Suspect in Conn. robbery arrested in Puerto Rico

Suspect in Conn. robbery
arrested in Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A Puerto Rican militant suspected in a 1983 Connecticut robbery — then among the country’s largest cash heists — was arrested Thursday in the U.S. territory, where he lived quietly under an assumed name, the FBI said.

Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, 65, an alleged member of a Puerto Rican independence group, the Macheteros, was captured while driving in the northern town of Manati, said special agent Luis Fraticelli.

He declined to say what led to the arrest or if authorities had any leads on the two remaining fugitives: Norberto Gonzalez Claudio, a brother of Avelino Gonzalez Claudio, and Victor Gerena, the robbery’s alleged mastermind believed to be in Cuba.

Fraticelli said officials believe Gonzalez had been living in Puerto Rico ever since the group robbed a Wells Fargo armored truck depot in West Hartford, Conn., of some $7 million.

Bloodbath in California

LOS ANGELES — A gunman killed three apparent relatives and a veteran SWAT officer and wounded another officer before police shot him to death early Thursday in a home that erupted in flames during a long standoff. A woman escaped near the end of the siege.

Police Chief William Bratton said investigators going through the house afterward believed there may be an additional victim inside, so “we are even at this stage of the game not certain how many victims we have.”

Two other SWAT officers received minor fragment wounds in a barrage of gunfire, Bratton said.

There was no immediate explanation of what triggered the bloodbath in the modest San Fernando Valley home, leading to the first line-of-duty death in the 41 years of the Los Angeles Police Department’s elite SWAT team.

The unidentified gunman was killed about 11 hours after barricading himself in the house and telling police in a 911 call he had killed three relatives, police said. Those victims’ identities were not immediately known.

The shooting occurred at the home of a man, his wife and their three sons, said Armando Rivera, who identified himself as a cousin.

The slain officer was Randal Simmons, 51, who left a wife and two children. His colleague James Veenstra, 51, was in stable condition after surgery, said Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell. Veenstra’s wife is a police captain.

City officials shot

KIRKWOOD, Mo. — A gunman opened fire at a city council meeting in this St. Louis suburb Thursday night, hitting the mayor and several city officials, a newspaper reported. There was no immediate word on whether anyone was killed.

Police shot the gunman, who had hit Kirkwood Mayor Mike Swoboda, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which had a reporter at the meeting. Also shot were a police officer, council members Michael H.T. Lynch and Connie Karr, and Public Works Director Kenneth Yost, the correspondent, Janet McNichols, told the newspaper.

The victims were taken to St. John’s Mercy Hospital. Kirkwood is about 20 miles southwest of downtown St. Louis. City Hall is in a quiet area filled with condominiums, eateries and shops, not far from a dance studio and train station.

Transplant racket arrest

KATMANDU, Nepal — Police arrested the alleged mastermind of an India-based kidney transplant racket at a resort in southern Nepal, officials said today.

Authorities said Amit Kumar ran the ring from a New Delhi suburb that allegedly removed kidneys from up to 500 poor laborers and sold their organs to wealthy clients. Police suspect that dozens of doctors were involved in the kidney racket, which had a waiting list of some 40 people hailing from at least five countries.

Kumar was arrested in the jungle resort in Chitwan by Nepalese police Thursday night.

Volcano ready to blow

BILBAO, Ecuador — Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano spewed ash and incandescent rocks from its crater on Thursday as experts warned that a more violent eruption is likely.

Tungurahua shot a 3-mile column of ash into the sky, and fiery rocks rolled down its flanks. On Wednesday, the volcano in central Ecuador spewed ash 6 miles into the air. The 16,575-foot volcano, whose name means “throat of fire” in the local indigenous Quichua language, has been active since 1999. It has been spitting out ash and gases intermittently since late last year.

Civil Defense officials said they have evacuated 1,500 villagers living near Tungurahua’s flanks.

Associated Press