United States Senate has confirmed Rachael S. Rollins as the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. Ms. Rollins is the first Black woman to ever be confirmed as U.S. Attorney in the District. She was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden on July 26, 2021. The District of Massachusetts is one of the oldest United States Attorney’s Offices in the country.
It turns out that in Blue America, if you’re white you don’t get to be a vicious criminal. Nobody arrests persons of colour who pick on little Jewish kids.
[IsraelTimes] Christina Darling faces hate crime charge for spitting at children outside Brooklyn synagogue, threatening to kill them
A woman who allegedly told three Jewish children in Brooklyn last week, "Hitler should have killed you all," was arrested by the NYPD on Friday.
Christina Darling, 21, is facing hate crime charges, among others, for harassing an 8-year-old Jewish boy on Friday, January 14. The boy was playing with his siblings, ages 7 and 2, outside Kehal Tiferes Avrohom Ziditshov, an Orthodox synagogue on Avenue P in Brooklyn’s Marine Park neighborhood. Darling allegedly told them, "Hitler should have killed you all. I’ll kill you and know where you live."
Surveillance cameras also show Darling spitting on the boy.
The NYPD released the footage on Tuesday. Details on how the subject was caught are not yet known.
Darling is charged with menacing and aggravated harassment — both hate crimes — as well as acting in a manner injurious to a child.
"I would hope that she understands the severity of what she did," the children’s father, Aryah Fried, told CBS News New York. "To do it to anybody is obviously problematic, but for an adult to do it to a child is just beyond crazy."
Additionally, organizers online identified Darling as a student at St. Francis College, majoring in education, English and psychology. A petition at Change.org to expel Darling from the Brooklyn college was started on Thursday; it also called upon its president, Miguel Martinez-Saenz, to "denounce this horrifying act of racism, bigotry, and harassment against the Jewish people."
According the NYPD Hate Crimes Dashboard, there were 198 confirmed incidents of hate crimes against Jewish people in New York last year; Jews were targeted more than any other group. Among those incidents, 58 arrests were made.
#7
Meet Raj! He's the raging Rajneeshi,
His palace suspiciously chichi
For modern-day ---
(where he claims it is not!),
Who does taxes for Daniel and Peachy.
Seriously, Blackbeard, I fear you may have completely misapprehended the man (except for the asshole part, and he owns that like a show dog ;-)). But what do I know... I just lurk here.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2022 6:37 Comments ||
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#9
^. Such f'ing hypocrite. You leave comments up of commenters calling others here asshole but then say to those being called asshole to "keep it civil.
You have always been a piece of shit Frank G. I am all over your stupid fat ass Mr San Diego from now on.
#18
You want the fun of being a moderator without doing the hard work, Mr. Blackbeard Barnsmell6454? You’ve forgotten the ethics lessons taught by all computer professors.
#2
Chances of being struck by a meteorite even slimmer. But it has happened, with both fatalities and survivors.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2022 11:12 Comments ||
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#3
Back in the day, when I still lived up there, a guy in eastern PeeAye was jailed after a round from his 7mm Rem Mag killed someone inside a home. It was determined that the rifle in question should not have been used in a populated area. Which was the correct call. It's a high-performance long-range round that's just out of place in a built-up area. A pistol round at 800 ft, through brush and the wall of a dwelling? That's very, very bad luck for the guy who got killed. But it's still a crime.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2022 11:16 Comments ||
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#4
Murcek, How do you know it was a pistol round? Alot of high powered rifles floating around Atl in "rappers" hands.
Posted by: Chris ||
01/22/2022 11:52 Comments ||
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#5
I in fact don't know. They tend to like AKs, and a 7.62x39 round is bad news in the scenario being discussed here.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2022 11:54 Comments ||
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#6
That's 266 yards. Had to be arifle.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/22/2022 11:59 Comments ||
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#7
What is this forest in Atlanta? Some sort of Central Park type feature?
Shot myself right between the eyes with a BB gun once. 30 yard shot, target painted on warped-ass plywood, leaning against a tree.
#8
Had a neighbor where I used to live who was missing an eye. He was shooting at a cooking pot laying in a field with a .22 rifle. It sent a round right back into his eye. Could have killed him easily. Way worse odds than a million-to-one shot.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2022 13:46 Comments ||
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#9
Atlanta is known as a city in a forest
Posted by: Chris ||
01/22/2022 13:47 Comments ||
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#10
Absolutely crazy to think about...the chance of making that shot, or how little to nudge any of those 100 variables and I would be in the parrot raising business.
I mean, that's one of those deals where the barometric pressure had an influence.
#11
True or not, it puts some weight behind the idea that "When your number's up, your number's up..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2022 14:48 Comments ||
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#12
Buckhead is trying to breakaway from Atlanta and become an independent community; one with its own police force. Atlanta does not adequatelly address Buckhead growing crime problems. Moreover, Buckhead represents 10% of Atlanta's population but pay 40% of the taxes.
#13
Two men hunting feral pigs in western NSW. Brushy country with scattered small - 1 to 2 feet- rocks. Doing it by the book, walking parallel, 20 yards apart. Man on left shoots, kills young pig, clean heart shot. Bullet travels on a few yards, strikes rock, goes right 20 yards, strikes second rock and goes right again. Now coming back to second man . Bullet now totally mangled, still in one piece. Has just enough energy to punch through his chest and stop inside his heart.
#2
What kind of idiot carries a magazine like that? Be heavy as hell and wouldn't it cause the gun to be more prone to jams?
Posted by: Chris ||
01/22/2022 11:53 Comments ||
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#3
Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and Bonnie & Clyde would have loved it. It's not a carry item at all. But up off the seat of a car, or out of a messenger bag while on an "op," it definitely has its unfortunate place. What I do know about them is they are not always very reliable and not "user friendly" for lazy or stupid users.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2022 11:57 Comments ||
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#4
they would have loved it on a Thompson, not so much this rapper bullshit
Posted by: Chris ||
01/22/2022 20:34 Comments ||
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#5
Not to mention the magazine would make the gun entirely off-balance. Backheavy.
[IsraelTimes] In Geneva, Blinken says sides ’on a clearer path to understanding each other’s positions’ amid bid to put off feared Russian invasion; Lavrov: Meeting ’constructive and useful’
#2
I'm in with the analogies to a hostile power messing around on our southern border. Of course, we sort of have that anyway and their response is to do nothing. So, I guess they are just confused by the Russians choosing to be other than negligent about it in their back yard.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2022 8:18 Comments ||
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#3
Seeing reports of US personnel to begin leaving Ukraine.
#4
If we are leaving because we have no business there, fine. If we are leaving to pave the way for US backed or directly caused kinetic action, then bad news.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/22/2022 15:57 Comments ||
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#5
Can't wait to see all those Russian Tanks eating Javelins on TikTok.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[AP via Politico] WASHINGTON — The Justice Department dropped its case Thursday against a 
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News]
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News]
