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Maryland police kill armed black woman who threatened them

(Reuters) – Maryland police fatally shot an armed black woman who espoused anti-government views and threatened to kill officers during a standoff where her 5-year-old son was wounded, authorities said on Tuesday.

The shooting of Korryn Gaines, 23, of Randallstown, Maryland, about 17 miles northwest of Baltimore, on Monday prompted outrage on social media, reigniting concerns about police use of force, especially against African-Americans.

Gaines pointed a shotgun at Baltimore County officers when they arrived at her apartment to serve warrants on her and Kareem Courtney, 39, her boyfriend, police said.

“When somebody points a gun directly at an officer and threatens to shoot them, it very well may not end well. That is the situation we had in this case,” police spokeswoman Elise Armacost told reporters.

Police said Gaines was live-streaming video during the faceoff and followers were encouraging her not to give in peacefully.

Gaines had faced charges that included disorderly conduct and resisting arrest from a March traffic stop. Courtney was wanted for an assault charge against Gaines.

Courtney, who is also black, fled with a 1-year-old boy and was arrested. Gaines remained in the apartment with her son.

After a standoff of about five hours, an officer fired when Gaines pointed the gun at officers and threatened to kill them. She was then killed in an exchange of fire.

The wounded boy was struck in the arm and is in good condition at a hospital, police said. Who fired the round that hit him is not known.

Police did not give the race of the officers involved.

During the March traffic incident, officers stopped Gaines for driving with pieces of cardboard in the place of license plates, a police report said.

One of them had written on it, “Any Government official who compromises this pursuit to happiness and right to travel will be held criminally responsible and fined, as this is a natural right and freedom.”

She tossed the officers’ citations out the window. She said they “would have to ‘murder’ her” to get her out of her car so it could be towed, the report said.

Armacost said Gaines espoused anti-government views but did not know if she belonged to a specific anti-government group.

Facebook deactivated Gaines’ account during the standoff at the request of police.

The hash tags #KorrynGaines and #SayHerName trended heavily on Twitter. Videos showing Gaines’ encounter with police went viral.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington and by Angela Moon in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Andrew Hay)

Bodies found off coast of Libya as migrant toll climbs: IOM

GENEVA (Reuters) – The bodies of 120 migrants believed to have been trying to reach Italy by boat from Libya have been found off the Libyan coast over the past 10 days, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.

“We are getting this information from Libyan authorities that we are collaborating with,” said IOM spokesman Joel Millman. The bodies had been discovered near Sabratha and had not come from previously known shipwrecks in the Mediterranean.

Mainly African migrants are taking often unseaworthy boats from Libya to Italy, gateway to Europe. Nearly 8,000 were rescued at sea between Friday to Monday on that central Mediterranean route, Millman told a briefing.

It is a longer and more perilous journey than that from Turkey to Greece, largely shut down since a deal was struck between the European Union and Turkey in March, although 174 migrants did make it by sea to Greece over the weekend, IOM said.

More than 257,000 migrants and refugees have already entered Europe by sea this year through July 27, and for the third straight year, at least 3,000 others have died, the agency said.

A total of 4,027 migrants or refugees have perished worldwide so far this year, three-quarters of them in the Mediterranean, Millman said.

The figures represents a 35 percent increase on the global toll during the first seven months of 2015, he said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Federal Team begins probe of deadly Texas balloon crash

Authorities head down a dirt road toward to investigate the scene of a hot air balloon crash that left 16 feared dead near Maxwell, Texas, U.S.

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – U.S. safety investigators in central Texas began gathering evidence on Sunday into what caused the crash of a hot air balloon that killed 16 people after it hit a power line and plummeted to the ground in flames.

The balloon crashed on Saturday into a pasture near Lockhart, about 30 miles (48 km) south of Austin, killing all aboard. It was the deadliest crash ever involving a hot air balloon in the Western Hemisphere, according to the Balloon Federation of North America.

Aerial television footage showed flattened remnants of the red, white and blue balloon, adorned with a yellow smiley face wearing sunglasses.

The crash comes two years after the National Transportation Safety Board recommended greater oversight of the hot air balloon industry, said Robert Sumwalt, who is heading the NTSB’s investigation of the accident.

