Articles Posted in Violent Crimes

Elizabeth Spoon, 40, plea guilty this past May in Peabody District Court to Assault & Battery with a Dangerous Weapon for stabbing a man who was fighting with her boyfriend 22 years ago. In exchange for pleading Guilty, she was sentenced to 3 years’ probation.

The incident happened 22 years ago. Although a warrant for her arrest issued at the time, she was never brought before the court because the warrant was mistakenly issued with her boyfriend’s last name. It took the police 22 years to match with the Social Security number on the warrant with Spoon’s…

Prior to answering to the charges in Peabody District Court, Spoon was employed as a Beverly Middle School Teacher teaching fifth-grade math. Her license to teach having recently been reinstated, she is now hoping to have her old job back.

Carol Lynn Kingsley, 33, was fatally shot this morning by a Somerville Police Officer after she allegedly slashed him, and two other officers, with a knife.

Somerville Police Officers responded to Kingsley’s apartment in Somerville at 6:30 a.m. this morning to investigate a report that she attacked her boyfriend and set fire to his clothing. When the police officers attempted to question her, she brandished a knife and attacked the three Somerville Officers. Kingsley managed to slash one officer in his back, shoulder and arm; a second officer was stabbed in the back and arm; and the third officer was cut on his hand. Thereafter, one of the Somerville Police Officers fatally shot Kingsley. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Several hours prior to the incident, at 3:00 a.m., Somerville Police Officers had responded to the same apartment to investigate a 911 call from a neighbor who heard shouting coming from Kingsley’s apartment. After that first call, the boyfriend reportedly took Kingsley to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, but it is unclear whether she was ever admitted.

Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born U.S. Citizen, plead guilty today in Manhattan’s Federal Court in connection with the failed Times Square bombing this past May. The 10-count indictment included charges of Conspiracy to Use a Weapon of Mass Destruction; Attempting an Act of Terrorism; and Transportation of an Explosive.

Shahzad is a self-proclaimed “Muslim soldier” who resided in Connecticut and who apparently had no history of support for jihad and was not on the U.S. government’s watch list. It was discovered, however, that he had received ‘terror training’ in Pakistan sometime late in 2009. He told the court that he had traveled to Pakistan to join the Tehrik-e-Taliban extremist group and trained with them for 40 days, with an additional 5 days of explosives training. It was also reported that he had received about $12,000 to help fund the car-bomb attack.

Upon his guilty plea, Shahzad explained that he arrived in Times Square on May 1st sometime after 6:00 p.m. and lit the fuses, hoping the bomb would explode in less than 5 minutes. He also stated that he then walked to Grand Central Station and listened for the bomb to explode. When he didn’t hear anything, he took a train back to Connecticut. Inside the car bomb were several bags of fertilizer, 2 5-gallon gasoline canisters, 152 M-88 fireworks, 3 propane gas canisters and 2 alarm clocks connected to wires.

When Boston Police and firefighters first responded to Gavin Way yesterday for an unknown medical call, they didn’t know what to expect. They quickly discovered that a second-floor apartment was on fire and a man had jumped from the second floor…and that a woman was inside the burning apartment, suffering from multiple stab wounds.

Boston Police report that the man, in an effort of Attempted Murder and Mayhem, set fire to the apartment also stabbed the woman. It’s unclear at this time whether the woman, whose name was withheld, was his girlfriend or wife. As police responded to the area, the man had barricaded himself inside, preventing any police or medical personnel from entering. As the police were trying to use hostage negotiators to communicate with him, he responded by throwing debris from the balcony to the police below.

Suddenly, without provocation or warning, the man jumped from the second-floor balcony to his death. The woman, who had two young children with her during the incident, was listed as in critical condition.