Month: November 2024

A former Ohio police officer was convicted of murder Monday in the shooting of Andre Hill, a Black man who was holding a cellphone and keys when he was killed. Adam Coy, who served nearly 20 years with the Columbus police force, shot Hill four times in a garage nearly four years ago. Coy, who is White, was fired after the shooting.

Franklin County Judge Stephen McIntosh set a sentencing date of Nov. 25 for Coy, who is undergoing cancer treatments for Hodgkin lymphoma. Coy faces at least 15 years in prison, with the jury also finding him guilty of reckless homicide and felonious assault. Defense attorney Mark Collin later said they would be appealing the verdict.

Police body camera footage showed Hill, 47, coming out of the garage of a friend’s house holding up a cellphone in his left hand, his right hand not visible, seconds before he was fatally shot by Coy. Almost 10 minutes passed before officers at the scene began to aid Hill; he was pronounced dead at a hospital. Coy told jurors that he thought Hill was holding a silver revolver that turned out to be keys, testifying: “I thought I was going to die.”  However, after he rolled over Hill’s body and saw the keys that he realized there was no gun: “I knew at that point I made a mistake. I was horrified.”

Weeks after the December 2020 shooting, the city of Columbus reached a $10 million settlement with Hill’s family, the largest in city history. The Columbus City Council also passed Andre’s Law, which requires police officers to render immediate medical attention to an injured suspect.

Brian Steel, president of the police union in Columbus, said he was shocked by the murder conviction: “Your split-second decision can now be led to murder. It is absolutely insane. Officers are willing to die for their community, they are willing to die for this job. They do not want to go to prison for this job.”

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The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to to decide the ongoing legal redistricting dispute in Louisiana that could determine whether the state maintains a congressional map that includes two majority-Black districts after the 2024 election. The court’s decision to hear the appeal from a group of Black voters and the state marks at least the third time it will be involved in the legal battle over voting lines for Louisiana’s U.S. House districts that were drawn after the 2020 Census. The high court is expected to begin hearing oral arguments before the end of its current term in June; it will have no impact on this year’s election.

According to court filings on behalf of Phillip Callais and 11 other plaintiffs, Louisiana “should be ashamed” of using race in order to draw congressional district lines that “over-represents Black voters” which could result in the loss of GOP control in the House of Representatives.  However, state’s Solicitor General Benjamin Aguinaga wrote in court documents that Louisiana is “stuck in an endless game of ping-pong .. and the State is the ball, not a player, the state will be sued again no matter what it does.”

Louisiana’s Republican-controlled legislature had overridden a veto by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards over the state’s new congressional map. However after state officials and voting rights advocates had made an emergency judicial request in efforts to finalize the state’s congressional district map in order to meet required legal deadlines, in May the supreme court cleared the way for Louisiana to use its current map with two majority-Black districts for this year’s election.

In January, Louisiana lawmakers approved a new congressional map to increase the number of majority-Black districts to represent the state’s population (which is nearly 1/3 Black). The approval came after a 2022 Supreme Court ruling reinstated Louisiana’s Republican-drawn congressional map, which froze a lower court ruling that says the Republican map violated the Voting Rights Act. Currently, the map leans towards Republicans in districts held by House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise.

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Senior Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner Brendan Carr is criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris’ “Saturday Night Live” debut, with the Republican calling her appearance a “clear and blatant effort” to evade the Equal Time rule. The FCC’s “equal-time rule” was established in 1934 and required radio and television broadcast stations to provide the same amount of time for competing political candidates. There are exceptions to the rule such as newscasts, documentaries and political debates.

Taking to social media, Carr stated that the FCC’s “equal time” requirements mandate opposing candidates to get the same air time, and alleged that NBC structured this appearance in a way that evades these requirements by timing it so close to Election Day. Carr wrote on X: “this is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule. The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election, unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.”

Harris, 60, made a surprise appearance on this weekend’s ‘Saturday Night Live’, coming face-to-face with her impersonator Maya Rudolph in the show’s cold open where she urged sought to encourage voters to back her on Nov. 5. The segment lasted just under three minutes.

