Plainfield teen accused of shooting parents dead at Michigan university; father was cop, Iraqi war veteran
March 3, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Comments Off
A manhunt continued late Friday for a college student from the Chicago suburbs who authorities said fatally shot his parents on the campus of Central Michigan University.
Authorities said Friday evening they had more than 100 officers from multiple agencies searching for 19-year-old James Eric Davis, of Plainfield. They warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous.
The victims were identified by authorities as Davis’ parents, James Eric Davis Sr. and Diva Jeneen Davis. Davis Sr. was a police officer in west suburban Bellwood and an Illinois National Guard veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Diva Davis’s Facebook page identified her as a real estate broker; friends said she was also a breast cancer survivor and had worked as a flight attendant.
People who knew the family called Davis Jr. “respectful” and “a good kid” and his parents “upstanding,” and said they saw no obvious signs of trouble with the teenager, who was a sophomore at the school in Mount Pleasant, Mich.
“He was a good kid, always,” said Deantre DeYoung, 20, who met Davis Jr. when they were high school freshmen at Plainfield South High School and had kept in touch. “You would never expect something like this to come from James.”
The Davises were reportedly picking up their son from college for spring break when the shooting happened inside a residence hall on campus.
But Lt. Larry Klaus of the campus police department said Davis Jr. was taken to a hospital Thursday night by campus police because of a drug-related health problem, possibly an overdose. Authorities did not elaborate.
Bellwood Police Chief Jiminez Allen confirmed Friday that Davis Sr. was a part-time officer in the village and called it “a very difficult time” for the department.
An Illinois legislator whose district includes Bellwood, Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, said in a Tweet on Friday afternoon: “My sincerest condolences go out to the family of Bellwood Police Officer James Davis Sr. and his wife who were shot and killed this morning. May they RIP.”
The younger Davis attended Plainfield South High for three years, then completed high school at Plainfield Central, where he played basketball and graduated in 2016, Plainfield Community School District 202 officials confirmed.
They declined any further comment “out of respect to the family.”
Campus police identified and released a photo of Davis Jr. during an afternoon news conference. Klaus said surveillance video suggests he fled on foot after the 8:30 a.m. shooting at Campbell Hall. Police warned the public not to confront him. Earlier Friday, they said they suspected he was still in the central Michigan area.
Jordan Murphy, a longtime friend of Davis Sr., said they worked together as Illinois Army National Guard recruiters after being deployed together as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Murphy said Davis Sr., who went by Eric, brought his son to Murphy’s home on several occasions.
“Junior was a very respectful man, raised by upstanding parents, who would do anything to protect him and his siblings,” Murphy said. “This is an incredibly tragic event, and I pray for Eric’s other children. This is so incredibly out of character, something went wrong somewhere.”
Murphy called Eric and Diva Davis “loving, ever-present parents who doted on their children.”
Besides Davis Jr., the couple had a daughter and another son.
Lt. Col. Brad Leighton, public affairs director of the Illinois National Guard, said Davis Sr. served with the guard for 24 years before retiring in 2014.
His time in the guard included a 2003 deployment to Iraq, when he was with the 1244th Transportation Co. out of North Riverside. Later, he worked as a recruiter out of the Joliet Armory, Leighton said.
Julian Leal, who lives on the same block as the Davis home in Plainfield, called Davis Sr. a good neighbor, the type who would shovel out his neighbors after a snowstorm.
“We had picnics in our backyard,” Leal said. “I just had a beer with him last week. We talked about our kids who are in college. He was proud of his son.”
Leal added there was no hint of any problems or violence.
“We’re all confused and at a loss,” he said. “We’re telling our kids to be strong and pray for them. They wouldn’t want us to fall apart.”
Klaus, the campus police lieutenant in Michigan, said anyone who sees Davis Jr. shouldn’t confront him, but needs to call 911. Officials at the school, which has about 23,000 students, urged everyone on campus to take shelter.
“He should be considered armed and dangerous,” said Klaus, adding that Davis Jr. was wearing a black hoodie but had been shedding certain clothes while on the run.
The shooting occurred on the last day of classes before spring break at the Mount Pleasant campus, which is about 70 miles north of Lansing and is about a 270-mile drive from Chicago. Parents who were trying to pick up students were told instead to go to a local hotel where staff would assist them while the manhunt was ongoing.
The school posted an alert Friday morning on social media about shots being fired at Campbell Hall. An automated phone message also was sent to students.
Halie Byron, 20, said she locked herself in her off-campus house, about a 10-minute walk from Campbell Hall. She had planned to run errands before traveling home to the Detroit area.
