Even real live gangsters and the Mafia respect the church -- they may shoot you when you come out of it but won't shoot you when you come in it

Church leaders work to patch up the bullet holes left in the lobby's burgundy carpet, the church's pastor and neighbors Monday called on the city to make gun violence a higher priority. The family of Darshawn L. Cross, 31, who was shot at least three times inside the church, said prayers at his bedside Monday, moments before he was declared brain-dead. He was surrounded by eight to 10 relatives and friends at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center. Investigators say they have leads in the suspected gang-related shooting, which turned into a homicide Monday. No arrests have been made.
"Even real live gangsters and the Mafia respect the church -- they may shoot you when you come out of it but won't shoot you when you come in it," said Robert Richardson, a church elder from another North Portland church active in gang outreach ministry. "But when we get to a place where a young man has gotten so ripped with anger, misunderstanding and the malice of a thug-life, he has no conscience for the serenity of a church, it's a real sad commentary." Richardson knew Cross and helped lead prayers at his bedside Monday. "I prayed this would be a wake-up call, not to advance the violence, but to reduce the violence," he said.
On Friday, Cross was attending the funeral service for his friends' mother, Sharon Lynn Kemp, 51, when he was shot. About 150 people were in the main sanctuary for the funeral. The service was nearing the end when gunfire erupted.
Church leaders said they'd seen Cross fighting with a man at the back of the church. People separated the two, taking Cross to a small receiving room beside the sanctuary, and the other man to the lobby. But a door connects the two areas, and they began fighting again. The Rev. Robert C. Jointer, New Hope's pastor, did not lead the funeral service and was in his study on the same floor.

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Gang member Sean Mercer, 18, was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court of blasting three bullets across a pub car park in Croxteth, Liverpool,

Gang member Sean Mercer, 18, was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court of blasting three bullets across a pub car park in Croxteth, Liverpool, after targeting rivals who had strayed on to his turf.Innocent schoolboy Rhys was caught in the line of fire and shot in the neck.He died in his mother’s arms a short time later.
After almost four days of deliberations, the jury of seven women and five men convicted Mercer of murder unanimously.The verdict was reached yesterday but could not be reported until now.What the jurors did not know was that just two months before he shot Rhys, Mercer was involved in a chilling rehearsal of the killing.
Waving a gun, he rode a motorcycle past members of the public on rival gang territory.The incident was not reported to police at the time.The jurors were also unaware that just weeks after shooting Rhys, Mercer was given a three-year Asbo for terrorising security guards at a sports centre.Fellow gang members James Yates, 20, of Dodman Road, and Nathan Quinn, 18, of Wickett Close, both Croxteth, and Gary Kays, 26, of Mallard Close, and Melvin Coy, 25, of Abbeyfield Drive, both West Derby, Liverpool, and Boy M, 16, were convicted unanimously yesterday of assisting Mercer after they helped Mercer evade the police for months.Dean Kelly, 17, of Sword Walk, Croxteth, who was referred to as Boy K during the trial but can also now be named, was convicted today by a majority of four related charges.Trial judge Mr Justice Irwin lifted reporting restrictions on Kelly at the end of the trial.
The judge also lifted an order banning reporting the fact that Quinn is already serving five years for gun-related offences.When the main verdicts were delivered, only two people in the packed courtroom could not hold back their emotions – Rhys’s mother, Melanie Jones, and the killer’s father, burly Joseph McCormick, who was dressed entirely in black.As Mercer’s "guilty" verdict was announced to the silent courtroom, Mrs Jones, 42, who was sitting opposite her son’s killer, burst into tears and buried her head in her husband’s shoulder to stifle her sobs.
Rhys’s father Stephen, 45, choked back tears as Mercer blinked, looked down and visibly paled, repeatedly puffing his cheeks out.For the first time in the trial the teenage killer looked close to showing emotion as he stared towards the public gallery where his father sat, tears rolling down his cheeks.Mr McCormick mouthed "I love you" to his son – and left the court.But Quinn cracked a joke, inaudible behind the reinforced glass of the dock, and he and other defendants smiled and laughed.
As they were all led away, Mercer shook Quinn’s hand and the pair hugged before they were led down to the cells.During the seven-week trial, the jury heard that Mercer, of Good Shepherd Close, Croxteth, was a leading member of the Croxteth Crew gang, which terrorised the local community and was involved in a long-running and bloody feud with the Strand Gang, based on the neighbouring Norris Green estate.Mercer had an "intense hatred" of Strand Gang member Wayne Brady.When told by Coy and Kays that Brady, 19, and two rivals had been seen cycling near the Fir Tree Pub on Croxteth Crew territory, Mercer set about the murder.Dressed in a black hoodie and tracksuit, Mercer got hold of Yates’s Smith & Wesson .455 revolver and cycled to the pub where he took up position on a grass verge alongside the car park.Standing astride the bicycle with his arms outstretched in front of him, he clasped the gun with both hands and fired three shots at Brady’s friends, moving his arms in an arc to follow their movements on their bicycles.Rhys, distracted by the sound of the first bullet, which struck a shipping container in the car park, turned toward the gunman and was struck in the neck by the second bullet.Mercer then adjusted his position to aim one final shot at his two rivals.The third bullet struck a disused well as the gunman and his targets fled the scene.After the shooting, Mercer cycled to the home of McCormick, where he called on his fellow gang members to help him avoid the law.With Yates, Quinn and Kays, he was driven by Coy to a lock-up garage on an industrial estate where his clothes were burned and his body washed down with petrol.
Mercer gave the murder weapon to 17-year-old Boy X, who was frightened of him and who hid it in a dog kennel.It was later moved, along with a second gun and ammunition, by Kelly to the loft of his house where police found it later.A crucial breakthrough in the police investigation came 16 months later when Boy X, who cannot be named, accepted immunity from prosecution in exchange for giving evidence against the gang.Together with information gained from bugging devices in the homes of Yates and McCormick, much of which cannot be reported, and mobile phone logs, detectives were able to piece together the movements of the killer and his cohorts as they sought to evade justice.

