Woman fatally shot after asking man to stop setting off fireworks
A Brooklyn woman was gunned down when she confronted a man setting off illegal fireworks, police sources said Saturday.
Shatavia Walls, 33, who was peppered with gunfire July 7 after asking the man to stop setting off the explosives, died from her injuries Friday night at Brookdale Hospital, the sources said.
Walls was shot eight times at 1259 Loring Ave. in the Pink Houses around 8:30 p.m. Her companion, Kelvin Hernandez, was also struck, the sources said.
Setting off illegal fireworks is a “nonviolent act,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said last month, urging residents to “go talk to the young people or the people on your block who are using fireworks” instead of calling 911 or 311.
Walls made the apparently fatal mistake of telling the man, who remains at large, to cease the pyrotechnics. The suspect left, only to return with a gun, shooting the doomed Walls and Hernandez as they tried to run away, police said.
Adams, who spoke about the fireworks scourge at a news conference last month, insisted Saturday that “the first line of interaction when it comes to non-criminal behaviors should be between neighbors.”
“If a situation escalates to the point where someone is becoming disrespectful or violent, the police should be called,” Adams added. “We can never and will never condone any form of violence. The person who shot Ms. Walls must be found and held criminally responsible. My heart goes out to her and her entire family on this horrific incident.”
Gunfire has exploded across the city after the NYPD disbanded its anti-crime unit of plainclothes cops June 15, with three times as many shootings in the last two weeks of the month over the same period in 2019, police stats show.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/18/woman-fatally-shot-after-asking-man-to-stop-setting-off-fireworks/
Photo Credit: WAYNE CARRINGTON
Nine shot, one killed in bloody Saturday as NYC shootings skyrocket
At least nine people were shot, one fatally, across New York City on Saturday — capping another week of violence that saw triple the shootings compared to last year, cops said.
All but one of Saturday’s eight reported incidents occurred in Brooklyn — with six of the shootings in adjacent precincts in Crown Heights, Brownsville, Canarsie and East New York.
The day’s only homicide occurred in broad daylight Saturday afternoon outside the Fly E-Bike store located at 662 Nostrand Ave.
Cops said the deceased 23-year-old was shot in the left thigh and stomach just after 4 p.m. Shell casings and a bullet fragment were recovered at the scene.
Saturday’s gunplay began at 1 a.m., when an unknown assailant shot a 42-year-old man once in the right thigh at Blake Avenue and Miller Avenue, within the confines of the 75th Precinct.
Just 51 minutes later a 23-year-old man was shot in the right groin just a mile and a half away at 416 Chester Street within the confines of the 75th Precinct, police said.
Another man was shot once in the left leg at around 3:25 a.m. on Stanley Avenue in East New York.
The victim was “highly uncooperative with investigators” and declined police transportation himself to the hospital, NYPD said.
Police also responded to a 3:39 a.m. shooting at 235 Westwood Ave. in Staten Island’s 122nd Precinct. The victim was sent to Stand Island North Hospital with non-life threatening injuries after taking one shot to the groin, police said.
Another man was shot in the 73rd Precinct at the corner of Herkimer Street and Rockaway Avenue around 4 a.m., according to police.
As the sun set on Saturday, cops got reports of two more shootings in Brooklyn:
At 11:18 p.m., officers reported a man shot at 4:03 p.m. after a verbal dispute in Canarsie within the confines of the 69th precinct.
Two men also reported being shot at 9:24 p.m. on Carlton Avenue in the confines of the 88th Precinct, police said.
The city saw 63 shootings in the week between 12:01 a.m. June 12 and 7 a.m. Sunday, more than triple the 20 shootings that occurred over the same period last year.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/19/nine-shot-one-killed-in-bloody-saturday-as-nyc-shootings-skyrocket/
Photo Credit: Kenneth Bachor/NY Post
Black Lives Matter mural in front of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue was vandalized Saturday for the third time this week — this time by a black woman yelling, “refund the police!”
In the 3 p.m. episode, black paint was tossed on the yellow BLM mural as two officers tried to stop the woman, who wore a “Jesus Matters” T-shirt, from smearing the paint over the pavement.
“They’re liars!” the woman shouted as she kept pulling her arms away from the two cops. “They say they care about black lives, they’re saying to defund the police.”
As bystanders screamed profanities at the woman and she shouted “Refund the police!” in response, one of the officers slipped and fell in the wet paint, hurting his head and arm.
The woman continued undeterred, yelling and getting on her hands and knees to keep smearing the paint.
“They don’t care! They don’t care about black people!” she yelled. “We’re killing each other left and right! Black Lives Matters — liars!”
Two women, ages 29 and 39, were taken into custody and are expected to be charged with criminal mischief, police said.
The injured officer was taken to Bellevue Hospital, police said.
