CBS News has more information on an unidentified law enforcement source’s claims that Ibragim Todashev, the man shot and killed by an FBI agent this morning, admitted he and accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev were responsible for an unsolved triple homicide from 2011.
[It’s] an unfortunate and tragic milestone, which not only marks a needless loss of life but serves as a reminder of the damage that illegal guns and conflicts between gangs cause in our neighborhoods.Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel • Reflecting on the 500th homicide in his city this year, which took place on Chicago’s west side on Thursday. ”The brave officers of the Chicago Police Department work tirelessly to continually reduce crime, but this is not just a law enforcement issue,” Emanuel continued. It’s the first time the city has topped that total since 2008, when there were 512 murders.
D.C. residents: Innovative crime journalism project needs help to keep going
A pitch for some friends and a public service: Laura Amico and her husband Chris have put a lot of energy into a great project in the Washington DC area — a site, Homicide Watch, that quite literally tracks every reported homicide in the District. It’s grown into a public service that’s drawn hundreds of thousands of pageviews per month and helped keep people aware of stories that would’ve gotten ignored by a traditional newspaper. Unfortunately, a deal with a local media outlet to keep the service alive fell though at the last minute, which (due to its founder receiving a prominent fellowship at Harvard) will force the site into hiatus. All is not lost, however — a Kickstarter project to help keep the site going for another year is showing early signs of success; the project has raised a fifth of its desired $40,000 goal in a single day. It’s a smart project and one that the DC community needs. Read up here to find out more.
Just an update: With three days to go, Homicide Watch has just over $1,000 to go before it reaches its funding goal. Here’s a bump to help it get over its goal. If you need a little extra push beyond that, check out this piece digital supergenius Clay Shirky wrote explaining how important this project is.
EDIT: Thanks to a little help from one David Carr, who wrote a piece about Homicide Watch for the New York Times, they just surpassed their Kickstarter goal. Great news!
A pitch for some friends and a public service: Laura Amico and her husband Chris have put a lot of energy into a great project in the Washington DC area — a site, Homicide Watch, that quite literally tracks every reported homicide in the District. It’s grown into a public service that’s drawn hundreds of thousands of pageviews per month and helped keep people aware of stories that would’ve gotten ignored by a traditional newspaper. Unfortunately, a deal with a local media outlet to keep the service alive fell though at the last minute, which (due to its founder receiving a prominent fellowship at Harvard) will force the site into hiatus. All is not lost, however — a Kickstarter project to help keep the site going for another year is showing early signs of success; the project has raised a fifth of its desired $40,000 goal in a single day. It’s a smart project and one that the DC community needs. Read up here to find out more.
» What happened: Police believe Cortez was shot and killed after his father, Mauro Cortez, was mistaken to be a member of a rival gang. The mix-up is attributed to a purple T-shirt he wore which read, “I own a Honda. Be nice to me.” As for the donation, Timothy Leiweke, the president of AEG (the firm that owns the Kings) noted: “During such an exciting time such as this we can’t lose sight of the importance and responsibility we all share in keeping our community safe.”
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» That’s the first time since President Mauricio Funes took office in 2009, when an estimated 12 murders were taking place every day. That number got as high as 18 murders per-day in early 2012, in a country with less than 6 million people, according to a 2009 census. For comparison: New York City, which had a population of roughly 8.5 million according to the 2010 U.S. Census, averaged only 1.3 murders per day during the same period. Analysts suspect the violence has abated in the wake of a recent truce between Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas and the Mara Salvatruchas, as well as diminished fighting between the Maras and rival gang Mara 18.
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To our friends in Gary, Indiana: This really, really sucks. One of the worst errors we’ve ever seen on the front page of a newspaper.
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