Murder probe launched as man, 45, is gunned down in London road - as police cordon off busy high street
A busy road in Hackney was shut to cars and pedestrians sometime between midnight and 1am this morning.
The closure is in place from Amhurst Road to Kynaston Avenue, affecting traffic heading towards Dalston and Finsbury Park.
Officers are currently stationed in the area outside Sainsbury's and Stoke Newington Methodist Church.
Traffic is currently light but there is a slight build-up on Rectory Road which runs adjacent to the High Street. The 67, 76, 149, 243 and 276 buses are currently under diversion.
The Metropolitan Police and London Ambulance Service are yet to confirm the nature of this incident, but MyLondon has contacted them for more information.
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The Guardian
12 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Montana manhunt continues as Tennessee murder suspect is arrested
Montana governor Greg Gianforte on Tuesday signed an executive order freeing up more resources for local law enforcement as they searched a mountainous area for a former US soldier suspected of killing four people at a bar on 1 August. The search for Michael Paul Brown stretched into its fifth day with more than three dozen law enforcement agencies helping with an effort that Montana's top officials described during a news conference as the highest priority in the state. Meanwhile, the man wanted in the late July killings of the parents, grandmother and uncle of an infant found abandoned in a front yard in western Tennessee has been arrested, police said. Austin Robert Drummond faces four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping and weapons offenses, according to officials. In Montana, a team with the state's national guard has flown nearly 20 hours since the killings the Owl Bar in Anaconda, looking for any clues for Brown's whereabouts as an undisclosed number of officers searched on foot. 'Rest assured, our brave men and women of law enforcement aren't giving up, and I ask that you not give up on them either,' Gianforte said. Authorities allege Brown, 45, fatally shot four people at the Owl Bar with a rifle that police believe was his personal weapon. They allege he fled in a white pickup that he later ditched and stole another white vehicle stocked with clothes, shoes and camping supplies. A female bartender and three male patrons were killed. They have been identified as Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64; Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74. The shooting rattled Anaconda, a tight-knit town of about 9,000 people. And many residents remain on high alert with the suspect still at large. Montana attorney general Austin Knudsen reiterated Tuesday that authorities are operating under the assumption that Brown is armed and extremely dangerous. Without providing more details, Knudsen said there's evidence that authorities are searching in the right area. About 22 square miles (57 square kilometers) of forest south-west of Anaconda have been closed to the public by the national forest system as the search continues. Knudsen added that it does not appear that Brown has broken into any cabins or homes in the area to get food or additional supplies. Knudsen and investigators declined to share the number of law enforcement personnel active in the search Tuesday. Canine detection units and drones equipped with heat-detection technology were also being used in the search, they said. Federal authorities were offering a reward of up to $10,000 for any information leading to Brown's capture. Family members have said Brown has struggled with mental illness for years, and they had sought help for him. Brown, who lived next door to the Owl Bar, served in the army as an armor crew member from 2001 to 2005 and deployed to Iraq from early 2004 until March 2005. He also was in the Montana national guard from 2006 to 2009. In Tennessee, two men other than Drummond had been arrested on allegations that they assisted him, according to investigators. The victims were found dead in Tiptonville, Tennessee, about 40 miles from where the baby at the center of the case was left, officials have said. They were identified as James M Wilson, 21; Adrianna Williams, 20; Cortney Rose, 38; and Braydon Williams, 15. Police have said Drummond had a relationship with the victims and that the killings were targeted. Drummond was taken into custody amid a search on Tuesday, police in Jackson said in a social media post. His arrest came shortly after police had warned residents of Jackson, which is about 74 miles (119 kilometers) away from the crime scene in Tiptonville, to stay inside their homes, having received a report that he was spotted in a neighborhood. An automated message from the local public defender's office said to call back later.
