Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University researchers found these 55-gallon drums at a known chemical weapons dumpsite near the mouth of the Mississippi River. They suspect mustard gas was leaking out.

Oil and bombs don’t mix, yet there’s millions of pounds of unexploded World War II munitions dumped in the Gulf of Mexico that pose a risk to offshore drilling and the environment, researchers say. 

The military carried out the dumping from 1946 to 1970 — including off the Pacific, Atlantic and Hawaii coasts — so it's no secret. But now that some of the containers used to store the munitions are more than 60 years old, the researchers say it's time to see them as a threat.

"The bottom line is that these bombs are a threat today and no one knows how to deal with the situation," Texas A&M oceanographer William Bryant said in a statement ahead of a briefing he'll give at a weapons disposal conference. "If chemical agents are leaking from some of them, that’s a real problem. If many of them are still capable of exploding, that’s another big problem."

Photos taken during surveys show that some of the chemical weapons canisters, such as those that carried mustard gas, appear to be leaking materials and are damaged, Bryant and others on his team reported.

The surveys have turned up 10 dump sites at 60 and 100 miles out — and one of them had a pipeline running through it.

Texas has the closest dump, followed by Louisiana, "not far from where the Mississippi River delta area is," Bryant said. "Some shrimpers have recovered bombs and drums of mustard gas in their fishing nets.

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University researchers found this unexploded, 500-pound bomb at a dumpsite near the mouth of the Mississippi River in 2008.

"No one seems to know where all of them are and what condition they are in today," he added. "The best guess is that at least 31 million pounds of bombs were dumped, but that could be a very conservative estimate.

"These were all kinds of bombs, from land mines to the standard military bombs, also several types of chemical weapons," he said. "Our military also dumped bombs offshore that they got from Nazi Germany right after World War II.

"Is there an environmental risk? We don’t know, and that in itself is reason to worry," he said. 

The hazards pose even more of a risk as the Obama administration and energy companies pick up the pace of drilling after the 2010 BP oil spill.

Ironically, unexploded ordnance was found in the offshore zone known as Mississippi Canyon where the BP well was drilled.

Pentagon

This chart lists some of the munitions dumpsites in the Gulf of Mexico, and what's there.

"My first thought when I saw the news reports of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf two years ago were, 'Oh my gosh, I wonder if some of the bombs down there are to blame'," recalled Bryant.

That turned out not to be the case, but such World War II finds are not surprising in the oil industry.

Last year, BP shut a major North Sea pipeline for five days to remove a 13-foot unexploded German mine. BP discovered the mine during an inspection, then spent months devising a plan to remove and safely detonate it.

Pentagon

This chart lists some of the munitions dump sites in the Gulf of Mexico, and what is there.

In 2001, BP and Shell found the wreckage of the U-166, a German WWII submarine, 45 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. 

While the practice of dumping bombs and chemical weapons in the ocean ended 40 years ago, some effects are just now being seen, Terrance Long, founder of the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions, told Reuters. Bryant will be briefing the group's conference, which begins Monday in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"You can find munitions in basically every ocean around the world, every major sea, lake and river," Long said. "They are a threat to human health and the environment."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Sharpshooters taking aim from a helicopter shot dead six gray wolves this week, wrapping up Washington state's strategy of killing off the pack because it had become accustomed to eating cattle.

"It was the hardest decision I've ever made both professionally as well as personally," Phil Anderson, director of Washington's Department of Fish & Wildlife, told NBC station KING5.com on Thursday after the last wolf, the alpha male, was shot dead. "Going out and killing wildlife is not what this agency is all about."

The state had placed a GPS collar on the alpha male when the pack was discovered earlier this year in northeast Washington. That same GPS was then used to track down the wolves.

"The GPS collar on the alpha male enabled us to find the pack’s location fairly easily, although a few times the wolves were pretty inaccessible because of forest cover," department spokesman Dave Ware told NBC News.

A first wolf was killed in early August to see if that would break the pack's habit of attacking cattle.

"Ultimately, it became clear that this pack was preying on livestock as its primary food source, and that our actions had not changed that pattern," Anderson said in a statement Thursday. "The independent wolf experts we consulted agreed with our staff that removal of the pack was the only viable option."

A second wolf was later found dead on land used by cattle to graze. The cause of death was not clear, but the young wolf had not been shot, the department said.

Those deaths left what officials estimated to be a pack of six members, all of them killed this week.

Even if the pack was a bit larger than that, officials don't expect long-term survivors since both the alpha male and female were among those killed.

The wolves were dubbed the "Wedge Pack" because they roamed a wedge-shaped area of the state.

Gray wolves used to roam Washington but were nearly exterminated a century ago by settlers. Efforts to return them to the wild in neighboring states opened a door for a natural return of wolves to Washington, where seven other packs have been established without attacking cattle.

Officials expect new wolves will move into the "Wedge" area since it has plenty of deer, elk and other wildlife. They just hope any future wolves don't become accustomed to cattle.

"It was necessary to reset the stage for sustainable wolf recovery in this region," Anderson stated. "Now we will refocus our attention on working with livestock operators and conservation groups to aggressively promote the use of non-lethal tactics to avoid wolf-livestock conflict."

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Dallas County Sheriff

John David Mahaffey, 19, was arrested on charges he sexually assaulted another male student on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

A fourth-generation Southern Methodist University student accused of sexually assaulting another male student told the victim “you better not tell a soul” and later admitted the crime in a phone call recorded by police, according to a court document released Friday.

John David Mahaffey, 19, a sophomore finance major, has been suspended from the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and banned from the University Park, Texas, campus while the investigation into the alleged assault continues.

The incident happened late Saturday night.

See more stories at NBCDFW.com

An affidavit of probable cause filed by an SMU police investigator provides graphic details.

Mahaffey forced the other student to perform a sexual act on him, the officer said.

“Victim stated ‘NO’ and ‘STOP’ several times but felt intimidated and physically forced into compliance,” the affidavit said.

The following day, the student went to police and agreed to make a recorded phone call to Mahaffey, police said.

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“During the phone call, the victim told the defendant, ‘You know I didn’t want to do that?’ The defendant replied, ‘I know you didn’t, but we have to say it was consensual or lawyers, parents, and the school will be involved.’”

According to police, the alleged victim was attacked twice – once in a campus parking garage and again near the fraternity.
 
Mahaffey, of Springfield, Mo., is a Hunt scholar, a student senator, a scholarship committee chairman, and an officer on SMU's Inter-fraternity council, according to the university website.

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According to an article last year in SMU's student newspaper, the Daily Campus, his great-great grandfather was a member of SMU's founding committee and one of its first professors and his grandmother, father and two aunts also were students.
 
SMU released a short statement, confirming the arrest, and saying Mahaffey is “temporarily banned from campus pending further investigation."
 
Debbie Denmon, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County District Attorney’s office, said Friday that the case probably will be referred to a grand jury in the next few weeks.
 
Mahaffey was released from the Dallas County jail on $25,000 bond. He did not return a phone call seeking comment.

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Nineteen veterans and active-duty service members from the Army and Air Force allege in a new lawsuit filed Friday that they were sexually assaulted while in the military and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other leaders denied them their constitutional rights of due process after reporting the crimes.

The suit seeks monetary damages, though no precise figure was named. It is the fifth lawsuit of its kind filed by Susan Burke, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney.

The 15 women and four men named in the suit were all retaliated against after reporting rapes and were denied the right to have their cases heard by an impartial party, Burke said. In the military, senior commanders are in charge of determining whether reported sexual assaults will be referred to military courts.

