Tag: Baltimore

  • Woman admits to working with neo-Nazis to plan attack on Baltimore’s electrical infrastructure

    Woman admits to working with neo-Nazis to plan attack on Baltimore’s electrical infrastructure

    A woman from Maryland has admitted to working with a neo-Nazi leader from Florida to make a plan to attack the power grid in Baltimore.

    Sarah Beth Clendaniel, who is 36 years old and from Catonsville, and her friend Brandon Russell thought that shooting at five electric stations in Baltimore would cause chaos in society. This information was included in a court document when Clendaniel admitted she was guilty.

    Judge James Bredar will decide how long Clendaniel will be in trouble on September 3rd.

    Clendaniel was accused last year with Russell, who lives in Orlando, Florida and helped start a neo-Nazi group called Atomwaffen Division. Russell admitted to explosives charges and went to prison for five years because he was involved in a deadly shooting at the apartment he shared with Atomwaffen’s other founder.

    Clendaniel and Russell started writing letters to each other in 2018 while they were in different prisons. They fell in love and stayed together even after they were out of jail, according to the court documents.

    Clendaniel admitted to doing two things wrong: planning to damage electrical facilities and having a gun even though it’s against the law for him to have one. Conspiring can lead to 20 years in prison. Having a gun can lead to 15 years in prison.

    Russell used to be in the Florida National Guard and is accused of planning to damage electrical facilities. He is waiting for his trial.

    In May 2017, one of Russell’s friends, Devon Arthurs, shot and killed two other friends at their house in Tampa, Florida. The police found Russell at the place, wearing a military outfit and crying because of the news.

    Arthurs admitted to killing his roommates because he said they were planning a terrorist attack. Russell didn’t get charged for the killings, but he admitted to collecting explosive materials at the apartment building.

    Clendaniel and Russell believed in white supremacy and wanted to cause mass violence to make society fall apart. Both of them talked about their plans to attack the power grid with someone who works for the government in January 2023, prosecutors said.

  • Baltimore port to launch more profound route

    Baltimore port to launch more profound route

    Officials in Baltimore have announced that they are going to create deeper and new channels to make it easier for big ships to come in and out of the city’s port. This will happen on Thursday and is a big deal because the port has been closed to most traffic since the bridge collapsed last month.

    The new channel will be much deeper than the three other temporary channels made recently. The cleanup is going faster than expected. Officials said they wanted to open a channel of that depth by the end of April.

    Five out of the seven cargo ships that were stuck in Baltimore’s harbor will now be able to go through the new channel. This includes a ship carrying cars. Officials announced this on Tuesday, which is one month after the deadly disaster. Other ships are supposed to come to the port. This port usually deals with a lot of cars and farm equipment, more than any other port in the country.

    “Four weeks ago, our lives were greatly affected by the Key Bridge collapsing,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott at a press conference.

    The big ship that knocked down the bridge had stopped working and went off its planned route not long after it left the Port of Baltimore on its way to Sri Lanka. The Dali ship is staying still in the middle of the broken pieces while workers are trying to remove large twisted steel that fell on the ship’s deck.

    Six workers fixing the road fell and died when the road caved in. Four bodies were found in the sunken ship, but two people are still missing.

    Authorities said that workers have removed a lot of debris, more than 2,900 tons, so that ships that are important for business can use the new channel from Thursday to Monday or Tuesday. Boats must have a Maryland pilot and two tugboats with them as they go through the channel.

    The passageway will be closed until about May 10th while workers remove metal from the Dali and get the ship floating again. Then, the ship will be guided back into the port.

    The main waterway in the port is going to open again next month after they remove the ship. It is 50 feet deep. That will basically make boat traffic go back to normal.

    “We will work well and we will work without any danger, we won’t have to pick between the two,” stated Maryland Gov Wes Moore during the news conference.

    In a legal document filed in court, the mayor and city council of Baltimore are asking for the Dali’s owner and manager to be held responsible for the bridge collapse. They believe this could have a really bad impact on the economy of the area. They said the port has been an important part of Baltimore’s economy for a very long time. The bridge being lost has caused problems for a big trucking route on the east coast.

    The two companies filed a response to a petition that asked a court to limit their responsibility under a law from 1851. This is a normal process for cases like this. A court in Maryland will decide who is to blame and how much they must pay in the end.

