Trigger-Happy Cop Shot One of His Own and Kept Blasting Away: A detective who worked narcotics with an undercover officer walked up to a car, shot his fellow officer twice, and then seven more times against the victim’s pleas.

A detective who worked narcotics with an undercover officer walked up to a car, shot his fellow officer twice, and then seven more times against the victim's pleas.

The number of signs that Albuquerque Police Lieutenant Greg Brachle ignored or didn't see before putting nine .45-caliber bullets into his fellow officer's body are simply staggering.

There was the fact that Brachle knew Detective Jacob Grant was involved in a drug buy last January, a sting the superior officer walked up on while Grant sat in an undercover police car. There were Grant's clothes, an outfit specially worn according to a safety protocol to prevent friendly fire incidents. Even Grant's position in the car—behind another undercover narcotics agent in the driver's seat—was to signal to other officers that the two men were cops.

But most damning—and the most confusing part of it all—is that Brachle and Grant were well-known to each other. For nearly two years, they worked in the narcotics division of the department.

The lieutenant and the detective had "substantial, frequent, and almost daily interactions with each other," said the civil lawsuit filed last week against the city of Albuquerque and the police department.

According to Bernalillo County court documents filed by Grant's lawyer, Grant was taking part in a drug buy with another undercover officer while the sting was being monitored by Brachle and others. A briefing was held before the bust and officers in attendance learned not only of Grant and his fellow undercover cop's presence in the car, but also of descriptions of their clothing and seating positions. Brachle didn't attend the briefing, Grant's lawyer says, but nonetheless took an "active and aggressive role in the operation."

"Please stop shooting," the detective pleaded as the lieutenant kept firing.

Brachle went against protocol by approaching the driver's side of the car Grant was sitting in. The lieutenant again broke the rules when he ripped open the door and started firing into Grant, alleging without offering a single "hands up," or "freeze," according to the complaint.

Brachle's actions were called "overzealous and aggressive," in Grant's lawsuit. Another way of saying it might be that Brachle went John Wayne, swooping into a situation he apparently knew little about, guns blazing. Even if Grant wasn't a cop, Brachle's alleged zealousness to fire on a suspect presenting no apparent threat would be disturbing.

Brachle first put two bullets into Grant's torso at point-blank range. The detective's body slumped over in the back seat. Brachle then fired seven more times as Grant tried to crawl away.

"Please stop shooting," the detective pleaded as the lieutenant kept firing.

The damage was substantial: Almost all of Grant's vital organs were struck and he lost 80 percent of his blood that day, nearly dying. After several surgeries, Grant can expect a lifetime of more medical work and costs to recover.

The lawsuit filed by Grant's lawyer says not only did Brachle ignore training, protocol, and all manner of common sense while firing on his fellow officer, but he also violated Grant's constitutional rights by using an excessive amount of lethal force.

The same charge can be found in just about every lawsuit filed by people shot by police.

"A reasonable officer should have known" that shooting someone at point-blank range with the largest caliber handgun police are allowed to carry was overkill, the complaint states. Furthermore, when the person is "trying to crawl away while leaving a heavy trail of blood and while requesting for the shooting to please stop," Brachle should have let up.

In addition to this charge, Grant's lawyer notes that Brachle didn't even live by his own words. As a firearm-safety instructor for the police department, Brachle knew a shooter should be aware of objects and persons behind his target. Brachle apparently ignored this maxim, firing indiscriminately into Grant as he crawled away. A bullet or bullet fragment traveled through the detective's torso and struck the other undercover officer in the car.

"Moreover, Lt. Brachle use lethal force in a McDonald's restaurant parking lot during the start of the lunch hour at a location frequented by children, families and other non-suspecting individuals," the complaint states.

Perhaps worst of all, as Brachle shot his fellow cop, the two suspects in the drug bust were busy surrendering peacefully to officers on the other side of the car.

Brachle's trigger finger has long been itchy. The detective's lawyer found a previous incident in which Brachle was accused of using excessive force, thus implicating the Albuquerque Police Department for allowing the lieutenant to continue working in the "highly dangerous APD narcotic unit."

There was a glaring similarity between Brachle's apparent past use of lethal force and his encounter with Grant. Both times, Grant's lawsuit contends, Brachle "simply fired until he ran out of ammunition."

