Fort Bragg Soldier in Fayetteville standoff facing 30 charges

UPDATE

Recordings offer more details of soldier's apartment complex standoff with Fayetteville police
By James Halpin
Staff writer

Petrified residents hid in their apartments as a gunman fired at emergency responders in a chaotic standoff between police and a Fort Bragg soldier Friday night, according to recordings of 911 calls and police radio traffic released Wednesday afternoon.

Firefighters first called police to the home of Army Staff Sgt. Joshua P. Eisenhauer, at the Austin Creek apartments at 1127 Cape Harbor Court, about 10 p.m. Friday after responding to a report of a fire, according to the recordings.

One caller told dispatchers an apartment next door was on fire, with smoke and embers blowing out of the door, but after he knocked on the door, a resident said the fire had been put out with an extinguisher. Firefighters called police for a possible forced entry when there was no answer at the door.

Just minutes after police were dispatched to the apartment, Eisenhauer started shooting from his third-floor apartment, according to the recordings.

"Multiple shots fired! Multiple shots fired!" an officer reports. "He's on the top level. He's standing on the balcony right now."

Police reported that an officer was bleeding from the head, and supervisors ordered the officers to stay back and form a perimeter. Minutes later, Eisenhauer emerged from the apartment onto the balcony, according to police radio traffic.
read more here

Soldier in Fayetteville standoff facing 30 charges
By: JACKIE FAYE , JUSTIN QUESINBERRY , NBC17 STAFF | NBC17.com
Published: January 13, 2012

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. --
A Fort Bragg soldier is facing 30 charges after exchanging gunfire with police and barricading himself in his apartment for hours Friday night and Saturday morning.

Staff Sgt. Joshua P. Eisenhauer is charged with 15 counts of attempted first-degree murder, six counts of felony assault on a law enforcement official and nine counts of felony assault on a government official.

Eisenhauer was listed in critical condition after the gunfire exchange.

Two Fayetteville Police officers were also injured during the standoff with the soldier at an apartment complex, according to a police spokesman.

Ft. Bragg Saturday morning identified the soldier as Staff Sgt. Joshua P. Eisenhauer. He was assigned to Fort Bragg's Warrior Transition Battalion. That's a unit for wounded soldiers or soldiers transitioning out of the military, according to a Ft. Bragg spokesman.
read more here

Police and Patriot Guard Riders rescue crash victims during fallen soldier escort

Police, Patriot Guard Help Crash Victims in Ind.

VALPARAISO, Ind. January 15, 2012
Police and motorcyclists escorting the body of a fallen soldier home from Afghanistan have stopped to pull four people — including 6-year-old twins — from a burning Jeep after a crash in northwest Indiana.

Porter County police say 35-year-old Ana Pina was driving a Jeep carrying her children and mother Saturday when the vehicle was rear-ended by a pickup truck. The Jeep caught fire and crossed the median in front of the procession for Spc. Robert J. Tauteris Jr.
read more here

Vietnam War: The Battle of Con Thien

This is how reporters used to cover the news

Vietnam War: The Battle of Con Thien

Grieving mother calls for Facebook hotline

WINCHESTER: Grieving mother calls for Facebook hotline

By JENNIFER KABBANY For The Californian
Posted: Friday, January 13, 2012

For Robin Cannata, it was tough enough that her son committed suicide, but a picture of the distraught 20-year-old holding a gun to his mouth as his Facebook profile picture ---- an image he posted the day he died ---- was too much for the Winchester woman to bear.

But when Cannata and others emailed requests to the social networking website's administrators to either take down Anthony "TJ" Cannata's profile, or allow his family access to the profile to change the picture, Facebook responded with generic, automated replies.

The disturbing picture of TJ remained up on the day of his funeral ---- Dec. 23.

The situation prompted Cannata, 44, to call for Facebook to offer some sort of emergency phone number for users to report extreme situations to the social networking site's employees by phone rather than only by email.

"They need to do something to help families in the same situation," Cannata said. "It's wrong of Facebook. There should be some way we should be able to contact Facebook immediately. Now our family and friends have that last picture, that memory of him."
read more here

No jail time for vet who brandished rifle at party

No jail time for vet who brandished rifle at party
By Ashley Meeks ameeks@lcsun-news.com
Posted: 01/13/2012 11:32:45 PM MST


LAS CRUCES - A combat veteran who brandished an assault rifle at a group of partygoers last April - with his friend, a sheriff's deputy, in his back seat - will not serve any additional jail time, a state District Court Judge ruled Friday.

New Mexico State University psychology student Joshua Sanchez, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon under a plea agreement with the district attorney's office.

Judge Douglas Driggers could have sentenced Sanchez to 4 1/2 years in prison, thousands in fines and parole had Sanchez been convicted of the original charges.

Instead, Sanchez received 18 months supervised probation and will have to complete 80 hours community service, drug and alcohol screening, counseling and a yearlong anger management program.

Defense attorney Matt Madrid of Las Cruces successfully argued that Sanchez - a decorated member of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division who served two deployments to Iraq - was just one of many returning veterans who make "major mistakes" but still have a chance to turn their life around.
read more here