A police officer in Independence, Mo., who thought he was killing an alligator on the loose, discovered he had shot a life-size concrete lawn ornament. The police department ended up apologizing to Rick Sheridan, the cement gator's owner, WDAF-TV, Kansas City, reported. Sheridan said he heard gunfire as he worked in his garage last weekend and went out to investigate, discovering ...

MASHPEE — The dispatcher who handled a Sept. 4 emergency call from a Mashpee man whose fiancee was choking failed to follow proper procedures, according to Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings. In a prepared statement submitted to the Cape Cod Times Tuesday, Cummings wrote that he accepts "full responsibility" for the actions of the dispatcher, who during a 12-minute 911 call ...

PHOENIX — After nearly three weeks on the run, an escaped state prison inmate and his fiancee who were targets of an intense nationwide manhunt were captured Thursday at an Arizona campground after an alert forest ranger spotted the suspicious couple, along with their stolen vehicle hidden in the trees. John McCluskey, 45, and Casslyn Welch, 44, who also is the ...

CONVERSE COUNTY, WY - The body of a Wyoming deputy who jumped in the North Platte River to assist a distressed girl was discovered Sunday. It was the fourth day of searching for 29-year-old Bryan P. Gross, of the Converse County sheriff's office, who was hailed as a hero for attempting to save a teenage girl who appeared to be struggling ...

MESQUITE, TX - A cell phone video of a Texas police officer pepper spraying a baby squirrel in front of a group of students has sparked outrage after being posted on YouTube. In the video, the middle school students can be heard pleading with the officer to leave the animal alone. According to FOX , the Mesquite Police Department is defending ...

The police academy run by Prince George's Community College has been barred from conducting new police training classes until it can assure the state that it is providing proper instruction. Thirty-five rookie officers who graduated last year and this year and are working for local departments also have been forced to return to the academy. They were brought back in the ...

MIAMI - A Miami police officer and a federal agent fired on two armed men who pointed weapons at officers in Liberty City early Friday, killing one, authorities said. The Miami officer, Ricardo Martinez, had just returned to work following another fatal shooting -- that of a 16-year-old youth in Overtown during a robbery sting. The federal officer was not named. ...

YUKON, OK — A retired Yukon firefighter was shot and killed by a Piedmont police officer after forcing his way into the officer's home in Yukon. Police say 47-year-old Devin Nemecek was killed Tuesday by officer Jack Neumann Yukon police spokeswoman Klare Ly said Neumann returned home to find Nemecek banging on a door. Ly said Nemecek forced his way into ...

GRITNEY, Fla. (AP) — A corrections officer and an ex-convict wanted for killing his parents died in a gun battle Wednesday, state officials said. The shootout happened after a homeowner confronted Wade Andrew Williams in the woods. Authorities had been searching for the 35-year-old since his parents were found dead in their home in the Florida Panhandle last week. Williams tried ...

MESA, AZ - A Mesa police officer diagnosed with a terminal illness will get to remain on the job. Officer Mark Kelly, 30, said he was told by assistant police Chief John Meza last week that city officials told him Kelly can no longer work for the Mesa Police Department because of his medical condition. Kelly was told by city officials ...

SEATTLE - Everybody's done it. You place an item on top of a car only to remember later — after you or someone else has driven off. But when the forgetful individual is a Seattle police officer and the item is a semi-automatic rifle, it's more than a little embarrassing. It's also the focus of an internal investigation. Seattle police spokesman ...

FAIRFAX, VA - A woman was slashed and cut in a Fairfax County shopping mall Monday evening in what may be the latest of a series of similar incidents, Fairfax County police said. The woman, whose wound was not considered life-threatening, was cut about 5:30 p.m. in a store that caters to young women in the Fair Oaks Mall, said police ...

CHICAGO - A Stroger Hospital police officer with 19 years on the job died on Tuesday -- and his family says he died of a heart attack after being harassed by local teens on a South Side bus. Dwayne Parks, 45, the father of 11, apparently fended off some punches from his harassers but dropped dead of a heart attack just ...

BANGOR, Maine — A city election official who refused to allow an armed, uniformed Bangor police officer to vote last week will not be working at the polls for the remainder of the 2010 elections. Bangor City Clerk Patti Dubois, who is in charge of staffing the city’s lone polling place, the Bangor Civic Center, confirmed Monday that Wayne Mallar, a ...

KEY LARGO — A Monroe County Sheriff's deputy was killed Tuesday night when her patrol car crashed while she was on her way to the location of another deputy who could not be reached on his police radio, according to officials. Deputy Melissa Powers was driving north on U.S. 1 just in Key Largo when she was involved in a single ...

WARRINGTON, PA - The caller was un-rushed and exceedingly polite, even thanking the police dispatcher as he reported that he had beaten his wife and their 7-year-old son to death with a baseball bat in their home in a handsome neighborhood in Warrington. When police arrived at 167 Redstone Dr. late Friday night, they found a typewritten note on the front ...

ROCKDALE, GA - CONYERS — Terry Mahaffey, father of slain Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Brian Mahaffey, gathered with his family Monday afternoon to let the public know that his son’s career in law enforcement was more than just a job. “He had a family,” he said. Terry and Cindy Mahaffey and Brian’s brother, Christopher, 25, held a press conference Monday. ...

MARICOPA COUNTY - The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff" in America, Phoenix's Joe Arpaio, who has survived six separate inmate lawsuits trying to stop him from playing Christmas music, will begin playing the tunes again this year - starting Monday with "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,""Frosty the Snowman" and "Feliz Navidad." The 8,000 inmates also will hear, among others, "A Christmas Kwanzaa Solstice," "Over ...

LAKELAND, Fla. — It had been four days of grueling obstacle courses and challenges for the Lakeland Police Department's competition SWAT team. And they were behind going into the final and most difficult day of the International SWAT Roundup, held in Orlando from Nov. 29 through Dec. 4. It was rainy, wet and cold. But they were well trained for these ...

DETROIT - What started as a typical night in an upscale neighborhood in Walled Lake turned into the scene of a shootout Monday when an undercover police team tried to arrest two people under surveillance in a home invasion ring. When the gunfire stopped, Livonia Police Officer Larry Nehasil and the suspect he was after were dead. “Our family is devastated,” ...