Deaf Barista Brutally Stabbed, Robbed

Deaf News: Thembelihle Quze, who is Deaf and works at the coffee cafe, was robbed at knifepoint and stabbed.


CAPE TOWN -- Cape Argus: A Deaf man from Gugulethu who survived a near-death experience when he was stabbed twice in the chest and arm during an armed robbery said he fears for his life. Thembelihle Quze, 23, who recently re-integrated in society when he started working at a coffee shop in Claremont, said Saturday’s attack had made him vulnerable again. He was stabbed while walking home after visiting a friend near his home in Gugulethu NY111.

“Two men came walking towards me, I saw them talking but was not able to hear what they were saying. The one guy came up to me and demanded money. I tried to tell them I didn’t have any, but they weren’t even paying attention to me as I signed. The one guy pocketed me and then stabbed me.”

The two men fled the scene and Quze was helped by neighbours who had seen him. “I could not scream for help. I feel they targeted me because I am deaf; right now I am too scared to leave the house, I have no one to chat to,” Quze said, speaking through a sign language interpreter. For the past seven months, Quze had been working at I Love Coffee in Claremont as a barista. At the coffee shop, which comprise mostly Deaf employees, he acquired social and life skills training which is said to have helped him interact with others.

Quze had started gym training and was also teaching clients sign language. A part of his job also included travelling to Joburg which his father, Mbuyiselo Mbali, said encouraged Quze to be more social. “He refuses to leave the house and we, too, fear for his life. In this area, Deaf people are targets. My son right now is in pain, the stitches in his chest are bleeding. This is not right,” said Mbali. He said the incident changed his son. Coffee shop owner, Gary Hopkins said the sweat classes at the gym had helped Quze defend himself during the robbery.

He said the coffee shop, which employs mostly Deaf youth as part of its social enterprise work, hired Deaf people to escape violence and to boost the employment rate. Part of the work programme includes life skills training. “Most Deaf children grow up in homes where they are overprotected. They become easy targets because they don’t have the necessary life skills. “Thembe (his nickname), because of the gym partnership we have, has become quite an athlete. He was able to protect himself and smart enough not to carry money on him,” said Hopkins.

Deaf Woman Found Burned On The Street

Deaf News: Police: Woman found burned on Dale Street in Rochester.

ROCHESTER, NY -- Rochester Police say that a woman was found burned on Dale Street on Sunday, and the incident is being investigated as a suicide attempt.

News10NBC does not normally report on suicides, but many people in the area had questions about what happened on Sunday in broad daylight.

Officers say they were called to a home on Dale Street around, where they found a woman on fire in a field located on a empty lot of the street.

The woman, reportedly somewhere between 40 and 50 years of age, was transported to Strong Memorial Hospital, where she is in guarded condition.

Tony Alonzo Thompson- a neighbor of the woman- was among those who found her. He was walking around the neighborhood when he found her, and immediately called 911.

"I'm trying to tell her, 'ma'am, it's gonna be alright.' I'm telling her it's gonna be alright. It's going to be alright.... but I'm crying because I knew her."

"She's looking right at," he said, "She's Deaf... and she pointed. She's naked, her pants are down to her ankles... and she was smoking."

Holly Mortensen, who lives across from the field where the woman was found, is still in shock over what happened.

"That's a little too close to home, that's my first reaction."

Mortensen was awakened by the police and firefighters that had arrived in the neighborhood, and when she looked outside, she saw one of her neighbors on fire.

"She wasn't moving, she was just laying there at the middle of the field," she recalls, "The EMTs put a respirator on her, or a resuscitator on her."

Fire and police have confirmed the event is now being investigated as a suicide attempt and that there is no danger to the public. Because of the sensitivity of the situation, News10NBC will not be releasing the name of the woman.

Deaf News: Deaf and dying: How a volunteer team brings palliative care comfort through communication in the capital of Canada.

OTTAWA -- Ottawa Citizen: The first experience Monica Elaine Campbell had with palliative care was helping a woman who had lost her ability to speak because of throat cancer.

