LGBTQ news and entertainment
Some news items for you as we head into the new week:
• The Independent: FBI Director Kash Patel (bottom left in lead photo) is facing backlash for using an official FBI jet to travel to the Olympics as he appeared in a widely shared video chugging beer and partying alongside gold medal-winning members of Team USA hockey. Continue reading “Kash Patel Under Fire For Using FBI Jet To Attend Olympics + More News”
(screen capture via NBC News)
In his first interview since the tragic shooting that led to the death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, Alec Baldwin tells ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos “I didn’t pull the trigger.” Continue reading “Alec Baldwin: “I Didn’t Pull The Trigger””
Breonna Taylor (photo courtesy of the Taylor family)
The four-page report lists the time, date, case number, incident location and the victim’s name — Breonna Shaquille Taylor — as well as the fact that she is a 26-year-old black female.
The report redacts Taylor’s street number, apartment number and date of birth — all of which have been widely reported already.
And it lists as her injuries, “none,” even though she was shot at least eight times and died on her hallway floor in a pool of blood, according to attorneys for her family.
It lists the charges as “death investigation — LMPD involved” but checks the “no” box under “forced entry,” even though officers used a battering ram to knock in Taylor’s apartment door.
It also lists under the “Offenders” portion of the report the three officers who fired in Taylor’s apartment, fatally shooting her — Sgt. Jon Mattingly, 47; Myles Cosgrove, 42; and Brett Hankison, 44.
Taylor was shot and killed in the early morning hours of March 13 when police officers forced their way into her home due to a ‘no-knock’ warrant related to a drug investigation. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, has said the couple believed burglars were trying to break into the apartment. Walker fired one shot in defense at what he thought were ‘intruders.’ The officers returned fire striking Taylor 8 times and killing her. The officers were wearing body cameras at the time but had turned them off shortly before arriving at Taylor’s apartment. Last Friday would have been Taylor’s 27th birthday.
Ahmaud Arbery
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that the man, William Bryan, 50, was arrested on charges of felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. The two other men, Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, were charged with murder and aggravated assault this month.
Mr. Bryan, who is white, recorded the confrontation on Feb. 23 as the McMichaels pursued Mr. Arbery while he was running through the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick on the southeastern Georgia coast.
More than two months passed without arrests or criminal charges, and the video, released online this month, has been credited with bringing a surge of attention to the case and mobilizing activists. After the McMichaels were arrested, pressure ratcheted up for the authorities to arrest Mr. Bryan, who is known as Roddie.
Activists have said publicly that Bryan “had been more than a bystander.” Arbery’s family issued a statement this evening saying they were “relieved” by the arrest. “His involvement in the murder of Mr. Arbery was obvious to us, to many around the country and after their thorough investigation, it was clear to the G.B.I. as well,” read the statement.
Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, who was found guilty of murder yesterday in the shooting death of her neighbor, Botham Jean, was sentenced to 10 years in prison today. She was facing between 5-99 years in prison. From NBC News:
Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of murder for fatally shooting her unarmed neighbor in his apartment, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison.
Guyger, 31, learned her fate after a sentencing hearing that included emotional testimony from the family of the victim, Botham Jean, and revelations that she shared racist and offensive texts and social media posts.
Prosecutors had asked jurors to sentence Guyger to at least 28 years — symbolic because Jean would have turned 28 last Sunday.
Guyger did not testify during her sentencing, but she has the opportunity to appeal the conviction in the unique case, which has gripped the city of Dallas and shattered the idea that law-abiding residents can be safe in their own homes.
The jury was allowed to consider whether Jean’s death was the result of “sudden passion,” which meant Guyger acted in the heat of the moment. It carried a lesser sentence of two to 20 years behind bars.
Guyger shot Jean after walking into his apartment thinking it was hers at the end of a shift. Believing he was a burglar in her home, she shot him while he was armed with just a bowl of ice cream. This stunning moment, between Jean’s brother and Guyger, happened at the sentencing today.
Don’t see I’ve ever seen this, before: Botham Jean’s brother asked a judge if he could get off the witness stand & hug Amber Guyger. She killed Botham when she went into his apartment, claiming she thought it was hers. Notice the judge dabbing her eyes pic.twitter.com/9jzKnDCDjQ
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) October 2, 2019
Just hours after the deadly shooting massacre at the Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Salman was questioned by the FBI. According to reports, Salman hand-wrote a 12-page statement providing specific details of the attack.
Salman’s statement was quietly released in a batch of records from the case at the end of December 2017.
Via USA Today:
The 12-page statement, quietly released by federal authorities at the end of December in a batch of records in the case, was taken hours after the June 12, 2016 shooting. The attack left 49 dead and dozens of others injured.
Noor Salman was questioned for hours, without a lawyer, after authorities learned her husband was the gunman behind the attack.
