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Up to 20 hours of footage relating to Tyre Nichols’ deadly beating yet to be released, prosecutor says | CNN

Published

2 years ago

February 2, 2023

Up to 20 hours of footage relating to Tyre Nichols’ deadly beating yet to be released, prosecutor says | CNN

CNN
—

As much as 20 hours of further footage regarding the lethal Memphis police beating of a 29-year-old Black man has but to be launched, a prosecutor stated Wednesday as his workplace contemplates whether or not to file extra fees within the case.

The unreleased footage surrounding Tyre Nichols’ brutal January 7 visitors cease most notably contains audio of what was stated after the beating and after an ambulance takes Nichols to a hospital, Shelby County prosecutor Steven Mulroy advised CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

When that unseen video shall be launched publicly shall be as much as town of Memphis and Memphis police, he stated.

Town final week launched body-camera and surveillance footage displaying what Mulroy stated is “the related elements” of the preliminary cease and the beating at a second location. However the different footage may play a key investigative position.

The launched video already has contradicted what officers stated occurred within the preliminary police report filed after Nichols’ beating. And potential fees of “false reporting” associated to the preliminary police report are being investigated, Erica Williams, a spokesperson for Mulroy’s workplace, advised CNN Wednesday.

“The incident report that has gone public doesn’t match up on all fours with what one sees when one seems to be on the video that’s already been launched,” Mulroy stated Wednesday.

Such feedback are a sign that that is the newest instance of the arrest of a Black particular person through which the model of occasions given by authorities doesn’t match up with video or witness accounts. Different situations – such because the lethal encounters involving George Floyd, Ronald Greene and Walter Scott – have led to fees filed in opposition to legislation enforcement officers.

Final week’s launch of video of Nichols being repeatedly punched and kicked by police shook a nation lengthy accustomed to movies of police brutality – particularly in opposition to folks of colour – and spurred largely peaceable weekend protests from New York to Los Angeles.

On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Rev. Al Sharpton and households of different Black folks killed in police encounters got here collectively for Nichols’ funeral, celebrating his life and making renewed requires police reform.

“There ought to be no different youngster that ought to undergo the way in which my son and all the opposite mother and father right here (who) have misplaced their kids” have, stated RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mom.

The preliminary police report filed in Memphis advised Nichols was violent. It additionally made no point out of the officers punching and kicking him.

It claimed Nichols “began to combat” with officers and at one level grabbed the gun of one of many detectives, two issues not seen in police movies launched final week. And regardless that the movies don’t seem to indicate Nichols preventing again, the report lists Nichols as a suspect in an aggravated assault.

The report additionally describes one of many officers on the scene – one in every of 5 now charged with second diploma homicide – as a “sufferer.”

Whereas authorities haven’t launched the police report, a photograph of a police report was posted by a controversial Memphis radio discuss present host. The police report account was first reported by The New York Occasions.

Up to now, 5 Memphis law enforcement officials, all of whom are Black, have been fired and charged with second-degree homicide. As well as, two different law enforcement officials have been placed on go away, the SCORPION unit they have been a part of was disbanded, three Memphis Fireplace Division personnel have been fired and two sheriff’s deputies have been placed on go away.

Mulroy has requested the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to expedite its investigation, and all concerned within the encounter are being scrutinized as prosecutors think about further fees, he has stated.

These beneath scrutiny embrace personnel who confirmed up after the beating on the second scene and those that filed paperwork, Mulroy stated.

Nichols’ funeral on Wednesday noticed a celebration of the younger man’s life, but in addition a recognition of households of different Black folks killed and a united name for police reform.

His mom remembered him as “an exquisite particular person” and echoed others in calling for passage of the George Floyd Policing Act.

Harris additionally known as Nichols’ dying a second that calls for congressional police reform.

“As vice chairman of the USA, we demand that Congress go the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Joe Biden will signal it and we must always not delay,” Harris stated Wednesday.

That laws twice cleared the Home however it by no means went anyplace within the Senate. If handed, the act would arrange a nationwide registry of police misconduct to cease officers from evading penalties by shifting to a different jurisdiction.

“Why will we wish to see the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act handed? As a result of then you need to assume twice earlier than you beat Tyre Nichols. You assume twice earlier than you shoot at somebody unarmed,” Sharpton stated.

Sharpton known as out the 5 Black former officers charged in Nichols’ dying and invoked Martin Luther King Jr., who was killed in Memphis in 1968.

“Within the metropolis that Dr. King misplaced his life … you beat a brother to dying,” Sharpton stated.

“There’s nothing extra insulting and offensive to these of us that combat to open doorways, that you just walked by way of these doorways and act like the parents we needed to combat for to get you thru them doorways. You didn’t get on the police division by your self,” Sharpton stated. “The police chief didn’t get there by herself. Folks needed to march and go to jail and a few misplaced their lives to open the doorways for you and the way dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing.”

