A 74-year-old woman has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting her grandson in the chest eight times as he called 911.

Jonathan Hoffman, 17, was shot Friday evening at the family's condo in West Bloomfield Township, an upscale Detroit suburb, police said. His grandmother, Sandra Layne, a retired teacher, was charged with open murder and is being held without bond.

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During Layne's arraignment Monday, a police detective testified that Hoffman frantically told a 911 dispatcher he had been shot in the chest by his grandmother and that he was going to die.

By the time officers arrived at the property, at least four more shots from a .40-caliber handgun had been pumped into the high school senior.

Read report on ClickOnDetroit.com

A West Bloomfield Township detective told a judge that eight entry and exit wounds were found in Hoffman's body and two bullets were in his body after the shooting.

"At approximately the three-minute mark of the 911 call, the subject screamed and exclaimed that he had just been shot again," Detective Brad Boulet said, according to The Detroit News. "Responding officers heard several gunshots inside the house."

Layne stood mute in court when the charge was read, and a not guilty plea was entered on her behalf.

An open murder charge allows a jury to decide on whether a first- or second-degree charge applies after hearing evidence.

Hoffman had been attending an alternative high school in nearby Farmington and living with his maternal grandparents so he could complete his senior year while his divorced parents settled in Arizona, according to his father, Michael Hoffman of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Drug paraphernalia
Layne's attorneys have said there were problems at the condo, and Layne was afraid of her grandson. One of her attorneys, Mitchell Ribitwer, told reporters Monday that drugs and drug paraphernalia apparently belonging to the teen were found at the condo after Hoffman was killed.

Michael Hoffman said that regardless of his son's behavior, the teen was unarmed and didn't deserve to be shot to death.

"I'm not saying he was aggressive, but if he was, I don't understand how being aggressive but unarmed would justify her using deadly force," Hoffman said according to ClickOnDetroit.com.

Detective Brad Boulet testified about Hoffman's 911 call and said when officers arrived at the condo, Layne was inside, behind a screened door.

"She put the gun on the floor after being ordered so by officers," Boulet said. "She exclaimed she had just murdered her grandson."

Another of Layne's attorneys told ClickOnDetroit.com that he thought Layne was "not in control of her emotions" at the time of the incident.

"She was afraid. She's not a big, strong woman," Jerome Sabbota said.

'Derogatory to his grandmother'
Wearing an orange jumpsuit in court, Layne smiled and nodded to her husband and other family members.

Ribitwer said Layne had lived in the West Bloomfield area for 30 years. His requests for a reasonable bond and electronic tether monitor for Layne were denied. A pre-examination conference for Layne was set for Thursday morning.

Prosecutors had no comment after the hearing. Layne's husband and other relatives attended the hearing but also didn't comment.

Police had responded in March to a domestic disturbance at Layne's home.

"I spoke to the officer who responded, and he indicated this young man was totally out of control in the street," Ribitwer told reporters Monday. "He was derogatory to his grandmother. He was yelling and shouting and almost got into it with the police."

Jonathan Hoffman's funeral is set for 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. -- Two women who claimed that someone painted the words "Kill the Gay" on their garage door in Parker are now charged with spray painting the phrase themselves, NBC station KUSA of Denver reported.

The women deny the charge.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office arrested Aimee Whitchurch, 37, and Christel Conklin, 29. Both face charges of criminal mischief and false reporting. Whitchurch also faces a charge of forgery, KUSA reported. Each is free on $1,000 bail.

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The women reported the incident Oct. 28, saying they were victims of a hate crime.

When deputies arrived at the home on Lark Water Lane, they found the words in red spray paint on the garage door. The next day, investigators went back to the home after receiving a report that a noose was left on the front door handle.

The women told investigators that they felt the incidents were retaliation for issues they were having with their homeowner's association and their neighbors.

Investigators now say they believe Whitchurch and Conklin spray painted their own garage and placed the noose themselves.

On Thursday, Whitchurch told KDVR of Denver they now suspect a former roommate falsely told the FBI that they had painted the words.

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HOUSTON -- The day after an all-white jury acquitted a former Houston police officer for his role in the beating of a 15-year-old African American burglary suspect, community activists rallied a crowd of at least 200 people on the courthouse steps to protest.