Campbell, profoundly Deaf since birth, is an excellent lip reader and staff at an Ottawa Hospital asked if she could interpret the dying woman’s words. The woman had been communicating with paper and pen, but now was too weak even to do that.

“I was very hesitant. Then I thought, well, the least I could do is give it a try,” said Campbell, who is able to speak despite never having heard a word herself. “I put my hand on her right arm and said, ‘I’ve never done this before. I will try my best.”

WATCH: Video with CC - Ottawa Citizen.

Campbell leaned close as the woman mouthed her words. Campbell repeated it back and had the woman nod yes if she had understood correctly. She spent five hours with the woman, relaying messages between her and her family and the medical team. She was able to interpret about 85 per cent of what the woman told her.

“I came away a different person,” Campbell said. “I was very touched by the experience.”

The dying woman had not been Deaf, but the experience got Campbell thinking about the communication needs of people like herself: the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. A few years later, Campbell was asked to help a Deaf friend who was about to receive bad news about her cancer diagnosis.

“I didn’t know much about palliative care, but she was struggling with her terminal illness,” Campbell said. “I thought, my goodness, what if that was me? I thought, I should talk to my Deaf friends about death and dying and what our experiences have been.”

Those conversations led Campbell and her friend, sign language interpreter Christine Wilson, to start up the Ottawa Deaf Palliative Care Team, a group of volunteers that provide end-of-life care for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and their families. In 1999, she enrolled in palliative care courses at Algonquin College with two Deaf colleagues (the Deaf use a capital D to refer to the sub-culture of people who communicate with sign language; “Hard of Hearing” are those who have lost some or most of the hearing but can still use some speech, sometimes augmented with sign language; the “Deafened” or “Oral Deaf” have lost some or all of their hearing, but either learned to speak before their deafness or, like Campbell, learned to speak despite it.) Read More at Ottawa Citizen.

Elderly Man Rapes 8-Year-Old Deaf Girl

Deaf News: Elderly hearing man, 70, rapes 8-yr-old Deaf girl in Nigeria.



ABEOKUTA, NIGERIA -- Vanguard: Men of Ogun State Police Command have arrested a 70-year-old man, Gabriel Akindele, for allegedly raping an eight-year-old Deaf girl in a toilet.



The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement, said yesterday that the randy septuagenarian committed the offence at 7, Michael Ayegusi Street, Owode Ijako in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State.



Oyeyemi said the police team found out that the suspect lured the girl to the toilet, where he raped her.



According to Oyeyemi, the suspect was arrested following a complaint from the mother of the girl, who noticed an unusual behaviour from the girl after the incident and used sign language to inquire from her daughter.



He said: “The girl informed her mother of the incident, which prompted the mother to report the matter to police. The DPO of Sango Ota, SP Akinsola Ogunwale, detailed detectives to the scene and the randy old man was subsequently arrested.



“On interrogation, he confessed to committing the crime. It was discovered that he lured the girl to the toilet, where he unlawfully had carnal knowledge of her. The commissioner of police, Ahmed Iliyasu, has directed that the case be transferred to the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Labour Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, CIID, for proper investigation.”



SOURCE

Deaf Teacher Arrested For Raping Toddler

Deaf News: Deaf teacher arrested for defiling 6-month-old baby in Nigeria.



DAMATURU, NIGERIA -- Daily Trust: 40-year-old Deaf teacher, Shaaibu Yakubu Abdullahi, has been arrested by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC), for allegedly defiling 6-month-old baby in Potiskum, Yobe state.



According to the NSCDC Commandant, Muhammad Gidado Fari, the suspect was arrested after a non-governmental organization, National Council of Women Society (NCWS) reported him to the corps.



He said the Deaf teachers allegedly conspired with his 10-year-old student, (name withheld) who took the 6-year-old baby to him from her neighbor’s house, “He defiled the baby,” he said



The commandant said the suspect denied any knowledge of the case, but the 10-year-old student insisted that it was Shaaibu, pointing at him in a group picture of staff and students taken in the school.



He said that the matter was taken to the state’s Ministry of Justice for prosecution as the case needs a professional in sign language to interpret.