Nichols’ household is trying to get justice, not only for them but in addition for all of the households, his stepfather, Rodney Wells, stated.

“This can be a steady combat that we’ve got to combat for. We have now to combat for justice. We can’t proceed to let these folks brutalize our children,” Wells stated.

Tyre Nichols’ sister: ‘All I would like is my child brother again’

By tears, Nichols’ mom known as the tragedy her household suffered “unimaginable.”

“The one factor that’s retaining me going is the truth that I actually, really consider that my son was despatched right here on an project from God,” she stated tearfully at Wednesday’s funeral.

“I suppose now his project is completed and he’s been taken house,” she added.

Nichols’ sister shared reminiscences of him through the service and mirrored on his dying.

“I see the world displaying him love and preventing for his justice, however all I would like is my child brother again,” the sister, Keyana Dixon, stated by way of tears.

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Venezuela Says It Will Resume Accepting U.S. Deportation Flights

Published

6 hours ago

March 22, 2025

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Venezuela Says It Will Resume Accepting U.S. Deportation Flights

Venezuela announced Saturday that it had reached an agreement with the Trump administration to resume accepting deportation flights carrying migrants who were in the United States illegally, with the first one landing as soon as Sunday.

Part of Venezuela’s willingness to accept the flights appeared related to the plight of Venezuelan migrants whom the Trump administration recently sent to notorious prisons in El Salvador with little to no due process. In a statement on Saturday, a representative for the Venezuelan government said: “Migration isn’t a crime, and we will not rest until we achieve the return of all of those in need and rescue our brothers kidnapped in El Salvador.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment Saturday, though one of the president’s close allies, Richard Grenell, said earlier this month that the Venezuelans had agreed to accept the flights.

Venezuela’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, suspended the deportation cooperation after the Trump administration revoked a Biden-era policy that allowed more oil to be produced in Venezuela and exported.

Since the suspension of the flights, Mr. Maduro has come under intense pressure from the Trump administration, which has been pressing various Latin American nations to take in more deportees. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media that Venezuela would face new “severe and escalating” sanctions if it refused to accept its repatriated citizens.

Venezuelans have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in record numbers in recent years, in response to the economic and social crisis consuming the nation, which Mr. Maduro blames on U.S. sanctions against his regime.

The agreement to resume the deportation flights comes after the Trump administration invoked an obscure wartime authority from 1798 called the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, whose strongman leader agreed to accept the migrants, putting them in prisons where conditions are so nightmarish that many experts say they constitute human rights abuses.

The use of the wartime authority has emerged as a flashpoint in a broader struggle between federal judges across the country, who have sought to curb many of Mr. Trump’s recent executive actions, and an administration that has come close to openly refusing to comply with judicial orders.

Last week, a federal judge in Washington issued a temporary order blocking the government from deporting any immigrants under the wartime authority, saying he did not believe the law offered grounds for the deportation flights.

The Trump administration had claimed that the Venezuelan migrants who had been sent to El Salvador were all criminal gang members, but the families of some of those men, as well as immigration lawyers, argued that this was not the case for all the deportees sent to El Salvadoran prisons. And the administration provided little detail as to whom the individuals it sent there actually were. There seemed to be little to no due process at play.

Mr. Trump has appeared captivated by the ability to send people to the prison complexes in El Salvador, threatening on Friday that those caught vandalizing Teslas could be banished there for 20 years.

The president and allies, including Elon Musk, went to war with the judge over his order restricting deportations, calling for the judge’s impeachment. The rapidly escalating spat caused Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. of the Supreme Court to weigh in with a rare statement, admonishing the calls for the judge’s impeachment. This spurred concerns of a constitutional crisis.

The Trump administration has continued to stonewall the judge’s questions about the deportations to El Salvador. “The government is not being terribly cooperative at this point,” said the judge, James E. Boasberg, at a hearing on Friday. “But I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order and who was responsible.”

Saturday’s agreement could help Mr. Trump accelerate his plans for mass deportations, one of the central promises of his campaign. He has already enlisted military planes, sent people to third countries far from their homes and invoked the wartime law to achieve that goal. Arrests inside the country are up sharply relative to those in the Biden administration, but they are well below the levels Mr. Trump and his immigration advisers want.

The agreement to resume the deportation flights to Venezuela also comes a day after the Trump administration said that it would end a Biden-era program that allowed hundreds of thousands of people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the United States lawfully and work for up to two years.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Annie Correal contributed reporting.

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Turkey detains hundreds of protesters as demonstrations over mayor’s arrest intensify

Published

8 hours ago

March 22, 2025

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Turkey detains hundreds of protesters as demonstrations over mayor’s arrest intensify

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Turkish police have detained more than 300 people during the biggest opposition demonstrations in more than a decade, sparked by the arrest of Istanbul’s popular mayor, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

Ekrem İmamoğlu, the main challenger to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the country’s longtime leader, was taken into custody on Wednesday on corruption and terrorism charges.

