President Trump honored two storied military veterans during his State of the Union address, including 100-year-old veteran Royce Williams of Escondido, who survived what is believed to be the longest dog fight in military history.
The former Navy fighter pilot, who was seated next to First Lady Melania Trump in the Capitol during the president’s address Tuesday night, flew more than 220 missions in World War II as well as the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
Trump called Williams “a living legend” before describing his war-time heroics.
“In the skies over Korea in 1952, Royce was in the dogfight of a lifetime, a legendary dogfight,” Trump said. “Flying through blizzard conditions, his squadron was ambushed by seven Soviet fighter planes.”
Despite being outnumbered, Williams took down four of the jet fighters as his plane was hit more than 260 times and he was severely injured.
The incident was kept confidential because the Soviet Union was not officially a combatant in the Korean conflict, and American officials feared that if the air battle became known, it could compel the Soviets to formally enter the war.
Williams didn’t speak about the details of the encounter — even with family members — until records about the dogfight were declassified in 2002.
“His story was secret for over 50 years. He didn’t even want to tell his wife, but the legend grew and grew,” Trump said. “Tonight, at 100 years old, this brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves.”
Trump then announced that Williams would receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration. Melania Trump placed the blue-ribboned medal around his neck.
Williams was the guest of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall), a fellow veteran.
“My friend, constituent, and lifelong hero Royce Williams is a Top Gun pilot like no other, an American hero for all time, and now, a recipient of the highest honor in the land,” Issa said in a statement. “It was many years in the making, but it is my honor to have fought all these years for Royce to gain a recognition that he has not sought, but so richly deserves.”
Trump also announced that the Medal of Honor would be awarded to Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover, an Army helicopter pilot who was gravely wounded in the 2026 raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“While preparing to land, enemy machine guns fired from every angle, and Eric was hit very badly in the leg and hip. One bullet after another, he observed four agonizing shots shredding his leg into numerous pieces,” Trump said.
Despite the gunshot wounds to his legs, with blood flowing through the helicopter he was piloting, “Eric maneuvered his helicopter with all of those lives and souls to face the enemy and let his gunners eliminate the threat, turn the helicopter around so the gunners could take care of business, saving the lives of his fellow warriors from what could have been a catastrophic crash deep in enemy territory,” Trump said.
Trump added, “Chief Warrant Officer Slover is still recovering from his serious wounds, but I’m thrilled to say that he is here tonight with his wife, Amy. Eric and Amy, come on in.”
Slover, with the aid of a walker, entered the gallery. “In recognition of Eric’s actions above and beyond the call of duty,” Trump said, “I would now like to ask Gen. Jonathan Braga to present Chief Warrant Officer Slover with our nation’s highest military award.”
Trump added that he too hopes to one day receive a Medal of Honor.
“But I was informed I’m not allowed to give it to myself,” Trump said. “But if they ever open up that law, I will be there with you someday.”
Shane Boose, who records and performs as Sombr, struck a chord with “Back to Friends,” a song tracking the emotional mess of a fractured situationship.
But before he landed on the song, the native New Yorker was adrift in Los Angeles, “falling in with the wrong crowds” and becoming “a loser” — a term he defines, opaquely, as “the person my mom tells me not to become.”
He found the right collaborator, and now he has his first Grammy nod, for best new artist.
A U.S.-Russian crew of three began a mission to the International Space Station aboard a Russian spacecraft following a successful launch Thursday.A Soyuz booster rocket lifted off at 2:27 p.m. (9:27 a.m. GMT) from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan to put the Soyuz MS-28 into orbit.The spacecraft carried NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian crewmates, Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov. The craft docked at the International Space Station approximately three hours after liftoff at 5:34 p.m (12:34 p.m. GMT).All three are expected to spend about eight months at the orbiting outpost. NASA said this is the first spaceflight for Williams, a physicist, and Mikaev, a military pilot. This is the second flight for Kud-Sverchkov.At the International Space Station, the trio will join NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman and Jonny Kim, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov.Williams will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations at the orbiting outpost aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth, NASA said.
MOSCOW —
A U.S.-Russian crew of three began a mission to the International Space Station aboard a Russian spacecraft following a successful launch Thursday.
A Soyuz booster rocket lifted off at 2:27 p.m. (9:27 a.m. GMT) from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan to put the Soyuz MS-28 into orbit.
The spacecraft carried NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian crewmates, Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov. The craft docked at the International Space Station approximately three hours after liftoff at 5:34 p.m (12:34 p.m. GMT).
All three are expected to spend about eight months at the orbiting outpost. NASA said this is the first spaceflight for Williams, a physicist, and Mikaev, a military pilot. This is the second flight for Kud-Sverchkov.
At the International Space Station, the trio will join NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman and Jonny Kim, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexei Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov.
Williams will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations at the orbiting outpost aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth, NASA said.
