Crime & Justice
Men who held couple at gunpoint after buying home arrested
Two men who held a couple at gunpoint after buying their home and changing the locks has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal trespass.
Two men who held a couple at gunpoint after buying their home and changing the locks has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal trespass.
Robert Canoles said he has no shame in interrupting what he thought was a robbery in progress at his neighbor’s house.
Canoles said he and his teenage son, Branden, heard noises from the once-foreclosed home next door, vacant for seven months. They grabbed their AR-15s and snuck up behind a man and woman fiddling with the front door lock.
As reported by AJC:
Jean-Joseph Kalonji, 61, and his 57-year-old wife, Angelica, following their real estate agent’s advice, had driven to Porterdale to change the locks on the home their son Bruno Kalonji had just purchased. They found themselves prisoners of two men they didn’t know clutching semi-automatic rifles.
“Shut up or I’ll shoot,” Canoles allegedly told the couple after they tried to explain that their son now owned the modest home sitting on 11 acres. Canoles asked to see the closing paperwork, which the Kalonjis didn’t have.
For roughly 10 minutes, the Kalonjis — who moved to the U.S. from Zaire in the late 1990s to escape persecution from the brutal Mobutu regime — stood nervously, arms lifted over their heads, backs turned to the gunmen.
“I didn’t know who they were,” Jean-Joseph Kalonji told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday. “Were they there to rob us?”
Their fears were lifted when deputies from the Newton County Sheriff’s Department, contacted by Canoles, arrived. But their relief was short-lived. The deputies, demanding proof the home was theirs, handcuffed the Kalonjis.
“I told them, ‘Call my son, he’ll tell you,’ ” said Jean-Joseph Kalonji, a teacher in Zaire who found work as an electrician after moving to America. “I begged them to call him, but they wouldn’t do it.”
The couple were booked into jail, charged with loitering and prowling.
Canoles, meanwhile, said he was praised by the responding officers.
“The police told me I did a good job,” said Canoles, 45, who was never questioned that night. He spoke again with deputies on Friday and said he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Now, four days later, Canoles finds himself facing charges after the Newton County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney met Monday with the Kalonjis and their attorney, Don Samuel.
Samuel typically handles a higher-profile clientele, including NFL star Ray Lewis, former Atlanta Thrashers star Dany Heatley and rapper T.I.
The lawyer said he took the case as a favor to Bruno Kalonji, who had taught his kids soccer. Charges against the elder Kalonjis were dropped while the sheriff promised an internal investigation into the deputies’ actions.
The Kalonjis said they were also given assurances that their new neighbor will face charges for what Samuel called his “vigilante justice.”
“If police had just made the one phone call to Bruno, this all could’ve been avoided,” Samuel said.
On Monday, Canoles and his son were summoned for another interview with Newton County officials, who told them to bring in their guns.
They turned themselves in about 10 p.m. Monday and were booked into the Newton County Jail just before midnight, according to sheriff’s spokesman Mark Mitchell. They were being held without bond Tuesday, online jail records show.
“I don’t know what they can charge me with,” Canoles said late Monday afternoon, before the interview with authorities. “This is my Second Amendment right. Look, this is the country out here, and we protect our own.”
Meanwhile, his neighbors are having second thoughts about moving into their new home, purchased, along with the 11 acres, for $55,000 — a dream come true, said Bruno Kalonji. He plans to build a soccer field on his land while his agrarian parents, who will share the home with their daughter-in-law and grandson, look forward to raising chickens on the bucolic spread.
“We’re waiting to move,” Bruno Kalonji said. “We’re still afraid of what the guy next door might do.”
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Crime & Justice
Arrests made for fatal shooting at Delaware State University
Camay Mitchell De Silva was shot and killed on April 21 while visiting her best friend at Delaware State University.
Authorities have announced arrests have been made for the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Camay Mitchell De Silva last month at Delaware State University.
