Gun-wielding male kicks down door of home, opens fire at homeowner. But his target is armed too.



Law enforcement in Alexandria, Louisiana, responded to the 1800 block of Henry Street just after 7:30 a.m. Saturday for a reported home invasion, the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office said. Alexandria is about 200 miles northwest of New Orleans.

Officials said a black male identified as 33-year-old Davante Deundra Thomas of Alexandria allegedly kicked down the door of the residence armed with a handgun and fired at the homeowner.

'People have a right to protect themselves.'

But the homeowner also had a gun — and wasted no time using it.

Officials said the homeowner returned fire, striking Thomas.

After deputies arrived, Thomas was found dead inside the home with the gun still in his hand, officials said.

Sheriff’s detectives and the Crime Scene Unit responded and began their investigation and processed the scene for evidence, officials said.

The sheriff's office said no arrests have been made.

Officials said the investigation is still active and ongoing, and all those with any information about the incident should contact detectives at 318-473-6727 or the sheriff's office at 318-473-6700.

Commenters reacting to the shooting were a bit mixed in their opinions. Most seemed completely behind the homeowner who returned fire — but others believed there was more to the story:

  • "Turns out the more you F around the more you find out," one commenter said.
  • "Welp, he won't do that again!!!" another user noted.
  • "This is a good opportunity to teach your kids about what happens if you go breaking into houses," another commenter wrote.
  • "People have a right to protect themselves," another user said.
  • "Crazy thing is people don't realize how many homeowners actually have weapons in their homes just for this reason," another commenter observed.
  • "Naw, we aren't getting the entire story here," another user countered. "Don't pass judgement without all the facts."
  • "This just doesn't sound right to me, either," another commenter stated. "Something [is] not adding up."

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Horror-costumed trio banged on home's front door late at night and 'threatened to kill us,' woman says. Then cops intervened.



A trio dressed in Halloween horror costumes were caught on doorbell video banging on the front door of a Northern Virginia home late at night and threatening those inside earlier this month.

"It's either you coming out or we coming in!" one voice can be heard on the video, WUSA-TV reported, adding that another shouted, "Open the door!"

'My heart dropped when they said that they were gonna take a chair and break down the door.'

A woman named Shayla — who told the station she was staying with her mother in her Alexandria home — added that "they kept, like, knocking on the door. The knocks would get harder and harder."

Shayla told WUSA she called 911 and warned the group that police were on the way, but she said that didn't deter them, and they continued shouting and trying to force their way in.

Worse still, Shayla told the station the trio "threatened to kill us."

Plus, she added to WUSA that when they couldn't get in through the front door, they moved to the back of the house.

"This whole thing they broke down, as you can tell," Shayla explained to the station in the aftermath as she showed damage to the backyard fence.

"They hopped up on here and went through there," she added to WUSA as she showed a now-damaged screen-in back porch.

Shayla also told the station that the intruders still ramped things up: "They were just hitting the window. My heart dropped when they said that they were gonna take a chair and break down the door. That is just too much."

RELATED: NYPD vehicle trashed while cops respond to domestic violence call on Halloween: 'Trick or treat, motherf**kers'

She added to WUSA that "they tried to enter into the home." Shayla explained to the station that other factors made the ordeal worse, especially for her mother: "My dad recently just died, so it's just, like, I'm just glad I was there. But now [my mother's] in fear. She don't wanna stay there by herself."

Fortunately, the ordeal ended after 10 minutes, as she remarked what could have happened — to the intruders.

"It could have been bad," Shayla told WUSA. "Our Second Amendment right was not used and could have been, like being very transparent."

She added a message to the perps, the station said: "The time frame alone, 10 o'clock at night to knock on someone's door in costume is never OK. Halloween, not Halloween, it's never OK."

By Oct. 17, police said they were investigating the case as an attempted burglary.

"This is a very serious matter," Alexandria Police Chief Tarrick McGuire said in a news conference, WUSA noted in a follow-up story. "They began to make threatening and alarming comments to the family ... specifically, they said, 'If you do not come out, we will come in,' and also threatened to do bodily harm, stating that they would ultimately kill them."

Well, police eventually got to the bottom of it — and considering what could have happened, the revelations were disturbing to say the least.

It turns out relatives of the victims in the home were responsible and had been recording video of what they called a prank, WRC-TV reported.

McGuire in a Monday update told WRC that the prank “could have been deadly," especially considering that one of the victims called her brother for help prior to calling police — and he arrived with a gun.

RELATED: Missouri town's residents are finding creepy dolls everywhere, and police warn someone might get hurt

What's more, McGuire added to the station that several officers dedicated over 100 hours to the investigation.

Several tips from the community led to the suspects — and a female relative confessed, saying that she, her two teenage sons, and a teen nephew approached the home as two adults and a child stood in the background recording video, McGuire noted to WRC.

In the end, the victims didn't press charges, and neither will police, the chief added to the station — with the following caveat: “This will hopefully be a learning experience for this family."

McGuire added to WRC that the adults were guilty of a “moral failure” since they "were engaging in this behavior but also encouraging this behavior."

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Trump Admin Drops The Hammer On Five Schools Who Let Boys In Girl’s Bathrooms

'Experiment with radical gender ideology'

Legal Group Wants Virginia School Districts To Stop Allowing Boys In Girls Bathrooms

'Blatantly defy the United States Constitution'

Pedophile priest who impregnated teen to be deported after lying to gain US citizenship



A Catholic priest who once worked in Maryland and Louisiana will soon be deported to his native Colombia after he impregnated a teenage girl and lied in the process of obtaining U.S. citizenship.

On Monday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana announced that Jorge Antonio Velez-Lopez, 69, had been "civilly denaturalized as a United States citizen" after District Judge Dee Drell sentenced him to 12 months in prison for passport fraud.

Velez's case actually started all the way back in 2001, when he moved from Bogota, Colombia, to serve in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Within a few years, whispers began that he had been having an inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl. According to a 2023 investigative report issued by the Maryland Attorney General's Office, he was even caught naked in bed with the girl, though both separately denied it.

The complaints against Velez were initially not deemed credible. However, they eventually "cast some doubt regarding Father Velez’s ability to minister effectively," according to a 2010 letter written by an individual identified in the AG report only as Official B, and the archdiocese stripped Velez of his ministerial "faculties" there, the AG report said.

Velez was then transferred to the Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana. Before he left Baltimore, however, the girl became pregnant with Velez's child. While in Louisiana, Velez signed an affidavit acknowledging that he is the father of the child, and the child's birth certificate lists him as the father, the AG report said.

The victim claimed the sexual relationship with Velez began when she was just 15 years old, the AG report said. Velez claimed it began in June 2005, according to the U.S. attorney's office press release, when he 49.

'We will ensure that justice is done.'

Meanwhile in 2013, Velez took steps to become a naturalized citizen. During that process, he swore under penalty of perjury on his application that "he had never committed a crime for which he had not been arrested." He also swore that he had never given "false or misleading information ... for an immigration benefit" or "lied to any U.S. Government official to gain entry or admission to the U.S.," the press release from the U.S. attorney's office said.

He later confirmed during an oral interview with an immigration officer that he had never lied or given false or misleading statements to secure citizenship, the press release said.

So in May 2013, Velez took the Oath of Allegiance and became a U.S. citizen. Four months later, he applied for a U.S. passport and his citizenship certificate. Once again, Velez swore under penalty of perjury that he had not submitted any false documents as part of the application.

By 2016, the victim had come forward and reported the abuse by Velez. "When confronted, Velez admitted that everything the victim said was true," the AG report said.

That same year, the Diocese of Alexandria issued a decree declaring that "well-founded allegations of sexual misconduct with a female minor" had been leveled against Velez and that he had been removed from his duties at two local parishes, his Hispanic outreach, and his ministerial work at a federal prison.

In 2020, Velez was arrested in Maryland and charged with five counts of third-degree sex offense and one count of fourth-degree sex offense. The following year, he pled guilty to sexual abuse of a minor for whom he had temporary responsibility for supervising and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, though 16 years of that sentence was suspended, leaving him to serve nine years.

Since then, Velez has been locked up in Jessup Correctional Institution in Maryland. He has also been forced to register as a sex offender.

Velez will remain in the U.S. until he completes both his state-level sentence related to child sexual abuse and federal-level sentence for passport fraud. Once they are over, he will be remanded to the custody of ICE and deported back to Colombia. Whether he has been laicized by the Catholic Church remains unclear.

