Dozens Shot In Memorial Day Violence In Baltimore

Baltimore police reported twenty-eight shootings and nine homicides over Memorial Day weekend, making May the deadliest month in the city since December 1999.

The victims included a 9-year-old boy shot in the leg yesterday. Police described the child as an “unintentional victim of the shooting.”

A total of thirty-five people have been killed in Baltimore in the month of May, bringing the death toll to 108 since the beginning of the year.

Baltimore City Councilman Pete Welch told the Baltimore Sun, “The shootings and killings are all over the city. I don’t think any part of the city is immune to this. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Baltimore has been the center of a national debate on policing in inner city communities since the death of Freddy Gray, who died while in police custody on April 12.

The recent uptick in violence has some speculating police are staging a deliberate slowdown, while others are saying anti-police sentiment has made officers hesitant to intervene in violent crimes.

Baltimore police commissioner Anthony Batts sought to dispel those notions in comments earlier today.

“Please be assured that the Baltimore Police Department is moving aggressively to both address the increase in violence, as well [as] to modernize and better equip ourselves for the future,” he said.

Florida Police Thwart Planned Rocket Launcher Attack On Law Enforcement

Two men in Florida were arrested last week after allegedly planning an all out attack on a police station using a rocket launcher.

The suspects were placed in custody following a raid on Thursday that uncovered a massive cache of drugs and weapons including twenty-two firearms, several containers of black powder, bulletproof vests, a pound of marijuana, several containers of crack cocaine, and a gilly suit.

The suspects in Florida have been identified as Christopher Conger and Jeremy Robertson, both ex-cons. A third suspect – and the rocket launcher – was nowhere to be found.

Police were reportedly tipped off by an inmate who warned them of a rocket launcher assault on the police station in Eustis, Florida.

"It did concern me — when you start talking about rocket grenade launchers — so I felt very confident that the Lake County Sheriff's Office would pursue any leads," Eustis Police Chief Fred Cobb told a local news station.

Police stations around the country are taking steps to protect their officers following reports that gang members and criminals are targeting police. The LAPD ordered officers to ride in pairs after it was reported that street gangs had pledged to “take out” cops following the death of Freddy Gray in Baltimore.

There’s no telling how much damage the would-be attackers in Florida could have caused with the military-grade arsenal they had assembled. According to Lake County Sherriff Chris Blair, last week’s raid may have saved police lives.

“You cannot measure prevention,” he said. “We don’t know what we prevented by taking these guns off the street and putting these two individuals in custody.”

Former CIA Official Slams Obama Administration in Fox interview

Former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morrell attacked his former colleagues in the Obama administration on a laundry list of topics in an interview on Fox News yesterday.

Morrell called the Benghazi attacks a “failure at the state department,” and said the administration’s internal talking points on the crisis “cross[ed] the line between national security and politics.”

He also said administration officials catastrophically misinterpreted the effects of the Arab Spring, which has turned into a “huge boon” for Al Qaeda.

He also said that the Senate Intelligence report on enhanced interrogation, released in December 2014, was the “most flawed document” he’s ever seen during his 33 year career in public service.

He concluded by saying that threats to national security have multiplied under Obama’s leadership, and that terror threats on American soil will “remain significant for a long time.”

“I’ve never seen more threats to our country at any one time in my 33 years in the business… I think in the history of our country,” he said. “These are very dangerous times…I think we are at risk of another attack here, and I want Americans to know that.”

ISIS Claims Responsibility For Texas Terror Attack

ISIS claimed responsibility for the terror attack in Texas last weekend, calling the attackers “soldiers of the caliphate” and vowing further attacks on American soil.

An announcement broadcast from an ISIS-controlled radio station in Syria referred to the attackers as “brothers” and warned “future attacks are going to be harsher and worse.”

The statement also said, “the Islamic State soldiers will inflict harm on you with the grace of God. The future is just around the corner.”

The exact role ISIS played in planning the attacks is not clear, but a counterterrorism source told Fox News that ISIS “had knowledge of the attack beforehand and that the same fighters encouraged the shooters.”

According to Fox, an ISIS Twitter account claimed to have been in contact with one of the gunmen just before the attack. Fox also reported a British ISIS fighter in Syria sent out a message praising the attackers less than an hour after the attack.

The FBI already had an ongoing investigation into one of the attackers, Elton Simpson, due to suspicious activity on social media. Simpson began posting about ISIS on Facebook and Twitter several months ago.

Simpson was also convicted of lying to the FBI in 2011 about a planned trip to Somalia, claiming he hadn’t planned a trip when in fact he had. Although he was found guilty, he got off without jail time after a judge ruled the government failed to prove that he wanted to go “for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad.”

The FBI said it had no knowledge that Simpson was planning an attack in Texas.

Simpson and the second attacker, another American Muslim named Nadir Soofi, were armed with assault rifles and body armor when they opened fire on the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas on Sunday.

After shooting a school security guard, both attackers were killed by a police officer stationed at the scene. The school security guard is expected to survive.