NC State student arrested for string of random highway shootings in Raleigh: Police
Police investigate a shooting spree near I-40 in Raleigh, North Carolina, Nov. 7, 2024. Via WTVD
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — A North Carolina State student has been arrested for a string of apparently random shootings at cars on multiple highways in Raleigh.
Since Monday, police have received 12 reports of shots being fired at vehicles and buildings in the vicinity of Interstates 40 and 440, according to Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson. Among the incidents, eight vehicles were fired into, resulting in one person being injured, she said.
Andrew Thomas Graney, 23, has been charged with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and 11 counts of firing a weapon into an occupied vehicle or dwelling, police said. Graney is a senior at NC State, majoring in anthropology and has been enrolled since fall 2019, the school confirmed to Raleigh ABC station WTVD.
A second person was taken into custody alongside Graney, but was released without charges, police said.
“At this time, we do believe that the 12 incidents are related,” Patterson said at a press briefing Thursday. “I can also confirm that we have identified a person of interest, and this person has been detained. However, we will continue to pursue all leads.”
The investigation led authorities to a residence in Raleigh on Thursday, where they detained the person of interest, police said. A second person who was also in the residence at the time was additionally detained, police said.
Police have urged drivers in the Raleigh area to remain vigilant following reports of vehicles being fired into during the early morning hours on I-40.
In one incident, on Monday, a woman was shot in the leg, suffering a non-life-threatening injury, police said.
Patterson said it is unclear at this time if shots were being fired from a vehicle or on foot.
Police previously said they believe a handgun was used in the shootings.
The shootings remain under investigation. Patterson urged anyone with surveillance or dashcam footage to come forward.
A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible, she said.
(SEATTLE) — Five people were stabbed in Seattle on Friday, marking the latest incident in a string of stabbings over the past two days in the same area, police said.
A suspect was taken into custody following Friday’s stabbing attack, which appeared to be random, Seattle Police Deputy Chief Eric Barden told reporters at a press briefing.
The suspect, whose name has not been released, is believed to be linked to several of the recent stabbing incidents, police said.
The latest stabbing incident occurred Friday afternoon in the 1200 block of South Jackson Street, in the Chinatown-International District, Seattle police said.
Four of the victims were transported to a local hospital in various conditions, including one who still had a knife in them, Barden said. A fifth victim was treated and released at the scene, police said.
A man matching a description given by witnesses was located nearby and arrested without incident, Barden said. A weapon was also recovered near the suspect, he said.
“This is a horrific tragedy, a mass casualty event,” Barden said.
In addition to the five victims in this incident, five other people have been stabbed in the area in a roughly 38-hour period, according to Seattle police.
The suspect is believed to be linked to four of those stabbings, while one is still being investigated, police said.
The first incident occurred early Thursday, in which a 52-year-old woman was stabbed eight times, police said.
Three other stabbing incidents involving male victims occurred on Thursday, police said. Two of the victims were stabbed multiple times. The other victim told police the assailant tried to stab him in the chest but he managed to block the assault, though sustained a cut to his hand, police said. The victim’s cellphone was also stolen, police said.
Another stabbing occurred early Friday, where a victim was found bleeding “heavily from the neck” and transported to a local hospital in serious condition, police said.
Barden said that beyond the robbery incident, the stabbings appeared to be “just random attacks.”
“This incident was apparently one individual over a 38-hour period of time committing random assaults. That is an aberration. That is not at all the norm,” Barden said. “With a suspect in custody, I think we are returned to normal.”
(NEW ORLEANS) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to travel on Monday to New Orleans, where they’ll attend a prayer service for families of victims and impacted community members following the New Year’s Day attack in the city.
The Biden are expected to arrive in New Orleans in the afternoon, touching down a few hours before the prayer service, which is to be hosted by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, according to the White House.
The visit comes days after a suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, an Army veteran and Houston realtor, allegedly drove a rented truck into Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day. At least 14 people were killed and dozens were injured in the attack, which occurred over a three-block stretch of of the tourist destination in New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter.