  • Federal criminal investigation into collapse of Baltimore bridge starts

    Federal criminal investigation into collapse of Baltimore bridge starts

    Several individuals lost their lives when a ship collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.The crash is being investigated by the federal government for possible criminal activity.

    The FBI and the Coast Guard are investigating if the crew didn’t report a problem with the boat before it left, which caused the disaster.

    The bridge fell down at about 1:30 am on March 26 because a big ship called the Dali stopped working and hit the bridge. Six people fixing the holes in the bridge fell into the river and did not survive.

    Out of the six people who were killed, the bodies of three have been discovered.

    The National Transportation Safety Board is trying to figure out why the really heavy ship lost power and hit the 47-year-old bridge. Last week, the NTSB said they have been looking at the engine room equipment.

    The accident stopped shipping in the area and affected the jobs of many workers at the Port of Baltimore.

    The US Army Corps of Engineers wants to open the waterway that was blocked by the accident by the end of May.

  • Salvage workers extract containers from ship that collapsed Baltimore’s Key bridge

    Salvage workers extract containers from ship that collapsed Baltimore’s Key bridge

    Salvage Workers have started taking containers off the cargo ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. This is an important step to fully open one of the country’s main shipping lanes.

    The boxes on the Dali ship’s deck will be taken away this week when the weather is good, as said in a statement from the Key Bridge Response Unified Command. Workers were working to take off parts of the bridge that are in front of the ship so it can start moving again.

    Officials said that a total of 32 boats went through temporary paths around the wreckage.

    “The Unified Command is working at the same time to clear enough debris from the channel to make it accessible for big commercial boats,” U.S. The leader of the Coast Guard. David O’Connell said in his message.

    The Dali is stuck under bent steel in the Patapsco River after hitting the bridge on March 26. Six workers died in the accident.

    President Joe Biden rode in a helicopter on Friday to see the damaged metal and the work being done to clean up the debris. The president also spent more than an hour with the families of the people who passed away.

    A group of eight workers from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador were fixing holes in the bridge when it got hit and fell down in the middle of the night. Two men were saved and the bodies of three others were found in the following days. They kept looking for more people who were hurt.

    Officials have made a new, temporary path for boats to clear away debris. The Army Corps of Engineers wants to open a restricted channel for certain types of ships in April, and to fully fix Baltimore’s port by the end of May, according to the White House.

    More than 50 divers who recover things from the water and 12 machines that lift heavy things are at the location to help cut out parts of the bridge and take them out of the important water path.

  • First ship takes diversion to escape debris in vicinity of Baltimore bridge collapse

    First ship takes diversion to escape debris in vicinity of Baltimore bridge collapse

    A small boat pulled a fuel barge through a different path to avoid the broken bridge in Baltimore. The bridge had blocked the main route for ships in the important port.

    The boat bringing fuel to the Department of Defense left on Monday and is heading to Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base. The temporary channel is mostly for boats helping with the cleanup. Some ships that have been stuck in the Port of Baltimore since the collapse are also set to go through the channel.

    Authorities are making a new channel on the southwest side of the main channel. It will be deeper to allow bigger boats to pass through. But they haven’t said when it will be ready.

    The leader of the state. On Tuesday, Wes Moore will visit a center the Small Business Administration opened to help businesses get loans after the bridge collapse. This will assist businesses with their losses.

    In Annapolis, there will be a meeting on Tuesday to talk about a new law that will use state money to help port workers who lost their jobs because of the bridge collapse. Politicians are trying to make the bill into a law before their session ends next Monday.

    Workers are removing metal and concrete from the bridge that collapsed after a ship crashed into it. On Sunday, people who can swim went underwater to look at parts of the bridge and the ship, and workers in tall machines used lights to cut the twisted steel above the water.

    Experts think that six workers fell to their deaths when the building collapsed. They found the bodies of two workers last week. Two more workers lived.

    Moore, who is a Democrat, said at a news conference on Monday afternoon that his main focus is finding the four bodies that are still missing, and then making the shipping channels open again. He said he knows it’s important but there are big risks. The workers said the broken steel beams from the collapsed bridge look like a mess.

    “Things are turning out to be more difficult than we expected at first,” said Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath of the US Coast Guard.

    At the moment, the ship is not moving, and its 21 crew members are still on board, according to officials.