NEXT 15 MINUTES. A COMMUNITY CAME TOGETHER IN ORLANDO TONIGHT TO REMEMBER A YOUNG TATTOO ARTIST WHO THEY SAY WAS KILLED IN A POLICE INVOLVED SHOOTING DURING A RAID AT THAT BUSINESS. WESH TWO DAVID JONES HAS THE STORY. SAY THIS WOULD MEAN THAT OUR CHILDREN, OUR CHILDREN, NOT ON OUR WATCH, NOT ON OUR WATCH. A TEARFUL NIGHT OF REMEMBRANCE FOR A 20 YEAR OLD TATTOO ARTIST NAMED CALEB WILLIAMS. WE STAND, WE STAND. OUT. WE STAND. SAY LOUDER. WE STAND. THEY MARKED THE VIGIL WITH A BALLOON RELEASE HONORING THE YOUNG FATHER. THEY SAY WILLIAMS WAS AN INNOCENT BYSTANDER IN FRIDAY’S STANDOFF, AND POLICE INVOLVED SHOOTING. YOU’RE FIGHTING TO PROTECT PEOPLE, NOT KILL THEM. FAMILY AND FRIENDS LENT WILLIAMS MOM, NATALIE BURCH, ESCRIBANO SUPPORT AS SHE DEMANDED ACCOUNTABILITY FOR HER SON’S SLAYING. THIS WAS NOT THIS WAS NOT MEANT FOR HIM. HE DIDN’T HAVE NO WARRANT. HE DIDN’T HE. HE WASN’T ARMED. THEY LITERALLY HE WAS AT THE WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME. HE WAS RIGHT, RIGHT BEHIND. HE WAS RIGHT BEHIND HIM. AND HE JUST HE JUST HE WAS JUST THERE. WESH TWO WAS OVER THE SCENE FRIDAY. IT WAS A SWAT STANDOFF. ORLANDO POLICE SAY THEY ARRIVED ON SCENE AT 2:00 IN THE AFTERNOON TO SERVE A WARRANT ON, QUOTE, MULTIPLE SUSPECTS. THEY GAVE RAP SHEETS FOR THE INDIVIDUALS, BUT DID NOT SAY IF ANY HAD BEEN ARRESTED. FOLLOWING THE STANDOFF AND A SHOOTING MINUTES AFTER THEY ARRIVED. THEY DIDN’T IDENTIFY THEMSELVES AT ALL. THERE WAS NO NOTHING, NO NOTHING. NOT ONE TIME, HE LITERALLY WAS JUST WALKING DOWN A HALLWAY AND CAUGHT THE BULLET, POLICE SAID. SOMEONE WENT OUTSIDE OF THE BUSINESS WITH A AK 47 STYLE RIFLE. OFFICERS SAY THEY SHOT AT THE SUSPECT AS THE INDIVIDUAL RETREATED INSIDE WHEN THEY MADE ENTRY. AN HOUR LATER, THEY SAY THEY FOUND A SUSPECT DEAD. WILLIAMS COMMUNITY SAYS HE WAS NEVER A SUSPECT SUPPOSED TO BE ON THE SCENE. HE WAS SERVING A WARRANT, A REAL WARRANT. YOU WOULD HAVE. OFFICER WOULD HAVE CAME IN AND GAVE IT TO YOU. YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO COME IN LIKE THAT IN DUE TIME. LIKE I SAID, I DON’T SAY, I DON’T SAY, LONG LIVE CALEB CAN. HE’S STILL STANDING WITH US. HE’S STILL STANDING HERE. BUT I PROMISE YOU, FOR HIS SON, FOR HIS MOTHER. WE’RE GOING TO SPEAK. COVERING ORA
Community holds vigil to remember tattoo artist who died after Orlando police standoff
A tearful vigil held Sunday evening for a slain tattoo artist and young father culminated in a balloon release and calls for accountability in the SWAT standoff that ultimately took his life.Family identified the man who was killed during Friday’s police standoff as Kaleb Williams, a 20-year-old tattoo artist working at the parlor at Edgewater and Lee in Orlando. The Orlando Police Department said a search warrant was being served at the business around 2 p.m. Friday, and less than five minutes later, police opened fire from outside of the business as a person holding an “AK-47 style” rifle exited and then reentered the parlor.According to OPD, “multiple suspects” were being served a search warrant “related to drugs and firearms,” with the department also providing a lengthy rap sheet for the suspects.When police officers entered the business around an hour later, they found a person dead.Ultimately, OPD has not said whether anyone is in custody following Friday’s events.But the family of Williams disputed OPD’s account of what happened, saying their loved one was not a “suspect” and should have never died.”This was not meant for him,” said Williams’ mother, Natalie Birch-Escribano. “He didn’t have no warrant, he wasn’t armed, they literally, he was at the wrong place, wrong time.”Williams was at work doing tattoos at the time all of this went down Friday afternoon.”They didn’t identify themselves at all, at all. There was no nothing, no nothing,” she said. “He literally was just walking down a hallway and caught the bullets.”WESH 2 has followed up with OPD to ask about any arrests made, whether Williams was the subject of the search warrant, and whether police were still working to identify other suspects.But the department said Friday that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement would be handling the investigation of the events.”You’re fighting to protect people, not kill them!” said Williams’ best friend, Blair Gusmas. “I don’t say long live Kaleb, because he’s still standing with us. He’s still here. But I promise you, for his son, for his mother, we are going to speak.”
ORLANDO, Fla. —
A tearful vigil held Sunday evening for a slain tattoo artist and young father culminated in a balloon release and calls for accountability in the SWAT standoff that ultimately took his life.
Family identified the man who was killed during Friday’s police standoff as Kaleb Williams, a 20-year-old tattoo artist working at the parlor at Edgewater and Lee in Orlando.
The Orlando Police Department said a search warrant was being served at the business around 2 p.m. Friday, and less than five minutes later, police opened fire from outside of the business as a person holding an “AK-47 style” rifle exited and then reentered the parlor.
