Tag Archives: Shooting

Minneapolis police shooting of Australian woman sparks questions about body cameras

Justine Damond, also known as Justine Ruszczyk, from Sydney, is seen in this 2015 photo released by Stephen Govel Photography in New York, U.S., on July 17, 2017. Courtesy Stephen Govel/Stephen Govel Photography/Handout via REUTERS

By Todd Melby

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – Authorities and activists on Monday questioned why Minneapolis police who fatally shot an Australian woman over the weekend did not have their body cameras turned on during the incident.

Justine Damond’s American fiance also wondered about the details of how she was shot. She had called the police to report a suspected sexual assault near her home, fiance Don Damond told reporters outside the home.

“We lost the dearest of people and we are desperate for information,” Damond said. “Piecing together Justine’s last moments before the homicide would be a small comfort as we grieve this tragedy.”

Also known as Justine Ruszczyk, she had already taken Damond’s last name.

Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Minnesota called for answers on why the two responding officers failed to turn on their body cameras when they arrived at Damond’s home in a quiet, upper-middle-class neighborhood shortly before midnight on Saturday.

Police shot Damond, originally from Sydney, through the door of their patrol car as she approached them in an alley near her home, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported, citing three unnamed sources.

Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau called Damond’s death “tragic” in a statement on Monday and promised a “transparent” investigation.

Damond’s father, John Ruszczyk, told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday that her death was “our worst nightmare”.

“Justine was a beacon to all of us. We only ask that the light of justice shine down on the circumstances of her death,” he said.

OFFICER IMMIGRATED FROM SOMALIA

The officer who shot Damond was identified by the Minneapolis Star Tribune and other local media as Mohamed Noor.

Noor’s lawyer, Tom Plunkett, said in a statement that Noor extends his condolences to Damond’s family. The statement did not describe Noor’s role in the shooting, and authorities have not confirmed the identities of the officers involved.

“He came to the United States at a young age and is thankful to have had so many opportunities,” Plunkett said of Noor, who was previously described by the city as a native of Somalia.

“The current environment for police is difficult, but Officer Noor accepts this as part of his calling. We would like to say more and will in the future.”

Hundreds took to the streets of Minneapolis on Sunday to protest Damond’s shooting.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), which reviews shootings involving the police in Minneapolis, said the dashboard camera in the officers’ patrol car did not capture the shooting. The BCA is seeking any civilian video of the incident.

The ACLU of Minnesota called for the release of the audio from Damond’s 911 call, along with any audio from the officers’ dash camera. The group’s interim executive director, Teresa Nelson, said the officers failed to obey department rules by not having their body cameras on.

Damond owned a meditation and life-coaching company, according to her personal website. Media gave her age as 40.

Sarah Darmody, who said in a Facebook post that she had been friends with Damond since high school in Sydney, blamed the shooting on the gun laws in the United States, which has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world.

“There is no good reason and there are no other countries in the world where people would rather arm everyone than stop this happening,” Darmody wrote. “I’m so sad and so angry I can’t even breathe.”

Both officers have been placed on administrative leave, the state BCA said. Minneapolis police referred further questions about the incident to the BCA.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen and Chris Michaud in New York and James Redmayne in Sydney, writing by Gina Cherelus; Editing by David Gregorio, Cynthia Osterman and Neil Fullick)

Minnesota probing Australian woman’s fatal shooting by police

Justine Damond, also known as Justine Ruszczyk, from Sydney, is seen in this 2015 photo released by Stephen Govel

By Todd Melby

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – Minnesota officials were investigating on Monday how an Australian woman who called police for help over the weekend ended up shot and killed by one of the officers who responded in an alley near her house.

Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges called for a probe of why officers were not using the body cameras they are equipped with during the incident that led to the death of Justine Damond, from Sydney, around midnight Saturday.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was investigating the shooting, in keeping with a new policy adopted in 2014, to avoid having the Minneapolis police department investigate itself, said Hodges, who described herself as “heartsick and deeply disturbed” by the shooting.