Related: Victims of sexual assault in military say brass often ignore pleas for justice

“Anyone who has looked closely at these types of cases knows that we have a disgraceful system,” Burke told NBC News. “It is controlled by the chain of command. These rape survivors were all denied entry into a court system, and they were retaliated against.”

While each case has different facts on the time and place of the assault, they demonstrate a pattern of a systematic failure of leadership and oversight, Burke said, explaining why Panetta is named in the suit.

The lawsuit filed Friday comes on the heels of a rare case of an Army general being charged with sexual assault and a scandal at Lackland Air Base in San Antonio, Texas, in which at least in which at least a dozen military instructors are accused of sexually assaulting young female recruits.

Related: Army general accused of sex misconduct

Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, who has served 27 years, including tours of Afghanistan and Iraq, on Wednesday was charged with forced sex on a subordinate and other offenses. He was relieved of his duty in May and recalled to Fort Bragg, N.C., where the charges were referred to military investigators.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., joined a news conference in San Francisco announcing the new lawsuit.

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In November 2011, Speier introduced legislation in Congress to reform the military justice system and the way it handles cases of rape and sexual assault. H.R. 3435, the Sexual Assault Training and Oversight Prevention Act (STOP Act), would create an impartial office made up of civilian and military experts within the military to review cases of rape and sexual assault. The bill has 133 bipartisan cosponsors.

For his part, Panetta has moved to change how sexual assaults are reported and dealt with inside the armed forces. In April, he issued new policies requiring that more senior commanders handle sexual assault complaints. And on Tuesday he ordered all military branches to improve the quality of sexual assault prevention and training.

However, Burke, and activists claim those moves fall short.

"This has been going on for years," Burke said. "Clearly, keeping these cases inside the military system isn't working."   

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David Friedman / NBC News

File photo shows a FEMA trailer park near Highway 90 in Bay St. Louis, Miss., in 2007.

More than six years after Gulf Coast victims of Hurricane Katrina began experiencing adverse health effects while living in travel trailers provided by the federal government for temporary housing, a federal judge in New Orleans has given his final approval to a $42.6 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit alleging that the units emitted hazardous levels of the toxic chemical formaldehyde.

U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt approved the deal Thursday after hearing from attorneys who brokered the agreement between the plaintiffs and more than two dozen manufacturers of mobile homes provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Roughly 55,000 residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas will be eligible for shares of $37.5 million paid by more than two dozen manufacturers, the Associated Press reported. They also can get shares of a separate $5.1 million settlement with FEMA contractors that installed and maintained the units.

Dan Balhoff, a court-appointed special master, will determine the plaintiffs' awards, the AP said. Up to 48 percent of the total settlement money – or approximately $20,5 million -- will be deducted for attorneys' fees and costs, it said. Assuming the remainder is divided equally among 55,000 plaintiffs, the plaintiffs would receive about $4,020 apiece.

Payments are expected to go out late this year or early next year, the AP said.

Engelhardt presided over three trials for claims against FEMA trailer manufacturers and installers after he was picked in 2007 to oversee hundreds of consolidated lawsuits. The juries in all three trials sided with the companies and didn't award any damages.

As msnbc.com (now NBCNews.com) first reported in July 2006, residents of the trailers began complaining of headaches, nosebleeds and breathing difficulty shortly after moving into the trailers, which were trucked to the Gulf Coast by the tens of thousands after Katrina and Rita devastated the area in rapid succession in 2005.

Air quality tests of 44 FEMA trailers in early 2006 conducted by the Sierra Club found formaldehyde concentrations as high as 0.34 parts per million – a level nearly equal to what a professional embalmer would be exposed to on the job, according to one study of the chemical’s workplace effects.

And government tests on hundreds of trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi announced in 2008 found formaldehyde levels that were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes. 

FEMA, which isn't a party to the settlements, had long downplayed the health risks from formaldehyde exposure before those test results were announced.

It eventually began auctioning off the units as “scrap” — meaning they should not be used for human habitation — in October 2008, but some unscrupulous buyers apparently were able to dodge regulations and return them to the housing pool. 

Formaldehyde gas -- the airborne form of a chemical used in a wide variety of products, including composite wood and plywood panels in the travel trailers that FEMA purchased to house hurricane victims -- is considered a human carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and a probable human carcinogen by the EPA.

Gerald Meunier, a lead plaintiffs' attorney, told the AP that the deal provides residents with "somewhat modest" compensation but allows both sides to avoid the expense and risks of protracted litigation.

"Dollar amounts alone do not determine whether a settlement is fair and reasonable," he said.

Jim Percy, a lawyer for the trailer makers, said Engelhardt would have had to try cases individually or transfer suits to other jurisdictions if the settlement wasn't reached.

"It was not going to end quickly, and it was going to be even more monumental for all the parties concerned," he said.

But that doesn't mean the deal isn't a disappointment for many residents who blame their illnesses on the cramped trailers they occupied for months on end.

"We were told not to look for much," said Anthony Dixon, a New Orleans resident who says he developed asthma while living in a FEMA trailer for two years.

Dixon, 58, attended the hearing with his wife and mother to learn more about the deal.

"We're glad to get it over with," he added.

Engelhardt noted he received a letter from a woman whose 66-year-old mother, Agnes Mauldin, of Mississippi, died of leukemia in 2008 after living in a FEMA trailer. Mauldin's daughter, Lydia Greenlees, said the settlement offers "very little" for what her family considers to be a wrongful death case.

"I am saddened about the settlement in that I feel like it makes a mockery of my mother's life," Greenlees wrote. "I don't want anyone to think for one second that I view this settlement as a fair trade for my mother's life. I do not."

A group of companies that includes Gulf Stream Coach Inc., Forest River Inc., Vanguard LLC and Monaco Coach Corp. will pay $20 million of the $37.5 million settlement with the trailer makers.

Shaw Environmental Inc., Bechtel Corp., Fluor Enterprises Inc. and CH2M Hill Constructors Inc. are among the FEMA contractors that agreed to pay shares of the separate $5.1 million settlement.

Only a handful of formaldehyde-related claims are still pending, including some against FEMA by a group of Texas residents.

Mike Brunker is the projects editor for NBCNews.com; the Associated Press contributed to this article.

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A dramatic video posted Wednesday on YouTube shows a U.S. soldier surviving a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province.

The video, which was captured by a camera mounted to the soldier’s helmet, shows the cameraman pinned down by machine gun fire, getting shot several times and yelling, “I’m hit! I’m hit!”

“I got hit a total of four times,” the cameraman wrote in his description of the video, which was provided to NBC News by the curator of a YouTube channel originally started to share about 100 videos from his own tour in Afghanistan and which now posts videos submitted by other combat veterans. The video was also posted on the Facebook page for Military Minds, an organization that aims to raise awareness of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The source was unable to provide any other details beyond the cameraman’s own description of the event:

“I was heading down the face of the hill when we got hit. The rest of the squad was pinned down by machine gun fire. I didn’t start the video until a few minutes into the firefight for obvious reasons. I came out into the open to draw fire so my squad could get to safety. I was hit in the side of my helmet and my eye [protection] was shot off of my face.”

At  another point in the video, a round of ammunition knocks the soldier’s rifle out of his hands.

“When I picked the rifle back up, it was still functional, but the grenade launcher tube had a nice-sized 7.62-calliber bullet hole in it,” he wrote.

The soldier said that none of the rounds penetrated his body armor and that he made it home with no permanent injuries.

Special Series: At the brink

Matthew Christopher / abandonedamerica.us

Photograph taken at the Angeronia Medical Center.

Reporter's notebook by Jane Derenowski, NBC News

Things sound different in a place where no one goes.   

