ReportWire

Tag: Social affairs

  • Grand jury indicts deputies in shooting death of young man

    Grand jury indicts deputies in shooting death of young man

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    DENVER — A grand jury has indicted two Colorado sheriff’s deputies in the death of a 22-year-old man who was shot after calling 911 for roadside assistance while experiencing what his mother described as a mental health crisis, according to online court records.

    The indictments of former Clear Creek County Sheriff’s deputies Andrew Buen and Kyle Gould were returned Wednesday, five months after Christian Glass was killed by law enforcement. The case has become a flashpoint amid a national outcry for police reforms focused on crisis intervention and de-escalation.

    Charges against the two deputies include second-degree murder, official misconduct, and criminally negligent homicide, according to the court records, which did not provide further details.

    The records did not list a lawyer for either deputy. A telephone message left at a number believed to be Buen’s was not immediately returned. No telephone listing could be found for Gould.

    A federal judge issued warrants for both Buen and Gould, who face bonds of $50,000 and $2,500 respectively, according a press release from Fifth Judicial District Attorney Heidi McCollum, who empaneled the grand jury.

    Nichole Lentz, spokesperson for the Clear Creek County Sheriff, said in a statement that both officers have been terminated following the indictments.

    The sheriff office’s ongoing internal investigation found “policy and procedural failures,” Lentz said, adding that the office’s initial news release following the shooting “does not reflect the entirety of what happened on that terrible night.”

    Late on June 10, Glass called the police because his car had become stuck on an embankment. Body camera videos show Glass refusing to get out of his car while telling police he is “terrified” and making heart shapes with his hands to officers.

    Officers talked to him to try to persuade him to leave the car. After more than an hour of negotiations, police said Glass was being uncooperative and they broke the passenger window and removed a knife from the vehicle.

    Glass offered to throw two knives out of the window but the video shows officers telling him not to.

    Once the window was shattered, Glass seemed to panic and grabbed a second knife. Police then shot Glass with bean bag rounds and shocked him with a stun gun. The footage shows Glass twisting in his seat and thrusting a knife toward an officer who approaches the rear driver window. Then another officer fired his gun, hitting Glass six times, according to the autopsy report.

    During a September news conference, Glass’s mother, Sally Glass, said her son suffered from depression, had recently been diagnosed with ADHD and was “having a mental health episode” and was “petrified” the night he was killed.

    ———

    Jesse Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Lawsuit looms over tiny rare fish in drought-stricken West

    Lawsuit looms over tiny rare fish in drought-stricken West

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    RENO, Nev. — Conservationists have notified U.S. wildlife officials that they will sue over delinquent decisions related to protections for two rare fish species that are threatened by groundwater pumping in the drought-stricken West.

    The Center for Biological Diversity sent a formal notice of intent to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service last week over the Fish Lake Valley tui chub near the California-Nevada line and the least chub in southwest Utah.

    Utah and Nevada are the driest states in the country, and the planned lawsuits are among the many fronts on which conservationists are battling water districts and the users they cater to over plans to siphon water to either maintain or expand consumption.

    The outcome of the court fights will likely have major implications for states’ parched valleys and the people and species that inhabit them.

    The group seeking federal listings under the Endangered Species Act says the high-desert springs where the minnows live are threatened by water allocations for traditional agricultural use as well as urban development plans.

    The Fish and Wildlife Service belatedly concluded in August there was enough evidence the tui chub in Nevada was at risk of extinction — primarily due to over-pumping of water for farms and ranches — to warrant a yearlong review to determine if it should be listed.

    The so-called 90-day finding had been due in June 2021, three months after the center petitioned for the listing. The center also noted in its Nov. 15 letter to the agency that the yearlong review should have been done in March.

    “The Fish Lake Valley tui chub is staring extinction in the face because of the catastrophic overuse of groundwater in its native range,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

    Service spokesperson Laury Marshall said in an email Wednesday to The Associated Press that the agency doesn’t comment on litigation. Agency officials referred AP to the August finding that concluded the initial listing petition “presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing the Fish Lake Valley tui chub as an endangered or threatened species may be warranted.”

    The only place in the world that the 5-inch-long, olive-colored tui chub still exists is in a basin in Esmeralda County between Reno and Las Vegas.

    Lake Valley’s groundwater levels have declined as much as 2.5 feet (76 centimeters) per year over the past half-century, causing a cumulative drawdown of more than 75 feet (23 meters) since 1973, the listing petition said.

    Donnelly said active geothermal leases and lithium claims nearby, if developed, also could put the springs at risk.

    In Utah, more than half the remaining wild populations of the least chub are jeopardized by proposed groundwater pumping to support growth in Cedar City, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas.

    The group petitioned to list that 2-inch-long, gold-colored minnow in September 2021, citing threats posed by the Pine Valley Water Supply Project. An initial finding and 12-month review for that species also are past due, the group said.

    Once widely distributed in Utah’s Bonneville Basin, the least chub has only seven remaining wild populations and about a dozen refuge populations where it’s been reintroduced.

    “Significant habitat loss and alteration, as well as competition and predation from non-native species, have driven this species close to extinction,” the center wrote.

    Officials from Utah’s Central Iron County Water Conservancy District want to spend roughly $260 million to lay about 70 miles (110 kilometers) of buried pipes to transport water from an aquifer below the Pine Valley, an undeveloped, rural swath north of the district’s population center in Cedar City. They say limits on their local groundwater supply and an influx of new residents require they diversify their water supply to prepare for the future.

    District General Manager Paul Monroe said a review of groundwater assessments found any impacts on the springs would be “less than significant.”

    The project has been opposed for decades by neighboring Beaver County, Native American tribes, some ranchers and Nevada counties worried that siphoning water from Pine Valley will affect nearby aquifers.

    “Endangered Species Act protection would ensure the Pine Valley water grab doesn’t jeopardize the survival of this tiny native Utah fish,” said Krista Kemppinen, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

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  • Correction: Colorado Springs Shooting-Heroes story

    Correction: Colorado Springs Shooting-Heroes story

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    In a story published Nov. 22, 2022, about a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, The Associated Press erroneously reported the rank of U.S. Navy Information Systems Technician Thomas James

    COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In a story published Nov. 22, 2022, about a shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, The Associated Press erroneously reported the rank of U.S. Navy Information Systems Technician Thomas James. He is a Petty Officer, Second Class, not an officer.

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  • Buffett donates over $750 million to his family charities

    Buffett donates over $750 million to his family charities

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    OMAHA, Neb. — Billionaire investor Warren Buffett donated more than $750 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the four foundations run by his family Wednesday, but unlike his annual gifts to charity each summer, the recipients didn’t include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    Buffett has been making annual donations to the same five charities every year since 2006 when he unveiled a plan to give away his fortune over time, with the Gates Foundation receiving the biggest donations. Wednesday’s donations mark the first time the 92-year-old has made a second major gift within the same year.

    A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed Buffett gave 1.5 million Class B shares in the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate he leads to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his first wife. He also gave 300,000 Class B shares apiece to the three foundations run by his children: the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation.

    In June, he gave 11 million Class B shares to the Gates Foundation, 1.1 million B shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 770,218 shares apiece to his children’s three foundations.

    It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the new donations this week, and Buffett didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to questions about them. The Gates Foundation and the Buffett family foundations that received the gifts also didn’t immediately respond to questions.