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Corpse of Welsh career criminal Courtney Davies, 53, was mutilated, set on fire and left at a popular dog walking spot in Staunton, Gloucestershire

killers of a notorious gangster stabbed 70 times in a "frenzied and sustained attack", burned and dumped in Gloucestershire woodlands have not been caught despite a four-year manhunt, an inquest has heard.
The corpse of Welsh career criminal Courtney Davies, 53, was mutilated, set on fire and left at a popular dog walking spot in Staunton, Gloucestershire, in December 2004.Despite a number of arrests and a collapsed trial, no-one from the criminal underworld has been convicted of the murder, leading a coroner to record an open verdict.Malcolm Martin, 33, who is deaf, was due to stand trial for killing Davies, of Rumney, Cardiff, and hiding his body in the Forest of Dean scrubland. But the case was dropped due to an "unrealistic prospect of success", the inquest in Gloucester heard.Mr Martin, from Cardiff, always denied murdering Davies and leaving the charred body beside the A4136 road leading towards Monmouth.David Scaysbrook, of the Forensic Science Service, found blood on leaves but no signs of a "battering type" injury. The body had probably been superficially burned where it lay, he told the Shire Hall, Gloucester.Dr Stephen Leadbeatter, Home Office pathologist, said: "There were approximately 70 such injuries. Twelve of those were to the right side of the head and neck, 12 were to the right side of the chest and groin and some 40 were to the back. The majority were stab wounds."Acting Detective Superintendent Neil Kelly of Gloucestershire Police told the hearing: "Mr Davies lived alone in Rumney, had previous convictions for offences of dishonesty, drugs, violence and firearms. He was well-known among the criminal fraternity in South Wales and had served long custodial sentences for two armed robberies and supplying Class A drugs.Recording the open verdict, Gloucestershire Coroner Alan Crickmore said: "I'm not able to determine who in fact inflicted the injuries that caused Mr Davies' death. This was clearly a frenzied and sustained attack resulting as it did in the 70 stab wounds discovered by Dr Leadbeatter."But although it was more likely than not that Davies was murdered by underworld criminals of sound mind, without a suspect to bring to court there was always the chance that his killer could be insane, enough to rule out a verdict of unlawful killing.

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Hells Angel who was secretly working as a police agent was bent on murdering a rival biker, Whitby Court heard