Whether Grant's lawyer was referring to a 2000 lawsuit that names Brachle as a defendant is unclear, and the lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment. A judge eventually decided in favor of Brachle, who admitted to shooting a man he said was holding a gun and who had previously been seen pouring gasoline near a home and threatening to set it on fire.

Grant's lawsuit also makes mention of the 2012 Department of Justice report that found Albuquerque police were overly aggressive and regularly used lethal force. That judgment came after an especially violent few years beginning in 2010; from January of that year through February 2015, Albuquerque police shot 42 people, one of the highest rates of shootings by law enforcement officers in the country.

"The City's failure to stop these deficiencies was a moving force behind Lt. Brachle's actions," Grant's lawyer wrote of his client's shooting.

But the city is standing by its man—or at least one of them.

"We know this is a very difficult situation for Detective Jacob Grant and his family," City Attorney Jessica Hernandez said in a statement provided to The Daily Beast via the police department. "We take Detective Grant's attorney's claims very seriously. However, at this point, we have a duty to fully defend against the allegations made by Detective Grant's attorney and believe the judicial process will prove the facts to be otherwise. The claims are under careful review by the City Attorney's Office."

Like many situations in which people who are shot by police—rightfully or wrongfully so—the powers-that-be appear to have taken law enforcement's word above all else. This time it just happens to be a cop who is suing, and like those who have died in police custody for relatively minor charges, Grant was nearly killed over for a maddeningly petty sum.

The estimated value of the narcotics involved was $60.

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Recreational Marijuana States Brought in $200M in Taxes

Colorado and Washington, the first two states to legalize marijuana for recreational use in the U.S., have brought in about $200 million in tax revenue, collectively. And the revenue is already benefiting the states and their residents.

"Our philosophy has been that marijuana pays its own way," said J. Skyler McKinley, deputy director of the Office of Marijuana Coordination in Colorado. "Every dime we bring in from legalization is dedicated to the cost of legalization. That's regulatory framework first, then public education campaigns about safe and responsible use and then prevention and treatment programs."

After a year and a half of legalized recreational marijuana sales, Colorado has collected over $117 million in excise taxes from both the recreational and medical marijuana industries, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Washington state's recreational marijuana retail shops began selling marijuana in July of 2014, and they are keeping pace with Colorado. Nearly $83 million in excise taxes have already been collected within the first year, according to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board.

Both states devote the tax revenue to public schools, drug prevention education, marijuana research, and other programs.

"The big lesson we tell other states is you probably shouldn't legalize marijuana if you want to make money – that's not why you do it," noted McKinley. "You do it because you think that a regulated marketplace might be safer than an unregulated marketplace or you believe that the war on drugs didn't work." McKinley added: "It turns out government can be pretty good at this."

Along with Colorado and Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., have also legalized recreational marijuana use (although D.C. continues to ban sales). A handful of other states – Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Ohio, to name a few – are expected to vote for marijuana legalization in 2016, except Ohio, which will vote in Nov. 2015.

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Teens who take nude selfie photos face adult sex charges - After a 16-year-old girl made a sexually explicit nude photo of herself for her boyfriend last fall, the Sheriff's Office concluded that she committed two felony sex crimes against herself and arrested her in February.

After a 16-year-old Fayetteville girl made a sexually explicit nude photo of herself for her boyfriend last fall, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office concluded that she committed two felony sex crimes against herself and arrested her in February.

The girl was listed on a warrant as both the adult perpetrator and the minor victim of two counts of sexual exploitation of minor - second-degree exploitation for making her photo and third-degree exploitation for having her photo in her possession.

A conviction could have put the girl in prison and would have required her to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life. A plea bargain arranged for her in July should clear her record next summer.

With the growing popularity of sexting among teens, two researchers said the courts would fill with defendants like this girl if the Sheriff's Office were to arrest all the teens who make nude photos to share with their love interests.

Were such a standard to apply nationwide, "you're talking about millions of kids being charged with child pornography," said psychologist Jeff Temple of the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Temple said his research has found that 28 percent of teens use their cellphones to send naked photos of themselves to other teens. So does a 2014 study published by researchers at Drexel University in Pennsylvania.

The Fayetteville girl, Brianna Denson, was sexting with her boyfriend, Cormega Zyon Copening, the Sheriff's Office said. The agency hit Copening with five sexual exploitation of a minor charges - four for making and possessing two sexually explicit pictures of himself and the last for possessing a copy of the picture that Denson made for him.