Daily Mail
12 minutes ago
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Wife of Delphi killer who murdered two girls and ripped a small town apart claims her 'wonderful husband' is innocent in eerie first interview
The wife of Delphi killer Richard Allen has broken her silence to insist her husband of 34 years is a 'family man' and 'not the monster' who murdered two teenage best friends in a crime that ripped apart the small, tight-knit Indiana town. Kathy Allen spoke out for the first time since Allen's conviction for the February 2017 murders of Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, in the new ABC News Studios' series 'Capturing Their Killer: The Girls on the High Bridge'. 'My husband's not a monster. He's not the monster that people think he is,' she said in the series. 'He is a family man. Ricky is a wonderful, caring, compassionate father. Non-judgmental, very giving. He has good morals.' She said: 'How dare you accuse someone who is nothing but a people-pleaser and works out in the public. How dare you.' Allen was arrested and charged with the February 13, 2017, murders in October 2022 after a resurfaced tip and an unspent bullet tied him to the crime scene. He was convicted in November on two counts of murder and two counts of felony murder, before two of the counts were vacated under double jeopardy rules. Allen was sentenced to the maximum 130 years in prison. Months later, on July 18, Allen was moved out of state from the Pendleton Correctional Facility in Madison County, Indiana, to the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center in Cleveland County, Oklahoma. Allen continues to appeal the verdict. Libby German (left) and Abby Williams (right) set off on a walk along the Monon High Bridge trail in Delphi, Indiana, on February 13 2017 and never returned Despite his conviction - and dozens of jailhouse confessions prior to his trial - Kathy has stood by her husband. In the new series, she refused to believe he committed the shocking crimes and insisted the real killer or killers are still at large. 'I want true justice for Abby and Libby but it should not be at the expense of an innocent person, she said. 'These girls deserve justice. The right person or persons need to be found instead of just going with what you believe.' In the show, Kathy fawned over photos of her life with Allen from their prom pictures to wedding photos. 'Man he was a good-looking guy,' she gushed. 'I still is.' She and Allen went to school together but were introduced through her cousin. 'He was really cute and he had kind of long, wavy blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes,' she said. 'He was just really sweet. I hadn't met a guy like him before. Ricky and I always felt a connection.' The couple married as soon as they left high school and had a daughter, Brittany, in 1994. 'He was so excited about having a girl. He was a good daddy,' she said. The family moved to Delphi in 2006 in part, Kathy said, because they believed the town of around 3,000 residents was a good place to raise a child. Allen worked at the local CVS store in the heart of the community. Kathy remembers the day Abby and Libby went missing. The two best friends had set off on an afternoon walk on February 13 2017 along the Monon High Bridge. When they failed to return, a search was launched. Kathy told the series how Allen had the day off work that day and she had returned home to find him on the couch. They saw on the news that Libby and Abby were missing and Allen admitted to her that he had been on the trails that afternoon. He claimed he hadn't seen the girls, she said. The next day - Valentine's Day - searchers found Abby and Libby's bodies around half a mile from the trail, close to Deer Creek. Both of their throats had been cut, with the murder weapon believed to be a box cutter. Libby was naked while Abby was fully dressed in some of Libby's clothes. An unspent bullet was found between their bodies. In the moments before they died, Libby had captured a video on her cellphone of their killer following them over the rickety bridge. It captured the chilling voice of the man - who became known as 'Bridge Guy' - ordering the terrified girls: 'Guys... down the hill.' Libby's cellphone was found hidden beneath Abby's body, leading cops to find the footage and release a grainy photo of the killer. Kathy told the series that she thought the image could be anyone. 'The first time I saw the picture of bridge guy, it could've been anybody,' she said. Kathy encouraged her husband to tell police he was on the trails the day of the murders, and 'he was more than willing to help,' she said. After he met with an officer, 'we heard nothing,' she said. That information was lost for more than five years due to a clerical error, before investigators came across the tip in October 2022. A search executed at the Allen home uncovered a 'Bridge Guy starter kit' including blue jeans and a Carhartt jacket matching the outfit worn by 'Bridge Guy.' Investigators also found a Sig Sauer Model P226 pistol which Allen said only he had access to. Ballistics experts matched the gun to the bullet found between the two victims' bodies. While behind bars awaiting trial, Allen confessed to murdering the girls a staggering 61 times including in jailhouse phone calls to his wife and mom as well as in meetings with a prison psychologist. In one damning confession presented at trial, Allen revealed information that only the killer could have known. He said he had planned to take the girls into the woods to rape them but was startled by a white van driving past and so quickly killed them, jurors heard. The man in the white van testified he drove home from work at around 2.30pm that afternoon, to his property close to Deer Creek - a timeline that matched the time Libby's cellphone last recorded movement. The evidence about the van was not known until Allen offered up that information, prosecutors said. Allen's defense claimed his damning confessions were the result of a mental health crisis due to the 'prisoner of war' treatment he endured inside state prison. Instead, Allen's attorneys made the extraordinary accusation that Libby and Abby were murdered as part of a 'ritualistic sacrifice' by a local white nationalist cult called Odinists. As part of the shocking theory, Allen's defense pointed to sticks found on the victims' bodies, claiming they were arranged specifically into Pagan symbols. Jurors did not hear this theory at trial, as the judge blocked the defense from introducing the Odinism theory or from introducing any other alternative suspects. Speaking about the bombshell theory, Kathy said she believes the 'truth is going to come out'. 'You don't kill those girls the way you do and leave them that way without it meaning something,' she said. When her husband went on trial, she said she was hopeful that he would be acquitted. 'This was the first time in two years that we actually had some hope,' she said. 'I felt pretty positive that they were going to make the right decision because reasonable doubt was written all over this case.' When she heard the guilty verdict being read out, Kathy said she was in 'shock'. 'I wanted to stand here and scream for him,' she said. Since his trial, Allen's attorneys continue to file a string of legal objections and have appealed his conviction. Kathy said she is 'very hopeful' he will be freed on appeal. 'I've got everything ready for him to come home… I'm not giving up.' Allen is now in prison custody in Oklahoma. On July 29, Allen's attorneys filed a motion for a 30-day extension to appeal his conviction.
