Month: September 2023

The Pennsylvania manhunt for convicted killer Danelo Cavalcante was widened, while local schools in the area were shut down on Tuesday after the suspect was spotted on trail camera footage breaking past a police perimeter.

The 34-year-old Cavalcante escaped from Chester County Prison, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, and during the six-day search to locate him, multiple sightings have been reported with law enforcement setting up a two-mile perimeter around a wooded area where he was believed to be holed up. Officials later broadcast a message from the killer’s mother, who urged her son to surrender.

In an update on Tuesday, police said that Cavalcante had been caught on camera managing to sneak past the perimeter the night before. As a result, police expanded the police perimeter and shuttered the Kennett Consolidated School District in Chester Count out of abundance of caution. George Bivens, deputy commissioner of operations for the Pennsylvania State Police, said during a news conference Tuesday: “You’re dealing with someone who is desperate and doesn’t want to be caught. If he can find some shelter, if he can find some food, he’s going to take advantage of whatever he finds … He’s a bad guy. He needs to be in custody and we are determined to capture him.”

Cavalcante was sentenced to life without parole for stabbing his ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandão, 31, to death in front of her two small children. Cavalcante is also wanted for a 2017 murder in Brazil. Authorities haven’t disclosed how Cavalcante managed to escape, but said it occurred while he was awaiting transfer to state prison. Members of the public have been urged to secure their homes, outbuildings and vehicles while the suspect remains at large.

Editorial credit: Tupungato / Shutterstock.com

Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of Proud Boys, was sentenced on Tuesday to 22 years in prison – the longest prison sentence handed down for any individual charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of 33 years in prison, despite the fact that Tarrio wasn’t present in Washington on the day of the attack.

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio has been in jail since his 2022 arrest and was convicted earlier this year by a Washington, D.C. jury on multiple charges including seditious conspiracy. Tarrio’s co-defendant Ethan Nordean was sentenced last week to 18 years, while others received terms of between 10 and 17 years. Prosecutors described Tarrio as the “primary organizer” of the conspiracy for which he and his co-defendants were convicted, who used his influence “to condone and promote violence” in others, adding, “He was a general rather than a soldier.”

After the 2020 presidential election, according to evidence presented at trial, Tarrio began posting on social media and in message groups about a “civil war,” later threatening, “No Trump…No peace. No Quarter.” And as Jan. 6 approached, he posted about “revolt.” His co-defendants — Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — gathered with other Proud Boys members on the day of the riot and marched toward the Capitol, interfering with police and ultimately forcing entry into the building where Congress was attempting to certify President Biden’s victory.  The Proud Boys defendants and the group they led to the Capitol that day were a “tidal wave of force” at the start of the attack and played a “pivotal” role in the violence on Jan. 6, according to prosecutors.

Tarrio asked for leniency during Tuesday’s hearing. apologizing for the events of Jan. 6 and to law enforcement and Washington, D.C., residents. Said Tarrio: “The citizens of D.C. deserve better. What happened on Jan. 6 was a national embarrassment … To the men and women of law enforcement who answered the call that day, I am sorry. I am not a political zealot. Inflicting harm or changing the results of the election was not my goal. Please show me mercy.”

Editorial credit: Robert P. Alvarez / Shutterstock.com

An Atlanta crash early Monday on the SR 316 westbound ramp to Interstate 85 southbound killed five people, with three people injured. The deaths were just 5 of 17 reported in Georgia on Labor Day, according to Georgia’s Department of Public Safety.

According to a news release from Gwinnett County police, the accident occurred just before 4 a.m. local time in Gwinnett County, with 911 calls reporting a vehicle going “over the wall of the raised ramp, falling onto the Interstate 85 southbound Collector-Distributor to Pleasant Hill Rd.” County fire personnel identified five people dead at the scene, while three others were taken to local hospitals. The ramp from Highway 316 West to I-85 South was closed for several hours on Monday before reopening.  Gwinnett police officials posted on Facebook: “The main I85 SB travel lanes are clear and reopened. The C-D from both I85 SB and SR316 WB remain closed and will be closed for an extended period of time while the Gwinnett County Police Accident Investigation Unit handles the investigation.” Investigators are still trying to determine what led to the collision, police said in the news release.

Witnesses are encouraged to call (678-442-5653) or email (pdaccidentinvestigationunit@gwinnettcounty.com) GCPD Investigators with any information.

Editorial credit: Kristi Blokhin / Shutterstock.com

President Joe Biden took several jabs at former President Donald Trump in a Labor Day speech Monday, taking aim at his real estate mogul reputation. Biden never mentioned Trump by name; but audience members booed when he referred to “the last guy.” Said Biden: “When the last guy was here, we were shipping jobs to China. Now we’re bringing jobs home from China. When the last guy was here, your pensions were at risk. We helped save millions of pensions with your help. When the last guy was here, he looked at the world from Park Avenue. I look at it from Scranton, Pennsylvania, I look at it from Claymont, Delaware.”

While addressing union workers before a parade in Philadelphia, Biden said: “The guy who held this job before me was just one of two presidents in history … who left office with fewer jobs in America than when he got elected to office. By the way, you know who the other one was? Herbert Hoover. Isn’t that kind of coincidental?” Biden later touted his infrastructure deal, saying: “Guess what? The great real estate builder, the last guy, he didn’t build a damn thing. Under my predecessor, infrastructure week became a punchline. On my watch, infrastructure has been a decade and it’s a headline.”

Biden continued to list achievements of his first term, and said: “All I hear from my friends on the other side is what they say is wrong with America. They keep telling us America’s failing. They’re wrong. I’ve got news for them: America has the strongest economy in the world right now, today.”

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung defended the former president’s record: “President Trump produced a booming economic recovery, and record low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and women. Joe Biden is the destroyer of America’s jobs and continues to fuel runaway inflation with reckless big government spending. President Trump’s vision for America’s economic revival is lower taxes, bigger paychecks and more jobs for American workers.”

Editorial credit: Muhammad Aamir Sumsum / Shutterstock.com

Two former Proud Boys leaders were sentenced on Thursday for their actions during the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly handed down sentences for Joseph Biggs, the former leader of the group’s Florida chapter, and  Zachary Rehl, the former leader of the Proud Boys’ Philadelphia chapter, who both had convicted of seditious conspiracy.  Biggs was sentenced to 17 years in prison (one of the longest sentences yet for someone charged in the Jan. 6 attacks), and Rehl was sentenced to 15 years in prison . Biggs, a U.S. army veteran, was a close ally of the former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio.  He was convicted in May alongside two other Proud Boys leaders following a more than four-month-long trial.

Judge Kelly accepted the government’s recommendation to apply an enhancement that effectively labeled Biggs’ crimes as acts of terrorism in seeking to influence the actions of government through threats and use of force. Biggs’ sentence is the second longest for any defendant charged in connection with the Capitol attack; Rehl’s sentence is the third longest. Tarrio is set to be sentenced next Tuesday.

During the assault on the Capitol, prosecutors said Biggs played a role in four separate breaches of law enforcement lines, and after entering the building made his way to the Senate chamber. Biggs’ attorney Norm Pattis argued for leniency, claiming that much of the statements pointed to by the government should be protected under his rights to free speech and, despite his guilt as determined by the jury, “we think that the crimes are overstated in this case and that the case was overproven.”

Editorial credit: Robert P. Alvarez / Shutterstock.com