Words echo off walls in empty rooms.  

Real or imagined creatures scurry through mysterious puddles.  

Shadows fall in strange places. 

Time doesn’t stop in abandoned buildings, it just moves differently -- and before their ultimate demise, photographer Matthew Christopher is determined to document the life, purpose, and deterioration of these structures.

They aren't just brick and mortar, wood and windows -- Christopher believes the abandoned buildings dotting America’s landscape also have something of a soul.  He wants us to remember our country’s neglected factories, schools, churches, and hospitals before they are gone forever.

He started this project 10 years ago while working in the mental health field.  Some of his first photographs were inside a deserted asylum.  

Matthew Christopher / abandonedamerica.us

Photograph taken at Harmony House Inn.

Matthew Christophe / abandonedamerica.us

Photograph taken at Galilee Steel administrative offices.

Since then, he’s documented dozens of abandoned buildings across the country and presented their stories at galleries and on his website, abandonedamerica.us.  The goal, he says, is to highlight the economic failures leading to their downfall and the social impact on communities fractured by the closing of these neighborhood mainstays.

We met recently at the partially deserted Holmesburg Prison near Philadelphia.  It was eerie, but there was a certain beauty in the stillness and things left behind.  Inside, it reminded me of a quote by French composer Claude Debussy who famously said, “Music is the space between the notes.” The places Christopher photographs tell their stories with silence and extraordinary light – the spaces between the life and death of a building. 

His pictures make me feel like someone told me a secret. 

Christopher is a thoughtful man, melancholy in his assessment of decay -- and I feel lucky he shared his art and technique with us.  I am also grateful to NBC News photographer Bob Riggio for documenting our adventure inside a place almost no one goes.

Matthew Christopher / abandonedamerica.us

Photograph taken at First National Bank.

Everything you see in the music video happened to Marine-turned-country-singer Stephen Cochran: Pushing the girl away, boozing into oblivion, the gun on the blanket. It all went down last year. 

Courtesy of Stephen Cochran

Stephen Cochran, a former Marine recon scout and now a country-music singer, has penned a new song about PTSD - combat-related symptoms that almost claimed his life in 2011.

Even the actor who portrays Cochran is, himself, a former Marine and Iraq veteran who knows of post-traumatic stress, who has wrangled with identical demons. The actor was not acting.

The only on-screen tweak from reality was the type firearm shown. In his dimmest hour, behind a locked door in his Nashville home, exhausted, alone, and telling himself: “I’m done,” Cochran rested a loaded shotgun against his bed.

“I was just trying to get the nerve. I had it planned out,” Cochran told NBC News. “I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I was tired of taking all these pills. I was going through a breakup. Couldn’t write anymore. Watching everything fall apart. I was ready to check out.”

Then: salvation, and a surreal rescue scene worthy of an epic ballad. His dog, Semper Fi, began scratching relentlessly at his door, bloodying her paws. Next, Cochran’s ex-fiancé unexpectedly entered the house, simply to retrieve a forgotten item, he said. She saw the anxious dog. She expected the worst. She barged into the bedroom, spotted the gun and physically restrained Cochran. 

But from anguish came inspiration. Amid an existence long blurred by PTSD — the residue of Afghanistan firefights, Marine buddies lost in combat, and his own nearly fatal injury — one question blazed in Cochran's head. He jotted it down: “How do you paint a picture back in focus?”

“It was the only way I could describe trying to put your life back together, literally trying to do the impossible,” he said.

Around that single thought, Cochran penned an entire song, “Pieces,”an ode to the blackness from which he was aching to escape, a tale of reconnecting the scattered fragments of his shattered world, and a message of solidarity for his military brothers and sisters. The single — part of a CD with the same title — will be released in this country on Nov. 11. The song already has charted in Europe.

“It’s not just my story. So many of us think about (suicide) because you just get so tired, so tired of being the crazy guy. Or of hearing: ‘He’s weird.’ Or of hearing: ‘We can’t hire you because we really don’t know what post-traumatic stress is and you might come back and kill us all.’

“I really wrote it as my own healing, for what I was going through,” added Cochran, 33, who teamed with fellow musician Trevor Rosen to complete the song. It took them only 15 minutes.

But after playing it at several veterans’ benefits, Cochran heard from service members up and down the chain of command how they, too, connected with the lyrics. That feedback has turned “Pieces” into the soundtrack of the singer’s ongoing crusade.

“We have an epidemic of suicides in the military right now. At this point, we are physically losing both of these wars in the United States of America, not overseas.

Related: First opera about Iraq War reaches out to veteran suffering from PTSD

“If we want to stop our suicides, we need a complete overhaul in our ‘warrior’ terminology in this country, in the way we train our families (how to relate with homecoming veterans). That’s what I want to start with ‘Pieces,’ and the video. I want to get a bridge between our civilian population and the veterans. And I want to reach into the rooms of some of these guys and girls — who are just sitting in the dark and watching TV all day like I did — and let them know: You’re not alone.”

Perhaps the most ironic thread of Cochran’s story coils back to the days of his first, true musical success. In 2007, one year after retiring from the Marines, he scored a country hit with “Friday Night Fireside,” the culmination of a childhood dream for a guy raised in Nashville. The accompanying video was voted No. 1 by Great American Country fans for five straight weeks.

courtesy of Stephen Cochran

After his the light-armoured vehicle crashed in Afghanistan, Stephen Cochran fractured vertebrae and suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2004. Told he would never walk again, an experimental procedure by VA surgeons restored his steps.

Two years later, Cochran became the national spokesman for research and development at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — his thank you for a successful, experimental surgery performed by VA surgeons who repaired his broken back. In 2004, Cochran had splintered several lumbar vertebrae when the vehicle in which he was riding through southern Afghanistan slammed into gaping hole that once held an anti-tank mine. He couldn’t feel or move his legs for months, and was told by doctors that he’d never take steps again. He walked.

The former Marine reconnaissance scout, part of the U.S. force that first knocked the Taliban out of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, next teamed up with the VA to become its national co-chair for voluntary service. In that role, Cochran toured America, urging veterans to seek help for combat stress, “to let them know you don’t have to suffer in silence,” recalled Rosetta Fisher-Oliver, the VA’s chief of voluntary service for Tennessee and for parts of Kentucky and Georgia.

In 2011, Cochran recorded the music video “Hope” for the VA to try and cement his get-help pleas to fellow troops. What few knew: Cochran was losing his own hope.

“We worked on that video together, and the week he was supposed to make the video, I tried to get in touch with him, just to check to see that he was going to be on time,” said Fisher-Oliver.

She was unable to reach him, however, because Cochran was by then seeking treatment — after reaching the brink of suicide in his bedroom.

“Here’s a person who’s trying to get the message out and he’s still struggling with issues too,” she said. “He later told me: ‘I almost wasn’t here.’ ”

Cochran now acknowledges that he carried “almost dual personalities” during that time. In front of fellow veterans and fans, he sang, smiled, shook hands and signed autographs. “But I also had to deal with this monster I have inside my head and inside my gut, all day.” At home, his family and his then-fiancé, he admitted, took the brunt of his mood swings and emotional detachment.

courtesy of Stephen Cochran

After breaking his back in Afghanistan, Cochran was greeted by a fellow Marine. He later regained the ability to walk.

“You’re screaming out: Please help me understand what I’m going through, because I have no clue! That’s why you see the high number of divorces in the military,” Cochran said. “I told my fiancé: ‘I don’t know what I’m dealing with so the best thing for you to do is just leave and you’ll thank me later.' ”

She left.

But in what could have been Cochran’s final minutes, she came back, and burst into his bedroom.

