Category: Cops
SHENANDOAH, Iowa — An Iowa family wants a safe taken off the market after their 6-year-old opened it and took a gun to school, KETV reported.
As gun owners with a little boy in the house, the Shenandoah, Iowa family bought a safe to make sure their gun was secure. Only a registered fingerprint can unlock it. At least that’s what the family thought.
“We put those safeguards in place. We did our best. We thought we were doing what we needed to do to protect our family and community. And unfortunately, it just didn’t happen in this scenario,” said the 6-year-old’s father.
In early March, the man’s 6-year-old son was on the school playground at recess when teachers found a gun in his backpack.
“They confiscated a gun from a student and they needed officers out to the school,” said Shenandoah Police Chief Josh Gray.
Gray said he contacted the boy’s parents, who insisted the gun had been in a locked safe.
“He just saw the safe and then he put his thumbprint on it and it opened right up for the kid,” Gray said, confirming that the safe, sold by a Chinese company named “BBRKIN,” unlocked for the 6-year-old.
Police went to the home to check the safe.
“The father was more than willing to work with us, show us anything we wanted to examine,” Gray said, adding that an officer examined the safe. “He went to go put his thumbprint on the safe, and right away, as soon as my officer did that, the safe opened right up for him, which it’s supposed to be just for that owner and his thumbprint.”
In fact, the family quickly discovered any fingerprint, or even toe print, unlocked the BBRKIN gun safe.
KETV NewsWatch 7 Investigates agreed to disguise the father’s identity to protect his 6-year-old son.
“We still hold a lot of like guilt for it. And we feel personally responsible but we’ve taken every action that we possibly can in my own power,” the father said.
He said he bought the BBRKIN biometric safe box on amazon.com in November for $229.
The company notes that in default mode, any fingerprint can open the safe.
But the father told KETV he set it up according to the manual, including the fingerprint reader that unlocks it, and it remained locked when his wife tried to open it.
Reviews posted on Amazon.com echoed the Shenandoah man’s concerns. One user said the safe opened with “all 10 of my fingers and toes.”
“They know it’s an issue. I mean, based on the reviews you can go on for, it’s a known issue, and they’ve already resolved some of those by sending you a new safe,” the father said.
KETV NewsWatch 7’s Sarah Fili has been working to contact BBRKIN about the Shenandoah man’s ordeal.
The company has not replied to any of the requests for comment.
Amazon said it had no comment for this story.
But the man provided us with copies of emails he said he exchanged with the Chinese company.
In one email dated March 13, BBRKIN said “Two months ago we updated the chip program that the safe can only open it until users have registered fingerprints successfully. Users cannot open it when it is in default mode/received the safe.”
That update was a month after the man bought the safe.
“Why wasn’t there a recall when you decided to put new chips in? Why didn’t you recall that? Like, why wasn’t anybody that purchased that safe prior notified that, hey, this is a potential risk?” the father questioned.
KETV wanted to see if BBRKIN’s upgrade changed anything.
So, KETV NewsWatch 7 Investigates bought the same safe in late March.
We set it up according to the directions, including the fingerprint reader, to read only reporter Sarah Fili’s fingerprint. After programming our photographer tried the fingerprint reader, with no success. Over the course of a day, almost a dozen different KETV employees tried their fingerprints.
Not one unlocked the safe, except Fili’s.
Days, even a week later, it still only opened for the one registered fingerprint. Fili let the Shenandoah father know the upgraded safe seems to work. He’s thankful, but asked about all the other safes with old chips that could still fail.
“Get this product removed. So this can’t happen to somebody else. Because in talking with an attorney, they can’t do anything about it unless somebody was injured,” the father said.
In the case of the gun on the Shenandoah school playground, no one was hurt.
The Page County Attorney declined to press any charges
But, under Shenandoah school district policy, the 6-year-old was expelled from kindergarten, leaving his father still asking questions about the maker of that gun safe.
“This is about accountability. Everybody doesn’t have a problem holding us accountable for it. I think they should be held accountable as well,” the father said.
KETV NewsWatch 7 asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission if it was aware of issues with the safe.
