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Georgia men charged with bombing woman’s home, planning python attack on daughter
Two Georgia men have been charged with bombing a woman’s home the day after she moved in and plotting to release a python to “eat” the victim’s daughter, federal officials announced last week.
Stephen Glosser, 37, and Caleb Kinsey, 34, were charged on Thursday. They allegedly built an explosive device using Tannerite purchase online and used it to blow up the victim’s home in the city of Richmond Hill, in Georgia’s Bryan County, on Jan. 13, 2023.
The two men are also accused of planning to shoot arrows into the victim’s front door and mail dog feces or dead rats to her home, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia said. They also allegedly considered scalping the victim as part of a “plan to kill, intimidate, harass, or injure” the woman.
After the arrest, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigator told CBS News affiliate WTOC that Glosser had met the victim through a dating app, but the authorities have not offered more details about a possible motive behind the alleged crimes. Glosser lived with Kinsey.
The pair allegedly placed the victim under surveillance between December of 2022 and January of 2023, prosecutors said. The indictment says Glosser located the victim’s residence using internet searches on his cellphone based on an image the victim had previously shared with him.
The explosion went off at the victim’s home, about 20 miles from Savannah, early in the morning on Jan. 13, 2023, the Bryan County Sheriff’s Office said at the time. Most of the damage was in the garage area.
“Thankfully the family was able to get out of the house with no injuries,” the sheriff’s office said in a social media post at the time.
It “almost looked like a tornado” had hit the home, Bryan County Sheriff Mark Crowe said after the explosion, WTOC reported.
“It was a deliberate act. It could have easily hurt or killed somebody,” Crowe said. “The lady was very lucky she was as far away from the blast that she was.”
The Georgia Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire announced Kinsey and Glosser’s arrest on Feb. 8 of last year. Kinsey fled and was arrested in Louisiana, while Glosser was taken into custody locally.
Glosser and Kinsey were charged with stalking, use of an explosive to commit another felony offense, conspiracy to use an explosive to commit a felony, and possession of an unregistered destructive device. Kinsey was also charged with making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.
The conspiracy charge carries a statutory penalty upon conviction of up to 20 years in prison, officials said. If convicted, Glosser and Kinsey could face an additional 10 years for the charge of using an explosive to commit a felony.
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Former New York Gov. David Paterson, stepson attacked while walking in New York City
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.