A cherished community garden and its beehive became collateral damage in a man’s rampage through local businesses and neighborhoods. Despite persistent calls from residents to the police, it took hours before officers responded—only arriving after the man required medical care.

On August 8, in Aurora, Colorado, 42-year-old Worku Woldemariam allegedly wreaked havoc on an urban garden located on E 16th Avenue. This incident followed accusations of him vandalizing several other venues, including a sheriff’s office, a local market, a Starbucks, and an ice cream shop over multiple days.

Numerous residents reported the actions of Woldemariam, who is known for his extensive criminal record, to the authorities. However, as echoed by Denver7 News, these calls to emergency services seemingly went unanswered for hours.

On the day of the garden’s destruction, residents began alerting law enforcement at about 1 p.m., yet officers did not reach the scene until close to 4 p.m., according to the report.

During the long wait for police, Woldemariam allegedly used rocks to obliterate beehives and tore out crops in the garden, while distressed community members had no choice but to watch the chaos unfold.

‘He was out here with the rock, just breaking the cinder blocks like that for hours,’ volunteer Matthew King told the outlet.

Residents said it was only after Woldemariam passed out in the garden he had allegedly just demolished that several fire trucks and police officers arrived.

He was arrested and taken to the Adams County Jail.

Before he was arrested, a 911 dispatcher could be heard in audio obtained from Broadcastify and cited by the outlet reporting active property damage.

‘We have multiple callers who state that he was damaging property and throwing rocks,’ the dispatcher said.

The lengthy response time prompted Aurora Mayor Pro Tem Alison Coombs to share her concerns.

‘I’m very concerned that active, in-progress threats and property destruction are considered low-acuity calls that don’t merit an immediate response,’ Coombs said.

Woldemariam had been arrested five days earlier on criminal mischief allegations in Douglas County in a separate incident, Denver7 reported.

His alleged vandalism spree began on July 27, when he was accused of ripping down American and Colorado flags outside the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office substation, according to CBS News.

The following day, he was accused of entering Harar Market in Aurora and using a rock to smash artwork inside the shop.

Market owner Wend Wesen told the outlet that he no longer feels safe.

‘I hear like a bump, like a big bump sounding. I’m like, ‘What happened?’ And when I go out, he was dragging this picture right here, and he was dragging all the way outside, and he was hitting with a big stone,’ Wesen said.

‘And I was like, ‘What are you doing, sir?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t like him. I don’t like him,’ and he kept hitting.’

Wesen said the suspect destroyed multiple Jesus posters.

‘It’s not safe anymore,’ Wesen said. ‘That’s why I was upset.’

The shop owner said police did not arrive until the next day, when Woldemariam happened to return to the store and allegedly attempt to destroy more artwork.

Police caught him but did not arrest him. Instead, he was issued a summons for criminal mischief, according to the outlet.

The alleged rampage continued on August 3, when the Aurora Police Department said he threw a rock through the window of a Starbucks.

A warrant was issued for his arrest that day, but he was taken into custody by Douglas County authorities in connection with the flag incident.

However, he was released on bond two days later.

Two days after his release, he allegedly threw rocks through the windows of Nugg’s Ice Cream on Colfax.

The alleged incident ultimately led to his most recent arrest after he was accused of destroying the urban garden.

Woldemariam currently faces three criminal mischief cases in Colorado, according to the outlet.

According to court records, he was found incompetent to stand trial in 2013 on similar charges he faced in Denver. That case was later dismissed, CBS reported.

In a 2014 assault case in Virginia, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

According to the outlet, Woldemariam remains in custody.

The criticism from locals comes years after the Aurora Police Department made national headlines in connection with the death of Elijah McClain. 

McClain, a 23-year-old black man, went into cardiac arrest following his run-in with police in Aurora on August 24, 2019, and died in a hospital six days later. 

McClain was walking home from a corner store with an iced tea in his hand on August 24, 2019, when he was stopped by police officers responding to a 911 call about a man in a ski mask who was waving his arms in the air.

McClain’s family said he wore the ski mask because anemia made him unusually susceptible to the cold, and McClain was apparently listening to music on headphones and dancing as he walked – also the reason, he explained to cops, that he did not initially comply with their verbal commands.

When the paramedics arrived, they reportedly injected McClain with ketamine, a hallucinogenic anesthetic, and seven minutes later he went into cardiac arrest.

He died at the hospital six days later.

A subsequent internal investigation by Aurora Police found that the cops had no reasonable grounds to stop him.

Aurora police officer Randy Roedema was convicted of homicide and third degree assault and two other officers, Nathan Woodyard and Jason Rosenblatt, were acquitted.

Two Denver-area paramedics, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide. 

Aurora has also been riddled with Tren de Aragua (TdA) gangsters, a problem the city’s police department had previously denied in the past.

Members of TdA, as the South American mob is known to federal authorities, seeped into the US in recent years, hidden among the 1 million Venezuelans who have arrived in the US under the Biden Administration. 

