Homeowner shoots suspected burglar on southeast side

SAN ANTONIO — A homeowner shot a suspected burglar on the southeast side early Thursday morning, according to authorities.

San Antonio Police responded to a burglary in progress near the 2300 block of Hicks Avenue around 5 a.m.

Neighbors told KENS 5 they heard about four “muffled gunshots” before officers arrived. Police said the homeowner, 43, pulled out a handgun and shot the alleged thief, but no victims were found at the scene.

A 48-year-old man believed to be the alleged burglar was found in a detached garage with apparent gunshot wounds near the 1400 block on Vanderbilt Street. He was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and was later placed in police custody.

When solar panel installers, Rafael Olivares and Vincent Rojas, arrived at a job site on Hicks Avenue around 7 a.m., they found the street blocked by police vehicles.

“There was a lot of commotion in the morning here,” said Olivares. “There were a little over 20 cop cars, I believe. They were all on the streets taking pictures of those two houses over there.”

“I thought it was pretty crazy,” added Rojas. “They brought out like this big van and hauled a bunch of evidence or whatever into it.”

A mother told KENS 5 she is sick of the shootings on her street. She worries about stray bullets hitting home, but she wasn’t particularly concerned about burglaries. Several neighbors suspect the homeowner may have known the intruder.

We tried to speak with a man leaving the house where the shooting happened, but he declined to comment.

“You have to be safe nowadays,” said Olivares. “Especially since there’s a lot of crazies nowadays. Just make sure you lock your doors. If you have valuable stuff, just make sure y’all put them inside during the nighttime.”

So far, the homeowner is not facing any charges. The San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) says homeowners are allowed to protect their property under state law. Investigators will determine if this incident falls into that category.

Routh’s son said the suspect is a registered Democrat and hates Trump like “all reasonable people” but is not a violent person.

Son of Would-Be Trump Assassinator Speaks Out

The son of Ryan Wesley Routh, the would-be assassinator who attempted to shoot former President Donald Trump on Sunday at his West Palm Beach Golf Course, dropped bombshell news about his father.

Oran Routh revealed shocking information to the Daily Mail about his father, who is now in the custody of officials after being arrested. Routh’s son said the suspect is a registered Democrat and hates Trump like “all reasonable people” but is not a violent person.

“I don’t like Trump either,” Oran said. “He’s my dad, and all he’s had is a couple of traffic tickets, as far as I know. That’s crazy. I know my dad and love my dad, but that’s nothing like him.”

Oran told the outlet that he didn’t know his father was in Florida, adding that the 58-year-old gunman was previously living in Hawaii with his girlfriend. Routh reported his father had no military experience and had recently traveled to Ukraine to help volunteer after Russia invaded the country.

When asked if his father ever owned a gun, the 35-year-old son said, “Not that I know of.”

The second attempted assassination attempt on Trump in just two months happened after Routh was seen carrying a rifle near the vicinity of the 45th president’s Florida golf course. Trump was on the green when Secret Service agents spotted Routh’s AK-47 through snipers with tripods. They immediately took action. The agents took four shots before the alleged suspect took off and into a car nearby. Local police officials pulled him over on I-95 and arrested him. They also found a scope, two backpacks, and a GoPro camera. Officials said the suspect was between 300 and 500 yards from Trump.

During a press conference, Special Agent Rafael Barros explained that Secret Service agents move alongside Trump, staying one or two holes ahead of him while he plays golf. The incident occurred between the 5th and 6th holes, which is known to be a more “vulnerable” area of the course due to its proximity to the road.

10 Years and $3 Billion for a New Mail Truck?
Oshkosh Defense’s USPS van is thousands of dollars more expensive than the industry standard.

The new U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDVs) have delighted drivers since hitting the road in Georgia last month, the Associated Press reports. But given the $5 billion investment required, taxpayers might be a tad less enthusiastic.

USPS prides itself on being “generally self-funded” through revenue from the sale of stamps, products, and services. As laudable and uncommon as this general self-funding is for federal agencies, USPS received $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act. USPS also has a pension system with a $50 billion unfunded liability for which the taxpayer may ultimately have to foot the bill, Reason‘s Eric Boehm explains.