Arrests made in Delaware State shooting of Camay Mitchell De Silva
De Silva was shot and killed by a stray bullet on April 21 while visiting her best friend who attended Delaware State University.
Police announced in a press release that 20-year-old Destry Jones and 18-year-old Damien Hinson, both from Dover, are being charged with the murder of Camay Mitchell De Silva.
The pair are also charged with the attempted murder of two other young men in connection with the April 21 shooting.
Jones was arrested in Brooklyn, New York and Hinson was arrested later that day in Dover, police said.
According to authorities, neither of the suspects in this case are enrolled at or affiliated with Delaware State University.
Police claimed Jones and Hinson were involved in a fight with two other men before shots were fired. Investigators do not believe De Silva was the intended target or involved in the altercation.
Beloved taken too soon
De Silva was a 2023 graduate of Concord High School who graduated with a 3.0. She spent her first semester of college at Morgan State University in Baltimore but decided she wanted to come home to Delaware.
She then attended Delaware Technical Community College and planned to attend DSU in the fall to pursue a degree in Computer Science, with the goal of working in cybersecurity.
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Crime & Justice
Paramedic involved in Elijah McClain’s death sentenced to probation, work release and community service
Jeremy Cooper, a former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a fatal dose of ketamine, has been sentenced to probation and community service.
Jeremy Cooper, a former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a fatal dose of ketamine, has been sentenced to probation and community service.
Paramedic Jeremy Cooper sentenced
He had faced up to three years in prison but was sentenced to four years probation, 14 months of work release and 100 hours of community service.
Cooper and another paramedic, Peter Cichuniec, were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in December in the death of McClain, 23, who was subdued by police and injected with ketamine on August 24, 2019.
Both paramedics had pleaded not guilty to the felony charges. Cichuniec was sentenced in March to five years in prison, the minimum.
Police stop turns fatal
McClain was walking home in August 2019 when the 23-year-old Black man was confronted by police officers who forcibly restrained him. When Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec arrived, they injected him with ketamine.
He went into cardiac arrest in an ambulance a few minutes later and died three days after that.
The McClain family sued the city of Aurora for Elijah’s wrongful death and received a $15 million settlement.
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Crime & Justice
Honor student killed by stray bullet while visiting Delaware State University
A shooting at Delaware State University has claimed the life of 18-year-old honor student Camay Mitchell De Silva.
Camay Mitchell De Silva, of Wilmington, Delaware, was shot and killed Sunday, on the Delaware State University campus.
The 18-year-old was visiting her best friend, a Delaware State student, when the tragic shooting occurred.
She was an honor student
De Silva was a 2023 graduate of Concord High School who graduated with a 3.0. She spent her first semester of college at Morgan State University in Baltimore but decided she wanted to come home to Delaware.
She then attended Delaware Technical Community College and planned to attend DSU in the fall to pursue a degree in Computer Science, with the goal of working in cybersecurity.
De Silva often hung out on campus with her best friend to get comfortable before attending DSU.
Delaware State shooting
The family said De Silva was visiting that friend at DSU on Saturday, April 20, and attended a party on campus that night. Around 1:40 a.m. on April 21, DSU Police received a report of shots fired on campus. The responding officers found De Silva in a residence hall suffering from a gunshot wound to her upper body. The officers administered aid and then took her to a nearby hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries.
Police say De Silva was not the intended target. Dover Police Department Chief Thomas Johnson Jr. told NBC10 there was a dispute that she was not involved in and she was hit by a stray bullet.
The suspects were seen fleeing the area and no arrests have been made, said authorities.
Dover Police released a statement from De Silva’s family requesting time to grieve and to plan for her celebration of life.
They also said they pray for and support the DSU community, law enforcement and the local community as they are “forced to manage this tragedy.”
Delaware State shooting investigation
Dover Police are still pursuing leads in the fatal shooting of Camay Mitchell De Silva.
Anyone with information is asked to contact detectives at 302-736-7130 or reach out to Delaware Crime Stoppers at 800-TIP-3333.
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