PHOENIX (CN) – A homeowner says a Phoenix police officer shot him six times in the back during a 911 home-invasion call, and the 911 tape recorded the officer’s partner saying, “That’s all right. Don’t worry about it. I got your back. … We clear?” The family says the officers were not aware that the 911 call was still recording as they spoke about covering up the shooting.

In their complaint in Maricopa County Court, Anthony and Lesley Arambula say an armed intruder “crashed through the front window” of their home on Sept. 17, 2008 and ran into one of their son’s bedrooms.

Anthony, worried about his son who was still in his bedroom, says he “held the intruder calmly at gunpoint” and called 911.

Phoenix Police officers already in the neighborhood heard the crash of the Arambulas’ window. When they approached the house, Lesley says, she told Sgt. Sean Coutts that her husband was inside holding the intruder at gunpoint. Lesley says Coutts failed to pass on that information to the two other officers.

Inside the house, the Arambulas say, Officer Brian Lilly shot Anthony six times in the back while he was still on the phone with the 911 operator – twice when he was on the ground.
The officers ran into the bedroom after Anthony told them, “You just killed … you just killed the homeowner. The bad guy is in there.”

The complaint states that Officer Lilly “admitted that it was only after Tony was laying, bullet-ridden, on the ground that he assessed the situation. The 911 tape continued to record what happened even after Officer Lilly unloaded his weapon into Tony, including Officer Lilly’s post-shooting, one-word ‘assessment’: ‘Fuck.’

“Tony believed he was going to die; the 911 tape records his plaintive goodbye to his family: ‘… I love you … I love you.’ Then Tony made what he believed was a dying request to the officers; he did not want his young family to see him shot and bloodied. Officers callously ignored his request and painfully dragged Tony by his injured leg, through the home and out to his backyard patio, where they left him bloodied and shot right in front of Lesley, Matthew and Zachary.”

The Arambulas say the officers later dragged Anthony onto gravel, then put him on top of the hot hood of a squad car, and “drove the squad car down the street with Tony lying on top, writing in pain.”

According to the complaint, Lilly can be heard on the 911 tape telling Coutts, “We fucked up.”

Lilly says on the tape that he did not know where Anthony’s gun was when he shot him and that he “opened fire because he heard loud noises and saw someone who looked like he might be the ‘Hispanic’ male they were pursuing” before getting to the Arambulas’ house, according to the complaint.

The complaint states: “Sgt. Coutts knew that officers has just shot up and likely killed an innocent homeowner and the husband of Lesley, with whom he had spoken before entering the home, instead of the armed intruder. Sgt. Coutts was quick to commence the cover-up of their terrible mistake. Sgt. Coutts asked Office Lilly where Tony’s gun was at the time Officer Lilly had opened fire on Tony. Officer Lilly admitted that he did not know where Tony’s gun was: ‘I don’t know. I heard screaming and I fired.’”

Lilly later told a police internal affairs investigator that Anthony had pointed his gun in his direction, “in the ‘ready’ position,” the complaint states. But Anthony Arambula says he was facing away from the officers, who could not have even seen his gun.

The complaint continues: “Still not knowing that he is being recorded n the 911 tape, Sgt. Coutts interrupted Officer Lilly’s admission and apology with his assurance that the cover-up would commence: ‘That’s all right. Don’t worry about it. I got your back. … We clear?’”

After the shooting, the Arambulas say, the Phoenix Police Department treated them “like suspects in a drug bust,” denying Lesley, Michael and Zachary information about Anthony’s condition and denying friends and family members access to him at the hospital.

Anthony Arambula survived, but continues to suffer pain, which he expects will last for the rest of his life.

The City of Phoenix and Officer Dzenan Ahmetovic also are named as defendants.

The Arambulas seek punitive damages for gross negligence, civil rights violations, failure to supervise, excessive force, deliberate indifference to medical needs, false arrest, and emotional distress. They are represented by Michael Manning with son Morrison Hecker.

Original at CourthouseNews

Image via Wikipedia

Even Great Browsers Need Updating

Mozilla recently released 2 new updates for Firefox, 2.0.0.19 and 3.0.5.

Wordout recommends that if you regularly use Firefox, you should go ahead and get the upgrade to the ‘3′ version. The reason is simple – phishing protection will only be available for the ‘3′ version in the future.

From the Mozilla site:

Mozilla is not planning any further security & stability updates for Firefox 2, and recommends that you upgrade to Firefox 3 as soon as possible. It’s free, and your settings and bookmarks will be preserved.

Also, the Phishing Protection service will no longer be available for Firefox 2 users. Firefox 3 offers a free Phishing and Malware Protection service, which will continue to protect you from online scams and attacks.