    The only other major change Buffett has made to his giving plans over the years came a decade ago when he significantly increased the amount pledged to the foundations his children run because he was pleased with what they had done with his money.

    The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation keeps a low profile, but over the years it has been a major supporter of abortion rights, making large gifts to Planned Parenthood and other groups. Buffett hasn’t announced any changes in his giving plans since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year.

    Susie Buffett, 69, uses her Sherwood Foundation to strengthen early childhood education and support a number of projects around Buffett’s hometown of Omaha where she also lives. Howard Buffett, 67, is helping farmers in impoverished nations produce more and working to end world hunger with his namesake foundation. Peter Buffett, 64, has dedicated his NoVo Foundation to empowering women and girls worldwide through education, collaboration and economic development to end violence against women.

    Even after these latest gifts, Buffett still controls more than 31% of Berkshire’s voting power.

    Berkshire Hathaway is an eclectic conglomerate that owns more than 90 companies including BNSF railroad, Geico insurance, several major utilities and an assortment of manufacturing and retail firms including Precision Castparts, Dairy Queen and Helzberg Diamonds. In addition to the companies it owns outright, Berkshire owns major investments in Apple, Bank of America, Coca-Cola and other companies.

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  • 10 days in, no suspect, no weapon in Idaho student slayings

    10 days in, no suspect, no weapon in Idaho student slayings

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    Ten days after four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their rooms, police said Wednesday they still have not identified a suspect or found a murder weapon, and they continued asking for tips and surveillance video

    MOSCOW, Idaho — Ten days after four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their rooms, police said Wednesday they still have not identified a suspect or found a murder weapon, and they continued asking for tips and surveillance video.

    Moscow Police Capt. Roger Lanier told a news conference his department is putting all of its resources into solving the case and that investigators are prepared to work through the Thanksgiving holiday.

    Authorities gave no indication that they’re any closer to making an arrest, but they did stress that they continue processing forensic evidence gathered from the home where the students were killed.

    “We continue moving forward to understand why this occurred in our community,” said Police Chief James Fry.

    The killings stunned bucolic Moscow, a college town and agricultural center that got its first Target store last year. The city, population of 26,000, is surrounded by rolling wheat and bean fields and had not seen a homicide since 2015.

    The victims were housemates Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington.

    Police said Tuesday they had pursued tips that Goncalves had a stalker, but they hadn’t been able to identify one. They also have knocked down rumors about other incidents — including a car break-in and a dog’s slaying — being potentially related to the case.

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  • Armed guards a fixture outside pot farm before 4 were slain

    Armed guards a fixture outside pot farm before 4 were slain

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    Armed guards were a fixture outside the marijuana growing operation in rural Oklahoma where four people were slain execution-style.

    The mail carrier “was met with guns pretty much all the time,” Jack Quirk, the owner of the local paper, All About Hennessey, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Why are there guards anyway? You know, if it’s a legit farm, what’s the deal?”

    The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday that the suspect in the weekend killings, Wu Chen, was taken into custody by Miami Beach police and brought to the Miami-Dade County Detention Center.

    He was arrested “after a car tag reader flagged (the) vehicle he was driving,” the bureau said. The suspect will be charged with murder and shooting with intent to kill and faces extradition to Oklahoma. No attorney has been assigned to him yet.

    Authorities said the victims — three men and one woman, all Chinese citizens — were shot dead, “executed” on the 10-acre (4-hectare) property west of Hennessey, a town about 55 miles (90 kilometers) northwest of Oklahoma City. A fifth victim who is also a Chinese citizen was wounded and taken to an Oklahoma City hospital.

    The survivor had been shot twice, said Quirk, who showed up when crews were setting up a landing zone for a medical helicopter and watched them load up the man.

    The victims had not yet been identified publicly, and officials were still working to notify next of kin, police said.

    “The suspect was inside that building for a significant amount of time before the executions began,” OSBI said in a news release earlier Tuesday. “Based on the investigation thus far, this does not appear to be a random incident.”

    Oklahoma voters legalized medical marijuana in 2018, and the industry quickly boomed thanks to an open-ended law that put in place fewer restrictions than in other states.

    In March, voters will decide whether to legalize recreational use of the drug.

    Maryland and Missouri approved recreational marijuana in this month’s midterm elections, bringing the total number states that allow recreational use to 21. Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota voters rejected legalization proposals in the midterms.

    Quirk said he’s heard from residents who think the marijuana farms in Oklahoma are poorly regulated.

    “They weren’t prepared for what comes along with this stuff,” he said. “This particular facility is a great example of that … they were doing questionable things that the neighbors feel weren’t checked on.”

    He said the majority of the workers spoke no English and he never saw them off of the property. That has led locals to raise concerns about the working conditions, Quirk said.

    Porsha Riley, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, said there is an active license for a medical marijuana grow business at the location.

    The operation was put up for sale earlier this year for just under $1 million. The listing described it as having several thousand square feet of indoor grow space, as well as two separate living quarters.

    Tami Amsler-ZumMallen, the listing agent for the property, said the listing had expired. She said the brokers had told her not to comment.

    The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control has targeted criminal growing and trafficking of marijuana for the black market in recent years. But agency spokesman Mark Woodward said Tuesday it was too soon to say that was a focus of this investigation.

    None of the 14 marijuana growing operations in the Hennessey area responded to email inquiries from The Associated Press, and officials would not identify which one operated at the site of the shootings.

    The deaths at the marijuana farm were the third mass killing in Oklahoma in a little over a month. On Oct. 27, six children were killed in a suspected murder-suicide in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow, and on Oct. 14, the bodies of four men who’d gone missing were found dismembered in an Oklahoma river.

    According to a database run by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University, the United States has now had 40 mass killings so far this year. In just the past week, six were killed in the break room of a Walmart store in Virginia and five were slain at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub. The database defines a mass killing as at least four people killed, not including the killer.

    ———

    Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press writers Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, Adam Kealoha Causey in Dallas and Peter Orsi in Denver contributed.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of marijuana: https://apnews.com/hub/marijuana

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  • Dominican Republic expels 1,800 children to Haiti: UNICEF

    Dominican Republic expels 1,800 children to Haiti: UNICEF

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    HAVANA — Dominican authorities have expelled at least 1,800 unaccompanied Haitian migrant children this year, sending them back to their crisis-stricken country, UNICEF said.

    The Dominican Republic denied the claim, which came Tuesday amid the government’s intensifying crackdown on migration in response to a cholera outbreak and ongoing gang violence in Haiti. The two countries share a 240-mile (390-kilometer) border on the island of Hispaniola.

    The crackdown has provoked harsh criticism by international observers, including the United States, which have accused the country of mass deportations, racist treatment of migrants and detentions of Haitians in facilities with poor conditions.

    Among those fleeing to the Dominican Republic are girls and boys, many of whom are sent back to Haiti through different border points, where they have been received by UNICEF partners at the border, according to the organization.

    The information was first reported by CNN, and confirmed by UNICEF, which declined to comment further. It is still unclear if the children were expelled without their parents, got separated during the journey or fled Haiti alone.

    Venancio Alcántara, director of the Dominican Republic’s migration authority, denied the claims, saying the agency follows specific procedures with child migrants and that “minors are with their parents at all times.”

