Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 09.21.23

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

Teenager shoots home burglar. Police officer borrows child's bike to catch a bad guy.  For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. A mom and her teenage son hear strange noises outside their Arizona home. Banging on the door, a window breaks, and Juan Saavedra crawls through the window. While the mom confronts Saavedra, the teen retrieves a gun, shooting Saavedra when he refuses to leave the home. Nancy, officers responded to a 911 call regarding the break-in around 10 p.m. They determined that the teen was telling the truth about shooting Saavedra in self-defense and he

will not face any charges. Authorities have not released where Saavedra was shot, but he was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Saavedra was booked into jail that night and is held on $50,000 bond. Saavedra, 35, now charged with criminal trespass and burglary. Across the pond in the UK, Officer Harriet Taylor is hot on the trail of a suspected shoplifter, but the man's out pacing her. She spies a young boy riding his bike, stops to ask if she can borrow the bike, promising she'll bring it back. Stunned, the boy agrees.

Taylor takes off after the suspect again, this time catching up and arresting the guy. Theft, burglary, shoplifting. As promised, Taylor returns the bike to the boy, who is held as a little hero, and the two pose for adorable photos. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Lindley. Video of a county sheriff's deputy fatally shooting two black teens in a speeding automobile has been made public by the Attorney General of New York, sparking debate over whether the policeman was justified in using lethal force to prevent being hit by the vehicle. of New York, sparking debate over whether the policeman was justified

in using lethal force to prevent being hit by the vehicle. Here's Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. The footage was made public as part of an investigation being conducted by the Office of Attorney General Letitia James into the fatal shootings of 17-year-old Dal Opet and 15-year-old Luet Moe by an Onondaga County Sheriff's officer. The morning of the incident, Deputy John Rossello responded to a call regarding people seen moving items between two vehicles while he was looking into a smoke shop burglary in the area of Syracuse. Prior to the encounter, Rossello did not turn on his body camera. However, footage captured by a camera across the street shows the deputy's SUV speeding into a small parking lot

and using its front bumper to ram one of the vehicles into a line of thick shrubs. In an apparent attempt to flee the scene, the vehicle that Opet and Moe were in backs into the bushes as the deputy exits his SUV and briefly stands in front of it. Then, as the vehicle begins to move ahead, Rossello jumps quickly to the side and back, drawing his gun. As the vehicle swerves past him and gains speed, the deputy keeps his revolver pointed at it. In the video, it's difficult to tell exactly when the officer begins firing and when he stops. The footage shows the scene from a distance and has no audio. At a news conference, Onondaga County Sheriff Tobias Shelley stated that the driver of the car was attempting to hit the policeman with the vehicle.

As they continue to defend themselves in state courts against second-degree murder accusations stemming from the beating death of Tyreen Nichols, five former Memphis police officers have now been charged with federal civil rights offenses. The United States District Court in Memphis has indicted Tadarius Bean, Desmond Mills, Demetrius Haley, Emmett Martin, and Justin Smith. The four-count indictment accuses them of conspiring to tamper with witnesses, obstructing justice by using witness tampering, and depriving people of their rights while acting within the bounds of the law by the use of excessive force, failure to act, and willful indifference. The accusations come nine months after the brutal beating that took place during a traffic stop near Nichols' Memphis home on January 7. During the assault, the 29-year-old black man was punched, kicked, and slugged with a baton as he screamed for his mother. It was three days later that Nichols died at a hospital. The five former police officers, all of whom are black, have entered not guilty pleas to the case's state charges

of second-degree murder and other alleged violations. After his wife videotaped a fight that resulted in her being discovered dead at the bottom of a St. Louis parking garage close to the Cardinals' Bush Stadium, a newly married prison guard has been given a probationary sentence. Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. After the 2019 death of 27-year-old Alyssa Martin, Bradley Jenkins of Taylorville, Illinois, was first charged with third-degree felony domestic abuse. According to court filings, a video shot on Martin's phone shows her yelling at Jenkins to stop beating her in the face before she drops the phone. Jenkins was serving as lieutenant for the Illinois Department of Corrections at the time. Martin's mother filed a wrongful death

lawsuit against a bar, the owner of the parking garage, and Jenkins in June of 2022. She contends that the bar over-served her son-in-law and that the manager of the parking garage lacks sufficient security. The matter is still pending. After a grand jury in St. Louis declined to indict Jenkins in 2019, the initial case against him was dismissed. He was then recharged three years later. Scott and Tracy Hawkins leave their mom's Tennessee home 9 a.m. planning to spend the day hunting for wild ginseng plants. They assure mom, Donna Hawkins, they'll be home for dinner, but they never come back. The next morning, Donna reports her two adult sons missing. Cops discover their maroon trailblazer abandoned across the street

from the Holly Gamble Funeral Home, where they plan to enter the woods out back to look for ginseng. Cops searched the area multiple times with dogs and drones. No sign of either man. Scott and Tracy Hawkins, 51 and 44, now missing over two years. If you have info on the Hawkins brothers, contact Campbell County Sheriff's 423-562-7446. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.