Charlotte Police Chief Calls Accused Rapist A "Monster

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief Rodney Monroe was visibly upset Wednesday evening as he described the suspect accused of raping a 12-year-old girl as she walked to her school bus on Wednesday morning.

Police charged Marcus Kennedy, 28, a convicted sex offender.

"These repeat offenders, continue to be out here, engage in illegal conduct, and it gets no worse than what we've experience today," said CMPD Chief Rodney Monroe.

"Mr. Kennedy himself, and I don't think we can lose track of this. He is the monster in this," said Monroe.

Officers said the incident happened on Dalecrest Drive in north Charlotte around 8:16 a.m. after the girl got off a city bus. They said the child, a sixth-grader at James Martin Middle School, had recently moved and had to take the city bus to get to her old Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools bus stop. Police said they believe the suspect, Marcus Kennedy, followed her off the city bus.

Gerardo Campos, a maintenance worker at a nearby apartment complex, said he saw the girl walking toward the bus stop. He said a moment later he saw a man grab her around her neck, and heard the girl scream, “Help!”

Campos said as he ran to her aid, the man took off. He said he and a van driver followed the suspect as he ran through yards.

Campos said after losing sight of the man momentarily, he caught him and held onto him until officers arrived.

Kennedy is charged with first-degree rape on a victim younger than 13 and first-degree kidnapping. He has been on the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry for nearly six years.

Kennedy has been arrested 12 times over the last three years.

Jury convicts Lamidi Kafaru of killing policeman Derek Owens

CLEVELAND -- Three days in Patrolman Robert Goines' career changed him forever. The day a bullet missed his partner's Kevlar vest by no more than an inch. The day he helped bury his slain comrade. And the day a jury delivered a verdict that Goines had waited and prayed for months to hear: Guilty of aggravated murder.

Goines bowed his head and wept Thursday, huddling with family and friends of slain Cleveland Patrolman Derek Owens as sheriff's deputies handcuffed Lamidi Kafaru in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

Sobs of relief gave way to approving nods -- then more tears. Even a juror dabbed a tissue to her wet cheeks while Judge Michael Russo read the 12-member jury's verdict aloud. The jury deliberated for about three days before reaching a decision.

The verdict means Kafaru is eligible for the death penalty. The jury will return to court on Oct. 22 to decide if Kafaru will be executed or receive a sentence of life in prison that may or may not include parole eligibility.

Kafaru, 19, gunned down Owens and attempted to kill Goines in late February while the officers were on patrol in the Woodland Hills neighborhood. The officers stopped to confront a group of teenagers they suspected were dealing drugs from the front porch of an abandoned house near East 102nd Street and Parkview Avenue.

The teens ran when they saw the police and the officers chased them through back yards. Kafaru pulled a gun from his jacket and fired at Owens, striking him in the abdomen. Owens told his partner to chase the shooter, and Goines complied only to find himself locked in a Wild-West style shootout with Kafaru.

The shooter ran off as more police arrived. They rushed Owens to MetroHealth Medical Center, where he died several hours later.

Kafaru testified last week, maintaining that he was framed the morning after the shooting. He said another young man from the neighborhood, Anthony "Googie Man" Milner, knocked on his door at 7 a.m. and sold him the .44-caliber revolver that killed Owens. Kafaru, a drug dealer, said he was in the market for a gun to protect himself.

Investigators, acting on tips called in from anonymous residents, searched Kafaru's house multiple times in the following days and found the gun stashed in a bathroom light fixture.

Kafaru's lawyers claimed police botched the investigation by not suspecting Milner. Police did not search Milner's house or test his hands and clothing for gunshot residue, they said.

But several other young men from the neighborhood were either arrested or detained, questioned and tested.

After initially identifying someone else as the shooter, Goines picked Kafaru's photo out of a lineup days later. The misidentification became a focal point of Kafaru's defense.

But Assistant County Prosecutor Pinkey Carr said the jury recognized that the defense's case was built on decoys.

"I find it insulting to offer the argument that this young man, Googie, sold him the murder weapon when he did the right thing by coming forward," Carr said.

Kafaru's lawyers could not be reached for comment Thursday, and his family declined to comment on the verdict.

Police Chief Michael McGrath said the verdict brings closure to Owens' family, the community and the Police Department. But it cannot bring the officer back nor ease the pain his family carries, he said. He declined to say if he thinks Kafaru should receive the death penalty.

Reporters swarmed Goines as he left the courtroom and joined dozens of his colleagues waiting in the hallway. Minutes earlier, the officers in the hallway hugged, shook hands and high-fived when the verdict was read.