    “All deportations are carried out with complete and absolute respect for human dignity and human rights,” Alcántara wrote in a statement Tuesday.

    Tensions fueled by migration have simmered for years between the two countries, but they have only deepened since the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, which thrust an already crisis-stricken Haiti into chaos.

    Dominican authorities say heightened border enforcement and deportations are crucial to national security amid intensifying turmoil in the neighboring country. An unidentified number of protesters last week attempted to burn down the Dominican consulate in Cap-Haïtien, a municipality in the north of the country, Haitian authorities said Wednesday.

    Haiti last week accused its neighbor of subjecting fleeing Haitians to “inhumane, cruel and degrading conditions,” while the United States Embassy in the country’s capital, Santo Domingo, warned that darker-skinned Americans could be targeted by authorities in the country.

    “There are reports that detainees are held in overcrowded detention centers, without the ability to challenge their detention and without access to food or toilets, sometimes for days, before being released or deported to Haiti,” the U.S. notice added.

    The Dominican Republic said it “profusely rejects” the allegations, which they say are not backed up by evidence, and said they will only increase deportations.

    Authorities say they deported 43,900 migrants, mostly Haitians, between July and October, according to figures from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In September and October alone, deportation figures shot up by about 50%.

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  • Official says 4 Philly high school students shot near school

    Official says 4 Philly high school students shot near school

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    PHILADELPHIA — Four students were injured in an apparent drive-by shooting shortly after their Philadelphia high school let out early for the day on Wednesday, a city schools spokesperson said.

    “One was shot in the shoulder, one was shot in the knee and the two others have graze wounds,” the district’s deputy chief of communications, Monique Braxton, said in a phone interview.

    The shooting took place about a block from Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia, where school let out early because of parent-teacher conferences, Braxton said.

    Braxton said the district’s Office of School Safety told her the students were at a corner store when the shooting occurred.

    “We don’t know who was targeted, if any of the four of them were targeted,” Braxton said. All four victims were taken for hospital treatment and parents were being notified early Wednesday afternoon.

    “This is outrageous, that young people would be shot shortly after being dismissed from their high school,” Braxton said.

    Officer Miguel Torres, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, said that the shooting occurred around 11:30 a.m. He said victims were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and Lankenau Medical Center and all were in stable condition.

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  • Workers protest, beaten at virus-hit Chinese iPhone factory

    Workers protest, beaten at virus-hit Chinese iPhone factory

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    BEIJING — Employees at the world’s biggest Apple iPhone factory were beaten and detained in protests over contract disputes amid anti-virus controls, according to witnesses and videos on social media Wednesday, as tensions mount over Beijing’s severe coronavirus strategy.

    Videos that said they were filmed at the factory in the central city of Zhengzhou showed thousands of people in masks facing rows of police in white protective suits with plastic riot shields. Police kicked and hit a protester with clubs after he grabbed a metal pole that had been used to strike him.

    Frustration with restrictions in areas throughout China that have closed shops and offices and confined millions of people to their homes for weeks at a time with little warning have boiled over into protests in some areas. Videos on social media show residents in some areas tearing down barricades set up to enforce neighborhood closures.

    Last month, thousands of employees walked out of the iPhone factory operated by Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group over complaints about unsafe working conditions following virus cases in the facility.

    A protest erupted Tuesday over complaints Foxconn changed conditions for new workers who were attracted by offers of higher pay, according to Li Sanshan, an employee.

    Li said he quit a catering job in response to advertising that promised 25,000 yuan ($3,500) for two months of work. Li, 28, said workers were angry after being told they had to work two additional months at lower pay to receive the 25,000 yuan.

    “Foxconn released very tempting recruiting offers, and workers from all parts of the country came, only to find they were being made fools of,” Li said.

    The ruling Communist Party promised this month to try to reduce disruption by shortening required quarantines and making other changes. But the party says it will stick to its “zero-COVID” strategy that aims to isolate every case at a time when other governments are relaxing travel and other restrictions and trying to live with the virus.

    Protests have flared as the number and severity of outbreaks has risen across China, including in Beijing. This week, authorities reported the country’s first COVID-19 deaths in six months.

    More than 253,000 cases have been found in the past three weeks and the daily average is increasing, the government reported Tuesday. Local leaders have responded by closing neighborhoods and imposing other restrictions that residents complain go beyond what the national government allows.

    On Wednesday, the government reported 28,883 cases found over the past 24 hours, including 26,242 with no symptoms. Henan province, where Zhengzhou is the capital, reported 851 in total.

    The government will enforce its anti-COVID policy while “resolutely overcoming the mindset of paralysis and laxity,” said a spokesman for the National Health Commission, Mi Feng.

    The capital, Beijing, has closed shops, restaurants, office buildings and some apartment compounds.

    Shanghai and the southern city of Nanchang banned people from outside the city from visiting public venues for five days after arrival.

    Foxconn said earlier the Zhengzhou factory uses “closed-loop management,” which means employees live at their workplace with no outside contact.

    The protest lasted through Wednesday morning as thousands of workers gathered outside dormitories and confronted factory security workers, according to Li.

    Other videos showed protesters spraying fire extinguishers toward police.

    A man who identified himself as the Communist Party secretary in charge of community services was shown in a video posted on the Sina Weibo social media platform urging protesters to withdraw. He assured them their demands would be met.

    Apple Inc. has warned deliveries of its new iPhone 14 model would be delayed due to anti-disease controls on the factory. The city government suspended access to an industrial zone that surrounds the factory, which Foxconn has said employs 200,000 people.

    Foxconn, headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, didn’t respond to requests for information about the situation.

    New reports earlier said the ruling party ordered “grassroots cadres” to fill in for Foxconn employees in Zhengzhou who left. The company didn’t respond to requests for confirmation and details about that arrangement.

    ———

    Zen Soo reported from Hong Kong. AP news assistant Caroline Chen contributed.

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  • Prayers go on, sometimes out of sight, in prep football

    Prayers go on, sometimes out of sight, in prep football

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    WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Surrounded by a slew of players with their arms draped over shoulders, West Bloomfield High School assistant coach Justin Ibe bowed his head and led a Christian prayer before a recent Friday night game.

    Forty yards down the sideline, three Muslim young men were having a quiet moment of their own.

    “Ameen,” the players quietly said, using the Arabic word for amen.

    Across America, most high school football seasons are winding down. Thousands of games, the first since the Supreme Court in June ruled it was OK for a public school coach near Seattle to pray on the field. The decision prompted speculation that prayer would become an even bigger part of the game-day fabric, though that hasn’t seemed to be the case.

    Fouad Zaban, the head coach at Fordson High in Dearborn, calls the area just outside Detroit the “Middle East of America” and it is indeed home to thousands of people of Arab descent. After the court ruling, Zaban said, he was flooded with requests to use his platform and constitutional right to pray publicly. After thinking about it, he chose to keep his team’s prayers behind closed doors to avoid potential anti-Islamic jeers from fans in other communities.

    “That was a concern that they were going to get backlash,” Zaban said.

    With the nation’s culture wars spilling into education, it is challenging to have teachable moments about big news — like a precedent-setting court ruling — and coaches such as Zaban would rather punt than pray publicly.

    “It’s harder, whether you’re a coach, librarian, teacher or counselor,” said Lara Schwartz, an American University professor whose specialties include campus speech and constitutional law. “There are activist groups targeting books and ideas, saying you can lose your license if you have these conversations. That to me is a threat to people having good constructive dialogue in classrooms, or with coaches.”