“The NTSB feels that there needs to be greater oversight by the regulator, and that regulator is the Federal Aviation Administration,” Sumwalt told a news conference near the crash site on Sunday. The FAA could not be immediately reached for comment.

Sumwalt said the balloon struck high-voltage power lines crossing the pasture before it crashed. But he said it had yet to be determined whether the fire started before or after it struck the wires.

The balloon took off about 20 minutes late, after passengers met in a Walmart parking lot and took a van to a nearby launch site, he said. Investigators want to know why takeoff was delayed.

Investigators have recovered cameras, iPads and mobile phones belonging the people on board the balloon. Most of the devices were damaged, but NTSB investigators still hoped to be able to gain information from them, he said.

Not counting Saturday’s incident, there have been 60 hot air balloon crashes in the United States since 2011, leading to seven deaths, Sumwalt said.

The balloon was operated by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides, based in New Braunfels, according to the NTSB. Attempts to reach the company for comment were unsuccessful.

Federal Aviation Administration records showed that Nichols had a 2014 commercial pilot’s license for hot air balloons, with an address in Chesterfield, Missouri.

Authorities have not released the names of the passengers.

But friends and family of Paige Brabson and her mother, Lorilee Brabson, said the two women are among the dead.

Paige Brabson was herself a new mother, according to a Facebook post by Ivan Monterrosa. It was not immediately clear where the women lived, but Monterrosa’s Facebook profile indicated that he graduated from high school in Wylie, Texas, in 2011.

“Yesterday, the beloved mother of my daughter, Paige Brabson and her mother, Lorilee Brabson, both passed away in a tragic hot air balloon accident,” Monterrosa wrote. “All I ask for are prayers and good vibes not just for myself but the Brabson family as well.”

The firm’s records as well as photos and videos will be part of the investigation, Sumwalt said.

The balloon company said in a recorded telephone message that chief pilot and owner Alfred “Skip” Nichols had died in the crash and all flights were canceled.

In a 2015 Facebook video, Nichols said he was inspired to become a balloonist at 15, when one landed on his street. He helped pack it up and became a crew member.

“It’s an adventure every time,” he said.

The company’s Facebook page was filled with condolence messages and photographs of Nichols.

“In loving memory of my sweet friend, Skip Nichols, I will always remember your visits to my house, just showing up for long walks and talking about life, I will love you forever, Godspeed, my friend!” Lisa Wade Kaminski wrote on Facebook.

(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington and Frank McGurty in New York; Writing by Ian Simpson and Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Sandra Maler)

Two dead as flood tears through Maryland town

By Ian Simpson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Flooding from torrential rain killed two people in Ellicott City, Maryland, with floodwaters washing through the U.S. town’s historic downtown, collapsing a street and sweeping away cars, officials said on Sunday.

Ellicott City received almost 6 inches (15 cm) of rain in two hours late on Saturday as thunderstorms moved through the region, causing the Tiber, a tributary of the Patapsco River, to break its banks, officials said.

Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman said the flooding in Ellicott City, about 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Washington, was worse than that from Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

“I don’t believe there’s ever been a flood and the devastation that we’ve had overnight in Ellicott City,” he said in an interview with Baltimore’s WBAL NewsRadio.

County spokesman Andy Barth said a man and a woman were killed. The woman’s body was recovered from the river overnight.

Barth said every business near the river on the town’s historic Main Street had suffered major damage, including building fronts torn off and doors stripped away.

In all, at least four properties were completely destroyed and another 20 to 30 buildings were badly damaged, Kittleman said in a statement.

Howard County officials posted a photo on social media of a glass and wood storefront with its foundation ripped away, leaving a void where wooden struts were installed as a work crew tried to stabilize the building.

Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency, as did Kittleman. The declarations allow aid to be released more quickly for Ellicott City, which has a population of about 65,000.

Firefighters rescued about 120 people and emergency workers were also dealing with a water main break, Howard County said in a statement. On a video posted online, men formed a human chain to get a woman trapped by raging waters out of her car.

