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2nd grand jury indicts officer for involuntary manslaughter in Virginia mall shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:24 GMT

McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A special grand jury in Virginia indicted a former police officer on Thursday for involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed shoplifting suspect outside a suburban shopping mall.Wesley Shifflett, a Fairfax County police officer assigned to patrol the busy Tysons Corner Center shopping mall at the time of the shooting in February, was also charged with reckless discharge of a weapon. Timothy McCree Johnson, 37, was shot and killed outside the mall after two officers chased him when a security guard said he had stolen sunglasses from a Nordstrom department store. While both officers shot at Johnson, an investigation determined Shifflett fired the fatal shot, police said.In April, a grand jury declined to indict Shifflett. It was then that Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano initiated a special grand jury to reinvestigate. Descano said Virginia law gives him greater ability to oversee the investigation. When the initial grand ...

Gaza’s interior ministry says at least 45 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on house in northern refugee camp

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:24 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza’s interior ministry says at least 45 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on house in northern refugee camp.Source

First-place Lions, Buccaneers look to improve on fast starts in matchup of one-loss division leaders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:24 GMT

DETROIT (4-1) at TAMPA BAY (3-1)Sunday, 4:25 p.m. EDT, FOXFANDUEL SPORTSBOOK NFL LINE: Lions by 3.AGAINST THE SPREAD: Detroit 4-1; Tampa Bay 3-1.SERIES RECORD: Lions lead 31-29, including postseason.LAST MEETING: Buccaneers beat Lions 47-7 on Dec. 26, 2020, in Detroit.LAST WEEK: Lions beat Panthers 42-24 in Detroit, Buccaneers bye.LIONS OFFENSE: OVERALL (6), RUSH (7), PASS (9), SCORING (4).LIONS DEFENSE: OVERALL (6), RUSH (3), PASS (17), SCORING (15).BUCCANEERS OFFENSE: OVERALL (22), RUSH (25), PASS (14), SCORING (T20).BUCCANEERS DEFENSE: OVERALL (11), RUSH (10), PASS (16), SCORING (8).TURNOVER DIFFERENTIAL: Lions plus 1; Buccaneers plus-7.LIONS PLAYER TO WATCH: RB David Montgomery. The former Bears standout set a Detroit record with six touchdowns in his first four games with the franchise. ​If he runs for a score Sunday, he will be the first non-rookie in league history to have seven rushing touchdowns in his first five games with a new team. Montgomery is averaging 93 yards rushi...

Zimbabwe opposition leader demands the reinstatement of party lawmakers kicked out of Parliament

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:24 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader on Thursday urged the Parliament speaker to reinstate 15 of his party’s lawmakers, saying they were removed from their positions because of a fraudulent letter.Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said the lawmakers’ removal was part of an attempt by the ruling ZANU-PF party “to silence us.”The issue has added to the political tension in the southern African nation since President Emmerson Mnangagwa won a second term and ZANU-PF retained its parliamentary majority in disputed elections in August. Chamisa rejected the results of the elections as a “blatant and gigantic fraud.”The lawmakers from Chamisa’s Citizens Coalition for Change party were removed Tuesday after a man claiming to be the secretary-general of the CCC sent a letter to Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda saying they were being withdrawn.Chamisa told Mudenda the man who sent the letter had no authority in his party and was an impostor, and h...

Former Fairfax Co. officer who shot unarmed man outside Tysons mall indicted by special grand jury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:24 GMT

A former Fairfax County, Virginia, police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man suspected of shoplifting from the Tysons Corner Center mall, has been indicted by a special grand jury.Sgt. Wesley Shifflett was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a firearm, according to the office of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.Shifflett shot Timothy McCree Johnson, 37, on Feb. 22 after Shifflett and another officer chased Johnson on foot outside the mall after getting a report that a man had stolen sunglasses from a Nordstrom store.“The work of public safety includes charging officers for crimes when such actions are legally warranted,” Descano said in a statement. “After reviewing the evidence in this case, I believe that probable cause existed that Shifflett committed a crime, and that the entirety of the evidence should be put to a jury of community members.”This is the second grand jury to investigate the sho...

