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By James Cohen For Mailonline

Published: 04:06 EDT, 27 September 2023 | Updated: 04:06 EDT, 27 September 2023

By Ash Rose For Mailonline

Published: 13:29 EDT, 26 September 2023 | Updated: 16:08 EDT, 26 September 2023

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Man, 43, arrested in hunt for Michigan sniper who fired at random cars in four counties in two-week campaign of terror

• Suspect arrested in Wixom, the Detroit suburb where shootings began
• Targets in 24 incidents were mostly cars on roads near Interstate 96
  

By Graham Smith for MailOnline

Published: 12:31 EDT, 7 November 2012 | Updated: 15:47 EDT, 7 November 2012

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A man has been arrested on suspicion of being the sniper who shot at random cars in four Michigan counties in two weeks.

The 43-year-old suspect was taken into custody on Monday night in Wixom, the Detroit suburb where the shootings began.

Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth called the attacks, which wounded one person, ‘domestic terrorism’.

He said: ‘Why did he do it? I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever know.’

Janice Schumacher, 43, was pumping gas in Wixom when she heard that a suspect was in custody.

‘I hope this is the guy,’ said the Commerce Township resident who for the past several weeks has been using alternate routes to run personal errands and shuttle her three children to and from school

‘For weeks, I haven’t been able to breathe while driving with my kids in the car. If they finally got this guy, that would be a major relief.’

Before the arrest, clues appeared to be few – slugs and bullet fragments embedded in cars, metal casings on roadways, a simple black-and-white sketch of the shooter – a man believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s – and vague descriptions of the dark car he drove.

The crime scene where the shootings took place is 100 miles long and slices through suburbia, shopping malls and farm pastures.

Shootings have occurred during the day, at night, on weekdays and on weekends. Police say the shooter would drive along roadways and fire at vehicles traveling in the opposite direction. Only one person was wounded.

Initial reports of shootings stirred panic. Wixom schools restricted recess and other activities that would take students outdoors. Drivers avoided main thoroughfares where they might be exposed and stuck to side streets.

But police have been working hard to maintain calm. In Wixom – where ten shootings have been reported – police had special Halloween patrols to protect trick-or-treaters.

From Oakland County, northwest of Detroit, to Shiawassee County, northeast of Lansing, authorities stopped cars resembling the shooter’s vehicle. A $102,000 reward was offered.

‘I’ve always felt safe here. But this has been very shocking,’ said Karen Adams, 51, who lives one street away from the suspect.

Shocking footage shows the moment a man hurled racial slurs and threats of murder and rape at his terrified black neighbors at their Oregon apartment complex. 

Shirtless Dominic Austin, 19, is seen pounding on the door as he makes the sinister threats, pacing menacingly in front of the mother and daughters’ doorstep.

He even stabs their front door with a knife and in one clip he can be heard saying: ‘I’ll f**king rape your daughter, b**ch.’ 

‘You’re about to get murdered,’ he says in another, before ominously adding: ‘Call the cops, b**ch.’ He is also heard mumbling angrily about slavery, before asserting that he wants the women to be whipped.

The tenants on the other side, Nubrittany Smith and her elderly, live-in mother Tasha, say they have been subject to such behavior since June and have filed a restraining order against Austin.

However, Austin was only handed an eviction notice this week, before being arrested Wednesday for menacing the women and violating Smith’s August 23 protective order.

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In his arrest report, officers with the Gresham Police report wrote how Austin violated the stalking order at least 10 separate times – repeatedly showing up the mother and daughter’s door to harass them while appearing increasingly unstable.

Smith said she reported the threats to police after ‘each event’ – with videos captured on her Ring Security Camera appearing to show Austin’s escalating behavior, which she said took a turn for the worse on September 8.

According to documents obtained by KOIN, that was when Austin was officially notified by management at The Landings at Morrison that he was being thrown out of the complex due to a stipulation in his rental agreement says tenants will be evicted within 24 hours if they should ever threaten another tenant.

The outlet, however, reported that an eviction notice was only handed to Austin on Monday, allowing him roughly two weeks to ramp up his campaign of harassments against the two women, who moved in in June.

The threats began soon after, with the family filing their first formal complaint against Austin on June 30.

Still, no action was taken until this month – and an arrest was not made until Wednesday, hours after KOIN unmasked Austin’s alleged behavior.

Footage posted to social media by Smith further substantiated her and her mothers’ claims – showing Austin issuing death threats to the pair through their locked door.

He remains shirtless in all of the videos, which were all shared to Instagram by Smith.