ALSO SEE: Chicago police collect 450 guns at turn-in events across city
The agency said it can’t comment on anything it “may or may not” be investigating, but the father said he has submitted a complaint there and provided the information.
Again, KETV has reached out repeatedly to BBRKIN, but they have not replied to our questions about the safe or the upgrade.
Three weeks after getting our safe, it still unlocks only for Fili.
If you have a gun safe, take the time to know who can actually unlock it.
Our local sherriff’s office released this photo of a clip taken off a 15-year-old little jerkoff busted at his school for flashing a gun around in the schoolyard. 15. The kid was 15 years old. 15. Should I say that one more time?
Two juvenile males were arrested for the armed robbery of a delivery driver in Santa Monica on Monday and were only apprehended after one of the suspects shot himself in the hand, authorities announced.
Calls about the robbery, near the intersection of 3rd Street and Idaho Avenue, came in at around 2 p.m. When officers arrived at the scene, they learned that the delivery driver had been threatened by the two suspects, one of whom pointed a firearm at the victim, according to a news release from SMPD.
While police were investigating the robbery, a call of shots fired in the 800 block of 2nd Street came in. Officers quickly learned that one of the suspects from the robbery had accidentally discharged the firearm and shot himself in the hand while inside a residence.
Police were able to locate both juveniles and arrest them.
The uninjured suspect was booked at SMPD and taken to juvenile hall. The injured juvenile was treated for his wound at the hospital, released a day later and was also taken to juvenile hall. Both suspects have been charged with robbery.
Detectives say the continued investigation of the incident has tied the two youths to “multiple additional crimes that occurred in the area over the past few months, including residential burglaries, auto theft and a stabbing.” Additional charges against the two are pending. 
Questions remain on enforcing new red-flag gun laws in Michigan
Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy said last month he would not enforce the red flag program, saying there is a violation of due process.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) – The latest piece of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s gun reform platform is now official – with her signature on a bill greenlighting so-called “red flag laws” also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders.
They allow cops, mental health professionals and worried family members to get a firearm taken away from a person believed to be a danger to themselves or others.
“We have heard too many times from those who knew a mass shooter who had expressed concern in advance about that mass shooter’s intentions,” Whitmer said earlier today. “We’ve seen situations where local police flagged someone or even spoke to them about their violent statements but weren’t able to take any further course of action.
“With Extreme Risk Protection Orders we have a mechanism to step in and save lives.”
But there are questions about the legality of the laws – with officials in places like Livingston County thumbing their noses at them.
Sheriff Mike Murphy said last month he would not enforce the red flag program, saying there is a violation of due process.
“If all the gun safety laws work so well, we wouldn’t have issues like Chicago,” said Colleen Quinn. “So, we are standing by our commissioners and our sheriff, we are very proud of them.”
Quinn attended Monday night’s meeting of the Livingston County Board of Commissioners. It is a body that recently declared itself a “Constitutional County” meaning they will not back any laws that violate the Second Amendment in their view.
“So I feel our commissioners did a great job, our sheriff, we are behind him 100 percent,” Quinn said. “And these laws aren’t going to move the needle.”
Governor Whitmer was asked about local authorities who refuse to enforce the Extreme Risk Protection Orders.
“I think that every prosecutor takes his oath to uphold the laws of the State of Michigan,” she said. “And that’s the expectation.”
Here’s how the red-flag laws would work:
A judge will have 24 hours to decide on a protection order once it is filed. If granted, the judge would have 14 days to set a hearing which would then give the red-flagged person a chance to prove why they are not a risk to themselves or others.
Another layer to the enforcement element is, Attorney General Dana Nessel has said if the local law enforcement chooses to not follow through on a red-flag order, she will find someone with the jurisidiction who will.
Paul Krumrie, 37, of Park Forest
COOK COUNTY, Ill. – A Cook County man faces multiple felony counts after he was allegedly found in possession of eight firearms while his Firearm Owners’ Identification (FOID) card was revoked.
