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| Sole Witness Who Heard Cops Announce Themselves in Breonna Taylor Raid Changed His Story |
| Sat, 26 Sep 2020 17:53:16 -0400 |
 This week, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron made the bombshell announcement that the cops who fatally shot Breonna Taylor would not be charged with killing her, calling their use of force in the March raid “justified to protect themselves.”In that justification, he said that one witness corroborated the three officers’ insistence that they knocked and identified themselves at Taylor’s Louisville home while executing a search warrant in connection with a narcotics investigation. It contradicted claims from Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenny Walker, and 11 other residents, who said they didn’t hear the cops announce themselves. Instead, Walker thought he was being burglarized and fired a warning shot that triggered a tragic chain of events.But, according to documents and audio obtained by VICE News on Saturday, that sole witness initially told investigators days after the March 13 raid that he didn’t actually hear officers Brett Hankison, Jonathan Mattingly, and Myles Cosgrove announce themselves.The witness—identified by VICE as Aarin Sarpee but by other outlets and public records as Aaron Julue Sarpee—was picking up his daughter from a unit above Taylor’s when the raid took place.It wasn’t until he was interviewed a second time, about two months after the raid by a sergeant in LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit, that Sarpee said he heard police say, “This is the cops.”Sarpee’s flip-flop, the latest twist in a case that has made Taylor an icon in the Black Lives Matter movement, calls into question the strength of Cameron’s case and the grand jury report, which state officials are demanding be made public.“I never had faith in Daniel Cameron to begin with, I knew he was too inexperienced with a job of this caliber. I knew he chose to be at the wrong side of the law,” Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said in a Friday statement. “My hope was that he knew he had the power to do the right thing, that he had the power to start the healing of this city, that he had the power to help mend over 400 years of oppression. What he helped me realize is that it will always be us against them. That we are never safe.”On Wednesday, a grand jury indicted only Hankison, though only for recklessly firing shots that endangered people in other units. Mattingly and Cosgrove—the cop who fired the shot that killed Taylor—weren’t charged.Cameron’s charging recommendations were at least partly based on Sarpee’s testimony, since the attorney general said Wednesday that investigators had “an independent witness” corroborate the officer’s account.No Cops Charged With Killing Breonna Taylor“My office was not tasked with determining if this was a tragedy, as it was,” Cameron said Wednesday, admitting that it was unlikely more charges would be laid. “My job was to put emotions aside and investigate facts to see if state law was violated.”Wednesday’s charges came more than six months after a “no-knock” warrant was issued for Taylor’s apartment as part of a controversial narcotics investigation into the 26-year-old’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover.According to VICE, LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit first contacted Sarpee a week after the shooting. The officers involved in Taylor’s warrant had previously said Sarpee was outside the apartment upstairs and got in an argument with Hankison as they were banging on Taylor’s door.When Sgt. Jason Vance asked Sarpee if he heard anyone identify themselves as law enforcement, he answered: “No, nobody identified themselves.”At the end of the March 21 conversation, Vance told Sarpee investigators would be calling him again to conduct a formal interview. Investigation notes suggest attempts were made to contact Sarpee but he didn’t speak to the Public Integrity Unity again until May 15.In a seven minute call, Sgt. Amanda Seelye pressed Sarpee on whether he knew the individuals entering Taylor’s home were officers and if he heard them announce themselves.This time, Sarpee said he heard police identify themselves, a change that suddenly corroborated the testimonies of the officers at the scene.“It’s been so long now,” Sarpee told Seelye on the call. “I recall some of it.”Sarpee also told The New York Times that he saw the officers as he stepped out onto the exterior staircase of Taylor’s apartment unit with his 2-year-old. He said that before the officers ordered him to go back inside the apartment, he heard at least three loud knocks on Taylor’s door and heard at least one of the officers scream “Police!” Sarpee, however, insisted to the Times he only heard them say the statement once.Despite Sarpee’s changing story, his claim to have heard police from the front of an apartment doesn’t offer complete clarity on whether Taylor and her boyfriend would have heard it from their bedroom towards the back of their unit.Sarpee did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment. VICE reported that the witness declined to speak with them, saying he had to speak with his lawyer first. The LMPD and Attorney General’s office also did not immediately respond to request for comment.Hankison was fired in June for “extreme violations” of police protocol after “wantonly and blindly” firing 10 shots into Taylor’s apartment–including several shots through the patio door and window, and into a neighbor’s apartment—after Walker fired an initial shot. Mattingly, Cosgrove, and the detective who requested the warrant were put on administrative leave. Six more officers are reportedly under investigation for their role in the raid.Earlier this month, the city of Louisville reached a $12 million settlement with Taylor’s family in their wrongful death lawsuit.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| New tropical depression swirls in the West Pacific |
