The family of Rajon Belt-Stubblefield served notice Monday to the city of Aurora that they intend to file a lawsuit in connection with the August shooting death of the unarmed Black man.
Belt-Stubblefield was 37 when he was shot and killed by an Aurora police officer during an Aug. 30 traffic stop, and his then 18-year-old son witnessed the shooting. A notice of claim — a legal step necessary before suing the city — was filed on behalf of Belt-Stubblefield’s family and a second notice was filed on behalf of his son, Zion Murphy.
The family, along with their lawyer Milo Schwab, held a news conference to announce the filing and then attended the Aurora City Council meeting where they spoke about a lack of transparency surrounding the shooting and a need for accountability for officer Matthew Neely, who fired the fatal shots. Neely’s name had not been released by the police department.
“No child should ever have to witness that,” said Erica Murphy, Zion Murphy’s mother. “No child should have to carry the trauma for the rest of their life. Rajon was more than a headline. He was more than a police report. He was a father. He was loved. He mattered.”
On the night of the shooting, Neely tried to pull over Belt-Stubblefield for speeding and a possible DUI near East Sixth Avenue and Sable Boulevard. Zion Murphy was driving behind his father in another car.
AURORA, CO – FEBRUARY 23: Family and attorneys of Rajon Belt-Stubblefield hold a press conference at the Aurora Municipal Center to announce legal action concerning Belt-Stubblefield who was fatally shot by Aurora police last August on February 23, 2026 in Aurora, Colorado. After the press conference, the crowd gather inside the Aurora City Council chambers to address the mayor and council members. (Photo By Kathryn Scott/Special to The Denver Post)
Belt-Stubblefield fled and then rear-ended one car before crossing a median and hitting a second vehicle. He was armed but tossed a handgun into the grass before walking toward the officer, Aurora police Chief Todd Chamberlain said at the time.
Belt-Stubblefield ignored orders to stop and raised his hands, and Neely punched him in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, according to Chamberlain’s account in the days after the shooting. Belt-Stubblefield raised his fist and repeatedly asked if the officer was “ready for this,” Chamberlain said.
The officer shot Belt-Stubblefield as he continued to move toward him, backing Neely into the street, Chamberlain said.
Belt-Stubblefield died at the scene.
But the notices of claim filed by Schwab offer a different perspective on what happened.
Neely pointed his weapon at Belt-Stubblefield as soon as he exited his wrecked car, and Belt-Stubblefield asked the officer not to shoot him as he tossed his gun into the grass. Neely tried to grab Belt-Stubblefield by the neck and take him to the ground, but the officer is the one who fell, according to the notice of claim. Belt-Stubblefield did not take aggressive action and tried to walk away.
Neely then followed Belt-Stubblefield, shoved him in the back and then as Belt-Stubblefield turned to speak to his son Neely “suckerpunched Mr. Belt-Stubblefield in the back of the head, causing Mr. Belt-Stubblefield to put his fists up to protect his head,” the notice of claim stated.
Neely backed into the street with his gun and fired three times. The first two shots struck Belt-Stubblefield in the chest, and he stopped and looked at Neely. Neely then fired the third shot into Belton-Stubblefield’s head, killing him at the scene, the notice of claim said.
Schwab said the city has not communicated with the family in the six months since the shooting, and the officer has not been disciplined for his actions.
“We’ve given it six months,” he said. “We’re done waiting.”
The shooting drew national attention, leading prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump to visit with Belt-Stubblefield’s widow and to condemn the fatal shooting.
Aurora has been in the spotlight for police brutality multiple times in the past decade, most notably for the 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, an unarmed 23-year-old Black man who died during a violent arrest even though he had not committed a crime. McClain’s name became a rallying cry in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
Two Aurora paramedics and a police officer were convicted for their roles in McClain’s death. Two others were acquitted, and the city paid $15 million to McClain’s parents to settle a civil rights lawsuit.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser placed the department under a consent decree after McClain’s death after his investigation found a pattern of racially biased police and excessive force within the department.
In 2015, Aurora paid a $2.6 million settlement — the largest in city history at the time — to the family of Naeschylus Carter-Vinzant, an unarmed Black man who shot by a city police officer. Officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant after Carter-Vinzant had removed a monitoring bracelet from his ankle. That settlement also came with an agreement from the city to improve police oversight and to improve community relations.
The family of Kilyn Lewis, an unarmed Black man killed by Aurora police in 2024, sued the city in May for wrongful death. That case is pending.
Flags will fly at half-staff this week in Denver in honor of a civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate who died last week, Mayor Mike Johnston announced Sunday.
“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement posted online. “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family.”
Flags will be lowered in Denver through Saturday to honor Jackson, according to a news release from Johnston’s office.
“Jesse Jackson was a titan of the Civil Rights Movement, a ferocious advocate, and a fearless trailblazer whose ‘Rainbow Coalition’ changed our nation forever,” Johnston said in a statement. “He reminded us that progress is possible when we stand together. Today we stand together in honoring his incredible life and work.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis also ordered all flags on public buildings to fly at half-staff from sunrise on March 6 to sunset on March 7 to honor Jackson’s “life and legacy.”
Jackson’s public celebration of life ceremony at the 10,000-seat House of Hope church in Chicago will be held on March 6, followed by a private memorial on March 7.
Jackson had many connections to civil rights leaders in Colorado and Denver, including Wellington and Wilma Webb, Cleo Parker Robinson and Michael Hancock, Polis said.
“Rev. Jesse Jackson changed this state and nation forever,” Polis said in a statement. “His contributions to Civil Rights bettered the lives of millions, inspired a generation of leaders, and moved our nation further towards justice and equality.”
CHICAGO — From jokes about his well-known stubbornness to tears grieving the loss of a parent, the adult children of the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. gave an emotional tribute Wednesday honoring the legacy of the late civil rights icon, a day after his death.
Jackson died Tuesday at his home in Chicago after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his ability to move and speak. Standing on the steps outside his longtime Chicago home, five of his children, including U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, remembered him not only for his decades-long work in civil rights but also for his role as spiritual leader and father.
“Our father is a man who dedicated his life to public service to gain, protect and defend civil rights and human rights to make our nation better, to make the world more just, our people better neighbors with each other,” said his youngest son, Yusef Jackson, fighting back tears at times.
The family said details on funeral arrangements for Jackson would be announced at a later time, but services will begin next week, with him lying in repose at the headquarters of the organization he founded, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago, which his son Yusef oversees. Services will follow at a church large enough to accommodate expected crowds.
Jackson rose to prominence six decades ago as a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., joining the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. King later dispatched Jackson to Chicago to launch Operation Breadbasket, a Southern Christian Leadership Conference effort to pressure companies to hire Black workers.
Jackson was with King on April 4, 1968, when the civil rights leader was slain.
Remembrances have poured in worldwide for Jackson, including flowers left outside the home where large portraits of a smiling Jackson had been placed. But his children said he was a family man first.
