The Daily Moth 11-19-19 [LIVE]

Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Tuesday, November 19.

I am doing today’s news LIVE from the DPAN studio here in the Detroit area.

I will talk about a Deaf man from the Austin area who was a fugitive. I’ll explain the situation. And then I’ll cover several top news briefs. Okay?

Firstly — last night the Austin Police Department (APD) posted on their Facebook page an image of a deaf man, David Tomlinson (47), and said he is a wanted fugitive and is charged with first-degree aggravated robbery. This sign for “robbery” is incorrect, I meant to sign it this way.

So this was posted last night. I was just in touch with a spokesperson from the Austin Police Department told me that Tomlinson was arrested and is in custody as of a few hours ago.

There was a picture posted on Reddit r/Austin of two Austin police officers standing on a street on South Congress pointing their firearms at a man who placed his arms on a sedan. One of the officers had a large rifle while the other had a handgun. Both were pointed to him.

I got word from a source in Austin that the suspect was Tomlinson based on his car and his hat. The source knew it was him. The photo on Reddit did not show the suspect’s face, as he had his head turned.

This same source from Austin showed me a very recent video of Tomlinson that he posted on a Facebook group of him denying that he committed an aggravated robbery and of him driving in a car wearing a white baseball cap saying, “I’m not nervous.” The white hat he used in the video is the same hat that the man in the Reddit photo was wearing. So it seems like the same person.

In a call with the Austin Police Department, I described the photo on Reddit and asked if this was Tomlinson, the fugitive that the APD announced about.

A spokesperson from the APD — Stephanie from the APD Public Information Office — said they saw the photo and reached out to an officer who is in the field about the photo. That officer said it is more likely that he was the person, that it was Tomlinson. But this is not confirmed yet until the officer comes back and sees the photo for himself. But it’s more likely that it was him at gunpoint.

In the APD’s Facebook post from last night with his image, they named him the “Fugitive of the Week,” and offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest.

This afternoon I reached out to the Travis County District Clerk’s office to get more information on the robbery incident.

I was informed by the clerk that the warrant concerning Tomlinson was issued last week on November 12. The robbery happened on the 2700 block of South Congress Ave at an apartment that belonged to a victim named Jack Riley.

Tomlinson is accused of stealing $300 in cash from a safe box, a bunch of change that was in a container, and Riley’s apartment key.

The clerk said there is an affidavit that states that Riley is deaf (like Tomlinson) but also has brain damage and mental and emotional disabilities. So he is deaf and has additional disabilities.

The clerk said the affidavit also states that Riley was slapped hard by Tomlinson across his right cheek and that he was pushed in the shoulder, and both blows caused him pain. This information is from the affidavit.

The clerk said Tomlinson has a $25,000 bond. When I was in touch with them, Tomlinson was a fugitive, but he has since been arrested. The Travis County Jail have not updated their records to show that Tomlinson was arrested, but based on my discussion with APD, he is in custody.

I did some research on Texas’ laws on the aggravated robbery charge. It is when someone commits a robbery and causes serious bodily injury to another, and/or uses or exhibits a deadly weapon (such as a gun, knife, or a stick), and/or injuries or seriously threat an elderly person above 65 or a disabled person.

So from all this information, it is possible that the aggravated robbery charge is based on the victim being a disabled person — brain damage and deafness. It is not known Riley’s age. I tried to get some information on who Jack Riley is, but I couldn’t get any.

In Texas, a conviction for first degree aggravated robbery carries a sentence of up to 99 years or life in prison. It is a very serious crime, but it is not known if Tomlinson will face this kind of heavy penalty or have something lighter. It’s not known as he was just arrested.

Tomlinson lived in the Austin, TX area and had family connections with the Texas School for the Deaf. He is well-known in the deaf disc golf community as he won a national deaf disc golf championship four times. So he is a talented player.

The location of the gunpoint arrest on South Congress Ave is very close to the Texas School for the Deaf campus. That street is popular with shoppers and diners.