Andrew Blomberg was acquitted by a jury in Houston on Wednesday in the alleged beating and stomping of Chad Holley two years ago.

The verdict was criticized by the Houston Police Department on Thursday.

"I understand the jury's verdict, I just have to respectfully disagree," Police Chief Charles McClelland said, according to the Houston Chronicle.

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Protesters carrying signs with slogans like, "No justice, no peace. Stop the racist police," and "Justice for Trayvon Martin" circled in front of the Harris County Courthouse and a phalanx of media cameras.

Some of them chanted that Houston Mayor Annise Parker and Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos have to go -- even though both officials issued statements saying they disagreed with the verdict.

Blomberg, 29, was one of four officers fired for their role in the beating of Holley in March 2010 when police apprehended him while he was apparently fleeing a burglary.

His acquittal came amid heightened tension after the fatal shooting of black Florida teen Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman earlier this year.

Court docs: Trayvon Martin shooting 'ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman'

Holley's beating was videotaped by a security camera at a nearby business showing at least seven officers involved, kicking and stomping him as he lay face down on the ground.

All seven were fired, but four, including Blomberg, were charged with official oppression.

The remaining three defendants will learn of their court dates on Monday. Holley, who was convicted of burglary and sentenced to probation, has filed civil suits against the officers involved.

After the acquittal, Lykos said she respectfully disagreed with the verdict and said prosecutors were "prepared to go to trial on the three remaining cases."

Blomberg told media after the verdict was rendered the incident had nothing to do with race, and that Holley was simply a "fleeing burglary suspect."

But community activists disagreed, and spoke out angrily against police brutality at the courthouse rally on Thursday.

"The cops standing on the street corner, the ones who cower in the lobby of the courthouse -- those no good bastards are never going to change unless you make them change," said activist Quanell X.

Quanell X told the crowd that two black jurors out of a pool of 75 were stricken, and encouraged the black community to respond to jury summons in the future.

"All-white juries can never happen again," he said.

Other activists present at the rally asked people to sign a petition for an independent civilian review board to examine cases of police oppression and brutality.

Speaking to the Houston Chronicle on Thursday, Lykos pointed out that jury pools are created randomly from prospective jurors who say they can be impartial. She also highlighted that Blomberg's defense team struck the two black jurors from the jury pool.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Seven deputies from the Los Angeles County sheriff’s gang unit are on paid leave during an investigation into their suspected involvement in a secret clique that promoted aggressive policing and celebrated officer shootings, sources confirmed to The Los Angeles Times Wednesday.

The newspaper broke the news about the suspected “Jump Out Boys” clique several weeks ago when a supervisor discovered a pamphlet describing the group’s tenets.

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For more, visit NBCLosAngeles.com

Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore confirmed to NBC4 that seven deputies have been placed on leave, but, citing an internal affairs investigation, would not comment further.

Whitmore told NBC4 that his department was aware of the clique and investigating the suspected gang before the paper broke the story.

Days after the news broke, the captain of the division told his deputies in a private briefing that they “shamed the department by forming the group and urged those responsible to identify themselves,” the Times reported.

One deputy came forward and named six others, a source told the paper. All seven were placed on paid leave this week.

Sources with knowledge of the inner workings of the division told the newspaper that current and former Gang Enforcement Team members comprise the clique that used gang-like three-finger hand signs and branded themselves with matching tattoos, modified after a shooting.

The tattoo's design is believed to include a grinning skull with red eyes, wrapped in a bandana imprinted with the letters “OSS” – allegedly representing Operation Safe Streets, the name of the larger unit the Gang Enforcement Team is part of, the Times reported.

The Gang Enforcement Team is divided into two platoons of relatively autonomous deputies who target neighborhoods where gang violence is high, locate armed gang members and take their guns away, the Times reported.

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A knife-wielding man was shot by police officers responding to a domestic dispute on New York City's Upper East Side Monday, law enforcement sources told NBCNewYork.com. The suspect's mother was also struck by the gunfire.