“Our father took fatherhood very seriously,” his eldest child, Santita Jackson, said. “It was his charge to keep.”
His children’s reflections were poetic in the style of the late civil rights icon — filled with prayer, tears and a few chuckles, including about disagreements that occur when growing up in a large, lively family.
His eldest son, Jesse Jackson Jr., a former congressman, said his father’s funeral services would welcome all, “Democrat, Republican, liberal and conservative, right wing, left wing — because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American.”
The family asked only that those attending be respectful.
“If his life becomes a turning point in our national political discourse, amen,” he said. “His last breath is not his last breath.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who died Tuesday at 84, had deep Charlotte and North Carolina ties.
Jackson often passed through the Queen City for voter rallies, funerals and political conferences. Education and drug abuse were two common focal points in his messaging.
In a dramatic visit to West Charlotte High School in 1989, he inspired 250 students to publicly acknowledge they’d tried drugs or alcohol and pledge to avoid them in the future.
Jackson delivered a 35-minute address to nearly 1,000 students during the school rally, where he emphasized individual responsibility and discipline in his appeal against drugs, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.
Students subsequently signed a pledge promising to say no to illicit substances and study two hours per night, and engaged in a call-and-response chant with Jackson.
“I want to be a better person … I have slipped … and fallen … onto the low road … I want to do better … I will do better … I must do better,” he said, with each repeating.
Jackson was especially present during the height of his political career in the 1980s.
He visited the Marriott City Center in September 1988 to speak at a banquet for national minority enterprise development week, the Observer previously reported. That same month he met with supporters at Johnson C. Smith University.
The United House of Prayer for All People on Beatties Ford Road welcomed him on multiple occasions, including for an October 1988 visit to encourage congregants to vote. The church’s bishop at the time was Walter McCollough, a fellow South Carolinian whom Jackson sometimes turned to for inspiration.
Jackson returned to the church with a similar message in 2004 during the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County branch of the NAACP’s “Taking Souls to the Polls” rally.
Rev. Jesse Jackson (center) greets supporters outside of the United House of Prayer for All People on Beatties Ford Road, prior to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County branch of the NAACP-sponsored “Taking Souls to the Polls” voting rally on Sunday, August 8, 2004. DAVID T. FOSTER III
An education advocate, Jackson founded the PUSH/Excel program to motivate Black and impoverished students to achieve excellence through schooling. Charlotte hosted the annual PUSH/Excel Pro Basketball Classic event several times, which was the program’s biggest fundraiser.
In 1989 he spoke to a group of Black political and civic leaders at the former McDonald’s Inn on Beatties Ford Road, announcing Charlotte as the venue for its upcoming fundraiser.
“Our youth practice basketball on an average of four hours a day,” Jackson said at the time. “My friends, if we spent four hours a night working on reading, writing and problem-solving, we’ll be able to slam-dunk thoughts just like we slam-dunk basketballs.”
He joined Charlotte Hornet Larry Johnson at J.T. Williams Middle School in 1994 as part of the NBA’s stay-in-school program, incentivizing students with a free day at Carowinds if they maintained no unexcused absences, no suspensions and at least a 2.0 average.
Jackson also helped launch a national $4 million fundraising campaign in 1994 to help Barber-Scotia College in Concord with its financial problems. He raised more than $40,000 during two on-campus rallies alone.
In 1996 he spoke at the 87th annual NAACP Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center. And in 2012, while stumping for President Barack Obama, he spoke at the Democratic National Convention hosted at the Time Warner Cable Arena, now the Spectrum Center.
Jesse Jackson in North Carolina
A Greenville, S.C., native, Jackson frequented the Tar Heel state dating back to his college days. He moved to Greensboro in 1963 to attend what was then the N.C. Agricultural and Technical College. There, he became the star quarterback of the football team and was elected student body president of the historically Black university.
He spent the rest of his life filtering through North Carolina, often to advocate for voting rights, education and issues affecting Black citizens.
In 1984, he ran for president and supported Democratic North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt in a tight battle for U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Sen. Jesse Helms. He organized a voter registration drive to help Hunt and increased Black registration in the state by 37%, The News and Observer reported. Hunt and Jackson ultimately lost.
Jackson made many stops in North Carolina in the months leading up to the 1988 presidential election, delivering a number of speeches that emphasized the important role of young voters.
On the 25th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous March on Washington that August, Jackson spoke to 7,000 people during a Duke University freshman orientation event. He encouraged students to be a part of the vision Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. laid out in his “I Have a Dream” speech.
The crowd waited for two hours in the summer heat, the Associated Press reported.
“If I can aspire to be president of the United States of America, you can aspire to be president of Duke University,” Jackson told Black students in the audience.
Jackson ran for president in 1988 and outlasted most of the Democratic primary field before losing to Michael Dukakis, who would become his party’s nominee. Jackson helped Dukakis stump against then-Republican Vice President George H. W. Bush.
He also delivered remarks to an audience of 1,000 people at St. Augustine’s College, now University, in Raleigh and again encouraged civic participation.
“Hands that chopped lettuce and picked cotton can now pick Congresspeople and presidents,” Jackson said in his speech, according to previous reporting from The Charlotte Observer. “Don’t sit here cheering for change if you’re not registered to vote.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson talks with N.C. State University students during a visit to the Raleigh campus in this undated photo from the university’s archives. North Carolina State University, Division of Student Affairs, Student Media Authority Records, 1909-2011 (UA016.035), Special Collections Research Center at NC State University Libraries Contributed
In 1993 he met with UNC Chancellor Paul Hardin in Chapel Hill to rally support for building a Black cultural center on campus, the News & Observer reported. UNC established the cultural center a few years later.
And in 1998 he joined a rally in Raleigh to bring attention to an array of issues facing the Black community, according to the News & Observer.
He returned to Greensboro in 2010 to help open the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in the old Woolworth building, where Greensboro’s civil rights movement began in earnest with a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter, according to the News & Observer. The museum honored him with a Lifetime Civil and Human Rights Award in 2017.
Nick Sullivan covers city government for The Charlotte Observer. He studied journalism at the University of South Carolina, and he previously covered education for The Arizona Republic and The Colorado Springs Gazette.
Jennifer Jones was sitting in Montrose Municipal Court in early January when she noticed something that didn’t seem right.
She witnessed a man in his 60s with multiple trespassing and camping charges receive a 10-day jail sentence. This individual, though, did not have an attorney — a right afforded under the Constitution to anyone facing jail time.
If Jones, a volunteer court-watcher, hadn’t been observing proceedings that day, nobody outside of the people involved with the case would have known what happened.
That’s because Montrose Municipal Court is not a “court of record” — meaning it keeps no written, audio or visual recording of court proceedings. The public, civil rights organizations and members of the media cannot watch court hearings virtually, or access video after the fact, and cannot request any transcripts or audio of the day’s docket.
It’s not clear how many municipal courts in Colorado are not courts of record. But court watchers say they believe Montrose to be the only court in the state that sentences people to jail and isn’t a court of record.