She was arrested last year on federal charges of providing material support to a terrorist and tampering with evidence but has pleaded not guilty, claiming she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She said Mateen abused her and claims she did not know of his plot.
But her defense conflicts with the signed statement she gave to the FBI, which details her knowledge of Mateen’s planning and his path to carry out an attack on behalf of the Islamic State.
She told agents multiple times she knew his plans and that he was going to attack the Orlando club when he left their home.
On June 12, 2016, Salman’s husband killed 49 people at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He was eventually shot and killed by police after a three-hour standoff.
Salman faces charges of aiding a foreign terrorist organization and obstruction of justice.
In her written statement, Salman told investigators:
• Mateen bought a rifle just days before the attack. When she saw it in his car trunk he told her not to say “anything to anybody.”
• Driving by heavily populated areas like Disney World and Pulse Nightclub, he told her, “How upset are people going to be when it gets attacked?”
• Two days before the massacre Salman noticed Mateen looking at the Pulse Nightclub’s website. When she asked what he was doing, he replied, “This is my target.”
• The night before the shooting Mateen was “pumped up” wearing a handgun in a holster and a backpack full of ammunition. “I knew when he left the house he was going to Orlando to attack the Pulse nightclub,” she wrote.
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| Stephen Paddock |
From the New York Times:
A gunman on a high floor of a Las Vegas hotel rained a rapid-fire barrage on a huge outdoor concert festival on Sunday night, killing more than 50 people, injuring hundreds of others, and sending thousands of terrified survivors fleeing for cover, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.
Online video of the attack near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino showed the singer Jason Aldean performing outside at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, a three-day country music event, interrupted by the sound of automatic gunfire. The music stopped, and as victims fell, bleeding, concertgoers screamed, ducked for cover, or ran.
“Get down,” one shouted. “Stay down,” screamed another.
“Currently the Clark County Fire Department is estimating the injuries to be well over 400” Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said on Monday morning. One of those killed was an off-duty Las Vegas police officer, the department said.
He said there were about 22,000 people at the concert.
SWAT units swarmed the upper floors of the Mandalay Bay, closing in on the source of the shooting, a 32nd-floor room where they found the gunman, with “in excess of 10 rifles,” the sheriff said. “We believe the individual killed himself prior to our entry.”
The first reports of the shooting came at 10:08 p.m. local time, and officers overheard on police radio reported being pinned down by gunfire. Shortly before midnight the Las Vegas police reported that “one suspect is down,” and soon after the police said they did not believe there were any more active gunmen.
The sheriff identified the gunman as Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nev., who had no significant prior criminal history.
At least 50 dead as Mandalay Bay Las Vegas shooting becomes worst in U.S. history https://t.co/5yEz2R8C8I pic.twitter.com/VFcoZY4EAg— TIME (@TIME) October 2, 2017
Video shows concertgoers huddling while a gunman opens fire from the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/FBKLrsNNdH— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 2, 2017
Witness footage captures the harrowing moment a gunman opens fire during the Las Vegas shooting. Latest updates: https://t.co/g1JMfLQccV pic.twitter.com/JHod2F3zjj— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 2, 2017
“Not an avid gun guy at all…where the hell did he get automatic weapons? He has no military background,” gunman’s brother says pic.twitter.com/EMSKLQGYFM— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 2, 2017
Charleston shooter Dylann Roof, who killed nine people in a June 2015 church shooting, has been sentenced to death.
Via the New York Times:
Dylann S. Roof, the unrepentant and inscrutable white supremacist who killed nine African-American churchgoers in a brazen racial rampage almost 19 months ago, an outburst of extremist violence that shocked the nation, was condemned to death by a federal jury on Tuesday.
The jury of nine whites and three blacks, who last month found Mr. Roof guilty of 33 counts for the attack at this city’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, returned their unanimous verdict after about three hours of deliberations in the penalty phase of a heart-rending and often legally confounding trial.
Mr. Roof, who had said in a closing argument hours earlier that he could ask jurors “to give me a life sentence, but I’m not sure what good that would do,” showed no expression as Judge Richard M. Gergel of Federal District Court announced the verdict.
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| Tulsa Police Officer Betty Shelby |
Yahoo News has the details:
Prosecutors in Tulsa, Oklahoma, charged a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man on a city street with first-degree manslaughter Thursday.
Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler filed the charges against officer Betty Shelby, who shot and killed 40-year-old Terence Crutcher on Sept. 16. Dashcam and aerial footage of the shooting and its aftermath showed Crutcher walking away from Shelby with his arms in the air.
The footage does not offer a clear view of when Shelby fired the single shot that killed Crutcher. Her attorney has said Crutcher was not following police commands and that Shelby opened fire when the man began to reach into his SUV window.
But Crutcher’s family immediately discounted that claim, saying the father of four posed no threat to the officers, and police said Crutcher did not have gun on him or in his vehicle.
ICYMI, here’s the helicopter view of the incident: