Tag Archives: Police Officer

Ohio city reaches $10 million settlement over police killing of Black man

(Reuters) -The city of Columbus, Ohio said on Friday that it reached a $10 million settlement with the family of Andre Hill, an unarmed Black man fatally shot in December by a police officer who was subsequently fired and indicted.

Hill, 47, was shot and killed by Adam Coy, a 44-year-old white man, on Dec. 22. Coy, a 19-year-veteran of the Columbus police force, was responding to a nuisance call about car noise.

Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein called the statement the largest of its kind in the history of Ohio’s capital city.

“No amount of money will ever bring Andre Hill back to his family, but we believe this is an important and necessary step in the right direction,” Klein said in a statement.

“Now all those involved can begin to heal,” Hill’s family said in the same statement.

A series of police killings of Black people have highlighted longstanding accusations of racial injustice in U.S. law enforcement.

Last summer, high-profile deaths in Minneapolis, Atlanta and Louisville and elsewhere triggered nationwide protests that pushed police reform to the top of the U.S. political agenda.

Coy, who was fired by the police force a week after the shooting, was indicted by a grand jury on one charge of murder, one charge of felonious assault and two counts of dereliction of duty on Feb. 3.

Coy pleaded not guilty to the charges two days later. WSYX, an ABC affiliate in Columbus, reported that he was released from jail on a $1 million bond on Feb. 9.

Coy told other police officers that he thought Hill was holding a gun and he feared for his life.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in February that Hill had a cellphone and no weapons were found at the scene.

In addition to the financial settlement, the City of Columbus will rename the gymnasium located inside a community center, the Andre Hill Gymnasium, Klein said.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; edited by Diane Craft, Cynthia Osterman and John Stonestreet)

Two charged for pepper-spraying police officer who died after assault on U.S. Capitol

By Brad Heath and Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department on Monday charged two men with pepper-spraying three Capitol Police officers, one of whom later died, during the Jan. 6 assault on Congress by Donald Trump supporters trying to overturn his election defeat.

Julian Elie Khater and George Pierre Tanios are facing multiple counts, including assaulting police with a deadly weapon, after investigators said they sprayed at least three officers with an unidentified, but powerful, chemical agent.

One of those officers, Brian Sicknick, was later rushed to a hospital and died the next day.

Khater and Tanios are not charged with killing Sicknick, whose cause of death remains unclear. A law enforcement source familiar with the matter said it is still too early in the probe to know if Tanios or Khater directly bear any responsibility for Sicknick’s death.

According to the complaint, the FBI said the two men “appeared to time the deployment of chemical substances to coincide with other rioters’ efforts to forcibly remove the bike rack barriers that were preventing the rioters from moving closer to the Capitol building.”

Khater, 32, of State College, Pennsylvania, was arrested as he disembarked from an airplane at Newark Airport in New Jersey. Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, West Virginia, was arrested at his residence in West Virginia. Both are scheduled to make initial appearances in court later this afternoon.

The FBI located Khater after a tipster who worked with him at a food establishment shared his Linkedin page.

Tanios, meanwhile, operates Sandwich U – a shop in Morgantown, West Virginia that makes “fat” sandwiches, a type of sandwich containing greasy foods such as fries or mozzarella sticks that first rose to popularity among Rutgers University students in his hometown of New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The FBI said it identified Tanios through witnesses who recognized his photo, including a former business partner who also said Tanios was embroiled in a legal dispute amid allegations he had embezzled $435,000 in a prior business venture.

According to a court filing, the government is seeking to have Tanios detained.

In video footage, investigators say Khater walked toward Tanios and said: “Give me that bear shit” and reached into a backpack Tanios was carrying. Tanios then replied: “Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet…It’s still early.”

The complaint said the officers were temporarily blinded and disabled by the substance and “needed medical attention and assistance from fellow officers.”

Reuters could not immediately determine who will be representing Khater or Tanios.