It’s examples like these that spurred Colorado lawmakers this month to introduce a bill that would bar municipal courts that are not courts of record from sending people to jail. House Bill 26-1134, titled “Fairness and Transparency in Municipal Court,” also clarifies that municipal court defendants have a right to counsel and that in-custody proceedings must be livestreamed for the public to view.
The legislation marks a second stab at codifying protections for municipal defendants after Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a similar bill last year. The governor, though, took issue with the part of the bill that sought to address sentencing disparities between municipal and state courts. A Colorado Supreme Court ruling settled that issue in December, leading bill sponsors this year to focus on the transparency elements from last year’s legislation.
“Justice dies in the dark,” said Rebecca Wallace, policy director for the Colorado Freedom Fund, an organization that helps people pay bail. “Montrose Municipal Court needs a light on it — this bill provides some of that light.”
If municipal courts have the same power to put people in jail as state courts, they must provide the same due process protections, said Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat and one of the bill’s sponsors.
Access to counsel is already a right for municipal defendants facing jail time — but that doesn’t mean it always happens.
In October 2024, The Denver Post reported that poor and unhoused individuals in custody in Grand Junction Municipal Court were frequently appearing in court without attorneys. This came to light because the Colorado Freedom Fund obtained hours of recordings of court proceedings. If Grand Junction hadn’t been a court of record, that would not have been possible.
Alida Soileau, a defense attorney who practices in Montrose, said she’s never heard the municipal court say that someone’s case qualifies for court-appointed counsel. She said she’s witnessed one occasion in which a defendant facing jail did not have an attorney.
“It’s the wild west,” she said in an interview.
Without recordings or transcripts, Wallace said it’s impossible for watchdog organizations like hers — or members of the media — to confirm such accounts and investigate further.
Chris Dowsey, Montrose’s city attorney, said the municipal court directs people to a written advisement on the right to an attorney when a case involves a possible jail sentence, and follows that up with an oral advisement.
“For each case, the judge confirms that the defendant has received one of those advisements of rights,” he said in a statement. “If they have not received such an advisement, the judge would give another oral advisement to that individual.”
Montrose city officials say they’re working on becoming a court of record.
Municipal Judge Thomas LeClaire told the City Council during a January meeting that he recommended the court make the change. Councilmembers supported the idea, saying the pending state legislation made it a good time to get ahead of the curve. Officials estimated it could happen as soon as this spring.
Montrose Municipal Court needs only minimal investment to make itself a court of record, including some staff time and equipment modifications, Dowsey said in a statement.
As to why the city waited so long to make this happen?
“At the time, there was no business reason to do so, there was no mandate to do so, and there was no push by the state legislature or the courts to do so,” Dowsey said.
The Post, over the past two years, has detailed numerous examples of municipal courts around the state not following the law. The reporting showcased how Colorado’s more than 200 municipal courts operate with little oversight and scrutiny, since they run independently from the state judicial department.
Meanwhile, municipal courts around the state are adjusting to a new normal after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in December that cities cannot punish lawbreakers beyond what state statute would allow for the same offenses. This decision has led city councils to adopt new ordinances, judges to adjust their advisements for defendants and prosecutors and defense attorneys to negotiate plea deals under new guidelines.
On Feb. 19, the Conservation Fund is teaming up with the Washington Association of Black Journalists for an event called “Protecting Legacy Places: A Black History Month Conversation.”
Throughout February, WTOP is celebrating Black History Month. Join us on-air and online as we bring you the stories, people and places that make up our diverse community.
You can learn about history through books, videos or museums, but there is something significant about visiting the place where it happened.
“There’s a truthfulness when you go to these spaces that you can only experience when you’re there,” said Phillip Howard, director of the Legacy Places Initiative at the Conservation Fund. “I think there’s value in being able to touch history and being able to be in a space where history happens.”
Howard works specifically on preserving iconic civil rights sites across the country. The Conservation Fund helped protect Maryland’s historic Black beaches, where artists such as Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin performed like at the famed Carr’s Beach.
The Elktonia-Carr’s Beach Heritage Park honors that cultural and musical history. The group has also protected land on Maryland’s Eastern Shore connected to Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.
“I get to work in spaces and work to preserve spaces that are important and tell important stories in American history,” he said. “If there is properties or spaces in Maryland, Virginia, D.C., that are in need of protection, that’s a conversation that we would love to have.”
On Feb. 19, the Conservation Fund is teaming up with the Washington Association of Black Journalists for an event called “Protecting Legacy Places: A Black History Month Conversation.” It will be held from 6-8 p.m. at the Thurgood Marshall Center for Service and Heritage in Northwest D.C.
“This is an opportunity to raise those voices, uplift those spaces, really get the word out that this work is happening and that it needs to be bigger,” Howard said. “If we don’t do something, those spaces are going to be lost.”
The special guest at the event is Jannette Howard-Moore. She was 15 years old when she marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 with her family, and was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge by police. She will talk about being part of a pivotal moment in history.
Howard said it’s a unique opportunity to hear directly from a Civil Rights foot soldier, while celebrating and honoring her.
“Hear from a person who was actually there at a moment that changed the world,” Howard said, calling it a “beautiful story of family, of sacrifice, love, strength, courage, of bravery.”
It’s the first time the Conservation Fund is partnering with the Washington Association of Black Journalists for this event, but Howard hopes it’s not the last.
“We’re all just trying to make sure that this history is not lost,” he said.
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There are just 16 Flock Safety cameras in Thornton.
But those electronic eyes, mounted to poles at intersections throughout this city of nearly 150,000, brought out dozens of people to the Thornton Community Center for a discussion on how the controversial license plate-reading cameras are being used — and whether they should be used at all.
Law enforcement agencies cite the automatic license-plate readers, or ALPRs, as a powerful tool that bolsters their ability to locate and stop suspects who may be on their way to committing their next assault or robbery.
But Meg Moore, a six-year resident of the city who is helping spearhead opposition to Flock cameras, said she worries about how the rapidly spreading surveillance system is impacting residents’ privacy and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Thornton’s Flock camera data can be seen by more than 1,600 other law enforcement agencies across the country.
“We want to make sure this is truly safe and effective,” she said in an interview.
The debate over Atlanta-based Flock Safety’s cameras, which not only can record license plate numbers but can search for the specific characteristics of a vehicle linked to an alleged crime, has been picking up steam in recent years. The discussions have largely played out in metro Denver and Front Range cities in recent months, but this year they reached the state Capitol, where lawmakers are pitching a couple of bills to tighten up rules around surveillance.
In Denver, Mayor Mike Johnston has been butting heads with the City Council over the issue. Johnston is so convinced of Flock’s value in combating crime that in October, he extended the contract with the company against the wishes of much of the council. Denver has 111 Flock cameras.
In Longmont, elected leaders took a different approach. Its City Council voted in December to pause all sharing of Flock Safety data with other municipalities, declined an expansion of its contract with the company and began searching for an alternative.
