2 officers, suspect die in N.Y. shootout
LIVERPOOL, N.Y. -- Two law enforcement officers were fatally shot while looking for a driver who fled a traffic stop in upstate New York, authorities said Monday. The shooter was also killed in an exchange of gunfire with police.
The shootout took place Sunday outside a house in the Liverpool residential neighborhood north of Syracuse, claiming the lives of Onondaga County sheriff's office Lt. Michael Hoosock and Syracuse police officer Michael Jensen, authorities said. The slain shooter was identified by the local district attorney as Christopher Murphy, 33.
Jensen had attempted earlier to pull over a car, but the driver refused to stop and sped off, according to Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick.
The police officers tracked the license plate to the address in nearby Liverpool, requesting assistance from the sheriff's office.
Officers were inspecting the vehicle and moving around the house when they heard what sounded like "a gun being manipulated," so they took cover, Syracuse Police Chief Joseph Cecile said during a news conference on Monday afternoon.
Inside the house, Murphy had told a friend police were not going to arrest him and that the friend needed to leave. The friend ran from the house and was apprehended, authorities said.
Hoosock, a 17-year veteran of the force with a wife and three young children, was looking for cover behind a maple tree in an adjacent yard when he was ambushed. Jensen, on the force for less than three years, was struck after the shooter went to the front of the house and fired on Syracuse police officers with an AR-15-style rifle.
Hoosock, Jensen and Murphy were brought to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. All three were pronounced dead at the hospital, Cecile said.
Ex-deputy's murder case set for retrial
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The retrial of a former Ohio sheriff's deputy who was charged with murder in the killing of a 23-year-old Black man is scheduled for this fall.
The Oct. 31 trial date for Jason Meade, who is white, was confirmed during a status conference held Monday by Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge David Young. Casey Goodson Jr. was among several Black people killed by white Ohio law enforcement over the last decade.
He also oversaw Meade's first trial earlier this year, where a jury couldn't agree on a verdict and Young declared a mistrial in February, ending tumultuous proceedings that saw four jurors dismissed.
Special prosecutors Tim Merkle and Gary Shroyer, along with Montgomery County Assistant Prosecutor Josh Shaw -- who were named to handle the case -- issued a statement days later saying "it is in the best interest of all involved and the community" to move forward with another trial.
Meade was charged with murder and reckless homicide in the December 2020 killing of Goodson in Columbus. Meade has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have said they were not surprised by the prosecution's decision to seek another trial, which they said was due to political pressure from local elected officials.
High court's Justice Thomas absent
WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was absent from the court Monday with no explanation.
Thomas, 75, also was not participating remotely in arguments, as justices sometimes do when they are ill or otherwise can't be there in person.
Chief Justice John Roberts announced Thomas' absence, saying that his colleague would still participate in the day's cases, based on the briefs and transcripts of the arguments. The court sometimes, but not always, says when a justice is out sick.
Thomas was hospitalized two years ago with an infection, causing him to miss several court sessions. He took part in the cases then, too.
Pro-Palestinian protesters block roads
CHICAGO --Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and Oregon on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into Chicago O'Hare International Airport, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway.
In Chicago, protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 leading into one of the nation's busiest airports around 7 a.m., a demonstration they said was part of a global "economic blockade to free Palestine," according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organizers.
Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chained themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with cement across Interstate 880 in Oakland. Protesters marching into Brooklyn blocked Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. In Eugene, Oregon, protesters blocked Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 minutes.
About 20 protesters were arrested at the Golden Gate Bridge demonstration and traffic resumed shortly after noon, according to the California Highway Patrol. The agency said officers were making arrests at two points on the interstate, including one spot where roughly 300 protesters refused orders to disperse.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports