Crime Time

Weeklong crime spree includes robberies, assaults in Fort Worth, slaying in Godley

Two men suspected in a pair of Fort Worth shootings Tuesday are also linked to the murder of a 61-year-old woman in Johnson County, police said Wednesday.

The suspects were arrested Tuesday by Fort Worth police, Chief Jeff Halstead said during a noon press conference.

Investigators believe they committed two of three shootings during a 90-minute period Tuesday on the city's north side. Included was a beer delivery man who was wounded in the neck; he remained in critical condition Wednesday.

Through interviews with the suspects, police say the men are also suspected in a shooting last week, multiple aggravated robberies, and the slaying of a woman in Godley -- and several other violent crimes that have been in the news during the past week.

Read more in this report from Deanna Boyd.

-- Bill Miller

Suspected cop killer has criminal past

The man accused of killing two Tampa, Fla. police officers has a history of arrests dating back to at least 2003, according to The Associated Press.

Dontae Rashawn Morris, 24, has been charged with writing bad checks, possession of cocaine and attempted murder - but nothing as violent as what he is accused of now.

Tampa Police say Morris shot and killed two officers after a traffic stop early Tuesday morning.

Police have launched a statewide manhunt for Morris.

-- Compiled by Bill Miller from a report by The Associated Press

Arrests made in Fort Worth shooting spree

Police have arrested two suspects in connection with yesterday’s shooting spree in north Fort Worth, according to a press release issued this morning.

Police officials said they would release more information at a noon press conference today.

The spree involved three shootings less than two hours apart in north Fort Worth Tuesday morning and left two men critically injured.

The victims -- a 57-year-old man shot in the abdomen by a man who demanded his wallet and a 29-year-old delivery man shot in a convenience store parking lot (above) -- were both hospitalized with injuries that officials described as possibly life-threatening.

The third shooting, police said, involved a 53-year-old employee of a Lowe's store who was shot at, but not hit, in the store's parking lot.

Police are investigating robbery as the likely motive in all three incidents.

-- Compiled by Bill Miller from the work of Deanna Boyd.

Ponder High School vandalized, 2 arrested

Two Sanger men were in custody Wednesday accused of vandalizing Ponder High School during the weekend.

Reagan Crawford, 20 (near right), and Levi Hill, 18 (far right), were in the Denton County Jail Wednesday in lieu of $32,500 bail each.

Officers discovered damage throughout the building including broken computers, smashed windows and fire extinguishers had been discharged.

-- Compiled by Bill Miller from the work of Domingo Ramirez Jr.

87-year-old granny sues after police shoot her with stun gun

This lawsuit is no shocker, you could see it coming.

An 87-year-old Oklahoma grandmother is suing her hometown of El Reno after she was subdued by police with a stun gun as she was lying in a bed hooked up to an oxygen machine.

She's seeking at least $75,000, according to the suit.

She was stunned when officers came to her home to check on her after her grandson called 911 on Dec. 22, concerned that she "wanted to end her life" and might have taken unknown medication.

An arriving officer said Lona Varner pulled a kitchen knife from under her pillow and threatened to stab and kill him, the Associated Press reported. Another officer then zapped her, the AP reported.

-- Lance Murray

Bullets fired from Juarez hit El Paso City Hall

In what may be the first incident of its kind, bullets apparently fired during a drug gang gun battle in Juarez, Mexico, flew across the Rio Grande Tuesday and struck the El Paso City Hall building that sits about a half mile north of the river.

No one inside the building was injured, but some people in the building were shaken, the El Paso Times reported.

The building's east and west sides are covered by glass windows.

About 4:50 p.m. Tuesday, a bullet penetrated a ninth-floor west side window in the office of Assistant City Manager Pat Adauto. That bullet then went through an interior wall before striking and stopping in a picture frame.

El Paso police spokesman Darrel Petry said investigators do not think City Hall was intentionally targeted but rather was struck by stray shots.  Juarez has suffered through a deadly drug cartel war for years.

"It does appear the rounds may have come from an incident in Juárez," El Paso police spokesman Darrel Petry told the newspaper.  He said there was a shooting incident at about the same time not far away in Juarez, the Times reported.

-- Lance Murray

Apology issued for providing Dallas police escort for killer's funeral

A high-ranking Dallas Police official apologized Monday for the decision to provide a police escort for the funeral procession of Dallas Chief David Brown's son, who was fatally shot after he gunned down a Lancaster police officer and another man.

But First Assistant Chief Charlie Cato defended the decision as having been made to ensure public safety, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The police escort had outraged Dallas and Lancaster police officers, as well as others, who said it was disrespectful to provide a police escort for a cop killer.

"The decision to utilize these resources was unplanned, and the sole purpose of their presence was to address the immediate public safety issue," Cato wrote in a prepared statement, according to the article by Morning New writer Tanya Eiserer.

"We recognized there might be concerns about our decision," Cato wrote. "I truly regret and apologize to anyone who has been offended or hurt by this decision. Please know that neither I nor [Deputy Chief Julian Bernal] intended in any way to be disrespectful to any fallen officer."

The Morning News earlier had reported that Bernal had issued the last-minute order for the escort.

You can read more of Eiserer's report in the Morning News here.

-- Lance Murray

Leading gubernatorial candidate assassinated in Mexico

The leading candidate for governor of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas was gunned down Monday by an assassination squad presumed to have been sent by a drug cartel.

Rodolfo Torre Cantu was slain when gunmen opened fire on his two-vehicle caravan as it was heading toward the airport in Ciudad Victoria.  He was en route to his final campaign appearance six days before local and regional elections in Mexico.

Tamaulipas state is on the border with Texas.

Torre Cantu's killing is the highest-profile political assassination in Mexico since the 1994 killing of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, the Associated Press reported.

-- Lance Murray

'Bad doctor' convicted of manslaughter for botched operations

A jury in Australia has convicted an American doctor on three counts of manslaughter for a string of botched surgeries he performed as the chief of surgery at a hospital.

Sixty-year-old Jayant Patel was ordered taken into custody following the verdicts.

Questions about his competency first arose 25 years ago, The Associated Press reported.

During the trial, the jury was told that Patel had been banned in the United States from performing certain procedures and that when he moved to Australia, he failed to inform his new employers of the restrictions.

Prosecutor Ross Martin told the jury that Patel was a "bad surgeon motivated by ego,"  The AP reported.

-- Lance Murray

Two police officers killed in traffic stop shootings

Police in Tampa, Fla., are searching for a man and woman who are believed to be involved in the fatal shootings early Tuesday of two police officers during a traffic stop, The Associated Press reported.

The shootings occurred at about 2:15 a.m. when Officer David Curtis pulled over a red Toyota that didn't have a visible tag. A background check showed the male passenger in the car was wanted on a misdemeanor warrant for writing a bad check. A woman reportedly was driving the car.

Six minutes after the stop, a witness called to report that Curtis and Officer Jeffrey Kocab had been shot. The couple in the Toyota had fled, the AP reported.

-- Lance Murray