Police News

Providence, Rhode Island – Detective Robert DeCarlo has been charged with assaulting a handcuffed suspect. A surveillance video shows the detective dragging the man from beneath a parked car and then kicking him and beating him in the head with a police flashlight.

New Orleans – A former New Orleans police lieutenant is preparing to enter a guilty plea for his involvement in a shooting death that occurred during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Scottsdale, Arizona – Officer James Peters recently shot a sixth person in his brief ten-year career, something most officers never face even once. Five out of the six were killed. They were: A man who reportedly attacked the officer with a pipe, a lawyer who was walking/pacing in a canal holding a shotgun, a gunman who held a hostage, and a man involved in a domestic dispute. The sixth shooting, last week, involved a man who Peters says tried to hit him with a moving car. Peters was cleared of any wrong doing in the first four shootings, but the police department reached an out of court settlement with the family of the fourth shooting victim. In that incident, Peters and other officers were preparing to enter a residence (a SWAT entry), so they cut the power to the house. When the homeowner came outside to investigate the trouble, he was carrying a weapon. Peters then shot him dead. The sixth shooting by Peters is still under investigation by the local police department.

Dallas, Texas – The family of Officer Victor Lozada-Tirado, the officer who was killed in a motorcycle accident while escorting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is now suing Clinton. At the time of the accident, Secretary of State Clinton was a presidential candidate and was traveling in a motorcade during her campaign. Officer Lozada-Tirado struck a curb with his motorcycle and died in the accident. The lawsuit claims Clinton did not give ample notice for motorcycle assistance.

Salem, Oregon – Zachary Leone has been arrested for blowing up an unwanted tree on his property. Neighbors complained about a loud explosion and called police to investigate. They found Leone in possession of an improvised explosive device made from illegal fireworks that he used to remove the tree from its spot in the earth. They also found a second device inside the man’s home.

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Writers Police Academy

* FYI – If you have chance , please stop by Murderati. Cornelia Read invited me over there to grill me about the Writers’ Police Academy.

* Important Notice – We are very, very close to reaching capacity for the FATS training. So close, I can actually see the last seat in the class. Please register now to reserve your spot!

The Don Knotts Silver Bullet Novel Writing Contest is now open!

The Don Knotts Silver Bullet Contest Award winner will receive The Silver Bullet Award, free Writers’ Police Academy registration ($235 value), and have the opportunity to submit their entire manuscript to one of the judges (to be determined later based upon the genre and work itself). Additional prizes forthcoming. Here’s your chance to get your work in front of top agents and publishers! The contest is open to the general public and writers from all genres, not just academy registrants and mystery writers!

Please visit the Writers’ Police Academy website for details. www.writerspoliceacademy.com

Contest judges are:

Annette Rogers, Acquisitions Editor of the Poisoned Pen Press, searches for new, unpublished mystery writers. Recent successes include Carolyn Wall SWEEPING UP GLASS, Jeffrey Siger MURDER ON MYKONOS, and Edward Ifkovic LONE STAR. In addition she evaluates and edits manuscripts, corresponds with writers and agents, and fends off Facebook friend requests. Rogers published a bestselling travel book on EGYPT-translated into six languages, wrote for O, The Oprah Magazine, and covered court hearings on the Mormon Bomber case for Time/Life. She has a Masters Degree in History and English. www.poisonedpenpress.com

Benjamin LeRoy is a founder of Tyrus Books-a publisher specializing in crime and dark literary fiction. Before starting Tyrus in July of 2009, he founded and ran Bleak House Books. He lives in Madison, WI where he works on his own writing and is endlessly fascinated with the history of baseball. www.tyrusbooks.com

Elizabeth Pomada worked at David McKay, Holt Rinehart & Winston, and the Dial Press in New York City before moving to San Francisco in 1970 with her partner and husband, Michael Larsen. Together, they started Michael Larsen – Elizabeth Pomada Literary Agents in 1972. Since then, they have sold books from hundreds of authors to more than 100 publishers. Elizabeth is a member of the Association of Author’s Representatives, The Author’s Guild, ASJA, WNBA and co-founder with Michael of the San Francisco Writers Conference and the Writing for Change conference. www.larsen-pomada.com

Kimberley Cameron began her literary career as an agent trainee at the Marjel de Lauer Agency in association with Jay Garon in New York. She worked for several years at MGM developing books for motion pictures. She was the co-founder of Knightsbridge Publishing Company with offices in New York and Los Angeles. In 1993 she became partners with Dorris Halsey of The Reece Halsey Agency, founded in 1957. Among its clients have been Aldous Huxley, William Faulkner, Upton Sinclair, and Henry Miller. She opened Reece Halsey North in 1995 and Reece Halsey Paris in 2006. Her associate Elizabeth Evans opened Reece Halsey New York in 2008, and in 2009 the agency became Kimberley Cameron & Associates. www.kimberleycameron.com

9 replies
  1. Joyce
    Joyce says:

    tudza, you really should try and get to one of Lee’s presentations. I first met Lee at a conference in 2007 (at least I think it was 2007!). He is one of the nicest, most gracious, and most generous people you’d ever want to meet. His presentations are not only informative, they’re funny. His humor, however, is always self-deprecating–he never makes fun of anyone asking a question, no matter how dumb it may sound.

  2. Lee Lofland
    Lee Lofland says:

    There you go.

    tudza – Why don’t you ask anyone who’s been to one of my presentations if they’re worth attending. Better yet, why don’t you sign up for one and see for yourself? Besides, a live presentation is entirely different than a forum such as this one where people cannot actively participate in a productive back and forth discussion. Still, this blog, and places like Amazon, are not the way to resolve issues you may have with me or the policies of this blog. Anyway, I do appreciate you removing the comments from Amazon, and I thank you for doing so.

  3. tudza
    tudza says:

    Well no, Amazon had nothing to do with it. I expect they have too many reviews to police them, so they don’t bother.

    Now if you look at the first adverse paragraph from where I’m sitting, it is exactly true. The last paragraph is also true in that I really do wonder how my comments, which I believe to be reasonable, would be received at a live seminar. It doesn’t actually say anything about the seminars themselves since, as you pointed out, I’ve never been to one.

    That said, the last paragraph was a cheap shot, so I removed the uncomplimentary parts.

  4. Lee Lofland
    Lee Lofland says:

    Well, it seems that the problem has been resolved by someone. I’m not sure if Amazon took care of it, or if the person who wrote the comments amended their original review. I’d like to think both had a hand in it.

  5. Joyce
    Joyce says:

    I believe Amazon’s reviews are supposed to be reviews only. If there is anything personal that doesn’t constitute a review of the book, you can click on a button to report it as inappropriate. I don’t put much stock in Amazon reviews anyway.

  6. Dave Swords
    Dave Swords says:

    Lee, I just read the review in question. The first two paragraphs are positive, and the rest isn’t too terrible.

    I honestly doubt you’d be adversely affected by it.

Comments are closed.