After Cochran artfully turned that horrid moment into a song, he met the man picked to portray his downward spiral in the “Pieces” video: Daniel Dean, a Nashville songwriter and actor. He also looks a bit like Cochran. He seemed like a logical choice.

In talking with Dean, though, Cochran learned that the man was a Marine sniper who did three tours in Iraq. And they both had lived for years with the lingering anxieties that often remain for veterans who log months of combat exposure.

“He told me: 'This is my story, too,'” Cochran remembers. “That dude lived that.”

They also agreed with the concept that “Pieces” would be not just the first music video to delve so deeply into PTSD. It would break ranks with dozens of other standard, country-music videos about the U.S. military — mini movies that often include battle scenes that, some critics say, glorify war.

“Stephen does country music and so do I, and there’s a lot of military songs and a lot of them are pretty much B.S.” Dean said. “You’ve got the Toby Keith type stuff and that’s all right for what it is. But very rarely does a song hit a military person the way this one does.

“Just because it’s real. It’s one of the things I doubt you’ll hear any of the other country stars singing about. It’s (usually) more of the patriotic angle. Most military members aren’t songwriters like Stephen and I. So, I guess that lets us be able to sing things that you can’t say or can't deal with.” 

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Millions of dollars in contemporary art was recovered Wednesday after a tipster led Santa Monica police to an automotive electronics store in Pasadena and then to at least two residences, police said Thursday.

The art belongs to bond-fund manager Jeff Gundlach, whose Santa Monica home was burglarized earlier this month.

Most of the paintings were found during a search of Al & Ed’s Autosound located at 30 S. Rosemead Boulevard in Pasadena, according to Santa Monica police. The store’s manager, 45-year-old Jay Jeffrey, of Canyon Country, was arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen property.

Detectives were then led to a San Gabriel residence, where investigators found four of the stolen paintings. There, Wilmer Bolosan Cadiz, 40, was arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen property.

The last painting was found at a Glendale residence, police said. The person who had that painting has been interviewed by police and is cooperating with investigators.

Gundlach, the founder of DoubleLine Capital, said the recovery marked a "great day for the art world and all those who seek order and justice in our society."

"My gratitude goes out to Detective David Haro and the entire Santa Monica Police Department for their skillful, tireless and respectful attention to apprehending the criminals and recovering all of the artwork stolen," he said in a statement. "I would also like to thank the many well wishers who offered support and whose optimism over the last two weeks proved accurate."

Also on NBCLosAngeles.com: 'Anarchy' actor was in jail days before rampage

On Monday, Gundlach offered $1.7 million for information leading to the successful return of the artwork undamaged. It was not immediately known who would receive the reward.

The bulk of the reward – $1 million of it – is dedicated solely to the safe return of “Composition (A) En Rouge Et Blanc,” an oil-on-canvas piece by Piet Mondrian circa 1936. Another $500,000 is for a 1956 Jasper John’s collage titled “Green Target.”

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"If the people that turn in the tip were part of the burglary they will not receive a single penny," according to Gundlach. "However, if they were righteous people, they will receive every penny."

Still, not all of the stolen property has been recovered, police said.

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Sometime between 3 p.m. on Sept. 12 and 8 p.m. on Sept. 14, burglars made off with loot estimated to be worth $10 million, including a 2012 Porsche Carrera 4S, wine and expensive watches, investigators said.

Gundlach returned to his home in the 500 block of 12th Street on Sept. 14 to find it’d been burglarized while he was away on a trip, investigators said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective David Haro at (310) 458-8432 or Sergeant Henry Ramirez at (310) 458-8453 or the Santa Monica Police Department (24 hours) at (310) 458-8495.

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A Philadelphia judge halted next week's scheduled execution of a teenage killer after finding the trial prosecutor suppressed evidence the victim was molesting boys, “sanitized” witness statements before giving them to the defense and lied about a secret deal she'd struck with the accomplice.

The judge also tossed out Terrance “Terry” Williams' death sentence, granting him a new sentencing hearing.

Williams has been on death row for 28 years and was set to be executed Wednesday. He would have been the first person executed in Pennsylvania in 50 years who had not given up his appeals.

Williams, now 46, could still face the death chamber if prosecutors successfully appeal Friday's ruling. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, who planned an afternoon news conference, has called the defendant a “brutal two-time murderer.”

Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina accused trial prosecutor Andrea Gelman Foulkes of “gamesmanship” in order to win the 1986 death-penalty case.

“She did at times play games and take unfair measures to win,” Sarmina said Friday, reading aloud her lengthy ruling. “She wanted to win.”

Williams was not in court, but his aunt, daughter and other supporters broke into applause.

The judge deemed Foulkes' testimony last week about her work in the case not credible. Foulkes, through a spokeswoman at the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia, where she now works, declined immediate comment.

Given new evidence unearthed only this past week from police homicide files and Foulkes' own notes, Sarmina said the jury might not have voted for the death penalty if they knew more about victim Amos Norwood.

Foulkes herself testified last week that she suspected there was a sexual link between the 56-year-old Norwood and 18-year-old Williams, but neither she nor police pursued it much. Statements from Norwood's wife and pastor about prior fondling complaints and odd interactions with teenage boys never reached the defense lawyer or jurors.

Related: Penn. board rejects clemency in murder case, execution still planned
Related: Widow asks Pennsylvania governor not to execute husband's killer

AP

Terrance Williams is shown in this undated Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' photo.

Williams now says he had been abused since he was 13 by Norwood, a chemist and church deacon who spent long hours working with underprivileged boys through a church theater program.

Williams, a star high school quarterback from a troubled family, was secretly having sex with older men in exchange for money, clothes and gifts. He had killed 50-year-old Herb Hamilton five months earlier, when he was 17, in a gruesome, clearly sexual slaying. Foulkes herself had prosecuted Williams in that case, which detailed the sex motive and resulted in a third-degree murder conviction.

Three new affidavits this year from Norwood accomplice Marc Draper, a childhood friend, led to what the judge called the “extraordinary” late-stage evidence hearing this past week.

Draper had refused to talk to Williams' appellate lawyers for years. But angry over the raw deal he feels he made with Foulkes, and made aware of Williams' execution date, he opened up this year and recanted his trial testimony. He said he'd told Foulkes and detectives about Williams' sexual relationship with Norwood. They didn't want to hear it, he said.

Sarmina ordered prosecutors to bring the original police files to court. Interview notes made by Foulkes and by police corroborated his story.

Draper said he'd been promised a chance for parole after 10 or 15 years if he testified that he and Williams fatally beat Norwood during a robbery.

Instead, he got a life sentence — which in Pennsylvania, means life without parole. Draper said he didn't understand that. Foulkes stated at trial that she had no side deals with Draper, her star witness. Yet she later wrote a letter for Draper — sent to his father, a policeman — promising to tell the parole board about his cooperation if Draper was ever up for parole. Unbeknownst to Draper, that could only happen if his sentence was changed on appeal.

Federal courts had previously found the work of Williams' now-disbarred trial lawyer “unconstitutionally deficient,” although they refused to throw out the death sentence.

Federal public defenders from a death-penalty unit have represented Williams since 1996. They say the errors found in his case are far too common.

“That we were talking about executing somebody who meets his lawyer a day before trial is an indictment of the system. The fact we're talking about this new evidence a week before execution is a bigger indictment of the system,” public defender Victor Abreu said Friday.

Williams had been scheduled to be executed by lethal injection. He would have become the first Pennsylvania inmate executed since 1962 who had not given up his appeals.

“He's hanging in there. It's not an easy situation. His execution is five days away,” said Shawn Nolan, another public defender.