Television footage showed a downtown street collapsed, power poles down, mud-covered roads and cars tossed onto one another.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Adrian Croft and Marguerita Choy; Editing by Michael Perry)

U.S. leaders seek unity at vigil for slain Louisiana officers

police saluting the caskets of fallen police officers

By Sam Karlin

BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Loretta Lynch called for unity to honor three slain Louisiana police officers, speaking at a memorial service on Thursday in Baton Rouge where they were gunned down this month by a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

Several hundred people and dozens of law enforcement officers attended the vigil, where Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards also implored the community to seek peace and healing after the July 17 attack that also wounded three other officers.

The shootings came amid a series of deadly encounters igniting debate over policing and minorities in the United States. The killings rattled a city already grappling with protests after the fatal police shooting on July 5 of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man confronted by officers while selling CDs outside a convenience store.

Biden said he heard that Sterling’s aunt, who raised him, had prayed with a slain officer’s father.

“Loss is loss is loss,” he said, speaking at a church in Baton Rouge, the state capital. “Now the city has to reach out, the country has to reach out to law enforcement, and let you know how much we care.”

On the stage behind him, three chairs sat empty, decorated with sashes and uniform caps representing the officers.

Choking back tears, two of the officers’ wives recalled phone calls and door knocks on an initially normal Sunday morning that changed their lives forever.

Slain Baton Rouge police officers Matthew Gerald, 41, and Montrell Jackson, 32, and East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola, 45, were killed in what Louisiana officials described as a calculated attack. Shooter Gavin Long, 29, a black former Marine with ties to an African-American anti-government group, was also killed in an exchange of gunfire.

“No family should ever have to be without their loved ones, especially when these three heroes could be home had a person not been filled with so much hatred,” said Tonja Garafola.

Jackson’s wife, Trenisha, recalled his wish to see healing in the city and directed the crowd to repeat sentiments that he had posted on Facebook in the tense days before his death.

“I will not let hate infect my heart,” the crowd repeated.

The assault followed the deaths of five officers in Dallas, Texas on July 7, who were shot by another black former U.S. serviceman. President Barack Obama traveled to Dallas in the wake of those shootings.

One of the wounded Louisiana officers, Nicholas Tullier, 41, remains hospitalized in critical condition, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office said on Thursday. At the vigil, Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said he is “fighting for his life.”

(Writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and James Dalgleish)

San Diego police say officer fatally shot, another wounded

(Reuters) – A San Diego police officer was fatally shot and another was wounded late on Thursday, the police department said on Friday, adding one suspect was taken into custody.

The officers, members of the department’s gang suppression unit, were shot during a traffic stop at about 11 p.m. PDT (0600 GMT) in Southcrest, a neighborhood in southeast San Diego, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The officers were taken to hospitals.

“It is with a very sad heart that we announce the death of one of our officers tonight,” the department said on Friday on its Twitter feed.

The second officer underwent surgery and is expected to survive, it said.

The police department added it was searching for other suspects.

The incident comes after eight officers were shot dead in ambushes in Dallas and Baton Rouge in July, putting police departments across the United States on high alert.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Editing by Tom Heneghan and W Simon)

Suspects sought in Florida nightclub shooting that left two teens dead

Fort Myers police at scene of Club Blu shooting

By Chris Tilley

FORT MYERS, Fla. (Reuters) – Florida police said on Monday they had taken three people into custody but were searching for additional suspects in connection with a shooting outside a nightclub just after midnight that left two teenagers dead and more than a dozen people wounded.

The shooting took place shortly after 12:30 a.m. EDT (0430 GMT) on Monday in the parking lot of Club Blu, which was hosting an event open to teenagers, the Fort Myers Police Department said.

Police said Stef’An Strawder, an 18-year-old high school basketball star, and Sean Archilles, 14, were killed. Two other people were critically wounded.

Police officials in Fort Myers, located on Florida’s Gulf Coast, said terrorism was not a factor in the state’s latest outburst of gun violence this summer, but provided no details about a possible motive.

The three young men were arrested after fleeing the scene in two vehicles and were charged in connection to that pursuit, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted on Facebook.

According to the statement Derrick Church, 19, was charged with assault on a law enforcement officer after accelerating his vehicle toward a sheriff’s deputy. Church was shot in the stomach by the deputy during that altercation, but was treated and had been released from a hospital, the sheriff’s department said.

Demetrius O’Neal, 19, and Tajze Battle, 22, were taken into custody on suspicion of resisting arrest, according to the statement.