The President, National Council of Women Society, (NCWS) Halima Kyari Joda, said the Baby was taken to University of Maiduguri for treatment,



“She was attended by a consultant, she underwent two separate operations. But, we will continue to pursue her case until justice is served” she added.



SOURCE

Deaf Victims of Human Trafficking in Israel

Deaf News: Police crack ring that smuggled Deaf Eastern Europeans into Israel to work as beggars.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL -- Six human smuggling ringleaders arrested on suspicion of trafficking, forced labor, assault and rape. Police arrested six people on Monday suspected of smuggling Deaf people from Eastern Europe into Israel, forcing them to work as beggars and confiscating their earnings.



The six are suspected of serious offenses, including human trafficking, false imprisonment, forced labor, assault, rape, withholding passports and conspiring to commit a crime.



Police said they were detained in a “swift, professional and covert investigation,” based on information from the Population, Immigration and Borders Authority. The trafficking in Deaf people was first revealed by Haaretz almost two years ago.



Three of the suspects are from Rishon Letzion, with the others from Ashkelon, Netanya and Bat Yam. They are believed to have brought Deaf people from Eastern Europe into Israel on tourist visas, forcing them to work as beggars, often treating them violently and extorting and threatening them.



Police say the ring provided the beggars with housing, took away their passports and confiscated a significant portion of the money they earned. One of the victims is believed to have been sexually assaulted, police said.



The beggars come from relatively poor countries, like Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Estonia, population authority officials said. The ring also used Deaf Israelis and Palestinians. Ten beggars who were being held in an apartment in the Netanya area were brought to a shelter for victims of human trafficking.



The beggars carried notes enabling them to interact with bus drivers, taxi drivers and passersby. They also carried receipt books bearing the international symbol of the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, along with dolls they would give to anyone giving them a donation. The population authority said the beggars worked places like the Azrieli Mall and Tel Aviv Port, the Gold Mall in Rishon Letzion, the Herzliya Marina and the Malha Mall in Jerusalem. During the summer they were even sent to Eilat.



They were forced to work 14-16 hours daily and each would take in an average of between 1,500 shekels ($397) and 2,000 shekels ($529) a day, of which they were allowed to keep only 200 shekels. The rest went to their handlers, ostensibly to pay for their plane tickets and accommodation.



The population authority said that dozens of beggars had been arrested, questioned and deported to their countries of origin in recent years. The administration’s enforcement division noted that it had given real-time information about the trafficking ring to the police and the Justice Ministry.



The authority said it first heard about this type of human trafficking three years ago, when two Deaf people from Eastern Europe were deported after being caught soliciting funds in Be’er Sheva for a fictitious organization. Their arrest spurred an investigation that revealed they were part of a ring of hundreds of beggars.



Yossi Hadad, who is responsible for the authority’s intelligence office in the south of the country, told Haaretz two years ago that the ringleaders would lure their European prey to Israel through dating websites for the Deaf.



SOURCE

Elderly Deaf Couple Recovering After Brutal Home Invasion

VIDEO: Deaf News: Three Memphis men were arrested and charged with a home invasion in the Wesson Height subdivision in Olive Branch, Mississippi.



OLIVE BRANCH, MS -- WREG: A couple was terrorized, beaten and robbed.The couple said it was God that helped get them through.



Through sign language and translation help from their son, Diann and Jimmy Kelley said they were in their kitchen when three men Charles Gayles, Jeffrey Richardson, and Charlonte Smith broke through a back bedroom window, entered their home, shut the lights off and attacked them.



Diann Kelley, 68, said the men flipped over the kitchen table, tied her up with duct tape over her mouth, wrists, and ankles, and beat her husband over and over with the ends of their rifles.

"He says they just kept beating him with the guns. He can’t count how many times they hit him," the Kelley's son, Kevin, said through translation. "His hands are all swollen they hit his hands because he was trying to cover his head. They broke that finger. They broke his ribs."



When the men left with duffle bags worth of their belongings, Diann was able to rip the tape off her mouth, find a knife to cut the tape from her ankles, and run for help.



Jimmy is now back at home after suffering two broken ribs, an ear that had to be stitched back together, and gashes in his head.



