NEWS OF THE DAY
❶ Hanging death: State and federal authorities will monitor the investigation into the death of a black man found hanging from a tree in Palmdale (Los Angeles County), officials said Monday following large weekend protests. The body of Robert Fuller, 24, was discovered last week in a park near City Hall. The county medical examinercoroner’s office said he appeared to have died by suicide, prompting an outcry. The state attorney general’s office and the FBI’s Civil Rights Division will oversee the investigation, which is being led by the Los Angeles County sheriff ’s homicide bureau, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said.
❷ COVID19 fatality: Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar on Monday announced the death of her father due to complications from COVID19. In a statement, Omar said Nur Omar Mohamed died Monday. She gave no additional information. “No words can describe what he meant to me and all who knew him,” Omar said in her statement. “My family and I ask for your respect and privacy during this time.” Since her election in 2018, Omar has been at the forefront of promoting progressive policies, including the defunding and reconstruction of the Minneapolis Police Department.
❸ Candidate robbed: U.S. Senate candidate and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach reported that he had four guns stolen from his pickup truck that was parked at a Wichita hotel. Officers responded to a call from Kobach Saturday at a hotel parking garage. Investigators believe someone broke into Kobach’s pickup overnight and took a rifle, two shotguns and a handgun. A spokeswoman for the Republican’s campaign said he was in Wichita for a campaign event and had the long guns with him for a shooting event. Campaign spokeswoman Danedri Herbert said Kobach also “always has at least one firearm with him for personal protection.”
❹ Gun control: The Supreme Court on Monday passed up several challenges to federal and state gun control laws. Gun rights advocates had hoped the court would expand the right to “keep and bear arms” beyond the home. Instead, the justices left in place restrictions on the right to carry weapons in public in Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. They also declined to review Massachusetts’ ban on some semiautomatic firearms and largecapacity ammunition magazines, a California handgun control law and a halfcenturyold federal law banning interstate handgun sales. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a dissent in the court’s denial of a New Jersey resident’s appeal seeking the right to carry a gun in public for selfdefense.
❺ False arrest: Authorities have arrested a Colorado man they say held two roofingcompany salesmen at gunpoint who had been knocking on doors after a hailstorm in his Loveland neighborhood. Both were wearing shirts with a roofing company logo when Scott Gudmundsen forced them to the ground, police said. Gudmundsen had called 911 and said he believed the two men were antifa — shorthand for antifascists. Police determined the workers were doing nothing wrong and arrested Gudmundsen on suspicion of felony menacing and false imprisonment.
Chronicle News Services