More than 300 people have already been charged in connection with riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by a mob who were hoping to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election.

Five people, including Sicknick, died in connection with the deadly attack, and lawmakers hid in fear for their lives.

In court filings last week, the Justice Department revealed it intends to file charges against more than 100 additional defendants, in what it described as the most complex investigation it has ever handled.

(Reporting by Brad Heath and Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Andrea Ricci)

Texas police officer charged in killing of Black man

By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) – A white police officer in Texas has been charged with murder following the fatal shooting of a 31-year-old Black man, Jonathan Price, a state law enforcement agency said.

The police officer was responding to a disturbance call on Oct. 3 when he sought to detain Price, who “resisted in a non-threatening posture and began walking away,” according to a statement from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Shaun Lucas of the Wolfe City Police Department first deployed his Taser before shooting Price with his service weapon, the statement said. Price was transported to the hospital, where he later died.

“The preliminary investigation indicates that the actions of Officer Lucas were not objectively reasonable,” the statement said, adding that the Texas Rangers have charged Lucas with murder.

The incident raised the possibility that Wolfe, a city of 1,500 people in North Texas, would become the latest flashpoint in a national uprising over racism and police brutality that was set off by the death of George Floyd on May 25.

“Everyone in this community will echo that this shouldn’t have happened to Jonathan, because of the character that he had,” civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who is representing the Price family, told a news conference on Monday. “However, this shouldn’t happen to anybody and it happens far too often to unarmed Black men, particularly in North Texas.”

Lucas, who was arrested and jailed on $1 million bond, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Wolfe City Police Department and Hunt County district attorney’s office, which are both helping with the investigation into the shooting, did not respond to requests for comment.

Protests flare around the United States over Minneapolis killing

By Brendan O’Brien and Carlos Barria

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – Protests flared late into the night in many cities in the United States over the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died this week after being pinned down by the neck by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

A protester shields himself from tear gas with his skateboard while demonstrating against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, and of Dion Johnson, who was killed in Arizona, outside of Phoenix police headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. May 29, 2020. Picture taken May 29, 2020. REUTERS/Nicole Neri

The sometimes violent demonstrations hit cities from New York to Atlanta in a tide of anger over the treatment of minorities by law enforcement.

Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer shown in video footage pinning Floyd down on the street with his knee, was charged with murder in the case on Friday.

Chauvin, who was dismissed from the police with three fellow officers the day after Monday’s fatal encounter, was arrested on third-degree murder and manslaughter charges for his role in the death of Floyd, 46.

In Detroit, a 19-year-old man protesting in the city was shot dead on Friday night by a suspect who pulled up to demonstrators in a sport utility vehicle and fired gunshots into the crowd, then fled, the Detroit Free Press and other local media reported. Police could not immediately be reached for comment.

A vandalized New York Police Department vehicle is seen the morning after a protest following the death of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis Police custody, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, U.S., May 30, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Hundreds in the city had joined a “March Against Police Brutality” late in the afternoon outside the Detroit Public Safety Headquarters.

Many chanted, “No justice, no peace.” Some carried signs that read, “End police brutality” and “I won’t stop yelling until everyone can breathe.”

Thousands of chanting protesters filled the streets of New York City’s Brooklyn borough near the Barclays Center indoor arena. Police armed with batons and pepper spray made scores of arrests in sometimes violent clashes.

In lower Manhattan, demonstrators at a “We can’t breathe” vigil and rally were pressing for legislation outlawing the police “chokehold” used by a city police officer in the 2014 death of Eric Garner, who was also black.

In Washington, police and Secret Service agents were out in force around the White House before dozens of demonstrators gathered across the street in Lafayette Square chanting,”I can’t breathe.”

