Patrick Hill

DETROIT — Detroit cop Patrick Hill — part of an ATF violent crime  task force — was critically wounded in a shootout with a murder suspect about four weeks ago on Detroit’s west side.

On Saturday night, while he remained hospitalized in critical condition, suffering from head wounds, his fellow officers and members of the community gathered at the VFW hall in Lincoln Park to raise money for Hill and his family. He and his wife have four children, ages 3 to 16.

Detroit Police Sgt. Michael DiCicco, a close friend of Hill’s who played on a traveling softball team with him, spearheaded the fundraiser on Saturday, and said about 1,000 people bought $20 tickets for the event. People also donated money and bought raffle tickets for donated prizes.

“It was a good haul,” DiCicco said, declining to disclose the total amount of money raised.

He said the money will help the family. The wife, who is a phsycian’s assistant at St. Joseph’s Hospital, has taken an unpaid leave to help take care of her husband. DiCicco said she was on hand Saturday night along with other family members.

“She was floored,” he said. “It was overwhelming for her to see all those people come out to support her husband.

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Ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick/official photo

DETROIT — A new motion filed on behalf of convicted felon Kwame Kilpatrick indicates that he thinks he has plenty appealable issues and is innocent of the 24 criminal counts he was convicted of in March.

It also talks about how he damaged his knee while getting into a U.S. Marshals van.

The motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court by attorney James Thomas, asks the judge for the third time to let Kilpatrick go free pending sentencing. His request the previous two times was rejected, and he’s likely to have a hard time convincing U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edminds to change her mind this time around.

Thomas writes that Kilpatrick has been preliminarily diagnosed with a torn Anterior Ligament (ACL).

In the motion he states:

This injury occurred just after the verdict in this case on March 11, 2013. While Defendant Kilpatrick was exiting the federal building, chained and bound (hands and feet), he slipped on the rain soaked steel step of the Federal Marshal Van, being provided for transport to the Federal Detention Center at Milan, Michigan. After receiving no care for more than a week at the Detention facility,and experiencing tremendous swelling of the knee, the Court convened a meeting of the federal marshals and Detention Center Staff.

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Steve Neavling

FBI agents Monday visited the Rhode Island home of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s and left with several bags.

Katherine Russell married Tsarnaev three years ago and was reportedly questioned about how much she knew about the attack.

“The FBI is there as part of our ongoing investigation, but we aren’t permitted to discuss specific aspects of our case,” the agency said in a statement.

It’s unclear how much Russell knew about the attack.

Steve Neavling

Kevin Curtis has had a rough month.

First he was charged with mailing ricin-laced letters to President Obama and two other officials.

Now, his attorney said, Curtis’ home is uninhabitable after a thorough search of his Mississippi house turned up no evidence of ricin, the Associated Press reports.

Now that the charges have been dropped and another man was arrested in the letter attacks, Curtis’ lawyer has requested that federal government officials provide temporary housing while fixing his home and possessions.

“To be specific, Mr. Curtis’ home is uninhabitable. I have seen a lot of post search residences but this one is quite disturbing. The agents removed art from the walls, broke the frames and tore the artwork. Mr. Curtis offered his keys but agents chose to break the lock. Mr. Curtis’ garbage was scheduled to be picked up Thursday, the day after he was snatched from his life. A week later, the garbage remains in his home, along with millions of insects it attracted,” a letter to U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams says.

Steve Neavling

A man accused of radicalizing the older brother in the Boston Marathon bombings denied any wrongdoing and said he would never condone a terrorist attack, the Washington Times reports.

Mikhail Allakhverdov, 39, a convert to Islam, denied allegations leveled by relatives of Tamerian Tsarnaev.

“I wasn’t his teacher. If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this,” Allakhverdov said.

Allakhverdov said he has been “cooperating entirely” with the investigation.

“I gave them my computer and my phone and everything,” he said, according to the review, “I wanted to show I haven’t done anything. And they said they are about to return them to me.”

The U.S. government would rely heavily on drones to inspect the borders under a new bipartisan proposal to reform immigration, the Medill News Service reports.

The unarmed drones are considered to be more effective and efficient than helicopters

Critics charge the drones are anything but.

“There’s been no evidence that (drones) have protected the homeland,” said Tom Barry, director of the TransBorder Project at the Center for International Policy, a liberal Washington think tank. “It’s just a political measure to show border security credentials of the immigration reform.”

CBP currently operates 10 unarmed drones.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• U.S. Sen. Schumer Questions FBI’s Handling of Older Boston Bombing Suspect After Russia Trip
• Rhode Island Connection Found in Whitey Bulger’s FBI Informant File
• Texas Congressman Says FBI Bowing to Pressure to Not Target Islamic Groups
• Border Patrol Will Have Troubles Measuring Success of Immigration Reform
• Lack of Director Is Hampering ATF Investigations, Some Say