SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Police at the University of Rhode Island could soon be carrying firearms following a vote Thursday by state education officials to end Rhode Island's distinction as the only state to prohibit police on public campuses from carrying guns.

The Rhode Island Board of Education voted 8-1 to allow leaders at the state's three institutions of higher education to decide for themselves whether to arm campus police.

URI President David Dooley favors the idea. The Community College of Rhode Island does not plan to arm its police. Rhode Island College officials are studying the idea and have not decided either way.

Calls to arm campus police got a boost after reports of a gunman in a URI building last month. No gun or shooter was found, but supporters of arming campus police say the incident highlighted security weaknesses.

While the first campus police arrived within about a minute, officers could not enter the building because they weren't armed. It took South Kingstown police about six minutes to arrive and go inside. State police arrived within about a half-hour.

Before being armed, campus police would receive the same level of training given to other officers.

"I feel quite comfortable that the people we are looking to arm — if that decision is made — are duly trained and certified and all the things we expect from police officers," said Board of Education member Colleen Callahan.

Several URI faculty spoke out against the proposal at Thursday's board meeting. Physics Prof. Peter Nightingale said supporters of arming the campus police are reacting out of fear. He said studies show that guns don't reduce crime.

"The experiment is over and the results are in," he said. "More guns spell more violence, more victims, more fatalities."

Dooley said he wants to get input from faculty and students before making a final decision. The university must present a report on its deliberations before any of its officers may be armed.

"There's a strong divide of opinion on campus," said Dooley. "We'll consider all the information. We will think very carefully about the consequences of that decision."

The state's General Assembly had been considering legislation that would allow URI or the other two institutions to arm their police forces. Those bills are now moot.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee, an independent, supports the board's decision to allow each institution to set its own policy, according to spokeswoman Christine Hunsinger.

Only one board member voted against the measure. William Maaia said he has philosophical objections to arming campus police. He also said he thinks that the policy should be consistent across the state's three public institutions of higher education.

Copyright 2013 Associated Press

SAN DIEDO — A 911 call made near Vista ended with an injured San Diego County Sheriff's deputy and a man hospitalized with a gunshot wound. Sheriff's department officials say the deputy got into some type of struggle. Her taser was deployed. Officials say the suspect deployed the taser but didn't hit the deputy.

The deputy then fired one shot striking the suspect officials said. The man was transported to Palomar Hospital where he is said to be in stable condition and under guard. Officials said the deputy was also injured, treated at the hospital and released. They have not confirmed what type of injuries the deputy sustained.

Full Story: Deputy, Suspect Injured in Shooting Near Vista

Miramar, Fla. — Wearing what appeared to be bullet proof vests with law enforcement insignia, the three men came knocking in the dead of night claiming to be police. They were not, and now the real police are searching for the gang of home invasion robbers who posed as cops to gain entry into a Miramar home early Thursday.

The homeowner who opened the door was beaten and his home was ransacked. The homeowner said three men dressed like police officers stormed into the residence. The men appeared to be wearing "tactical" uniforms used by police officers in special units such as SWAT.

The homeowner, whose identity was not released by police, was beaten and suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. The robbers stole weapons, an undisclosed amount of cash and other items, police said.

Full Story: Home invasion robbers pose as police, beat Miramar man

NEW YORK — Do you know the name of the current NYPD chief of detectives? Probably not, unless you’re a detective. The last time, and possibly the only time, a chief of detectives broke into the limelight was more than 40 years ago, during the 13-month reign of Albert Seedman, leader of the nation’s second-largest investigative force after the FBI.

Seedman, nearly blind but in full possession of his canny instincts, died at 94 in Florida Friday and was buried yesterday.

A couple of factors put the shine on Al Seedman’s three-star badge. For starters, he looked the part of a Big Apple detective chief: square jaw and shoulders, the piercing glint of his grey eyes, the onyx pinky ring, the ever-present cigar. In those days, the rulebook for detectives was informal. Seedman expected his operatives to work on a major case until it was solved, never mind days off, or whatever else it took to get the job done.