Altogether, USPS expects its total investment in new vehicles to reach $9.6 billion. Considering a significant portion of this investment comes out of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (read: from taxpayers present and future), the public is entitled to scrutinize how this money was spent.

Of the 106,000 new delivery vehicles planned for purchase by 2028, 60,000 are NGDVs. Though exact prices are difficult to ascertain, the March 2022 order of 50,000 was valued at $2.98 billion. This brings the per-unit price of the NGDV to $59,600.

The duck-like NGDV is produced by Oshkosh Defense, the same company that manufactures the much scarier-looking Medium Caliber Weapon System, an armored combat vehicle armed with a 30 mm turret. Oshkosh’s NGDV will be phased into USPS’s fleet over the next four years to replace the iconic truck that has comprised its fleet since 1987: the Grumman Long Life Vehicle (GLLV), produced by the military contractor in partnership with General Motors, Poveco, and American Motor Corporation.

The Oshkosh NGDVs boast features lacking in the GLLV, such as airbags, anti-lock brakes, collision sensors, and blind-spot monitoring—features that have been standard for years in modern vehicles. Oshkosh says it won the $3 billion “competitively-awarded” contract for 50,000 NGDVs in 2021. But comparing the per-unit price to industry-standard alternatives, Oshkosh must have a 21st-century helicopter parent definition of competition.

In March 2022, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy initially planned for 10 percent of the NGDVs to be electric, as the USPS illustrates in a helpful graphic. Following lawsuits brought about by the attorneys general of 16 states, as well as the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, CleanAirNow Kansas City, and Sierra Club California, DeJoy increased the portion of electric vehicles to over 50 percent by July 2022. By December 2022 that figure had increased to 75 percent.

Electric vehicles are about 17 percent more expensive than comparable internal combustion engine alternatives, according to automotive research company Kelley Blue Book. Accordingly, if the Oshkosh Defense contract were updated to reflect the increased proportion of more expensive electric variants of its NGDVs, the total value would be closer to $3.31 billion, making the average price per NGDV $66,200.

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of the 2025 Mercedes-Benz e-Sprinter, the likes of which are used in FedEx’s private fleet, is $61,180—$5,000 less than the price of the Oshkosh NGDV. The non-electric Mercedes-Benz Sprinter had an MSRP of $42,430 in 2021, per Kelley Blue Book, when the USPS-Oshkosh deal was made. That’s $17,000 less than the NGDV per-unit price of $59,600.

No matter how you slice it, the USPS-NGDV program has been an expensive boondoggle. It has dragged on for nearly a decade since its inception in July 2014, while the market capitalizations of private competitors like UPS, FedEx, and DHL have grown. As it turns out, you don’t need to outsource vehicle manufacturing to the military-industrial complex to deliver mail.

Customer shot, killed suspected robber at Gaston County store

MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. (WBTV) – A man died after he was shot while attempting to rob a convenience store in Gaston County earlier this week.

The shooting happened Tuesday night at Will’s Food Store on Hickory Grove Road in Mount Holly, Gaston County Police said.

The man, Victor Almodovar Jr., allegedly entered the store with a gun and demanded money from the cashier. A customer who was also inside the store shot Almodovar. He was taken to the hospital, where he died.

Police said nobody else was hurt and the customer was not arrested.

Shortly after the shooting, the customer’s mother came to the store and said he drove away after the shooting. Others called him a hero.

“The guy that saved her and the customers…he wouldn’t have hurt anybody, but he saved people,” one woman said. “Whatever [Almodovar’s] intentions were was robbing somebody and try to get away.”

Police are continuing to investigate the shooting and ask anyone with information to contact Detective M. Rheinson at 704-866-3320, or Crimestoppers at 704-861-8000.

 

Home intruder in Berkeley County dead after being shot with handgun

INWOOD, W.Va. –A man intruding in a Berkeley County home died Wednesday [Sept 11] after being shot.

Berkeley County Dispatch received a call at 3:46 a.m. from resident Michael Marshall, who made the call after firing his handgun on Winchester Avenue in Inwood, WV. Marshall said the intruder was in the garage of his mother’s vacant home.