    President Joe Biden will go to the place where the bridge collapsed on Friday. He will meet with local leaders and government officials to see how the government is helping.

    The bridge collapsed when the cargo ship Dali lost power on March 26, soon after leaving Baltimore on its way to Sri Lanka. The ship sent out a distress signal, and the police stopped traffic, but they couldn’t save the roadwork crew working on the bridge.

    The Dali is run by Synergy Marine Group and owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. , both from Singapore. Maersk, a big shipping company from Denmark, rented the Dali.

    Synergy and Grace Ocean asked a court on Monday to protect them from being responsible for legal issues related to US maritime law. It’s a normal thing to do, but it’s important for their case. A court in Maryland will make the final decision on who is responsible and how much they have to pay.

    The document wants to limit the amount of money the companies can be held responsible for to around US$43. 6It is believed that the ship is worth as much as $90 million, and it was supposed to receive more than $1. 1 million for carrying cargo. The estimate takes away two big expenses: at least $28 million for repairs and at least $19. 5 million for salvaging.

    Officials are figuring out how to fix the big bridge, which was finished in 1977. It went around part of Baltimore and showed the city’s strong working-class and maritime traditions.

    Congress will think about giving money to help people who lose their jobs or businesses because the Port of Baltimore is closed for a long time. The port deals with more cars and farming tools than any other place in the US.

  • Cargo ship lost power just before it struck Baltimore Bridge

    Cargo ship lost power just before it struck Baltimore Bridge

    The US Coast Guard is stopping its search for the six people who are still missing after the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed.

    “I want to let everyone know that we have been looking for a long time and we have searched a lot, but because of the water temperature, we do not think we will find any of the missing people alive. ” – Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath spoke to the reporters at a news conference on Tuesday evening.

    The bridge fell down when a big ship lost power and crashed into it on Tuesday. This caused people and cars to fall into the cold Patapsco River. Six people are missing. They were working on fixing potholes on the bridge. Paul J, who is in charge of transportation in Maryland, thinks they were part of a construction crew. Wiedefeld spoke at a news conference earlier today.

    “We are going to stop looking for people to rescue for now. ” The Coast Guard and our partners are not leaving, we are just changing to a new phase.

    Earlier on Tuesday, two people were rescued from the Patapsco River, according to Baltimore City Fire Department Chief James Wallace. One person was okay, but the other was brought to a nearby hospital in very bad condition. A person who was getting medical treatment at the University of Maryland Medical Center was allowed to leave on Tuesday, according to the hospital.

    Baltimore City Council Member Phylicia Porter told CNN’s Boris Sanchez that a body was found in the river, but she later said she was wrong. Colonel Roland L – write in simpler words: Roland L. Butler Jr, who works for Maryland State Police, said during a news conference on Tuesday evening that no bodies have been found in the river.

    We will now try harder to find the missing people to help their families find peace, Butler said.

    “We don’t know where they are right now. ” “But we will try our hardest to help these families find peace,” he said.

    The ship’s crew told the authorities that the ship had no power before it crashed, according to Maryland Governor. Wes Moore mentioned that the warning probably helped save lives.

    “We are grateful that officials were able to stop traffic before the bridge collapsed, so that there were not as many cars on the bridge during the mayday situation. ” He said that those officials were heroes.

    Moore said that the bridge was built according to the rules when it fell down. He said the bridge collapse was very sad and surprising for the people of Maryland who have been using it for 47 years.

    The Democratic governor said to reporters on Tuesday that there is no new information to share, but they are still looking for the six people who are still missing.

    Many vehicles, including a big truck, are thought to have gone into the water, according to Kevin Cartwright, who works for the Baltimore City Fire Department. He said this on Tuesday.

    Rescue teams found five vehicles underwater in the Patapsco River using special technology. Three of them are thought to be cars. There are 8 groups of divers with around 50 divers in each group working on the rescue mission.

    Wiedefeld said that there are no people in the water who were in cars on the bridge during the accident.

    “We have a terrible tragedy,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott to the media.

    “At that time, some people were working on the bridge. ” There are cars in the water and our fire department is using sonar to find them as they try to rescue people. “That’s what we’re focused on – finding and rescuing those people in the water,” Scott said.