Police detained 343 people at protests in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and seven other cities, according to a statement by Ali Yerlikaya, the interior minister.

İmamoğlu denies the charges and his supporters accuse Erdoğan of using the police and judiciary to stymie his political aspirations. The justice minister has denied the investigations are politically motivated and said Turkish courts act independently.

The move against İmamoğlu has thrust the country into political and economic turmoil. It ignited a deep sell-off in Turkish assets that forced the central bank to sell billions of dollars of its reserves to defend the lira as it tries to cool inflation of about 40 per cent.

It has also energised an opposition that has faced a long-running clampdown on free speech and assembly during Erdoğan’s 22 years in power.

Erdoğan warned the main opposition Republican People’s party, or CHP, that the days of “determining politics with street terrorism are in the past”.

“We will absolutely not allow the CHP and its partisans to disrupt public order with provocations and disturb the peace of our nation,” he said in post on X on Saturday.

The government has largely stamped out mass political protests since 2013, when hundreds of thousands of people took part in demonstrations, called the Gezi Park protests. The crackdown marked a turning point in Erdoğan’s slide towards authoritarian rule.

Protesters in Istanbul, Ankara and the third-largest city of Izmir are defying a ban on public gatherings after the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) called on them to demonstrate peacefully every evening until İmamoğlu is freed.

The protests have been mostly orderly, but on Friday night riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets outside Istanbul’s city hall to stop some demonstrators who attempted to cross a barricade and threw objects at police, according to news reports. Water cannons were deployed in Ankara and Izmir.

Istanbul’s governor, an official appointed by Erdoğan, on Saturday banned “people, groups or vehicles likely to participate in illegal protests” from entering or exiting the province. The ban on protests was also extended to March 27.

İmamoğlu was brought to Istanbul’s central courthouse late on Saturday. There, he will appear before a judge who is expected on Sunday to decide whether to release him or remand him to custody. İmamoğlu can only be held for four days without charge under the country’s anti-terrorism statutes.

He was detained just days before a CHP primary to name its presidential candidate. The party has said it will go ahead with the nationwide vote on Sunday, inviting both its registered members and non-members to cast ballots. İmamoğlu, who has been Istanbul’s mayor since 2019, is the only candidate.

A general election is not scheduled until 2028 but the CHP said that nominating İmamoğlu now could pressure parliament to call a snap vote. İmamoğlu has consistently outperformed Erdoğan in opinion polls, with voters unhappy with the president’s handling of the cost of living crisis.

Erdoğan is precluded from running again by term limits, but his allies have called for the constitution to be amended so that he can stand again and extend his rule into its third decade.

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Trump says Boeing will build the new generation of fighter jets, the F-47

Published

8 hours ago

March 22, 2025

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Trump says Boeing will build the new generation of fighter jets, the F-47

President Trump speaks as an image of an F-47 fighter jet is displayed in the Oval Office in Washington on Friday.

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President Trump has announced that Boeing will build the U.S. Air Force’s next generation of fighter jets.

“They will have unprecedented power,” Trump said on Friday, adding that “America’s enemies will never see [them] coming.”

Trump is the 47th U.S. president and the jet is being called the F-47.

“The generals picked a title, and it’s a beautiful number,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office. “Nothing in the world comes even close to it.”

Known as the Next Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD, the F-47 will join a legacy of high-performance jets, though little is known about its exact specifications, appearance or capabilities. Trump teased that the sixth-generation fighter aircraft would be “virtually unseeable” on radar.

Although details on the contract’s cost remain unclear, early estimates suggest development costs will exceed $20 billion, according to The Associated Press, while the final price tag would be in the hundreds of billions, The War Zone reported.

“We’ve given an order for a lot. We can’t tell you the price,” Trump said.

The announcement is a big win for Boeing, which has struggled to recover from a series of public relations crises and operational setbacks. The company’s reputation has taken a hit after 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019, a door plug blowout in 2024, and longstanding problems with its KC-46 refueling tanker program.

The F-47 will be built at a Boeing manufacturing space in St. Louis, according to St. Louis Public Radio.

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Boeing’s stock rose by about 5% on Friday, shortly after Trump’s announcement.

Its largest competitor, Lockheed Martin, saw its shares drop nearly 7%.

Lockheed Martin produces the F-35 jet, which still forms the backbone of the Air Force’s air combat capabilities. But the F-35’s have faced criticism — notably from Trump ally Elon Musk, who has called the F-35 an “expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none.”

President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speak to the press at the White House on March 11.

Musk has instead called on the U.S. Department of Defense to invest more in drone technology in lieu of stealth jets.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the new warplanes would send a strong message about America’s commitment to remaining a global leader in military aviation.

The new fighter jet, he said, “sends a very clear, direct message to our allies that we’re not going anywhere.”