| Sat, 26 Sep 2020 14:06:16 -0400 |
 Tropical activity may have settled down across the Atlantic and East Pacific basins, but the West Pacific continues to churn out new tropical systems. A newly formed depression may track toward southern Japan into next week.As what was once Severe Tropical Storm Dolphin passed near eastern Japan late this week and into the weekend, a new tropical feature began taking shape in the West Pacific Basin.This area of showers and thunderstorms organized into a tropical depression near 160 east longitude on Saturday, local time, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). This satellite image shows the newly formed tropical depression (circled) located several hundreds miles to the southeast of Japan on Saturday night, local time. (CIR/RAMMB) This depression will be located in an area of warm water and low wind shear as it tracks to the northwest then the north, which will allow the storm to gradually strengthen through Tuesday.There is potential for the storm to reach typhoon strength with maximum sustained winds of at least 119 km/h (74 mph). This would be equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale used in the Atlantic and East Pacific basins.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPThe next storm to reach tropical-storm status in the West Pacific will be given the name Kujira by the JMA.After peaking in strength around Tuesday, the storm is expected to turn to the northeast and begin to lose wind strength as it tracks over cooler water and into an area of increased wind shear. AccuWeather By the end of the week, the storm may transition into a nontropical system.Regardless of exact strength and tropical characteristics, little impact to land is expected from this storm. The current track keeps the storm to the south and east of Japan and away from the smaller islands of the northern West Pacific Ocean.However, if this storm is pulled farther north on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, some of the outer rainbands may reach southern Japan and produce tropical downpours and gusty winds across the regions of Chubu and Kanto.Dolphin developed into a tropical storm early this past week and quickly strengthened into a severe tropical storm. While the storm lost some wind intensity by the end of the week as it passed to the south and east of Japan, it still brought areas of heavy rainfall.Late Thursday night, 333 mm (13.11 inches) of rain fell in 5 hours at Muroto Misaki. Of this, an incredible 130 mm (5.10 inches) fell within a single hour.Dolphin will continue to move east, away from Japan, through Sunday.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| Cadets among 26 people killed in Ukraine military plane crash |
| Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:16:01 -0400 |
 A total of 26 people, most of them air cadets, have been killed in a military plane crash in Ukraine. Footage of the crash released by officials on social media showed the smouldering remains of the Antonov-26 transport plane. Most of the dead were students of the Kharkiv National Air Force University, the air force said in a statement. There were 27 people on board, 20 cadets and seven crew. On Saturday, the death toll rose after three more bodies were found under the charred remains of the plane and one of the two survivors died in hospital from extensive burns. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the crash as a "terrible tragedy". "We are urgently creating a commission to investigate all the circumstances and causes of the tragedy," he wrote on Facebook. Mr Zelensky visited the only remaining survivor in a military hospital in Kharkiv, posting a picture of the 20-year-old cadet lying in bed with a bandaged head and right arm. He said the cadet, Vyacheslav Zolochevsky, "came to his senses near the wreckage of the An-26." "The plane was destroyed, there was fire, darkness and bodies all around. One of the guys was burning," he said on Facebook, adding that Zolochevsky rushed to try and save him. The second cadet died in hospital. Doctors said that Mr Zolochevsky suffered a concussion but his life was not in danger.
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| North Korea warns of naval tensions during search for slain South Korean |
| Sat, 26 Sep 2020 18:33:18 -0400 |
 North Korea said on Sunday it is searching for the body a South Korean official killed by its troops, but warned that South Korean naval operations in the area threatened to raise tensions. "We urge the south side to immediately halt the intrusion across the military demarcation line in the west sea that may lead to escalation of tensions," KCNA said.
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