It happened at about 2:14 p.m. ET at 408 E. 65th Street. Police said a woman called 911 to say her 22-year-old brother was holding their mother at knifepoint.

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"The police trucks started coming in, and sirens were going all over, cops were running," Amy Emery, who was in the area attending a job interview, said. "People were running around, they were actually screaming and running away from that area."

Responding officers arrived to find Edgar Soto and his mother in the sixth-floor hallway outside their apartment, authorities said. The officers called for back-up, and a sergeant arrived with a stun gun and deployed it on Soto, to no effect.

Read more on NBCNewYork.com

That's when Soto turned to approach the police officers with the knife, police said. Two officers fired a total of five shots, and Soto was shot in the abdomen, side and groin.

His mother, identified as 49-year-old Flora Soto, was hit in the buttocks, police said. 

Both were taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

It's not clear what sparked the dispute.

Longtime friends of Edgar Soto said there was no warning for what happened.

"It's shocking," neighbor Steve Letavish said. "I knew the kid for awhile. I give him a high-five when I see him. You don't believe it until you hear it for yourself, and you can't go home because of it."

Another neighbor, Daniel Brown, said, "My heart hurts for the father. I've known him for a long time."

Edgar Soto's father is said to be a longtime city sanitation supervisor. He could not be located Monday.

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A 16-year-old boy was charged Thursday in connection with a mob assault on two reporters in Norfolk, Va., where their newspaper waited two weeks before reporting the incident, police said.

The Virginian-Pilot didn’t wait to report the arrest, posting it online shortly after a police news conference.

Norfolk Police Chief Sharon Chamberlin said at the news conference the juvenile suspect, who was not named, was charged with throwing a missile at a vehicle, a felony, two counts of simple assault by mob, destruction of property and participation in a riot, NBC station WAVY reported.

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Only a handful of people were involved in the assault on reporters Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami, who are white and who told police they were beaten April 14 by a group of young black men, Chamberlin said.

"At no time in our investigation or in the statements taken from the victims did it appear that this assault was racially motivated," Chamberlin said.

The reporters had left a rock concert at Attucks Theater when they stopped at a red light amid a crowd of about 100 people, they told police. The beating ensued after Forster confronted a rock thrower who likely had responded to seeing Rostami locking their car door, they told police.

Chamberlin said large events at several downtown venues emptied out about the same time.

The police department received criticism for its handling of the case after the story broke in the Pilot May 1, Chamberlin said. The department received comments that "Norfolk is unsafe" and "the Police Department does nothing to fight crime."

She said that is not true and stated that she is proud of their work, WAVY reported.

Pilot editor Denis Finley earlier said the newspaper reported the incident after doing “due diligence” on the story.

Earlier: Questions raised over Virginia newspaper's delay in report of attack on reporter

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A grand jury has declined to bring charges against White Plains police in the shooting of a 68-year-old former Marine at his apartment last year.

The grand jury's decision was announced Thursday by the Westchester County district attorney.

On Nov. 19, 2011, police were dispatched to the Winbrook Houses public housing project to aid Kenneth Chamberlain, a chronically ill heart patient.

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Read the original report at NBCNewYork.com

Chamberlain apparently had accidentally triggered his medical alert pendant, and when the responding officers banged on his door, he told them he was OK and refused to let them in.

But then Chamberlain and the police became engaged in an hour-long standoff, and the officers eventually forced open the door, fearing someone else inside was in danger, according to police.

The man's family contends that police then used a Taser on Chamberlain for no reason, then shot him with a bean bag gun before firing two fatal shots.

“My father was murdered by the same people that were supposed to come and help him,” Kenneth Chamberlain Jr. said last month.

Police have said the elder Chamberlain had a knife.

The medical alert company’s voice box in the room captured the conversation, which has not been released to the public.

There is also abbreviated video of Chamberlain captured by the camera on the officer's stun gun.

Watch the Top Videos on msnbc.com

Mayor Bartlett, the attorney representing the Chamberlain family, alleged the police officers used racial slurs and taunted the elderly man.

There was no immediate comment from the family. The White Plains police union said the officer's actions were "necessary and justified" and said it was grateful for the grand jury's investigation.