Louisville beat its Boulder County neighbor to the punch by several months, disabling its Flock cameras at the end of June and removing them by the start of October. City spokesman Derek Cosson said privacy concerns from residents largely drove the city’s decision.
Steve Mathias, a Thornton resident for nearly a decade, would like to see Flock’s cameras gone from his city. Short of that, he said, reliable controls on how the streetside data is collected, stored and shared are paramount.
“In our rush to make our community safe, we’re not getting the full picture of the risks we’re facing,” he said. “We’re making ourselves safe in some ways by making ourselves less safe in others.”
The hot-button debate in Thornton played out at last month’s community meeting and continued at a City Council meeting last week, where the city’s Police Department gave a presentation on the Flock system.
Cmdr. Chad Parker laid out several examples of Flock’s cameras being instrumental in apprehending bad actors — in cases ranging from homicide to sex assault to child exploitation to a $5,700 theft at a Nike store.
As recently as Monday, Thornton police announced on X that investigators had tracked down a man suspected of hitting and killing a 14-year-old boy who was riding a small motorized bike over the weekend. The agency said a Flock camera in Thornton gave officers a “strong lead” in identifying the hit-and-run suspect within 24 hours.
At the Feb. 3 council study session, police Chief Jim Baird described Flock’s camera system as “one of the best tools I’ve seen in 32 years of law enforcement.”
But that doesn’t sway those in Thornton who are wary of the camera network.
“I’m not a fan of building toward a surveillance state,” Mathias said.
The hazards of a system like Flock, he said, lie not just in the pervasive data-collection methods the company uses but also in who eventually might get to see and use that data — be it a rogue law enforcement officer or a hacker who manages to break into Flock’s database.
“A person who wants us to do us harm with this system will have as much capability as the police have to do good,” he said.
A Flock Safety license plate recognition camera is seen on a street light post on Ken Pratt Boulevard near the intersection with U.S. 287 in Longmont on Dec. 10, 2025. (Matthew Jonas/Daily Camera)
Crime-fighting tool or prone to misuse?
In November, a Columbine Valley police officer was disciplined after he accused a Denver woman of theft based in large part on evidence from Flock cameras, according to reporting from Fox31. The officer mistakenly claimed the woman had stolen a $25 package in a nearby town and said he’d used Flock cameras to track her car.
“It’s putting too much trust in the hands of people who don’t know what they’re doing,” DeFlock’s Will Freeman said of so many police agencies’ adoption of the technology.
Last summer, 9News reported that the Loveland Police Department had shared access to its Flock camera system with U.S. Border Patrol. That came two months after the station reported that the department gave the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives access to its account, which ATF agents then used to conduct searches for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Parker, the Thornton police commander, said any searches connected to immigration cases or to women from out of state who are seeking an abortion in Colorado — another scenario that’s been raised — “won’t ever touch our system.” State laws restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities and with other states’ abortion-related investigations.
“Any situation I feel uncomfortable about or that might be in conflict with our policies or with Colorado law, I will revoke their access — no problem,” he said.
Thornton deputy city attorney Adam Stephens said motorists’ Fourth Amendment rights are not being violated by the city’s Flock camera network. During last week’s meeting, he cited several recent court cases that, in essence, determined that there is no right to privacy while driving down a public roadway.
In an interview, Stephens said Thornton was “in compliance with the law.”
Flock spokesman Paris Lewbel wrote in an email that the company was “proud to partner with the Thornton Police Department to provide technology used to investigate and solve crimes and to help locate missing persons.”
Lewbel provided links to two news stories about minor children who were abducted and then found with the help of Flock’s cameras in Thornton and elsewhere.
At the council’s study session last week, Parker provided more examples of Flock’s role in fighting crime and finding missing people in Thornton. They included police nabbing a suspect who had hit and killed a pedestrian, locating a burglar who was suspected of robbing several dispensaries, and tracking down an 89-year-old man with dementia who had gotten into his car and gotten lost.
“It allows us to find vehicles in a manner we weren’t able to previously,” Parker said of the camera network.
Thornton installed its first 10 Flock cameras in 2022 and then added five more — plus a mobile unit — two years later. The initial deployment was in response to a spike in auto thefts in the city, which peaked at 1,205 in 2022 (amid an overall surge in Colorado). Thornton recorded 536 auto thefts last year.
The city says Flock cameras have been involved in 200 cases that resulted in an arrest or a warrant application in Thornton over the last three years.
Thornton police have access to nearly 2,200 other agencies’ Flock systems across the United States, while nearly 1,650 law enforcement agencies can access Thornton’s Flock data, according to data provided by the city.
For Anaya Robinson, the public policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, the networked nature of Flock cameras across wide geographies is a big part of the problem. By linking one police agency’s Flock technology with that of thousands of other police departments, it “creates a surveillance environment that could violate the Fourth Amendment.”
The sweeping nature of Flock’s surveillance is also worrisome, Robinson said.
“You’re not just collecting the data of vehicles that ping (a police department’s) hot list (of suspicious vehicles), you’re collecting the data of every vehicle that is caught on a Flock camera,” he said.
And because the technology is relatively inexpensive — Thornton pays $48,500 to Flock annually for its system — it’s an affordable crime-fighting tool for most communities. But that doesn’t mean it should be deployed, DeFlock’s Freeman said.
Fight remains a largely local one
State lawmakers are crafting bills this session to limit the reach of surveillance technologies like Flock’s.
Senate Bill 70 would put limits on access to databases and the sharing of information. It would prohibit a government from accessing a database that reveals an individual’s or a vehicle’s historical location information, and it would prohibit sharing that information with third parties or with government agencies outside the controlling entity’s jurisdiction. Certain exceptions would apply.
Senate Bill 71 would direct a “law enforcement agency to use surveillance technology only for lawful purposes directly related to public safety or for an active investigation.” It also would forbid the use of facial-recognition technology without a warrant and would place limits on the amount of time data can be retained.
Both bills await their first committee hearings.
Thornton says it doesn’t use facial recognition technology. Its Flock data is retained for 30 days.
Regardless of what passes at the state Capitol, the real fight over license plate readers of any type will likely continue to happen at the local level. Thornton’s council plans further discussions on Flock next month.
For Moore, the resident who is leading the charge against the cameras, potential surveillance of the immigrant community is what troubles her the most.
“We want to make sure we’re operating this so that it’s safe for all of our residents,” she said. “Getting rid of the cameras altogether is a tough sell. But there needs to be a conversation about guardrails.”
Mayor Pro Tem Roberta Ayala, a Thornton native, said she has heard a wide array of opinions from her constituents about the advantages and potential downsides of the technology.
“Could it be misused? Yes. Do we want to stop that? Yes,” she said.
But as a victim of crime herself, Ayala also knows the immense damage and disruption that crime causes victims and their families, be it a stolen vehicle or something much worse. And as a teacher, Ayala is concerned about achieving justice for the families of children who are harmed or abused.