“This was not a terrorist act,” Fort Myers interim Police Chief Dennis Eads said at a news conference.

He said officers responding to the shooting found chaos at the scene.

“No one really knew what was going on or what happened,” Eads said.

Officers provided first aid to victims, bandaging some with tourniquets to stop bleeding, he said. Paramedics took some victims to the hospital while others drove themselves.

At least 19 people, ranging from 12- to 27-years-old, were treated at local hospitals, said Lisa Sgarlata, chief administrative officer for Lee Memorial Hospital.

Three patients remained hospitalized at Lee Memorial as of Monday afternoon, two of whom were in critical condition.

The shooting came six weeks after a massacre at a nightclub in Orlando, in central Florida, where a gunman who sympathized with Islamist extremist groups killed 49 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Despite the recent violence, Florida Governor Rick Scott said the state’s crime rates were at a 45-year low.

Fort Myers, about 150 miles southwest of Orlando, was the scene of another shooting incident last October when one person was killed and several wounded by gunfire at a festival that attracts thousands of people in zombie costumes.

ALL-AGES PARTY

Before the latest shooting, Club Blu, located in a partially vacant strip mall, was hosting a “swimsuit glow party” for people of all ages, according to a flyer posted on Twitter by television station WINK.

The nightclub said on its Facebook page that the shooting occurred when the venue was closing and parents were picking up their children. The page later appeared to have been removed.

“We tried to give the teens what we thought was a safe place to have a good time,” the nightclub’s post said, adding that armed security guards were present inside and outside the club. “It was not kids at the party that did this despicable act.”

Jean Archilles, 37, the father of the 14-year-old killed, said his son loved sports, especially basketball.

“It happened for a reason. I don’t know what the reason is,” he said in a telephone interview, adding that he had not been told details about his son’s death.

Sean Archilles was due to enter eighth grade at Royal Palm Exceptional Center, while Strawder was to start his senior year at Lehigh Senior High School, according to the Lee County School District.

Strawder’s mother, Stephanie White, told the News-Press newspaper that her son was shot in his right shoulder as he walked out of the club and was pronounced dead at the hospital. His 19-year-old sister survived a gunshot wound in the leg, White said.

Police said shots were also fired at a nearby residence, where there was one minor injury.

In a video interview, Syreeta Gary said her daughter and a friend ran for cover. Her daughter escaped unscathed, but a bullet struck a friend in the leg.

(Additional reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Frank McGurty and Laila Kearney in New York and Mary Milliken and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; editing by Leslie Adler and G Crosse)

Suicide bombers hit peacekeeping base in Somali capital, 13 dead: police

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Suicide bombers killed at least 13 people at the gates of the African Union’s main peacekeeping base in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, police said, in an attack claimed by the Islamist militants of al Shabaab.

The force of the explosions shattered windows at the nearby airport, showered arriving passengers with glass and forced the suspension of flights, police and witnesses said.

Police said the first attacker detonated a car bomb and the second tried to storm the base on foot, but was shot and exploded at the gate.

“At least 13 people mostly security forces died in the two car bomb blasts,” and 12 others were wounded, Abdiqadir Omar, a police officer told Reuters.

The guards were caught in the blast as they escorted U.N. personnel into the base, which is known as Halane, he added.

Al Shabaab, an Islamist militant group linked to al Qaeda and fighting to topple Somalia’s Western-backed government, said it set off two car bombs.

The African Union’s AMISOM force said on Twitter it condemned the “senseless attacks that aim to disrupt and cripple the lives of ordinary Somalis”. There was no immediate comment from the United Nations.

People arriving on international flights said the blasts shattered windows in the airport buildings.

“We were greeted by two loud blasts. The glass of the airport building fell on us,” said Ali Nur, who had just got off a plane from Nairobi.

Al Shabaab regularly attacks AMISOM, which is made up of about 22,000 military personnel from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and other African countries helping to support Somalia’s government and army.

The country in the Horn of Africa was plunged into anarchy in the early 1990s following the toppling of military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar; Writing by Duncan Miriri and Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Natural disasters in China kill more than 800 since June

Flooding in China one of the many natural disasters

BEIJING (Reuters) – More than 800 people have died and about 200 are missing in a series of natural disasters that have struck China since June, the worst casualty figures since a similar period in 2011, state media said on Tuesday.

