Castile-slay officer leaves police force
A MILITARY transport plane crashed into a Mississippi soybean field Monday, killing 16 people and leaving a trail of debris and bodies that spanned 5 miles, according to witnesses and officials.
The plane plunged down around 4 p.m. near Morehead, northwest of Jackson.
Leflore County’s Emergency Management Agency confirmed 16 casualties, according to the Clarion-Ledger.
Fire erupted as the plane crashed to earth. Plumes of black smoke billowed into the air from the flattened wreck, witnesses said.
Andy Jones said he was working on his family’s catfish farm when he heard a loud boom. He saw the doomed aircraft spiraling out of control and smoke pouring out of an engine.
“You looked up and you saw the plane twirling around,” Jones told The Associated Press. “It was spinning down.”
He said the blaze was too hot for him to get near the wreckage.
Jones called police after discovering several bodies scattered across U.S. Highway 82, more than a mile from the crash site.
Sheriff Ricky Banks initially told the Clarion-Ledger that at least five people had died out of the nine the plane was initially believed to be carrying. That number soon rose to 16 casualties on board the plane.
The Marine Corps posted on Twitter Monday evening that the aircraft was a K-130, a tanker version of C-130 transport planes that is used for in-air refueling.
It’s unclear where the cargo plane took off from and where it intended to go.
“There’s a lot of ammo in the plane,” a Mississippi Highway Patrol trooper told WLBT-TV.
“It burns a bit then goes out, burns a little more then dies down.”
First responders had to keep a distance from the burning wreckage because of its volatile cargo.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant offered his prayers for the victims in a Monday statement. “Our men and women in uniform risk themselves every day to secure our freedom,” Bryant said. MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota cop who was acquitted in the fatal shooting of black motorist Philando Castile is off the police force.
The Minneapolis suburb of St. Anthony said Monday that Jeronimo Yanez accepted a separation agreement, including a lump sum of $48,500, and is no longer with the department.
Yanez shot Castile, an elementary school cafeteria worker, during a traffic stop on July 6, 2016, after Castile told the officer he was armed. Castile, 32, had a permit for his gun.
His girlfriend, who was in the car along with her daughter, then 4, livestreamed the aftermath on Facebook.
Yanez (photo) was acquitted of manslaughter in June. On that day, the city said the “public will be best served” if Yanez were no longer a cop.
Castile’s uncle Clarence Castile said he was glad Yanez is gone.
“He should be in jail,” the uncle said. “He’s like a fish that wiggled his wayoffahook .. . . Hopefully, he won’t be able to get a police job in the United States, because he’s a poor example of a police officer.”