17-year-old idiot brags on Instagram about killing 14-year-old in shooting — which naturally leads cops right to him: Report



A 17-year-old male last week bragged on Instagram about killing a younger teen in a Washington, D.C., gas station shooting — and that led police right to him, WRC-TV reported.

What are the details?

Surveillance camera images caught the shooting outside the Crown gas station at 14th and Euclid Streets NW around 11:30 p.m. Nov. 3, the station said.

WRC said video showed an individual wearing a ski mask and holding a gun — believed to be 17-year-old Lorenzo Thompson — who then opened fire near the gas station's doorway. The gunman fired 12 rounds toward three individuals on scooters in the parking lot, the station said.

Two victims were shot and hospitalized, WRC said, adding that one of them — 14-year-old Niko Estep — died.

More from the station:

Court documents claim that three days later, Thompson appeared in an Instagram live appearing to brag about the crime while wearing the same Moose Knuckle jacket and Jordan Retro sneakers seen on the gunman in the gas station video.

In a search of his bedroom, authorities said they uncovered an ammunition magazine of the same caliber as the gun used to kill the victim.

Thompson is being charged as an adult with second-degree murder while armed.

That ain't all

WRC, citing court documents, said video of the shooting shows a man in a hooded black jacket and a woman with red braids wearing a white parka just stood there and didn't do anything to intervene in the shooting.

What's more, the station added that the woman in question also followed the gunman as he rode a scooter to the parking lot prior to the shooting and then wheeled his scooter back to a nearby apartment building after the killing.

That apartment building was later determined to be the suspect’s home address, WRC reported.

Court documents also say an officer who arrested the teenage suspect for a prior robbery told detectives that the shooter in the gas station video looks like Thompson — and the officer also identified the suspect's mother, the station said.

“Officer Whitfield looked at the still shot of the female with red braids for approximately 15-20 seconds before he stated that it looked like Lorenzo Thompson’s mother,” the documents read, according to WRC.

Thompson is so far the only individual charged in Estep’s murder, the station said.

A motive for the deadly shooting was not immediately revealed, WRC reported, adding that police said detectives are continuing to investigate and that additional charges would come from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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Off-duty firefighter wrestles felon who pulled gun on him. Felon's girlfriend grabs dropped gun, fatally shoots firefighter — and she's facing no criminal charges.



Warning: graphic content.

An off-duty firefighter in Missouri was shot and killed outside a gas station earlier this month after wrestling with an angry customer who eventually pulled a gun on him. However, prosecutors have declined to charge the customer's girlfriend, who shot the firefighter, claiming that she shot him to defend her boyfriend's life.

At around 2:30 p.m. on October 6, Anthony "Tony" Santi, a 41-year-old Kansas City firefighter, was in a gas station in Independence, Missouri, when a fellow customer became irate with the female attendant because the store did not have the brand of cigars he wanted.

The customer, Ja’Von Taylor, 23, then hurled expletives at the unnamed store clerk, causing a disturbance. The clerk asked Taylor to leave the store, but he refused. Santi then intervened and demanded that Taylor leave. Tensions between the two men became heated, and they began fighting inside the store, though they eventually took the scuffle outside.

At some point, Taylor went to his vehicle and took out a firearm. Taylor and Santi then struggled to grab hold of the weapon. Santi eventually managed to get Taylor into a choke hold underneath him. Meanwhile, Taylor's girlfriend, who had been sitting in Taylor's vehicle, had exited the car and begged Santi to stop wrestling with Taylor.

"Stop, sir, stop," she yelled. "Get off! My kids [are] in the car! Stop! [You’re] killing him!"

The woman, whose identity has not been released, picked up the gun, which had fallen to the ground, and then aimed it at Santi. She warned him that she would use it, and she eventually did, firing one round into Santi's back.

A witness filmed the episode, which may have lasted for as long as 10 minutes. Though the video does not show the actual shooting, the content in it is graphic.

\u201cGraphic Content \ud83d\udea8\u26a0\ufe0f\n\nA Kansas City woman has been set free of charges tonight after protecting her boyfriend in a fight with a firefighter. The young lady seconds later killed the firefighter which has now been declared as self defense. \u26a0\ufe0f\u201d
— KC Discover (@KC Discover) 1666144853

The woman shot Santi moments after the conclusion of the video. After the shot, Santi got up off the ground and walked back into the store, where he collapsed and died.

After reviewing the video, Jackson County prosecutors declined to press charges against the woman, arguing that she could reasonably claim self-defense.

"We grieve with the family and community over this tragic loss of life of Mr. Santi," the prosecutor’s office wrote in a statement. "Missouri law governs this case, specifically self-defense and defense of others, leading us to decline charges after a careful review."

"If a case is declined, it’s just because we don’t believe there’s sufficient evidence to get to that highest burden of proof," Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker explained to reporters.

Kevin Jamison, a Missouri attorney who has practiced law for 40 years and who "wrote Missouri’s book on weapons and self-defense," according to WDAF-TV, also weighed in on why prosecutors may have declined to press charges in this case.

"Technically it's called the defense of justification and your justification is you are saving the life of another person," Jamison said.

He added that the woman likely had only limited knowledge about the "circumstances" of the fight, causing her to believe that Santi posed a threat to Taylor's life.

"The girlfriend is only constrained by what she reasonably believed to be the circumstances. If she didn’t see the start of the fight, all she knows is her boyfriend is getting strangled," he said.

Though the unnamed girlfriend will not face prosecution, Taylor will. He has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He had previously been convicted of first-degree robbery, though the date of his conviction and the length of his sentence remain unclear.

Santi joined the Kansas City Fire Department 11 years ago. He loved "nature and being outdoors" and his dog, Donnie, and he especially loved his daughter, "the light of his life," according to an obituary.

KCFD declined to comment on the decision not to prosecute the woman.

Good guy with a gun saves the day again, this time, killing a robber who held a knife to the throat of a Missouri gas station clerk: 'I don't think I honestly had a choice'



Another "Good Samaritan" with a gun saved the day again, this time, shooting and killing a man who was holding a gas station attendant at knife point.

Last Saturday, the concealed carrier pulled up to a QuikTrip service station in St. Charles, Missouri, about a half-hour outside St. Louis, and used the restroom. After he walked out of the store and returned to his car, however, some suspicious activity from another driver prompted him to remain at the gas station rather than pull away.

The customer with the gun, who has asked to remain anonymous, told reporters that he saw the driver of a black SUV enter the store and immediately grab the clerk and hold a knife to her throat.

"I saw him grab her and drag her to the front to the counter, something wasn't right when I saw that, so me being concealed carry, I had my gun on me and I just waited," he said.

"I walked up to the door and I saw him with a knife to her throat," he continued. "She was emptying out the cash register and I took a step in and peeked my head in to ask if everything was okay. I couldn't see his face but he was saying yes, but I could see her face she was saying no, she was scared."

The man said that the suspect then charged straight at him, still wielding the knife, so the man pulled out his gun and shot the suspect four times. Once the suspect fell, he and the clerk both called police.

“I don’t think I honestly had a choice. He already had a knife at her throat, he could’ve pulled out something bigger than what I had. Then, you would’ve had two people dead instead of one,” he said.

When police arrived, emergency medical teams transported the suspect — later identified as Lance Bush, a 26-year-old homeless man from St. Louis — to the hospital, where he died.

Bush is believed to have robbed at least one other gas station earlier that morning by holding a knife to the throat of the attendant and forcing her to give him money from the register. The black SUV he was driving had also been reported stolen on Friday.

“Taking somebody’s life is not an everyday thing, neither is saving someone’s life,” the man with the gun said.

When asked why he elected to confront the robber rather than call police from the safety of his vehicle, he replied, "Instinct I would say. Instinct that’s just it. I guess knowing that I’m protected, I can protect somebody else."

British Petroleum divests from Russian state-owned oil ventures



The British Petroleum Company (BP) plans to sell its nearly one-fifth stake in the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft.

BP plans to liquidate its 19.75% stake in Rosneft “with immediate effect” following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sky News reported.

Bernard Looney, BP’s chief executive, will also resign from his role on Rosneft’s board along with another BP executive, Bub Dudley.

The chairman for BP, Helge Lund, said, “Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an act of aggression which is having tragic consequences across the region. BP has operated in Russia for over 30 years, working with brilliant Russian colleagues. However, this military action represents a fundamental change.”

“It has led the BP board to conclude, after a thorough process, that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply cannot continue,” Lund continued, “We can no longer support BP representatives holding a role on the Rosneft board.”

He added, “The Rosneft holding is no longer aligned with BP’s business and strategy, and it is now the board’s decision to exit BP’s shareholding in Rosneft. The BP board believes these decisions are in the best long-term interests of all our shareholders.”

Russia’s economy has been in a freefall since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine.

In response to the Russian invasion, leaders of Western nations have proceeded to implement a wide array of sanctions on the Russian economy.

The Western sanctions specifically target Russia’s financial institutions. President Joe Biden issued sanctions that target Russia’s two largest banks, Sherbank and VTB, which will make it effectively impossible for Russians to conduct transactions through the American financial system.

Biden’s sanctions restrict nearly 80% of Russia’s banking assets.

On Saturday, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States issued a joint statement that announced their intention to remove Russia from the SWIFT telecommunication network.

Kicking Russia out of SWIFT will significantly damage the Russian economy and make long-term recovery incredibly difficult. This move will economically isolate Russia and prevent Russian businesses and banks from engaging in international transactions.

Natural gas and fossil fuel exports make up more than 80% of Russia’s GDP. Restricting Russia’s ability to sell fuel to the rest of the world will effectively cripple its economy.

The Russian ruble also continues to lose value rapidly.

To try and stabilize the cratering Russian economy, the Russian central bank said that it would intervene in the foreign exchange market and expand the list of securities that it is willing to accept as collateral.

Russia’s removal from SWIFT will put the Russian central bank in a tight bind as it will not be able to freely manipulate Russian monetary policy to offset inflation and the economic impact of Western sanctions.