The Guardian
14 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Disputed or debunked claims about migration and crime in the UK
Several politicians have got into hot water for promoting and repeating misleading data in recent months, particularly about migration and crime. There have been calls for the government and police forces to be more transparent about the figures to tackle misinformation and hysteria. Here are some of the high-profile claims that have been disputed or debunked. Conservative Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said on Radio 4's Today programme on Monday that 40% of sexual crimes in London last year were committed by foreign nationals. The claim was sourced from the Centre for Migration Control (CMC), a thinktank and blog that describes its purpose as 'controlling and reducing migration to Britain'. It is run by the Reform UK activist Robert Bates. CMC's claims come from the Metropolitan police's response to a freedom of information request. The Met issued a breakdown of the number of people who had been proceeded against – ie brought before a court – for sexual offences by nationality. This does not mean they have been found guilty of committing the offence as Jenrick said. For example, there were 14,242 defendants brought to court for sexual offences at magistrates courts in England and Wales in 2024, but 8,098 convictions, according to Ministry of Justice statistics. 'Some of the data we're seeing is very striking,' Jenrick also said. 'Afghans and Eritrean nationals are 20 times more likely to be convicted of a sexual crime than a British national.' The statistic about Afghans has been repeated by Reform UK's chair, Zia Yusuf. This is a muddled figure that also came from the CMC, after it submitted freedom of information requests to the MoJ. It is based on population statistics from 2021 but data on offences covering the years between 2021 and 2023. That means the statistic is likely to be based on a significant underestimate of the number of Afghan and Eritrean nationals in the UK – meaning the comparison with British rates is unlikely to be 20 times as high. Immigration to the UK from Afghanistan has risen significantly since 2021 because of the Taliban's return to power, while Eritrean migration has also risen due to wars in Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia. The Guardian contacted Jenrick for comment. Nick Timothy, the Conservative MP for West Suffolk, deleted a post on X this week that accused the Metropolitan police of 'facilitating illegal working'. He had shared a photo that appeared to show police officers escorting a Deliveroo driver through a crowd of protesters outside a hotel. The original post claimed to depict how 'an illegal Deliveroo worker is literally getting a full police escort'. The Met replied that 'this person was delivering to the hotel, they were not being accommodated there. There is no evidence to suggest they were working illegally. They were surrounded and intimidated by those gathered outside and officers intervened to make sure they got away safely.' The context is that companies including Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats have committed to tighten security checks after reports some asylum seekers were working illegally as couriers. Earlier this year, there was a controversy over a Telegraph front page report that said as many as one in 12 people living in London were illegal immigrants. The story included quotes from Chris Philp, the Conservative shadow home secretary, who called the figures 'deeply alarming' and said it was 'totally unacceptable to have these numbers of illegal immigrants in the UK'. The Telegraph and several other newspapers had to issue corrections for misrepresenting the findings in several ways. The one in 12 statistic was based on an unpublished study commissioned by Thames Water to measure the demand for water supply. The study concluded that there could be between 390,355 and 585,533 irregular – not illegal – migrants in and around London. The Telegraph used the higher figure and divided it by the 7 million population living in specific 'water resource zones', rather than the 9 million population of London. Most importantly, the Thames Water study was seeking to estimate the number of people who use water that are not in official statistics so included not just migrants but those with second homes, visitors and tourists. It also included people given indefinite leave to remain, as well as some British-born children of migrants with irregular status. The most recent official estimates for the number of irregular migrants in the UK date from 2017. The Pew Research Center said the number was between 800,000 to 1.2 million, while the Greater London Authority's central estimate for the whole of the UK was 674,000 – going up to 809,000 when including UK-born children of unauthorised migrants. At a press conference on Monday, Nigel Farage told TV crews that he would discuss an open criminal investigation – the alleged rape of a child. But he said there would be nothing in the press conference that would go against contempt of court laws. Two men have been charged in connection with the alleged crime. When an alleged perpetrator has been charged, there are strict rules about what can be reported, to prevent prejudicing and potentially collapsing a trial. However, the leader of Warwickshire county council, George Finch, later made a number of references, including referring to the men as 'criminals' when they have not been found guilty. Farage then defended Finch when questioned as to whether he had broken contempt laws, saying it was 'good' that he had become 'slightly emotional'. The issue of naming the race of alleged perpetrators has been in the public eye since a baseless social media conspiracy theory surrounding Axel Rudakubana, the Southport murderer. After he killed three young children in July 2024, it was purported on social media that authorities were covering up his true place of birth. Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, was falsely portrayed in a variety of social media posts as being a Muslim asylum seeker.