    Construction workers who were hired by the state transportation agency were fixing the bridge when it collapsed, according to Wiedefeld on Tuesday. He didn’t say how many workers were there.

    The ship called DALI from Singapore hit the bridge around 1:30 a.m, according to Coast Guard spokesperson Kimberly Reaves. The ship is 984 feet long and 157 feet wide, according to Synergy Group spokesman Pat Adamson. The crash happened when the plane was leaving Baltimore, as stated on the company’s website.

    Before, the US Coast Guard said it was a 948-foot cargo ship.

    The ship used its anchors to stop before hitting the bridge, as an emergency. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore told CNN. The boat is staying where it is after the crash. It’s not moving and is okay. All 22 crew members are safe and have been found.

    The ship’s lights were blinking and there was a big cloud of smoke coming from it. It turned towards a bridge pillar and then hit it. CNN got this information from MarineTraffic.

    The company that runs the ship, Synergy Group, said that no crew members were hurt on the ship.

    Several organizations are looking into the crash, but at this time, the Baltimore Police Commissioner stated that there is no sign that it was done on purpose.

    Jennifer Homendy, who is in charge of the National Transportation Safety Board, said her agency will be in charge of finding out what happened in the crash. The Coast Guard will also help with the investigation.

    Homendy put together a group of 24 people who are experts in boats, people’s performance and engineering. They will investigate the incident and gather information about the boat, including getting the ship’s recorders. Right now, she said, “we are stepping back to let go” .

  • Rescuers look for 20 people in water after Baltimore bridge collapse – Officials

    Rescuers look for 20 people in water after Baltimore bridge collapse – Officials

    Baltimore might have a big disaster because a ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The bridge collapsed and about 20 people fell into the cold water. A fire official told the media.

    Divers and rescue teams are looking for people in the Patapsco River. They think some vehicles, including a big tractor-trailer, fell into the water. Kevin Cartwright, from the Baltimore City Fire Department, said this.

    Local offices got calls for help at 1:30 in the morning. Cartwright said that a ship leaving Baltimore hit a column on the bridge.

    He said there might have been a very big vehicle on the bridge when it fell down.

    The teams were working carefully and safely to make sure everyone stays safe and we can make progress without hurting anyone else.

    The Maryland Transportation Authority is directing traffic to go on a different route.

    The mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, wrote a message on social media at 3 a.m that he was on his way to the accident at the bridge. “Help is on the way from emergency workers,” he said.

    A big boat crashed into a bridge support and made a huge part of the bridge fall into the water. The crash made the nearby parts of the bridge fall down right away.

    The accident caused big clouds of smoke and fire to go up into the sky. Part of the bridge seemed to fall onto the front of the boat, as seen in a video. Thick smoke kept going up in the air for a few minutes.

    The 16 mile bridge has 4 lanes and goes over the Patapsco River. It’s an important part of the Baltimore Beltway and helps people travel around the city.

    The person the bridge is named after, Francis Scott Key, was sitting near the bridge when he saw the attack on Fort McHenry in 1814. This inspired him to write the words of the “Star Spangled Banner. “

  • Suspect in Baltimore’s tech CEO’s slaying apprehended

    Police are looking for someone who they think killed a CEO in Baltimore, Maryland. They have caught a man after searching for him for several days.

    Pava LaPere, a 26-year-old person who started a company called EcoMap Technologies, was reported as gone on Monday morning and later discovered dead.

    The police arrested a criminal named Jason Dean Billingsley on Thursday.

    They said that Ms. LaPere was found dead at her home on Friday night and there were no signs that someone broke into her apartment.

    The police found her dead body in a building in Baltimore. Her head had been hit and injured.

    Investigators said before that there were no signs that Ms. LaPere knew Billingsley, who was wanted for first-degree murder.

    A special police team trapped the 32-year-old person in a train station 27 miles (43km) south of Baltimore in Bowie, Maryland, according to the police during a news conference on Thursday morning.

    MsLaPere went to school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She started her own technology company when she was 21 years old.

    She was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list earlier this year.

    During a vigil held on Wednesday, Mr. LaPere, the father of Ms. LaPere, expressed that his daughter was very close to him and was his beloved daughter.

    He remembered how they used to share pictures of their walks at sunrise and thanked the people who loved their daughter.
    The person the police were looking for was involved in another crime where they tried to kill someone, committed rape, and set a fire. This happened on September 19 in Baltimore.