A fire fighter works to put out a burning business as the sun rises after another night of continued demonstrations after African-American man George Floyd was killed while in police custody days ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., May 30, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis

The protests erupted and spread around the country this week after video footage taken by an onlooker’s cell phone was widely circulated on the internet. It shows Floyd gasping for air and repeatedly groaning, “Please, I can’t breathe,” while a crowd of bystanders shouted at police to let him up.

The video reignited rage that civil rights activists said has long simmered in Minneapolis and cities across the country over persistent racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system.

CHAOTIC SCENES IN ATLANTA

In Atlanta, Bernice King, the youngest daughter of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., implored people to go home on Friday night after more than 1,000 protesters marched to the state capitol from the Centennial Olympic Park, blocking traffic and an interstate highway along the way.

The demonstration turned chaotic and at times violent. Fires burned in downtown Atlanta near the CNN Center, the network’s headquarters.

At least one police car was among several vehicles burnt. Windows were smashed at the CNN building, along with storefronts. Police pushed back the crowd, but they hurled bottles at officers.

A protester faces a U.S. Secret Service uniformed division officer during a demonstration against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd, as the officers keep demonstrators away from the White House during a protest in Lafayette Park in Washington, U.S. May 30, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Protesters also took to the streets in other cities including Denver and Houston.

In Minneapolis, hundreds of protesters defied an 8 p.m. curfew to gather in the streets around a police station burnt the previous night.

“We are out here because we, as a generation, realize things have to change,” said one marcher, Paul Selman, a 25-year-old black man.

The charges brought by Hennepin County prosecutors against the police officer came after a third night of arson, looting and vandalism in which protesters set fire to a police station, and the National Guard was deployed to help restore order in Minnesota’s largest city.

Authorities had hoped Chauvin’s arrest would allay public anger. But defying an 8 p.m. curfew imposed by Mayor Jacob Frey, about 500 demonstrators clashed anew with riot police outside the battered Third Precinct building.

Police, creating a two-block buffer area around the precinct house, opened fire with tear gas, plastic bullets and concussion grenades, scattering the crowd.

Another group of protesters later converged near the city’s Fifth Precinct station until police arrived and fired tear gas and plastic bullets to break up that gathering. A nearby bank and post office were set on fire.

Still, Friday night’s crowds were far smaller and more widely dispersed than the night before.

Law enforcement kept a mostly low profile, a strategy seemingly calculated to reduce the risk of violent confrontations, as was the case in several urban centers across the country where sympathy protests arose.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, announcing Chauvin’s arrest, said the investigation into Chauvin, who faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, was ongoing and he anticipated also charging the three other police officers, identified by the city as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J Alexander Kueng.

Floyd, a Houston native who had worked security for a nightclub, was arrested for allegedly using counterfeit money at a store to buy cigarettes on Monday evening.

(Reporting Brendan O’Brien and Carlos Barria in Minneapolis; Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert in Washington, Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico, Peter Szekely and Jonathan Allen in New York and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Rich McKay in Atlanta and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Daniel Wallis and Frances Kerry)

‘How can this be?’ Victim’s father testifies in Dallas wrong-apartment murder trial

By Brad Brooks

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Texas prosecutors on Wednesday said a jury should sentence former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger to at least 28 years in prison for mistakenly entering a black neighbor’s apartment and shooting him to death as he ate ice cream.

The jury could sentence Guyger, 31, to life in prison or as little as five years behind bars for murdering 26-year-old Botham Jean on Sept. 6, 2018.

Jean’s father cried as he told the jury of his intense pain following the murder of his son, who he said brought joy to those around him.

“How could we lose Botham – such a sweet boy? He tried his best to live a good honest life. He loved God. He loved everyone,” Bertrum Jean said as he wept. “How can this be possible? I’ll never see him again. I want to see him!”

Jean’s slaying by a white police officer had provoked street protests, particularly after prosecutors initially opted to charge Guyger with manslaughter rather than murder.

Lawyers for the victim’s family said they believed the verdict was the first time a white female police officer had been found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of an unarmed black man.

