Nation & World Glance
Second arrest made in South
Carolina mall shooting COLUMBIA, S.C. – Authorities on Monday announced the arrest of a second man in connection with Saturday’s shootout inside a busy shopping mall in South Carolina’s capital, one of two mass shootings that rocked the state over the Easter holiday weekend.
Marquise Love Robinson, 20, was taken into custody overnight and authorities are also seeking a third suspect, Amari Sincere-Jamal Smith, Columbia Police Chief W.H. “Skip” Holbrook said during a news conference. Both men face charges of attempted murder and nine counts of aggravated assault and battery.
Nine people were shot and another six injured in the rush to exit Columbiana Centre in Columbia, authorities said, with no fatalities reported. Holbrook said one person remained in the intensive care unit Monday.
Police said they did not believe the shooting was a random attack and that the three identified suspects knew each other. Holbrook said the men brought guns into the mall, with police seizing two handguns believed to be used in the shootout.
“Emotions took over, you had firearms that were introduced into the dispute, gunfire was exchanged and innocent people got injured in the crossfire,” Holbrook said.
Parents charged in school shooting seek lower bond
PONTIAC, Mich. – The parents of a Michigan teen who is accused of a fatal school shooting are asking a judge to lower their bond and help release them from jail.
James and Jennifer Crumbley have been locked up since Dec. 4, unable to come up with $500,000 each to leave custody and await trial on involuntary manslaughter charges.
In a court filing, lawyers said the Crumbleys are not a risk to the public and would wear electronic monitoring devices. Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews will hear arguments Tuesday on a request to lower bond to $100,000 each.
Ethan Crumbley, who turns 16 next week, is charged with murder and other crimes. Four students were killed and more were injured during a shooting at Oxford High School on Nov. 30.
The parents are accused of failing to keep a gun secure at home and failing to reasonably care for their son when he showed signs of mental distress. They have pleaded not guilty.
Judge: Amazon must reinstate fired warehouse worker
A judge has ruled Amazon must reinstate a former warehouse employee who was fired in the early days of the pandemic, saying the company “unlawfully” terminated the worker who led a protest calling for Amazon to do more to protect employees against COVID-19.
The dispute involving Gerald Bryson, who worked at an Amazon warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, has stretched on since June 2020, when Bryson filed an unfair labor practice complaint with The National Labor Relations Board, claiming Amazon retaliated against him.
Later that year, the
NLRB said it found merit in Bryson’s complaint that Amazon illegally fired him for workplace organizing. Amazon didn’t accept the findings, and the federal board filed a formal complaint against the company, triggering a lengthy administrative court process.
On Monday, administrative law judge Benjamin Green said Amazon must offer Bryson his job back, as well as lost wages and benefits resulting from his “discriminatory discharge.”
Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment sent.
Gaza militants fire rocket into Israel as tensions soar
JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel for the first time in months on Monday, in another escalation after clashes at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, a series of deadly attacks inside Israel and military raids across the occupied West Bank.
Israel said it intercepted the rocket, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Israel holds Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers responsible for all such projectiles and usually launches airstrikes in their wake. It was the first such rocket fire since New Year’s Eve.
Early Tuesday, Israeli fighter jets carried out a series of airstrikes in southern Gaza Strip, targeting a “weapons manufacturing site” for Hamas, the Israeli military said. There were no reports of injuries.
Hours earlier, the leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, which boasts an arsenal of rockets, had issued a brief, cryptic warning, condemning Israeli “violations” in Jerusalem.
Ziad al-Nakhala, who is based outside the Palestinian territories, said threats to tighten an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza imposed after Hamas seized power 15 years ago “can’t silence us from what’s happening in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.”
Turkey launches new ground, air offensive in northern Iraq
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey has launched a new ground and air cross-border offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, that has left at least 19 suspected Kurdish rebels dead and has wounded at least four Turkish soldiers, Turkey’s defense minister said Monday.
Turkish jets and artillery struck suspected targets of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and commando troops — supported by helicopters and drones — then crossed into the region by land or were airlifted by helicopters, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a video posted on the ministry’s website.
Akar said the jets successfully struck shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, ammunition depots and headquarters belonging to the PKK. The group maintains bases in northern Iraq and has used the territory for attacks on Turkey.
At least 19 militants were killed while four Turkish troops were wounded during the offensive, the ministry said. There was no immediate comment from the Kurdish militant group on the incursion and the defense ministry statement couldn’t be verified independently.
Turkey has conducted numerous cross-border aerial and ground operations against the PKK over the past decades.