According to OPD, “multiple suspects” were being served a search warrant “related to drugs and firearms,” with the department also providing a lengthy rap sheet for the suspects.
When police officers entered the business around an hour later, they found a person dead.
Ultimately, OPD has not said whether anyone is in custody following Friday’s events.
But the family of Williams disputed OPD’s account of what happened, saying their loved one was not a “suspect” and should have never died.
“This was not meant for him,” said Williams’ mother, Natalie Birch-Escribano. “He didn’t have no warrant, he wasn’t armed, they literally, he was at the wrong place, wrong time.”
Williams was at work doing tattoos at the time all of this went down Friday afternoon.
“They didn’t identify themselves at all, at all. There was no nothing, no nothing,” she said. “He literally was just walking down a hallway and caught the bullets.”
WESH 2 has followed up with OPD to ask about any arrests made, whether Williams was the subject of the search warrant, and whether police were still working to identify other suspects.
But the department said Friday that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement would be handling the investigation of the events.
“You’re fighting to protect people, not kill them!” said Williams’ best friend, Blair Gusmas. “I don’t say long live Kaleb, because he’s still standing with us. He’s still here. But I promise you, for his son, for his mother, we are going to speak.”
Cameron Carr scored 17 of his 27 points in an efficient first-half, and four other players reached double figures for Baylor, as the Bears defeated Tarleton State 94-81 in Waco, Texas.
In staking the Bears to a 55-42 lead at the break, Carr made seven of his eight shots from the field, scoring a point per minute as the Bears shot 57.6% as a team.
Isaac Williams scored 16 for Baylor (3-0), Dan Skillings Jr. contributed 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists, Obi Agbim scored 14 and Tounde Yessoufou added 12.
Dior Johnson was a constant source of pain for Baylor, keeping Tarleton State (2-3) in the game with a sensational 42 points to lead all scorers.
The Texans’ Freddy Hicks reached double digits in scoring for the fifth straight game to open the season, scoring 13.
Carr got going early, scoring five straight at one point to give Baylor a 15-9 advantage 4:45 into the contest.
The Bears opened up their largest lead in the opening stanza, 48-30, when Carr punctuated a 9-2 run with a slam-and-one, 3-point play with 4:27 left.
Agbim (11) and Skillings (10) joined Carr in reaching double digits in the first half. Johnson paced the Texans with 14.
Tarleton State twice got the lead down to single digits early on in the second half, with Johnson cutting it to 65-56 with 13:09 to play on a short jumper.
Baylor quickly answered with back-to-back 3-pointers from JJ White and Carr to regain control. A Williams’ 3-pointer with 10:14 left gave the Bears their largest lead at 77-58.
But the Texans remained pesky, twice more getting the margin down to single digits via Johnson scoring plays.
A Skillings’ 3-pointer with 4:16 left to make it 84-72 essentially shut the door.
Johnson hit 17 of 24 shots from the floor, 2 of 3 from behind the arc and 6 of 7 from the charity stripe. The junior competed at UCF in 2024-25.
Satou Sabally scored 15 of her 23 points in the fourth quarter and the host Phoenix Mercury beat the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx 84-76 on Friday to take a 2-1 edge in their WNBA semifinal series.
Alyssa Thomas amassed 21 points, nine rebounds and eight assists while Kahleah Copper also scored 21 points for Phoenix. Thomas passed Sue Bird for the second-most assists in WNBA playoff history.
The fourth-seeded Mercury, who finished the game on a 9-0 run in the last 3 1/2 minutes, can close out the best-of-five series on Sunday at home for their first WNBA Finals appearance since 2021.
Natisha Hiedeman had a career-playoff high 19 points, Napheesa Collier added 17 and Courtney Williams contributed 14 for the Lynx, who have lost two games in a row for only the second time this season.
Thomas stole the ball from Collier and made a layup for an 82-76 lead with 21.8 seconds remaining, after which Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve stormed the court in protest. Reeve, who was arguing what she considered to be excessive contract on Collier, was given a second technical foul on the night and was ejected.
Collier went to the floor and grabbed her left ankle on the play, and she was helped to the locker room.
Sabally made all 11 of her free-throws attempts, hitting the final two after the technical foul on Reeve and another at the same time on Minnesota associate head coach Eric Thibault.
Collier, Williams and Hiedeman did not score in the fourth quarter, going a combined 0-for-7 from the floor against a Mercury defense that limited the Lynx to nine fourth-quarter points on 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) shooting from the floor. The Lynx hit 42.3 percent of their field-goal attempts on the night, while the Mercury made 46.2 percent.
Maria Kliundikova gave Minnesota a 76-75 lead on a driving layup with 3:31 remaining, but the Lynx did not score again. Klkiundikova scored six of her eight points in the fourth.
The Mercury’s eight-point winning margin was their largest of the game, which had 15 lead changes.
The Phoenix Mercury have turned seizing home-court advantage into their postseason identity.
The Mercury gained the upper hand in their WNBA semifinal series against the top-seed Minnesota Lynx with a Game 2 road victory Tuesday, and they will begin defense of their home floor in the third game of the best-of-five series Friday.
The Mercury overcame a 20-point deficit in the final 16 minutes of regulation and scored the first six points of overtime while evening the series with an 89-83 victory.