Copening, who was 16 at the time and is now 17, also faces possible prison time and the requirement to register as a sex offender if convicted. The charges have already forced him off the football team at Jack Britt High School. He had been the quarterback.

"That's crazy. That seems like overkill," psychologist Michelle Drouin of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne said when she learned the potential criminal consequences for Denson and Copening. Drouin also has studied sexting among young people.

"It's becoming a way that people are initiating sexual contact with one another," Drouin said. She described it as their equivalent of "second base" in the old baseball metaphor for sexual activity.

"One thing I definitely would say is that sexting has become so intertwined with budding sexuality that I think these are exactly the people who are going to be sending these pictures," she said.

Although the pictures are illegal, sexual intercourse between 16-year-old teens is not. The age of consent for sexual activity in North Carolina is 16, and it dips younger than that for teens who are less than four years apart in age.

In interviews on Tuesday, Sheriff's Office lawyer Ronnie Mitchell and Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West wouldn't say whether they think it's good public policy to use this law to arrest and prosecute consensually sexting teens. They say it's their agencies' job to enforce the law as written.

The Sheriff's Office investigates sexting incidents several times a month, Mitchell estimated. "More frequently than we would like," he said.

The investigations usually are into instances in which photos are shared among a group instead of just within a couple, he said. To his knowledge, Denson's and Copening's pictures weren't shared with anyone else. He said they were discovered during an investigation of other explicit photos that were being shared among teens without the consent of the person or persons pictured.

West would not comment on the specifics of the Denson and Copening cases. However, he said, in cases where the defendants and victims were willing participants and close in age, his office typically lets them plead guilty to a misdemeanor with a deferred prosecution.

This is how Denson is settling her case.

In court on July 21, Denson told District Court Judge Stephen Stokes that she was responsible for the crime of disseminating harmful material to minors. This is a misdemeanor and does not have the life-ruining requirement that she register as a sex offender.

One of West's assistants dropped the felony sexual exploitation charges.

Stokes put Denson on probation for a year. He ordered her to pay $200 in court costs, stay in school, take a class on how to make good decisions, refrain from using illegal drugs or alcohol, not possess a cellular phone for the duration of her probation and to do 30 hours of community service.

If Denson stays out of trouble, West's office next July will drop the misdemeanor charge. She will be able to move on with her life with a clean criminal record.

She shouldn't have been charged in the first place, researchers Temple and Drouin said.

"It seems to me that you might be among the strictest of the laws that I've heard of" in the country, Droiun said.

Copening's case is still pending.

The Drexel University study in 2014 said 20 states and the U.S. territory of Guam have eased their laws in recent years to account for the sexting activities of teens.

Young people have been sharing naked pictures of themselves for centuries, Temple said. Before the invention of the camera, he said, they drew or painted pictures of themselves in their love letters.

The difference now is that the images spread so quickly and easily with modern technology, Temple said.

Instead of punishing young people, Temple said, "our resources should be more on education and not on punishment with this type of sexting. ... More education with respect to actual sexual behavior, and more importantly - I can't say this enough - is more information on healthy relationships and what healthy relationships look like with adolescents."

Staff writer Paul Woolverton can be reached at woolvertonp@fayobserver.com, in Raleigh at 919-828-7641 or in Fayetteville at 910-486-3512.

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Atlanta police officers enter wrong house and open fire. Fellow police officer and homeowner were shot and a dog killed.

ATLANTA (AP) — A man shot by police officers who went to the wrong Atlanta house ran bleeding outside where a neighbor heard him asking, "Why did they come in my house? Why did they shoot me? Why did they shoot my dog?"

It happened Monday night when officers arrived at the wrong Atlanta address after a report of suspicious activity, shot homeowner Christopher McKinley, killed his dog and "likely" shot a fellow officer, leaving him seriously wounded, authorities said Tuesday.

The bloody misunderstanding began when DeKalb County police received a report of a possible burglary at a one-story residence near an intersection in southeast Atlanta. Lacking an exact address, the officers were sent in the dark to a neighborhood where many of the single-story homes look similar.

Three officers found a home they thought matched a description provided by a 911 caller, but were unable to make contact with anyone inside, according to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They entered the home through an unlocked rear door and two officers fired their guns at a dog, killing it.

McKinley, 36, was also shot in the leg by police, GBI officials said. Officer Travis Jones was shot in the hip and listed in serious condition at Grady Memorial Hospital. The GBI released the names of the two wounded men Tuesday evening.

"Early investigation indicates that the injured officer was likely shot accidentally by one of the other officers on the scene," GBI officials said in a statement.

However, GBI spokesman Scott Dutton said it was too early to determine exactly who fired the gunshots. Dutton said he did not know if anyone in the home was armed besides the police. GBI officials said there is no evidence residents there had committed any crimes.

McKinley returned home early Tuesday, limping and wearing hospital scrubs, but declined to comment.

Tama Colson, who lives two doors down from the home where the shooting erupted, said she was coming home from a walk when she saw police cars speed past and soon heard a series of gunshots.

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DeKalb County police officers work at the scene where an Atlanta-based officer was shot Monday eveni …

Colson told The Associated Press that as she rounded the corner, she saw her wounded neighbor and his wife fleeing their home. McKinley's wife was screaming, Colson said, and he was yelling: "They shot me and they shot my dog!"

Colson said her neighbor had a bullet wound a couple of inches above his right knee.

She said she knelt beside him in the yard and used a shirt to staunch the bleeding as he told her what happened.

"He told me they were in the house watching television when they heard something in the backyard," Colson said. "The husband gets up to check, opens the door and he just sees shooting. He gets hit and his dog is dead."

She said police never questioned McKinley while she was there helping him.

Derek Perez told The AP that he reported the suspicious person, but at a different house than the one police entered. He said he was walking his dog when he saw a man knock on a neighbor's door and then just stand in the yard. He said he then heard a loud noise, a dog barking and didn't see the man anymore. There had been break-ins in the neighborhood recently, so he called 911, he said.

Bob Gilman, who lives nearby, said he heard police sirens Monday night, went outside and saw his neighbor sitting on the driveway, wounded. Gilman said police officers escorted him away before he could ask what had happened. He was stunned that officers had opened fire.

"If they say they had the wrong address, that's very frightening," Gilman said.

The wounded man's dog, a brindle boxer, was large, playful and would run up to people. Gilman said the dog never attacked others. The wounded man's home had been hit by previous break-ins, and the man told Gilman that he owned a shotgun and a handgun.

DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric Alexander said his agency would normally investigate a non-fatal shooting. But given the complicated circumstances, he said he asked the GBI to lead the probe involving his own officers' actions.

Alexander acknowledged Monday night that DeKalb officers responded to the wrong home. All three officers — identified by the GBI as Jones, Quhanna Lloyd and Timothy Harden — have been placed on administrative leave.

Police officers have mistakenly forced their way inside homes before in Atlanta, at least once with deadly consequences.

In 2006, Atlanta police officers killed a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid at her house.

___

Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press reporter Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report. Follow Ray Henry on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rhenryAP

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Family speaks out over harassment the Air Force at Area 51 has given them for over 50 years over a mining site they have owned for over 100 years which overlooks the top secret testing site.

A Nevada family with a mining camp overlooking the secret base at Area 51 is finally speaking out -- after keeping their silence for more than 60 years.

The Sheahan family spoke exclusively with the I-Team's Glen Meek.

It may be one of the last great untold stories of the Cold War.

It's a tale of what happens when family, history, and national security collide.

In what may be the final act of a Cold War drama playing out in the Nevada desert, a family is poised to lose land they have held in Nevada since Ulysses Grant was president.

Here is part of their story and what they say has been decades of abuse at the hands of their own government.

By now, most people have probably heard of the secret base -- hidden in the Nevada desert -- known as Area 51.

But, what you may not know is that there is a privately owned lead and silver mine overlooking the classified base.

"From our great-great-grandfather, to our grandfathers, to our fathers, they were raised there," said Joe Sheahan, Groom Mine co-owner. "This was their home."

The Groom Mine has been in the Sheahan family for 130 years. Since military testing started in the mid 50's, the family has had one of the nation's most closely guarded secrets literally in their backyard.

They have never spoken about it publicly -- until now. 

"First, we really didn't want to come public, but the Air Force has forced us into it. We want 'em to know what they have done over the last 60 years to our family is not acceptable," said Dan Sheahan, Groom Mine co-owner. "These were fired over our property. The bullets, the cases dropped on the ground right there and then."