“We don’t want to jeopardize the BCA investigation, or compromise its independence,” the mayor said in a Facebook post on Monday.

Hundreds of people took to the streets Sunday to decry the killing. The BCA said the officers’ body cameras were not turned on and their patrol car camera did not capture the incident. It was attempting to determine whether any video of the shooting exists.

“I have a lot of questions about why the body cameras weren’t on, questions that I hope and anticipate will be answered in the next few days,” Hodges told reporters late Sunday.

Damond, also known as Justine Ruszczyk, had taken the name of her American fiance Don. She had originally studied to be a veterinarian but owned a meditation and life-coaching company in Minneapolis, according to her personal website. U.S. and Australian media gave her age as 40.

In a statement given to media in Sydney, family friend Julie Reed said the couple had been due to marry.

Zach Damond, who had already taken to calling his father’s future bride “mom,” told the Minneapolis Star Tribune she called the police because she heard a sound in the alley outside her house.

“Basically, my mom’s dead because a police officer shot her for reasons I don’t know,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “I demand answers.”

The Star Tribune quoted three sources it did not name as saying Damond was in her pajamas when the police car responding to her 911 call pulled into the alley.

She approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and was shot through the door, the newspaper said.

Both officers who responded to the 911 call have been placed on administrative leave, the Star Tribune quoted police as saying.

Minneapolis police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

(Additional reporting by Chris Michaud in New York; Writing by Gina Cherelus; Editing by Scott Malone and Tom Brown)

 

Gunmen kill five Egyptian police south of Cairo

CAIRO (Reuters) – Gunmen ambushed an Egyptian security checkpoint on Friday, opening fire on a car and killing five policemen in an area just south of the capital, the state-run MENA news agency and the Interior Ministry said.

Three gunmen on a motorbike attacked police in al-Badrasheen area of Giza province, 30 km (20 miles) south of Cairo, killing two officers and three conscripts in the latest attack on Egyptian security forces battling an Islamist insurgency.

“A police officer who was near the site of the attack exchanged fire with the assailants forcing them to flee,” the ministry statement said.

Witnesses said attackers blasted the vehicle with automatic rifles then took equipment and threw petrol bombs inside the car before fleeing. Residents extinguished the fire.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but Egyptian security forces have been battling the local affiliate of Islamic State in the northern Sinai area and attacks have spread to other parts of Egypt.

Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed since 2013 in the Sinai Peninsula. At least 23 soldiers were killed last week when suicide car bombs hit two checkpoints in the region in an attack claimed by Islamic State. It was one of the bloodiest assaults on security forces in years.

Islamic State has also intensified attacks in other areas, often targeting Coptic Christians. About 100 Copts have been killed since December.

In May gunmen assault on a group of Copts in a bus traveling to a monastery, killing 29 people and two bombings of churches killed more than 40 people a month earlier.

Church sources on Thursday said Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians and the Egyptian Catholic church have been told by church leaders to cancel all events, camps and activities outside churches in July because of a security threat.

(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Alison Williams)

Two Israeli policemen shot dead near Jerusalem holy site, gunmen killed: police

Israeli border policemen secure the area near the scene of the shooting attack, in Jerusalem's Old City July 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Three Arab-Israeli gunmen opened fire at police near Jerusalem’s holiest site on Friday, killing two Israeli policemen, before security forces killed the attackers, police said.

Israeli authorities shut the area after the attacks – the most serious incident in years close to the highly sensitive compound, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews.

The closure stopped Muslims gathering there for Friday prayers, drawing a call for resistance from Palestinian leaders.

The gunmen arrived at the sacred site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, and walked towards one of the Old City gates nearby, police spokeswoman Luba Simri said.

“When they saw policemen they shot towards them and then escaped towards one of the mosques in the Temple Mount compound,” Simri said. “A chase ensued and the three terrorists were killed by police.”

She said three firearms were found on their bodies. The Shin Bet Israeli internal security service said the three gunmen were Arab citizens of Israel.

There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank. No group claimed responsibility, though the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, praised the attack.

“Hamas lauds the heroic operation in Jerusalem,” Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua said in a statement.