‘This is a battle-tested team,’ Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts said of the Lynx. ‘We haven’t done anything yet. We needed to get one there (Minneapolis). We did our job.’The Lynx, who have won four league titles and lost in the finals last year, took Game 1 82-69 at home by outscoring the Mercury by 13 in the fourth quarter. Game 4 is in Phoenix on Sunday.
‘It’s a resilient team,’ Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said of her group. ‘It’s a team that responds. There are problem-solvers. Nobody said this stuff was going to be easy. It’s all part of the journey.
‘Now we have to beat a really good team at their place. That’s a tall order. We’ll do all we can to do it.’
The Mercury took home court from defending champion New York in the second game of their first-round series and clinched it with a win in Game 3 at home.
Lynx point guard Courtney Williams has 43 points, 16 assists and 15 rebounds in this series. Napheesa Collier, the runner-up in league MVP voting, has 42 points and 15 rebounds.
Pressured by Alyssa Thomas, Collier missed a 16-footer at the buzzer after the Mercury’s Sami Whitcomb hit a 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds remaining to send Tuesday’s game into overtime.
‘This is what it’s all about,’ Thomas said. ‘You play the whole season for the playoffs and moments like these. I’ve been chasing a championship for a long time. I think this is our time.’
Thomas, who spent her first 11 seasons with Connecticut, directs Tibbetts’ free-flowing offense from the foul-line extended. The Mercury went small in their comeback Tuesday.
Thomas, third in MVP voting, led the league with a career-high 9.2 assists per game in the regular season. Williams was second at 6.2. Thomas has eight triple-doubles and is averaging 18.5 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in the series.
Phoenix’s Satou Sabally had 24 points, including five 3-pointers, and nine rebounds in Game 2.
After making 3 of 23 threes in Game 1, the Mercury were 13 of 32 in the second game.
When ‘Sa’ makes threes, she’s pretty good,’ Tibbetts said. ‘They have a decision to make, right? They are either going to take away the paint or take away threes. It’s really hard to do both.’
A wrongful arrest has now been wiped from a Lee County man’s record. Gulf Coast News first exposed the injustice months ago. The arrest happened after artificial intelligence facial recognition led police to the wrong suspect. “They say in life, everything happens for a reason. I can’t for the life of me figure out this one,” Robert Dillon, the man wrongfully arrested, told Gulf Coast News earlier this year. ‘How did this happen?’ One year ago, right outside his home in San Carlos Park, Dillon was arrested for a crime he never committed. His stunned reaction was captured on the body camera of the deputy who’d knocked on his door. “I’m thinking, ‘How in the hell did this happen. How did this happen?’” Dillon recalled. Dillon was accused of trying to lure a child at a fast-food restaurant more than 300 miles away in Jacksonville Beach. Investigators there submitted restaurant surveillance photos of the suspect to an AI-assisted facial recognition program, which identified Dillon as a 93% match. Beyond that, and a witness who picked his photo out of a lineup, there was no evidence tying him to it.As Dillon first explained months ago, he’s never been to Jacksonville Beach. “Out of the blue. They pick some guy that lives six and a half hours away and says, ‘This is you.’ It blew my mind,” Dillon said earlier this year. Case dropped, arrest wiped from recordOnce Dillon and his attorney provided evidence to show that he did not commit the crime, the state attorney’s office in Jacksonville dropped the case.When Gulf Coast News first reported on it, a spokesman for the state attorney’s office said they were submitting paperwork to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for the case to be stricken from Dillon’s record. Now, the spokesman confirmed Dillon is no longer in their system. His arrest mugshot — and his case file — are nowhere to be found online. Not the first time…”This is a technology that’s really dangerous, because it often gets it wrong. But police often treat it like it has to be right,” Nate Wessler said of facial recognition programs. Wessler is an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. He focuses on government and police use of new technology, like the facial recognition in Dillon’s case. “Now that we know about it, we want to dig deeper,” Wessler said of the case. “This is a real miscarriage of justice. And it’s the latest in a series of wrongful arrests we know of around the country after police relied on incorrect results from face recognition technology.” In 2020, Robert Williams was wrongfully arrested in front of his home by Detroit police. His wife and two daughters watched it happen. “I can’t really put it into words. It was one of the most shocking things I’ve ever had happen to me,” Williams said in an interview with the ACLU after his arrest. A surveillance photo of a man stealing from a watch store was run through face recognition technology by investigators and identified Williams — who was nowhere near the store at time — as a possible match. Wessler was part of the legal team that sued the city of Detroit on Williams’ behalf. “The way to avoid this kind of travesty of justice is to either take this technology out of the hands of police, or lock it down really seriously with a set of policies and restrictions,” Wessler said. Detroit PD changes policy after wrongful arrestWilliams’ lawsuit led to a settlement, which included not only a payout for him but also sparked a policy change within the Detroit PD. In Williams’ case, much like Robert Dillon’s, police relied on two pieces of evidence: the face recognition match and someone picking his photo out of a lineup. Now, in Detroit, more evidence is required to make an arrest. “When you go straight from a face recognition result right to a photo lineup, there’s a high, high likelihood of tainting the reliability of that lineup,” Wessler explained. “You’re going to populate it with an innocent lookalike, plus five people who don’t look much like the suspect. And now you’ve just created this totally suggestible situation, where even a well-meaning witness is going to be tricked.”Months later, Dillon still hopes to get justiceRobert Dillon is relieved the arrest is off his record, but he wants to file a lawsuit to fight back against the injustice. After all, he said he can never get back the sleepless nights wondering if he’d serve time for a crime he never committed. “You cannot wrongfully imprison somebody. No matter who you are. Everybody’s got rights,” Dillon said. Gulf Coast News reached out to the Jacksonville Beach Police Department again, but they still refuse to answer any questions about their investigation.
