Bloody Sunday: Four Police Officers In Three States Shot In Ambush Attacks

These are the crime stories making headlines today, November 21, 2016 …

• Police in San Antonio are on a manhunt for the suspect (above) who shot a 20-year veteran officer to death, execution style, during a night of violence when four officers in three states were shot. Detective Benjamin Marconi, 50, was sitting in his cruiser writing a ticket when he was approached and shot. The San Antonio Police Department is looking for an individual in connection with the shooting who they describe as a tall, slim, black male, 20 to 30 years old, with a goatee who may have been driving a 2009 to 2012 black Mitsubishi Galant with black rims. In St. Louis, another gunman shot a sergeant twice in the face. Hours later, the suspected gunman was tracked down and killed in a shootout with other officers. The officer is in critical condition but is expected to survive. Two other officers in Florida and Missouri were also targeted in the same 24-hour period. [Fox News]

• Richard Patrick [Franklin County Jail]

  A Pennsylvania man has been charged with rape, indecent assault, endangering welfare of children, and sexual intercourse with an animal after two 14-year-old girls reported being raped by him years prior. Police say that the girls told them that Richard “Rick” Paul Patrick, 44, repeatedly touched them and raped them between 2008 and 2010. Police say that Patrick held one victim’s head underwater, and in another incident used peanut butter and a dog in the assault while he tied the girl to the bed and covered her face with a pillow. Patrick was reportedly the boyfriend of the girls’ mother. The mother no longer has custody of the children. The incidents reportedly took place at two different homes in Franklin County. Patrick, who admitted to police that he has anger issues, later said that he lived with the girls when they were around five and eight years old. [CBS21]

• Gloria Ross [East Baton Rouge Parish Prison]

  A Baton Rouge mother was arrested Thursday morning after police received reports that she tried to kill her eight-year-old son — because Jesus told her to. Gloria Ross, 40, was booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison for attempted first-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to a juvenile. Police got a call from a neighbor in the evening saying that Ross’ son had said his mother had cut him with a serrated kitchen knife. A responding officer observed a cut across the victim’s throat, and Ross was reportedly saying that “Jesus told her to kill her son.” The victim was transported to a local hospital with non–life threatening injuries. [WBRZ]
• A 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl were ordered held without bail Sunday after being charged with murder in the shooting death of Jovan Wilson, the grandson of U.S. Representative Danny Davis. Tariq M. Harris, 16, and Dijae T. Banks, 17, have been charged as adults with first-degree murder in an attack that started as a fight over clothes and shoes, according to police. Jovan, 15, was killed at his Englewood home around 7 P.M. Friday after the suspects knocked on the door, and the girl wanted to retrieve a pair of shoes she had allegedly lent to the victim. The pair were taken into custody Saturday. [Chicago Tribune]

Jay Maynor [Cullman County Sheriff’s]

• An Alabama father who shot and killed his daughter’s sexual abuser pleaded guilty Monday and accepted a 40-year prison sentence in the hopes of sparing his daughter from having to relieve the details of her molestation through a trial. Jay Maynor, 43, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the June 2014 killing of Raymond Earl Brooks, a 59-year-old registered sex offender who was shot to death at his home north of Birmingham. Brooks pleaded guilty in 2002 to sexually abusing Maynor’s young daughter, and served 27 months of a five-year sentence. The shooting reportedly was prompted by a conversation Mayor had with his daughter about the abuse. [Fox News]
• Dana Rivers, who made headlines in 1999 when she fought a Sacramento school district’s decision to fire her after she underwent gender-reassignment surgery, has been arrested for a triple homicide involving three Oakland family members. Rivers, 61, has been described as an acquaintance of the victims, married couple Patricia Wright, 57, and Charlotte Reed, 56, and their 19-year-old son, Toto “Benny” Diambu-Wright. Oakland police said they were called to the family’s East Oakland home after midnight on November 11 on reports of gunshots, and allege that after shooting her victims, Rivers tried to set the house on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence. She is being charged with murder with special circumstances, which could make her eligible for the death penalty. [East Bay Times]
  
• The FBI is looking for a man they say has robbed four banks in Massachusetts, each time handing the teller a withdrawal slip on which he’s written “robery” on the back. Dubbed the “Spelling Bee Bandit,” the man is said to be thin, wears sunglasses, and doesn’t have a firearm. However, authorities say that with each heist, the grammatically challenged crook has become more aggressive with the tellers. A $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest. The FBI is asking anyone who has information that could help identify the robber to call the FBI Boston Division’s Violent Crimes Task Force at 1-857-386-2000. [Ozarks First]

• Jacob Wetterling [Photo: Wikimedia Commons]

  A Minnesota man who recently confessed to abducting, sexually assaulting, and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling 27 years ago is sentenced to 20 years on a child-pornography charge. Danny Heinrich, 53, led authorities to Jacob’s remains this summer as part of a plea bargain to end a cold case that has haunted Jacob’s family for almost 30 years. In return for Heinrich accepting a 20-year sentence, the maximum the law allows on the child-pornography count, he will not be charged with murder. Jacob was abducted near his home in the central Minnesota community of St. Joseph on October 22, 1989.  [Fox News]

Main image: Surveillance footage showing person of interest and vehicle wanted in connection with the shooting of Detective Benjamin Marconi [Photo: San Antonio Police Department/Facebook (screenshot)]