A D.C. man has been convicted of first-degree murder for killing another man over a 2021 game of flag football.
A D.C. man has been convicted of first-degree murder for killing another man over a 2021 game of flag football.
A D.C. Superior Court jury found 22-year-old Antonio “Slick” Hawley Jr. guilty of shooting and killing 26-year-old Aaron Wiggins at Watkins Elementary in Southeast on Oct. 6, 2021.
Wiggins, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, had scored the winning touchdown during a late-night pickup game on the school’s sports field.
Players were talking trash during and after the game. Witnesses said that curses and insults were flung between the groups, and things got heated between the two teams.
Prosecutors said Hawley pulled a handgun from another player’s bag and fired 17 shots, hitting Wiggins 13 times. Wiggins died at the scene.
Hawley fled the scene but was later identified by eyewitnesses and video footage. He was arrested in December 2021.
Hawley is scheduled to be sentenced April 10.
WTOP’s Jeffery Leon and Ciara Wells contributed to this report.
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Morgan Geyser, the Wisconsin woman who in 2014 at 12 years old stabbed another child in a case that became widely known as the Slender Man stabbing, has been found after cutting off her ankle monitor and escaping a group home.
On Sunday, the Madison, Wisconsin, police department wrote on Facebook that Geyser was last seen at 8 p.m. Saturday night in Wisconsin with an adult acquaintance. Police were notified of her disappearance on Sunday morning. Police urged anyone who saw Geyser to call 911.
Geyser, now 23 years old, was found Sunday evening in Posen, Illinois, “loitering” behind a truck stop. Geyser and a man were sleeping on the sidewalk. Geyser initially refused to offer her real name.
“After continued attempts to identify her, she finally stated that she didn’t want to tell officers who she was because she had ‘done something really bad,’ and suggested that officers could ‘just Google’ her name,” Posen police wrote on Facebook.
Geyser eventually provided her real name, and she, along with the man she was with, were taken into custody, Posen police said.
In 2014, then 12-year-olds Geyser and Anissa Weier lured their 12-year-old friend Payton Leutner into the woods, where Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times to appease Slender Man, a popular fictional internet character. Leutner crawled out of the woods until a bicyclist discovered her.
Three years later, Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide, but both were determined to not be guilty because of mental illness and were placed in psychiatric care. Weier was eventually released to her father with 24/7 GPS tracking and continued psychiatric care. Geyser was placed in a mental institution, but in July, she was released to a group home in Wisconsin.
In 2019, Leutner told “20/20” that she’s not afraid of Geyser and Weier, but that she sleeps with scissors under her pillow “just in case.”
A Fairfax County, Virginia, woman is accused in the stabbing death of her mother, who was found unresponsive by a caretaker.
A Fairfax County, Virginia, woman is accused in the stabbing death of her mother, who was found unresponsive by a caretaker.
Police said Norma Little was found inside her home on the 2300 block of Dulles Station Boulevard in McNair on Tuesday. When police arrived, they found Little, 79, with stab bounds to her upper body, a police news release said. She declared dead at the scene.
After conducting interviews, reviewing video surveillance and other evidence, police arrested Helena Little, 31, of Herndon, on Thursday. Helena Little has been charged with second-degree murder. She’s being held without bond at the Fairfax County jail.
Anyone with additional information regarding this incident are encouraged to contact police at 703-246-7800, option 2. Tips can also be submitted anonymously at 866-411-TIPS.
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Bre’asia Simone Johnson, 29, was killed Wednesday, November 12, 2025 as she traveled along Interstate Highway 20 in Arlington.
GoFundMe
The woman shot and killed along Interstate 20 in Arlington on Nov. 12 was five months pregnant and died shielding her other children from gunfire, her family said.
Twenty-nine-year-old Bre’asia Simone Johnson died from a gunshot wound to the torso, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Johnson was the mother of three children, aged 6, 7, and 2, her family said on a GoFundMe page for her funeral expenses.
“Bre’Asia’s final, selfless act was to protect the very children she loved with all her heart,” her family wrote. “Tragically, her children are now left behind, without their mother, and the unborn child will never have the chance to know the love and warmth Bre’Asia was so ready to give.”
Arlington police officers responded to an Arlington QuikTrip location in the 4900 block of Little Road shortly after 7:40 p.m. Wednesday night, police said.
Homicide detectives learned the victims were traveling westbound on Interstate 20 near Bowman Springs Road when someone fired at their vehicle, the Star-Telegram previously reported.
Investigators are working to determine what led to the shooting and who is responsible, police said.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact Detective Allison Allen at 817-575-8613. Anonymous tips can be phoned in to Crime Stoppers of Tarrant County at 817-469-8477.
