The Cleveland Daily Banner Sunday, January 10, 2016 | Page 10

10—Cleveland Daily Banner—Sunday, January 10, 2016

NATIONAL BRIEFS
FBI investigating another fatal
Chicago police shooting

CHICAGO (AP) — The FBI is
conducting a civil rights investigation into the fatal 2013 Chicago
police shooting of a motorist
whose family is challenging officers’ accounts that he was armed
and opened fire.
A brief mention of the case was
contained in thousands of pages
of emails related to police shootings that the city released on New
Year’s Eve, the Chicago Tribune
reported Saturday.
According to sworn depositions
by the two officers pursuing him,
Esau Castellanos was speeding at
80 mph and crashed on the city’s
northwest side. The officers say
that when they approached,
Castellanos opened fire. His family
disputes that, and no gun was
ever found. The officers fired 19
shots at Castellanos, hitting him
three times.
Chicago’s police department
has come under intense scrutiny,
including a U.S. Department of
Justice Investigation, since the
release in November of squad car
video showing a white officer
shooting a black teenager 16
times. Seventeen-year-old Laquan
McDonald was carrying a small
knife, but the video showed him
walking away from police and contradicted officers’ accounts that he
posed a serious threat.
The FBI is known to be investigating that shooting and several
others.

‘Ritualistic sacrifice’ investigated
in Florida child’s death

CALLAWAY, Fla. (AP) —
Authorities say a Florida mother
who killed her 3-year-old son and
stuffed him into a suitcase tried to
buy a bus ticket out of town shortly after the killing.
Bay County Sheriff Frank
McKeithen says the child’s 27year-old mother, Egypt Moneeck
Robinson, faces a murder charge.
He said “ritualistic sacrifice” is
among the possible reasons the
boy was killed. His body was
found Dec. 29 behind their house
near Panama City.
The News Herald of Panama
City reports that the woman made
statements while being taken to
the hospital about needing to save
the child from the end of the
world.
Authorities
recently
said
Robinson asked a clerk for a bus
ticket to Ohio.
She is being held without bond
and has denied media requests for
interviews.

Warrant: ‘Affluenza’ teen’s mom
took $30,000 before flight

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) —
Law enforcement officials say the
mother of a fugitive teen who
invoked “affluenza” as a defense in
a 2013 fatal drunken-driving accident took $30,000 from a bank
account and cut ties with the
boy’s father before fleeing to
Mexico.
Tonya Couch and her son
Ethan Couch were arrested in
Mexico last month after he missed
a meeting with his probation officer.
The bank withdrawal, and Dec.
3 phone call telling Ethan Couch’s
father he’d never see them again,
were documented in Tonya
Couch’s arrest warrant released
Friday.
She is being held in Tarrant
County on $1 million bond on a
charge of hindering apprehension
of a felon.
Ethan Couch remains in custody in Mexico after winning a
delay on his deportation back to
Texas, where he could face jail
time.

Feds: Non-Jeep car radios
aren’t vulnerable to hacking

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety
regulators have determined that
only Fiat Chrysler radios have a
security flaw that allowed friendly
hackers to take control of a Jeep.
The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration says it’s
ending a five-month investigation
into the vulnerabilities of automotive radios. The agency also said a
recall of 1.4 million Jeep, Chrysler,
Dodge and Ram vehicles closed
the opening that allowed hackers
to remotely take over a Jeep
Cherokee.
The hack by security experts
Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek
touched off the investigation in
July. They were able to change the
vehicle’s speed and control the
brakes, radio, windshield wipers
and transmission.
The safety agency found that
similar radios made by Harman
International went to Volkswagen,
Audi and Bentley, but that those
vehicles have safety systems that
would stop hackers.

Fire at home of former North
Charleston police officer

HANAHAN, S.C. (AP) — Police
are looking into a fire at the home

of the former South Carolina police
officer accused in the shooting
death of a black man last April.
Local media outlets report the
fire at the vacant home of Michael
Slager was reported around 9:20
p.m. Friday in Hanahan.
Slager is the former North
Charleston police officer charged
with murder in the shooting death
of Walter Scott.
Charleston County Sheriff’s
Maj. Eric Watson confirmed that a
glass cocktail bottle was found at
the scene. A portion of the home’s
vinyl siding was damaged in the
fire.
Hanahan Police Capt. Michael
Fowler said an arson investigation
is underway.
Slager, who is white, was
released on bond Monday.
Activists want him back in jail
because they say he’s a danger to
the community.