The Sheahans say their buildings have been strafed and bombed by military jets over the past six decades. They believe it was an errant bomb or dropped wing tank that blew up their mill in the 1950's --  ending production at the mine.

Read letter about explosion at mine

Affidavit on bombing practice near the Groom Mine

"My grandfather and my grandmother, Dan and Martha Sheahan, were destroyed at the hands of this government," said Ben Sheahan.

"They went to the poorhouse trying to win their case of the mill that was destroyed by the Air Force. We have some evidence they absolutely were the culprits in that, and it was never addressed," said Barbara Sheahan-Manning, Groom Mine co-owner. "They literally ran our grandparents out of money trying to fight them."

"They have driven away prospective business partners and told them, 'If you buy the place or try to operate, we are going to condemn it, and you're going lose your money,'" Dan Sheahan said.

In recent decades, the government has withdrawn large tracts of land around Area 51 and posted sentries to  keep preying eyes off the base.

"We've been illegally searched. I was threatened to be arrested on a trip when I was going out one time to get on our land, our own privately owned land," Sheahan-Manning said.

"They held people at gunpoint. They withdrew 89,000 acres of land, surrounded our property and made us an island," Joe Sheahan said.

"But six years before that, they placed a security shack on the road that our grandfather built for access to our own property and started requiring us to go through their checkpoints in order to gain access," Sheahan-Manning said.

"Now, we're not saying what they're doing out there is unimportant and doesn't need to be protected -- we get it.  We've been alongside these people since 1955," said Joe Sheahan.

"The truth is you can get more of a view of what's going on on that base through Google Earth and pictures that are out there all over the Internet," Sheahan-Manning said.

"What we're hoping is that our representatives say enough is enough. They need to step in, and they need to fix this," said Ben Sheahan.

Now, in what the Sheahans consider the final insult in a litany of abuse, they are being given an ultimatum by the Air Force. They must accept a $5.2 million buyout for the 400 acres in their possession or face having the land condemned and taken through eminent domain.

"I mean, that's really what we're talking about," said Joe Sheahan. "Is it okay to bomb your citizens, hold 'em at gunpoint and then -- just to add insult to injury -- just steal their property?"

The Sheahans say the Air Force offer doesn't even cover the value of the minerals in the mine -- let alone the family's close connection to the land -- where forbearers not only toiled -- but died.

"Either give us our property, leave us alone, or pay us what you owe us," Joe Sheahan added.

The Sheahans have until Sept. 10 to accept the Air Force offer.

"What the American people have got to realize is if they can do this to us, they can do it to each and every one of them," Dan Sheahan said.

"So, isn't it ironic that on September 11th, the United States government is going to finish the last act of what can only be described as a criminal act to take our property," Joe Sheahan said. "On September 11th, I just find that ironic. Sad."

The I-Team reached out to the Air Force for comment on the story. This link will take you to their response.

Copyright 2015 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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An 87-year-old man accused of soliciting a prostitute in Michigan will not be prosecuted: "87 years without involvement in the criminal justice system has, in my opinion, earned him a pass"

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The 87-year-old man police say was soliciting an undercover cop posing as a prostitute will not be prosecuted.

"What would be the purpose in prosecuting him? " Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth said Tuesday, Sept. 1. "He wouldn't and shouldn't go to jail and 87 years without involvement in the criminal justice system has, in my opinion, earned him a pass."

Howard Arthur Klein, likely the oldest person ever charged with this crime, was arrested by Grand Rapids Police around 10 p.m. June 26 near Broadway Street NW and Leonard Avenue, not far from his home.

Klein was arrested along with two other men and two women, the rest of whom were booked into the Kent County Jail. Klein was not taken into custody, due to his age, and was arraigned July 8.

Related: 87-year-old man charged with soliciting a prostitute

Klein allegedly claimed he thought the woman he approached was someone he knew from church.

Klein faced a maximum of 93 days in the Kent County Jail if convicted.

"I could see no compelling reason to continue to prosecute Mr. Klein on the ticket he was issued for accosting and soliciting," Forsyth said. "He is 87 years old with absolutely no criminal record. In addition, I am told he struggles to some degree with dementia."

E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GRPBarton or Facebook at http://ift.tt/1ohckXN

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