"The United States Department of Justice, ICE, and our other federal law enforcement partners will use every tool in our arsenal to protect children and will prosecute and seek deportation of those who fraudulently obtain U.S. citizenship," said acting United States Attorney Alexander Van Hook.

"This case sends a clear message to individuals who commit any type of sexual offense, particularly those involving children, during the naturalization process — we will ensure that justice is done," said acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth.

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Education Department Launches Investigation Into 5 Virginia School Districts For Allowing Boys In Girls’ Bathrooms

'If these school districts had any common sense, they’d end their trip to fantasyland and return to earth. If they don’t, they should absolutely lose their federal funding.'

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Ocasio-Cortez is upset at parody account 'going viral' and 'gaining speed' after being boosted by Elon Musk



Socialist Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York warned her followers about a parody account that was going viral and "gaining speed" after interacting with tech billionaire Elon Musk.

She tweeted about it on Tuesday.

"FYI there’s a fake account on here impersonating me and going viral. The Twitter CEO has engaged it, boosting visibility. It is releasing false policy statements and gaining spread," she wrote.

\u201cFYI there\u2019s a fake account on here impersonating me and going viral. The Twitter CEO has engaged it, boosting visibility.\n\nIt is releasing false policy statements and gaining spread.\n\nI am assessing with my team how to move forward. In the meantime, be careful of what you see.\u201d
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1685468114

"I am assessing with my team how to move forward. In the meantime, be careful of what you see," she added.

The congresswoman's complaints mirrored predictions from critics that parody accounts would cause chaos on Twitter after Musk changed the policies on verification marks for official Twitter accounts.

Among those who lashed out at Musk over the new policies was actress Alyssa Milano.

"So by revoking my blue check mark because I wouldn’t pay some arbitrary fee, someone can just be me and say a bunch of bulls***. Does that mean Twitter and @elonmusk are liable for defamation or identity theft or fraud?" Milano tweeted angrily at the time.

The focus of Ocasio-Cortez's ire was apparently the "AOCpress" account that is clearly labeled "parody" in accordance with the Twitter terms of service. The parody account has 181k followers while the account for Ocasio-Cortez has more than 13.4 million followers, which diminishes the chance anyone could mistake the parody account for the real account.

The account made light of the congresswoman's tweet.

"I can’t believe someone would do that to us," the parody responded.

"After brainstorming with my staff - I’m going to push Congress to make it illegal to joke, laugh, or make fun of me," the parody tweeted later.

\u201cAfter brainstorming with my staff - I\u2019m going to push Congress to make it illegal to joke, laugh, or make fun of me. \n\nParody should be illegal.\u201d
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Press Release (parody) (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Press Release (parody)) 1685470671

"Parody should be illegal," the parody account added.

Musk responded to a joke from the parody account on Monday with a "fire emoji" which is what angered Ocasio-Cortez.

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Ted Cruz makes AOC regret snarky comment about history of US political parties: 'Dem party founded the KKK'



Rep. Alexandria Ocaiso-Cortez (D-N.Y.) received more than she bargained for on Tuesday after prompting Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) with a snarky remark about the history of political parties in the United States.

What is the background?

On Sunday, Cruz tweeted his belief that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be "ashamed" of the modern-day NAACP for having "lost their way." Cruz was responding to the NAACP's advisory warning against travel to Florida.

In response, political scientist Norman Ornstein charged that Cruz "would’ve been first in line to filibuster" the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act.

"Nonsense. That shameful filibuster was led by Democrats—your party," Cruz fired back. "My party—the Republicans—proudly voted for the Civil Rights Act in much higher percentages than the racist Dems."

What did AOC say?

The New York congresswoman inserted herself into the dialogue by prompting Cruz to explain what allegedly happened to the landscape of U.S. political parties in the mid-20th century.

"Why don't you go ahead and tell people what happened to the parties after that, Ted," she snarked.

\u201cWhy don\u2019t you go ahead and tell people what happened to the parties after that, Ted\u201d
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1684847215

So that's exactly what Cruz did. "Sure," he obliged, before going on to provide a historical survey of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

"First, the Dem party founded the KKK. Then the Dem party wrote Jim Crow laws. Then the Dem party filibustered the Civil Rights Act," Cruz explained.