New York City police officer shot
responding to large fight

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York
City police officer was shot in the
ankle early Saturday during an
exchange of gunfire with a suspect
involved in a large fight, authorities said.
Police Commissioner William
Bratton said 25-year-old Officer
Sherrod Stuart was wounded on
his fourth anniversary with the
department. Stuart was hospitalized with injuries that are not considered life-threatening, Bratton
said.
A
19-year-old
suspect,
Christopher Rice, was in serious
condition at the same hospital, the
commissioner said.
Stuart and other officers were
responding to a street fight with
guns, bats and knives following a
large party in the Bronx at around
2 a.m., according to Bratton.
Stuart was struck in the right
foot during an exchange of gunfire
with Rice, Bratton said. Stuart
returned fire, striking Rice four
times, according to Bratton.
Five people from the melee were
treated at hospitals for stab
wounds, Bratton said, and four
guns were recovered from the
area.
Bratton said Rice had five prior
arrests — including one Friday on
a charge of fare beating. He said
Rice was released from court at 11
p.m. Friday, just three hours
before the shooting.

5 families of Washington shooting
victims seek $110 million

www.clevelandbanner.com

terrorism arrest shocks refugee’s family
HOUSTON (AP) — The brother
of an Iraqi refugee who had settled in Texas said he is in shock
after learning that his sibling —
who had come to the U.S. to
escape the violence in their homeland — is now facing charges that
he tried to help the Islamic State
group.
Federal authorities allege 24year-old Omar Faraj Saeed Al
Hardan of Houston was coordinating efforts with another Iraqi
refugee living in Sacramento,
California, Aws Mohammed
Younis Al-Jayab, to get weapons
training and eventually sneak into
Syria to fight alongside the terrorist group.
Both men remain jailed after
initial court appearances on
Friday. Al Hardan was indicted on
three charges, including attempting to provide material support for
terrorists, and faces up to 25
years in prison. Al-Jayab faces up
to eight years in prison on charges
of traveling to Syria to fight and
lying to U.S. authorities about his
travels.
Saeed Faraj Saeed Al Hardan,
Omar Al Hardan’s older brother,
said he was surprised by the
charges against his sibling
because neither Omar nor anybody in their family had ever
expressed any support for the
Islamic State.
“Nobody likes ISIS at all.
Nobody supports ISIS at all,”
Saeed Al Hardan, 37, who also
lives in Houston, told The
Associated Press on Friday. Saeed

AP Photo

OmAr fArAj sAeeD Al hArDAn, left, is escorted by U.S.
Marshals from the Bob Casey Federal Courthouse on Friday in
Houston. Al Hardan made his initial appearance in federal court in
Houston Friday morning after he was indicted Wednesday on three
charges related to accusations he tried to provide material support to
the Islamic State group.
Al Hardan, who speaks Arab ic,
spoke in English during the interview but also had a friend translate for him.
Al Hardan said he believes his
brother is innocent and that his
sibling denied wrongdoing during

a Friday telephone call from the
Federal Detention Center in
Houston.
Authorities say Omar Al
Hardan and Al-Jayab used social
media to discuss their support of
the terrorist group. Al-Jayab and

Al Hardan communicated in April
2013, and Al Hardan expressed
interest in fighting in Syria,
authorities said.
Saeed Al Hardan said the FBI
showed him copies of pages from
Facebook in which his brother
Omar had made comments but
that there was nothing that indicated Omar was talking to someone from the Islamic State.
Omar talked to cousins and
friends on Facebook but he didn’t
talk to them about the Islamic
State, Saeed Al Hardan said.
“ISIS is no good,” he said. “ISIS
is not Muslim.”
Omar Al Hardan and his parents came to Houston in 2009,
with Saeed Al Hardan and his wife
arriving a year later. The family
had lived in Baghdad but trace
their ancestry to Palestine. The
two brothers as well as their parents were born in Iraq.
Saeed Al Hardan, who is Sunni,
said his family left Iraq because
the country had become too dangerous for them. His family was
scared they would be killed and
he had several cousins who died
because of the violence, Saeed Al
Hardan said.
“After Saddam Hussein, no
good for anybody in Iraq,” he said.
Omar Al Hardan had worked as
a limousine driver for the past
year and before that had worked
in a mechanic shop. He is married
and has an 8-month-old son. His
brother works in a hotel performing maintenance, is married and
has two children.

