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A Dances With Wolves actor allegedly trained his wives how to use guns and told them to “shoot it out” if officers tried to “break their family apart”.

Nathan Chasing Horse also said that if that failed, they should take “suicide pills”, according to records.

The papers show the extent of Chasing Horse’s alleged cult, known as The Circle.

The 46-year-old was arrested in North Las Vegas on Tuesday following a months-long investigation into alleged abuse that authorities said spanned two decades.

He will be charged with at least two counts of sex trafficking and one each of sexual assault of a child under 16, child abuse or neglect and sexual assault, court records said.

Las Vegas police work near the home of former actor Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, who goes by Nathan Chasing Horse, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in North Las Vegas, Nev. Authorities raided the home of the former actor Tuesday in connection with a sexual assault investigation. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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Las Vegas police near the home of Chasing Horse. Pic: AP

After a brief hearing on Thursday, the judge ordered Chasing Horse be held without bail until his next court hearing on Monday.

At least two women told police that Chasing Horse showed his wives a stash of “small white pills”, which he called “suicide pills”, at some point in 2019 or 2020, according to the 50-page search warrant seen by the Associated Press.

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The wives were instructed to “take a pill to kill themselves in the event he dies or law enforcement tries to break their family apart”.

One of Chasing Horse’s former wives told officers she believed his current wives would “carry out the instructions” to take the pills and open fire if police tried to arrest him.

Las Vegas authorities have identified at least six sexual assault victims, some as young as 14 when they say they were abused, and traced the sexual allegations against Chasing Horse to the early 2000s in multiple states, including Nevada, where he has lived for about a decade, South Dakota and Montana.

He had gained a reputation among Indigenous tribes in the US and Canada as a “medicine man” who performed healing ceremonies.

Police say he abused this position to physically and sexually assault Indigenous girls and women, take underage wives and establish a cult.

A Las Vegas police officer stands near the home of former actor Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, who goes by Nathan Chasing Horse,  Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in North Las Vegas, Nev. Authorities raided the home of the former actor Tuesday in connection with a sexual assault investigation. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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A Las Vegas police officer stands near Chasing Horse’s home. Pic: AP

Chasing Horse is also accused of recording sexual assaults and arranging sex with the victims for other men who paid him.

“Nathan Chasing Horse used spiritual traditions and their belief system as a tool to sexually assault young girls on numerous occasions,” detectives wrote in the warrant.

One of Chasing Horse’s wives was offered to him as a “gift” when she was 15 while another became a wife after turning 16, according to police.

Nathan Chasing Horse attends the South Dakota premiere of the HBO film "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center on May 17, 2007, in Rapid City, S.D, (Dick Kettlewell/Rapid City Journal via AP, FIle)
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Chasing Horse at a film premiere in 2007. Pic: AP

Officers raided his two-storey home that he shares with his five wives on Tuesday where they allegedly found memory cards containing videos of sexual assaults, firearms and 18.6kg of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms.

His arrest comes nearly a decade after he was banished from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana amid allegations of human trafficking.

Arnold Rivers, center, rides with Daniel Newholy Jr., left, and Nathan Chasing Horse Monday, Feb. 22, 1999, about 15 miles east of Livingston, Mont. The intertribal group, called Buffalo Walk, is on a spiritual journey, carrying the sacred bundle from Rapid City, S.D., to Yellowstone National Park, to raise awareness of the importance of bison. (AP Photo/The Livingston Enterprise, Thomas Lee)
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Arnold Rivers (C) rides with Daniel Newholy Jr (L) and Nathan Chasing Horse. Pic: AP

Chasing Horse is best known for his role as the young Sioux tribe member Smiles A Lot in the 1990 Oscar-winning film Dances With Wolves directed by Kevin Costner.

Authorities have not said when he will be formally charged.

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Bodycam footage shows prison guards beating handcuffed inmate before his death

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Bodycam footage shows prison guards beating handcuffed inmate before his death

Bodycam footage showing prison officers fatally beating an inmate has been released by New York’s attorney general.

Prison officers at Marcy Correctional Facility in New York punched and kicked 43-year-old Robert Brooks repeatedly while he was handcuffed on an infirmary bed.

He died in hospital on 10 December, a day after the attack.

The incident has drawn outrage from political leaders and was condemned by the prison officers’ union as “incomprehensible”, according to Sky News’ partner newsroom NBC.

It is now being investigated by state attorney general Letitia James, who called the videos “shocking and disturbing” at a virtual news conference.

Prison officers attacked Robert Brooks on the day he was transferred to Marcy Correctional Facility in New York. Pic: The New York Attorney General Office
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Prison officers attacked Robert Brooks while he was handcuffed. Pic: New York Attorney General Office

In the video, Mr Brooks is in handcuffs as he is carried into the infirmary by several prison guards.