Mobile phone video footage aired by Israeli media showed several policemen chasing a man and shooting him down at the site, which is a popular place for foreign tourists to visit. Israeli authorities are still working to identify the attackers, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The Israeli ambulance service Magen David Adom said a third policeman was lightly wounded in the incident.

Tensions are often high around the marble-and-stone compound that houses the Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. It is managed by Jordanian religious authorities and is adjacent to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are permitted to pray.

PRAYERS CANCELED

Police said Friday prayers for Muslims would not be held at the site following the attack for security reasons, while forces scanned the area for weapons and investigated the incident.

Authorities have often restricted access to the Aqsa mosque when concerned about possible violence there, but a total shutdown is rare.

The Palestinian Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Hussein, called on Palestinians to defy the shutdown.

“We completely reject the ban by Israeli authorities,” Hussein told Reuters by telephone. “We have urged our Palestinian people to rush to al Aqsa today and every day to hold their prayers.”

His call was later echoed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement.

In an apparent effort to ease tensions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement there would be no change to the agreement on shared use.

The compound is a tinder-box for the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Under a delicate agreement, Jews are allowed into the compound but are not permitted to pray.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks that began in 2015 has slowed but not stopped. At least 257 Palestinians and one Jordanian citizen have been killed since the violence began. A few of the attacks were carried out by Arab Israeli citizens.

Israel says at least 176 of those killed were carrying out attacks while others died in clashes and protests. Forty Israelis, two U.S. tourists and a British student have been killed in stabbings, shootings and car-rammings.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem, where the Old City and the holy compound are located, after the 1967 Middle East war and regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a move that is not recognized internationally.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they want to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel blames the wave of violence on incitement by the Palestinian leadership. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, says desperation over the occupation is the main driver.

(Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Luke Baker and Andrew Heavens)

Gunmen kill four police in Pakistani city of Quetta

Relatives react outside the hospital after policemen were shot dead in Quetta, Pakistan July 13, 2017. REUTERS/Naseer Ahmed

By Gul Yousafzai

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Islamist gunmen on Thursday killed a senior police official and three other policemen guarding him in the Pakistani city of Quetta, police said, in an attack claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State.

Superintendent of Police Mubarak Shah, 56, was killed en route to his office when four gunmen riding on motorcycles attacked his vehicle, said city police officer Muhammad Sultan.

“The head and upper parts of all the four victims were targeted,” said Sultan, adding that one policeman was critically wounded.

A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, known as Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, carried out the attack, according to the faction’s spokesman, Asad Mansur.

Islamic State (IS) also claimed the attack on it Amaq News Agency website. Jamaat ur Ahrar and IS have in the past jointly claimed responsibility for attacks in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack, his office said.

It was second such attack in a week targeting senior police officers in the volatile Baluchistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran. Quetta is the provincial capital.

A suicide bomber on Monday killed a district police chief and his guard in the town of Chaman on the Afghan border. The Pakistani Taliban claimed that bombing in text messages and emails to media.

Violence in Baluchistan has raised concern about security for projects in the $57-billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a planned transport and energy link from western China to Pakistan’s southern deep-water port of Gwadar.

Resource-rich Baluchistan has long been plagued by insurgencies by separatists. Islamist groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State also carry out attacks in the region.

Islamist militants have killed thousands of people in Pakistan over the last decade or more, in their bid to impose hardline rule.

(Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Drazen Jorgic, Robert Birsel)

Chicago policemen plead not guilty to cover-up in shooting of black teen

A Chicago police officer attends a news conference announcing the department's plan to hire nearly 1,000 new police officers in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

By Chris Kenning and Suzannah Gonzales

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Three current and former Chicago police officers pleaded not guilty on Monday to felony charges of conspiring to cover up the fatal shooting of an African-American teenager by a white officer, a killing that sparked days of protests.

Detective David March and Officers Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaffney were each charged last month with conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice.

The men entered their pleas at their arraignment in a packed Chicago courtroom before Circuit Judge Diane Gordon Cannon. The next hearing is Aug. 29.