“If it can save even five kids,” she said, “I want the cameras.”
A correctional officer forced Ashaheed to shave during the intake process, even though Ashaheed told the officer he was a Muslim and that shaving his beard would violate a core tenet of his faith, according to the lawsuit.
The officer told Ashaheed that if he did not shave his beard, he would be disciplined and placed in solitary confinement, according to the lawsuit. Ashaheed shaved when faced with that threat.
His lawsuit kicked off a years-long legal battle. The two sides reached an agreement for a settlement in September and finalized it in mid-January, court records show.
David Lane, Ashaheed’s attorney, said in a news release Wednesday that the case highlights the importance of constitutional protections.
“As this country slides into fascism, it is critically important that the public takes every civil rights violation seriously, and never gives up the fight to protect our Constitution,” he said in the news release.
A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections did not immediately return a request for comment.
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Former detainees planned to testify Wednesday about conditions at an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” as a federal judge considers during a two-day hearing whether they are getting sufficient access to the legal system.
Civil rights attorneys representing the detainees were seeking a temporary injunction from U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell in Fort Myers that would ensure that detainees at the state-run Everglades facility get the same access to their attorneys as they do at federally-run detention centers. The Everglades facility was built last summer at a remote airstrip by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.
The detainees’ lawsuit claims that their First Amendment rights are being violated. They say their attorneys have to make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other immigration detention facilities where lawyers can just show up during visiting hours; that detainees often are transferred to other facilities after their attorneys had made an appointment to see them; and that scheduling delays have been so lengthy that detainees were unable to meet with attorneys before key deadlines.
“Access to counsel at Alligator Alcatraz is dramatically more restrictive than at other immigration facilities and runs afoul of the requirements that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has in place for detention facilities,” the civil rights attorneys wrote in their request for an injunction.
State officials who are defendants in the lawsuit denied restricting the detainees’ access to their attorneys and said any protocols were in place for security reasons and to make sure there was sufficient staffing. Federal officials who also are defendants said that no First Amendment rights were being violated.
“Moreover, any Alligator Alcatraz policy regarding attorney-detainee communications is valid so long as it reasonably relates to legitimate penological interest,” they wrote.
Among those expected to testify Wednesday was Juan Lopez Vega, deputy field office director of ICE’s enforcement and removal operations in Miami, who unsuccessfully tried to quash a subpoena compelling him to show up in court on Wednesday.
The case over access to the legal system was one of three federal lawsuits challenging practices at the immigration detention center. Another lawsuit brought by detainees in federal court in Fort Myers argued that immigration was a federal issue, and Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state had no authority to operate the facility under federal law. That lawsuit ended earlier this month after the immigrant detainee who filed the case agreed to be removed from the United States.
In the third lawsuit, a federal judge in Miami last summer ordered the facility to wind down operations over two months because officials had failed to do a review of the detention center’s environmental impact. But an appellate court panel put that decision on hold for the time being, allowing the facility to stay open.
OMAHA HAS A NEW ADDITION TO THE 100 CLUB. SARAH ROUNTREE CELEBRATED A CENTURY OF CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISM TODAY. NEWSWATCH SEVEN’S IZZY JUUL WAS AT SARAH’S BIRTHDAY PARTY AND SHARES HER STORY. TRAILBLAZER I CAN. HISTORY MAKER ALL WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE BIRTHDAY GIRL SARAH ROUNTREE. SHE’S THE LAST SURVIVING MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES IN OMAHA’S NEWEST 100 YEAR OLD. HELLO EVERYONE! I AM SO HAPPY AND GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU FOR COMING FOR MY BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION. SHE IS 100 YEARS YOUNG. AMEN. YES, SHE’S STILL GOT THE FIGHT IN HER. THE FIRST THING SHE SAID TO ME WAS WE’RE GOING TO START UP THE FOR SALE AGAIN. ROUNTREE WAS AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE 1960S CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT HERE IN OMAHA. THEY DIDN’T TALK ABOUT BLACK HISTORY BACK THEN. THEY DIDN’T DO ANY OF THAT. AND IT BECAUSE OF SEVERAL ROUNTREE THAT WE ARE NOW ABLE TO TALK ABOUT BLACK HISTORY. SHE WAS THE RIGHT HAND AT FORT SILL DOING EVERYTHING FROM FIGHTING SEGREGATION TO TEACHING THEIR KIDS. I’M SURE THAT THE DEPARTED CIVIL RIGHTS MEMBERS FOR HCL MEMBERS ARE LOOKING. THEIR SPIRIT IS HERE TODAY, AND THEY’RE SMILING AND THEY’RE HAPPY. SHE ALWAYS WAS READY TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AND GET INTO GOOD TROUBLE. ROUNTREE AND HER WORK HAVE BEEN ETCHED INTO OMAHA’S HISTORY. A STREET IN HER NAME AND A PROCLAMATION FROM MAYOR JOHN EWING JR HIMSELF. MANY YEARS OF FAITHFUL SERVICE AND MEANINGFUL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE OMAHA COMMUNITY, LEAVING AN INDELIBLE MARK OF KINDNESS ON ALL THOSE WHO HAVE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF KNOWING HER. IN OMAHA, IZZY FONFARA JUUL KETV NEWSWATCH SEVEN. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH! CAN YOU IMAGINE EVERYTHIN
Civil rights activist celebrates 100th birthday
Sarah Rountree is the last surviving member of the Committee for Civil Liberties.
Civil rights advocate Sarah Rountree celebrated 100 years of activism Monday.Her friends describe her as a “trailblazer, icon history maker.”Rountree is the last surviving member of the Committee for Civil Liberties, a civil rights organization founded in the 1960s.”Hello everyone, I am so happy,” Rountree said at the start of her party. “God bless all of you for coming to my birthday celebration.””She is 100 years young, she’s still got the fight,” the Rev. Darryl Eure, son of another 4CL member, said. “You know, the first thing she said to me was, ‘We’re going to start up the 4CL again.”Rountree was at the forefront of the 1960s civil rights movement in Omaha.”They didn’t talk about Black history back then,” Eure said. “They didn’t do any of that, and it’s because of Sarah Rountree that we are now able to talk about Black history.”She was the right hand at 4CL, doing everything from fighting segregation to teaching kids.”I’m sure that the departed civil rights members, 4CL members, are looking. Their spirits are here today, and they’re smiling, and they’re happy,” Rountree said. “She always was ready to fight the good fight and get into good trouble,” Eure said.Rountree and her work have been etched into Omaha’s history. She has a street in her name and received a proclamation from city Mayor John Ewing Jr. at her party on Sunday.”Mrs. Rountree has dedicated many years of faithful service and meaningful contributions to the Omaha community, leaving an indelible mark of kindness on all those who have had the privilege of knowing her,” the proclamation reads.Family and friends said she is a firecracker who loves to dance to her favorite song, “She’s a Bad Mama Jama” by Carl Carlton.Rountree continued her activism well into her 90s, using her knowledge and reputation to raise awareness of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. She will be the keynote speaker during Catholic Charities’ celebration of African American history at the end of February.