Hells Angel who was secretly working as a police agent was bent on murdering a rival biker, Whitby Court heard ."He'll be nothing," Steven Gault told Remond (Ray) Akleh of the Hells Angels elite Nomads chapter on Sept. 27, 2006, in a secretly recorded conversation. "He'll become a nothing ... He'll be fertilizer."The conversation was picked up by a police recording device carried by Gault.Akleh, 46, and Oshawa Hells Angels president Mark Cephes Stephenson, 45, each face charges of conspiracy to commit murder and counselling to commit murder for allegedly recruiting Gault to murder Frank (Cisco) Lenti of the Bandidos club in the summer of 2006.However, Akleh told court it was police agent Gault who was pushing hard to murder Lenti.The alleged murder plot against Lenti was never carried out.Akleh was on his fourth day on the witness stand yesterday."Did the club want Mr. Lenti killed?" Akleh's lawyer, Glenn Orr, asked."No sir," Akleh replied. "From what I understood, no. And I did not want Frank Lenti killed."Akleh told court that he feared for his own life when Gault appeared at his home on Sept. 27, 2006, and pushed him to provide a photo to help him track down Lenti and kill him."I'm scared of the man (Gault), sir," Akleh told court. "What am I going to do? Hit (punch) him? And then he comes back in the middle of the night."Akleh said he tried to trick Gault out of carrying out the murder by saying that he feared police had caught wind of the plot.Orr asked Akleh why he would suggest such a thing."You talk about a man and then he disappears," Akleh said. "There's a problem there."Akleh said he could have easily directed Gault to the Club Pro strip club in Vaughan, where Lenti worked in security. However, Akleh said he deliberately avoided telling Gault anything that would help him kill Lenti, who he described as a friend from the late 1990s, when the two men were members of the Satan's Choice club together.

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Alberta Court of Appeal panel rejected a call by the prosecution to increase Hui (Philip) Xu's punishment to five years.

Alberta Court of Appeal panel rejected a call by the prosecution to increase Hui (Philip) Xu's punishment to five years. Crown lawyer Bob Sigurdson argued provincial court Judge John Bascom erred in not taking into account the cache of weapons police found in Xu's home when they busted him with the drugs. But the appeal court, in a unanimous decision handed down by Justice Rosemary Nation, said Bascom noted the weapons in his ruling. "The sentencing judge was alive to the presence of the weapons and there was no evidence the weapons formed any part in the commission of the offence," Nation said. Defence lawyer Hersh Wolch said the Ruger semi-automatic rifle, ammunition, Panther stun gun, Taser and Kevlar vest found in Xu's home were remnants of his former gang lifestyle -- he also said his client feared some of his former associates might not appreciate him going straight. "It is a fact that a close friend of the accused was murdered not long before this event," the lawyer said. "That friend was speaking to the police and counselling people not to get involved in the drug trade when he was killed." Xu said he was out of the drug life when he agreed to help a former associate complete a drug transaction. Police surveillance captured him picking up three boxes in southwest Calgary and taking them to his Coverton Heights N.E. home on June 15, 2005. Xu had arranged for the transportation of the drugs, worth up to $4.2 million on the street, and stored them in his garage before his arrest.

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Gangster John Gizzi,activated the 2,712 extra days which Gizzi must serve on top of his original sentence for failing to abide by the confiscation

John Damon Gizzi failed to sell his luxury pad, meaning he could not meet a £2.6m confiscation order and automatically triggering an extension to his jail term.Gizzi, who lived a millionaire lifestyle, was jailed for five-and-a-half years in January 2007.He was also ordered to pay back £2.6m under the Proceeds of Crime Act. But yesterday – 11 days before he was due to be released – a court heard the house had not sold and he would remain behind bars. He still owed £2.2m including £132,000 interest, Llandudno Magistrates’ Court heard.He is currently in prison for grievous bodily harm.Originally Gizzi’s mansion, Bronwylfa Hall in St Asaph, Denbighshire, had been valued at £1.8m but the asking price had then been reduced to £1.3m and an offer of less than £900,000 made by a potential buyer.The country house lies in 4.7 acres in the Vale of Clwyd, near St Asap, Denbighshire. It boasts four reception rooms and a leisure complex with swimming pool, gymnasium and tennis courts.At the time the original confiscation order was made, police said it meant Gizzi would be penniless and homeless when released.The 37-year-old was a millionaire who portrayed himself as a legitimate builder and property tycoon.But at the time of his jailing last year, police said he was a bully preying on the weak who beat up homeless people and believed himself to be untouchable. John Gizzi was yesterday told he would stay behind bars for another seven years for failing to pay back £2.2m profit from his crimes.Gizzi was just 11 days away from being released from a five-and-a-half-year jail sentence imposed in January 2006 for mortgage fraud, conspiracy to supply counterfeit cigarettes, and wounding.But Gizzi, 37, still owes £2.2m, including £132,000 interest, acquired from his criminal activities and which he has been ordered to repay.A court at Llandudno heard yesterday that his £1.8m mansion, Bronwylfa Hall at Asaph, had still not sold and he could therefore not repay the money.Yesterday District Judge Andrew Shaw activated the 2,712 extra days which Gizzi must serve on top of his original sentence for failing to abide by the £2.6m confiscation order.He had been due to be released from prison on December 19.Gizzi’s solicitor Huw Edwards told Llandudno Magistrates Court: “He’s made every effort to ensure the assets subject to confiscation have been sold at the best possible price.”The price for Bronwylfa Hall had been reduced to £1.3m and an offer of less than £900,000 had been made.Estate agents had invited offers over £900,000 for the five-bedroom house which has a pool and gym. Mr Edwards said a sale was now imminent.Earlier hearings had been told Gizzi’s other assets included a Bentley Continental, Range Rover and Mercedes cars and four valuable personalised number plates – JDG 1 to 4.Kathleen Greenwood, prosecuting, told the court two occupied semi-detached houses and land in Gors Road, Towyn, which a Crown Court judge last month ruled had been a “tainted gift” to Gizzi’s parents, were worth at least £430,000.They had been ordered to hand over the development to receivers and their company, J and T Gizzi Builders, must also pay £154,000, the prisoner’s share in another building in Rhyl.At a previous hearing it was stressed there was no suggestion Gizzi’s parents were involved in criminality.
Miss Greenwood said the £154,000 had not been received by the receiver.J and T Gizzi Builders had made an offer for the Gors Road property.“I would be extremely surprised if the receiver accepted the lower offer that has been made,” said Miss Greenwood.Removing the current occupants of the semis would delay the realisation of the asset “considerably”.She added: “There have been over 20 months of default here. There are assets which may well be difficult to sell. You are asked to impose the default. Any reduction in the amount of the order will be reflected in a reduction of any term of imprisonment.”An application will be made in the Crown Court by Gizzi on December 17 to reduce the confiscation amount.A court in January 2006 was told Gizzi had built up a portfolio of 21 investment properties worth £2.8m in the Rhyl area but had lied about his income in each mortgage application.