Man claims he shot officer in Allah’s name
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Officer
Jesse Hartnett was slowly
patrolling his usual West
Philadelphia beat just before midnight when a man appeared out
of the darkness, firing a hail of
bullets at close range as he
charged toward the policeman’s
car.
Hours later, police say, Edward
Archer confessed to shooting the
officer and told investigators he
was following Allah, and had
pledged his allegiance to the
Islamic State group. Archer said
he believed the police department
defends laws that are contrary to
Islam, police said.
Local and federal authorities
spent much of Friday trying to
verify the motive and executing
search
warrants
at
two
Philadelphia area properties
associated with Archer, hoping
for more insight into how and
why the shooting happened.
Archer’s mother told The
Philadelphia Inquirer her 30year-old son had been hearing
voices recently and had felt targeted by police. She said the family had asked him to get help.
At a news conference,
Philadelphia
Police
Commissioner Richard Ross, who
just took office Tuesday, didn’t
label the shooting a terrorist
attack, though he said Archer
“clearly gave us a motive.”
“It wasn’t like laying it out
completely, chapter and verse for
us,” Ross told reporters at the
department’s headquarters as
Archer was being questioned
upstairs. “We’re left to say, ‘OK,
he’s leaving a trail for us. Where’s
it going to lead us, if anywhere?’”
He said the gun used to shoot
Harnett had been stolen from a
fellow officer’s home more than
two years ago.
Investigators believe Archer
traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2011
and to Egypt in 2012, FBI special
agent Eric Ruona said, and the
purpose of that travel was being

MARYSVILLE, Wash. (AP) —
Five families of teenagers shot by a
classmate at a high school are
seeking up to $110 million in
damages from the school district
and father of the shooter.
Lawyers for the Marysville
School District received the claim
for damages in an email Friday,
The Seattle Times reported. The
claim, a precursor to a lawsuit,
was filed by Tacoma law firm
Connelly Law Offices.
Gia Soriano, Zoe Galasso and
Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, all 14,
and 15-year-old Andrew Fryberg
were killed in Oct. 24 2014, after
15-year-old Jaylen Fryberg invited
them to sit with him at lunch at
Marysville-Pilchuck High School.
Wounded in the gunfire was 15year-old Nate Hatch.
Jaylen Fryberg killed himself
with the gun after shooting the
others.
Lincoln C. Beauregard, an
attorney for the families, told the
Times that when contacted by the
families, he asked what they want
out of the lawsuit. “They all looked
at me and said ‘accountability,’?”
he said.
The core of the families’ case is
that a substitute teacher warned
office staff at the school about a
rumor of a potential shooting
before it happened, Beauregard
NEW YORK (AP) — Inside and
said. The families believe the
school district was negligent for outside of New York City’s government, chatter is increasing
failing to prevent the shootings.
about a once-unthinkable idea:
Police: Arizona city hit by 54 BB
shutting down the notorious
gun attacks in past month
Rikers Island jail complex.
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — The Yuma
A coalition of dozens of advocaPolice Department reports there cy groups says it intends to preshave been 54 attacks on property sure the mayor and other elected
with a BB gun in the city over a lit- officials to take a stand, arguing
tle more than a month.
the 400-acre island in the East
The department says in a state- River where most of the city’s
ment Friday that the attacks, 10,000 inmates are held is too
which have taken place from Dec. broken to be fixed, plagued by a
5 to Jan. 6, have damaged the culture of brutality, misconduct
windows of vehicles, homes and and corruption.
businesses. The parts of the city
They are up against a formidathat have been the hardest hit are ble opposition that derides the
near three high schools: Yuma, effort as a fantasy that ignores
Cibola and Kofa.
political and practical realities.
The shootings have caused
Backers of the shut-it-down
about $24,240.00 in damages, movement say the fundamental
police say.
problem with Rikers is the very
The department says that sur- nature of the isolated and
veillance cameras have shown a decades-old jail compound itself.
white older-model four-door They propose drastically decreassedan with multiple subjects in ing the inmate population
the area at the time of the attacks. through changes in bail, diverThe department asks anyone sion programs and other means,
with information about the shoot- and then building a collection of
ings to call Detective Blaine new, better-designed jails in the
Blanton at 373-4759, the Yuma city’s five boroughs, where defenPolice Department at (928) 373- dants are arrested and tried.
4700 or 78-Crime.
“This issue is no longer fringe;