    In Michigan, some teams with multiple religions represented on their rosters have found ways for everyone who wants to participate to do so if they wish.

    “We don’t force anybody to do that,” said Ibe, the defensive line coach in West Bloomfield. “We just take that moment to really just come together and give glory to God at that moment.”

    At Crestwood High School in Dearborn Heights, where most of the football team is Muslim, the entire team gathers before practices and games to pray on one knee. First, most of the players recite Al-Fatiha. Then, a player says a Christian prayer to the attentive group.

    “Between those two prayers, they’re pretty much all the same,” said Adam Berry, a senior and a team captain. “Asking God for protection, asking God for forgiveness, and asking God for any way to help us through our game.”

    According to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a majority of Americans think a coach leading a team in prayer (60%), a player leading a team in prayer (64%) and a coach praying on the field without asking the team to join in (71%) should all be allowed in public high school sports.

    Still, the team plays it safe at Fordson High, where coaches clear the locker room and leave players to pray if they wish.

    “No one can ever say that we were involved in it,” Zaban said, adding he just wants to coach instead of drawing attention.

    Hassan Shinawah, a senior and team captain at Fordson, said players supported keeping their prayers in the locker room and away from the public.

    “We don’t know if people are comfortable,” he said. “We don’t know what their opinions are about it. We just don’t want any conflict with anybody else.”

    In the South, at least three high schools, two in Alabama and another in North Carolina, received letters in recent months from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The nonprofit that advocates for atheists and agnostics said it fielded complaints about the promotion of religion surrounding football games. Jefferson County (Ala.) officials were asked to “ensure that its schools are no longer scheduling prayer at school-sponsored events, including football games.”

    The Associated Press left multiple messages for athletic directors and principals at the schools in both North Carolina and Alabama that were not returned.

    Outside Detroit, coaches gave time and space for their players to pray, showing the teenagers that accomdations can be made for different faiths as well as the right to decline.

    At West Bloomfield High, an assistant football coach once walked miles with a Jewish player — whose faith would not allow him to ride in a car one particular day — to make sure he got to his hotel after a road game. The unique nature of having Christians, Muslims and Jews playing on the same team was not lost on one of the players who participates in a pregame Islamic prayer.

    “Some other teams, they probably don’t have the same thing,” said Mohamed Menisy, a 16-year-old junior offensive tackle. “We’re one team, one family. We just respect each other.”

    ———

    Follow Larry Lage at https://twitter.com/larrylage

    ———

    Associated Press religion coverage 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.

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  • Cops investigating Idaho stabbings say stalker tips unproven

    Cops investigating Idaho stabbings say stalker tips unproven

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    MOSCOW, Idaho — Authorities investigating the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students as they slept said Tuesday that detectives have looked extensively into information that one of the victims had a stalker and have not been able to verify it.

    Investigators have pursued hundreds of pieces of information about Kaylee Goncalves having a stalker but haven’t been able to identify one, the Moscow Police Department said in a news release.

    Authorities have said they have no suspect or weapon more than a week after the Nov. 13 killings shook the Idaho Panhandle town of 25,000 residents.

    Anyone with information that could help detectives with the stalker tips are asked to contact Moscow police.

    Police also said Tuesday that there’s been much conversation about how to describe the weapon used and that the type used in the attacks is believed to be a fix-blade knife.

    Police said Monday they would hold a news conference to update the public on the investigation at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

    The victims were Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho. The women were roommates, and Chapin was dating Kernodle.

    Authorities have said they were each stabbed multiple times, and that some had defensive wounds.

    On Sunday, law enforcement officers investigating the deaths asked for patience after a week passed with no arrests.

    Police have said evidence leads them to believe the students were targeted, but have repeatedly declined to give details.

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  • Jury: NCAA not to blame in ex-USC football player’s death

    Jury: NCAA not to blame in ex-USC football player’s death

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    LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles jury on Tuesday rejected a claim by the widow of a former USC player who said the NCAA failed to protect him from repeated head trauma that led to his death.

    Matthew Gee, a linebacker on the 1990 Rose Bowl-winning squad, endured an estimated 6,000 hits that caused permanent brain damage and led to cocaine and alcohol abuse that eventually killed him at age 49, lawyers for his widow alleged.

    The NCAA said it had nothing to do with Gee’s death, which it said was a sudden cardiac arrest brought on by untreated hypertension and acute cocaine toxicity. A lawyer for the governing body of U.S. college sports said Gee suffered from many other health problems not related to , such as liver cirrhosis, that would have eventually killed him.

    The verdict could have broad ramifications for college athletes who blame the NCAA for head injuries.

    Hundreds of wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits have been brought by college players against the NCAA in the past decade, but Gee’s is the first one to reach a jury alleging that hits to the head led to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease known by its acronym, CTE.

    Alana Gee said the college sweethearts had 20 good years of marriage before her husband’s mental health began to deteriorate and he became angry, depressed and impulsive, and began overeating and abusing drugs and alcohol.

    Attorneys for Gee said CTE, which is found in athletes and military veterans who suffered repetitive brain injuries, was an indirect cause of death because head trauma has been shown to promote substance abuse.

    The NCAA said the case hinged on what it knew at the time Gee played, from 1988-92, and not about CTE, which was first discovered in the brain of a deceased NFL player in 2005.

    Gee never reported having a concussion and said in an application to play with the Raiders after graduating that he had never been knocked unconscious, NCAA attorney Will Stute said.

    “You can’t hold the NCAA responsible for something 40 years later that nobody ever reported,” Stute said in his closing argument. “The plaintiffs want you in a time travel machine. We don’t have one … at the NCAA. It’s not fair.”

    Attorneys for Gee’s family said there was no doubt that Matt Gee suffered concussions and countless sub-concussive blows.

    Mike Salmon, a teammate who went on to play in the NFL, testified that Gee, who was team captain his senior year, once was so dazed from a hit that he couldn’t call the next play.

    Gee was one of five linebackers on the 1989 Trojans squad who died before turning 50. All displayed signs of mental deterioration associated with head trauma.

    As with teammate and NFL star Junior Seau, who killed himself in 2012, Gee’s brain was examined posthumously at Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center and found to have CTE.

    Jurors were not allowed to hear testimony about Gee’s deceased teammates.

    Gee’s lawyers said the NCAA, which was founded in 1906 for athlete safety, had known about impacts from head injuries since the 1930s but failed to educate players, ban headfirst contact, or implement baseline testing for concussion symptoms.

    Attorneys had asked jurors to award Alana Gee $55 million to compensate for her loss.

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  • Court: Long sentence for Black man who killed at 17 stands

    Court: Long sentence for Black man who killed at 17 stands

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    SEATTLE — The Washington Supreme Court has declined to reconsider an opinion that upheld a Black man’s virtual life sentence for shootings he committed at age 17, despite criticism that the ruling betrayed racial bias.

    The court upheld the 61-year sentence for Tonelli Anderson in September, abandoning a precedent issued just a year earlier in which it said — in the case of a white defendant — that such long terms for juvenile killers were unconstitutional because it left them no chance of a meaningful life outside prison.