A wrongful arrest has now been wiped from a Lee County man’s record.
Gulf Coast News first exposed the injustice months ago.
The arrest happened after artificial intelligence facial recognition led police to the wrong suspect.
“They say in life, everything happens for a reason. I can’t for the life of me figure out this one,” Robert Dillon, the man wrongfully arrested, told Gulf Coast News earlier this year.
‘How did this happen?’
One year ago, right outside his home in San Carlos Park, Dillon was arrested for a crime he never committed. His stunned reaction was captured on the body camera of the deputy who’d knocked on his door.
“I’m thinking, ‘How in the hell did this happen. How did this happen?’” Dillon recalled.
Dillon was accused of trying to lure a child at a fast-food restaurant more than 300 miles away in Jacksonville Beach.
Investigators there submitted restaurant surveillance photos of the suspect to an AI-assisted facial recognition program, which identified Dillon as a 93% match.
Beyond that, and a witness who picked his photo out of a lineup, there was no evidence tying him to it.
As Dillon first explained months ago, he’s never been to Jacksonville Beach.
“Out of the blue. They pick some guy that lives six and a half hours away and says, ‘This is you.’ It blew my mind,” Dillon said earlier this year.
Case dropped, arrest wiped from record
Once Dillon and his attorney provided evidence to show that he did not commit the crime, the state attorney’s office in Jacksonville dropped the case.
When Gulf Coast News first reported on it, a spokesman for the state attorney’s office said they were submitting paperwork to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for the case to be stricken from Dillon’s record.
Now, the spokesman confirmed Dillon is no longer in their system. His arrest mugshot — and his case file — are nowhere to be found online.
Not the first time…
“This is a technology that’s really dangerous, because it often gets it wrong. But police often treat it like it has to be right,” Nate Wessler said of facial recognition programs.
Wessler is an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. He focuses on government and police use of new technology, like the facial recognition in Dillon’s case.
“Now that we know about it, we want to dig deeper,” Wessler said of the case. “This is a real miscarriage of justice. And it’s the latest in a series of wrongful arrests we know of around the country after police relied on incorrect results from face recognition technology.”
In 2020, Robert Williams was wrongfully arrested in front of his home by Detroit police. His wife and two daughters watched it happen.
“I can’t really put it into words. It was one of the most shocking things I’ve ever had happen to me,” Williams said in an interview with the ACLU after his arrest.
A surveillance photo of a man stealing from a watch store was run through face recognition technology by investigators and identified Williams — who was nowhere near the store at time — as a possible match.
Wessler was part of the legal team that sued the city of Detroit on Williams’ behalf.
“The way to avoid this kind of travesty of justice is to either take this technology out of the hands of police, or lock it down really seriously with a set of policies and restrictions,” Wessler said.
Detroit PD changes policy after wrongful arrest
Williams’ lawsuit led to a settlement, which included not only a payout for him but also sparked a policy change within the Detroit PD.
In Williams’ case, much like Robert Dillon’s, police relied on two pieces of evidence: the face recognition match and someone picking his photo out of a lineup.
Now, in Detroit, more evidence is required to make an arrest.
“When you go straight from a face recognition result right to a photo lineup, there’s a high, high likelihood of tainting the reliability of that lineup,” Wessler explained. “You’re going to populate it with an innocent lookalike, plus five people who don’t look much like the suspect. And now you’ve just created this totally suggestible situation, where even a well-meaning witness is going to be tricked.”
Months later, Dillon still hopes to get justice
Robert Dillon is relieved the arrest is off his record, but he wants to file a lawsuit to fight back against the injustice.
After all, he said he can never get back the sleepless nights wondering if he’d serve time for a crime he never committed.
“You cannot wrongfully imprison somebody. No matter who you are. Everybody’s got rights,” Dillon said.
Gulf Coast News reached out to the Jacksonville Beach Police Department again, but they still refuse to answer any questions about their investigation.
Themes of partnerships, preparation and innovation loomed large during Wednesday’s Cleburne Chamber of Commerce’s quarterly luncheon.
Dubbed “Federal to City: A Community Conversation,” the event included U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Austin, Johnson County Commissioner Larry Woolley and Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain. State Rep. Helen Kerwin, R-Granbury, had planned to attend but was detained on state business in Austin.
The goal of the presentation, Chamber President Tracy Thomas said, was to update attendees on city, county and federal happenings as well as projects and initiatives in the works.
“This is a new format for us,” Chamber Board Chairman John Hardin said. “It’s one we hope you all will benefit from. Possibilities are endless when we all work together.”
Williams, Woolley and Cain fielded questions posed by Hardin. No audience questions were taken.
Hardin asked about efforts on the parts of the three, at their respective levels of government, to support small businesses.
“It’s important because 99% of businesses in America are small businesses,” Williams said. “Also, 75% of the workforce and payroll is generated by Main Street America.”
Main Street America that is business in general including small businesses, are in the best shape they’ve been in years, Williams said.
“Because we passed a little thing called the Big Beautiful Bill,” Williams said. “That’s done unbelievable things for Main Street.”
Such benefits, Williams said, include making tax cuts permanent and cutting regulations among other changes, Williams said.
“If you’re a community banker, or a borrower, you know that banks were strangled with regulations,” Williams said. “We’ve cut regulations tremendously.”
Changes, Williams said, that should increase competition, access to capital and other necessities of economic growth and opportunity.
“In county government we pride ourselves on limited government,” Woolley answered in reply to the same question. “There’s very little red tape for businesses in unincorporated county areas. No impact fees and the only permit fees would be some kind of new construction.”
Cain cited facade and other city grants available to help restore and repair downtown area buildings and efforts to simplify the city’s permitting process.
“A lot of times when you interact with a city you have to go here, go there, get bounced around,” Cain said. “We’re planning to convert [a bank building the city purchased years ago] into a one-stop shop. When you need to pull permits or do business with the city you’ve got one place to go and we can all collaborate. We can work together to speed up the process because we know time is money.”
Hardin asked how the three are working to help the economy remain strong.
“Politics is local and less government is the best government,” Williams said. “Cutting regulations creates competition, creates entrepreneurship, brings more opportunity for risks and rewards. Because, when you give more power to the individual, you’ve got more opportunity, more cash flow and the ability to create more jobs.”
Cain that although the joke used to characterize Cleburne as “80 years of tradition unhampered by progress” investments in infrastructure and other programs undertaken during his 14 year tenure have prepared Cleburne for the challenges of growth.
Woolley talked of county growth, which has tripled since he moved to Grandview in 1982, and steps taken by the Johnson County Commissioners Court to prepare for that influx.
“We’ve made substantial investments in our law enforcement officers,” Woolley said. “Raised salaries so we’re now competitive and not a training ground anymore. We’ve invested to make sure this county is a safe and secure place to live and work.”
Woolley talked of Johnson County’s prime placement for living and business.
“An hour from two major airports,” Woolley said. “Thirty minutes from downtown Fort Worth, which is now the fourth largest city in the state.
“We’re one of the nine fastest growing counties in Texas. If that’s not good for small business start ups I can’t imagine what would make it any better.”
A $60 million bond approved by voters in November, Woolley said, will help fund numerous transportation projects to improve mobility and safety.
Cain reiterated the importance of partnerships and praised efforts on the parts of the cities, county, state and federal officials working together.
“Those partnerships bring a common, unified voice within the county,” Cain said. “That carries a lot of weight with state and federal officials.”
Cain and Woolley discussed projects and initiatives completed, underway and in the planning to ensure ample water supplies for the decades ahead.
Cleburne officials, among other projects, recently completed a major expansion of the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Cain touted Cleburne’s “pioneering efforts” in the area of capturing reuse water and said Cleburne is in great shape water wise.
“A lot better shape than some other parts of our great state,” Cain said.
Williams bemoaned the lack of business people in politics and called for more participation either through running for office, volunteering for committees or supporting business people who do. Cain and Woolley echoed Williams’ call for civic involvement and dialog with local officials.
“County and city government is government closest to the people,” Woolley said. “We’re very available. Don’t go to social media. That doesn’t accomplish anything but heartburn. We’re in the community. Find us, call us.”
While the Minnesota Lynx are waiting for Napheesa Collier to fully recover from a lingering ankle injury, they continue to notch victories and pad their lead atop the WNBA standings.
The Lynx attempt to extend their winning streak to seven games Tuesday night when they visit the New York Liberty for the teams’ fourth matchup in three weeks. The game is another rematch of last season’s WNBA Finals, won by the Liberty in five games.
The Lynx (28-5) hold a 3-0 advantage between the teams this season heading into the finale of the season series.
Collier scored 30 points in the first meeting between the teams when the Lynx earned a 100-93 victory on July 30 and was injured three days later in a game at Las Vegas. Minnesota’s Courtney Williams, Alanna Smith and Kayla McBride have stepped up in the absence of the WNBA’s top scorer at 23.5 points per game.
The Lynx earned an 86-80 home win over the Liberty on Saturday when Williams scored 26 points. McBride finished with 18 points in Minnesota’s 83-71 win at New York on Aug. 10.
‘To do this, in the stretch of games (when) we’re playing against really good teams, I’m super proud of us,’ said Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, whose team has added victories over the Aces, Seattle Storm and Washington Mystics to the three against the Liberty.
New York (21-13) is 4-6 since losing Breanna Stewart with a bone bruise in her right knee on July 26. The Liberty split the first six games of Stewart’s absence but return home with three losses in their past four games, including Saturday when the Lynx attempted 33 free throws and New York reached the foul line eight times.
Sabrina Ionescu led the Liberty in scoring four times in the first six games after Stewart was forced out early in their 101-99 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks. Ionescu was held to 13 points Saturday and is shooting 32.9 percent (26-of-79) over her past six games and was 5-of-16 from the floor Sunday.
Jonquel Jones led the Liberty with 17 on Saturday but combined with Ionsecu for just one point in the fourth quarter at Minnesota. Jones did not take a shot in more than seven minutes of the final quarter.
‘We got to just continue to get better every single game and I think we’ve done that,’ Ionescu said. ‘It’s been a long month on the road and for us to get back home in front of our crowd and we owe them from the last game that we played the Lynx at home.’
