Man killed in drug turf war
MASHIKI, Japan — Two powerful earthquakes a day apart shook southwestern Japan, killing at least 29 people, injuring about 1,500 and trapping scores more beneath flattened homes.
The exact number of casualties remained unclear as rescue efforts continued to unfold Saturday as thousands sought safety in open spaces.
Officials said the death toll was climbing by the hour, with at least 19 dead from Saturday's magnitude-7.3 quake that shook the Kumamoto region on the southwestern island of Kyushu at 1:25 a.m.
Kyushu was already reeling from a 6.5 quake Thursday night that left 10 dead and more than 800 injured.
A series of aftershocks ensued, including a magnitude-5.4 Saturday morning.
Japanese media reported nearly 200,000 homes were without electricity and that drinking water systems had also failed. News footage showed people huddled in blankets, quietly, shoulder to shoulder, on floors of evacuation centers.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said police in nearby Oita received hundreds of frantic calls reporting people trapped or buried underneath debris. He said 1,600 soldiers joined rescue efforts.
A bright spot was the overnight rescue of an apparently uninjured baby, wrapped in a blanket and carried out of the rubble of a crumpled home. A 41-YEAR-OLD man was fatally shot outside a Washington Heights apartment building early Friday during a fight over drug turf, police said.
Dejon McInnis was in an argument with up to four men on W. 157th St. and Amsterdam Ave. around 12:10 a.m., when one of the suspects whipped out a gun and blasted him in the right leg, severing an artery.
He was rushed to Harlem Hospital, but could not be saved, officials said.
The argument stemmed from an ongoing dispute at the uptown corner, which is right next to an apartment for senior citizens, police sources and residents said.
Cops found drugs on McInnis when they arrived, a police source said.
“He was selling drugs on the wrong block,” the source added.