I will include a link of Tomlinson’s picture from APD in the comments after I finish this LIVE broadcast. I am seeing some comments by people who don’t know who he is. I’ll include a link to show you.

https://www.facebook.com/AustinPolice/photos/a.239707999410990/2450859361629165/?type=3&theater

Reddit post of arrest: https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/dypr83/armed_arrest_at_s_congress_and_annie_just_now/

https://www.goldsteinhilley.com/property-crimes/robbery/

http://www.lusterlaw.com/page/aggravated-robbery-charges-in-texas

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Now, here are several top news briefs.

The first is about the man who was accused of sexually trafficking multiple young girls, Jeffrey Epstein, who died in the Manhattan Correctional Center in what was said to be a suicide — but many doubt this — the two jail guards who worked that night, those who were supposed to watch him, has been arrested and charged with making false records. The guards, named only as Ms. Noel (31) and Mr. Thomas (41), are accused of failing to check on Epstein every half-hour and lying about it on prison documents. The indictment said they browsed the internet and slept instead of checking on him.

The New York City Medical Examiner said Epstein killed himself by hanging, but there is a widespread conspiracy theory that he did not kill himself but was murdered. There are several investigations on his death. So this is an update, that two jail guards were arrested.

The second news — here are updates on yesterday’s news of mass shootings in Fresno and a Walmart in Oklahoma.

Police in Fresno, California are still looking for two gunmen who are responsible for shooting and killing four men in a backyard party. The four men were a part of the Hmong community in Fresno.

Police suggested that the shooting was connected to Asian gangs who were responsible for several violent incidents in Fresno this year and would form a gang task force to crack down on them. So the two suspects are still at large.

Now the Oklahoma Walmart shooting that happened yesterday where three people died — police said this was a domestic double murder-suicide. Police said a 43-year-old man shot and killed his ex-wife and her boyfriend. They were dating and were in a car when they were shot. Police said before the shooting, the ex-husband drove in his car and parked in the parking lot across from his ex-wife and her boyfriend’s car. They were inside the store shopping and the ex-husband waited for the two to return from shopping before opening fire on them. The gunman then committed suicide.

So that’s an update on the two shootings.

The third news is about the impeachment inquiry against President Trump. This morning two people who work in the Trump administration testified before a House committee.

They were Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who works in the White House on the National Security Council, and Jennifer Williams, who is an aide to Vice President Mike Pence.

Both of them listened to the phone call between President Trump and the Ukrainian president Zelensky in which they discussed an investigation on Burisma, the company that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, was on. Vindman testified that the call was improper because of how Trump demanded a foreign government to investigate a U.S. citizen and a political opponent. Williams said it was unusual because it involved a discussion of a domestic political matter.

This afternoon two more people testified, and are still testifying at the current time of signing. They are former U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker and former NSC adviser Tim Morrison.

Volker said the Ukraine allegations against Joe Biden is not credible and is self-serving. This is from Volker. Morrison said that the EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland informed him that Ukraine’s military aid was tied with a Ukrainian promise to investigate Joe Biden and the 2016 election. He said the demand gave him a “sinking feeling.”

So, those are the four testimonies today.

That is all for today’s LIVE show, the story about David Tomlinson, a Deaf man in Austin who was arrested with serious charges and many top stories briefs.

See you tomorrow and stay with the light! Bye.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/nyregion/epstein-prison-guards-arrested.html#click=https://t.co/fMcdCI8tPm

https://www.axios.com/pompeo-israel-settlements-west-bank-illegal-6b7e954b-3058-4c7f-b881-2cb16e1badb1.html

https://www.axios.com/trump-impeachment-hearing-alexander-vindman-jennifer-williams-070d54a0-1667-4118-9dd4-bf993de9f848.html

https://www.axios.com/trump-impeachment-hearing-kurt-volker-tim-morrison-96a3ae4b-9287-4a86-88dd-8d65f37926e4.html

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/19/780854934/our-community-is-in-mourning-popular-singer-among-4-hmong-men-killed-in-fresno

https://www.whio.com/news/national/shooting-reported-oklahoma-wal-mart/EaXpy73iI0zW93MZjoAueJ/

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