Tequila is the top-selling liquor at Virtue, the Hyde Park restaurant from award winners Erick Williams and Damarr Brown, says General Manager Jesus Garcia. The fact that the agave-based spirit beat out rum and bourbon surprised the team, as Virtue celebrates Black American culture.
The data reiterated the thirst for cocktails in Hyde Park, and Garcia says staff regularly turns away customers who just want to come in and have a drink. Virtue is food-focused, showcasing a gamut of southern culinary traditions. But the demand for tequila reveals an opportunity that Williams and Garcia hope to capitalize on when they open their new bar this fall, just around the corner from Virtue.
The newly named Cantina Rosa will focus on the beverage side, taking Virtue’s approach to Black culture, “leading with kindness and hospitality” and applying that to Mexican culture. Garcia grew up in Rogers Park but was born in Mexico. He arrived in America when he was 3, his family is from Puebla, Mexico. They returned to Mexico after about a decade before once more settling in Chicago. While Garcia lacks memories of Mexico as a young child, he vividly remembers his second stint in Mexico as a teen. The bar won’t focus on a particular region or spirit. Garcia is happy to show that Mexico is about more than agave and he wants to showcase bourbon and Charanda — a rum from Michoacan, Mexico.
Garcia sees a chance to fill a niche in Hyde Park, and while he doesn’t mind expanding customers’ tastes, introducing them to Mexican flavors they haven’t experienced, he doesn’t want to be heavy-handed.
“We are mindful that before it’s a Mexican bar, it’s going to a bar,” Garcia says. “If somebody comes in and orders an Old Fashioned, we’re going to be able to make that.”
This philosophy also tracks with the bar’s name. Williams and Garcia wanted to pick something English speakers could gravitate toward, something personal, yet easy to pronounce. It’s not exactly the “Martha” moment from Batman v Superman, but Garcia’s mother is named Rosa, and Williams’s grandmother is Rose.
They’re still orchestrating the bar bites menu, offering tacos and more. The drink menu is already finalized. They worked with celebrated barman Paul McGee on the beverage list and the bar’s layout. While Williams and Garcia are confident in operating a restaurant — they met while working at Mk The Restaurant — they brought in McGee, seeing how he helped make Lost Lake in Logan Square a successful tropical drink destination.
Garcia began his restaurant career at 15 as a busser at Chef’s Station, a since-shuttered restaurant in Evanston. He held several positions at Mk before delving into wine and serving as the restaurant’s general manager. He remembers meeting Williams and noting that he “came across as very genuine and intense.” The two bonded over strong work ethics and Williams credits Garcia’s leadership at Virtue in making the restaurant successful.
The space, a former laundromat, will be redecorated with local art, pottery, and seating options for big and small groups. Stay tuned for more information about Cantina Rosa as fall approaches.
Cantina Rosa, 5230 S. Harper Avenue, planned for a fall opening.
During World War I, Black soldiers like David Brewer’s grandfather were not allowed in combat. Instead, they lugged cargo, dug trenches and buried the dead for the U.S. Army.
But as the Western Front continued to churn out the dead, France welcomed a group of Black Americans in 1918 to fight under their country’s banner.
The group became known as the Harlem Hellfighters — one of the most renowned Black regiments in history.
Brewer’s grandfather Sylvester Calhoun didn’t fight, but he helped the estimated 4,500 Black soldiers in France who turned the tide of the war.
In 2014, Brewer, a retired vice admiral in the Navy — only the fifth African American to attain the rank — flew to France with his 94-year-old mother so she could see where her father had served with her own eyes.
Actor Dennis Haysbert, left, moderated the panel of retired military leaders including the Air Force’s Lt. Gen. Stayce Harris and Maj. Gen. John F. Phillips, speaking.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
The pair found delight at the sounds of jazz on city streets — just one influence of the Black soldiers who came to France for the Great War.
During World War II, Brewer’s uncle fought in the U.S. Army in Italy. Brewer’s father did not see combat during his service, but settled in Tuskegee, Ala., for his studies.
“His classmate,” Brewer said, “was Gen. Chappie James” — the first Black man to become a four-star general in any U.S. military branch.
Former lawmaker Mark Ridley-Thomas, right, chats with retired Navy Vice Adm. David Brewer, center, and Marine Corps Reserve Maj. Gen. Leo V. Williams III after the panel discussion.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
On Wednesday, as Veterans Day neared, Brewer and five other Black military leaders brought their stories to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. They spoke about the long and rich history of Black service members.
“Believe it or not,” philanthropist Bernard Kinsey said, many Black soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their heroics in the the Civil War.
And Black troops — “‘colored,’ we were called then,” Kinsey clarified — “dominated getting recognized until Jim Crow.”
The Veterans Day panel was organized by Kinsey’s family, renowned as art collectors. The event included a tour of the historic art, poems and artifacts — like a 1924 photograph of 28 Black Los Angeles firefighters — from the Kinsey Collection that will hang in the halls of SoFi until March.
The heroics of Henry Johnson, who earned the nickname “Black Death” in May 1918, were highlighted at Wednesday’s event.
Fighting on the edge of France’s Argonne Forest, Johnson saved a fellow soldier from capture using grenades and his rifle as a club. And using a bolo knife, he prevented a German raid from reaching his French allies.
Overseas, Johnson and compatriot Needham Roberts received the Croix de Guerre — France’s highest award for valor. But back home in America, the Army refused to recognize Johnson, who was wounded 21 times in the battle.