The mural was also targeted for vandalism Friday afternoon.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/18/black-lives-matter-mural-outside-trump-tower-again-defaced/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis dead at 80
Representative John Lewis, a son of sharecroppers and an apostle of nonviolence who was bloodied at Selma and across the Jim Crow South in the historic struggle for racial equality and who then carried a mantle of moral authority into Congress, died on Friday. He was 80.
His death was confirmed by a senior Democratic official.
He announced on Dec. 29 that he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and vowed to fight it with the same passion with which he had battled racial injustice. “I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life,” he said.
On the front lines of the bloody campaign to end Jim Crow laws, with blows to his body and a fractured skull to prove it, Mr. Lewis was a valiant stalwart of the civil rights movement and the last surviving speaker at the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
More than a half-century later, after the killing in May of George Floyd, a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis, Mr. Lewis welcomed the resulting global demonstrations against systemic racism and the police killings of Black people. He saw those demonstrations, the largest protest movement in American history, as a continuation of his life’s work, though his illness had left him to watch from the sideline.
On the front lines of the bloody campaign to end Jim Crow laws, with blows to his body and a fractured skull to prove it, Mr. Lewis was a valiant stalwart of the civil rights movement and the last surviving speaker at the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
More than a half-century later, after the killing in May of George Floyd, a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis, Mr. Lewis welcomed the resulting global demonstrations against systemic racism and the police killings of Black people. He saw those demonstrations, the largest protest movement in American history, as a continuation of his life’s work, though his illness had left him to watch from the sideline.
“It was very moving, very moving to see hundreds of thousands of people from all over America and around the world take to the streets — to speak up, to speak out, to get into what I call ‘good trouble,’” Mr. Lewis told “CBS This Morning” in June.
“This feels and looks so different,” he said of the Black Lives Matter movement that drove the anti-racism demonstrations, which dwarfed the civil rights protests of the 1960s. “It is so much more massive and all inclusive.”
And this time, he said, “there will be no turning back.”
READ MORE HERE????????https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/us/john-lewis-dead.html
Whatever happened to the boondocks? Pt 1 Long Version and Pt2 Short Version
With the passing of John Witherspoon it was up in the air as to who would fill John’s Witherspoon shoes as granddad on the boondocks reboot. Until at John’s son J.D Witherspoon. Let him tell it….
Pt 1 Long Version
Pt 2 Short Version
Anti-mask protesters’ new weapon: wearing masks that offer no COVID-19 protection
INDIANAPOLIS — As more communities and businesses adopt mandatory mask orders, supporters of an “anti-mask” movement are looking to make a statement. They are wearing masks that cover their nose and mouth but provide no ability to slow the spread of disease.
“I wore a mask that is designed for protecting your face in a paintball battle. You can easily breathe through it. I walked all around the store, talked to employees, and other shoppers, and every one of them could see my mouth,” said a Florida man who posted a video showing him wearing a mesh mask to a Tampa Walmart. “It was almost like not wearing a mask at all. Nobody cared. That’s because it’s not about safety. It’s all about compliance.”
Other social media posts show anti-mask advocates wearing mesh masks intended to comply with the letter – but not the spirit – of municipal and corporate rules mandating face coverings.
And masks made of mesh, crochet (yarn) or lace are now popular items being offered by internet retailers. Most include warnings stating the items “are NOT intended for protection or COVID use.” But protection is not what anti-mask protesters are looking for.
“Make your own Anti Mask!” said the seller of a pattern to create your own anti-mask. The description of the product states: “Stylish, breathable and don’t protect you from a darn thing! Masks required? No problem! Breath free while making a statement.”
“NO law requires a specific type or particulate rating of mask,” said one protestor, posting a photo of a woman wearing a mesh face covering. “This is about compliance, not safety.”
The public health officials and doctors recently interviewed by 13News disagree.
“Masks absolutely work. They’re not perfect. They’re not the only measure you need to take to keep this virus under control but they’re very effective and they’re very simple,” said Dr. Christopher Belcher, who serves as the infection prevention medical director at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis.
“The most important thing they do is if you’re coughing, sneezing, singing, they contain all of those little droplets of saliva or mucus that come out of your nose and mouth, and keep them right there from spreading to other people,” Belcher added.
Earlier this month, 13 Investigates and the IU Health Pathology Lab tested different kinds of masks. The test showed even very inexpensive masks are highly effective in preventing the spread of germs linked to viruses.
The science has prompted many cities and states to impose orders requiring face coverings in public places. (Indianapolis currently has a public order in effect but the state of Indiana does not.) Companies like Costco have been requiring customers to wear masks for months, and more businesses recently announced they will require face coverings, too. Walmart and Kroger, two of the largest retail/grocery corporations in the nation, will begin implementing mask requirements for customers next week.
