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Man
opens fire in anger, killing 6-year-old
DETROIT
(AP) — A man fired a rifle at a moving car Monday, killing
a 6-year-old girl and wounding three other children and a woman,
police said.
“We
believe it was over the purchase of a radio that didn’t work,
and the person wanted the money back,” Police Commander Bryan
Turnbull said. “He wasn’t successful in getting the money
back and decided to take revenge.”
Police
were seeking two men in the shooting. The gunman opened fire from
another vehicle, police said.
The
car, with a hole in the back window, rested in the front yard of
a home and was being examined by investigators.
A
a 6-year-old boy was hospitalized in critical condition, and a 4-year-old
girl and 6-year-old girl were in serious condition. The condition
of the woman, described by police as an aunt in her 30s, was not
disclosed.
Woman
skips out on jury duty for vacation in Mexico
CINCINNATI
(AP) — A juror in a murder case was sent to jail for seven
days Monday for going on vacation to Mexico in the middle of deliberations.
Christine
Fiorini, 33, failed to show up after the long Presidents Day weekend,
and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Deliberations were put
on hold for a week while court officials tried to track her down.
Fiorini
surfaced on Monday and was taken before the judge presiding over
the trial.
“You’ll
have to sit there for seven days with all of the other knuckle-heads
up there, see what it’s like. It’s not a great place,”
Judge Robert Ruehlman told her.
Fiorini
told the judge she thought he would be able to use the jury’s
alternate. Ruehlman had dismissed the alternate before deliberations
began and after asking jurors if there was any reason they could
not complete the case. Fiorini said nothing of her vacation plans
at that time.
On
trial was a woman accused of luring a man to a motel parking lot,
where he was robbed and shot to death in September.
Deliberations
resumed Monday without Fiorini after the defense agreed to continue
with 11 rather than 12 jurors.
Neighbor
to be charged in death of missing girl
SAN
DIEGO (AP) — A 7-year-old girl who vanished from her home earlier
this month is apparently dead, and murder charges will be filed
against a neighbor, a prosecutor said Monday.
Prosecutor
Paul Pfingst also said he will file a so-called special circumstance
— murder during kidnapping — that will carry the possibility
of the death penalty if David Westerfield is convicted.
“I
must conclude that Danielle van Dam is no longer living and was
killed,” Pfingst told a news conference. He said he made his
conclusion after consulting with investigators, fellow prosecutors
and the girl’s family. Traces of Danielle’s blood have
been found but her body has not been located.
Westerfield,
50, who lives two doors from the van Dam home, was arrested Friday
and was initially held for investigation of kidnapping. He will
be arraigned Tuesday, the district attorney said.
Danielle’s
parents, Damon and Brenda van Dam, discovered their daughter missing
the morning of Feb. 2. Police believe she was abducted from her
second-floor bedroom of the family’s north San Diego home after
her father put her to bed the previous evening.
Investigators
began focusing on the self-employed engineer shortly after Danielle
disappeared. He was at the same bar for a while the night of Feb.
1 where Danielle’s mother went with friends while the girl’s
father stayed home with their daughter and two sons.
Supreme
Court avoids Ten Commandments debate
WASHINGTON
(AP) — The Supreme Court refused Monday to be drawn into the
explosive church-state debate over whether the Ten Commandments
may be displayed on government grounds.
The
court did not comment in refusing to hear an appeal from Indiana
Gov. Frank O’Bannon, who wanted to erect a 7-foot stone monument
on the Statehouse grounds in Indianapolis. O’Bannon said the
Ten Commandments represent tenets of American law as much as religious
teachings, and he asked the court to overturn rulings that prevented
the monument from going up.
The
court’s action leaves in place a hodgepodge of conflicting
court rulings across the country that allow the Ten Commandments’
display in some instances but not in others.
It
was the second time in less than a year that the court had sidestepped
the Ten Commandments issue.
The
Ten Commandments contain both religious and secular directives,
including the familiar proscriptions on stealing, killing and adultery.
The Bible says God gave the list to Moses.
The
Constitution bars any state “establishment” of religion.
That means the government cannot promote religion in general, or
favor one faith over another. The Constitution also protects the
freedom to worship.
Last
May, the court divided bitterly over whether to hear another case
testing whether a different Ten Commandments monument could be displayed
outside a civic building. The court opted not to hear the case,
but the three most conservative justices took the rare step of announcing
that they would have agreed to hear it.
Tunnels
possibly part of terrorist plans on Embassy
ROME
(AP) — Security experts from the U.S. State Department will
inspect a utility tunnel running alongside the U.S. Embassy here
in connection with an Italian probe of a group of Moroccans suspected
of planning a chemical attack, Embassy officials said Monday.
Italian
authorities will join the U.S. experts Tuesday in the inspection
of the tunnel where a hole was discovered last week, an embassy
official said on condition of anonymity.
The
tunnel, which runs under Via Boncompagni, a street flanking the
Embassy compound, contains electricity and telephone lines, U.S.
officials said. Italian news reports had said the tunnel also contains
gas lines, but Embassy officials said that was incorrect.
Eight
Moroccans were picked up in a police raid last week that also turned
up nine pounds of a cyanide-based compound, firecrackers and maps
of Rome highlighting the U.S. Embassy and the capital’s water
supply. A ninth turned himself in over the weekend in southern Reggio
Calabria.
Italian
news reports have said that investigators believe a chemical attack
on the Embassy’s water system was being plotted.
But
the U.S. Embassy officials, who briefed reporters Monday, said there
was “no hard evidence” of an attack being planned on the
Embassy’s water supply.
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