"She has no idea why,” Kevin said. “Maybe because they are Deaf, they are taking advantage of them not being able to hear. They weren't satisfied the first time with what they were able to get out?"



This wasn’t the first time the couple was targeted. Earlier in July, the couple said the same men entered through their garage door, but Jimmy was able to reach for a gun and start shooting, which caused the men to run.



Multiple police agencies searched for the men after Diann got help. One of the men was found in the attic and another was found several houses down. Diann said the man in the attic actually fell through the ceiling, and that is how officers found him.



"She said, ‘why should she let three boys win over her and scare her?’ She's not going to allow it,” Kevin said.



The family said thanks to prayers, they are making it through.



SOURCE



Related:

Elderly Deaf Couple Had Been Dead Inside Home

Walmart Store Trashed By Mob Of Teenagers

VIDEO: The raw footage of hundreds mob teenagers stormed into and trashed a supermarket Walmart over the weekend in Georgia.

MACON, GA - Led by a teenage boy throwing gang signs, a mob of vandals descended on a Walmart store in Macon, Georgia early Sunday and trashed the business in a reported attempt to “see how much damage they could cause,” police allege.



During the 1:45 AM ransacking of the Walmart in Macon, rioters pulled a patron from an electric wheelchair and dragged him to the floor, according to a Bibb County Sheriff’s Office report.



A Walmart surveillance camera recorded the vandals racing through store aisles.

Investigators say that a “crowd of 40-50 individuals consisting of black males and females” were led into the store by Kharron Green, 17, who can be seen on surveillance video “presenting gang signs in the air with his hands.”



For about a minute, Green & gangs ran through store aisles “destroying merchandise and vandalizing the property,” cops reported. Upon arriving at the trashed Walmart, a deputy noted that one aisle was “destroyed and coated with broken merchandise” and that the “length of the store from front to rear was lined with items which had been shattered, destroyed, turned over and thrown about.”



Green was arrested at the scene. A Walmart employee interviewed by cops said that he spoke with Green in the store’s parking lot and that the teen “stated that this was a planned event, and that they had planned to see how much damage they could cause.”



A Walmart manager estimated the value of damaged merchandise at $2000.



While Green refused to identify any of his fellow marauders, he told cops that the group “had all come from a party.” Charged with criminal street gang activity, inciting to riot, and criminal damage to property, Green is locked up in the county jail in lieu of $11,200 bond. Source



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CODA Tried To Kill Deaf Parents In House Fire

VIDEO: Deaf News - South Carolina Sheriff: Gaffney man tried to kill Deaf parents in house fire.



GAFFNEY, SC -- A Gaffney man was arrested after investigators said he tried to kill his Deaf parents in a house fire Monday morning after stealing from them. A Gaffney man who is a Child of a Deaf Adult, often known by the acronym "CODA", is a person who was raised by Deaf parents.



Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Mueller said 22-year-old Fletcher Edward Blanton removed a lighted fire alarm system in the home before setting the Ford Road house ablaze.



Deputies said Blanton reported the fire after he awoke to smoke inside the home, then woke up his parents, who were able to get out of the home safely.

Following their investigation, deputies said Blanton intentionally caused a fire that damaged the home and also stole $4,850 of tools and electronics from his dad the same day as the fire. Blanton was charged with third-degree arson, grand larceny and two counts of attempted murder. SOURCE



Gaffney Man Charged with Arson, Attempted Murder of Parents.



A Gaffney man has been charged with attempted murder after deputies say he set fire to the home he shared with his hearing-impaired parents.



Fletcher Edward Blanton, 22, of 1333 Ford Road has been charged by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office with grand larceny, third-degree arson and two counts of attempted murder, arrest warrants state.



Sheriff Steve Mueller said firefighters and deputies responded to a fire about 1:30 a.m. Monday. An incident report states that Blanton told investigators that he awoke to find smoke inside the home, got his parents out of the house and called 911.



Firefighters, however, found evidence that the fire had been intentionally set, Mueller said. Investigators found that Blanton had disconnected a special fire alarm with a flashing light designed for the hearing impaired and thrown it outside... Read More.



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