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The Virginian-Pilot newspaper of Norfolk, Va., waited two weeks before reporting that two white reporters were beaten by a group of young black men. And since the story came out, the city’s police department has defended its handling of the case.

Columnist Michelle Washington broke the news of the April 14 attack on reporters Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami in the May 1 edition of the newspaper. 

“Wave after wave of young men surged forward to take turns punching and kicking their victim,” Washington wrote.

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Washington and a police report obtained by NBC station WAVY indicate the reporters were driving away after attending a rock concert at the Attucks Theater. When they stopped at a red light among a crowd of about 100 people, Rostami locked her car door. Someone threw a rock at her window.

Forster stepped from the car to confront the rock thrower but was punched by him and several other black males, the police report says. When Rostami tried to reach over the driver’s seat and pull Forster back into the car, she was struck in the head, cheek and eye areas by a black assailant standing outside the car, the police report says.

After the pair managed to lock themselves in the car, the crowd thinned and Rostami called 911, police reports said.

The two suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene by paramedics. They told Washington that a responding police officer did not take witness names and told Rostami to shut up, and that the attackers were probably teenagers from nearby public housing. The officer gave them his card and told them to complete the report on the following Monday.

The 911 call came at 11:08 p.m., Officer Chris Amos, Norfolk police spokesman, told msnbc.com. An officer was there by 11:09 p.m., he said. Other units followed, and their lights and sirens likely caused anyone remaining in the crowd to scatter, he said.

Amos told msnbc.com that the responding officer decided to leave the pair to respond to another call – reports of shots fired amid a crowd – after determining Forster and Rostami were safe and advising them to leave the area. They did come in the following Monday to complete the report, he said.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

The officer involved, Amos said, denies the quotes attributed to him in Washington’s story, which he called editorial comment. There was no delay by the police in providing information on the case, he said.

Norfolk police respond to attack 

“From the very beginning we have been actively involved in this investigation," Amos said. "No arrests have been made.”

Many people were on the street late that Saturday because several events got out at once, Amos said. Many in the crowd that Forster and Rostami encountered live in neighborhoods adjacent to the venues and were walking home, not loitering, Amos said.

Amos said he suspected anyone, regardless of race, who had gotten out of a car to confront the rock thrower would have seen the same result.

Virginian-Pilot editor's memo to staff regarding the attack

Forster told Washington he had seen one Tweet linking his case to revenge for Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teen fatally shot by community watch captain George Zimmerman in Florida.

“(Do it for Trayvon Martin),” it said.

Critics accused the paper of burying the attack over race relations. But Pilot Editor Denis Finley, in a memo to the staff obtained by WAVY, said, "We did not cover up anything. We bend over backwards to treat ourselves the same way we would treat any other member of the community. ... We have done our due diligence with the story." 

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On a sunny day in July of 2006, Rennie Simmons was out doing his job.

Despite suffering a stroke three years earlier that left him with a noticeable limp, Simmons continued to work at his long-time job at the Chicago Water Department. His job that day in July was to deliver a bright-orange notice to a resident on Chicago’s south side, warning that his water would be cut off if he did not make arrangements to pay an overdue bill.

Simmons pulled up in his car, then walked up to the front of the house to deliver the notice. The resident, Glenn Evans, saw him and met him at the front stairs.

"He pushed me and said, 'Get off my porch,'" Simmons recalled.

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Simmons retreated to car, but he said Evans followed him and then attacked.

"He was beating me, choking me," said Simmons. "I said, 'I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe! I’m a stroke patient! I’m a stroke patient!’ And he finally let me go."

Simmons called 911 from his car, and Chicago police officers arrived soon after. They got out their handcuffs, and they put them on Simmons.

"I said, 'Why are you putting me in the car and not [Evans]?’ They said, 'Because he’s our boss. He’s a lieutenant.’ I said, 'He’s off-duty, though.' They said, ‘He’s never off-duty.'"

In fact, Evans was a veteran tactical officer -- claiming that Simmons had threatened and shoved him. Simmons stood firm.

"He’s lying," he told the police.