Full Story: NYPD detective who broke the mold

PHOENIX — About 100 police officers attended the kindergarten graduation for the daughter of an Arizona cop that was killed last week in a hit-and-run incident.

Tatum Raetz, daughter of Officer Daryl Raetz, received her diploma in front of a crowd of plain-clothed officers – her mother in the front row in tears, according to My Fox Phoenix.

"The purpose of us is to be here in proxy for Daryl and to let her know that we're here for her," said Phoenix Police Officer Keith Garn.

Sgt. Ben Kartchner said that the majority of police came from all over the area in uniform, though they were off-duty.

"I hope she knows we're never going to replace her father but that we're going to do the best we can," said Garn.

A fundraiser was also held Wednesday for the Raetz family, according to the article.

The suspect involved in the hit-and-run, Jesus Cabrera Molina, was arrested Sunday.

DENVER — Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper's decision to block the execution of convicted killer Nathan Dunlap for as long as he is governor infuriated victims' relatives and drew quick criticism from Republicans ahead of the 2014 election.

Hickenlooper on Wednesday granted an indefinite reprieve to Dunlap, who is on death row for the ambush slayings of four people — three teenagers and a 50-year-old mother — in an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in 1993.

The reprieve essentially guarantees Dunlap, 38, will stay alive at least through Jan. 13, 2015, the last day of Hickenlooper's first term.

"I think it's highly unlikely that I will revisit it," Hickenlooper said.

"We feel the governor has taken the cowardly way out," said Marj Crowell, whose 19-year-old daughter, Sylvia Crowell, was killed. "They're just hoping we'll forget about this until we get the next governor."

Hickenlooper is running for re-election next year, and Dunlap's fate is certain to be a campaign issue.

Citing Hickenlooper's decision, former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo — who ran as a third-party candidate in the last gubernatorial election — announced Thursday he will run again as a Republican.

Wednesday's decision prompted unusually personal criticism.

"Hickenlooper should've been up front with voters when he ran for office if he could not carry out the death penalty," GOP Attorney General John Suthers said in a statement.

"He's made himself into Nathan Dunlap's guardian angel," said George Brauchler, the Republican district attorney in the office that prosecuted Dunlap. "He's said, `As long as you keep me in office, Nathan Dunlap never has to face death.'"

"This is something we've seen consistently out of this governor," said Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, minority leader in the state's lower house. "`I'm not going to make a decision.'"

Hickenlooper has an image as a pragmatic problem-solver, and he enjoyed bipartisan popularity until this year. But he has been forced to take a stand on an increasing number of divisive issues since his party won back the statehouse in November.

He signed sweeping gun control legislation and approved laws to help people who are in the country illegally and to establish civil unions for same-sex couples this year.

On the death penalty, Hickenlooper has appeared to be searching for a middle way.

In a December interview with The Associated Press, he said of repealing the death penalty: "I wrestle with this, right now, on a pretty much daily basis."

Legislators this year considered a bill that would have ended the death penalty, but they dropped it when Hickenlooper sent word he might veto it.

In his reprieve order, Hickenlooper said the death penalty is used inconsistently across Colorado, and he cited problems in obtaining the drugs required for lethal injection, the execution method mandated by state law. He also said many states and nations are moving toward banning executions.

Dunlap, whose execution was scheduled for the week of Aug. 18, got only a reprieve, not the clemency he sought. Clemency would have removed the possibility of execution and changed his sentence to life without parole.

"Mr. Dunlap was grateful. His expressions of remorse were genuine. He is truly sad for what happened," said Phil Cherner, one of his attorneys. "This is not a day to celebrate."

Cherner has said Dunlap had undiagnosed bipolar disorder at the time of the crime, and that his attitude has changed since the state prison system began medicating him in 2006.

Copyright 2013 Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. — A Chechen immigrant shot to death in Florida after an altercation with an FBI agent implicated him self in a triple slaying that officials believe may have been connected to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, authorities said.

Ibragim Todashev's Chechen roots and mixed martial arts background mirror that of Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old Boston bombing suspect killed in a shootout with police days after the April 15 terrorist attack. The two also had lived in the Boston area.