The growing trend seems to be causing growing frustration among anti-mask advocates, who have been voicing their dissent at municipal buildings, statehouses and in online forums – and by wearing mesh masks intended to offer protest rather than COVID-19 protection.
Belcher says he does not mind people protesting over masks, as long as those protests are not putting others in danger.
“I need your help with this to keep from spreading the infection so the hospitals don’t get overrun,” he told 13News. “If you’re going to go to the trouble of wearing a mask, please wear one that’s going to do something for other people. I don’t care if you write ‘NO’ on it. I don’t care if you have a t-shirt that says ‘I don’t want to wear this mask,’ but I need you to wear the mask. It’s an important thing for our health.”
Trend data released Thursday afternoon by the Regenstrief Institute shows positive COVID-19 cases, emergency room visits and deaths related to the coronavirus are all increasing in Indiana. That’s why health officials continue to emphasize the importance of wearing a mask.
Photo Credit: wthr.com
Ohio mom threw a belated gender reveal party for her transgender son 17 years after she ‘got it wrong’
(CNN) — Love and Brandon Gwaltney’s gender reveal party started out like any other.
The couple from Akron, Ohio, wore matching outfits of pink and blue. There was a cake decorated with pink and blue sprinkles and a big question mark on top. And then, of course, there was the big box that typically contains the pink or blue balloons that serve to reveal the gender of their baby.
But as they counted down to one, what popped out were balloons of yellow, white, purple and black — the colors of the nonbinary flag — followed by their 17-year-old child, coming out to the world with his new pronouns of he, him and his.
“We wanted to announce that we got it wrong 17 years ago when we told the world we were having a little girl, and named that child McKenzie,” Gwaltney, the mom, wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday. “So we’d like to introduce you to our SON: Grey.”
Schoolcraft, a rising high school senior, helped organize the party. He chose the colors of the balloons to represent his nonbinary gender identity and the colors of the cake to be pink, white and blue to represent the colors of the transgender pride flag.
“I wanted the transgender flag in there because I still feel that going from whatever you are originally to nonbinary is also a transition and it doesn’t just have to be straight female to male,” Schoolcraft told CNN.
He said it’s been a long journey for him to discover his new identity as nonbinary. When he came out to his parents a couple months ago, they supported him, but he was nervous other relatives wouldn’t feel the same.
Turns out, he had nothing to worry about as the rest of his extended family also took it well and are doing their best to use his correct pronouns, according to Gwaltney.
To have that burden lifted off his shoulders felt “refreshing,” the teen said.
“You’ve been going by one name all your life and to suddenly go by a new name, especially when your parents call you by it, it’s weird and has to register in your brain. But it’s definitely 100% worth it and I’m glad we had (the reveal party).”
The teen’s happiness was captured in heartwarming pictures taken by Sarah Bride Photography, which Gwaltney shared to her Facebook page. After forgetting to make the post private, it blew up, being shared more than 50,000 times and garnering thousands of comments.
“What a world this would be if all parents reacted this way, to their LGBTQ+ Children,” one person commented.
Gwaltney said she’s been receiving lots of direct messages from people who are sharing their own stories of coming out to their family.
“A lot of people have been reaching out to me through messenger telling me their own stories of coming out to their family,” Gwaltney told CNN. “I’ve even had people ask me for advice, saying ‘I think my child might be nonbinary or transgender. How did you know?’ Those kinds of questions.”
Her best piece of advice for these parents would be to “have an open mind.”
“Don’t try to put them in a box. Regardless of what stage your kids are in, always support them,” said Gwaltney, who is now pregnant with her fourth child.
As for Schoolcraft’s advice for others who might be questioning their gender identity or are too scared to come out, he said they should remember that only “you get to make life what you want it to be.”
“So no matter what happens, even if someone doesn’t accept you, that’s not your fault because you’re loved and you’re going to find people who will love and support you,” Schoolcraft said.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Sarah McBride Photography
3 FL women accused of attacking airline workers over flight delay
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Several Spirit Airlines employees were injured Tuesday night when they were attacked by three women who were apparently upset that their flight from Fort Lauderdale to Philadelphia had been delayed, sheriff’s officials said.
The women hit the employees with “miscellaneous items, such as phones, shoes, full water bottles, metal boarding signs and fast food,” according to Broward Sheriff’s Office arrest reports. The incident happened outside the gate of a flight to Philadelphia in the airport’s Terminal 4.
The airline said three employees at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport suffered minor injuries when the women “became combative following a delayed flight.”
WPLG posted video of the attack, which shows the women throwing items at the employees and going behind the counter where they physically attacked at least one person.
Deputies arrested the women, who are all from Philadelphia. Tymaya Wright, 20, was charged with battery and petit theft for taking a Spirit employee’s phone and putting it in her backpack. Danaysha Dixon, 22, and Keira Ferguson, 21, were both arrested on battery charges.