Documents in the case posted by NBCChicago.com

Nevertheless, he was booked and charged with battery against Evans. The case went to Cook County Criminal Court, where Judge Adam Bourgeois found Simmons not guilty. He even admonished Evans: "Lieutenant, there is a lot I can say this morning, but I’m going to hold my tongue. The State has failed to meet its burden. The next time you pick somebody to come in here as a witness, make sure they lie a little better."

Simmons filed a complaint against Lt. Evans with the police department’s Office of Professional Standards, which was the agency -- at the time -- that handled citizen complaints.

That complaint was not sustained, meaning that OPS determined there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Evans. Simmons also filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Chicago, Evans, and others, alleging that Evans had falsely arrested him to cover up his beating. In that case, the city admitted no wrongdoing, but did eventually pay Simmons $99,999.00 to settle the case.

The complaint was neither the first nor the last one to be filed against Evans, who remains on the force today, collecting a six-figure salary as a tactical lieutenant, most recently stationed at the 6th district in Chicago’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on the south side.

The Unit 5 Investigative team along with The Chicago Reporter magazine, found that Evans is a member of a small group of officers who have been repeatedly accused of police brutality and misconduct, and the city has paid millions of tax dollars to settle claims against them.

"Nobody knows who the repeat offenders are, because the names are kept under wraps," said Angela Caputo, wrote the cover story for The Chicago Reporter’s May/June, 2012 issue.

State law and the Chicago police union contract require that Chicago policemen who are accused of brutality and misconduct be protected from identification unless a victim signs a sworn affidavit and the police officer is ultimately found guilty by the Chicago Police Board and the Chicago Police Superintendent.

A federal appeals court in November 2009 dismissed a court order that would have revealed the names of 662 police officers with 10 or more abuse complaints.

But Caputo was able to uncover some names of these "repeaters" by digging through more than four hundred lawsuits -- filed primarily as civil rights cases in U.S. District Court -- over the past decade. In all, she found, the city paid out more than $45 million in the three years from 2009 through 2011 for all settlements and judgments involving police brutality and misconduct.

Her findings on officers who were repeatedly accused of brutality show that payments for these "repeaters" are significant:

Of 441 police misconduct lawsuits that led to city payments between January 2009 and November 2011, Caputo’s article states, nearly a third -- or 145 -- involved "repeaters." This small group -- 140 in all -- proved costly. Despite making up one percent of the police force, they accounted for more than a quarter -- or $11.7 million -- of all damage payments incurred from police misconduct lawsuits. The city defended a good number of those officers in additional cases as well; nearly a third of the 140 officers were named in at least five misconduct lawsuits since 2000."

In the case of Evans, Unit 5 found five lawsuits filed over the past decade which accuse him of police brutality. Two cases are still pending, but three were settled by the city, although -- once again -- it admitted no wrongdoing in any of those cases.

One of those settled cases involved a 24-year-old man named Cordell Simmons (no relation to Rennie), a community college student with a long history of marijuana-related arrests. Cordell Simmons was arrested for marijuana possession in June of 2007 and taken to the Chicago Police Department’s 6th district at 78th and Halsted, where he crossed paths with Evans.

According to the police report detailing his arrest, Cordell Simmons kicked Evans in the legs. Then -- according to Cordell Simmons’ court complaint -- officers pulled off his pants and shoes, and held him down while Lt. Evans "…Taser[ed] [him] in the groin, under his testicles."

The complaint goes on to say that Cordell Simmons rolled on to his stomach in agony, and Lt. Evans shot him a second time with the Taser gun, in his rectum.

That court case was eventually settled by the city, which admitted no culpability but paid Cordell Simmons $19,000.00.

So does the City of Chicago or the Chicago Police department have any way to keep track of officers -- like Lt. Evans -- who are repeatedly accused of brutality or misconduct?

The answer is complicated, because there is a series of steps required to get a formal complaint on the record against a police officer in Chicago. A victim must sign a formal affidavit with the Independent Police Review Authority -- IPRA-- which is the city agency charged with investigating police officers.

Chicago police union rules and state law prohibit IPRA from launching a complete investigation until that formal affidavit gets filed. So even if a victim of police brutality files a lawsuit in federal court, IPRA can’t launch a full investigation into the accusations.