OMAHA, Neb. —
Civil rights advocate Sarah Rountree celebrated 100 years of activism Monday.
Her friends describe her as a “trailblazer, icon [and] history maker.”
Rountree is the last surviving member of the Committee for Civil Liberties, a civil rights organization founded in the 1960s.
“Hello everyone, I am so happy,” Rountree said at the start of her party. “God bless all of you for coming to my birthday celebration.”
“She is 100 years young, she’s still got the fight,” the Rev. Darryl Eure, son of another 4CL member, said. “You know, the first thing she said to me was, ‘We’re going to start up the 4CL again.”
Rountree was at the forefront of the 1960s civil rights movement in Omaha.
“They didn’t talk about Black history back then,” Eure said. “They didn’t do any of that, and it’s because of Sarah Rountree that we are now able to talk about Black history.”
She was the right hand at 4CL, doing everything from fighting segregation to teaching kids.
“I’m sure that the departed civil rights members, 4CL members, are looking. Their spirits are here today, and they’re smiling, and they’re happy,” Rountree said.
“She always was ready to fight the good fight and get into good trouble,” Eure said.
Rountree and her work have been etched into Omaha’s history. She has a street in her name and received a proclamation from city Mayor John Ewing Jr. at her party on Sunday.
“Mrs. Rountree has dedicated many years of faithful service and meaningful contributions to the Omaha community, leaving an indelible mark of kindness on all those who have had the privilege of knowing her,” the proclamation reads.
Family and friends said she is a firecracker who loves to dance to her favorite song, “She’s a Bad Mama Jama” by Carl Carlton.
Rountree continued her activism well into her 90s, using her knowledge and reputation to raise awareness of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. She will be the keynote speaker during Catholic Charities’ celebration of African American history at the end of February.
Civil rights photographer and artist Gordon Parks’ legacy continues to expand today, even as the 20th anniversary of his death arrives on March 7. However, the Gordon Parks Foundation, which celebrates the same milestone this year, is finding it harder to fund its work inspired by the director of “The Learning Tree” and “Shaft.”
Though Gordon Parks Foundation Executive Director Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., told The Associated Press that federal funding cuts to diversity, equity and inclusion programs have only had a limited direct impact on the foundation’s work due to a “strong base of supporters,” it isn’t immune to the changing, more competitive funding landscape that many arts-focused nonprofits now face.
“We’re definitely sensitive to the fact the world has drastically changed and the arts and DEI and culture have definitely taken a hit,” said Kunhardt.
That puts extra emphasis on fundraising events like the foundation’s gala — its largest annual fundraising event – especially in a major anniversary year.
The foundation said Tuesday it will honor EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winner John Legend, Grammy winner Chance the Rapper, Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander, and artist Henry Taylor at its gala on May 19 in Manhattan. Advocate and philanthropist Lonnie Ali will also be honored at the event, accepting the award for her late husband Muhammad Ali, who was a longtime friend of Parks, and their entire family.
“We need to preserve the past to inspire the future by honoring these individuals,” Kunhardt said. “The particular people on this list for 20 years are very important because they represent many different disciplines that Gordon Parks focused in on and who have championed the arts and social justice.”
Parks was best known for his work at Life magazine, documenting race relations and American life for decades as the magazine’s first Black staff photographer. He famously bought his first camera at a pawnshop and taught himself to use it at a mix of jobs in Minnesota.
That work led to him receiving the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in 1942, which provided a one-year apprenticeship under Roy Stryker at the Farm Security Administration, alongside acclaimed photographers including Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. Parks wanted to provide similar support for young artists and the Gordon Parks Foundation now awards numerous fellowships in art, music and writing. Last year, the foundation launched a Legacy Acquisition Fund, which purchases the work of older artists in order to support them and their connection to Parks.
Those programs, along with the star-studded 2021 HBO documentary “A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks,” have fueled a resurgence of interest in Parks and his work.
“People who have had such an extraordinarily long life and so much output of such a high caliber like Parks are bound to become players who become even more important,” said Casey Riley, chair of the Department of Global Contemporary Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. “If you’re paying attention to what he was doing, it will be relevant to the moment.”
Riley — who curated the museum’s “American Gothic: Gordon Parks and Ella Watson” exhibit, which focused on the creation of one of the 20th century’s most influential photographs — said that Parks is a “touchstone” for many artists of color, especially Black American artists. However, the Kansas-born Parks has a special bond with artists from Minneapolis and St. Paul, where he spent his formative years as a photographer.
“He came of age here and really began to realize what his dream for his life would be,” Riley said. “It’s a powerful and resonant story for people here. They take a lot of pride in him, but they also see him as one of their own.”
Last month, Minnesota state lawmakers announced plans to honor Parks with a statue in downtown St. Paul.
“He’s a beacon,” Riley said. “He is someone who was thinking about social justice and matters of equity for the entirety of his career and powerfully saw the camera as an essential and critical force in helping us to connect with one another and understand the urgencies of our time.”
That continues today, as tensions run high in Minneapolis-St. Paul following the deaths of ICU nurse Alex Pretti and Minneapolis mother Renee Good at the hands of federal immigration officers. “It’s not an accident that we have so many talented photojournalists here working in the Twin Cities,” Riley said in an interview before Pretti’s death on Saturday. “They very much understand who he was. And the results of their work resounding around the globe right now as we speak is proof of that.”
Further proof comes from the wide range of A-list supporters for Parks and his work. The co-chairs of the annual gala range from musicians Alicia Keys and her husband Swizz Beatz, whose real name is Kasseem Dean, to CNN journalist Anderson Cooper and Brooklyn Nets co-owner Clara Wu Tsai. Super Bowl quarterback and political activist Colin Kaepernick and former Ford Foundation President Darren Walker are among those who will induct this year’s honorees.
“What we’re doing has not really changed with the times,” Kunhardt said. “We’ve been one of the constants. We’ve done it when it wasn’t attractive to celebrate Black art and we’re still doing it. Our authenticity has been the same along the way.”
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
PARIS — French lawmakers approved a bill banning social media for children under 15, paving the way for the measure to enter into force at the start of the next school year in September, as the idea of setting a minimum age for use of the platforms gains momentum across Europe.
The bill, which also bans the use of mobile phones in high schools, was adopted by a 130-21 vote late Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron has requested that the legislation be fast-tracked and it will now be discussed by the Senate in the coming weeks.
“Banning social media for those under 15: this is what scientists recommend, and this is what the French people are overwhelmingly calling for,” Macron said after the vote. “Because our children’s brains are not for sale — neither to American platforms nor to Chinese networks. Because their dreams must not be dictated by algorithms.”