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Bosnian Muslim gangster war

Three individuals have been wounded in a gangster related drive-by shooting in the suburb of Tuzla and one of the wounded, Damir Mehic, is a close capo of the recently released alleged war criminal Naser Oric.Naser Oric was a Bosnian Muslim commander who exterminated all Serbs around Srebrenica and then had his army devastated by the Serbian General Ratko MladicThe attack in Tuzla came after the two individuals entered their car, Audi Q7, which was then immediately sprayed with bullets. Besides Mehic, known as Bibi, Jasenko Hajdarhodzic was hit in the head and is in a hospital where doctors are battling to save his life.Another individual, Faik C., a worker at the near by Gaz Auto firm, was shot in a knee.“It is a matter of many rounds from two types of weapons,” said Ivo Iveljic.The police is reluctant to describe the shooting as gangster related.Sources, however, say that the hit was ordered by the Bosnian gangster clan chief, Muhamed Ali Gasi, an ethnic Albanian that was once on a Bosnian TV bragging about his criminal heists.The sources say that a rival gang sought to kill Gasi’s capo, Fatmir Mujaj, in the Bosnian night club Icognito.
No arrests have been made.

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Firing-squad style execution of seven men whose bodies were found outside a high school, and the slaying of a man and his son in front of hundreds o

20 people, mostly men, were reported murdered in Ciudad Juarez. The incidents included the apparent firing-squad style execution of seven men whose bodies were found outside a high school, and the slaying of a man and his son in front of hundreds of middle school students. Local press accounts report the murders of more than 1,400 people in Ciudad Juarez so far this year.Even as activists prepared to launch the Chihuahua-Chiapas caravan, the number of female homicide victims kept mounting in Ciudad Juarez and other parts of the state of Chihuahua. For instance, in a period of less than 24 hours Nov. 20-21, five women were killed in Ciudad Juarez in gangland-style slayings

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Gangland characters in Melbourne are most likely to be gunned down in winter between 9pm and midnight.

Most dangerous time for a marked member of Melbourne's underworld is a Monday night in the month of May. Gangland characters in Melbourne are most likely to be gunned down in winter between 9pm and midnight.They will probably be ambushed while sitting in the driver's seat of their car. The hitmen - most likely armed with a handgun or shotgun - will probably shoot from close range. But potential victims can relax a little on Fridays and Sundays - they are the least likely days for underworld killings. As details of seven new murders emerge, a statistical study of our city's previous 27 gangland executions reveals a killing pattern with a distinct Melbourne flavour. At least some of the underworld victims whose stories have been told in the Underbelly TV series may have prolonged their lives by studying the stats. Victorian hitmen have unintentionally left behind some tell-tale signs of where, when and how they are likely to strike. At least 90 per cent of the Melbourne killings were selective murders. It goes without saying that most, if not all, of these people knew their lives were in grave danger. Despite that, most of the victims failed to recognise the kill pattern that could have helped them avoid death or, at the very least, delay it. The fact most of the murders and killings were unrelated meant no one thought to check for an emerging pattern. And, having done the statistics, it turns out Victorian hitmen were unintentionally leaving some telltale signs of where, when and how they were likely to strike - important information for someone under threat. The kill pattern is in contrast, for example, to the pattern left by other assassins around the world. The business of drug trafficking, intimidation, standing over nightclubs and other after-dark activity often accelerates late in the week. This kind of weekend work requires subtle threats and not-so-subtle violence - hence Melbourne criminals often carry guns late in the week and over weekends as a tool of the trade.
The dog-eat-dog world of Melbourne crime also means these criminals are hyper-vigilant about their own safety during business hours. Therefore, hitmen have figured the best time to strike is early in the week. When grouped together these statistics identify the deadliest times in Melbourne's gangland war - a time to kill, if you like. After reading this article, it is inevitable that some will now say: "One easy way of not being shot at close range with a handgun, in May, between 9pm and midnight, on a Monday night and while seated in a car is to avoid being a crook in the first place." But Australia isn't a free-for-all killing field and victims are victims, no matter who they are or what they've done.