IPRA does monitor these kinds of lawsuits, but Caputo and The Chicago Reporter found that 91 percent of the suits monitored by IPRA were tagged "no affidavit" -- meaning that they were closed because the plaintiff never came in to sign a sworn statement.

Rennie Simmons’ complaint was filed before IPRA was created. It came in to existence, in large part, because of a push by several citizens' groups: The agency charged with investigating Chicago police, they said, should be completely independent of the Chicago Police department.

While IPRA is charged with investigating citizen complaints, it can only make recommendations for discipline. The ultimate decision to discipline or fire a Chicago police officer rests with the Chicago Police Superintendent and the Chicago Police Board.

Since September of 2007, when Ilana Rosenzweig became chief investigator at IPRA, IPRA has recommend that sixty officers be "separated" -- or fired -- from the Chicago Police Department. Thirty-eight of those cases are pending.

Of the 22 that have gone through the entire review process, the Chicago Police Board found one of those officers not guilty (because the key witness ultimately refused to cooperate); two officers resigned; and the remaining 19 were fired.

For Simmons, though, it all comes down to the fact that Evans is still on the job as a lieutenant with the Chicago Police Department.

"I’m doing my job, and he’s still there?" Simmons said. "There is something wrong. There’s something wrong."

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Oakland police used "an overwhelming military-type response" to disperse Occupy Oakland demonstrators and fired at a former Marine and Iraq war veteran who was critically injured in the clashes in October, according to a report issued on Monday.

The federal court monitor tracking reforms in the Oakland Police Department came one day before anti-Wall Street protesters plan nationwide rallies on May 1, with Occupy Oakland demonstrators vowing to take over San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge.

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Oakland's police practices came under intense scrutiny last year when former Marine Scott Olsen was critically injured during a demonstration in October. Protesters said he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister.

The report concludes, for the first time from an official source, that police did fire at and hit Olsen that evening. An Oakland Police Department SWAT team member fired a beanbag round at Olsen, striking him in the head, according to the report.

"We have viewed many official and unofficial video clips of the Occupy Oakland-related incidents," the report said. "These recordings lead us to ask additional questions as the level of force that was used by OPD officers, and whether that use of force was in compliance with the Department's use of force policies."

Exclusive "Occupy" interview: Scott Olsen on MSNBC's The Ed Show

The beanbag rounds fired that night leave a green residue, which was found on the hat Olsen was wearing that night, later retrieved by police, according to the report.

The monitor, Robert Warshaw, said the court-ordered reforms, many of them related to how the department polices its officers, have gone backward during the past year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

'Thoroughly dismayed'
Olsen's case reinvigorated the Occupy movement against economic inequality, and the confrontations with police in subsequent protests turned Oakland into a focal point for the movement as demonstrators rallied against what they described as police brutality.

The Oakland Police Department has been subject to court-ordered external monitoring and review since the 2003 settlement of what was known as the Riders case, in which four officers were accused of planting evidence, fabricating police reports and using unlawful force, according to the Oakland police.

Injured vet spent days at work, nights at protest

Monday's report was the latest in a series designed to monitor and enforce compliance with the court-ordered reforms, known as the Negotiated Settlement Agreement.

"We were, in some instances, satisfied with the performance of the Department; yet in others, we were thoroughly dismayed by what we observed," monitor Warshaw wrote.

The police department announced last week that it was making significant changes to how it trains officers to control large crowds following criticism over its practices during Occupy Oakland protests that sometimes turned violent. It received more than 1,000 misconduct complaints during those protests.

"OPD has turned the corner," Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said in a statement upon the report's release. "My vision is to make Oakland one of the safer major cities in California." 

The police department's critics of the department said the report brought the force closer to a federal takeover, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Stagnation is troubling. After nine years, more progress should be made," John Burris, one of two attorneys who brought a civil suit a decade ago that led to court oversight, told the newspaper. "We must seriously explore the next step."

Reuters and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

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Police say a group of teens swiped a vehicle for a joy ride, not knowing it was a bait car carrying a surveillance camera that caught their 20-minute trip around Albuquerque on video.

