Police release videos in Baltimore death
BALTIMORE — Baltimore police released videos Monday showing the arrest of a man who died of a severe spinal injury suffered in police custody. Six officers have been suspended, but investigators say they still don’t know how it happened.
A week after the arrest of Freddie Gray, police said they still don’t have any videos or other evidence explaining what happened to cause the “medical emergency” that an arresting officer said Gray suffered while being taken to the local police station, Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said.
Autopsy results returned Monday show that Gray “did suffer a significant spinal injury that led to his death,” Rodriguez said. “What we don’t know is how he suffered that injury.”
A police timeline revealed for the first time that Gray was placed in leg irons after an officer felt he was becoming “irate” and that the van made several stops on its way to the police station, even stopping to pick up another prisoner in an unrelated case, after Gray had asked for medical attention several times.
Something must have happened between the time Gray was videotaped by a bystander being dragged into the van and the time he arrived at the station in deep distress, the deputy commissioner said.
Court tosses N.C. redistricting ruling
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a North Carolina court ruling that upheld Republican-drawn electoral districts for state and congressional lawmakers.
The justices ordered the state Supreme Court to consider anew whether the North Carolina Legislature relied too heavily on race when it redrew voting districts after the 2010 census.
The high court issued a similar ruling last month involving a complaint from black Alabama Democrats that the Republican-dominated legislature illegally packed black voters into too few voting districts.
In Alabama, the justices said a lower court used the wrong test when it upheld legislative districts and determined that race was not the primary motivating factor in drawing boundary lines.
The Supreme Court said judges in North Carolina must revisit their ruling in light of the Alabama decision.
In both states, Republicans strengthened their grip on power through redistricting.
U.S. floats lifting guards on some whales
HONOLULU — The federal government on Monday proposed removing most of the world’s humpback whales from the endangered species list, saying the mammals have rebounded after 45 years of protection.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries officials want to reclassify humpbacks into 14 distinct populations and remove 10 of those from the list.
The last time the agency delisted a species because of recovery was more than two decades ago.
“As we learn more about the species — and realize the populations are largely independent of each other — managing them separately allows us to focus protection on the animals that need it the most,” Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries, said in a statement.
Humpbacks were listed as endangered in 1970, four years after the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling.
California boy found asleep in stolen car
FAIRFIELD, Calif. — An 8-year-old boy snoozing in the backseat of his family’s running car appears to have slept through his brief kidnapping Monday after the vehicle was stolen in front of his Northern California home, police said.
Brock Guzman was found safe about 2 miles away in the abandoned car after an hours-long search. A thief likely happened on the 2001 Toyota Corolla when the boy’s father left it briefly unattended, police said.
The father had placed the sleeping boy in the Corolla around 4:45 a.m., started the engine and gone back into the house in Fairfield to get some belongings and his older son, who attends school 40 miles away in Napa.
When the father went back outside, the car was gone and an unfamiliar bicycle lay nearby. He hopped into another family vehicle and sped off in search of the Corolla. The boy’s mother frantically called 911, and authorities issued an Amber Alert.
Less than four hours later, a resident called police and said the car was parked in the neighborhood. When officers approached it about 8:15 a.m., the suspect was gone and Brock was still asleep. He was not injured.
— COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS