Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ohio cops release video in shooting of Black man holding up a cellphone
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Body camera footage released Wednesday shows Andre Hill, a Black man, emerging from a garage and holding up a cellphone in his left hand seconds before he is fatally shot by a Columbus police officer.
About six seconds pass between the time Hill, 47, is visible in the video and when the officer fires his weapon early Tuesday.
There is no audio because the officer hadn’t activated the body camera; an automatic “look back” feature captured the shooting without audio.
Without audio, it’s unclear whether the officer, identified as Adam Coy, yelled any commands at Hill, whose right hand isn’t visible in the video. Authorities say no weapon was recovered from the scene. The city says Hill was visiting someone at the time.
After Coy activates the audio, he is heard using an expletive as he yells at Hill, now lying on the garage floor, to put his “hands off to the side! Hands out to the side now!”
A few seconds later, Coy yells at Hill, “Roll to your stomach now,” and then: “Get your hand up from underneath you, now!”
Coy then asks a dispatcher, “We got a medic coming,” and yells, “Don’t move, dude!” to Hill as he lies on his side groaning.
Hill died less than an hour later at a hospital.
Brexit deal near: European Union and British negotiators closed in on a trade deal Wednesday with only a disagreement over fishing remaining, raising hopes a chaotic economic break between the two sides on New Year’s Day could be averted even as soon as before midnight, officials said.
After resolving a few remaining fair competition issues, negotiators were dealing with EU fisheries rights in U.K. waters as they worked to secure a deal for a post-Brexit relationship after nine months of talks.
Two EU sources said the negotiations were in a final phase now, with one saying: “I expect to see some white smoke tonight.” The official asked not to be identified because the talks were still ongoing.
Customs checks and some other barriers will be imposed under whatever circumstances on Jan. 1, but a trade deal would avert the imposition of tariffs and duties that could cost both sides hundreds of thousands of jobs. Britain withdrew from the EU on Jan. 31, and an economic transition period expires Dec. 31.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has always insisted the U.K. would “prosper mightily” even if no deal were reached and the U.K. had to trade with the EU on World Trade Organization terms.
Ethiopia massacre: More than 100 people have been killed in the latest massacre along ethnic lines in western Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said Wednesday, and the toll is expected to rise.
The attack in Metekel zone of Benishangul-Gumuz region occurred a day after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited the region and spoke about the need to end such massacres. Ethnic tensions are a major challenge as he tries to promote national unity in a country with more than 80 ethnic groups.
The attacks are separate from the deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, where Ethiopian forces and allied regional forces began fighting Tigray regional forces in early November.
Derailment probe: Federal and local authorities were investigating a fiery oil car train derailment north of Seattle near where two people were arrested last month and accused of attempting a terrorist attack on train tracks to disrupt plans for a natural gas pipeline.
Seven train cars carrying crude oil derailed and five caught fire Tuesday, sending a large plume of black smoke into the sky near the Canadian border. There were no injuries in the derailment about 100 miles north of Seattle
Officials were asked about recent attempts to sabotage oil trains, but they said the investigation was just beginning.
“We’ve not been able to get close enough to the site to make an evaluation,” Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo said late Tuesday.
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board along with the FBI and other federal, state and local agencies were on the scene.
Last month federal authorities in Seattle charged two people with a terrorist attack on train tracks, saying they placed “shunts” on Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks.
“Shunts” consist of a wire strung across the tracks, mimicking the electrical signal of a train. The devices can cause trains to automatically brake and can disable railroad crossing guards.
3 police officers killed in
France: A heavily armed gunman in southern France killed three police officers responding to a domestic violence call at his house and then fled, and he was found dead nearby Wednesday after an apparent suicide, the regional prosecutor said.
The unusual killing of three on-duty officers prompted a broad search and drew national concern, notably from French leaders who are under pressure from police to do more to protect them. President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “They are our heroes.”
The bloodshed started when a woman called a friend for help Tuesday night and reported her partner had beaten her at the couple’s home in the mountainside village of Ambert southwest of Lyon, regional prosecutor Eric Maillaud told reporters.
The friend called police, and when they arrived, they found the woman on the roof, where she had taken refuge after the man apparently set the house on fire, the prosecutor said.
“It was a real scene of war that we confronted overnight,” he said. “An overarmed individual. A house in flames.”
Pardons in ‘balloon boy’ hoax: A couple convicted of criminal charges in the so-called balloon boy hoax that fascinated the country more than a decade ago were pardoned Wednesday by the governor of Colorado.
Richard and Mayumi Heene reported their 6-year-old son had floated away in an homemade UFO-shaped silver helium balloon in 2009.
Dozens of emergency responders and two Colorado National Guard helicopters scrambled to save the boy as video footage of the enormous balloon floating far above the ground made national news.
But the child was never on the balloon, and he was later found unharmed at his home in Fort Collins, about 60 miles north of Denver. Authorities said the Heenes staged the ordeal to get publicity for reality TV shows they were trying to pitch.
Eleven years later, couple has now “paid the price in the eyes of the public,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement Wednesday.