Walt Garrison, who played for Cowboys in college and NFL and competed as cowboy in rodeos, has died

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:24 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — Walt Garrison, who led the Big 8 in rushing as an Oklahoma State Cowboy, won a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys, and in the NFL offseason competed as a rodeo cowboy, has died. He was 79.The NFL team said in a story posted on its website Thursday that Garrison died overnight. It did not give a cause of death. A fifth-round draft choice out of Oklahoma State University, Garrison played nine years in Dallas and retired in 1974 as the No. 3 rusher and No. 4 receiver in franchise history. He is still fourth on Dallas’ all-time list with 4.32 yards per carry and ninth with 3,491 rushing yards.But it was Garrison’s rodeo career — which he called his first love — that made him the ultimate cowboy. As a little-used backup during his rookie season, the Cowboys said he would go out after team meetings and compete in local rodeos as a steer wrestler, then get back to the hotel before 11 p.m. curfew.“I wasn’t starting,” Garrison was quoted as saying. “I was returning punts and ki...

Political action committee fined in Maryland for text message without identifying line

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:24 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A conservative political action committee has been fined $20,250 in Maryland for failing to include information in the text message to identify who was sending it during a school board election, officials said Thursday.The 1776 Project PAC was fined for sending 13,879 text messages to Carroll County voters in last year’s school board election without noting it was the source of the message, according to a news release from Maryland State Prosecutor Charlton Howard and State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis.Maryland law requires campaign messages sent on behalf of candidates to record who paid for the information to be distributed.Violations have traditionally been sanctioned with minimal citations, but Howard and DeMarinis noted that technology now allows candidates to reach thousands of people with the press of a button.“Being able to identify the source of information for campaign material is essential to honesty and transparency in our electo...

Local filmmakers debut paranormal documentary on Friday the 13th

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:24 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Those who dare to go to a haunted theater on Friday the 13th can see the world premiere of a paranormal documentary made by Colorado filmmakers.Co-directors Alan Megargle of Westminster and Jesse Morgan of Thornton spent two years investigating paranormal activity at a 130-year-old farmhouse in Blue Hill, Nebraska. Estes Park among best small towns to visit for Halloween Megargle told FOX31 it all started when his friend Kenny Collins from Estes Park bought a home in Nebraska. He knew the previous owner died of cancer in the home about a year before he bought it, but he didn't know what and who he would find in the basement about a year later.One day, Collins was working on fixing up the basement, which Megargle described as a dirt-floor cellar where you have to leave the house and open the cellar door to go underneath the house.He started seeing some things, little shadow people, and weird things started happening."Alan MegargleThat's when Collins discovered a ro...

17 BSO deputies accused of stealing about $500,000 in pandemic relief funds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:24 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP/WSVN) — Seventeen Florida sheriff’s deputies appeared in court Thursday on charges that they stole about half a million dollars in pandemic relief funds.The Broward County deputies, who are charged separately, are accused of a range of crimes, according to court records. Most are charged with wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, though one deputy is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which has a maximum sentence of five years.The eight law enforcement deputies and nine detention deputies have been suspended, Sheriff Gregory Tony said during a news conference. He said his office is going through the legal process of firing them.“At the end of the day, they will be gone,” Tony said.The 17 deputies who were charged include the following: Stephanie Diane Smith, 53Katrina Brown, 46,Alexandra Acosta, 37La’Keitha Victoria Lawhorn, 41Jewell Farrell Johnson, 46Carolyn Denise Wade, 48Rorie Brown, 42Alexis Monique Gr...

The close-knit kibbutz that became home to a massacre

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:23:24 GMT

Dead Sea, Israel (CNN) — People from Be’eri sometimes used to say the reason the Israeli kibbutz was so close to the Gaza Strip was because otherwise, it would be too perfect.“It was a joke, something we used to say because Be’eri is so beautiful. It’s the place where you want your kids to grow up. The sunset is beautiful, the fields are green, it has everything you want from a vacation spot,” Lotan Pinyan told CNN on Wednesday.Be’eri’s proximity to Gaza, which is only a few kilometers away, means the liberal community has been a frequent target of Hamas rockets fired from the enclave – usually intercepted by Israeli defenses. The rockets were the one downside of the otherwise idyllic spot, Pinyan and his friends would say. “It’s not a joke now,” he said.Early on Saturday morning, Hamas militants stormed Be’eri and left behind a devastation of unimaginable scale.They murdered more than 120 of its residents, including children, and kidnapped others. They set people’s h...