Williams also has a clemency petition pending with the state Board of Pardons, which reopened his case Thursday but did not issue a ruling. The board could be asked to revisit the petition if prosecutors successfully appeal Sarmina's ruling to the state Supreme Court.

Nolan also released the following statement regarding the judge's decision: 

On behalf of Terry Williams, we are extremely pleased that Judge Sarmina, after carefully considering all of the evidence in this case, has vacated the death sentence based on misconduct by the prosecution.  Her decision was right and well-reasoned.  As prosecutor for more than 10 years and a judge who likely presided over more than a hundred homicide trials, Judge Sarmina certainly understands how the prosecution misled the jury in this case. The Philadelphia District Attorney should stop their appeals and stop fighting to have Terry executed.

The District Attorney’s very own files were replete with evidence from as early as 1984 of predatory, exploitive and abusive acts by Herbert Hamilton and Amos Norwood against Terry Williams and other teenage boys.  It is legally and ethically unconscionable that Seth Williams and his Assistants have been advocating for the execution of Terry Williams after hiding critical evidence from jurors and continuing to hide it for 28 years.

Judge Sarmina found that the trial prosecutor engaged in misconduct. She found that the prosecutor 'played games and took unfair measures to win.' She also noted that the prosecutor violated her ethical duty for failing to turn over evidence in the files in the possession of the Commonwealth.

If the DA appeals, we are confident that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will not overturn Judge Sarmina’s well-reasoned decision, and do not believe that the Court will tolerate the prosecutor’s actions in this case, especially when life or death are at issue.

We are also hopeful that Governor Tom Corbett and the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons will now grant clemency in light of Judge Sarmina’s decision and the significance of the evidence that prosecutors kept from the Board during their life or death deliberations.  A majority of the Board, including Attorney General Linda Kelly, previously voted in favor of clemency.  Surely, after considering the new evidence, they will not allow this execution to go forward.

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Reuters

Colorado shooting suspect James Eagan Holmes makes his first court appearance in Aurora, Colorado on July 23.

The suspect in a deadly movie theater attack in Colorado threatened a professor before the shooting, leading the university to ban him from campus, prosecutors said in court documents released Friday.

The name of the person James Eagan Holmes threatened has been blacked out. Prosecutors say the person reported the threats, and Holmes was denied access to campus "as a result of these actions."

In other documents, defense attorneys say the prosecutor's allegations are false, based on university statements.

The University of Colorado has said Holmes was denied access to non-public parts of the campus because he had withdrawn from school.

Holmes, 24, faces 152 charges in the July 20 shooting at an Aurora movie theater during a midnight showing of the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises." The attack killed 12 people and injured 58 others. After the shootings, police went to Holmes' apartment which was wired with a complex system of tripwires and explosive devices.

Defense attorneys claim Holmes is mentally ill, raising the possibility that Holmes will plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

In court, prosecutors have raised the prospect that Holmes was angry at the failure of a once promising academic career and stockpiled weapons, ammunition, tear gas grenades, and body armor as his research deteriorated and professors urged him to get into another profession.

After weeks of secrecy surrounding the case, most of the documents filed in court were released to the public on Friday.

In his order, Judge William Sylvester said that the release, with some restrictions, and considerable redaction, balances the public's First Amendment rights to see the court file, and attorneys' concerns. Prosecutors and defense attorneys had asked that court documents be sealed to preserve an ongoing investigation and protect Holmes' right to a fair trial.

Sylvester ordered that some information in the documents released Friday have information blacked out to protect the identities of witnesses. Documents that won't be released include an arrest affidavit, which contains information about the investigation, as well as requests for search warrants and subpoenas.

Many of the newly released documents unveil the legal struggle over the relationship between Holmes and a psychiatrist. The defense has argued that the relationship is privileged and that the evidence should not information that may have passed between the doctor about Holmes. Prosecutors have downplayed the formality of the relationship which they say ended well before the July 20 attack.

See all available documents on the case

The newly released documents, though heavily redacted, suggest that prosecutors believe the doctor had knowledge that Holmes posed a threat.

"The statutes of the General Assembly, and those of Congress, and the Constitution of the United States, are designed to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for everyone. They cannot be construed as to prevent [redacted]from sharing with appropriate individuals’ information necessary to secure the safety — or even the life — of the [redacted]. They cannot be construed to allow an individual to make threats against the safety of the community and at the same time, prohibit the recipient of such threats from acting on them. [Redacted portion.]“[W]hile the Constitution protects against invasions of individual rights, it is not a suicide pact."

Previous court documents confirmed that Holmes sent a package to the University of Colorado psychiatrist, Lynne Fenton.

The package contains a notebook that reportedly includes descriptions and drawings of an attack, but Fenton said she never saw the notebook, which was sitting in an unopened package in a university mail room when authorities obtained it.

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The newly released documents also reveal that investigators have gleaned information from a witness described as a colleague of Holmes at the University of Colorado. The witness was interviewed by police, and also gave police access to text messages he received from Holmes.

According to the document, which explained redaction of the records, forensics experts said they could not isolate the text messages from the rest of the content on the phone, so they downloaded all of it — 2,275 pages of personal contacts, photographs, and personal conversations with the witness's therapist — and then redacted all but a handful of text messages from Holmes.

NBC News' Kari Huus and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The body of a Northwestern University student missing since early Saturday morning was recovered Thursday evening from Lake Michigan's Wilmette Harbor.

NBC Chicago

The body of Northwestern University student Harsha Maddula, who was missing since early Saturday morning, was recovered Thursday evening from Wilmette Harbor.

Harsha Maddula, 18, vanished after leaving a party near his campus residence hall early Saturday morning.

While there's been no official confirmation of identity, university spokesman Alan Cubbage said Maddula's identification and cell phone were found on the body that was pulled from the water near the bridge on Sheridan Road shortly before 7 p.m.

Cubbage said there does not appear to be any foul play involved.

Read the original story on NBCChicago.com

"On behalf of Northwestern University, I extend our deepest sympathies to Harsha's family and to his many friends at Northwestern. Our hearts and thoughts are with them," said University President Morton Schapiro. "The loss of one member of the Northwestern community deeply affects us all."

The discovery ends days of searching by hundreds of volunteers, including family, friends, students and community members.

Maddula's family members on Wednesday put up a $25,000 reward for information as the search expanded to the waters of Lake Michigan near his residence hall. Authorities said the last "ping" from his cell phone hit a tower near the water.

Rafi Letzter / Daily Northwestern

Students at Northwestern University hold a candelight vigil for fellow student Harsha Maddula who went missing early Saturday morning and was found dead Thursday night.

"It is believed that the cell phone that was found on the body, that the amount of time it took for the various signals to go on northward, that is consistent with someone walking," said Cubbage.

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Dive teams searching the water on Wednesday turned up nothing, but Maddula's family said earlier in the day that their spirits were lifted by word from relatives in India who'd contacted psychics.

"All my family and friends from India, from everywhere, they see me on TV and they say, 'He's still alive. Don't worry,'" his father, Prasad Maddula, told reporters.

"Why the body was found today and not yesterday during the extensive search that occurred, I don't know the answer," said Cubbage.

A Facebook page dedicated to updates on the search for Maddula was apparently taken offline Thursday evening.

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Police in Roseville, Mich., drilled into the ground Friday and took soil samples in the latest effort to find the remains of notorious Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Hank Walker/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Teamsters' boss Jimmy Hoffa in an undated image.

The decades-long investigation for Hoffa's body has had false leads before, and some experts are already knocking down the idea that Hoffa, who was last seen on July 30, 1975, outside a restaurant in Oakland County, Mich. -- 30 miles west of where police dug Friday -- could be buried in Roseville, a Detroit suburb.

