Atlanta reinstates police officer charged in Black man’s murder
ATLANTA — Former Atlanta Police Department Officer Garrett Rolfe, charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks, has been reinstated by the city’s Civil Service Board.
“Due to the City’s failure to comply with several provisions of the Code and the information received during witnesses’ testimony, the Board concludes the Appellant was not afforded his right to due process,” the board concluded. “Therefore, the Board grants the Appeal of Garrett Rolfe and revokes his dismissal as an employee of the APD.”
The ruling doesn’t mean Rolfe will be back on the streets. He won’t actually be allowed to return to work, as his bond prevents him from possessing a firearm or being around other officers, said attorney Lance LoRusso, who represented the 28-year-old officerbefore the board.
In a statement, APD confirmed Rolfe will be placed on administrative leave.
Rolfe, who is white, was fired last June one day after he shot Brooks, who was Black, in a Wendy’s parking lot. A scuffle followed after Brooks struck the other officer onthe scene, Devin Brosnan, hard enough to cause a concussion, grabbed his Taser and aimed it at Rolfe, who then fired.
Attorneys representing the Brooks family blasted the city’s handling of the firing of Rolfe.
“We find it mind-boggling they weren’t aware of the proper procedure,” said attorney Chris Stewart. “Was that done to temporarily pacify the protesters and people around the world who were upset?”
“Right now, Officer Rolfe has received more justice than the family of Rayshard Brooks,” Stewart added.
Brooks’ death led to widespread unrest in the city; the Wendy’s was torched and later razed.
Italy police slaying verdict:
A jury in Rome on Wednesday convicted twoAmerican friends in the 2019 slaying of a police officerinadrugsting gone awry, sentencing them to life in prison.
The jury delivered more than 12 hours before delivering the verdicts against Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale Hjorth, 20, handing them Italy’s stiffest sentence. Elder and Natale-Hjorth were indicted on charges of homicide, attempted extortion, assault, resisting a public official and carrying anattack-style knife without just cause.
The defendants were led immediately out of the courtroom.
The slain officer’s widow, who held a photo of her dead husband while waiting for the verdict, sobbed and hugged his brother, Paolo.
Canada OKs Pfizer for kids: Canadianhealth officials said Wednesday that they have become the first to approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for ages as young as 12.
Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical adviser at Health Canada, confirmed the decision for ages 12 to 15 and said it will help children return to a normal life. Canada is the first country to authorize Pfizer for that age group. The U.S. andthe European Union are also reviewing it.
The vaccine was previously authorized for anyone 16 or older. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also expected to authorize Pfizer’s vaccine for young people by next week, setting
up shots for many before the beginning of the next school year.
US military diversity: The U.S. military must widen opportunity and improve advancement for Black service members, who remain vastly underrepresented in someareas, including among Air Force pilots and in the most senior ranks, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.
Army Gen. Mark Milley told a Howard University ROTC commissioning ceremony that diversity is an important strength of the military but is still inadequate. “We must get better,” he said.
The military as a whole is about 20 percent Black, Milley said, yet only twoof 41 four-star generals and admirals are Black.
Maj. Gen. John Evans, commander of Army Cadet Command, acknowledges the Army’s struggle to
increase the diversity of its officer corps. According to 2018 Pentagon data, nearly 24% of the Army’s enlisted force was Black, and about 17% was Hispanic. But those numbers drop as rank increases. According to the 2018 data, just 10% of the officer corps wasBlack and8.6% was Hispanic.
Chinese rocket: The largest section of the rocket that launched the main module of China’s first permanent space station into orbit is expected to plunge back to Earth as early as Saturday at an unknown location.
China’s space agency has yet to say whether the “core stage” of the huge Long March 5B rocket is being controlled or will make an out-of-control descent. Last May, another Chinese rocket fell uncontrolled into the Atlantic Ocean off Africa.
Basic details about the rocket stage and its trajectory are unknown because the Chinese government has
yet to comment publicly on the reentry. Phone calls to the China National Space Administration weren’t answered Wednesday, a holiday.
The U.S. Defense Departmentexpectstherocket stage to fall to Earth on Saturday.
Where it will hit “cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its reentry,” the Pentagon said.
Attackarrest: Police arrested a man who they said is suspected of stabbing two Asian American women without warning Tuesday afternoon in San Francisco.
Officers sent to the scene shortly before 5 p.m. found the wounded women, who were taken to a hospital. There was no immediate word on the condition of the women, whowere65and85.
Witnesses told KPIX-TV that a man clutching a knife was walking down Market Street whenheapproacheda bus stop, stabbed the women and then walked away. A
54-year-old San Francisco man was arrested on suspicion of committing the attack several hours later, police told the station.
Police didn’t immediately indicate whether the women weretargeted or whetherthe attack might be a hate crime.
Nonuplets born: A Malian woman has given birth to nine babies at once — after only expecting seven, according to Mali’s Minister of Health and the Moroccan clinic where the nonuplets were born.
The five girls and four boys, and their mother, “are all doing well,” Mali’s health minister said in a statement.
The mother, 25-year-old Halima Cisse, gave birth to the babies by cesarean section Tuesday.
The Guinness Book of World Records said in an email to the AP that the current record for most living births at once is eight, and that it is verifying the Morocco birth.