Lillie Davidson is a breaking news reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She graduated from TCU in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, is fluent in Spanish, and can complete a crossword in five minutes.
The suspect did not yield when sheriff’s deputies attempted a traffic stop, police said on social media.
Katie Goodale/The Augusta Chronicle
USA TODAY NETWORK
Police in Lake Worth on Monday arrested a man they say was carrying a pound of methamphetamine , according to a social media post.
The suspect, 37-year-old Samarine Briscoe, did not yield when deputies from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department attempted to stop him in the 5800 block of Jacksboro Highway, police said.
Briscoe, who authorities said is a known gang member and methamphetamine distributor, was charged with manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance, tampering with evidence and evading arrest.
Briscoe is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $625,000 bond, according to the post.
Briscoe was on parole at the time of his arrest and has a “lengthy” history of drug distribution arrests, police said.
Lillie Davidson is a breaking news reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She graduated from TCU in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, is fluent in Spanish, and can complete a crossword in five minutes.
DENVER — Despite a decrease in overall homicides across the state last year, domestic violence deaths increased by nearly a quarter in 2024, a comprehensive report released by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office revealed Tuesday.
The findings from the Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board show an even more alarming trend when it comes to these type of cases: All collateral domestic violence deaths last year were children between 3 months and 7 years old, with kids making up more than half of all collateral deaths over the past four years.
“Domestic violence is not only a crisis between partners—it’s tearing families apart and claiming young lives,” said Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who chairs the review board, in statement Tuesday. “We must do more to protect children and survivors before tragedy strikes.”
The report shows there were 54 domestic violence cases that resulted in 72 deaths — a 24% increase from 2023, when there were only 47 domestic violence cases resulting in 58 deaths.
Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board
Of those deaths, 38 were killed by a current or former intimate partner and 8 were children, the report shows. Five of those children were killed amid custody battles between their parents – a high-risk period for domestic violence victims and their families.
The report further shows that domestic violence remains a deeply gendered issue, with nearly 9 in 10 victims being women, and nearly 9 in 10 perpetrators being men.
The data also show minorities are overwhelming affected by domestic violence compared to their white counterparts.
White people, who make up about 71% of the statewide population, according to the U.S. Census, accounted for about half of all domestic violence cases – whether they were victims or perpetrators. On the other hand, Hispanics, who only make up about 26% of the state population, had higher numbers of domestic violence deaths, with Hispanic victims accounting for 34% of all deaths and Hispanic perpetrators accounting for 31% of all cases.
The same discrepancies can be seen in Black communities. Though Blacks only account for 4% of the state population, 10% of domestic violence deaths were among Black people, and Blacks accounted for 19% of all perpetrators, according to the report.
Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board
The report also found that firearms remain the leading cause of domestic violence deaths. Of all 72 fatalities in 2024, 75% involved firearms – including all 8 child deaths last year. The numbers are consistent with trends over the past four years, which show that four out of five domestic violence deaths in Colorado from 2021 to 2024 involved a firearm.
Despite more people living in urban areas than rural ones, rural counties saw greater numbers of domestic violence deaths compared to their urban counterparts. Data shows Costilla, Lake, and Conejos counties had double digits for domestic violence fatalities per 100,000 people.
“Rural counties also continued to experience disproportionately high rates of domestic violence fatalities per capita, underscoring the ongoing challenges survivors face in accessing safety and support,” a spokesperson for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office said.
Among some of the board’s recommendations for 2025 are stronger prevention and intervention measures, including:
Requiring law enforcement to temporarily remove firearms at the scene of domestic violence arrests.
Clarifying state law to ensure third-degree assault domestic violence convictions prohibit firearm possession.
Encouraging law enforcement to consider a protocol to provide resource materials to both parties at domestic violence calls where no arrest is made.
Expanding local fatality review team protocols to include interviews with family members and perpetrators to better identify missed warning signs.
Read the full report from the Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board here or in the embed below.
Tuesday’s report mirrors some of the findings released at the city level by Denver police. Though most violent crime was down in 2024, domestic violence cases were on the rise in the Mile High City, with a 4% rise compared to 2023.
Advocates for domestic violence victims told Denver7 at the time that the rise started at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic – a trend that hasn’t yet slowed.
Natasha Adler, director of survivor services with SafeHouse Denver, which services domestic violence survivors and their families, told Denver7 she believed the rise is due to a criminal justice system that isn’t holding perpetrators accountable coupled with lax sentencing.