The most recent investigation was launched after police in Roseville received a tip from a man in August who said he saw a body being buried underneath the driveway 35 years ago and "thinks it may have been Jimmy."

Police dug for about an hour and a half on Friday morning. They told NBC News' John Yang they were collecting soil samples around the home because ground-penetrating radar indicated the presence of something about two feet below the surface; officers came out of a shed with two cylindrical soil samples that were two inches in diameter and six feet long.

The soil samples are going to be hand-delivered by Roseville Police Chief James Berlin to a Michigan State University forensic anthropologist, who is expected to have the results of the samples as early as Monday afternoon. If human remains are found, the ground will be dug up.

The shed on the Roseville home's property is not the same one that was there when Hoffa disappeared in 1975, the police chief said. 

The tipster who prompted the search spoke with police on Aug. 22 and didn't come forward sooner out of fear, reported WDIV in Detroit.

Feisty and iron-willed in contract talks, Hoffa was an acquaintance of mobsters and adversary of federal officials. He spent time in prison for jury tampering. 

The day he disappeared, Hoffa was supposed to meet with a New Jersey Teamsters boss and a Detroit mafia captain. He was declared legally dead in 1982. 

Previous tips led police to excavate soil in 2006 at a horse farm more than 100 miles north of Detroit, rip up floorboards at a Detroit home in 2004 and search beneath a backyard pool north of the city in 2003.

There were even rumors that Hoffa's remains were ground up and tossed into a Florida swamp, entombed beneath Giants Stadium in New Jersey or obliterated in a mob-owned fat-rendering plant.

Roseville is one of several inner-ring communities that grew quickly as unionized auto factory workers left Detroit in search of nicer homes and bigger yards.

Get the latest on the Jimmy Hoffa search from BreakingNews.com

News of the latest search has brought attention to the mostly working- and middle-class suburb from the curious and naysayers. Slowly moving vehicles have clogged the residential street where the home sits as camera-wielding neighbors snapped photos for keepsakes.

"I believe it's him. My sister said it is, and she's a psychic," Mike Smith said after ambling up to the home Thursday and shying a bit from the yellow police tape stretched across the driveway.

One theory that has endured was that the body was beneath the foundation of a downtown Detroit hockey stadium, said 57-year-old Cindi Frank, who snapped photos Thursday of the Roseville driveway.

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The daughter of a unionized driver and salesman for a Detroit bakery, Frank remembers conversations about Hoffa while he was alive and rumors about his fate.

"It was a family thing. Every time we'd go somewhere we'd say, 'Hey, I wonder if Jimmy Hoffa is buried there?'" Frank said. "It's just been one of those unsolved mysteries that's gone on for 30-something years. If he show up in Roseville ..."

Recently retired Detroit FBI chief Andrew Arena is among the doubters that the latest report will check out.

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"You've got to check it out, but this doesn't sound right," he told the AP. "The working theories that have developed over the years, this really doesn't fit any of those. If this was the mob and they killed somebody, I just don't see them burying the body basically at the intersection of a residential neighborhood with this guy standing there." 

Some think the least likely spot for him to turn up might just be the place he does.

"Maybe the most inconspicuous spot might be the place to stash a body or something," said 52-year-old Andrew Kacir, who lives across from the taped off driveway. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Bill Pugliano / Getty Images

Police officials prepare to drill through a concrete driveway to obtain a soil sample that will be tested for signs of human decomposition at a site where a tipster reported that the body of former Teamster's union boss Jimmy Hoffa could be buried in Roseville, Mich.

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A group of teenage girls beat up a mentally disabled woman in Delaware County, Pa., made video of the attack and posted the clip to Facebook, according to Chester police.

In the video, which was obtained and published by the Delco Times, a group of six girls approached the woman, who was sitting on her stoop.

One of the attackers started punching the 48-year-old woman. The attack then moved inside the home, where the teens continued punching her with their fists and hitting her with chairs, among other things.

Police say the beating happened near 12th and Morton Streets Tuesday around 9 p.m. in Chester. The suspects are 16 and 17 years of age.

For more visit NBCPhiladelphia.com

The victim suffered cuts and bruises on her face but did not get medical help, according to police.

Len Worby, one of the victim's neighbors, told the Delco Times the attack was the second in two weeks.

“She got beat up about two weeks ago,” Worby told the newspaper. “Someone hit her over the head with a gun.”

A local parent saw the video on Facebook Thursday morning and tipped off police.

Police say they tracked down four of the teenage girls in the video. Two of those arrested are sisters, according to the Delco Times. The Associated Press reported they were charged as adults with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, burglary and harassment.

"The parents are upset," one of the officers told the Times. "The girls are defiant. It's like they didn't do anything wrong."

Investigators say they're searching for two more girls who they believe were involved.

"Their behavior is animalistic to this poor woman," Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan told the Times. "We are going to aggressively prosecute each of them for their callous indifference to this woman."

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NEW FAIRFIELD, Conn. --  A popular fifth-grade teacher fatally shot a masked, knife-wielding prowler outside his house during what appeared to be a late-night burglary attempt, only to discover he had killed his 15-year-old son, police say.

Police said 15-year-old Tyler Giuliano was shot at about 1 a.m. Thursday in New Fairfield, a town just north of Danbury.

The teacher's sister was alone in her house next door to his when she believed someone was breaking in. She called her brother, and he grabbed a gun and went outside to investigate, police said.

The father confronted someone wearing a black ski mask and black clothing and fired his gun when the person went at him with a shiny weapon in his hand, police said.

Father sitting on grass
When police officers arrived, the teen was lying in the driveway of the woman's home with gunshot wounds and the father was sitting on the grass. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

"All in all it's a tragedy," state police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said.

The Associated Press said the teen's father, Jeffrey Giuliano, a fifth-grade teacher in town, had not returned a message seeking comment on what happened.

Read more from NBCConnecticut.com

NBCConnecticut.com spoke to members of the community about what happened.

"The fact that it was a father and son involved in the shooting and the way that it all happened, I think people quite frankly are devastated. This is a teacher who is very loved," one man told the station.

One of Giuliano's students described him as "one of the best teachers I ever had."

Read more U.S. stories from NBC News

The teenager, Giuliano's adopted son, was a student at New Fairfield High School, a short walk from the neighborhood where he was killed.

Superintendent of Schools Alicia Roy sent parents an email about what happened, The News-Times of Danbury reported.

"Our district has experienced a tragedy that has affected us deeply," she wrote, adding that students weren't told of the killing because all the facts weren't clear.

No charges have been filed. State police are investigating. An autopsy on the boy is planned.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Carol Kaliff / AP

A blue tent protects the scene of a fatal shooting in New Fairfield, Conn., on Thursday.

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Bloomington Minn. police

Booking photo of Andrew Engeldinger in 1997.

Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET: The man who shot and killed four others then himself at a sign-making business in Minneapolis on Thursday has been identified as Andrew J. Engeldinger, 36, an employee who had lost his job earlier in the day, the StarTribune reported Friday.

"It was a case he was terminated that day, he did come back about 4:25 to that location, parked his car and walked in the loading dock area and immediately started shooting people at that location," Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said Friday afternoon.

Dolan said Engeldinger was found dead in the basement of Accent Signage Systems with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and a single bullet casing, KARE television reported.

Asked if Engeldinger chose his victims, the chief said: "It's clear he did walk by some people, he did walk by people to get to certain other members of the business."