    Anderson’s attorney, Travis Stearns of the Washington Appellate Project, sought reconsideration of the 5-4 ruling, writing that it reflected racial bias. Three civil rights organizations — the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle University School of Law; the Juvenile Law Center, based in Philadelphia; and Huy, which supports Indigenous inmates in the Pacific Northwest — also urged the court to reconsider.

    But such motions are legal long shots, and the court denied it Monday without explanation. The King County prosecutors had also opposed it, saying Anderson’s criminal history and belated acceptance of responsibility helped distinguish his case.

    Anderson, now 45, shot two women, killing one and blinding the other, during a drug robbery in Tukwila in 1994. An accomplice also shot and killed a man at the same home.

    Anderson was not immediately arrested and went on to commit other crimes as a young adult, including assault and robbery, and he wrote letters to girlfriends bragging about the shootings. It wasn’t until 1998, after investigators learned of the letters, that he was charged.

    He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2000 and sentenced to 61 years. He was granted a new sentencing hearing in 2018, following federal and state rulings that children must be treated differently by the justice system. But the judge gave him the same term, finding Anderson had not shown the shootings reflected “transient immaturity.”

    In recent years, the Washington Supreme Court has further restricted sentences that can be imposed on children.

    In 2018, the justices held that it violated the state Constitution to sentence 16- or 17-year-olds to life in prison without parole. That ruling came in the case of Brian Bassett, a white man who killed his parents and brother when he was 16. Bassett has since been resentenced to 28 years.

    In September, the court struck down a 46-year sentence for Timothy Haag, a white man who was 17 when he drowned his 7-year-old neighbor. In that case, a six-justice majority held that juvenile murder defendants must be given “a meaningful opportunity to rejoin society after leaving prison.”

    Bassett and Haag were both quickly caught and prosecuted.

    In Anderson’s appeal, Justice Debra Stephens wrote for the 5-4 majority that such virtual life sentences for juveniles are barred by the state Constitution only if their crimes “reflect youthful immaturity, impetuosity, or failure to appreciate risks and consequences.”

    Anderson’s was not such a case, Stephens said.

    The dissenting justices said it was nonsensical that the court would find a 46-year sentence for a white 17-year-old to be an unconstitutional “de facto” life sentence, while upholding a 61-year sentence for a Black 17-year-old. Justice Mary Yu wrote it would be “willfully oblivious” to conclude race played no role.

    The King County Prosecutor’s Office said the high court’s decision maintained the discretion of trial judges to weigh the facts of each case and apply an appropriate sentence.

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  • Pope ousts leadership of Caritas Internationalis charity

    Pope ousts leadership of Caritas Internationalis charity

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    ROME — Pope Francis on Tuesday ousted the management of the Vatican’s international charitable organization Caritas Internationalis and appointed temporary leadership after an external review found management and morale problems at its head office.

    A Vatican statement said the review found no evidence of financial mismanagement or sexual impropriety. But it said other issues did emerge, with “real deficiencies” found in management, “seriously prejudicing team spirit and staff morale.”

    Ousted was the secretary general of Caritas Internationalis, Aloysius John, who was elected in a contested vote in 2019, as well as the leadership and governance team. The changes do not affect the leadership of any of the 162 national development and relief organizations that make up the Caritas global confederation.

    Caritas Internationalis is one of the Holy See’s main charity organizations and acts as the global umbrella for national and regional federations that operate in more than 200 countries. The Rome-based secretariat reported income of some 5.1 million euros ($5.2 million) in 2020 and expenditures of 4.4 million euros, according to the annual statement.

    John, an Indian native, had been brought into the Caritas Internationalis’ management structure as head of development in 2013 by its previous secretary general, Michele Roy, from the French Caritas federation, known as Secours Catholique. When Roy’s term ended, John ran for the position of secretary general and won after other initial candidates dropped out, and after initially failing to win a majority of votes.

    A former Caritas employee who cooperated with the external reviewers said he recounted instances of bullying and incompetence under John, especially in the handling of the fallout of a sex abuse scandal in the Caritas’ operations in Central African Republic. The former employee spoke on condition of anonymity, citing a fear of retaliation.

    In late 2019, in response to a CNN investigation, Roy admitted he had learned in 2017 of pedophilia concerns about the director of the Bangui Caritas operations, but left it to the priest’s immediate superiors to investigate. They did not, and CNN identified at least two child victims while the priest was in the country.

    John didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

    Francis named as temporary administrator of Caritas Internationalis Pier Francesco Pinelli, an organizational consultant who had participated in the external review and will lead the organization until new elections for a secretary general are held in 2023. The current head of advocacy, Maria Amparo Alonso Escobar, stays on and Francis appointed a Jesuit priest to help with the “personal and spiritual accompaniment of the staff.”

    Caritas’ current president, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who heads the Vatican’s evangelization department, will remain on to work under the new temporary administrators, the statement said.

    Pinelli had taken part in a 2021 evaluation of the Vatican’s development office, which resulted in a shakeup of the leadership team there and the appointment of Cardinal Michael Czerny, a top Francis ally, as prefect. Caritas Internationalis is part of the development office.

    In a statement Tuesday, the development office said the review of Caritas was undertaken to asses the secretariat office’s “alignment with Catholic values of human dignity and respect for each person.”

    Czerny said the changes should enable Caritas to meet the challenges of serving the “least and the suffering” but also to make sure that it does so making sure the organization “proves equal to its mission.”

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  • Mother, friends, performers among dead at Colorado gay club

    Mother, friends, performers among dead at Colorado gay club

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    A loving boyfriend. A 28-year-old bartender who loved to perform. A mother visiting from a small town who enjoyed hunting. These are among the victims of the rampage at an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs that left five people dead and 17 others with gunshot wounds.

    Club regulars and newcomers — gay and straight, transgender and cisgender — flocked to Club Q over the weekend to dance, enjoy a comedy show or work behind the bar. What began as a typical Saturday evening of dancing and drinking at the preeminent LGBTQ establishment in the conservative-leaning Colorado city south of Denver ended in tragedy when a gunman entered and began spraying bullets before he was tackled and subdued.

    The 22-year-old suspect is facing five murder charges and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury.

    Here are the five people killed:

    DANIEL ASTON

    Daniel Aston, 28, grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and moved to be closer to family in Colorado Springs two years ago. He worked as a bartender and entertainer at Club Q and cherished the venue as a sanctuary where as a transgender man he could be himself and perform to a lauding audience, his mother Sabrina Aston told The Associated Press.

    The self-proclaimed “Master of Silly Business,” Aston had a propensity for making others laugh that started as a child when he would don elaborate costumes and write plays acted out by neighborhood kids. In college, where he was president of his school’s LGBTQ club, he put on fundraisers with ever-more flashy productions.

    ″(Daniel’s shows) are great. Everybody needs to go see him,” his mother said. “He lit up a room, always smiling, always happy and silly,” she said.

    DERRICK RUMP

    Derrick Rump, 38, a bartender at Club Q, was remembered as a loving person with a quick wit who adopted his friends as his family.

    “He was living his dream and he would have wanted everyone to do the same,” said his mother, Julia Thames, who confirmed his death to ABC News.

    She said in a statement that Rump was “a kind loving person who had a heart of gold.”

    “He was always there for my daughter and myself when we needed him; also his friends from Colorado, which he would say was his family also,” she said in the statement.