In a GoFundMe asking for money to relocate, she alleged that Austin – who at this point was a day from being evicted – was suffering from a mental affliction, and had been coming down to the unit in such a manner since June 29.

‘Every time he comes down he is either holding a knife or beating on [our] door,’ she wrote on September 17, adding ‘the property management is aware of the situation and appears not to be concerned in our health or safety.’

She further revealed: ‘My mother has requested accommodations as far as being transferred to a different unit or paying for to place us in a hotel.

‘The property management declined both accommodations,’ she said.

Within a day after posting the profile – which has raised more than 10,000 in the span of a week – KOIN published its story about the alleged pattern of abuse, and brass at the posh complex near Portland formally hit Austin with an order to vacate.

That notice came nearly two weeks after management hit him with the 24-warning, which they inexplicably did not act on despite Austin’s visits – and the families complaints – persisting to this past Tuesday, when he was handed the order.

The next day, only after being named in the KOIN piece, Austin was placed under arrest  – on 10 charges of violating protection orders, and one count of menacing – a felony.

Upon his arrest, it was also revealed that Austin had a stalking protection order filed against him on August 23 by another tenant at the complex.

In that case, cops said Austin continued to violate that order, as well as Smiths’ until Tuesday – the day before his arrest.

Smith has since retained an attorney, alleging staffers at the Gresham apartment complex failed their tenants by allowing Austin’s pattern of abuse to continue unhindered.  

‘I was failed by the system and by the Landings at the Morrison,’ Smith told KOIN Wednesday after Austin’s arrest, adding ‘I don’t feel safe because he’s in jail today… I don’t know what tomorrow is going to be.’

She told the station: ‘He could be released at any time. Then what happens next?’

Citing how she reported the behavior to police multiple times, Smith said: ‘As a Black woman, we, I felt that we weren’t heard – I feel that we were not important.’

Her lawyer, citing the landlords’ failure to act on their own policy of booting tenants within a day of making threats against a neighbor, said: ‘The people who run this very large apartment complex didn’t give a damn. The police did not give a damn.’

Claiming that both cops and the complex failed Smith and her mom, he added: ‘I don’t know how anyone can look at those videos and come to any other conclusion.’

Gresham police, meanwhile, sent out a statement in response Wednesday, finally addressing Smith’s complaints.

‘We are aware of the terrible conduct of the suspect in this case, including statements that indicate the motivation for the crime is hate or bias. 

‘We share in our communities’ concern and appreciate the unique impact bias crimes, in particular, have on victims.

‘Although the suspect has been arrested and is currently in custody, the investigation is continuing. 

‘We are working with the district attorney’s office to ensure the suspect is charged with the appropriate crimes.’

A Maryland man with a terminal heart disease has become the second-ever patient to receive a genetically modified pig heart. 

This week, Lawrence Faucette, 58, underwent transplant surgery after being deemed ineligible for a human heart transplant due to peripheral vascular disease, which reduces blood circulation. 

The procedure, known as a xenotransplant, has only been performed once before on an ex-convict who died two months later. Both historic procedures were performed at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). 

Mr Faucette, a married father-of-two and a 20-year Navy veteran, is breathing on his own, and his heart is functioning without any supportive devices after the surgery, which took place on Tuesday. Without the procedure, he was facing certain death. 

‘My only real hope left is to go with the pig heart, the xenotransplant,’ Mr Faucette said a few days before surgery. 

‘Dr. Griffith, Dr. Mohiuddin and their entire staff have been incredible, but nobody knows from this point forward. At least now I have hope, and I have a chance.’

His wife, Ann Faucette, added: ‘We have no expectations other than hoping for more time together. That could be as simple as sitting on the front porch and having coffee together.’ 

Mr Faucette likely has a long road ahead. He’s at risk of his body rejecting the foreign organ, which occurs in 10 to 20 percent of transplant patients. The UMMC doctors believe this risk could be greater for xenotransplant patients. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency approval for the surgery last week with what’s called its single-patient investigational new drug (IND) ‘compassionate use’ pathway. 

This is used when an experimental medical product, such as a genetically modified pig heart, is the only option available to treat a serious or life-threatening condition. 

‘We are once again offering a dying patient a shot at a longer life, and we are incredibly grateful to Mr Faucette for his bravery and willingness to help advance our knowledge of this field,’ Dr Bartley P Griffith, who transplanted pig hearts into both patients, said. 

‘We are hoping that he will get home soon to enjoy more time with his wife and the rest of his loving family.’  

The gene-edited pig used in this procedure was provided by Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, one of several biotech companies in the running to develop suitable pig organs for potential human transplant. 