“Especially with bond setting,” said Adler. “And so a lot of our domestic violence offenders are getting probation. They’re getting early release, and they’re not being held on those large bonds to be able to keep survivors safe.”
Denver
While other crime is down, domestic violence is on the rise in Denver: Police
Adler told Denver7 there are likely many other factors contributing to the increase and said she doesn’t want to put all the blame on any one judge or the criminal justice system.
“Really at the end of the day, domestic violence occurs because abusive partners use abuse,” said Adler. “Making sure that we’re recognizing that when we’re addressing the issue is going to be the most productive.”
Denver7 reached out to the Denver Police Department to get updated numbers on domestic violence cases for 2024, but we have yet to hear back. This story will be updated once we do.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available through Violence Free Colorado or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.
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AURORA, Colo. — Police in Aurora are asking for the public’s help to solve a double homicide from two years ago.
The initial investigation revealed that a group of friends were hanging out in Denver the night of Aug. 18, 2023, before two men in the group – 25-year-old Omar Williams and 27-year-old Kejuan Mays were murdered at around 2 a.m. the following day. Police said their bodies were discarded in an alley between Fulton and Galena streets just north of E. 22nd Avenue in Aurora.
Their bodies were found at around 7 a.m. on Aug. 19, 2023, police said. Both had been shot dead.
Police said interviews with witnesses have determined there were no indications of problems with other people while the group was in Denver. Investigators believe the suspect drove Williams’ Dodge Journey from the scene and abandoned it more than six miles away near E. Alameda Parkway and S. Kittredge Street.
“There have been no tips in the investigation and all investigative leads generated to date have been exhausted,” a spokesperson for the police department said in a news release Tuesday.
The investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000.
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ROXBORO, N.C. (WNCN) – A traffic stop in Person County on Sunday night led to the seizure of about 255 pounds of drugs, making it one of the largest busts in the county’s history, the sheriff’s office said.
According to a Tuesday news release, a deputy was on patrol in the area of Oxford Road when he saw a vehicle driving slowly and impeding the flow of traffic. He also noticed the driver failing to maintain lane control.
That led to the deputy stopping the vehicle.
“Upon further investigation, narcotics were found in the vehicle and the driver was arrested,” the release said.
The drugs seized by the sheriff’s office weighed about 255 pounds. The estimated street value was more than $1.1 million, the release said.
The Person County Sheriff’s Office said the bust was one of its largest ever.
The driver, who was not identified, was arrested and charged with trafficking marijuana and maintaining a vehicle/dwelling place for a controlled substance.
A Washington state man was fatally shot outside of his home by a “scared” driver after he slowed down traffic to help deer pass, according to a police report.
Dan Spaeth, 37, was standing outside his home in Snohomish County on Sept. 7 with his wife to alert passing drivers that deer were crossing the road, according to an affidavit of probable cause first obtained by The Seattle Times.
Just before 8 p.m., Spaeth’s wife called 911 to report her husband had been shot a single time by someone in a passing vehicle. His wife said the two were on their property when she heard a loud “pop” and turned to see her husband lying in the road with a gunshot wound to his chest, according to the affidavit. Spaeth died at the scene.
The next day, on Sept. 8, officers with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office arrested 22-year-old Dylan Picard in connection to the shooting, The Washington Post reported Friday. When a sergeant asked if Picard knew why he was being arrested, Picard allegedly told the officer, “I shot somebody.”
Picard later told investigators he saw Spaeth yell at a passing vehicle and hit the car with his hands. Picard became “scared” and grabbed his loaded gun, according to the affidavit.
Picard allegedly fired one shot out of his open passenger window to “scare the male and female” but did not know he had hit someone. He has been charged with second-degree murder.
A GoFundMe has been set up “to help the Spaeth family in this very difficult time and the difficult times to come,” according to the organizer.
A man was killed by family members on Monday over his addiction to marijuana and alcohol. (Representative Image)
Photo : iStock
Jalna: A man was killed by his family members in Ambad taluka in Maharashtra’s Jalna district, over his liquor and marijuana addiction. The accused later set his body on fire.
Police on Wednesday said all the accused have been arrested, according to PTI.
The 35-year-old man was killed by his father, brother and son as they were fed up with his addition to liquor and marijuana.
On Monday, the man was attacked in his field by his family members following an argument with them. Realising that he had succumbed to his injuries, they burned his body to escape police action, a police officer said.
A case of destruction of evidence and murder was registered against the accused family members for killing the man.
In another unrelated case, an 18-year-old man was axed to death by his father on Monday in Ambagaon village in Odisha’s Koraput district, over his addiction to alcohol.