Philadelphia Police Department via AP

In thIs frAme from a Thursday video provided by the Philadelphia Police Department, Edward
Archer runs with a gun toward a police car driven by Officer Jesse Hartnett in Philadelphia. Archer, using
a gun stolen from police, said he was acting in the name of Islam when he ambushed Hartnett sitting in
his marked cruiser at an intersection, firing shots at point-blank range, authorities said.
investigated by the FBI. Police
said there was no indication anyone else was involved, and it is
unclear if and where Archer practiced his faith locally.
Archer’s mother, Valerie
Holliday, described her son as
devout Muslim. Jacob Bender,
the executive director of the
Philadelphia chapter of the
Council on American-Islamic
Relations, an advocacy group,
said he contacted about five
inner-city mosques and found no
one who knew of Archer.
At about 11:40 p.m. Thursday,
Archer fired at least 13 shots
toward Hartnett and eventually
got up next to the car and
reached through the driver’s side
window, investigators said.
Despite being seriously wounded,
Hartnett got out of his car,
chased the suspect and returned
fire, wounding his attacker in the
buttocks, police said. Other officers chased Archer and apprehended him about a block away.
The 9 mm pistol used by

Archer was recovered at the
scene of the shooting, police said.
It had been stolen from an officer’s home in October 2013,
investigators said. Officials said
they were trying to figure out how
Archer got the weapon and
whether it passed through other
people’s hands since the theft.
Last March, Archer pleaded
guilty to firearms and assault
charges stemming from a 2012
case but was immediately
released and placed on probation, court records show. Records
also show he was scheduled to be
sentenced Monday in suburban
Philadelphia in a traffic and forgery case.
The attorney who represented
him in the firearms case was
unavailable for comment Friday
because he was in court, his
office said. His lawyer in the forgery case did not immediately
return a message seeking comment.
Surveillance footage of the
attack showed Archer dressed in

a white, long-sleeved tunic. When
asked if the robe was considered
Muslim garb, Ross said he didn’t
know and didn’t think it mattered.
“We’ve already established why
he believes he did it, and that’s
probably enough,” Ross said.
Hartnett, 33, was shot three
times in the arm and will require
multiple surgeries, but was listed
in stable condition at a hospital.
Archer was treated and released
into police custody.
Ross
repeatedly
called
Hartnett’s survival “absolutely
amazing.”
“It’s nothing short of miraculous and we’re thankful for that,”
he said.
The officer’s father, Robert
Hartnett, said his son was in
good spirits.
“He’s a tough guy,” he said.
Hartnett served in the Coast
Guard and has been on the
Philadelphia force for four years.
He always wanted to be a police
officer, his father said.

Close it? Campaign seeks to shutter NYC’s Rikers Island jail
it’s now mainstream,” said Glenn
Martin, founder of the nonprofit
group JustLeadershipUSA, which
seeks to decrease the number of
Americans behind bars. “This is
much more political than it is
policy, and it requires people
spending political capital and
having the courage to do it.”
Modeling their efforts on the
nearly decade-long successful
effort to change the state’s harsh

Rockefeller-era drug laws, advocates are specifically targeting
Mayor Bill de Blasio, framing the
effort as a legacy piece for the liberal Democrat who was swept
into office with a promise to fix
inequities in the nation’s largest
city.
De Blasio’s criminal justice
coordinator, Liz Glazer, didn’t dismiss the idea, noting the administration is trying to reduce the

number of people who go to jail.
But Glazer noted that doing so
would be neither easy nor necessarily up to the city alone. The
inmate population would have to
be cut in half “to even be in the
ballpark,” she said, adding that
leeway on bail requires the
approval of state lawmakers and
that faster court processing
times are up to multiple stakeholders.

Pastor/Evangelist/Missionary/
Bible Teacher/Author/Educator/
Musician/Singer/Songwriter

UNITED CHRISTIAN CHURCH
2200 Peerless Road-Cleveland-423.479.4277