NBC is licensed by the FCC for broadcast television, which gives them access to a limited spectrum and means that they are subject to more stringent rules. SNL’s executive producer Lorne Michaels indicated in an interview published earlier this month that given the Equal Time rule, he was to planning to bring on either former President Donald Trump or Harris to the program. Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter: “You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions. You can’t have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that becomes really complicated.”

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Four people were killed and 17 were injured in a crash along I-96 near Webberville, Michigan late Saturday night.

The accident involved a semitractor-trailer which crashed into more than a dozen vehicles overnight, according to state police, where traffic on I-96  had been temporarily halted late Saturday as utility crews were completing work on power lines in the area.

The semitruck with a trailer was heading westbound around 11:45 p.m. and crashed into more than a dozen stalled vehicles, with Michigan State Police said in a statement on the social media platform X: “It appears the driver of the semi-truck did not see the backup and could not stop his vehicle in time.” The impact caused the semitruck and several vehicles to catch fire.

Police confirmed four deaths and said 17 people, including the driver of the truck, were injured and transported to hospitals.  On Sunday, Michigan State Police confirmed that the victims were a 29-year-old man from Carson City who was driving a Ford pickup and three relatives from Lansing who were in a Chevy Trax. They were identified as a 20-year-old female, a 43-year-old female and a 47-year-old male.

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A suspect has been taken into custody nearly three weeks after a Montana camper was found brutally killed in an attack that was initially reported as a bear attack, authorities said late Wednesday. The suspect was in custody on unrelated charges, authorities said.

The Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office said it had identified a suspect in the murder of Dustin Kjersem, who was found dead on October 12 in a tent about two-and-a-half miles up Moose Creek Road (east of Big Sky) after a friend who went looking for him called 911, telling the dispatcher that Kjersem appeared to have been attacked by a bear. After the 911 call, investigators from several agencies, including a bear expert from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, examined the site but did not find any signs of bear activity.

According to the sheriff’s office, an autopsy later determined that the 35-year-old Kjersem had suffered “multiple chop wounds.” Investigators initially said they did not know what weapon was used, but Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer later said “we do know it was something hard enough to cause significant damage to the skull as well as some flesh areas of the body. He was brutally killed at his campsite.” The sheriff’s office noted that several items, including a camp axe, a shotgun, a revolver, and a cooler had gone missing from the scene of the crime.

The sheriff’s office said on Facebook : “The suspect is cooperating with our detectives and has led us to the evidence we have identified in prior press releases. The investigation into the homicide continues. It is believed the suspect acted alone and there is no longer a threat to the community.  Our thoughts and prayers continue for the family of Dustin Kjersem. We hope, by some small measure, our efforts can bring them a bit of peace during this horrific time. Our entire community mourns with you. Further details and charges are forthcoming, but it is important for this community to know they are safe to resume their outdoor activities. The sheriff’s office will have a further comment regarding this investigation until charges are filed.”

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A Florida man is accused of viciously attacking a deaf and nonverbal passenger while he was sleeping on a cross-country United Airlines flight earlier this week. The assault occurred nearly two hours into United Airlines Flight 2247 from San Francisco to Dulles International Airport in Virgina on Monday, federal authorities said. The FBI and Federal Aviation Administration are both investigating after the minute-long attack left the male passenger bloodied and with black eyes.

According to a criminal complaint, the incident began after Everett Chad Nelson, 44, left his seat in 35F and got up to use the bathroom in the front of the plane. Upon returning to his seat, Nelson stopped at seat 12F and “without notice, began physically attacking a sleeping male passenger by punching him repeatedly in the face and head until blood was drawn,” the complaint states. Nelson reportedly hit the man repeatedly for a full minute before another passenger intervened and restrained him, while a doctor on the flight treated the non-verbal injured passenger, who was able to communicate with the flight crew using text messages.

Everett later said the passenger had previously attacked him on the street, but the man denied ever having seen him before. Everett was moved to a seat at the front of the aircraft and kept under watch, and was arrested upon arrival charged with one count of assault by beating, striking, and wounding. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

United Airlines said in a statement: “The flight landed safely and was met by paramedics and local law enforcement. Thanks to the quick action of our crew and customers, one passenger was restrained after becoming physically aggressive toward another customer on a flight from San Francisco to Washington Dulles on Monday.”

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