The indictments arose from the 2014 incident in which Laquan McDonald, 17, was shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke. Video footage of the incident showed he was shot as he walked away from police while holding a pocket knife.

March, Walsh and Gaffney, who were on the scene the night of the shooting, are alleged to have conspired to conceal the facts of McDonald’s killing to protect their fellow officer from criminal investigation and prosecution, according to prosecutors.

A police dash-cam video of the shooting, released more than a year after the incident, led to days of protests and thrust Chicago into a national debate over the use of excessive force by police against minorities. The indictment said the officers created false reports on the killing of McDonald.

Walsh and March are no longer with the force. Gaffney was suspended without pay, Chicago police representatives said. All three men are white.

Tom Breen, Walsh’s lawyer, told reporters that his client would be acquitted. The judge set bond at $50,000 and released the men on the their own recognizance.

Van Dyke, accused of murder in the McDonald shooting, pleaded not guilty in 2015. In March, he pleaded not guilty to 16 new counts of aggravated battery. No trial date has been set.

The cases come after Chicago police in May finalized stricter limits on when officers can use firearms and other force, the latest attempt to reform a department roiled by misconduct and criticism in the wake of McDonald’s death.

Last month, members of Black Lives Matter and other groups sued the city to force federal court oversight of those reforms.

“Until people, particularly police officers that do wrong, are held accountable and arrested and put in jail, until that happens there will be no trust among the community and law enforcement,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, an activist who was at the hearing.

 

(Editing by Frank McGurty and Matthew Lewis)

 

Black Lives Matter leaders sued over Baton Rouge police shooting

An East Baton Rouge Sheriff vehicle is seen with bullet holes in its windows near the scene where police officers were shot, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. July 17, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

(Reuters) – A police officer wounded in a shooting rampage in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last year that left three officers dead sued Black Lives Matter movement leaders on Friday, accusing them of inciting violence that spurred the attack.

The lawsuit filed in a U.S. district court in Louisiana named DeRay McKesson and four other Black Lives Matter leaders as defendants and sought at least $75,000 in damages.

It came on the one-year anniversary of one of the deadliest days in modern U.S. history for law enforcement. On July 7, 2016, a black man angered by what he saw as deadly racial bias in U.S. policing launched a downtown Dallas sniper attack, killing five officers deployed at a protest decrying police shootings of black men.

McKesson was not immediately available for comment and Black Lives Matter leaders have denied accusations that their movement promotes violence against police.

About 10 days after the Dallas shooting, a decorated ex-U.S. Marine sergeant opened fire on police in Baton Rouge, killing three officers.

Baton Rouge had been hit by waves of protests after two police officers earlier that month killed a black man, Alton Sterling, under questionable circumstances. The incident was caught on video and sparked national debate.

The officer wounded in Baton Rouge, who was not named in the lawsuit, was shot by “a person violently protesting against police, and which violence was caused or contributed to by the leaders of and by ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’,” the filing said.

Gavin Long, the black gunman who killed the Baton Rouge officers and was later shot dead, identified himself as a member of an African-American offshoot of the anti-government, mostly white Sovereign Citizen Movement, documents showed.

Last year, McKesson and two other activists sued the Baton Rouge police department and other officials over the arrests of nearly 200 demonstrators during mostly peaceful protests over police killings.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas and Bryn Stole in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Editing by Andrew Hay)

U.S. lawmaker wounded in shooting has surgery for infection: hospital

FILE PHOTO - Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA) is pictured sitting at the controls in the drilling shack on BP's Thunder Horse Oil Platform in the Gulf of Mexico, 150 miles from the Louisiana coast, May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jessica Resnick-Ault

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, who was shot and wounded during a baseball practice last month, has undergone surgery to treat an infection and remains in serious condition, the hospital said on Thursday.

Scalise, the No. 3 Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, had been readmitted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s intensive care unit because of concerns about the infection, the hospital said on Wednesday night.

Scalise, 51, tolerated the latest surgery well and remained in serious condition, the hospital said in a statement on Thursday.