Goines, out of uniform, spoke softly about Owens and his own future. He will not return to patrolling the streets, he said. Not after watching his partner bleed to death in the snow. Not after nearly being shot himself. The department will find something else for him to do, he hopes.

But he is beyond the point of bitterness and anger, he said, and he does not wish the death sentence upon Kafaru.

"My heart goes out to the Kafaru family," he said. "Because they're going to lose a loved one too. I just want this young man to find peace in himself after what he did."

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Authorities dig up couple's yard in search for toddler

FBI agents and police crime scene investigators were digging this evening in the backyard of a Lumpkin Street home owned by a couple identified as friends of the man who reported he last saw missing 2-year-old Tangena Hussain.


Hamtramck police arrested Hena Begum on kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment charges, and her husband, Mamunur Rahman Khan, on unlawful imprisonment charges today in connection with the alleged abduction in February of a 15-year-old Hamtramck girl.


Jamrul Hussain, 24, who was arraigned today on kidnapping and sexual misconduct charges in connection with the alleged abduction, is the last person to have seen Tangena, police said.


Hussain, the boyfriend of Nilufa Begum but no relation to the missing girl, is being held in jail on $500,000 bond. He formerly worked at a Ferndale sub shop with Hena Begum, who is not related to the missing girl’s mother, police said.


This afternoon, Nilufa Begum again pleaded with the public for her daughter’s life, speaking from the Detroit gas station where her boyfriend told police the toddler was taken from his locked vehicle Thursday night while he was inside.


“I’m still hoping that my daughter’s still alive somewhere,” Nilufa Begum, 24, said in a barely audible voice, almost expressionless, outside the Marathon gas station on Greenfield at 8 Mile. “Please, go out there and look for my daughter.”


When asked if she thought her boyfriend had anything to do with her daughter’s disappearance, she replied: “I don’t know.”


Investigators and Shawn Patrick Smith, an attorney who is acting as a family spokesman and representing Hussain, said Hussain failed a polygraph or lie detector test. NilufaBegum is scheduled to undergo a polygraph exam Thursday, Smith said.


Hussain, a native of Bangladesh who has lived in the United States for four years, was arrested Saturday and forced to surrender his passport during his arraignment appearance today in 31st District Court in Hamtramck.


Hussain repeatedly told Magistrate Philip Tomaszewski he didn’t understand the charges. He said he had attended school through the 10th grade in Bangladesh, then said he hadn’t gone to school before moving to the United States.


“Who’s kidnapped?” he asked the magistrate. “I didn’t kidnap nobody, sir.”


Afterward, Smith said Hussain and the 15-year-old girl were “friends, very good friends.” He called the age difference a “cultural thing.”


Smith, who had a picture of Hussain and the teenage girl posing with her arms casually wrapped around Hussain’s shoulders, called the kidnapping and other charges against his client “a tool to put a squeeze on the guy.”


After initially telling them she ran away from home, Hamtramck Police said the 15-year-old girl told police she came forward when she learned of the missing 2-year-old. She alleged that the couple hid her in their basement for six days in February while Hussain attacked her. She alleged that Hussain threatened to kill her and her parents if she didn’t claim she ran away.

From The Archive - 7 Things Women Keep In Her Purse

carry bags, big bags at that. But, what exactly do they carry in their pocketbooks? Here is a list of 7 things that all Women should carry in their purse.
7. A Bottle of Hot Sauce - Whether it’s franks, Texas Pete or Bull you never know when you’re going to need hot sauce or when your man will need some. So be a good wifey and keep some hot sauce on you.
6. A Rat Tail Comb - Because braiding hair, or a track malfunction can take place at any time in Urban America and with the price of gas so high you might have to do some hair on demand just to get home.
5. MAC lip Gloss - This is needed especially if you’re involved with a dude like me because you never know when you’ll have to re-do your lips. If you know what I mean
4. Smart Phone/Cell - For ordering Chinese food, checking your email or posting a blog, sending a tweet or making an emergency booty call. Hell you might just need to call for back up.
3. Wet Wipes - Some times a simple napkin won’t do the job and if you ever decide to have a mid day rendezvous then you’ll need to freshen up in a hurry and this can hold you over until you get to a sink.
2. Condoms - Lets face it a lot of these toddlers are here because there were no condoms available. That snot nose kid in your neighborhood that you know will grow up and try to impregnant, sell drugs to, or rob your child is a direct result of no condom-assness
1. Box Cutter - At some point of your life, you’re going to have to cut a flicker. Slice slice slash slash. A b*tch in your face? Cut em, she looking at your man? Cut her. Dude grab your booty in the club slash him. Play pimping in the parking lot? Slash his tires when he’s not looking.