The father, identified as Samara Budia, was arrested by the police on Tuesday and was charged of killing his son, Surendra. The matter came to light when Surendra’s mother returned to the house and saw her son laying in pool of blood. Surendra’s relatives registered a complaint with the police on Monday night.
A substitute teacher in Lake County, Florida, faces child abuse charges after allegedly letting a seventh grader hit her vape pen on school grounds.
Jennifer Gaine Hale, 50, was arrested Friday for the incident.
Two boys at Eustic Middle School were talking during the last period on Tuesday when one commented on wanting to try vaping, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by InsideLake.com.
Hale, working as a substitute teacher that day, reportedly told the students she had a nicotine vape pen. After one of the boys walked up to her desk, she pulled out what was described as “a multi-colored nicotine vape” and asked him if he wanted to “hit it,” the arrest report states.
After the boy smoked from the vape, he gave it back to her, according to reports. She allegedly told him to be careful because her pen had a salt-like substance on it, but the boy did not know what it was, according to the affidavit.
She reportedly told the boy not to tell anyone because she didn’t want to get in trouble.
Although the boy didn’t tell anyone about vaping with the sub, another student did. The next day, Eustis Middle School Principal Michael Spencer asked Hale about the incident.
Spencer then reported the incident to the Lake County School Board Human Resources Department before escorting Hale off the campus and telling her she was not allowed to return.
HuffPost contacted a number listed as Hale’s, but the call was not returned.
A Lake County School District spokeswoman told HuffPost that Hale “is no longer employed with Lake County Schools.”
In addition, she was arrested and booked into the Lake County jail on a single charge of child abuse, a third-degree felony, and was later released on a $1,000 bond.
Hale reportedly started working as a substitute teacher for the district in November 2022 and had no prior disciplinary issues.
The parents of students attending the school were shocked by the allegations.
“Teachers. It’s scary now,” Jennifer Hunter, the mother of an eighth grader at the school, told Daytona Beach NBC affiliate WESH. “I never thought that a substitute teacher would give my child that or someone else’s child any of that stuff. Just other students.”
Eustis Police Chief Craig Capri told the station, “You can’t do this. You just can’t do it. This should be common sense.”
He added: “She has a responsibility to that classroom to protect kids. Not abuse them.”
Alexandra Eckersley, 26, was arrested early Monday morning after police in Manchester received a report of a woman who had delivered a baby boy in the woods and left the child in the cold, according to Boston ABC affiliate WCVB TV.
When officers, firefighters and American Medical Response personnel arrived on the scene, Eckersley allegedly told them to look for the tent where she gave birth. Still, Manchester Fire District Chief John Starr told the station that the child wasn’t found.
“The search was difficult. It was dark, we had cold temperatures — about 18 degrees last night — and we were not getting accurate information,” Starr said.
Manchester Fire Chief Ryan Cashin told Boston Fox affiliate WFXT TV that the suspect gave multiple locations of where the baby could be and could not remember the baby’s location.
“Multiple different areas were searched for the child before the mother finally stated the baby was in the tent where the mother was living,” Cashin told the station.
When the baby was finally found, it was naked and struggling to breathe.
“As soon as the baby was picked up, members of our fire department and American Medical Response got handed the baby and immediately warmed the baby as much as they could in the back of the fire truck and drove to the hospital,” Cashin said.
Eckersley allegedly told EMTs that “she had no idea she was pregnant and that she felt she had to use the bathroom,” according to an affidavit.
She estimated that she gave birth to the boy late on Christmas night and reportedly told a detective she left him alone in the tent because: “What do they tell you when a plane goes down? Save yourself first.”
In the same affidavit, a Manchester police officer stated that Eckersley appeared to be under the influence of drugs.
“The mother’s responsibility is to the child, and that responsibility was definitely neglected,” Cashin said. “There was no heat source in the tent whatsoever… She was not forthcoming, obviously, on the baby’s location. She was very distressed, very elusive.”
Emergency medical technicians treated the boy, born prematurely at six months, before transporting him to a local hospital. Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg said on Monday the baby boy was alive and improving.
Eckersley was arraigned on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to various felony charges, including second-degree assault, endangering the welfare of a child, falsifying physical evidence and reckless conduct, according to Manchester ABC affiliate WMUR-TV.
Prosecutor Carl Olson requested Eckersley be held on preventative detention, arguing that she was already out on bail for a separate endangering-the-welfare-of-a-child case out of Concord and failed to appear for an October court date in that case.
But Eckersley’s attorney said she should be released on personal recognizance bail, adding that she called 911 after the birth shows no evidence of dangerousness.