Todashev, a 27-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, was fatally shot by authorities early Wednesday at his Orlando home during a meeting with the agent and two Massachusetts state troopers, authorities said. The agent was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

Three law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Todashev had lunged at the FBI agent with a knife. However, two of those officials said later in the day it was no longer clear what had happened. The third official had not received any new information.

The FBI gave no details on why it was interested in Todashev except to say that he was being questioned as part of the Boston investigation. However, two officials briefed on the investigation said he had implicated himself as having been involved in the 2011 triple-slaying in a Boston suburb that authorities believe may have been connected to Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details of the investigation.

Public records show that Todashev resided in nearby Watertown, Mass., last year.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's younger brother, Dzhokhar, survived the shootout with police and is now charged with carrying out the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 in downtown Boston. He is also charged in the slaying of an MIT police officer days later.

Several of Todashev's former roommates who were questioned by the FBI said he knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev, an aspiring boxer, from mixed martial arts fighting in Boston and that the FBI was asking about him.

"He's a regular guy, nothing wrong," Saeed Dunkaev said of Todashev.

Todashev had lived on and off with other Chechens in the Orlando suburb of Kissimmee and had moved to Orlando more recently, friends said.

Investigators have been trying to establish the scope of the plot. In addition, authorities in Massachusetts said they would investigate whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev had any connection to the unsolved 2011 deaths in the Boston suburb of Waltham, where three men were found in an apartment, their throats slit and marijuana sprinkled over their bodies. One of the victims was a boxer and a friend of Tsarnaev's.

Two officials who were briefed on the investigation said Todashev made statements, while he was being interviewed by the FBI and Massachusetts state police, implicating himself as having been involved in the 2011 Waltham slayings. Neither of the officials, one of whom had earlier told The Associated Press there was no new information on Todashev lunging at the agent, knew whether Todashev had also implicated Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the killings. The two people, a federal law enforcement official and a Massachusetts state official, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details of the investigation.

Neither official was sure of the extent of Todashev's supposed involvement.

Police records suggest Todashev had a hot temper, with arrests in a road rage incident and, more recently, in a fight over a parking space.

Muslin Chapkhanov, another former roommate, said Todashev knew the older Tsarnaev brother. Todashev "was living in Boston and I think he trained with him," Chapkhanov said.

Former roommate Khusen Taramov said the FBI was asking questions about a conversation Todashev had with the older bombing suspect a month before the Boston Marathon attack.

The ex-roommate said Todashev shared the substance of his previous conversations with investigators with him and that he was completely forthcoming, saying that the conversation covered basic how's-your-life kinds of topics.

It's why he was surprised that Wednesday's interview ended the way it did.

"He told them everything," Taramov said. "He told everything he knew...I don't know why that (the shooting) happened. It's crazy."

Taramov said Todashev was afraid before Wednesday's interview as well.

"That's what he asked me before he pretty much died," Taramov said. "He asked me, `If something happens can you go out and tell all the truth. What exactly happened.'"

Like Todashev, the Tsarnaev brothers have roots in the turbulent Russian regions of Dagestan and Chechnya, which have become recruiting grounds for Islamic extremists. Investigators have said the brothers carried out the Boston bombing in retaliation for the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An FBI team was dispatched from Washington to review the shooting, standard procedure in such cases.

Todashev was arrested earlier this month on a charge of aggravated battery after getting into a fight over a parking spot with two men — a father and son — at an Orlando shopping mall. The son was hospitalized with a split lip and several teeth knocked out, according to a sheriff's report. Todashev claimed self-defense.

"Also by his own admission Todashev was recently a former mixed martial arts fighter," the arresting deputy said in his report. "This skill puts his fighting ability way above that of a normal person."

Todashev was released on $3,500 bail after his May 4 arrest. His attorney, Alain Rivas, didn't immediately respond to a call for comment Wednesday.

Todashev was also arrested by Boston police in 2010 after a road rage incident. Witnesses told police that he argued with two other drivers and cut them off with his vehicle. According to a police report, he yelled, "You say something about my mother, I will kill you."

Copyright 2013 Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. — George Zimmerman's defense attorneys on Thursday released photos and text messages from 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's cellphone ahead of a hearing that will determine whether they can be used at Zimmerman's murder trial.

Zimmerman is charged with fatally shooting Martin last year during a confrontation at a gated community in Sanford. He is pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense. His trial starts next month.

The photos show Martin blowing smoke and extending his middle finger to the camera. The photos also show a gun and what appears to be a potted marijuana plant.

In the text messages, Martin tells a friend that his mother has told him he needs to move out of her house and move in with his father since he was caught skipping school.

Prosecutors have filed a motion asking Circuit Judge Debra Nelson to prevent the photos, texts and other personal information from being used at the second-degree murder trial. The hearing is set for next Tuesday.

Zimmerman's defense attorney, Mark O'Mara told The Associated Press last week that the materials could be relevant if prosecutors put a spotlight on Martin and his character.

"If the state puts at issue Trayvon, who he was. If the state makes that an issue, we get to respond to that," O'Mara said.

Copyright 2013 Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An 84-year-old Albuquerque woman who uses an oxygen tank has been indicted for drug trafficking.

KRQE-TV reports that Lillie Smith was recently indicted by a Bernalillo County grand jury for trafficking, conspiracy to commit trafficking, tampering with evidence and possession.

Court documents show the charges stem from a warrant served at her apartment in 2011.

Deputies suspected that the woman's son, Nathan Jones, was running a small drug operation out of her home. But the sheriff's office said deputies found cocaine and marijuana on Smith, and she tried to stash the drugs during the investigation.

"It's definitely not something you see every day," said Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Aaron Williamson. "When detectives were on scene she did try to take the narcotics that were on her person out and stash them."

During the search, investigators found scales, money, narcotics and other items believed to be connected to trafficking, Williamson said.

Jones was arrested in 2011 but Smith was not because of a medical condition.

The district attorney's office later filed charges and a grand jury returned the indictment earlier this year. She was arrested in April but bonded out of jail. It was not clear if Smith or Jones has a lawyer.

According to online court records, Smith pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in the 1990s. Her next court appearance is scheduled in July.

Copyright 2013 Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 Fort Hood attack wants to represent himself at his upcoming murder trial, which means he could question the nearly three dozen soldiers he's accused of wounding in the shooting rampage.

Maj. Nidal Hasan's request, announced Wednesday by Fort Hood officials, is to be considered at a pretrial hearing next week. The request prompted the military judge, Col. Tara Osborn, to delay jury selection to June 5, about a week after it was scheduled to start.

Hasan, an American-born Muslim, faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the Nov. 5, 2009, attack on the Texas Army post, about 125 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

Military law allows defendants to represent themselves, but the judge will ask Hasan's attorneys to stay throughout the trial in case he asks for their help, according to court-martial guidelines. Two of Hasan's three Army attorneys have represented him since shortly after his arrest.

Hasan's attorneys and military prosecutors have said they are not allowed to comment about anything related to the case.

In 2011, Hasan cut ties with his previous lead attorney, John Galligan, a civilian who is a former military judge. Galligan declined to comment Wednesday on why he stopped representing Hasan and said he didn't know why his former client suddenly wants to represent himself.

At a hearing earlier this month, Hasan told Osborn that he wanted to plead guilty. But Army rules prohibit a judge from accepting a guilty plea to charges that could result in a death sentence. Osborn also denied his request to plead guilty to lesser murder charges, citing legal issues that could have arisen because his death penalty trial still would have proceeded.

Witnesses have said that after lunch on Nov. 5, 2009, a gunman wearing an Army combat uniform shouted "Allahu Akbar!" — "God is great!" in Arabic — and opened fire in a crowded medical building where deploying soldiers get vaccines and other tests. He fired rapidly, pausing only to reload, even shooting at some soldiers as they hid under desks and fled the building, according to witnesses.

Copyright 2013 Associated Press