    Rump’s friend, Anthony Jaramillo, told CBS News that Rump was “loving, supportive, with a heavy hand in his drink pouring, and just a really good listener and would not be afraid to tell you when you were wrong instead of telling you what you wanted to hear and that was really valuable.”

    KELLY LOVING

    Kelly Loving, 40, had been talking to a friend on a FaceTime call from inside Club Q just minutes before the shooting started. Natalee Skye Bingham told The New York Times that the last thing she said to Loving was: “Be safe. I love you.”

    “She was like a trans mother to me. I looked up to her,” Bingham said. “In the gay community you create your families, so it’s like I lost my real mother almost.”

    Bingham, 25, said Loving had only recently moved to Denver and was visiting the club while on a weekend trip to Colorado Springs.

    “She was a tough woman,” Bingham said. “She taught me how it was to be a trans woman and live your life day to day.”

    Loving’s sister, Tiffany Loving, offered condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the shooting as well as those struggling for acceptance in the world.

    “My sister was a good person. She was loving and caring and sweet. Everyone loved her. Kelly was a wonderful person,” she said in a statement.

    RAYMOND GREEN VANCE

    Raymond Green Vance, 22, went to Club Q on Saturday night with his girlfriend, Kassy Fierro, and her father, Rich, the co-owner of Atrevida Beer Co., a local brewery in Colorado Springs. The group was there to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

    “My sweet baby. ill never be able to heal from this. i want to wake up from this horrendous nightmare. i pray u hear me when i call for you. im so sorry. ill never forgive myself for taking everyone there. i will love you til the day i get to come back home to your arms,” Kassy Fierro wrote in a Facebook post Monday accompanied by a photo of the couple.

    Vance’s family in a statement described him as a kind, selfless man with a promising future. He worked at a FedEx Distribution Center, loved video games and was “willing to go out of his way to help anyone,” the family said.

    “Raymond was the victim of a man who unleashed terror on innocent people out with family and friends,” they wrote in the statement.

    ASHLEY PAUGH

    Ashley Paugh, 35, was a loving mother and wife with a “huge heart,” said her husband, Kurt Paugh. She volunteered with an organization that helped children in foster care and delivered Christmas trees to the homes in which they were placed to brighten their holiday seasons.

    “She was my high school sweetheart — and she was just an amazing mother. Her daughter was her whole world,” her husband said in a statement.

    She also enjoyed hunting, fishing and riding four-wheelers.

    A resident of La Junta, a 7,500-person town about a two-hour’s drive from Colorado Springs, Paugh was visiting for the day with a friend when they went to Club Q on Saturday night for a comedy act. She was scheduled to organize the delivery of trees to homes with foster children in Pueblo and Colorado Springs this week, her husband said.

    ———

    Associated Press News Researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York and reporter Jesse Bedayn in Colorado Springs contributed to this report. Bedayn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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  • Spotlight on Malaysia’s king to resolve election stalemate

    Spotlight on Malaysia’s king to resolve election stalemate

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    KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia’s election uncertainty deepened Tuesday after a political bloc refused to support either reformist leader Anwar Ibrahim or rival Malay nationalist Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister, three days after divisive polls produced no outright winner.

    The stalemate put the spotlight on the nation’s ceremonial king, who will have to find a way to resolve the impasse.

    Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan, or Alliance of Hope, topped Saturday’s elections with 83 parliamentary seats, but failed to reach the 112 needed for a majority. He has been locked in a battle to form a majority government with former Prime Minister Muhyiddin, whose Malay-centric Perikatan Nasional, or National Alliance, won 72 seats.

    Muhyiddin gained an upper hand after securing support of lawmakers from two states on Borneo island but both rivals still need the backing of the long-ruling alliance led by the United Malays National Organization for a majority.

    Caretaker Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, a senior UMNO official, said the highest-decision making body of UMNO-led Barisan Nasional, or National Front alliance, decided at a meeting Tuesday not to support any group to form a government.

    “So far, BN has agreed to remain as the opposition,” he tweeted.

    Malaysia’s monarch, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, said the crisis must end. He urged the nation to be patient as he makes his decision.

    “We have to move on … we need to move forward for our beloved nation,” he told reporters waiting outside the palace.

    Sultan Abdullah earlier asked lawmakers to state their preferred choice for prime minister and coalition by 2 p.m. The king’s role is largely ceremonial but he appoints the person he believes has majority support in Parliament as prime minister.

    Muhyiddin’s bloc includes a hard-line Islamic ally, stoking fears of right-wing politics that may deepen racial divides in the multiethnic nation if it comes to power. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party was the biggest winner with a haul of 49 seats — more than double what it won in 2018. Known as PAS, it touts Sharia, rules three states and is now the single largest party.

    His alliance said it has already sent more than 112 sworn oaths by lawmakers to the king. UMNO, however, warned that individual support of its lawmakers without the party’s approval is invalid.

    The drama is a replay of the political turmoil in Malaysia that has seen three prime ministers since 2018 polls.

    In early 2020, Muhyiddin abandoned Anwar’s ruling alliance, causing its collapse, and joined hands with UMNO to form a new government.

    Sultan Abdullah at the time requested written oaths from all 222 lawmakers and later interviewed them separately before picking Muhyiddin as prime minister. But his government was beset by internal rivalries and Muhyiddin resigned after 17 months. For a second time, the monarch sought written statements from lawmakers before appointing UMNO’s Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the new leader.

    Ismail called for snap polls at the behest of UMNO leaders as the party was convinced it could make a strong comeback amid a fragmented opposition. Instead, ethnic majority Malays, fed up with corruption and infighting in the party, opted for Muhyiddin’s bloc.

    Many rural Malays, who form two-thirds of Malaysia’s 33 million people — which includes large minorities of ethnic Chinese and Indians — also fear they may lose their rights with greater pluralism under Anwar’s multiethnic alliance.

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  • Wave of sex abuse lawsuits seen as NY opens door for victims

    Wave of sex abuse lawsuits seen as NY opens door for victims

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    ALBANY, N.Y. — Sexual assault victims in New York will get a one-time opportunity to sue over their abuse starting Thursday, under a new law expected to bring a wave of allegations against prison guards, middle managers, doctors and a few prominent figures including former President Donald Trump.

    For one year the state will waive the normal deadlines for filing lawsuits over sex crimes, enabling survivors to seek compensation for assaults that happened years or even decades ago.

    Advocates say the Adult Survivors Act is an important step in the national reckoning over sexual misconduct and could provide a measure of justice to people who may have needed time to come forward due to trauma, embarrassment or fear of retaliation.

    “I feel like I’ve been in jail for almost three decades,” said Liz Stein, 49, who says she was abused by the millionaire and notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein when she was a young woman. “And it’s more than time for me and the other victims to be free of that prison that we’ve been in, and for the people who are accountable to be held accountable.”

    The law is modeled after the state’s Child Victims Act, which opened a two-year window in 2019 during which almost 11,000 people sued churches, hospitals, schools, camps, scout groups and other institutions over abuse they said they suffered as children.

    Most states that have opened such windows did so only for people abused as children, though New Jersey’s included adults.

    New York will begin accepting electronic filings on Thanksgiving Day, six months after the law was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Lawyers say they have been getting calls from people considering lawsuits, mostly women.