    Officials told people that he was dangerous and had weapons before capturing him on Thursday.

    Billingsley got out of jail in October 2022 after being in there for almost seven years for a serious sexual crime.

    He has been listed as a registered sex offender in Maryland since he was released.

    The police are looking at other cases from October to see if Billingsley might be involved in any of them.

    According to NBC News, the suspect’s mom, Scarlett Billingsley, sent him a text telling him to surrender because she believed his life was in danger.

    Scarlett Billingsley also told the network that her son came to her home for a short time on Monday and showed her a gun.

  • Baltimore detectives hunt for possible offenders in mass shooting during block party

    Baltimore detectives hunt for possible offenders in mass shooting during block party

    Two people were killed and 28 others, the majority of whom were teenagers, were injured in a mass shooting that rocked a popular annual neighbourhood block party early on Sunday, according to officials in Baltimore.

    Brooklyn, a neighbourhood in south Baltimore, was hosting its annual Brooklyn Day celebration when shooting broke out overnight, Mayor Brandon Scott told CNN.

    The Baltimore Police Department reported that Kylis Fagbemi, 20, and Aaliyah Gonzales, 18, both died from gunshot wounds.

    The dozens of surviving victims all sustained gunshot wounds, according to acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley. Five of those injured were adults aged 20 or olderand the remaining 23 were teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 19, police said.

    Nine of the wounded remained in local hospitals in “various conditions” as of Sunday afternoon, Worley said.

    Investigators are scouring thesprawling crime scene – which spans several blocks – for evidence and are pouring poring over hours of surveillance footage, the police commissioner said. Officials have also urged community members to come forward with any relevant information or video footage that may assist in the investigation.

    At least two shooters were involved, though investigators are working to determine whether there may have been more people firing, Worley said.

    Police began receiving calls reporting the shooting around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, according to Worley.

    As officers arrived on the scene, they found an 18-year-old woman – later identified as Gonzales – dead, police said. A 20-year-old identified as Fagbemi was transported to a hospital,where he was pronounced dead.

    Investigators have yet to determine a motive in the attack and are still figuring out whether the victims were targeted or indiscriminately shot at, the police commissioner said. As officers canvased the neighborhood during the day Sunday, K-9 units located additional shell casings that had not been found overnight, he said.

    Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Sunday his office is mobilizing every available resource to assist with the investigation.

    Scott shared a message for the shooters: “We will not stop until we find you – and we will find you.”

    “Until then, I hope with every single breath that you take that you think about the lives that you took and you think about the lives that you impacted here tonight,” he added.

    The attack marks one of the latest acts of gun violence to thrust an American community into grief as they gather in everyday spaces, including parks, schools, shopping malls and grocery stores.

    “This was a reckless, cowardly act of violence that has taken two lives and altered many, many more,” Scott said. “This tragic incident is another glaring, unfortunate example of the deep issues of violence in Baltimore, in Maryland and this country and particularly gun violence and the access to illegal guns.”

    The tragedy is among three mass shootings so far this month and adds to the tally of more than 330 mass shootings in the US in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.

    Officials lamented the joyful setting of the shooting, where a crowd had gathered for an annual celebration of the Brooklyn neighborhood.

    “This indiscriminate, callous, reckless behavior by a few causes a tremendous amount of trauma to hundreds and particularly our vulnerable adults in this community and our children. They deserve better,” Baltimore City Council president Nick Mosby said at a Sunday news conference.

    “These are events that are about celebration, about coming together, that are intergenerational and should be sacred to our communities,” Mosby added.

    Scott, the mayor, described the Brooklyn neighborhood as a working-class community filled with “immense pride.”

    “It is a neighborhood that has had its troubles, but a neighborhood that has seen some folks in that community really determined to see it be successful and see things turn around,” he added.

    The mayor said his his office is distributing information about community-based services available to residents in the Brooklyn Homes area, which he described as a public housing facility.

    Yvonne Booker, a resident of Brooklyn Homes, told CNN affiliate WBAL that she’s lived in the area for three decades and feels the gun violence has reached a breaking point.

    “It’s kind of hard for me. I’m a mother. They need to stop. It’s too much. I’ve been to so many funerals in this community,” Booker said.