“It’s scary thinking about how easy a shooter can come into a college campus anywhere — a classroom, a library. There’s so much easy access,” Byron said.
In the surrounding community, students and staff in the Mount Pleasant school district were told not to leave nine buildings. Visitors also weren’t being allowed to enter.
Chicago Tribune’s Robert McCoppin and Rosemary Sobol contributed. Associated Press contributed.
Share and Enjoy
‘Jared has faded’: Inside the 28 days of tumult that left Kushner badly diminished
March 3, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Comments Off
This official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe private interactions, said the uncertainty surrounding special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia probe has cast a cloud over Kushner in particular.
“Some of his administration colleagues are just more reluctant to have conversations with him or in his company because they’re not sure if he’s a witness or a target of the Mueller investigation,” the official said.
The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, a friend of Trump’s and a mentor to Kushner, wrote Thursday that Kushner had become a political target for the president’s adversaries. Describing Mueller’s interest in Kushner’s business dealings and foreign contacts, the editorial continued: “Only he and his lawyers know if there are other vulnerabilities. If there are, he and President Trump would both [be] better off if Mr. Kushner were out of the White House before they become public.”
Trump and his family were frustrated by how Kelly handled the rollout of clearance changes and felt Kushner was unfairly exposed, according to people who have spoken with them. The president’s adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, were especially angry and felt that by not protecting Kushner, Kelly had been disloyal to the president himself, these people said. Kelly, for his part, has steadfastly denied any effort to target Kushner and praised him last month for his “valuable contributions.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that officials in at least four countries have privately discussed ways to manipulate Kushner through his myriad financial interests – a factor in his inability to obtain a security clearance. On a separate issue, the New York Times reported that Apollo, a private equity firm, and Citigroup loaned more than $500 million combined to the Kushner family real estate business, after executives of the firms attended meetings with Kushner at the White House.
William M. Daley, a former White House chief of staff and Department of Commerce secretary under Democratic presidents, said, “A family member with no experience at anything other than real estate, no real profile other than a family-run business with a shady past, given incredibly complicated tasks, was a joke.
“People elect a president knowing so much about them, good or bad, but no one knows Jared Kushner in the game he is playing,” Daley continued. “The fact that he made so many blunders, starting with the back-channel talks with Russians, should have told one how in over his head he was.”
- – -
Kushner continues to help manage the Middle East peace process and the administration’s relationship with Mexico. He also convenes weekly meetings on restructuring the prison system, telling colleagues it is his main domestic focus even though the president has given it scant attention.
Early on, Kushner was a conduit to the business community, regularly checking in with corporate leaders and convening them for White House meetings. But the president’s business councils disbanded last summer over his divisive remarks following the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville and in the months since, Kushner has had less official contact with business executives.
“Jared has faded from the scene,” said one executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution from the White House. “People haven’t heard much from him in months.”
Amid the chaos, Kushner has attempted to maintain a sense of normalcy. On Tuesday, he and Ivanka dined at the BLT Prime restaurant in the Trump International Hotel down the street from the White House, along with Eric Trump and his wife and the president’s youngest daughter, Tiffany.
On Wednesday, Kushner attended the morning senior staff meeting where, at Kelly’s prompting, he spoke about the recent announcement that Brad Parscale, a close friend of his who worked on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, would be running the 2020 reelection.
Explaining why Parscale was chosen, Kushner spoke of his digital savvy, and also stressed that Parscale has the full support of the president and his family. It is unusual for government officials to so openly discuss campaign politics in a White House staff meeting.
Parscale’s appointment – first teased out by the Drudge Report, whose founder, Matt Drudge, communicates regularly with Kushner – came as a surprise to some West Wing officials and was seen as an attempted consolidation of power by Kushner at an especially precarious time. Some Kushner critics said the announcement was premature, arguing that the president’s political team should be squarely focused on the midterm elections this November before staffing up for a reelection more than two years from now.
By this week, that once powerful foursome – Kushner and Ivanka Trump, Hicks and Porter – was fractured and in varying states of disarray. Porter left the administration last month and is no longer dating Hicks, the White House communications director. Hicks, meanwhile, abruptly announced Wednesday that she is giving up her post after six years of working for the Trump family in one capacity or another.
In times of duress, Kushner has leaned on Josh Raffel, a deputy White House communications director, to help cope with unflattering coverage. But with crises mounting, Kushner will now need to look elsewhere.
Raffel, too, announced this week that he is leaving.
The Washington Post’s Robert Costa, Shane Harris and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.