They put him on the bed and begin repeatedly punching and kicking him.

He is pulled upright, where his bloodied face is visible on camera, and then yanked from the bed by his shirt collar and pushed up against a window.

One of the fourteen workers involved in the incident has resigned and the rest have been suspended without pay until the process to fire them is complete. The workers include correctional officers, sergeants and a prison nurse.

The officers had not activated their body cameras but they were still on and recorded in standby mode, without audio, during the attack.

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As a result of the incident, all officers will now need to have their cameras activated any time they are engaging directly with prisoners.

Mr Brooks’ family thanked officials for taking action “to hold officers accountable” in a statement this week.

“We cannot understand how this could have happened in the first place,” the family said. “No one should have to lose a family member this way.”

Robert Brooks, who died a day after being attacked by prison officers. Pic: Family handout
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Robert Brooks, who died a day after being attacked by prison officers. Pic: Family handout

The attack happened before 9.30pm on 9 December in a medical exam room after Mr Brooks had been transferred from the Mohawk Correctional Facility to Marcy Correctional Facility.

An autopsy found “preliminary findings show concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being due to actions of another,” according to a state corrections office investigative report obtained by an affiliate of Sky News’ partner newsroom WKTV in Utica.

Mr Brooks had been behind bars since 2017 on a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault involving a longtime girlfriend.

Officials declined to say why he had been transferred to the Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison.

Last year, an independent prison oversight group called The Correctional Association of New York released a report on the Marcy Correctional Facility.

It noted complaints of “rampant” physical abuse by staff members, with 80% of incarcerated people reporting having witnessed or experienced abuse and nearly 70% reporting racial discrimination or bias.

In response to the video, the union that represents workers at the prison said: “What we witnessed is incomprehensible to say the least and is certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day.”

It adding what transpired is the “opposite of everything [the union] and its membership stand for.”

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Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world’s best golfer to undergo surgery

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Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world's best golfer to undergo surgery

The world’s best golfer has suffered a freak injury while cooking Christmas dinner, forcing him to undergo surgery.

Scottie Scheffler sustained a puncture wound after cutting the palm of his right hand on broken glass.

The world number one required surgery as small glass fragments remained in the palm after the accident.

The injury has forced him out of the first tournament of the season, next week’s The Sentry in Hawaii.

Scottie Scheffler. Pic: Reuters
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Pic: Reuters

But the 28-year-old has been told he will recover in three to four weeks, and he hopes to be back in action at The American Express tournament in California on 16 January.

Scheffler won an Olympic gold and seven PGA Tour titles in the last year and was recently named PGA Tour’s Player of the Year for a third season in a row.

In May, he was arrested by police during the US PGA Championship after he was accused of trying to drive around a traffic jam caused by a fatal accident.

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Spectators wore Free Scottie t-shirts and one wore an orange jumpsuit. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
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Scheffler’s arrest became a major story at the US PGA Championship. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters

Just hours later, he was released and allowed to return to Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky to play his second round of the tournament.

Criminal charges against Scheffler were later dismissed due to a lack of evidence and a police officer who arrested him was disciplined for not having his bodycam on at the time of the incident.

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Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

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Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

The man accused of burning a woman to death on a New York subway train has been indicted on murder and arson charges.

Sebastian Zapeta is accused of setting a sleeping woman on fire and then fanning the flames with a shirt, which caused her to be engulfed by the blaze.

He allegedly sat on a platform at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station, opposite the stopped train, and watched as she burned to death.

Authorities are still working to identify the victim.

Zapeta, 33, has been charged with one count of first degree murder, two counts of second degree murder and one count of arson in the first degree.

After a brief hearing in which the indictment was announced, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said: “This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system.”

Mr Gonzalez said police and medical examiners are using fingerprints and advanced DNA techniques to identify the victim, while also retracing her steps before the murder.

“Our hearts go out not only to this victim, but we know that there’s a family,” he said. “Just because someone appears to have been living in the situation of homelessness does not mean that there’s not going to be family devastated by the tragic way she lost her life.”

Police officers patrol the F train platform at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
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Officers patrol the platform where the woman died. Pic: AP

Zapeta was initially charged with murder and arson in a criminal complaint earlier this week.

Such filings are often a first step in the criminal process because all felony cases in New York require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial, unless a defendant waives that requirement.

Zapeta was not present at the hearing. The most serious charge he is facing carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole and the indictment will be unsealed on 7 January.

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Zapeta is a Guatemalan who entered the US illegally having already been deported in 2018, officials say.

He was taken into custody last Sunday, after three children called 911 when they recognised him from an image shared by police.

During questioning, prosecutors say he claimed not to know what happened, and noted he consumes alcohol – but did identify himself in photos and videos showing the fire being lit.

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