NYPD Detective Killed By A Suicide Bomber In Afghanistan

Thousands of police officers are set to pack St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan on Wednesday morning to pay their final respects to an NYPD detective and Air National Guard sergeant who friends and fellow cops called “Superman.”

Joseph Lemm, a 15-year NYPD vet and a technical sergeant with the Air National Guard serving his third tour of duty in the Middle East, was one of six Americans killed Dec. 21 when a suicide bomber rammed a motorcycle packed with explosives into Lemm’s patrol car in Afghanistan.

“He really was Superman,” Maj. John Torres, a chaplain with the Air National Guard, said Tuesday, according to The Journal News. “It’s hard not to smile when you recall his antics. It’s harder still to believe that he’s gone.”

Torres added: “He embodied honor to the end.”

Timothy Cardinal Dolan is slated to perform the funeral Mass at 10 a.m. and deliver a eulogy. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is also expected to be in attendance. Gov. Andrew Cuomo went to Lemm’s wake on Tuesday.

About 400 people attended a “ramp ceremony” when the plane transporting Lemm’s body landed in New York, The Journal News reported, and hundreds more attended Tuesday’s wake. A moment of silence was held during Tuesday’s NYPD graduation ceremony for nearly 1,200 new cops at Madison Square Garden, Newsday reported.

But those numbers are likely to be dwarfed by the sea of blue set to descend Wednesday on St. Patrick’s.

Following the funeral, a military helicopter flyover is scheduled before Lemm is buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, according to The Journal News.

Lemm, 45, was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan and had also served in Iraq. Relatives said his current deployment was set to be his last, NBC 4 reported.

 “A guy who does three tours overseas, protects his community as a police officer in a bad, dangerous part of America and then unfortunately his life is taken from him; that’s a hero,” Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino told PIX11.

A resident of West Harrison, Lemm served with the 50th precinct in the Bronx as a detective, a title he attained in January 2014.

“He got a lot of violent guys off the street…he got a lot of guns off the street,” Lemm’s commanding officer, Capt. William Kivlehan, said during a conference call with the press. “He was fearless.”

Lemm is survived by his wife, Christine, a son, Ryan, and daughter, Brooke.

Suspect hit in shootout with off-duty officer

Bullet holes are shown on the off-duty officer's vehicle on Tuesday.

 An off-duty Houston police officer thought he was meeting two men who expressed an interest in buying a couple of his personal firearms.

Something didn't feel right to HPD officer C. Curry when he pulled up to a small public park in south Houston on Tuesday. He became the victim of an attempted armed robbery that quickly turned into a gunfight, police said.

The officer-involved shooting happened about 1:15 p.m. Tuesday outside Cloverland Park in the 3800 block of Hickok Lane at Scott.



Curry had placed an ad on the Texas Gun Trader website about selling two handguns he owned.

Police believe it was the robbery suspects who answered the ad. Curry agreed to meet them at Cloverland Park.

"He wanted to do it in a public place," said Victor Senties, a Houston police spokesman.

Senties did not know how much Curry was asking for the guns, but on the website, the price tag for pistols can range from about $300 to almost $2,000 depending on the model and the condition.

Curry was in civilian clothes and in his pickup when he drove by the park. He spotted only a single man pacing by the public swimming pool.

"Something didn't feel right, so he decided he was going to leave," Senties said.

Curry was driving away when he got a telephone call from one of the men who had answered the ad, police said.

"He said, 'I'm here. Where are you?' " Senties said.

The HPD officer turned around and returned to the park.

The man he had seen pacing quickly walked up to the passenger's side window. He was soon joined by a second man, police said.

One of them opened the door and pointed a gun at Curry.

"He tells him, 'Give me all you've got, or I'm going to kill you right here,' " Senties said.

The robber pulled the trigger, but the pistol jammed, police said.

Curry put the pickup in reverse and began backing away. He got out and took cover.

The off-duty HPD officer and the robbers began shooting at each other on the street outside the park.

Bullet holes were later visible in the tail gate of Curry's pickup.

After a brief gunbattle, the robbers fled the scene, running through a nearby residential neighborhood.

Police said one of them showed up at a Houston Fire Department station. He had a gunshot wound and was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital, where his condition wasn't known later Tuesday.

The other man remains at large. HPD officials did not have a detailed description of him.

