Man Tries to Execute Officer: In what police are calling an "attempted assassination," a Philadelphia police officer was shot several times during an ambush late Thursday night. Justin Finch and Rahel Solomon of CBS report that 33-year-old Officer Jesse Hartnett, a five-year veteran of the force, was sitting in his patrol car when he was approached by 30-year-old Edward Archer who fired 13 shots through the driver's side of the car, striking Harnett three times in the arm. Harnett returned fire, hitting Archer at least three times before he attempted to escape on foot and was apprehended quickly by police. Archer has reportedly offered a full confession, saying he shot the officer in the name of Islam. The FBI is assisting in the investigation.
Two Mideast Refugees Face Terror Charges: Two Iraqi-born Palestinians who came to the U.S. as refugees are facing terror-related charges in California and Texas courts on Friday for supporting the Islamic State. Fox News reports that 24-year-old Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, the first person to be charged under federal law in an ISIS-related case this year, arrived in the U.S. in 2009 and became a legal permanent resident in 2011, settling in the Houston area. He faces charges of trying to provide support to ISIS, and was found to have lied on both his citizenship application and during his interview with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The other suspect, 23-year-old Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab of Sacramento, Calif., who arrived in the U.S. in 2012, is accused of traveling to Syria to fight alongside terrorist organizations and lying to government investigators about it. He faces up to eight years in prison if convicted. Unsealed court documents do not indicate whether the two cases are connected, though an affidavit says Al-Jayab communicated with an unnamed individual living in Texas in 2013 to see if he could receive training in various weapons. Since April 2013, 80 people have been charged under federal law in an ISIS-related case.
DHS Begins to Deport Illegals Caught in Raids: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Thursday that it has already deported 77 of the 121 illegal immigrants it rounded up during weekend raids in North Carolina, Georgia and Texas. Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in an effort to appease criticism from immigrant-rights groups, noted that all immigrants that were deported so far had gone through immigration courts, exhausted all of their appeals and did not qualify for asylum. The 77 have been deported to the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, with immigrants-rights groups winning stays for five families.

Leave a comment