Paul Krumrie, 37, of Park Forest, has been charged with eight counts of possession of a firearm with revoked FOID and one count of possession of ammunition without a valid FOID.
On Tuesday, Cook County Sheriff’s Police Gun Suppression Team investigators told Krumrie that his FOID card was revoked after he was determined to be a clear and present danger by the Illinois State Police.
The investigators offered to assist him with transferring any firearms he had since he could no longer be in possession of them. Krumrie told investigators that he didn’t have any firearms.
On Wednesday, investigators discovered that Krumrie was planning to take firearms to Florida. Investigators went to his residence and saw him loading a rifle bag into a midsize moving truck.
Krumrie nor the driver were wearing seatbelts, so investigators pulled the vehicle over on Interstate 57 near Sauk Trail Road.
Both were asked to step out of the vehicle after investigators smelled cannabis coming from the truck’s cabin, the sheriff’s office said.
Krumrie was then taken into custody.
Krumrie allegedly told investigators that his firearms were in the vehicle and that he was taking them to Florida.
Investigators recovered eight firearms, including an uncased, loaded 9mm pistol under the passenger seat where Krumrie was sitting during a search of the car.
They also recovered 157 rounds of ammunition, the sheriff’s office said.
Krumrie appeared for a bond hearing Friday where bond was set at $20,000.
Lea Suzuki/AP
As many of the country’s police departments grapple with dips in funding, reputational crises, lack of morale and a struggle to keep numbers in most departments at approved levels—all as violent crime surges—many businesses and citizens are opting to hire their own private police forces of sorts: armed guards.
According to the Security Industry Association, there are around double the number of security guards employed across the country than there was two decades ago. As of 2021, there are two police officers for every one thousand civilians—and 3.1 guards for that same amount.
While “private policing” is hardly a new concept, it has gained significant traction across the United States since the 2020 riots. In and around 2020, more than 20 major cities slashed their police budgets, even as lawlessness swelled. Further, Left-leaning cities in recent years have introduced an abundance of criminal-friendly policies, such as “bail reform” and early prisoner releases.
With more criminals on the streets, those who can afford more security tap into the billion-dollar private security arena; meanwhile, the middle and lower classes—especially in cities mandated by gun control activism and anti-Second Amendment legislation—are left in even more desperate situations as law-enforcement resources are stretched thin and as these same officials also do all they can to prevent average citizens from obtaining the means to defend themselves.
Perhaps there is no more significant example than Beverly Hills, Calif. This uber-affluent, ultra-anti-gun enclave has reacted to rising crime by hiring even more private security. One private security firm was even hired to provide armed safety personnel at public schools in the city—schools frequented by the children of the rich and famous.
An ad on Jooble even reads: “Urgent! Armed security jobs in Beverly Hills, CA.”
Beverly Hills also contracted several other firms to patrol the area in cars and on foot to help the police safeguard the “luxury capital of the world.”
Meanwhile, well-off residents and business associations in upper-class communities spanning San Francisco and New York to Chicago, Portland and Seattle—all pockets saddled with hostile and restrictive private gun ownership laws—have also turned to independent companies to deter criminal activity.
Even in Washington, D.C., the national beacon for propelling an anti-firearm disposition, [what entity?] has turned to contract security officers out of concern for declining personnel numbers in the strained police resources. And next door in Maryland, the Downtown Annapolis Partnership has begrudgingly admitted they now need to use taxpayer funds to retain private guards to protect prominent areas—guards they cleverly call “safety ambassadors.”
In other words, the unspoken motto from most Left-leaning enclaves is, “We have the money to hire protection, but guns are bad, and if you aren’t rich like us, you are on your own.”
Moreover, wealthy sectors are already at an advantage, as these cities can generally entice more police officers because they have higher tax earnings, which generally means they can offer better wages and benefits.
Thus, if holding down crime is such a struggle for them, imagine the reality most of urban America now has to confront.
What is a better solution? How about enabling all Americans, regardless of social status or wealth, to have the same fighting chance to protect themselves and those they love?