Curry was not injured during the hold-up or the later exchange of gunfire.

HPD officials said he joined the department in April 2014 and is assigned to the North Patrol Division.

Houston police homicide and internal affairs detectives — along with the Harris County District Attorney's Office — are investigating.
 

David Spade Thinks The Obamas Are On Too Many TV Shows

The former "Saturday Night Live" star criticized President Obama for his recent appearance on an episode of "Running Wild with Bear Grylls."

"A president should have a little more dignity," he told TMZ. "I realize Woodrow Wilson went on 'Dancing with the Stars' once. But what president is doing reality shows? It just seems weird to me."
Spade was similarly critical of the First Lady.

"Michelle Obama's on 'Ellen' more than I am," he joked. "It's just a new world, I'm not used to it."


Spade characterized the president as being "a bit thirsty for me, is all."

Spade's media critique came a few days after he reportedly tweeted about Obama's Bear Grylls episode: "Why is Obama on Bear Grills trying to survive in the tundra? Isnt the idea to keep the prez alive? And why is he on a reality show?Wtf ?"

That tweet, however, no longer appears on the comedian's Twitter feed.

President Obama can next be seen on Jerry Seinfeld's comedy series "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" on Dec. 30 on the streaming service Crackle.

Cop Mistakenly Kills Mom-of-3 While Trying to Shoot Family's Attacking Dog

An Iowa regulatory board is preparing to take legal action against a police department that has refused to release video footage showing an officer fatally shooting a mother instead of her charging dog as the woman’s three-year-old son stood by.
The Iowa Public Information Board decided in a four-to-three vote Thursday to sue the Burlington Police Department over the release of records from January 6, when Officer Jesse Hill shot and killed Autumn Steele, 34.

After he responded to a domestic disturbance, Hill found Steele, who spent the previous night in jail for domestic abuse charges, outside her home screaming and hitting her husband, the Des Moines Register reported.

“Hey, hey! Get your dog!” Hill yells as the family’s German Shepherd, Sammy, growls and barks, a 12-second clip from the body camera footage police previously released showed.

He then fired twice, hitting Steele instead of the dog. Her three-year-old son was by her side when she was shot, according to reports.
The mother of three was rushed to the hospital with a gunshot wound to her stomach, but she could not be saved.

Though the portion of the video released does not show an attack, authorities said that Sammy jumped on Hill’s back and bit his thigh, causing injuries that required medical attention.

The shooting was later determined to be justified because of the attack and Hill was allowed to return to work.

Sammy was deemed to not be vicious and was returned to the Steele family.

Steele’s family and local media have pushed for release of the full body camera footage, footage from the cop’s patrol car, 911 transcripts and emails, the Register wrote.

“Police have made the claim that they can forever conceal any records of their activity, no matter what they are,” the Steele family’s attorney, Adam Klein, reportedly told the Iowa Public Information Board.

Police and the Des Moines County attorney have said they turned all their records over to state investigators and can’t provide the information to the public, and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation claimed it doesn’t have to release the information since it is part of an investigative file and can be withheld under state law.

But the IPIB has sided with the Steele family and local media and will pursue “contested cases” against those agencies and the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

“I’m, for one, uncomfortable with law enforcement determining what should and shouldn’t be released,” said Information Board member Bill Monroe, according to the Register.

Drowning Victim Was Member Of Dartmouth College Swim Team

The apparent drowning death of a 21-year-old honor student and swim team member at Dartmouth College is under investigation by Florida police.
Tate Ramsden was swimming at the Selby Aquatic Center at the YMCA in Sarasota, Fla., while on holiday with his family Saturday, when he suddenly began to struggle and drowned, local Fox affiliate WTVT reported.

Police said he swam about 4,000 yards before he began practicing his underwater techniques and may have been attempting a "100," which is four laps of the pool without surfacing for air.

His sister eventually noticed he wasn't moving and alerted lifeguards.

An autopsy is scheduled to determine the official cause of death.

Dartmouth president Phil Hanlon issued a statement to the school community.

"It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you of the death of Tate Ramsden, a member of the class of 2017," Hanlon's statement read.

"We have been in touch with Tate's family to share our deepest sympathies with them at this time of heartbreaking loss."

Ramsden was a junior who was scheduled to graduate in 2017.

His family is planning a memorial service in his hometown of Nashville, Tenn., according to Hanlon's statement.