    “I think there will be a lot of women who will say, ‘I think that’s me. Because I think what happened at that Christmas party in 1998 wasn’t right. And I couldn’t tell anybody about it at the time.’ And they want to tell somebody about it,” attorney Jeanne Christensen said.

    Legal action has already been promised on behalf of hundreds of women who say they were sexually abused while serving sentences at state prisons.

    Other cases could come from college students assaulted by professors, athletes abused by coaches or workers assaulted by bosses.

    A lawsuit against Trump is expected from E. Jean Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine who says he raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

    Trump denies the allegation, saying Carroll made it up to sell a book. Carroll is already suing Trump for defamation, saying his denials and disparaging comments to the media damaged her reputation.

    Claims can be made against negligent institutions and the estates of dead people. Some are expected from women who were inspired to come forward by the #MeToo movement, only to be told that too much time had passed to take legal action.

    It’s unclear there will be as many lawsuits as were filed under the Child Victims Act. That law attracted many lawyers because of the possibility of verdicts against deep-pocketed institutions involved in caring for or educating children.

    Stein’s lawsuit, to be filed by her lawyer, Margaret Mabie, will be against Epstein’s longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, and other parties. Stein was working at a shop in Manhattan in 1994 when she met Maxwell, who introduced her to Epstein.

    Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. Maxwell’s attorneys did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 after his arrest on sex trafficking charges.

    In addition to the high-profile claims, there will be “many, many more” cases that don’t get publicity, said Liz Roberts, CEO of the victim assistance nonprofit Safe Horizon. Roberts said that for many survivors, just telling their story can be healing.

    “I’m just finding my voice, and I’m learning how powerful that can be,” said Laurie Maldonado, one of scores of women who say they were molested during examinations by New York City gynecologist Robert Hadden.

    Hadden surrendered his medical license after being convicted in 2016 on sex-related charges in state court. He has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of sexually abusing many young and unsuspecting female patients for over two decades.

    The medical institutions that employed Hadden, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian, have already resolved claims by 225 women, including one group of 147 that recently settled for $165 million. They said in a statement that they remain open to settling other claims “irrespective of the Adult Survivors Act.”

    While the Child Victims Act received a lot of publicity when its window opened in 2019, some advocates are worried too few people are aware of the one opening for adults.

    Safe Horizon last week launched a public awareness campaign featuring survivors, including a public service announcement and a news conference in Times Square.

    “We’re just keenly aware that a year is a short time,” Roberts said.

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  • Rage and sadness as Colorado club shooting victims honored

    Rage and sadness as Colorado club shooting victims honored

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    COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Hundreds of people, many holding candles and wiping away tears, gathered Monday night in a Colorado Springs park to honor those killed and wounded when a gunman opened fire on a nightlife venue that for decades was a sanctuary for the local LGBTQ community.

    The vigil came as the 22-year-old suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, remained hospitalized after Saturday night’s attack in which five people were killed and another 17 suffered gunshot wounds before patrons tackled and beat the suspect into submission. Aldrich faces five murder charges and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, online court records showed.

    The attack at Club Q has shaken the LGBTQ community in this mostly conservative city of about 480,000, located 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Denver. At Monday night’s vigil people embraced and listened as speakers on a stage expressed both rage and sadness over the shootings.

    Jeremiah Harris, who is 24 and gay, said he went to the club a couple times a month and recognized one of the victims as the bartender who always served him. He said hearing others speak at the vigil was galvanizing following the attack.

    “Gay people have been here as long as people have been here,” Harris said. “To everybody else that’s opposed to that … we’re not going anywhere. We’re just getting louder and you have to deal with it.”

    Authorities have yet to reveal a motive for the attack, but the charges against Aldrich include hate crime charges, which would require proving that the gunman was motivated by bias, such as against the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. The charges against Aldrich are preliminary, and prosecutors have not filed formal charges in court yet.

    Court documents laying out Aldrich’s arrest have been sealed at the request of prosecutors. Information on whether Aldrich had a lawyer was not immediately available.

    Local and federal authorities during a Monday news briefing declined to answer questions about why hate crime charges are being considered, citing the ongoing investigation. District Attorney Michael Allen noted that the murder charges would carry the harshest penalty — life in prison — whereas bias crimes are eligible for probation.

    “But it is important to let the community know that we do not tolerate bias motivated crimes in this community, that we support communities that have been maligned, harassed and intimidated and abused,” Allen said, adding that additional charges are possible.

    More details emerged Monday about those killed and those credited with stopping the shooting.

    Authorities said the attack was halted by two club patrons including Richard Fierro, who told reporters that he took a handgun from Aldrich, hit him with it and pinned him down with help from another person.

    Fierro, a 15-year U.S. Army veteran who owns a local brewery, said he was celebrating a birthday with family members when the suspect “came in shooting.” Fierro said he ran at the suspect, who was wearing some type body armor, and pulled him down before severely beating him until police arrived.

    Though his actions saved lives, Fierro said the deaths — including his daughter’s boyfriend, 22-year-old Raymond Green Vance — were a tragedy both personal and for the broader community.

    “There are five people that I could not help. And one of which was family to me,” he said, as his brother put a consoling hand on his shoulder.

    Vance’s family said in a statement that the Colorado Springs native was adored by his family and had recently gotten a job at FedEx, where he hoped to save enough money to get his own apartment.

    The other victims were identified by authorities and family members as Ashley Paugh, 35, a mother who helped find homes for foster children; Daniel Aston, 28, who had worked at the club as a a bartender and entertainer; Kelly Loving, 40, whose sister described her as “caring and sweet”; and Derrick Rump, 38, another club bartender who was known for his quick wit and adopting his friends as his family.

    Thomas James was identified by authorities as the other patron who intervened to stop the shooter. Fierro said a third person also helped — a performer at the club who Fierro said kicked the suspect in the head.

    Thirteen victims remained hospitalized Monday, officials said. Five people had been treated and released.

    A law enforcement official said the suspect used an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon. A handgun and additional ammunition magazines also were recovered. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

    The assault quickly raised questions about why authorities did not seek to take Aldrich’s guns away from him in 2021, when he was arrested after his mother reported he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons.

    Though authorities at the time said no explosives were found, gun-control advocates have asked why police didn’t use Colorado’s “red flag” laws to seize the weapons his mother says he had. There’s no public record prosecutors ever moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich.

    It was the sixth mass killing this month, and it came in a year when the nation was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It also rekindled memories of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people.

    Since 2006, there have been 523 mass killings and 2,727 deaths as of Nov. 19, according to The Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings in the U.S.

    ———

    Bedayn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

    ———

    Associated Press reporters Haven Daley in Colorado Springs, Colleen Slevin in Denver, Darlene Superville in Washington, Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Jeff McMillan in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, and news researcher Rhonda Shafner from New York contributed.

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  • Gay bar shooting suspect faces murder, hate crime charges

    Gay bar shooting suspect faces murder, hate crime charges

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    COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The man suspected of opening fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs was being held on murder and hate crime charges Monday, while hundreds of people gathered to honor the five people killed and 17 wounded in the attack on a venue that for decades was a sanctuary for the local LGBTQ community.

    Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, faces five murder charges and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury in Saturday night’s attack at Club Q, online court records showed.

    Authorities said the attack was halted by two club patrons including Richard Fierro, who told reporters Monday night that he took a handgun from Aldrich, hit him with it and pinned him down with help from another person.