The same political leaders who are quick to espouse “equality” and, in the next breath, champion hefty gun control legislation are the same ones hiring armed private guards. America is supposed to be a land of opportunity and equal rights, not a land where the elites are protected while the average citizens struggle to remain safe.
Why did they do that? Someone will have to ask them, but the narrative became a lot more complicated after the driver was identified as Sai Varshith Kandula. Needless to say, he didn’t exactly fit the “white supremacist” profile.
Now, in a move that is sure to spark much speculation, the DOJ has suddenly downgraded the charges involved. The original charges were as follows.
While authorities have not provided specific details on the alleged threat, the US Park Police said the man faces the charge of threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on a President, vice president or family member.
The driver also was also arrested on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, destruction of federal property and trespassing, according to the Park Police.
According to a new report (The New York Post), those charges have all been wiped away, and Kandula only faces a single count of depredation of property of the United States.
He had allegedly planned the attack for six months, with his goal to “get to the White House, seize power, and be put in charge of the nation,” records show.
Kandula was accused of threatening to “Kill the President If that’s what I have to do,” and praised Nazism and Hitler.
He was originally charged with threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on a president, vice president or family member, as well as assault with a dangerous weapon, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, trespassing and destruction of federal property, US Park Police said.
His federal charges have since been downgraded to a single count of depredation of property of the United States in excess of $1,000.
Prosecutors told the court Kandula is not a US citizen, according to Fox News.
The first thing that jumps out when reading that excerpt is that Kandula is clearly mentally ill. To the extent that he has any actual ideology, it’s overshadowed by the fact that no sane person would think they could seize the White House and be installed as the nation’s leader. That makes the media’s rush to paint this as some kind of right-wing “white supremacist” attack appear rather silly in retrospect. There was no plan here, and I’m pretty sure a guy named Sai Varshith Kandula isn’t actually a white supremacist. Whether he’s a real proponent of nazism at all is even in doubt.
The other thing to note is that Kandula is not a US citizen. Given that, it sure does feel like the federal government is just looking to sweep all this under the rug, after the preferred narrative collapsed in on itself. Of course, I’m speculating, but why else would they go so soft on the charges after the fact?
In the end, I would guess that Kandula being obviously mentally ill was the biggest factor in downgrading the charges, but shouldn’t that offer a lesson for everyone involved? Perhaps the press shouldn’t jump to rash conclusions in order to try to paint one side of the political aisle with such a broad brush. And perhaps the FBI shouldn’t be displaying nazi flags like trophies without knowing the full context of the suspect’s background. Of course, no lessons.
————————————————————————————- Yeah I know that this has almost nothing to do with guns & such. But just when I think that I am way too skeptical & cynical. This sh*t comes around. Grumpy
Security-tight at the scene of a shootout where at least 10 people were killed and nine injured in northern Mexico’s Baja California on May 20, 2023.
ABCNews
At least 10 people were killed and nine were wounded when an apparent team of gunmen ambushed a car rally in Baja California, Mexico, about 73 miles from the U.S. border, authorities said.
The horrific attack unfolded just after 2 p.m. on Saturday in San Vicente, near Ensenada, on the Pacific coast of the Baja California Peninsula, the Reuters news agency reported.
The violence erupted during the last day of a two-day all-terrain car rally, local officials said. Video purportedly of the shooting was posted on social media, showing off-road vehicles lined up along a road and capturing the sounds of screams and numerous rounds of gunfire.
Several people who appeared to have been shot were seen in the online footage lying on the ground.
Multiple shooters wielding rifles emerged from at least two gray vans at a gas station and opened fire on participants of the car rally gathered there, according to Reuters, citing 911 calls.
Following the volley of gunshots, the perpetrators got back in the vans and fled the scene, which is about 86 miles from San Diego, California, according to Reuters.
There were no reports of any arrests being made.
Ensenada Mayor Armando Ayala Robles said state Attorney General Ricardo Ivan Carpio Sanchez commissioned a special group to investigate the massacre.
The car rally was organized by the group calling itself Cachanillazo, which posted a message to Instagram expressing sympathy to those affected by the tragedy, adding that “unfortunately, what happened during the tour was not in our hands.”