TdA had taken over at least three apartment buildings in Aurora in 2024, exploiting and terrorizing their migrant neighbors. 

The gang has been described as the ‘epitome of evil’ and is best known in their homeland for sex trafficking girls and women and exploiting their fellow countrymen, have now set up strongholds in Denver, New York, Miami, El Paso and Dallas.

Since arriving in the United States, TdA is accused of taking part in shootings, shake-downs of other migrants who had been told to pay rent to the gang instead of the property, beatings, and robberies in Colorado. 

Sean Grayson, a former sheriff’s deputy from Illinois, passed away this Sunday while serving a 20-year prison term for the tragic shooting of Sonya Massey in her residence. His attorney confirmed the news to News Media.

Daniel Fultz, Grayson’s lawyer, refrained from providing additional information regarding the circumstances of his client’s death.

Grayson had been fighting a battle with colon cancer even before the tragic event unfolded. During his sentencing, legal representatives disclosed that the cancer had metastasized to both his liver and lungs.

In a bid for early release, Grayson applied in May for medical clemency under an Illinois statute that allows inmates with grave illnesses to seek freedom. Unfortunately, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board turned down his request last month.

A jury convicted Grayson, 32, in October of second-degree murder in the 2024 shooting death of Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman who had called 911 to report a possible prowler outside her Springfield-area home.

Body-camera video released after the July 6, 2024, shooting showed Massey ducking and apologizing moments before Grayson fired three shots inside the home. One struck her in the head.

Massey called police shortly before 1 a.m. to report what she believed was suspicious activity outside the home, about 200 miles southwest of Chicago. Grayson and another deputy walked around the property before speaking with Massey at the front door, where she told them, “Don’t hurt me.”

Inside, video shows Massey appearing confused as deputies questioned her and sought identification to complete a report. As they prepared to leave, Grayson noticed a pot heating on the stove.

“We don’t need a fire while we’re here,” he said.

Prosecutors said Grayson later ordered Massey to move the pot of hot water, threatened to shoot her and then opened fire after she briefly rose from a crouched position.

Grayson’s partner, Dawson Farley, later testified that he did not see Massey as a threat and drew his own gun only after Grayson did.

Grayson was fired after the shooting.

A grand jury initially indicted Grayson on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. He pleaded not guilty before jurors convicted him of the lesser murder charge. A judge later imposed the maximum 20-year prison sentence.

Massey’s killing drew national attention, sparked demonstrations and raised questions about Grayson’s work for several law-enforcement agencies before the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office hired him.

Illinois later passed the Sonya Massey Act, requiring agencies to more closely review an applicant’s prior employment history before hiring an officer.

The Justice Department opened a civil-rights investigation and later reached an agreement with Sangamon County, the sheriff’s office and other local agencies to make changes to policing and emergency response. The agreement included expanded training for calls involving people with behavioral-health disabilities and the creation of a mobile crisis-response program.

Breakfast holds the crown for the most crucial meal of the day, and with good reason.

From the heated discussions over the ultimate breakfast sandwich to the countless praises sung for oatmeal, there’s no end to the debate about the ideal morning meal, particularly when health benefits are considered.

But recent research suggests that longevity might be influenced not only by what you eat but also by the timing of your initial meal.

While New Yorkers might be enamored with brunch, it could be wise to consider having that first meal of the day a bit earlier.

A comprehensive study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition examined more than 31,000 adults aged 40 and above, revealing that when you consume the first and last calories of your day may significantly impact your lifespan.

And those who ate their first meal later — after noon, specifically — had an increased risk of dying early from any cause by 29%.

Study participants were asked to record what they ate and when they ate it within a 24-hour period, with the time between the first and last meal known as the eating window.

A pattern emerged: The later the participants ate their first meal, the greater the risk.

Compared with eating breakfast between 7 and 8 a.m., a 10% higher risk of dying early from any cause was linked to those who ate breakfast between 8 and 10 a.m.

The difference rose to 19% for those who ate between 10 a.m. and noon.

And the risk of death from a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, followed a similar pattern.

Eating after noon was linked to a 46% higher risk of cardiovascular death compared with breaking a fast between 7 and 8 a.m.

Meanwhile, those aged 50 years or older who ate later also had a shorter life expectancy by nearly 2.5 years on average.

While the findings only show an association between a later start to eating and decreased longevity, they do add to the growing evidence that health may depend not just on what we eat, but also when.

Last year, a study from Mass General Brigham revealed that later breakfast times in later life were not only linked to a higher risk of early death, but also to depression, fatigue and oral health problems.

In fact, breakfast shifted later as health problems accumulated.

Other research has also shown that consistently eating later can negatively affect your 24-hour biological clock, leading to blood sugar spikes and higher levels of stress hormones.

“Later eating should be interpreted as a potential risk marker, and possibly a modifiable behavior, rather than definitive evidence of a direct causal effect,” senior author of the first study Zhilei Shan told ScienceAlert.

Several other factors also limited the study’s results, including the fact that researchers only looked at a single 24-hour eating window, sleep patterns, activity timing and more.