“This is a historic case and history provides us with a teachable moment,” said civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who also represented the family of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager shot and killed in 2012 by a civilian neighborhood watchman who was later cleared in court.

This case was unlike other recent high-profile killings, such as those of Michael Brown in Missouri and Philando Castile in Minnesota, since Guyger was not on duty or responding to a reported crime when she fired.

State prosecutors hammered at racist and violent text messages and social media posts that Guyger made in the months leading up to Jean’s killing.

One text Guyger wrote in January 2018 stated how she would like to use pepper spray on the crowd at a Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Dallas. In another she wrote that her black police colleagues “just have a different way of working and it shows.”

Prosecutor LaQuita Long told the jury that this past weekend marked the second birthday Jean’s family had mourned him since his death.

“I’m going to encourage you that the number you return with should be no lower than 28 years,” Long said. “That is what Botham would have celebrated on Sunday.”

Lawyers for Guyger called her mother, sister, a few fellow police officers and several acquaintances to the stand. They all said the former police officer had a caring personality.

LaWanda Clark, a longtime drug addict, told jurors how Guyger had ticketed her during a bust at a drug den a few years ago, but told the woman that she could “continue on the road that you’re on – or this can be your ticket out.”

Clark said she went through a rehab program, is now sober and employed, and credits Guyger with turning her life around.

“She let me know that I mattered,” Clark said. “That she didn’t just see me as an addict.”

Defense lawyer Toby Shook asked the jury to consider the unusual circumstances of this case, noting that Guyger “was not on duty. She just wanted to go home.”

(Reporting by Brad Brooks; Editing by Scott Malone, Bernadette Baum and David Gregorio)

Jury finds Dallas police officer guilty in shooting death of her neighbor

FILE PHOTO: Amber Guyger, who is charged in the killing of Botham Jean in his own home, arrives on the first day of the trial in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 23, 2019. REUTERS/Jeremy Lock/File Photo

By Bruce Tomaso

DALLAS (Reuters) – A Dallas jury found former police officer Amber Guyger guilty on Tuesday of murder when she accidentally walked into a neighbor’s apartment thinking it was her own and shot him dead as he ate ice cream.

The Sept. 6, 2018, killing of Botham Jean, a 26-year-old black PwC accountant, by a white officer sparked street protests, particularly when prosecutors initially opted to bring the lesser charge of manslaughter against Guyger, 31.

“We the jury unanimously find the defendant Amber Guyger guilty of murder as charged in the indictment,” Judge Tammy Kemp read aloud to the courtroom from the jurors’ statement. A sob, which sounded like it came from Guyger’s bench, cut the judge off and Kemp paused to address the courtroom: “No outbursts.”

Guyger, who spent four years on the force before the killing, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for the slaying. She took the rare step of testifying in her own defense during her trial, tearfully expressing regret for shooting Jean but saying she had believed her life was in danger when she pulled the trigger.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. I have to live with this every single day,” Guyger told the jury of eight women and four men.

In cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Jason Hermus asked her, “When you shot him twice, you intended to kill him, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Guyger responded, in a calm voice.

Prosecutors also argued that Guyger did little to help Jean even after realizing her mistake, calling the 911 emergency phone number for an ambulance but not administering first aid.

Hermus also told the jury that Guyger missed blatant clues that she was not in her own apartment – including the smell of marijuana smoke – because she was distracted after a 16-minute phone conversation on her commute with her former police partner. Guyger testified that the call was in relation to work.

The shooting stood in contrast to cases like the killings of Michael Brown in Missouri and Philando Castile in Minnesota. Guyger shot Jean while she was off duty, rather than while responding to a reported crime.

In her testimony, Guyger told jurors that the shooting “is not about hate; it’s about being scared.”

Neither prosecutors nor the defense focused on race during the trial.

