South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Court filing details how Calif. shooting that killed 6 unfolded
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Newly filed court documents provide for the first time a detailed account of how a gunfight over a gang dispute unfolded in downtown Sacramento earlier this month, leaving 6 dead and a dozen wounded.
The documents filed Friday by Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert’s office also named others involved in the shootout beyond the three of at least five shooting suspects identified by police, The Sacramento Bee reported Saturday.
Three are among the six dead, although it was unclear if all fired weapons. Two of the suspects — brothers Smiley and Dandrae Martin — were wounded and are hospitalized or in jail. A third suspect, Mtula Payton, 27, remains at large.
In a social media clip posted hours before the shooting, the Martin brothers are seen posing with Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi,
32, and two handguns and a rifle. In the video, Hoye-Lucchesi and Smiley Martin, 27, talk about going downtown while armed to loiter outside nightclubs and “boast about shooting rival gang members,” according to the 13-page document.
In the video, Hoye-Lucchesi and Smiley Martin state allegiance to the Garden Blocc Crips.
Later, surveillance footage at 1:57 a.m. April 3 shows a person next to Martin pointing in the direction of Payton and Devazia Turner,
29, according to the document. Authorities say both are members of a rival gang, G-Mobb.
Seconds later, Payton and Turner start approaching the corner where the Martin brothers and Hoye-Lucchesi are standing, court papers said. Payton and Turner are joined by Sergio Harris, identified in documents as a member of ally gang Del Paso Heights Blood.
Shortly after 2 a.m., Smiley Martin is seen exchanging gunfire with Devazia Turner, the document said.
Hoye-Lucchesi, Turner and Harris were killed, along with Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21.
Deputy District Attorney Brad Ng filed the documents to make sure Smiley Martin, who is hospitalized, is not released on bail once he is booked into Sacramento County Main Jail, the Bee reported.
Easter vigil homily: Pope Francis on Saturday invoked “gestures of peace in these days marked by the horror of war” in an Easter vigil homily in St. Peter’s Basilica attended by the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol and three Ukrainian lawmakers.
The pontiff noted that while “many writers have evoked the beautify of starlit nights, the nights of war, however, are riven by streams of light that portend death.”
Francis did not refer directly to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but he has called for an Easter truce in order to reach a negotiated peace. That call appeared in vain Saturday, as Russia resumed missile and rocket attacks on Kyiv, western Ukraine and beyond in a stark reminder that the whole country remains under threat.
ASEAN summit: President Joe Biden will host leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian nations in Washington next month for a summit, the White House said Saturday.
The May 12-13 gathering is meant to demonstrate the United States’ commitment to being a partner with countries in the region.
The White House previously had announced that the summit would be held March 28-29, but the regional grouping of countries known as ASEAN sought a postponement due to scheduling concerns among some of its members.
The summit will commemorate 45 years of relations between the U.S. and the ASEAN nations.
Boat capsizes: A migrant boat has capsized off the Libyan coast, leaving at least 35 people dead or presumed dead, the U.N. migration agency said Saturday. It was the second tragedy in less than a week involving migrants departing from North Africa to seek a better life in Europe.
The shipwreck took place Friday off the western Libyan city of Sabratha, a major launching point for
the mainly African migrants making the dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean, said the International Organization for Migration.
The IOM said the bodies of six migrants were pulled out while 29 others were missing and presumed dead. It was not immediately clear what caused the wooden boat to capsize.
Friday’s tragedy was the second shipwreck off Libya in less than a week with a total of at least 53 Europeheaded migrants dead or presumed dead, according to the IOM.
Macron rally: French President Emmanuel Macron held a major campaign rally Saturday in Marseille, touting his environmental and climate accomplishments and future plans in a bid to draw in young voters who supported more politically extreme candidates in the first round of France’s presidential election.
Citizens and especially
millennials in Marseille, a multicultural southern French city on the Mediterranean, favored hardleft presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon over the centrist Macron in the April 10 first round of voting. Marseille’s young voters, who leaned mainly to the far right and the far left, are particularly engaged with climate issues — a point that Macron hoped to capitalize on in a speech at the edge of the glistening sea.
“I hear the anxiety that exists in a lot of our young people. I see young people, adolescents, who are fearful about our planet’s future,” he said.
Macron is facing off against far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in France’s April 24 presidential runoff after 10 other candidates, including Melenchon, were eliminated in the first round of voting.
Swedish violence: Unrest broke out in southern Sweden late Saturday
despite police moving a rally by an anti-Islam far-right group, which was planning to burn a Quran among other things, to a new location as a preventive measure.
Scuffles and unrest were reported in the southern town of Landskrona after a demonstration scheduled there by the Danish rightwing party Stram Kurs party was moved to the nearby city of Malmo, 27 miles south.
Up to 100 mostly young people threw stones, set cars, tires and dustbins on fire, and put up a barrier fence that obstructed traffic, Swedish police said. The situation had calmed down in Landskrona by late Saturday but remains tense, police said, adding no injuries were reported in the action.
On Friday evening, clashes between demonstrators and counterprotesters erupted in the central city of Orebro ahead Stram Kurs’ plan to burn a Quran there, leaving 12 police officers injured and four police vehicles set on fire.