Discharge records did not mention his debilitating injuries, and the Army would notaward him a Purple Heart.
Johnson died in 1929 at the age of 32 of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. In 2015, President Obama posthumously awarded Johnson the Medal of Honor.
Although Johnson’s bravery overseas didn’t immediately ease the hardships that he and his peers faced when they returned home, he helped pave the way for prominent commanders in years to come.
In 1940, Benjamin O. Davis Sr. became the Army’s first Black general.
But the belief that Black people could not succeed as officers, or sailors, lingered for years more, Brewer said. In 1944, naval commanders finally launched an officer training course for 16 of the estimated 100,000 Black sailors in the U.S. Navy.
Every one of them passed the course, according to Navy records.
But only 12 were selected as officers. A 13th was made a chief warrant officer, resulting in the group’s nickname: “The Golden 13.”
Twenty-eight years later, in 1970, Brewer joined the Navy, which at the time had no Black admirals.
“And only five – five — Black sailors had achieved the rank of Navy captain by 1970,” he added.
This year marks 75 years since the U.S. military desegregated, and the numbers still aren’t where they should be, according to the panel of prestigious Black officers.
As Brewer told it, President Truman only integrated the military after Isaac Woodard, a young Black Army sergeant, was dragged off a Greyhound bus on the way home to South Carolina after serving in World War II.
Still in uniform, just hours after being honorably discharged, Woodard was beaten blind and arrested.
The panel of retired military leaders gave credit to the Black service members who came before them and made it possible for them to become high-ranking officers.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
“It was in my wife’s hometown — [in] Fairfield County, South Carolina,” Brewer shared with veterans, students and dignitaries who traveled from as far as Washington, D.C., for the panel.
The country was outraged, and in July 1946, Truman issued Executive Order 9981, abolishing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin in the United States armed forces.
Even then, it took six years for the Army to fully integrate, said Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick — a Black commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers.
Bostick’s father was an orphan at 8 years old, living in Brooklyn, moving from foster home to foster home. “He never really had a family,” Bostick said, until he joined an all-Black unit in the Army at age 17.
He was able to move up the ranks to master sergeant, serving for more than two decades.
“Can you all imagine doing anything for 26 ½ years?” Bostick asked a group of Junior ROTC cadets from John C. Fremont High School in South Los Angeles.
Maj. Gen. Leo V. Williams III of the Marines remembered his father served as a steward in the Navy for 38 years “and retired as one of the senior Black enlisted folks in the Navy.”
The Marine Corps, on the other hand, “was so far behind the other services that you can’t even begin to compare,” Williams said.
When his now ex-wife told her father that she’d be marrying a Black Marine Corps officer, “he said, ‘He’s a liar,’” Williams recalled. “That was 1970.”
“It’s a history that we have crawled our way slowly forward,” he added. “But you have to understand the history to understand how difficult it may be to make moves based on the culture of your institution.”
Williams bid farewell to the Junior ROTC Marines with a ringing “Oorah” as he departed the stage.
Ruth Murcia, left, and fellow Marine Corps Junior ROTC students from John C. Fremont High School join retired Maj. Gen. Williams, one of the panelists, at the exhibit of items from the Kinsey Collection.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Ruth Murcia, a junior at Fremont High, waited for a chance to speak with Williams. The silver lieutenant discs on her uniform collar quickly caught his eye.
Her family background is steeped in military tradition, but Murcia fears the journey won’t be as easy as loved ones make it sound. She explained that she’s on the fence about joining the armed forces.
Williams advised Murcia to head into the military as an officer, a path made possible by ROTC programs across the country.
Army and Air Force leaders recognized the potential of Black recruits and began placing ROTC units at historically Black universities like Howard as early as 1917. But the Navy refused to host a program of its own until President Lyndon B. Johnson forced the issue in 1968, Brewer said.
The president, a native Texan, placed the unit in his home state at Prairie View A&M.
In 1970, Brewer became one of 13 graduates in the university’s inaugural ROTC class.
“We call it the Prairie View Naval ROTC Golden 13,” Brewer said. “It’s ironic how history repeats itself.”
Bostick, having served as the Army’s head of personnel, said he didn’t aspire to join the military as a child growing up in Japan and Germany.
College was his calling.
“I watched my dad fight two wars. He was always away,” Bostick said. “I didn’t want to do that.”
Bostick fortunately found an ally who helped him become one of six Black engineers out of 4,000 graduates at West Point to complete their coursework.
“In 221 years, there’s been one Black chief of engineers from West Point. That’s me — I don’t know how I got there,” Bostick said with a chuckle.
After 38 years of service, the Army tapped Bostick to address the lack of diversity in the Corps of Engineers, he said.
Bostick called 25 generals into a room to see whom he could promote. There was one white woman, and he was the lone Black face in the room.
He then called in 42 colonels.
“There’s one Asian and there’s one Black female,” Bostick said.
Then he said: “Give me the top 25 captains.” There was one Black man and one white woman.
“So then I go back to West Point, and I’m welcoming 127 cadets that picked the Corps of Engineers. There’s two Black males,” Bostick added.
He wryly told the Army that he estimated he’d have the diversity problem fixed by 2048.
New York Fed President John Williams on Thursday sounded content with the current level of interest rates, but said he will be watching data closely to make sure the level of rates is high enough to keep inflation moving down.
“We’ve done a lot,” Williams said during a discussion at a conference sponsored by Bloomberg News.