    Fierro, a 15-year U.S. Army veteran who owns a local brewery, said he was celebrating a birthday with family members when the suspect “came in shooting.” Fierro said during a lull in the shooting he ran at the suspect, who was wearing some type of armor plates, and pulled him down before severely beating him until police arrived.

    “I tried to save people and it didn’t work for five of them,” he said. “These are all good people. … I’m not a hero. I’m just some dude.”

    Fierro’s daughter’s longtime boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, 22, was killed, while his daughter hurt her knee as she ran for cover. Fierro injured his hands, knees and ankle while stopping the shooter.

    The suspect remained hospitalized with unspecified injuries but is expected to make his first court appearance in the next couple of days, after doctors clear him to be released from the hospital.

    The charges against Aldrich were preliminary, and prosecutors had not filed formal charges in court yet. The hate crime charges would require proving that the gunman was motivated by bias, such as against the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

    Local and federal authorities during a Monday news briefing declined to answer questions about why hate crime charges are being considered, citing the ongoing investigation. District Attorney Michael Allen noted that the murder charges would carry the harshest penalty — life in prison — whereas bias crimes are eligible for probation.

    “But it is important to let the community know that we do not tolerate bias motivated crimes in this community, that we support communities that have been maligned, harassed and intimidated and abused,” Allen said. “And that’s one way that we can do that, showing that we will put the money where our mouth is, essentially, and make sure that we try it that way.”

    Additional charges are possible as the investigation continues, he said.

    About 200 people gathered Monday night in the cold at a city park for a community vigil for the shooting victims. People held candles, embraced and listened as speakers on a stage expressed both rage and sadness over the shootings.

    Jeremiah Harris, who is 24 and gay, said he went to Club Q a couple times a month and recognized one of the victims as the bartender who always served him. He said hearing others speak at the vigil was galvanizing following the attack at what for more than 20 years had been considered an LGBTQ safe spot in the conservative-leaning city.

    “Gay people have been here as long as people have been here,” Harris said. “To everybody else that’s opposed to that … we’re not going anywhere. We’re just getting louder and you have to deal with it.”

    The other victims were identified by authorities and family members as Ashley Paugh, 35, a mother who helped find homes for foster children; Daniel Aston, 28, who had worked at the club as a a bartender and entertainer; Kelly Loving, 40, whose sister described her as “caring and sweet”; and Derrick Rump, 38, another club bartender who was known for his quick wit and adopting his friends as his family.

    Vance’s family said in a statement that the Colorado Springs native was adored by his family and had recently gotten a job at FedEx, where he hoped to save enough money to get his own apartment.

    Thomas James was identified by authorities as the other patron who intervened to stop the shooter. Fierro said a third person also helped — a performer at the club who Fierro said kicked the suspect in the head as she ran by.

    Court documents laying out Aldrich’s arrest have been sealed at the request of prosecutors. Information on whether Aldrich had a lawyer was not immediately available.

    A law enforcement official said the suspect used an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon. A handgun and additional ammunition magazines also were recovered. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

    Thirteen victims remained hospitalized Monday, officials said. Five people had been treated and released.

    Officials on Monday clarified that 18 people were hurt in the attack, not 25 as they said originally. Among them was one person whose injury was not a gunshot wound. Another victim had no visible injuries, they said.

    Colorado Springs, a city of about 480,000, is 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Denver. Mayor John Suthers said there was “reason to hope” all of the hospitalized victims would recover.

    The assault quickly raised questions about why authorities did not seek to take Aldrich’s guns away from him in 2021, when he was arrested after his mother reported he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons.

    Though authorities at the time said no explosives were found, gun-control advocates have asked why police didn’t use Colorado’s “red flag” laws to seize the weapons his mother says he had. There’s no public record prosecutors ever moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich.

    It was the sixth mass killing this month, and it came in a year when the nation was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It also rekindled memories of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people.

    President Joe Biden talked to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis by phone and will continue to press Congress for an assault weapons ban “because thoughts and prayers are just not enough,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.

    A makeshift memorial that sprang up in the hours after the attack continued to grow Monday, as a stream of mourners brought flowers and left messages in support of the LGBTQ community. The shooting site remained cordoned off.

    “It’s a reminder that love and acceptance still have a long way to go,” Colorado Springs resident Mary Nikkel said at the site.

    Since 2006, there have been 523 mass killings and 2,727 deaths as of Nov. 19, according to The Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings in the U.S.

    ———

    Bedayn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

    ———

    Associated Press reporters Haven Daley in Colorado Springs, Colleen Slevin in Denver, Darlene Superville in Washington, Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Jeff McMillan in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, and news researcher Rhonda Shafner from New York contributed.

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  • Memorial set Monday for one of 4 Idaho university victims

    Memorial set Monday for one of 4 Idaho university victims

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    MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — A memorial service was scheduled Monday for one of the four University of Idaho students stabbed to death in their home early Nov. 13, as police in the college town of Moscow have yet to identify a suspect in the slayings.

    The memorial service for Ethan Chapin was scheduled for Monday afternoon in Mount Vernon, Washington, a city on Puget Sound north of Seattle.

    Chapin, 20, was a triplet, and is survived by his parents and his siblings Maizie and Hunter. He attended Mount Vernon High School, where he played basketball. All three triplets enrolled in the University of Idaho last August.

    “Since attending the University of Idaho, Ethan lived his best life,” according to his obituary. “He loved the social life, intramurals and tolerated the academics. He also continued to play sports.”

    “If he wasn’t on the golf course or working, you could usually find him surfing, playing sand volleyball or pickle ball,” the obituary said.

    On Sunday, law enforcement officers investigating the deaths asked for patience after a week passed with no arrests.

    Authorities said they have no suspect or weapon in the killings, which shook Moscow, a town of 25,000 residents in the Idaho Panhandle that had not recorded a homicide in about five years.

    Students and residents have expressed concern about a lack of details from police, who initially said there was no danger to the public but a few days later acknowledged they couldn’t say there was no threat.

    “We know that people want answers — we want answers, too,” Idaho State Police Col. Kedrick Wills said. “Please be patient as we work through this investigation.”

    Moscow Police Chief James Fry said authorities have received nearly 650 tips and conducted 90 interviews. Police have also requested businesses and residences in specific parts of the city to share with them footage recorded between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on the day of the killings.

    The university is in recess this week for Thanksgiving.

    The victims were Chapin; seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; and junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho. The women were roommates, and Chapin was dating Kernodle.

    Authorities on Sunday said they were each stabbed multiple times, and that some had defensive wounds.

    Police said two other roommates who were in the house on the night of the killings slept through the attack, waking later that day. Police said one of their phones was used to call 911 from inside the residence at 11:58 a.m. Police on Sunday declined to say who made the 911 call.

    Police have said evidence leads them to believe the students were targeted, although they haven’t given details and declined to do so again on Sunday. Investigators say nothing appears to have been stolen from the victims or the home. Police have said there was no sign of forced entry, and first responders found a door open when they arrived.

    Dozens of additional law enforcement officers have arrived in Moscow, officials said.

    The Moscow Police Department said four detectives, five support staff and 24 patrol officers are working on the case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has 22 investigators helping in Moscow, and 20 more agents assisting from outside the area. The Idaho State Police has supplied 20 investigators, 15 troopers for patrols and its mobile crime scene team.

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