"Police investigate Calif. airport blast" Associated Press, October 15, 2013
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police have taken over the investigation into who was responsible for planting a plastic bottle containing dry ice that exploded in an employee bathroom at Los Angeles International Airport.
Air traffic was back to normal Monday after the Sunday evening explosion caused a commotion in LAX’s terminal 2. Up to four flights were delayed after airport police halted security screening for more than an hour.
Los Angeles Police spokeswoman Sally Madera said no injuries were reported, and ‘‘there was no threat to the public area.’’
The bathroom was in an area of the terminal that is not accessible to the public, according to FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. She said there was ‘‘no stated threat associated with the incident.’’
Airport police Sergeant Karla Ortiz said officials temporarily halted security screening, which led to the delay of the flights.
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"More patrols after LAX dry ice blasts" Associated Press, October 17, 2013
LOS ANGELES — Passengers at Los Angeles International Airport saw stepped-up security patrols on Wednesday following the arrest of a baggage handler in connection with a pair of small explosions involving dry ice, some of which was taken from an airplane.
Police have not determined a motive but said they don’t believe the explosions were an act of terror because of the locations of the devices and because people weren’t targeted.
No one was hurt when plastic bottles packed with dry ice exploded in secured areas of the airport Sunday night. An unexploded device was found Monday night.
On Tuesday, police arrested Dicarlo Bennett, a 28-year-old employee for the ground handling company Servisair. He was booked for possession of a destructive device near an aircraft and held on $1 million bail.
The increased patrols were to continue at least through Wednesday.
Bennett took dry ice from a plane and placed a loaded bottle in a bathroom, according to a law enforcement official.
What my print copy included:
"Swissport recently agreed to acquire Servisair and the transaction is expected to close by the end of the year. Messages seeking comment from Servisair have not been returned.
Bennett was riding in a van with several other people, including a supervisor, when he decided to plant one of the dry ice bombs, the official told The Associated Press. Those in the van were aware of the dry ice, the official said, but no other arrests have been made.
The bombs were made by putting dry ice in 20-ounce plastic bottles and the explosions could have injured anyone nearby, Downing said. Dry ice is widely used by vendors to keep food fresh.
Cameras cover some of these restricted-access areas, but Downing said there isn't as much camera coverage as in the public-access areas."
Now more cameras will be needed at the airport?
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"Probation case a challenge for prosecutors, judges" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, November 06, 2013
The last time the world heard about Yongda Huang Harris was last fall, when the Dorchester man was stopped at Los Angeles International Airport by an agent who noticed he was wearing body armor.
See: California Flare-Ups: Body Armor at LAX
In his luggage officials discovered a smoke grenade, a bone saw, a hatchet, what appeared to be body bags, and other items prosecutors later described as essentially a rape and murder kit.
On his computer, authorities found a depiction of rape, molestation, and sexual torture of children.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Kill All the Perverts
The case triggered international headlines — but only a minor charge: filing a false custom report. There was nothing illegal about carrying the unusual items he had in his suitcases, so Harris returned to Boston on probation for five years. All authorities could do was keep an eye on him.
Should be easy enough with the NSA on the case.
The case provides a snapshot of a larger court issue: How to assess and monitor a person’s potential for violence when he or she has never committed a violent crime and so cannot be punished.
“There are yellow flags . . . but there are a lot of people who have yellow flags, and most of these people who have risk characteristics don’t actually commit acts of violence,” said James Alan Fox, a criminology and law professor at Northeastern University.
But, he added, “The problem is it’s virtually impossible to distinguish between those who will, and those who won’t.”
Brad Bailey, a prominent Boston defense attorney and a former state and federal prosecutor, who also served briefly as a Middlesex County sheriff, echoed that view.
“It’s really tough to predict future behavior,” Bailey said, adding that the public will also second-guess a prosecutor’s decision.
“The more you see a pattern, the more you realize the person you’re dealing with is someone who doesn’t understand the breaks they’re getting, and you have to take a hard line because the next step is a new law broken, and it’s a very hard line.”
In the Harris case, he said, the judge, prosecutor, and defense attorney are equally trying to strike a balance between preserving Harris’s rights against undeserved punishment while trying to identify whether he is a real threat.
A California judge, speaking at Harris’s sentencing in May, seemed to suggest that Harris — who was in Los Angeles during his return to Boston from Asia — was not violent but rather immature. He “marches to the beat of a different drummer,” said the judge.
Harris’s attorney, Stellio Sinnis, contends that even a psychologist has called Harris “naïve, and immature, and socially awkward.”
“He’s not a terrorist, he’s not a violent human being,” Sinnis said.
What is with the excusing of a sicko?
Probation and other law enforcement officials, however, have been increasingly concerned with Harris’s refusal to comply with court orders, interfering with their abilities to monitor him. Before his May sentencing, authorities say, Harris violated his supervised release conditions by going to a playground.