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Escalating shoot-outs between The Family,ethnic gangsters in the northern suburbs

Escalating shoot-outs between ethnic gangsters in the northern suburbs Most of the seven suburban slayings, which occurred between February and last month, have been discovered in or near metropolitan parks and reserves. Two were parkland "slash and burns" - suspected of being related to drug deals. A third victim is believed to have had his throat cut in a Noble Park reserve before being rolled into a nearby creek. Three others were shot dead and the seventh was bashed to death and dumped in a field. All except two of the victims were aged under 35, all the killings had drug or criminal links and no one has been charged over three of the cases. It is a comparative kill rate to the height of the Carlton crew-Williams crew gangland war where in 2003 when eight underworld-linked figures were executed.
In other years of that war, four or less people were killed. THE seven suburban slayings have been probed in separate homicide inquiries, but are not believed to have a devoted taskforce even though drugs are suspected to be a common factor.
As the bodies have stacked up, police have been spooked by an escalation in non-fatal shootings by ethnic gangsters in Melbourne's north. A Lebanese organised crime syndicate and its rivals are believed to be behind about 20 non-fatal shootings around Broadmeadows, Gladstone Park, Preston, Reservoir and Coburg since November last year. The main gang, dubbed The Family, allegedly centres on a patriarch and three sons running a speed, ice and ecstasy racket backed by threats against police and residents and violent attacks, sometimes allegedly with chainsaws and machineguns. They cannot be named because of court hearings. Victoria Police has responded with the new 20-officer Taskforce Santiago, taking over from Operation Lased, which was probing the northern gangs. Det Acting Insp Steve White said the taskforce would deploy roadblocks in the north and bring in the heavily armed Special Operations Group for risky arrests. "Even when (Operation Lased) had made some arrests at the end of September, shootings still occurred," he said.
"That's why we've been established - bottom line to stop the shooting. "I'm concerned about the amount of guns that are in the community and where they're sourcing them from," Det White, Santiago's operational head, said. "It seems to me as soon as we take a gun off the street it's replaced. "Long arms, short arms, all different types. "Nothing surprises me in policing, but the fact that they can get access to guns so readily is a concern." The squad devoted to combating the drug and gun menace has drawn officers from homicide, armed crime and crime-tasked operations. But police believe further shootings may be imminent "because you can't control everything that's going on in the suburbs". "We haven't had a shooting in the past five weeks (since the taskforce began). In that respect we've done our job," Det White said. "We've had some good results, but it's the tip of the iceberg." Det White said the code of silence, which was cultural and born of fear, meant criminals would not identify their tormentors. "But Purana has shown it can work. Criminals will make statements and give evidence against each other for a variety of reasons," he said. "We will be more than happy to go and chat to anyone who wants to come forward." "We're still putting the jigsaw together as to who's who . . . but certainly it's significant enough for us to start a taskforce to look at it." The existence of Operation Santiago was revealed in the days after the shooting of Bandidos bikie Ross Brand, but it is focused mostly on the northern gangs' shooting sprees. POLICE believe the northern crime gangs may have resulted from jockeying for dominance in the wake of Purana's successes. Senior crime investigators said the current major crime players were loosely based on ethnic grounds, including Italian and Lebanese. But the gangland groups were increasingly making multi-racial alliances, forming a "criminal melting pot" when special skills or expertise were needed. High-ranking sources also said the ceasefire in the gangland war was not permanent and it was likely there would be at least another hit.They said detected drug flows - including big ecstasy busts worth hundreds of millions of dollars and alleged linked to the Calabrian mafia - were "just the tip of the iceberg".

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