Jabbar, a Texas resident who FBI officials said proclaimed his support for the terror group ISIS in social media posts ahead of the attack, was killed in gunfire exchanged with New Orleans police.
The 14 victims who died included a young mother teaching her son to read, a former college football player “on top of the world” living in New York City and an 18-year-old aspiring nurse.
The prayer service the Bidens are set to attend on Monday is scheduled to begin at about 6 p.m. at the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, according to the White House and the Archdiocese.
“Archbishop [Gregory Michael] Aymond continues to offer his prayers and condolences to those affected by this tragedy,” the Archdiocese said in its announcement. “He asks that all join in prayer for our community today and every day as we work to build a culture that respects the life and dignity of all people.”
(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — The Illinois Supreme Court has thrown out former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s conviction for lying about a 2019 hate crime.
Smollett was found guilty in 2021 for faking a racist and homophobic attack and lying to the police. His lawyers said this violated his Fifth Amendment rights because, in 2019, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx had already agreed to drop the charges if Smollett paid $10,000 and did community service. A special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.
In its decision, filed on Thursday, the court stated they are resolving a “question about the State’s responsibility to honor the agreements it makes with defendants.”
The court stated it did not find that the state could bring a second prosecution against Smollett after the initial charges were dismissed as part of an agreement and the actor performed the terms of the agreement, noting that Illinois case law establishes that it is “fundamentally unfair to allow the prosecution to renege on a deal with a defendant when the defendant has relied on the agreement to his detriment.”
“We are aware that this case has generated significant public interest and that many people were dissatisfied with the resolution of the original case and believed it to be unjust. Nevertheless, what would be more unjust than the resolution of any one criminal case would be a holding from this court that the State was not bound to honor agreements upon which people have detrimentally relied,” it said.
Among the cases cited in the court’s decision is Bill Cosby’s, whose conviction on sexual assault charges was overturned in 2021 by Pennsylvania’s highest court.
Cosby was sentenced in 2018 to three to 10 years in state prison for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. After hearing Cosby’s appeal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that his prosecution should never have occurred due to a deal the comedian cut with former Montgomery County prosecutor Bruce Castor, who agreed not to criminally prosecute Cosby if he gave a deposition in a civil case brought against him by Constand.
While citing the Cosby case, the Illinois Supreme Court said the state “reneging on a fully executed agreement” after Smollett forfeited a $10,000 bond “would be arbitrary, unreasonable, fundamentally unfair, and a violation of the defendant’s due process rights.”
The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision cancels earlier rulings by Cook County and appellate courts. The court has now sent the case back to the lower court to officially dismiss the charges.
A jury convicted him in December 2021 on five of six felony counts of disorderly conduct stemming from him filing a false police report and lying to police, who spent more than $130,000 investigating his allegations.
He was sentenced to 150 days in county jail, ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago, fined $25,000 and ordered to serve 30 months of felony probation.
The case began after the openly gay actor told police that he was set upon by two men while walking on a street near his Chicago apartment early on Jan. 29, 2019. The attackers allegedly shouted racist and homophobic slurs before hitting him, pouring “an unknown chemical substance” on him and wrapping a rope around his neck.
Chicago police said Smollett’s story of being the victim of an attack began to unravel when investigators tracked down two men, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who they said were seen in a security video near where Smollett claimed he was assaulted and around the same time it supposedly occurred. The Osundairo brothers told police the actor paid them $3,500 to help him orchestrate and stage the crime.
In March 2019, a grand jury indicted Smollett on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. In a stunning move, Foxx’s office dropped the charges later that month despite acknowledging Smollet fabricated the street attack on himself in an attempt to get a pay raise for his role on “Empire.” As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Smollett forfeited 10% of a $100,000 bond and preemptively completed community service prior to the charges being dropped.
The case was reopened in June 2019, when a Cook County judge appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the decision to dismiss all charges against Smollett. The actor was subsequently indicted again in February 2020 on six felony counts of disorderly conduct for making false reports to police.