They were taken to the jail, where they later posted bond. Jail records did not list attorneys for the women.
Photo Credit: Broward Sheriff’s Office/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP
Maskless Starbucks ‘Karen’ wants half of $100K raised for barista who wouldn’t serve her
The California “Karen” who berated a Starbucks barista online for refusing to serve her without a face mask says she deserves half of the more than $100,000 in donations raised for the employee.
Amber Lynn Gilles complained about the worker in a Facebook post last month, posting a picture of the man in one of the coffee giant’s San Diego locations who denied her service for not following the county’s coronavirus guidelines.
“Meet lenen from Starbucks who refused to serve me cause I’m not wearing a mask. Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption,” she wrote in the now-deleted post.
Generous readers opened their wallets to support the worker, Lenin Gutierrez, raising more than $105,400 in “tips” for him through GoFundMe.
Gilles told ABC affiliate KGTV that she’s considering suing to collect half of those funds because she claims to have underlying health issues that make her medically exempt from mask mandates.
“It was discrimination and everybody is OK with it and enabling and rewarding that behavior,” Gilles said.
“I get shortness of breath, dizziness and it messes with the heartbeat,” she told the station. “And I do have asthma as well, and I do get mask-acne. So there’s several things going on and not only that but it doesn’t even work.”
Gilles brought two documents to the outlet to prove her exemption. One document was a pelvic exam from 2015, reporting a “probable exophytic fibroid arising from the anterior wall of the uterus measuring 2.9 cm size,” and “simple 2.5 cm left ovarian cyst.”
A second was a handwritten note on letterhead from a local chiropractor, reading, “Amber has underlying breath conditions that prevent her from wearing a mask or any type of facial covering whatsoever. Please contact me if have any questions.”
Gilles asked for the chiropractor to not be named, and the practitioner declined to discuss Gilles when the outlet reached out for comment.
She defended using a note from a chiropractor for a breathing-related condition because “They are dedicated to providing non-invasive personalized care and treatment. They are real doctors.”
Gilles said she was not remorseful at all for her post and that she has started her own GoFundMe to raise money for legal fees should she decide to sue.
“I feel like I need the apology,” she told KGTV. “I’ve been discriminated against, I’m the one who’s sick.”
Photo Credit: us.glbnews
Black woman claims LI neighbor has racially harassed her, throwing feces onto property
A black woman on Long Island claimed on Instagram that her white neighbor has subjected her to years of threats and race-based harassment that included throwing feces onto her property — but cops say there is no evidence of “bias” or “criminality.”
Jennifer McLeggan, a 39-year-old single mother in Valley Stream, detailed the alleged abuse she has endured since 2017, when she moved into her home, where she now lives “in fear,” according to a handwritten sign on her front door that she posted on Instagram.
“My neighbors have been racially harassing me since I purchased my home,” the sign reads. “They have said that I can be ‘erased.’”
McLeggan claims the unidentified white man next door has also told her to “go back to where I came from” and had friends spit into her yard, according to the sign.
McLeggan once caught her neighbor throwing dog feces into her front yard and caught him on video, leading her to win an unspecified judgment in court, she said.
The registered nurse and mother of a 2-year-old daughter told WABC she posted the sign in case she’s eventually harmed.
“In case something happens to me here, then somebody would know I’m in the house with a baby,” McLeggan told the station. “If I die in here, at least cops would see the sign.”
Cops met with McLeggan at her home Monday and held a press conference Tuesday in response to the allegations that gained traction on social media, WABC reports.
“At this time, we do not have any evidence of any bias,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder told reporters.
Ryder cited nearly 50 calls to cops between McLeggan and her neighbor since she moved into the home in 2017, saying the complaints came “almost equally” from both parties, Newsday reports.
McLeggan’s neighbor admitted having a pellet rifle and a pellet handgun, but claimed he only used them for target practice in his back yard, Ryder said.
“There is no criminality at this time from either side,” the police commissioner told reporters.
Ryder said he called the press conference to dial back tension between the pair.
“This thing is getting way out of control from what it is,” Ryder said. “Not that our victim is not important, not that our victim is not getting her attention, but at the same time we have to make sure we have the evidence and everything that is going to help us move forward and move forward in the correct way.”
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, who joined Ryder during Tuesday’s presser, said she urged residents to “take a deep breath” and let cops investigate the allegations.
“I want to make it very clear that hate crimes and bigotry have absolutely no place here in Nassau County,” Curran said.
A message seeking comment from Nassau County police was not immediately returned Thursday.
A rally in support of McLeggan is planned for Thursday in Valley Stream. She’s expected to speak after the event, according to her Instagram feed.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/16/black-woman-claims-long-island-neighbor-has-harassed-her-for-years/
Photo Credit: AP