A gunman opened fire on Scalise and other Republican lawmakers as they practiced on June 14 in a Washington suburb for a charity baseball game. Scalise, from Louisiana, was shot in the hip.

Scalise had been improving in recent weeks following surgeries to repair internal organs and broken bones.

Gunman James Hodgkinson, 66, had a history of posting angry messages against Republican President Donald Trump. He died after being wounded by police at the Alexandria, Virginia, ballpark.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Republican lawmaker Steve Scalise’s condition worsens after June shooting

FILE PHOTO: House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol, hours before an expected vote to repeal Obamacare in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 4, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, shot and wounded during a baseball practice last month, developed an infection and was readmitted to an intensive care unit, MedStar Washington Hospital Center said on Wednesday.

Scalise, the No. 3 Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, had been improving in recent weeks following surgeries to repair internal organs and broken bones.

The hospital, which downgraded his condition to “serious” from “fair,” said it would provide another update on Thursday.

A gunman opened fire on Scalise and other Republican lawmakers as they practiced on June 14 in a Washington, D.C., suburb for a charity baseball game. Scalise, from Louisiana, was shot in the hip.

Gunman James Hodgkinson, 66, had a history of posting angry messages against Republican President Donald Trump. He died after being wounded by police at the Alexandria, Virginia, ballpark.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Howard Goller)

New York City police officer killed in `unprovoked attack,’ police say

Black and blue bunting hangs from above the entrance to the New York City Police Department's 46th precinct after a gunman fatally shot a female New York City Police Department officer in an unprovoked attack early on Wednesday in the city's Bronx borough of New York City, U.S., July 5, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar

By Barbara Goldberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A gunman fatally shot a female New York City police officer in an unprovoked attack early on Wednesday in the city’s Bronx borough, then was himself shot dead by police as he ran from the scene, authorities said.

The officer, Miosotis Familia, 48, a 12-year veteran of the force, was shot as she sat in a mobile command truck with her partner at about 12:30 a.m. EDT (0430 GMT), the New York Police Department said.

The suspect fired through the vehicle’s window, hitting Familia in the head, police said.

“It is clear that this was an unprovoked attack on police officers who were assigned to keep the people of this great city safe,” Police Commissioner James O’Neill told a news conference outside Saint Barnabas Hospital, where Familia was later pronounced dead.

“She was on duty serving this city, protecting people, doing what she believed in, and doing the job she loved,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the news conference.

A New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer places a candle outside the 46th police precinct after a gunman fatally shot a female New York City police officer in an unprovoked attack early on Wednesday in the city's Bronx borough of New York City, U.S., July 5, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar

A New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer places a candle outside the 46th police precinct after a gunman fatally shot a female New York City police officer in an unprovoked attack early on Wednesday in the city’s Bronx borough of New York City, U.S., July 5, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar

The suspect, Alexander Bonds, 34, of the Bronx borough, was on parole for robbery in Syracuse, New York, according to a police source.

The mobile command unit has been located since March in the area because of a rash of gang-related shootings, O’Neill said.

Police officers lined the street outside the hospital and saluted as an ambulance drove her body to New York’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner, police said.

Officers chased the assailant on foot for a block before he drew a revolver and they shot and killed him, police said.

A bystander was also shot and was in stable condition, police said.

Pat Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, urged the public to assist. “We need your help to watch our backs as we watch yours,” he said at the news conference.

A total of 24 U.S. law enforcement officers have been killed by gunfire so far this year, a 20 percent increase from the same period in 2016.

Familia is the eighth New York City police officer shot and killed in the line of duty over the last five years.

Her shooting was a chilling reminder of the December 2014 ambush of two New York City police officers who were slain as they sat in a patrol car in Brooklyn by a man who traveled to the city from Baltimore after pledging to kill officers.

The deaths of the two officers stoked tensions between City Hall, the police department and reform-minded protesters who had voted de Blasio into office, turning out in large numbers.

In 2014, 126 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in the United States.

(Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Larry King and Jeffrey Benkoe)