On the morning of the surgery, the transplant team removed the heart and placed it in an XVIVO Heart Box, the size of a microwave, which keeps the organ preserved in a nutrient-rich oxygenated solution. 

Pigs have a gene that produces a molecule not found in humans that triggers an immediate and aggressive immune response in humans, called hyperacute rejection. Within minutes, the body attacks the foreign organ. 

In Mr Faucette’s surgery, three genes were ‘knocked out’ in the donor pig. Six human genes, which are responsible for the immune system accepting the organ, were inserted into the genome. One additional gene in the pig was knocked out to prevent excessive growth of the pig heart tissue. In total, 10 unique genes were edited in the donor pig. 

Xenotransplantation could provide another option for the 110,000 Americans currently waiting for an organ transplant. More than 6,000 of these patients die every year before they can get the organs they need, according to federal data. 

Dr Mark Gladwin, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs at the University of Maryland Baltimore, said: ‘This innovative program embodies the future of molecular medicine in surgery and speaks to a possible future where organs may be available to all patients.’

‘We recognize a heroic partnership with Mr Faucette and his family, as we partner to advance the field of transplantation medicine into the next era.’

This procedure was first performed last year on David Bennett, 57. Like Mr Faucette, Mr Bennett was also ineligible for a human heart. He also did not follow his doctors’ orders, missed appointments and stopped taking drugs he was prescribed.

He was bedridden, on life support, and out of options. ‘It was either die or do this transplant,’ he said.

Though the surgery was deemed a success, Mr Bennett died two months later. However, the organ wasn’t rejected; experts claimed that the heart could have been infected with a virus.

Mike Curtis, chief executive of competing pig breeder eGenesis, told MIT Technology Review: ‘Without the virus, would Mr Bennett have lived? We don’t know, but the infection didn’t help. It likely contributed to the failure.’

The choice to perform the procedure on Bennett was deemed controversial when it was discovered that he served five years in prison for attacking Edward Shumaker while he played pool at a Maryland bar in April 1988 after he caught his then-wife Norma Jean Bennett sitting in Shumaker’s lap while the pair were talking and drinking.

Shumaker, then 22,  was paralyzed after being stabbed seven times in the back, abdomen and chest. He survived for 19 years before suffering a stroke in 2005 and dying two years later at age 40.

His sister, Leslie Shumaker Downey, bemoaned the praise being heaped on a man who robbed her younger brother of a healthy life in an interview with the BBC in January. 

Downey said he is ‘not a worthy recipient’ and dislikes his portrayal as a hero.

‘Morally, in my opinion, no,’ she said, when asked if he should have been the first person to benefit from the medical breakthrough.

‘For the medical community, the advancement of it and being able to do something like that is great and it’s a great advancement but they’re putting Bennett in the storylines portraying him as being a hero and a pioneer and he’s nothing of that sort.’

‘I think the doctors who did the surgery should be getting all the praise and not Mr Bennett.’ 

Scientists have been toying with animal-to-human organ donation, known as xenotransplantation, for decades.  

Skin grafts were carried out in the 1800s from a variety of animals to treat wounds, with frogs being the most popular. 

In the 1960s, 13 patients were given chimpanzee kidneys, one of whom returned to work for almost 9 months before suddenly dying. The rest passed away within weeks.

At that time human organ transplants were not available and chronic dialysis was not yet in use. 

In 1983, doctors at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California transplanted a baboon heart into a premature baby born with a fatal heart defect.

Baby Fae lived for just 21 days. The case was controversial months later when it emerged the surgeons did not try to acquire a human heart.

More recently, waiting lists for transplants from dead, or allogenic, donors is growing as life expectancy rises around the world and demand increases. 

In October 2021, surgeons at NYU Langone Health in New York successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a human for the first time.

It started working as it was supposed to, filtering waste and producing urine without triggering a rejection by the recipient’s immune system. 

The recipient was a brain-dead patient in New York with signs of kidney dysfunction whose family agreed to the experiment before she was taken off life support. 

It’s unclear what Mr Faucette’s prognosis is, though he is currently in stable condition.

Brit, 19, is ‘raped by 37-year-old man who plied her with laughing gas and attacked her when she became dizzy’ on Greek party island Zakynthos

• The 37-year-old was given a fine of just four thousand euros
• He’s also been told not to leave the country, and has to check in at a police station twice a month
• The attack allegedly took place at a hotel in Laganas, on the island of Zakynthos 

By Perkin Amalaraj

Published: 11:24 EDT, 22 September 2023 | Updated: 12:05 EDT, 22 September 2023

By Chris Wheeler for MailOnline

Published: 08:30 EDT, 22 September 2023 | Updated: 09:41 EDT, 22 September 2023