Large parts of central, eastern and northern China have been hit by flooding this summer, while a typhoon left a wave of destruction this month and a freak tornado killed at least 98 in the eastern province of Jiangsu in June.

Since the year began, 1,074 people have died in natural disasters, 833 of them since June, with 270 missing, Xinhua news agency cited the Ministry of Civil Affairs as saying.

Direct economic losses have reached 298 billion yuan ($44.63 billion) this year, with about 400,000 houses destroyed and 6.24 million residents relocated, the ministry added.

Separately, the government on the southern island province of Hainan issued a typhoon warning for a tropical storm that is expected to hit in the early hours of Wednesday.

($1=6.6769 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Islamist knifemen slit priest’s throat in church in France

Police outside of French Catholic Church where hostages have been taken

By Noemie Olive

SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY, France (Reuters) – Knife-wielding attackers interrupted a church service in France, forced the priest to his knees and slit his throat on Tuesday, an attack that President Francois Hollande said showed the threat from Islamist militancy was greater than ever.

Police shot and killed the attackers as they emerged from the church, freeing three hostages, one of whom was seriously wounded.

The knifemen arrived during morning mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, northwest of Paris, where the 85-year-old parish priest Father Jacques Hamel was leading prayers.

“They forced him to his knees and he tried to defend himself and that’s when the drama began,” Sister Danielle, who escaped as the attackers slayed the priest, told RMC radio.

“They filmed themselves. It was like a sermon in Arabic around the altar,” the nun said.

Speaking at the scene, Hollande called it a “dreadful terrorist attack,” adding that the attackers had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the militant group that he said had declared war on France.

News agency Amaq, which is affiliated with Islamic State, said two of its “soldiers” had carried out the attack. Police said one person had been arrested.

Tuesday’s attack came less than two weeks after a Tunisian plowed a truck into a crowd in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people. Islamic State claimed that attack.

France is a major partner in the U.S.-led military coalition bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria. The White House condemned Tuesday’s attack and commended the French police’s “quick and decisive response.”

Several French media reported that one of the assailants was a local who had spent a year in jail on his return from Turkey after being intercepted trying to travel to Syria, but had been freed on bail with an electronic tag pending trial for terrorism offences.

The prosecutor’s office said the identification of the two suspects was still under way.

MERCILESS

A horrified local resident, Cecile Lefebre, said: “I have no words. How do you arrive at this point, killing people in cold blood like this? It’s pure barbarity.”

Since the Bastille Day mass murder in Nice, there has been a spate of attacks in Germany, some of which appear to be Islamist-inspired.

“In the face of this threat that has never been greater in France and Europe, the government is absolutely determined (to defeat) terrorism,” Hollande said in a televised address.

But former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected to enter a conservative primary for next year’s presidential election, accused the Socialist government of being soft.

“We must be merciless,” Sarkozy said in a statement to reporters. “The legal quibbling, precautions and pretexts for insufficient action are not acceptable. I demand that the government implement without delay the proposals we presented months ago. There is no more time to be wasted.”

The center-right opposition wants all Islamist suspects to be either held in detention or electronically tagged to avert potential attacks.

Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is also expected to run for the presidency, said both Sarkozy’s and Hollande’s parties had failed on security.

“All those who have governed us for 30 years bear an immense responsibility. It’s revolting to watch them bickering!” she tweeted.

Hollande said France should “use all its means” within the law to fight Islamic State.

Pope Francis condemned what he called a “barbarous killing”.

“The fact that this episode took place in a church, killing a priest, a minister of the Lord and involving the faithful, is something that affects us profoundly,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

In a telephone call with the pope, Hollande expressed “the sorrow of all French people after the heinous murder of Father Jacques Hamel by two terrorists,” and said everything would be done to protect places of worship, the presidential palace said.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former conservative prime minister who now heads the Senate’s foreign affairs committee tweeted: “Everything is being done to trigger a war of religions.”

(Additional reporting by Chine Labbe, Marine Pennetier, Michel Rose and Richard Lough in Paris and Jess Mason in Washington; Writing by Richard Lough and Paul Taylor; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and Robin Pomeroy)

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