Dolan said Engeldinger's weapon was a Glock 9 mm, a semi-automatic handgun. He said police found packaging for 10,000 rounds of ammunition during a search of Engeldinger's home.

Barry Lawrence, a former employee who told the Tribune that he had trained Engeldinger as an engraver in 1998 or 1999, described him as "real intelligent, caught on fast."

"He seemed conscientious," said Lawrence. "He was conscious about saving money. He was always worried about his 401(k) plan. When the stock market went down, he was concerned about losing money. I said, 'Just forget about it, Andy, don't even look at if it upsets you.'"

Engeldinger's parents on Friday released a statement saying that Andrew struggled with mental illness for years and had lost contact with the family, KARE reported. "This is not an excuse for his actions, but sadly, may be a partial explanation," said the statement read by Carolyn and Chuck Engeldinger. They also expressed condolences to the families of those killed and wounded.

Updated at 8:02 a.m. ET: A gunman killed four people inside a Minneapolis sign-making business before turning the weapon on himself, authorities said early Friday.

The victims' bodies were found shortly after officers arrived at Accent Signage Systems Inc., located in a residential area in the city's north side, after receiving a 911 call Thursday afternoon, according to police spokesman Sgt. Stephen McCarty.

"When officers arrived and entered the business to assist with the evacuation of employees, give aid to the victims and to search for the suspect, they found four victims dead from apparent gunshot wounds," McCarty said in a statement.

Four other people were wounded, including three critically. McCarty declined to identify those killed or wounded, and said he did not know what connection the shooter may have had with the business, if any.

'Kind of odd'
Minneapolis Police Deputy Chief Kris Arneson said officers never fired at the shooter. She didn't release other details — including the shooter's possible motive.

Neighbor Heather Buckingham, who told NBC station KARE 11 that she formerly worked for Accent Signage Systems as a receptionist, said the gunman was an employee of the firm who had been laid off on Thursday.

"The one that was doing the shooting was quiet, kept to himself," she told KARE 11.  "Kind of odd."

Someone from inside the building called 911 around 4:30 p.m. to report the shootings, police said. The first officers on the scene quickly began evacuating people from the business and closed off several blocks.

More news from NBC station KARE 11

Marques Jones, 18, of Minneapolis, said he was outside a building down the street having his high school senior pictures taken when he and his photographer heard gunfire that sounded close.

"We heard about four to five gunshots," Jones said. "We were shocked at what happened and we just looked at each other. We all just took off running to our vehicles."

Craig Lassig / AP

A police officer stands at the entrance of Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis on Thursday.

'Watched his boss get shot'
Local resident Barb Gasterland told KARE 11 that an employee of Accent Signage Systems came to her home looking for help.

"He was visibly fearful," she said. "He came running up the side of the road and asked for the phone because he was running from the shooter."

Gasterland said the man described the details of the shooting while hiding in her house for about 30 minutes.

"He had watched his boss get shot and his best friend and two other people," she told KARE 11. "He could tell one person was dead at least."

Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak described the incident as a "horrible tragedy."

John Autey / St. Paul Pioneer Press via AP

Officers with the Minnesota State Patrol man the Penn Avenue bridge over Bassett's Creek near the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis on Thursday.

In a statement, Governor Mark Dayton said: "I deplore this senseless violence. There is no place for it anywhere in Minnesota. I extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the innocent people killed or wounded."

Local business publication Finance & Commerce reported that U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Francisco Sanchez visited Accent Signage Systems in August in a trip focused on exporting, and praised the company for its innovation.

KARE 11 reported:

Accent Signage Systems Incorporated specializes in interior signs that help the visually impaired.

The company holds a patent for technology that imprints Braille on things like hotel room numbers and restroom signs.

Companies in 38 countries use Accent's technology.

According to the company's Facebook page, Accent started as a part-time engraving business out of company president Reuven Rahamim's basement in 1984. It has grown significantly.

Accent now employs about 30 people and earns $5 to $10 million each year.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Updated at 11:19 p.m. ET: Police say "several" people were killed and at least four others injured Thursday afternoon in a workplace shooting at a sign company in Minneapolis, KARE 11 reported.

Minneapolis Police Deputy Chief Kris Arneson told reporters that the alleged gunman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Arneson could not confirm how many people were killed in the shooting, the station reported.

The alleged gunman was an employee at Accent Signage Systems Inc. who had been fired earlier in the day, Fox9 reported.

KARE 11 reported that police were called to the scene with reports of a shooting at around 4 p.m. A neighbor told the station that an employee of the company came to his home seeking refuge. The employee said he watched as his boss and fellow employees were shot, the station said.

Christine Hill, spokeswoman for Hennepin County Medical Center told KARE 11 the hospital is treating four people, three of which are in critical condition. Those in critical condition are all men.

Fox9 quoted an unidentified high-ranking law enforcement source as saying that the gunman returned to the office after being terminated earlier in the day. The source also told Fox9 that the gunman, whose body was found in the basement, may have been targeting specific employees.

After the shooting, dozens of squad cars and police vehicles surrounded the business. Traffic was stopped on a nearby bridge along Penn Avenue, where law enforcement officers had rifles drawn and pointed at a park below. People from the neighborhood milled around but deputies kept them back.   

Amy Forliti / AP

Police investigate a shooting at Accent Signage Systems on the north side of Minneapolis Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012, that left at least two people dead and four others wounded.

Marques Jones, 18 of Minneapolis, said he was outside a building down the street having his picture taken when he and his photographer heard gunfire that sounded close. 

"We heard about four to five gunshots," Jones said. "We were shocked at what happened and we just looked at each other. We all just took off running to our vehicles."

Accent Signage Systems' website says it "is a leader in the interior signage industry specializing in custom (Americans With Disabilties Act)-compliant interior signage, and serving major sign manufacturers worldwide.”

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Updated at 12:26 a.m. ET: A federal judge on Thursday determined a California man behind a crudely produced anti-Islamic video that inflamed parts of the Middle East is a flight risk and ordered him detained.

The judge ordered Nakoula Basseley Nakoula to remain in custody until a hearing to determine whether he violated the terms of his probation, stemming from a conviction on federal fraud charges, NBC News reported.

"The court has a lack of trust in the defendant at this time," Chief Magistrate Judge Suzanne Segal said in making the ruling, citing a pattern of deception and the possibility Nakoula was a flight risk.

He had eight probation violations, including lying to his probation officers and using aliases, and he might face new charges that carry a maximum two-year prison term, authorities said. Nakoula will remain behind bars until another hearing where a judge will rule if he broke the terms of his probation.

Court records show that Nakoula was convicted on federal fraud charges in Los Angeles in 2010. Among the conditions of his probation, Nakoula was barred from using "any online service at any location" without the prior approval of his probation officer, according to a copy of court records in the case.

MORE: Actors Plan to Sue Filmmaker | Coptic Leaders Denounce Film

A 14-minute trailer for the film "Innocence of Muslims" was posted on YouTube in July, leading to protests around the Middle East. The trailer depicts Muhammad as a womanizer, religious fraud and child molester.

Violence broke out Sept. 11 and has spread since, killing dozens, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi, Libya. Nakoula went into hiding after he was identified as the man behind the trailer, the Associated Press reported.

Slideshow: Anger over film spreads throughout Muslim world

Khaled Abdullah / Reuters

Protests ignited by a controversial film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad spread throughout Muslim world.

Launch slideshow

Earlier this month, federal law enforcement officials opened an investigation into whether Nakoula violated his probation on those fraud charges in his efforts to promote the movie, an official told NBC News.

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The official emphasized that the probe of Nakoula relates only to whether he violated his probation order — not into the content of the inflammatory movie. "This is not an investigation of the film," the official said, or in any way intended to infringe on his "First Amendment rights."