(Reporting by Bruce Tomaso in Dallas, additional reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin; Editing by Scott Malone, Cynthia Osterman and Jonathan Oatis)

Novichok appeared in blood test of second UK police officer in 2018

FILE PHOTO: Police officers stand on duty outside Sergei Skripal's home in Salisbury, Britain, July 19, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

LONDON (Reuters) – British police who investigated a 2018 Novichok poisoning that was blamed on Russia said traces of the deadly nerve agent have since been found in a blood sample taken from a second officer at the time.

Police said the officer received medical treatment and returned to duties shortly after they responded to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, a former Russian double agent and his daughter who were found slumped on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury.

The attack triggered a sequence of events which ended with one person dead and a deep strain on the West’s relations with Russia. Another officer, Nick Bailey, fell seriously ill at the time before eventually recovering.

Both Skripals have made a slow recovery.

The police said the poisoning of the second officer had not originally appeared in tests at the time but showed up when the sample was tested by a different method. They said officers were continuing to review the case.

Britain has blamed the attack on two agents from Russia’s GRU military intelligence who visited the city. Russia has denied any involvement.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Stephen Addison)

Minnesota ex-policeman faces prison for fatal shooting of Australian woman

FILE PHOTO: Mohamed Noor, center, former Minnesota policeman on trial for fatally shooting an Australian woman, walks into the courthouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., April 30, 2019. REUTERS/Craig Lassig/File Photo - RC1DDA04DCD0

By Joey Peters

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – A former Minneapolis police officer faces the possibility of stiff prison time when he is sentenced on Friday for the fatal shooting of an Australian woman nearly two years ago after she had called police to report a possible sexual assault.

In April, Mohamed Noor, 33, was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for killing 40-year-old Justine Ruszczyk Damond outside her home near Minneapolis.

Australia’s then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called the incident “shocking.”

After the jury verdict, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said he expected Noor to face 12-1/2 years in prison for the murder charge and four years for the manslaughter charge.

A sentencing hearing before Minnesota District Judge Kathryn Quaintance began on Friday morning.

Noor, who was acquitted of a more serious charge of second-degree intentional murder, has asked the judge to impose probation during which time he would report to a halfway house-type correctional facility for a week on the anniversaries of Damond’s death and birth.

Citing Noor’s community service, his clean record and his cooperation with the investigation, Noor’s attorneys asked that he be sentenced to at most a year and a day.

“There is no benefit to Mr. Noor or the community that will come from a lengthy prison sentence,” Attorneys Thomas Plunkett and Peter Wold said in a memorandum submitted on Wednesday.

Noor – the first Minnesota police officer to be convicted of murder – and his partner drove to Damond’s home the night of July 15, 2017, to respond to a report she had made of a possible sexual assault. When Damond approached the patrol car, Noor fired through the car window, killing her.

Noor had testified that he shot her in self-defense after he and his partner heard a loud noise.

Minneapolis city officials last month agreed to pay $20 million to settle a civil suit brought by Damond’s family.

(Writing by Peter Szekely in New York; editing by Bill Tarrant, G Crosse and Susan Thomas)

London attacker took steroids before deadly rampage, inquest told

Police officers and forensics investigators and police officers work on Westminster Bridge the morning after an attack by a man driving a car and weilding a knife left five people dead and dozens injured, in London, Britain, March 23, 2017.

LONDON (Reuters) – The man who mowed down pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge before killing a police officer outside Britain’s parliament last year had taken steroids beforehand, a London court heard on Monday.

Last March Khalid Masood, 52, killed four people on the bridge before, armed with two carving knives, he stabbed to death an unarmed police officer in the grounds of parliament. He was shot dead at the scene.

It was the first of five attacks on Britain last year which police blamed on terrorism.

A submission to a pre-inquest hearing into the fatalities at London’s Old Bailey Court said there was evidence that Masood had taken anabolic steroids in the hours or days before his death.