A probation officer who made an unannounced visit to Harris’s home found that he had been secretly using his mother’s computer. Authorities said Harris tried to hide his search history, and possessed pornography that glorified “school girls.”
Hiding search histories are impossible. NSA is sucking up everything.
The transgressions did not end there: In the months after he was sentenced, investigators determined that Harris tried on multiple occasions to remove his monitoring bracelet.
Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office in Boston, said prosecutors were “obviously concerned about the nature of Mr. Harris’s actions, including both the conduct from his initial offense in California and in his recent probation violations here in Massachusetts.”
“We will swiftly address any potential violations of existing laws or the current terms of his probation,” she said.
Harris’s probation violations landed him back in court in October. A prosecutor, a judge, and a defense attorney wrangled for 90 minutes over the age-old but increasingly common legal quandary: How to handle a defendant whose conduct may hint at a potential for violence, but who has never been charged with a violent crime.
“This is not a normal case in any extent of the word,” Assistant US Attorney Stacy Belf argued in court, calling Harris’s actions increasingly alarming. “The court must ask itself, ‘What to do with Yongda Harris?’ ”
US District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV seemed to agree, saying judges are typically reminded that “the judgment has to fit the crime,” and yet he was also worried about everything else concerning the man before him.
“The judgment has to fit the offender . . . and that’s why I have some pause here,” the judge added.
Harris Sinnis, the court-appointed lawyer for Harris, argued that Harris “has done nothing to hurt anybody” and was in court for nothing more than a probation violation.
“It comes down to what everybody thought he was going to do with these things,” Sinnis said.
The judge, though, said he could not ignore the allegations. He agreed with prosecutors to send Harris to a halfway house for six months beginning in late November so he could receive counseling and be monitored in a tight setting.
“I can’t turn a blind eye as to what this reflects of Mr. Harris, what he thinks . . . what his behavior has been, what his behavior might be in the future,” the judge said.
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Related:
"A special US honor flag that has been used across the nation to honor fallen police and firefighters was flown in from Texas and escorted by an honor guard and bagpipers. ‘‘I have real respect for what they do at the TSA,’’ Ann Harris, of Dallas, told City News Service. ‘‘I never imagined they would have to give their lives.’’
So that is the purpose of the psyop? To get us all feeling sorry for the crotch-grabbing TSA?
Also see:
LAX Hoax
Fort Hood shooting site to be razed
LAX Question Answered
Related:
"Classes resume at Conn. college after lockdown
Classes have resumed at Central Connecticut State University, and counseling is being offered a day after a student dressed in what was apparently a Halloween costume with a mask and sword prompted a three-hour campus lockdown and a massive police response. No one was harmed. Officials said campus life was returning to normal Tuesday. The student — David Kyem, 21, of Newington — was charged with breach of peace, and he posted bail Monday. He did not return a phone message Tuesday. His father, a geography professor at the university, said his son caused the commotion while returning to his dormitory in a costume, after attending a party at the University of Connecticut."
"Student who set off Conn. lockdown arrested again
The student who set off a lockdown at Central Connecticut State University when he arrived on campus wearing what was apparently a Halloween costume that included a sword and a BB handgun has been arrested a second time. Campus Police Chief Chris Cervoni said David Kyem, 21, of Newington was arrested Tuesday because he was found on campus after being warned not to return until meeting with school officials. Kyem was charged with criminal trespassing and told to appear for court Nov. 14. Kyem was already facing a hearing on a breach of peace charge related to Monday’s commotion."
"Police say N.J. mall shooter was intent on dying" by Samantha Henry | Associated Press, November 06, 2013
PARAMUS, N.J. — A 20-year-old gunman intent on dying fired multiple shots inside New Jersey’s largest shopping mall, trapping hundreds of customers and employees for hours as police scoured stores for the shooter, who was found dead early Tuesday of a self-inflicted wound, authorities said. There were no other injuries.
Investigators do not believe the gunman, identified as Richard Shoop of Teaneck, intended to shoot anyone when he began firing at the ceiling and elsewhere at the Garden State Plaza on Monday night shortly before the mall’s closing time, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.
‘‘We think he went in with the intent that he was not going to come out alive,’’ Molinelli said.
He said Shoop was known to authorities and had had a problem with drugs, but he did not elaborate.
The prosecutor said Shoop left an ambiguous note with his family. Although Molinelli would not call it a suicide note, he said it did ‘‘express that an end is coming. It could have been prison. . . . It could have been what he did last night. It gave his family reason to reach out to us.’’
The suspect’s brother, Kevin Shoop, told reporters outside their home on a suburban block in Teaneck that he had no advance warning about what Richard Shoop intended to do.
‘‘He just sadly decided to make an act of — an act of, I guess, self-indulgence — by taking his own life publicly,’’ Kevin Shoop said. ‘‘And it’s a tragedy to us all. And we’re going to now handle matters and deal with them.’’
Kevin Shoop called his brother a great person who was liked by his friends and family.
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