A self-described Coptic Christian who was born in Egypt, Nakoula is said to go by the pseudonym Sam Bassiel. That moniker that caused widespread confusion when the film was first released earlier this month when someone associated with the film said that the producer was an Israeli Jew with that name.

Suspected anti-Islam filmmaker questioned 

Others have disputed that the video was the cause of the violence in Libya. On Wednesday, Libyan President Mohammed Magarief told NBC News' Ann Curry that the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Libya there were carefully planned terrorist events, not the actions of a mob angry about the video.

NBC Los Angeles, NBC News' Olivia Santini, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Breaking Glass Pictures

Edith Windsor, left, and Thea Spyer, partners for 44 years until Spyer's death in 2009, in an undated photograph. Windsor won a case against the Defense of Marriage Act in a district court, but that ruling is being challenged by the law's proponents in the U.S. House.

As same-sex couples wait for the Supreme Court to decide if it will hear one of five challenges to a law that bans federal recognition of gay marriage, opening arguments were heard Thursday in one such case in New York.

The case before the U.S. 2nd Court of Appeals concerns Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, a lesbian couple who lived together in New York City for 44 years and formally married in Canada in May 2007. While this case is still in earlier stages of the court process, attorneys have also asked the nation’s top court to bundle the case with the others in the legal battle against the Defense of Marriage Act across the nation.

The state of New York recognized the marriage of Windsor and Spyers, but federal law did not because of the Defense of Marriage Act, which restricts the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman.

When Spyer passed away in 2009, Windsor was hit with $363,053 in federal estate taxes. Had they been considered spouses under federal law, she would have assumed Spyer’s assets, including their home, without incurring estate taxes.

Windsor sued the government in November 2010.

In June, U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones in Manhattan ruled in Windsor’s favor, and declared the 1996 DOMA law unconstitutional, by discriminating against same-sex couples. That decision prompted the current challenge by proponents of the law.

The Supreme Court has been asked to hear five different challenges to DOMA, including the Windsor case, in their next session, which opens Monday.

"It is critically important for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear one or more of the DOMA cases," said Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation at Lambda Legal. "In addition to being barred from the protections, rights and benefits afforded under 1,138 federal laws, it is demeaning to married same-sex couples and their families to have their federal government treat them as legal strangers."

In their next term, the justices could decide to take up one or more of the cases, none of them or simply delay considering the issue indefinitely.

However, in comments last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she believes the Defense of Marriage Act will reach the Supreme Court within the coming year.

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Each of the five cases that have been successful in district court challenges of DOMA’s Section 3 — the portion that defines marriage as heterosexual — that are now at various stages of appeal in circuit courts.

Each focuses on different federal benefits that are currently provided for people in traditional marriages, but not for those in same-sex marriages.

The Defense of Marriage Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton after it appeared in 1993 that Hawaii might legalize gay marriage.

Since then, many states have banned gay marriage through amendments to their constitution, but six have approved them, including Massachusetts and New York.

In Feb. 2011, the U.S. Justice Department under guidance from President Barack Obama has said it would no longer defend DOMA in court because they believe it to be unconstitutional.

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As a result, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the U.S. House of Representatives is spearheading appeals to uphold DOMA against challenges, acting on behalf of the legislative body.

Lawyer Paul Clement, speaking on behalf of bipartisan group on Thursday told the appeals court that the Defense of Marriage Act was consistent with the intention of Congress to continue "preserving programs the way they've always been — not opening these programs to others."

NBC's Kari Huus and Miranda Leitsinger and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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State of Oregon via AP file

This undated image made available by the State of Oregon on March 18, 2010 shows Timur Dykes. In April 2010, a jury decided the Boy Scouts were negligent for allowing Dykes, a former assistant scoutmaster, to associate with Scouts after he admitted to a Scouts official in 1983 that he had molested 17 boys, according to court records.

As the Boy Scouts of America prepares for the court-ordered release of records detailing accusations of sex abuse by members and leaders, the organization acknowledged in an open letter this week that its response in some of the cases had been “plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.”

The letter comes after the Oregon Supreme Court ordered the Boy Scouts to release “ineligible volunteer” files from 1965 to 1985 that chronicle suspected or confirmed instances of child sex abuse. Media organizations had sued for the release of the files, part of a 2010 case in which a jury decided that the Scouts were negligent for allowing a former assistant scoutmaster to associate with the organization's youth after he admitted molesting 17 boys in 1983, court records show, according to The Associated Press.

Some 829 of the files from that time period (Jan. 1, 1965 to June 30, 1984) involve suspicions or confirmations of inappropriate sexual behavior with 1,622 youth, according to a report by Dr. Janet Warren, a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia, for the Boy Scouts. The report, released Tuesday, was completed in 2011.

“Dr. Warren’s report shows that, as part of our broader Youth Protection program, the BSA’s system of ineligible volunteer files functions to help protect Scouts,” Wayne Perry, national president, Tico Perez, national commissioner, and Wayne Brock, chief Scout executive, said Tuesday in an open letter to the Scouting community. “However, we also know that in some instances we failed to defend Scouts from those who would do them harm. There have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.

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“For any episode of abuse, and in any instance where those involved in Scouting failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our deepest apologies and sympathies to victims and their families,” according to the letter. “While we believe the files are an inconclusive record, the BSA will undertake a similar review and analysis of the IV (ineligible volunteer) files created from 1965 to present and ensure that all good-faith suspicion of abuse has been reported to law enforcement.”

The developments were first reported by the Los Angeles Times, which noted that Warren’s team was paid $75,000 to complete the study.

Warren’s findings included:

--  The total number of alleged youth victims identified in the files was 1,622. Of these, 1,302 were involved in Scouting, for 112 it was unclear, and for 208, they were not involved in Scouting.
--  486 of the men identified in the files as suspects were arrested at some time for a sex crime. It may have occurred before they got involved with Scouting, as a result of the incident noted in their file or after they left the organization.
--  In 531 of the cases, there was information indicating alleged inappropriate sexual behavior with multiple youths. 
--  In 252 of the cases, the available information indicated alleged inappropriate sexual behavior with only a single victim. 
--  128 of the men in the files had their registration revoked within a year of signing up.
-- Police were involved in the investigation of 523 cases.
-- Six men placed on probation offended against a Scout during their probationary period, while two men were accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with a youth after their probationary period had ended.  
-- After being denied registration by the BSA, 175 men were identified as having sought to re-register with the organization, in some cases under a different name at another location many years after their initial entry into the files. They were denied entry into the Boy Scouts.

“My review of these files indicates that the reported rate of sexual abuse in Scouting has been very low,” Warren wrote in a summary of her report, in which she also said the “files broadly refute the notion that these were ‘secret files’ of hidden abuse.”

“I believe that these files show that children in Scouting were safer and less likely to experience inappropriate sexual behavior in Scouting than in their own families, schools and during other community activities supervised by adults,” she wrote.

But an attorney who has filed several suits for former Scouts said Warren’s review didn’t take into account abuse cases that weren’t in the files.

"Personally I have represented more than a hundred men abused by Scout leaders whose names were never entered in the ... files -- even after BSA paid out substantial settlements on account of these abusers," Timothy Kosnoff, a Seattle attorney, told the Los Angeles Times. "The files are only the tip of the iceberg. Most perpetrators never get caught."

The Boy Scouts said they expect the files from the Oregon case to be released soon. They said that, beginning in 2010, the organization mandated that all suspicions of abuse be reported to law enforcement authorities and that they have always required members to follow local laws on reporting of abuse.

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