“A more specialist pharmaceutical toxicologist … has been instructed to prepare a report addressing how steroid use may have affected Khalid Masood,” the submission by the inquiry’s lawyer Jonathan Hough said.

The hearing also heard from Gareth Patterson, a lawyer representing relatives of four of the victims, who lambasted tech firms over their stance on encryption and failing to remove radicalizing material from websites.

Patterson said families wanted answers about how Masood, who was known to the UK security service MI5, was radicalized and why shortly before his attack, he was able to share an extremist document via WhatsApp.

He said victims’ relatives could not understand “why it is that radicalizing material continues to be freely available on the internet”.

“We do not understand why it’s necessary for WhatsApp, Telegram and these sort of media applications to have end-to-end encryption,” he told the hearing at London’s Old Bailey court.

Patterson told Reuters following the hearing that he was “fed up” of prosecuting terrorism cases which featured encryption and particularly the WhatsApp messaging service.

“How many times do we have to have this?” he said.

The British government has been pressurizing companies to do more to remove extremist content and rein in encryption which they say allows terrorists and criminals to communicate without being monitored by police and spies, while also making it hard for the authorities to track them down.

However, it has met quiet resistance from tech leaders like Facebook, Google and Twitter and critics say ending encryption will weaken security for legitimate actions and open a back door for government snooping.

Samantha Leek, the British government’s lawyer, said the issues over encryption and radicalization were a matter of public policy and too wide for an inquest to consider.

Police say Masood had planned and carried out his attack alone, despite claims of responsibility from Islamic State, although a report in December confirmed he was known to MI5 for associating with extremists, particularly between 2010 and 2012, but not considered a threat.

Coroner Mark Lucraft said the inquest, which will begin in September, would seek to answer “obvious and understandable questions” the families might have.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

Florida police officer fatally shot, deputy dies in manhunt

Police Officer Master Sgt. Debra Clayton

By Jon Herskovitz

(Reuters) – A man wanted for killing his former girlfriend fatally shot an Orlando, Florida, police officer on Monday, authorities said, prompting a manhunt and a reward of up to $60,000.

Helicopters buzzed the skies while scores of police shut streets and went door to door in their search for the suspect, identified as Markeith Loyd, 41. He was considered armed and dangerous.

An Orange County sheriff’s deputy in the manhunt for Loyd was killed in a collision between his motorcycle and a van, police said. The driver of the van was a 78-year-old man, according to local TV station News 6.

“We are bringing this dirt bag to justice,” Orlando Police Chief John Mina said of Loyd at a news conference, adding that federal agents had joined the search.

“We will track him down to the ends of the earth,” he told a later news conference.

Authorities said the slain officer, Master Sergeant Debra Clayton, was shot while responding to a sighting of the suspect at a local Walmart. Loyd fired at her and she returned fire, Mina said, adding that he did not believe Loyd was hit.

Loyd fled the shooting scene outside the store in a car and fired at a deputy who tried to the stop him, authorities said. The deputy was unharmed.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer declared a day of mourning after the officers’ deaths.

Authorities have been trying to capture Loyd in connection with the December murder of a pregnant woman who was once his girlfriend, the Orange County Sheriff’s office said.

Clayton, a decorated 17-year veteran of the Orlando Police Department, died at a hospital, the department said. Photos posted on social media showed her at community events, working to improve relations between police and residents.

“The Orlando Police Department family is heartbroken today,” the department said on Twitter, showing a video of officers escorting a U.S. flag-draped gurney.

Local media said Clayton was one of the first officers to respond to the Pulse gay nightclub massacre in Orlando last June, the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, where a gunman killed 49 people.

Deputy First Class Norman Lewis, an 11-year-veteran, was killed in the manhunt for Loyd, the Orange County Sheriff’s office said. Lewis, 35, once played football for the University of Central Florida. it said.

“Norm will be deeply missed. Rest in peace, gentle giant,” it said on its Facebook page.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Dan Grebler and Andrew Hay)