Eckersley is the adopted daughter of former MLB pitcher Dennis Eckersley, who is in the Hall of Fame for his work with the Oakland A’s and Boston Red Sox.
HuffPost reached out to him for comment, but he did not immediately respond.
In 2019, he and his wife, Nancy, told the Concord Monitor that “Allie” was diagnosed with mental illness at the age of two and said her condition has “worsened considerably through the years, leading to multiple hospitalizations and eventually institutionalization.”
A group of eight teenage girls has been accused of fatally stabbing a 59-year-old man on a street in Ontario, Canada, in what police call a “swarming” attack.
The girls, aged between 13 and 16, were arrested shortly after the stabbing in downtown Toronto early Sunday. They each face a charge of second-degree murder, police said.
The girls, who were not identified because of their age, reportedly met through social media and gathered from various parts of the city. It’s unclear why they decided to meet that night and in that location. “A number of weapons” were recovered, police said at a press conference Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t describe them as a gang at this point, but what [is] alleged to have occurred that evening would be consistent with what we would call a swarming or swarming type behavior,” said Toronto Police Detective Sgt. Terry Browne.
There’s no evidence that the girls knew their alleged victim, who Browne said recently moved into the shelter system but had a “very supportive family” in the area.
“I wouldn’t necessarily call him homeless, maybe just recently on some hard luck,” he said. The man was not identified due to pending notification of the family.
Browne said the girls were first involved in a separate altercation around 10 p.m. on Saturday before moving on to their final alleged victim just after midnight.
The victim was talking with another person on a street corner when the girls approached him and attacked him, he told CBC News.
A woman residing at a local homeless shelter told the local news station that she was smoking a cigarette with the man outside of a shelter when the girls approached them and tried to take her alcohol. The man intervened, telling them to leave her alone, and they started to punch him repeatedly.
“He protected me,” she said of the man. “I think they stabbed his belly.”
Browne asked anyone who may have witnessed the attack or the altercation before to contact authorities.
“I think they would be easily identifiable because these two interactions involved what would be described as criminal behavior,” said Browne.
Three of the girls have had prior contact with police services, but the others have not, he said.
Their next court appearance has been set for Dec. 29.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former gynecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles was found guilty Thursday on five counts of sexually abusing female patients, in a criminal case that came after the university system made nearly $700 million in lawsuit payouts.
The Los Angeles jury found Dr. James Heaps, a longtime UCLA campus gynecologist, not guilty on seven of the 21 counts and were deadlocked on the remaining charges.
In the wake of the scandal that erupted in 2019 following the doctor’s arrest, UCLA agreed to pay nearly $700 million in lawsuit settlements to hundreds of Heaps’ patients — a record amount by a public university amid a wave of sexual misconduct scandals by campus doctors in recent years.
Heaps, 65, had pleaded not guilty to 21 felony counts in the sexual assaults of seven women between 2009 and 2018. He has denied wrongdoing.
Heaps was indicted last year on multiple counts each of sexual battery by fraud, sexual exploitation of a patient and sexual penetration of an unconscious person by fraudulent representation.
The jury delivered a guilty verdict on three counts of sexual battery by fraud and two counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person. He was found not guilty of seven other counts of sexual battery and penetration, as well as one count of sexual exploitation. The jury was hung on the nine remaining counts, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial for those charges.
It was not immediately clear whether the district attorney’s office plans to refile the case on the deadlocked counts.
Heaps’ attorney and the district attorney’s office did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday.
Sex abuse by doctors on college campuses has led to massive settlements at Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University.
UCLA’s payouts exceed a $500 million settlement by Michigan State University in 2018 that was considered the largest by a public university. The University of Southern California, a private institution, has agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle thousands of cases against the school’s longtime gynecologist, who still faces a criminal trial in Los Angeles.
UCLA patients said Heaps groped them, made suggestive comments or conducted unnecessarily invasive exams during his 35-year career. Women who brought the lawsuits said the university ignored their complaints and deliberately concealed abuse that happened for decades during examinations at the UCLA student health center, the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center or in Heaps’ campus office.
UCLA acknowledged it received a sex abuse complaint against Heaps from a patient in December 2017 and it launched an investigation the following month that concluded she was sexually assaulted and harassed, attorneys said.
Heaps, however, continued to practice until his retirement in June 2018. The university did not release its finding in the investigation until November 2019 — months after Heaps was arrested.
“UCLA Health is grateful for the patients who came forward,” the university said in a statement after the verdict. “Sexual misconduct of any kind is reprehensible and intolerable. Our overriding priority is providing the highest quality care while ensuring that patients feel safe, protected and respected.”
