POLICE DEFEND FATAL SHOOTING WITH VIDEO, 911 TRANSCRIPTS
YORK» Police seeking to NEW quell simmering anger over their shooting of a mentally disturbed black man on a New York City street released a montage of security videos Thursday that showed him minutes earlier thrusting a metal object that looked like a gun into the faces of several people — including a woman holding the hand of her child.
A final video snippet showed the man raising the object in a two-handed shooting stance as police arrived. The edited video was frozen just before officers unleashed 10 shots that left 34-year-old Saheed Vassell dead.
His weapon turned out to be an L-shaped section of pipe.
Chicago suburb bans assault weapons.
With the future of federal gun control legislation uncertain, an affluent Chicago suburb this week took the aggressive step of banning assault weapons within its borders, in what local officials said was a direct response to the mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school this year. Officials in Deerfield, Ill., unanimously approved the ordinance, which prohibits the possession, manufacture or sale of a range of firearms, as well as large-capacity magazines. Residents of the 19,000person village have until June 13 to remove the guns from village limits or face up to $1,000 per day in fines.
Pawlenty seeks return to governor’s mansion.
ST. PAUL,
MINN.» Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced Thursday he will run for his old job, ending months of speculation about a return to politics after his short-lived 2012 presidential campaign. The two-term Republican governor had been inching toward a run for months, quitting his Washington lobbying job and filing a campaign committee so he could begin fundraising. His entry blows up a crowded group of candidates that has struggled to raise money, and may entice spending by conservative groups eager to win in a left-leaning state.
Trump says he didn’t know about payment to porn star.
ONE» President ABOARD AIR FORCE Donald Trump said Thursday he didn’t know about the $130,000 payment his personal attorney made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, who alleges she and the president had an affair. Asked aboard Air Force One whether he knew about the payment, Trump responded, “no.” Trump also said he didn’t know why his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, had made the payment or where he got the money.
Arrest warrant issued for former Brazilian president.
PAULO» A federal judge SAO issued an arrest warrant on Thursday for former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, dealing a major blow to the once wildly popular leader who was trying to mount a political comeback before October’s elections. The warrant came several hours after the country’s top body, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, voted 6-5 to deny a request by da Silva to stay out of prison while he appealed a corruption conviction that he contends was simply a way to keep him off the ballot.
Menendez brothers, who killed parents, reunited in prison.
The Menendez brothers, who were convicted of killing their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion nearly three decades ago, have been reunited in a Southern California prison. Erik Menendez, 47, has moved into the same housing unit as his 50-year-old brother, Lyle, corrections department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said Thursday. The brothers are serving life sentences for fatally shooting their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in 1989. — Denver Post wire services