Feb
4
california public court records search – Officials cast Vegas shooting as ‘suicide mission’ – Yahoo! News
Filed Under California Public Records
Officials cast Vegas shooting as ‘suicide mission’ – Yahoo! News
LAS VEGAS – Investigators say Johnny Lee Wicks was on a suicide mission the day he torched his apartment, hid a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun under his black trench coat and walked three miles to the federal building in downtown Las Vegas.
The 66-year-old ex-convict was leaving behind a “lengthy” criminal history, including prison time for killing his brother in Tennessee and jail time for domestic violence in California, authorities said Tuesday.
He believed he was discriminated against because he was black, court records show, and he harbored a grudge against the government for cutting his $974 monthly Social Security benefits to $688 after he moved from California to Las Vegas.
It was just after 8 a.m. Monday when Wicks returned to the courthouse where his lawsuit over his benefits had been dismissed in September. He opened the door, pulled the shotgun from under his coat and fired.
“Acts such as this cannot be predicted,” Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said as FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, police and U.S. attorney’s officials returned to the plaza in front of the Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building.
“A lone gunman on a suicide mission is nearly impossible to prevent,” Gillespie said.
Flags flew at half-staff as the officials described the furious gunbattle on the site a day earlier.
Wicks paused to reload after the first three blasts inside the courthouse entryway and fired twice outside with federal marshals and court security officers in pursuit.
Seven court officers and U.S. marshals fired 81 shots, said Kevin Favreau, special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office.
Stanley Cooper, a courthouse security guard, was shot by Wicks in the chest and mortally wounded. He wasn’t wearing a bullet proof vest, officials said. But he was able to fire one shot as he confronted Wicks at a security screening station in the entryway.
Wicks also wounded a 48-year-old deputy U.S. marshal as he retreated across Las Vegas Boulevard. Wicks died in desert landscaping next to the bullet-pocked stucco walls of a historic school house.
He had been wounded in the stomach, and died from a gunshot wound to the head fired by one of his pursuers, officials said.
Wicks still had one shell in the shotgun, FBI Special Agent Joseph Dickey said.
Cooper, a 72-year-old retired Las Vegas police sergeant who became a court security officer in 1994, was praised as a hero.
“All he ever did was serve,” his employer, Daya Singh Khalsa, president of Akal Security Inc., said from Espanola, N.M. “He was the senior CSO in Las Vegas, and part of the law enforcement community for 41 years.”
Gary Orton, U.S. Marshal for Nevada, said the 48-year-old deputy marshal who was wounded was treated overnight and released from University Medical Center in Las Vegas. The 24-year veteran of the service was not identified.
Officials said they didn’t know what set Wicks off. Favreau said investigators don’t believe he threatened violence before starting a fire in a closet in his apartment a few minutes after 5 a.m. Monday. Dickey said Wicks said nothing as he entered the courthouse.
“The security officers and law enforcement officers did their job well yesterday,” Gillespie said. “They kept everyone inside and outside that courthouse safe. The gunman was not able to access the courtrooms or the judges.”
Authorities said it wasn’t the first violence in Wicks’ life.
Wicks killed his brother, Leo Wicks, with a shotgun in Memphis in 1974, and was sentenced in 1976 to 12 to 15 years for second-degree murder, authorities said. He was paroled in 1981, said Dorinda Carter, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Corrections.
He was accused of assault to commit rape in Sacramento in 1989, according to the FBI. But prosecutors rejected that case for insufficient evidence, said Albert Locher, assistant Sacramento County district attorney.
Wicks served jail time after pleading no contest to domestic battery in Sacramento in 1995, court records show.
Wicks also feuded with managers of a downtown apartment building for seniors and people with disabilities in Fresno, where his handwritten protest of his eviction and a small claims court filing in 1998 included an allegation that he was ousted “Because I am Black.”
“It’s all about race. I am no fool,” he said in the handwritten federal lawsuit he filed against the Social Security Administration in March 2008 after declaring himself indigent. In it he said he’d suffered a stroke years ago.
“This action by this office will make it very hard for me to pay my rent and energy bill,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas, Devlin Barrett in Washington, Garance Burke in Fresno, Judy Lin in Sacramento and Joe Edwards in Nashville contributed to this report.
If you’ve been keeping up with my blog posts lately you’ll know I’ve come to adding a few news posts from around the web on this subject. I’ve got a couple more today that are new and updated, so let me know what you think of em…
California Man Claims to Have World's Oldest Dog
The owner, optometrist Norm Steinberg, says the one thing preventing Uno from being entered into the Guinness Book of World Records is the lack of a formal … Read More…
Spouse finds she's one of 3 wives in 3 different cities
She found papers in California, showing that he did not divorce his first wife until long after he had married her, according to court records. … Read More…
For thousands of legal residents with criminal convictions, green cards no …
She argues that the punishment of immigrants with criminal records — deportation and separation from families — is often disproportionate to the offenses. … Read More…
That’s all the news for today guys, so until next time, thanks for stopping by.
California Marriage Records display applications for marriage licenses and their records proper by name, date and county. The California Department of Public Health Office of Vital Records is charged with maintaining its states marriage records along with all the other categories of public records. Confidential marriage records are issued through the various counties that grant marriage licenses. Likewise, California divorce records are only available in the county office where the divorce decree dissolving the particular marriage by the Superior Court was issued. As a result of the California Public Records Act, anyone in California can view and request copies of basically all public records including marriage records.
You can find free California marriage records at county offices as well as online at various websites offered by government agencies of the state of California. The information found at these places will suffice for the purpose of broad research but if you need something more detailed and in-depth, an official set of marriage records is probably necessary. In the state of California, the Office of Vital Records is authorized to release marriage records, as well as Certificates of Record in divorce cases. Fees are charged for the issuance of their certified copies.
As with other states across the country, it is possible to assemble California marriage records yourself but getting it done by hiring an outside company to do that for you is the preferred option for most people. Each option has its own pros and cons and it’s up to the individuals to decide which would be able to better serve their needs and preferences. Financial expense and convenience are typical considerations but in many cases such as legal or official situations however, that is dictated by the requirements of the circumstances.
Within the state of California, you can view public records at the Public Health office in each county or request them via email or internet. Contact the California Department of Public Health Office of Vital Records to obtain the lists of necessary forms and fees for acquiring official copies of both marriages and divorces. But be forewarned – getting marriage records on your own takes some work and waiting time. The California Office of Vital Statistics has a backlog of up to six months. They advocate going directly to the incumbent county offices in person to view and request copies of all types of public records. It is advisable to enquire ahead through telephone as different counties require different forms and fees for this service.
Alternatively, there are companies you can turn to that will aid you to access and view the desired public records in an optimized manner in terms of time and effort. They can also handle the order placement and delivery of certified copies of marriage records on your behalf. Through the support of their infrastructure, manpower and networking, they are able to invariably get the job done in a shorter time than if you go it yourself.
Providing public records commercially is a professional service and the industry is immensely competitive. That’s a good thing for consumers as this drives up the quality of service and keep the prices down. Fees are typically quite affordable by normal standards and users often find the superior speed and efficiency well worth the cost. On top of that, many of these information brokers maintain large databases of marriage records and offer free viewing to potential customers.
In California, the population is now about 36 million-strong. Official records have been kept and accumulated for well over a hundred years, since around 1850. This means that there are a lot of California marriage records on file and unless you have a lot of time and energy to pursue them, it may be in your interests to hire professionals to spare yourself the hassles of procedures and waiting in lines.
Marriage records are handled differently from state to state. Visit us at Free Marriage Records for pointers and information on California Marriage Records. We are seasoned specialists in public records.
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