"Today, the Dem part filibusters school choice—trapping millions of Black kids in failing schools. Today, the Dem party pushes abolishing the police, which results in many more Black lives murdered. Today, every Dem senator voted against my bill to stop DC from throwing 40% of Black kids out of schools bc of vax mandate," he continued.

\u201c2/x - Today, the Dem part filibusters school choice\u2014trapping millions of Black kids in failing schools.\n\n- Today, the Dem party pushes abolishing the police, which results in many more Black lives murdered.\n\n- Today, every Dem senator voted against my bill to stop DC from\u2026\u201d
— Ted Cruz (@Ted Cruz) 1684857027

The history of the Republican Party, on the other hand, looks much different.

"The Republican Party was founded to oppose slavery. Our first Republican President was Abraham Lincoln, who won the Civil War and ended slavery," Cruz noted. "It was Republicans who voted for the Civil Rights Act in a much higher percentage than racist Dems."

"Today, we produced the lowest African-American unemployment EVER, under the Trump economic boom," he continued. "Today, we produced the lowest African-American poverty levels EVER, under the Trump economic boom."

To make matters worse for Democrats, Cruz pointed to former Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's racist yearbook controversy and the eulogy that then-Vice President Joe Biden gave at the funeral of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), a former KKK member.

Is there truth in what AOC suggested?

The suggestion implicit in Ocasio-Cortez's response is the claim that Republicans and Democrats essentially "switched" parties in the 1960s, with Republicans embracing racism to win the South while Democrats eschewed it.

But that is a myth.

The truth is that Republicans were electorally competitive in the South for decades before the civil rights movement; only one of the 21 Democratic senators who opposed the Civil Rights Act ever became a Republican; and it took two generations after the Civil Rights Act — until 1994 — before Republicans held a majority of congressional seats in the South.

Why Did the Democratic South Become Republican? www.youtube.com

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Congress says increasing salary would lessen 'polarization' as new reimbursement system for House members kicks in



Without a pay raise since 2009, U.S. House members are set to take advantage of new reimbursement rules that will allow them to write off living expenses while in Washington, D.C.

Lawmakers gave some rather interesting reasoning behind their rule changes, first announced in the end-of-2022 report.

"The personal benefits of winning a seat in Congress have also decreased," the justification began. "Members of Congress last received a pay increase in January 2009, when their salary was increased 2.8% to $174,000. While $174,000 is much more than the median household income, members must also maintain homes in both their districts and in Washington, D.C, which ranks in the top ten most expensive U.S. cities for renters," it continued.

As the New York Post pointed out, that salary is more than triple the average salary in the United States and higher than what 93% of Americans earn. In 2023, there will be 117 working days in session.

House members are able to claim reimbursement of $258 per night for lodging and $79 per day for meals in D.C.

"Unlike their counterparts in the executive branch and private sector, members do not receive a per diem or reimbursement for their out-of-pocket living expenses when they are at work in Washington," the congressional report added.

The report then argued that by making political office more profitable, it could decrease "polarization."

"While members are understandably reluctant to raise their own salaries, there is some evidence to suggest that paying lawmakers better salaries has the effect of decreasing polarization in legislatures," the report attempted to explain. "For example, a study focused on state legislatures found that when lawmaker salaries are raised, 'there is a corresponding decrease in how polarized the set of people who run for office is.' More candidates are willing to run for office if they see public service as an economically viable career."

\u201cBeen there. This is one of many ways Congress structures itself to exclude and push out the few working class people who *do* get elected.\n\nThese systems are built for people who can lean on wealth. It\u2019s shocking how detached from reality a lot of the details are - but I got you!\u201d
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1670625449

The reported cited a 2019 Washington Post article reviewing a book that argued raising congressional salaries would lessen polarization because "extreme people" are more likely to run for office.

"A moderate candidate might look at the opposition and say, gosh, I don’t particularly like what this person stands for, but running is super hard and I’d rather not quit my job. A more extreme person might look at the same opposition and say, wow, that person is anathema to me, I can’t bear the thought of being represented by that person. Even though it’s hard for me to run, I have to do it," author Andrew Hall wrote.

The report used the same graph from Hall's book to indicate falling salaries.

While the New York Post reported that the new rules will not require the submission of receipts, Fox News reported more recently that receipts are indeed required.

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