The issue is one of the very few in a divided National Assembly to attract such broad support, despite critics from the hard left denouncing provisions of the bill as infringement on civil liberties. Weakened domestically since his decision to dissolve parliament plunged France into a prolonged political crisis, Macron has strongly supported the ban, which could become one of the final major measures adopted under his leadership before he leaves office next year.
The vote in the assembly came just days after the British government said it will consider banning young teenagers from social media as it tightens laws designed to protect children from harmful content and excessive screen time.
The French bill has been devised to be compliant with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which imposes a set of strict requirements designed to keep internet users safe online. In November, European lawmakers called for action at EU level to protect minors online, including a bloc-wide minimum age of 16 and bans on the most harmful practices.
According to France’s health watchdog, one in two teenagers spends between two and five hours a day on a smartphone. In a report published in December, it said that some 90% of children aged between 12 and 17 use smartphones daily to access the internet, with 58% of them using their devices for social networks.
The report highlighted a range of harmful effects stemming from the use of social networks, including reduced self-esteem and increased exposure to content associated with risky behaviors such as self-harm, drug use and suicide. Several families in France have sued TikTok over teen suicides they say are linked to harmful content.
The French ban won’t cover online encyclopedias, educational or scientific directories, or platforms for the development and sharing of open-source software.
In Australia, social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children since the country banned use of the platforms by those under 16, officials said. The law provoked fraught debates in Australia about technology use, privacy, child safety and mental health and has prompted other countries to consider similar measures.
PARIS (AP) — French lawmakers approved a bill banning social media for children under 15, paving the way for the measure to enter into force at the start of the next school year in September, as the idea of setting a minimum age for use of the platforms gains momentum across Europe.
The bill, which also bans the use of mobile phones in high schools, was adopted by a 130-21 vote late Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron has requested that the legislation be fast-tracked and it will now be discussed by the Senate in the coming weeks.
“Banning social media for those under 15: this is what scientists recommend, and this is what the French people are overwhelmingly calling for,” Macron said after the vote. “Because our children’s brains are not for sale — neither to American platforms nor to Chinese networks. Because their dreams must not be dictated by algorithms.”
The issue is one of the very few in a divided National Assembly to attract such broad support, despite critics from the hard left denouncing provisions of the bill as infringement on civil liberties. Weakened domestically since his decision to dissolve parliament plunged France into a prolonged political crisis, Macron has strongly supported the ban, which could become one of the final major measures adopted under his leadership before he leaves office next year.
The vote in the assembly came just days after the British government said it will consider banning young teenagers from social media as it tightens laws designed to protect children from harmful content and excessive screen time.
The French bill has been devised to be compliant with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which imposes a set of strict requirements designed to keep internet users safe online. In November, European lawmakers called for action at EU level to protect minors online, including a bloc-wide minimum age of 16 and bans on the most harmful practices.
According to France’s health watchdog, one in two teenagers spends between two and five hours a day on a smartphone. In a report published in December, it said that some 90% of children aged between 12 and 17 use smartphones daily to access the internet, with 58% of them using their devices for social networks.
The report highlighted a range of harmful effects stemming from the use of social networks, including reduced self-esteem and increased exposure to content associated with risky behaviors such as self-harm, drug use and suicide. Several families in France have sued TikTok over teen suicides they say are linked to harmful content.
The French ban won’t cover online encyclopedias, educational or scientific directories, or platforms for the development and sharing of open-source software.
In Australia, social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children since the country banned use of the platforms by those under 16, officials said. The law provoked fraught debates in Australia about technology use, privacy, child safety and mental health and has prompted other countries to consider similar measures.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fatal shooting over the weekend of a Minneapolis man has prompted calls for a thorough independent investigation into the second death at the hands of federal immigration officers since the Trump administration began its large-scale operation in the city late last year.
But many of the investigation’s details, including the identities of the officers involved and precisely what evidence is being examined, remain unclear even as tensions soar in Minneapolis over the death of Alex Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse.
Any investigation into the details of the shooting will likely be highly scrutinized. The Trump administration has been quick to cast Pretti as an armed instigator, although videos emerging from the scene and local officials contradict that claim.
Here’s a look at what’s known about the investigation into the shooting and what’s not:
The White House says three federal investigations into the shooting are underway.
During a briefing Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were investigating the shooting and U.S. Customs and Border Protection was “conducting their own internal review.”
“As President (Donald) Trump said yesterday, the administration is reviewing everything with respect to the shooting, and we will let that investigation play out,” Leavitt added, without providing additional details on the probes.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which normally plays a key role in any case in which a federal law enforcement officer kills a civilian, is instead only lending support in processing physical evidence from the scene, such as Pretti’s gun.
Historically, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department investigates shootings of civilians by law enforcement officers for potential criminal violations, but there’s no indication that they intend to do so in Pretti’s case. In the case of Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement earlier this month that “there is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation.”
Gil Kerlikowske, who headed Customs and Border Protection during the Obama administration, said that when he was at the agency, if a Border Patrol agent used deadly force on the job, it would be “routine” for the FBI to conduct a criminal civil rights investigation, even in cases where the force may have been justified and even if the probe wouldn’t necessarily lead to prosecution.
Kerlikowske also questioned why Homeland Security Investigations, an arm within DHS that traditionally probes cross-border issues like drug smuggling and human trafficking, would take a lead role in this investigation.
“This isn’t something that HSI has real expertise or does at all,” said Kerlikowske. “Shooting and use of force and potential criminal liability is not something that would be in their portfolio.”
Videos, firearms and questions about Pretti’s phone
FBI Director Kash Patel said Sunday on Fox News that the agency will be assisting HSI by “processing physical evidence.”
Patel said they’re in possession of “the firearm, which is going to go to our laboratory,” in reference to Pretti’s gun.
But Patel made no reference to whether the bureau had gathered the firearms of the officers or agents who were on the scene or what other evidence the FBI was processing.
DHS officials did not respond to questions Monday about whether they are in possession of Pretti’s phone or whether they have recovered the video he was recording when he was killed.
Pretti’s family told The Associated Press they don’t have the phone and don’t know where it is. Pretti’s father, Michael Pretti, said Monday the family had still not been contacted by or provided any information by federal law enforcement.
Investigators also have an extensive array of videos to sift through, including multiple videos shot by activists and protesters at the scene.
Use-of-force experts have said that bystander video undermined federal authorities’ claim that Pretti “approached” a group of lawmen with a firearm and that a Border Patrol officer opened fire “defensively.” There has been no evidence made public, they said, that supports a claim by Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino that Pretti, who had a permit to carry a concealed handgun, intended to “massacre law enforcement.”
Investigators have video from at least four Border Patrol agents on the scene who were wearing body cameras, said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. Those videos have not been made public.
Neither have the identities of the Border Patrol agents involved. The officer who shot the man is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials said Saturday.
State officials say they are being shut out
The incident has shined a light on the increasing mistrust between officials in the state and the Trump administration over who should take the lead in investigating.
Drew Evans, superintendent of Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which investigates police shootings, told reporters Saturday that federal officers had blocked his agency from the scene of the shooting even after it obtained a signed judicial warrant.