If you already have Firefox 3 or Firefox 2, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.

You can pick up the latest version by clicking HERE. After the installation, Firefox will check for and update your add-ons. The procedure is painless and quick, so go do it now.

I am Jon, and I use Firefox 3.

Are you the somebody that everybody in your family goes to for computer help? Have you tried to get Uncle Joe to stop using Internet Explorer but he just won’t stop? Or maybe Aunt Ethel just gets on your last nerve, or maybe it’s little cousin Ellie and her MySpace IM’s.

Whatever it is, whoever it is, sometimes you just need a good laugh. Here’s a funny little hack for you, or a prank you can play on some of your friends.

The video below, courtesy of Metacafe, shows you how to create a replacement icon for IE that, if used, will simply shut down the pc. You can’t damage the computer by doing this, and if you ever want to un-do it, just delete the icon you’ve created. Remember, you can use ANY icon, it doesn’t have to be Internet Explorer.

Have fun!

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I am Jon, and of course, I would never do this to anyone.

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Philo T. Farnsworth?

I love that name. It’s history. This guy changed our lives. For real.

And it turns out, he and I had something in common.

Imagine growing up decades ago. Some of you can remember it. No internet. A couple of TV stations and mainly it was radio that you kept up with. Oh yeah, the seventies, in North Carolina, growing up on the farm. Spending hours and hours going back and forth over pieces of dirt about 4 feet in width, and what seemed like miles long….

Philo grew up like that, too, only decades earlier than me. He had practically no radio, and any TV available was capable of only 15 frames per second. Anything less than 30 is a waste of time, so really, he had no TV. But he had the idea of TV. And one day, going back and forth across miles and miles of aisles of his very own plough’s making… he got the weird idea of dragging electron beams back and forth across a field of phosphorous. Well, maybe not quite that developed, but he saw a way to make TV actually work.

He changed his world, and he made this one possible. Without him, you would not be sitting there, reading this. Below is just a few seconds of video simulated from 1927, to show you what electronic television looked like when it was all shiny and new!

Okay, I just have to add this. He figured this stuff out when he was 14 years old… here’s a video of his appearance on TV’s fun and funny show from the 50’s, “I’ve Got A Secret”. To some of my readers, this will be a re-run, to other, younger ones… who are we kidding, they won’t bother to look at it. I wonder if they would if they knew it was one of the top rated shows for most of the 50s and 60s?

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I am Jon, and none of my monitors drag electron beams, anymore. I guess that’s progress…
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Asus (pronounced: uh-soos) might not be a name you recognize, but it’s probably one you’ll hear more of in the future. Engadget has a story about the new Eee PC with a 9″ screen. This is the big brother to the model they already had with a 7″ screen. Look here for comparison pics of each. For a good bunch of photos of the 7 incher by itself, look here (it may say 9 inch, but I’m pretty certain that’s the 7″ model).

Asus has been around for quite awhile, making, among other things, some of the best motherboards in the business. Chances are good you’ve had one and didn’t know it. The new laptop should be available in mid 2008, hopefully in time for the “back to school” sales, and is rumored to have a retail tag of around $600US.

This image gives you a sense of the sheer size, literally.

Many who know me have heard me extol the coming wave of micro-pc’s, small enough to carry with you in a pocket or purse. Throw a phone into one of these and you’re almost there…

I am Jon, and I would like 3 sevens, please.

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EDIT 10JAN2009: Go HERE to download the final Deluxe version, Free Trial or 20 bucks for the full 70 level game!

Some of you tell me that you really like those little puzzles I post here occasionally. Below is a little demonstration of what has to be one of the most fascinating puzzle-games I have ever seen. In fact, this game won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival. It uses a physics engine developed by Erin Catto to control movement within the game. The video below gives you an idea of how to play.

I downloaded the original Crayon Physics, which is not the version featured in the demo, and played it for about an hour before having to drag myself away for more productive things. There’s at least one level there that is pretty difficult to figure out. But then again, that’s what makes it so addicting.

Thanks to GeeksAreSexy for reminding me about Crayon Physics. You can download the original Crayon Physics at Kloonigames.com.

I am Jon, and I really don’t have time for this game…. really, I need to turn it off….. really…..

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Image via Wikipedia

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This article was awarded one of the three prizes in the Snap.com contest. Thank you!

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Thanks much to Adam, who left the comment below, unintentionally alerting me to the broken link in item #4 above. The link now works and takes you to a post about keeping your pc running smooth through easy, regular maintenance, called 5 Things You Can Do to Start Your PC Faster. Thanks again, Adam!

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