2 dead, 8 hurt in stampede at New York rap concert
A person injured in a stampede at a rap concert has died, bringing the death toll to two in the chaos in Rochester, N.Y., police said.
Earlier, 33-year-old Rhondesia Belton died after being injured in a crowd surge as concertgoers left a show headlined by Grammy-nominated artist GloRilla.
Audience members rushed for the Main Street Armory’s exits because of unfounded fears of gunfire, authorities said. Several people were injured, police said.
Police Chief David M. Smith said Monday there was no evidence any shots were fired, but police were investigating possible causes of the fatal surge.
Concertgoer Ikea Hayes returned to the venue Monday to retrieve belongings she left behind.
“I was watching my life flash before my eyes, and I still didn’t even know what was going on,” she told Rochester television station WHEC. She described being “on the ground, just scared, praying, like, you got to get up, you got to move.”
Police found three badly injured women in the auditorium. Seven additional people were treated at area hospitals for injuries that were not life-threatening.
“What began last night as a night of live music and fun for the performer GloRilla ended in tragedy,” the chief said.
Chief Smith said, police are investigating several possible causes of the fatal surge, including “possibly crowd size, shots fired, pepper spray and other contributing factors.”
Mayor Malik Evans called the fatal stampede “totally unacceptable” and promised a through investigation into whether venue operators had the necessary safety measures in place for a large crowd.
FBI seeks locations of 2 riot defendants
The FBI is searching for a Florida woman who was supposed to stand trial Monday on charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack as well as another riot defendant who has also gone missing, officials said.
A federal judge in Washington issued bench warrants for the arrest of Olivia Pollock and Joseph Hutchinson III last week after the court was notified that they had tampered with or removed the ankle monitors that track their location, said Joe Boland, a supervisory special agent with the FBI’s Lakeland, Fla., office.
Mr. Boland said the FBI has recovered one of the defendants’ ankle monitors after they removed it, but declined to say whether it was Ms. Pollock’s or Mr. Hutchinson’s. As of Monday afternoon, the FBI had not located either of them, he said.
Ms. Pollock, of Lakeland, is the sister of another Jan. 6 defendant, Jonathan Pollock, who has been on the lam for months. The FBI has offered a reward of up $30,000 in exchange for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her brother, who is accused of assaulting multiple police officers during the riot.
Ms. Pollock and Mr. Hutchinson were initially arrested in 2021 and charged in a five-person indictment with assaulting law enforcement and other crimes.
S. Korea pushes to end laborers dispute
South Korea on Monday announced a contentious plan to raise local civilian funds to compensate Koreans who won damages in lawsuits against Japanese companies that enslaved them during World War II.
The plan reflects conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s determination to mend frayed ties with Japan and solidify a trilateral Seoul-Tokyo-Washington security cooperation to better cope with North Korea’s nuclear threats. But it’s drawn an immediate backlash from former forced laborer and their supporters, who have demanded direct compensation from the Japanese companies.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin told a televised news conference the victims would be compensated through a local foundation that would be funded by civilian donations. He said South Korea and Japan were at a “new window of opportunity” to overcome their past conflicts and build future-oriented relations.
“And I think this is the last opportunity,” Mr. Park said. “If we compare it to a glass of water, (I) think that the glass is more than half full with water. We expect that the glass will be further filled moving forward based on Japan’s sincere response.”
Observers had earlier said the foundation would be funded by South Korean companies, which benefited from a 1965 Seoul-Tokyo treaty that normalized their relations. The accord was accompanied by hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to Seoul that were used in development projects carried out by major South Korean companies, including POSCO, now a global steel giant.