By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

ATF Special Agent in Charge Ashan M. Benedict started his career dealing with street violence in D.C. He eventually rose through the ranks and headed up the New York field office in 2016.

But with the spike in homicides in the District, he’s back to head up the D.C. Field Office to help battle a spike in homicides.

WUSA9 spoke to him about his latest challenge.

Eric Garner with his children, via National Action Network

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Their killings prompted nationwide protests about the use of force by police but their names are missing from a federal government’s official database of homicides by officers, the Guardian reports. 

The absence of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and John Crawford’s names raises new questions about the government’s official record of police shootings.

FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said the database is voluntary for police departments.

“We have no way of knowing how many incidents may have been omitted,” Fischer told the Guardian in an email.

A review by the Guardian found many flaws and omissions.

“It’s just another part of the cover-up and erasing of his murder from the record,” said Eric Garner’s daughter, Erica Garner.

A joint FBI-Los Angles Police operation aimed a cutting a backlog of gang-related killings is showing some results, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The paper reports that the joint operation, which began in July 1 and ends Sept. 30, has resulted in 43 homicide arrests.

And the paper reported that the effort has just resulted in 11 new murder charges being filed.

Veteran LAPD Det. Sal LaBarbera said he expects the operation to clear more cases in the next 10 days before the Sept. 30 deadline.

The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office should get credit for being this aggressive in investigating the police shootings of civilians in New Orleans.

By Brendan McCarthy
New Orleans Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — Federal agents this week raided the office of the New Orleans Police Department homicide division, seizing the files and computer hard drives of two officers assigned to investigate police conduct in one deadly post-Katrina shooting episode, law enforcement sources told The Times-Picayune.

Representatives of the FBI and NOPD confirmed the seizure late Thursday.

FBI agents served a search warrant Wednesday afternoon for files in the offices of two supervisors, Sgt. Gerard Dugue and Sgt. Arthur Kaufman, the sources said.

The two sergeants were the lead investigators who examined the shooting of civilians by police on the Danziger Bridge days after Hurricane Katrina.

Gunfire from police, who were responding to reports of shots fired at officers, left two men dead and four people wounded.

For Full Story

The drug wars, the homicide, the violence south of the border is taking its toll on Americans.