“We will continue to investigate this case and others that we have recently been involved with. But I would be remiss if I didn’t state that it would be difficult to obtain all of the evidence and information obtained without cooperation,” Evans said Saturday.
A federal judge has already issued an order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting after state and county officials sued.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the lawsuit filed Saturday is meant to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect.
McLaughlin dismissed the lawsuit, saying claims that the federal government would destroy evidence are “a ridiculous attempt to divide the American people and distract from the fact that our law enforcement officers were attacked — and their lives were threatened.”
Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said he called for an impartial investigation in a phone call with Trump Monday.
Trump, in an earlier social media post, said after their call he and Walz “seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” although he did not mention the investigations. Later, Leavitt said Trump supports the probes that are underway.
Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker and Eric Tucker contributed.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
BOHEMIA, N.Y. — A New York school district is “erasing its Native American heritage” and violating civil rights law by changing its team name from the “Thunderbirds” to the “T-Birds,” federal education officials say.
The U.S. Department of Education said Thursday that the Connetquot Central School District can voluntarily resolve the federal law violation by restoring the “rightful” Thunderbirds’ name.
The Long Island district, like others in the state, changed its team name in order to comply with state regulations banning Native American sports names and mascots.
But federal education officials argue the state mandate violates civil rights law because it allows schools to continue using names derived from other racial or ethnic groups, such as the “Dutchmen” and “Huguenots.”
“We will not allow ideologues to decide that some mascots based on national origin are acceptable while others are banned,” said Kimberly Richey, who heads the Education Department’s civil rights office. “The Trump Administration will not relent in ensuring that every community is treated equally under the law.”
The school district said it is reviewing the federal finding, but state education officials excoriated it, saying the conclusion “makes a mockery” of the nation’s civil rights laws.
“USDOE has offered no explanation as to whose civil rights were violated by changing a team name from Thunderbirds to T-birds,” JP O’Hare, spokesperson for the agency, said in a statement Friday. “NYSED remains committed to ending the use of harmful, outdated, and offensive depictions of Indigenous people.”
The state education department and the school district reached an agreement last year in which Connetquot would be allowed to use the “T-Birds” name and related imagery such as an eagle, thunderbolt or lightning bolt, in exchange for dropping its legal challenge to the state’s Native American mascot ban.
Native American advocates say the “Thunderbird” is a mythical creature often depicted as a powerful spirit and benevolent protector in many indigenous traditions.
ATLANTA (AP) — Against a backdrop of political division and upheaval, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter said the holiday honoring her father’s legacy comes as “somewhat of a saving grace” this year.
“I say that because it inserts a sense of sanity and morality into our very troubling climate right now,” the Rev. Bernice King said in an interview with The Associated Press. “With everything going on, the one thing that I think Dr. King reminds people of is hope and the ability to challenge injustice and inhumanity.”
The holiday comes as President Donald Trump is about to mark the first anniversary of his second term in office on Tuesday. The “three evils” — poverty, racism and militarism — that the civil rights leader identified in a 1967 speech as threats to a democratic society “are very present and manifesting through a lot of what’s happening” under Trump’s leadership, Bernice King said.
King, CEO of the King Center in Atlanta, cited efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; directives to scrub key parts of history from government websites and remove “improper ideology” from Smithsonian museums; and immigration enforcement operations in multiple cities that have turned violent and resulted in the separation of families.
“Everything President Trump does is in the best interest of the American people,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in an email. “That includes rolling back harmful DEI agendas, deporting dangerous criminal illegal aliens from American communities, or ensuring we are being honest about our country’s great history.”
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, one of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights coalitions, said King’s words “ring more true today.”
“We’re at a period in our history where we literally have a regime actively working to erase the Civil Rights movement,” she said. “This has been an administration dismantling intentionally and with ideological fervor every advancement we have made since the Civil War.”
Wiley also recalled that King warned that “the prospect of war abroad was undermining to the beloved community globally and it was taking away from the ability for us to take care of all our people.” Trump’s administration has engaged in military strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats and captured Venezuela’s president in a surprise raid earlier this month.
Bernice King said she’s not sure what her father would make of the United States today, nearly six decades after his assassination.
“He’s not here. It’s a different world,” she said. “But what I can say is his teachings transcend time and he taught us, I think, the way to address injustice through his nonviolent philosophy and methodology.”
Nonviolence should be embraced not just by those who are protesting and fighting against what they believe are injustices, but should also be adopted by immigration agents and other law enforcement officers, she said. To that end, she added, the King Center previously developed a curriculum that it now plans to redevelop to help officers see that they can carry out their duties while also respecting people’s humanity.
Even amid the “troubling climate” in the country right now, Bernice King said there is no question that “we have made so much progress as a nation.” The civil rights movement that her parents helped lead brought more people into mainstream politics who have sensitivity and compassion, she said. Despite efforts to scrap DEI initiatives and the deportation of people from around the world, “the inevitability is we’re so far into our diversity you can’t put that back in a box,” she said.
To honor her father’s legacy this year, she urged people to look inward.
“I think we spend a lot of time looking at everybody else and what everybody else is not doing or doing, and we’re looking out the window at all the problems of the world and talking about how bad they are and we don’t spend a lot of time on ourselves personally,” she said.
King endorsed participation in service projects to observe the holiday because they foster connection, sensitize people to the struggles of others and help us to understand each other better. But she said people should also look at what they can do in the year to come to further her father’s teachings.
“I think we have the opportunity to use this as a measuring point from year to year in terms of what we’re doing to move our society in a more just, humane, equitable and peaceful way,” she said.
Associated Press writer Matt Brown in Washington contributed.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The American Civil Liberties Union is filing a new class action lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of three Minnesotans – two Somali men and one Latino man – “whose constitutional rights were violated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and other federal agents,” the ACLU of Minnesota announced Thursday morning.
The announcement comes just hours after President Trump threatened to use the Insurrection Act to send U.S. troops into Minnesota to “put an end” to protests. There are currently 3,000 federal agents in Minnesota amid Operation Metro Surge, in which officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security say has so far yielded 2,500 arrests since it began last month.
Federal government officials tell CBS News the migrant and two others allegedly attacked the officer with a snow shovel and a broom handle as the officer tried to make an arrest.
Within an hour before the shooting, Gov. Tim Walz gave a rare primetime address to Minnesotans where he urged Mr. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “end this occupation.” He also called on Minnesotans to protest peacefully and record ICE activity to aid in future prosecutions.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department does not believe there is any basis to open a criminal civil rights investigation of the killing of a woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, a top department official said Tuesday.
The decision to keep the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division out of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good marks a sharp departure from past administrations, which have moved quickly to probe shootings of civilians by law enforcement officials for potential civil rights offenses.
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By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER – Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, has died. She was 86.
Her death was announced Tuesday by the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation. Ashley D. Roseboro of the organization confirmed she died of natural causes in Texas.
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