“It was one of the cars we park randomly around the city, specifically in hot spots where we have repeated auto burglaries and auto theft,” Albuquerque Police Officer Robert Gibbs said on Wednesday.

Bait cars, also called decoy cars, are commonly used by law enforcement agencies nationwide to catch car thieves. Vehicles are often modified with GPS tracking, audio and video surveillance and can be remotely controlled. In a Texas case, police have turned to the public’s help in locating a couple who took a "bait car" with a hidden camera for a quick spin.

Link to the video: See the decoy car escapade

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Surveillance video from Albuquerque shows a 15-year-old boy jumping into the driver’s seat of the car, picking up three friends along the way, according to KOAT-TV, an ABC News affiliate in Albuquerque.

The scene is joyous with smiles and high-fives, the teens calling each other “dog.”

"I saw this car with the keys inside. I opened the door, it was unlocked. I grabbed the keys and was like, this is the car," the teen driver says in the video.

Video: Cops catch car thieves with hidden camera

It doesn’t take long for the teens to get worried and begin to conspire. They talk about ditching the car and torching it, blaming the whole thing on someone else, according to KOAT-TV.

"Oh my God, dog, what if we go to jail for this?! This is grand theft auto, dog! I'm (expletive) hopping the (expletive) out and running for my life! I'm on (expletive) probation," one of teens is heard saying.

Video: Boy, 11, steals car, goes for joyride, police say

But their ride comes to an end when the boys see red-and-blue lights flashing in the rear-view window.

“That’s a cop,” a teen passenger is heard saying.

His pal confirms the obvious.

Gibbs said the four boys, whose identities were withheld because of their age, were charged with auto burglary and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, both felony offenses.

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SALT LAKE CITY -- A deadly booby trap rigged along a popular Utah trail could have killed someone if they had tripped a ground wire set up to send a 20-pound, spiked boulder swinging into an unsuspecting hiker, authorities said Monday. 

Another trap was designed to trip a passer-by into a bed of sharpened wooden stakes, authorities said. 

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"This looks like something done just for the sake of hurting someone ... it's like something just out of someone's evil mind," Utah County Sheriff's Sergeant Spencer Cannon said. "This was not something just done as an afterthought. They took a lot of time to carve those sticks." 

 

 

Two men arrested over the weekend on suspicion of misdemeanor reckless endangerment told authorities the traps were intended for wildlife, but investigators didn't believe the story.

Benjamin Steven Rutkowski, 19, of Orem and Kai Matthew Christensen, 21, of Provo were booked in the Utah County Jail on Saturday and released on bail. Prosecutors believed the misdemeanor reckless endangerment allegations were the strongest claims they could pursue without anyone being injured.

The suspects built a dead-wood shelter as a possible lure for hikers who could step inside only through the two booby-trapped entrances, Cannon said. "This is a shelter put together by people, visited by people — anything that would be impacted by their device would have to be humans," Cannon said.

"It took some time to build these traps. They took rope, heavy-duty fishing line, and they intended what the traps were going to do." 

The structure was easy to see, Cannon said, but the booby traps could have been overlooked by everyone except a military-trained officer like James Schoeffler of the U.S. Forest Service, who was on a routine patrol along Big Springs Trail last week when he noticed the trip wires. 

Schoeffler was trained in hazardous device detection. "A lot of people go up there after dark, as well," Cannon said. "We're very, very fortunate that it was Officer Schoeffler who found it." The U.S. Forest Service has not made Schoeffler available for an interview.

Authorities said he disabled the traps after taking photos and video of the site. The area is located in Provo Canyon, a popular hiking spot a few miles from downtown Provo. Cannon said the traps were just a half-mile from a busy trailhead. "Who goes up this trail thinking, I'm going to have to look out for booby traps?" Cannon said. "A kid could say, 'Oh cool, a shelter,' and run right across the trip line." 

Days after Schoeffler made the discovery, a tipster alerted authorities about comments on Facebook that mentioned the traps and the shelter.

Detectives then tracked down the suspects, Cannon said. 

Charges have not yet been filed. Rutkowski's father, Steven, declined comment. No phone number was listed for Christensen, and it wasn't immediately clear if either suspect had an attorney. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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