There were six Berkeley County deputies that responded to the scene, in which they found the intruder lying face down on the garage floor, and later identified him as 38-year-old Joshua Boone from Williamsport, MD.

The deputies performed life saving measures before EMS arrived but shortly after their arrival Boone was pronounced dead. Investigators, Funk, Jenkins, and Giangola IV from the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department Criminal Investigators were called to the scene and the investigation is currently still ongoing.

Marshall told investigators that he had previously reported a break in on Aug. 27, and shortly after that report he installed motion sensors. And this morning he was alerted to motion coming from the residence. When Marshall arrived, he found Boone in the garage. Marshall stated that Boone turned toward him with something in his hand, and that is when Marshall fired his handgun hitting Boone.

–A man intruding in a Berkeley County home died Wednesday after being shot.

Berkeley County Dispatch received a call at 3:46 a.m. from resident Michael Marshall, who made the call after firing his handgun on Winchester Avenue in Inwood, WV. Marshall said the intruder was in the garage of his mother’s vacant home.

There were six Berkeley County deputies that responded to the scene, in which they found the intruder lying face down on the garage floor, and later identified him as 38-year-old Joshua Boone from Williamsport, MD.

The deputies performed life saving measures before EMS arrived but shortly after their arrival Boone was pronounced dead. Investigators, Funk, Jenkins, and Giangola IV from the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department Criminal Investigators were called to the scene and the investigation is currently still ongoing.

Marshall told investigators that he had previously reported a break in on Aug. 27, and shortly after that report he installed motion sensors. And this morning he was alerted to motion coming from the residence. When Marshall arrived, he found Boone in the garage. Marshall stated that Boone turned toward him with something in his hand, and that is when Marshall fired his handgun hitting Boone.

BLUF
“Shamala is an extinctionist. The natural extension of her philosophy would be a de facto holocaust for all of humanity!” wrote billionaire and X owner Elon Musk on his platform.

Kamala Harris’ new climate director said she is hesitant to have children because of climate change threats.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign hired a new climate director who has frequently said the effects of climate change are part of what’s stopping her from having children.

Camila Thorndike, who previously worked in the Senate managing the climate portfolio of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was given the title of climate engagement director for the Harris for President campaign in September 2024, according to her LinkedIn page.

Prior to joining the Harris campaign, Thorndike said on several occasions that she considers climate change a factor when deciding whether to have kids.

“I was 15 when I first saw the climate ‘hockey stick’ graph. I realized that this skyrocketing arrow of temperature would take place in my lifetime. All of the big milestones of life that I was looking forward to would be in the context of this big global crisis. It led to the question of whether or not to have kids – which is still a big question for me – where I would put down roots, what my family would do,” Thorndike said in 2018 when she was the D.C. campaign director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

CONSERVATIVES REACT TO KAMALA HARRIS’ LATEST ‘WORD SALAD’ ON CLIMATE ‘DEADLINES’

Continue reading “”

Blue States Can’t Ban Your Guns So They’ll Punish You For Using Them.

Try as they might, blue cities and states can’t seem to ban their citizens’ guns. They’ve enacted handgun bans, “assault weapons” bans, registration mandates, taxes, and levied confiscatory fees on guns, ammo, and carry permits. As a result, they’ve been challenged at every turn by those who take the Second Amendment at its word. And then Bruen came along and made the job of civilian disarmament even more difficult for aspiring tyrants.

What’s a gun-banner to do then? Simple. Make life hell for anyone who dares to use a gun they own, particularly in self-defense. Look no further for an example than what happened last night in Newton, Massachusetts.

A group of people were holding a peaceful pro-Israel rally when a Hamas supporter began yelling at them from across the street. The Hamasnik, who apparently couldn’t abide free speech being exercised in his presence, ran through traffic and assaulted one of the Israel supporters, jumping on him as his back was turned.

Watch video of the altercation here . . .

It’s hard to imagine a clearer case of self-defense after the Hamas supporter tackled a man who has been identified at 47-year-old Scott Hayes of Framingham, Massachusetts. It’s been reported that Hayes is a lawful gun owner and permitted carrier, though the police investigation is ongoing.

Continue reading “”