Walmart shooter left ‘death note,’ bought gun day of killing
Authorities investigating the fatal shootings of six people at a Walmart said that the shooter bought the gun just hours before and left a note on his phone listing grievances against coworkers. Police in Chesapeake, Virginia, issued a news release Friday that says they conducted a forensic analysis of Walmart supervisor Andre Bing’s phone. Police say he was the shooter and was found dead at the scene of the shooting late Tuesday of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. In the note released by police, he said coworkers harassed him and mocked him. Police said in their release that he used a 9mm handgun legally purchased on Tuesday morning, hours before the shooting. The release said he had no criminal history.
Russia steps up missile barrage of recaptured Ukrainian city
A salvo of missiles has struck the recently liberated city of Kherson in a marked escalation of attacks since Russia withdrew two weeks ago. At least 11 people were killed in the strikes, which began Thursday and continued into Friday. Scores of people were also injured. Among those killed were the parents of a 38-year-old woman who watched as responders lifted her mother out of the doorway of her apartment building where she had lain dead for hours overnight. City workers were too overwhelmed to retrieve her at first. Authorities in the region had warned that Kherson would face intensified strikes as Russian troops dig in across the Dnieper River.
Brazilian protests intensify; Bolsonaro stays silent
For more than three weeks, supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have blocked roads and camped outside military buildings across the nation. They refuse to accept his narrow defeat in October’s election and are pleading for intervention from the armed forces or marching orders from their commander in chief. The protests have gotten increasingly tense in a handful of states, such as Mato Grosso and Santa Catarina, where authorities have described tactics akin to terrorism. Bolsonaro has dropped out of public view, and has not disavowed the recent emergence of violence.
Colorado deputies are indicted in fatal shooting of man who called 911
Two Colorado sheriff’s deputies have been indicted in connection with the fatal shooting in June of a 22-year-old Boulder man, Christian Glass, who had called 911 for help when his SUV became stuck on a mountain road at night, prosecutors said. The office of Heidi McCollum, the Clear Creek County district attorney, announced the indictment of the two deputies, Andrew Buen and Kyle Gould, on Wednesday. The sheriff’s office said in a statement that the deputies had been fired because of the indictment. Buen was charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct and reckless endangerment, prosecutors said in a statement. Gould was charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment.
Utah man charged with assault after brandishing razor on flight
A Utah man was charged with carrying a weapon on an airplane and assault with a deadly weapon after he held a razor near the throat of the passenger next to him, federal prosecutors said this week. The man, Merrill Darrell Fackrell, 41, of Syracuse, Utah, was on a JetBlue flight from Kennedy International Airport in New York to Salt Lake City on Monday when he put his hand in front of the video screen of the woman sitting next to him and told her to pause her movie, prosecutors said. The woman took off her headphones and realized Fackrell was holding what was later identified as a wood-handled razor.
New York man accused of antisemitic attacks pleads guilty to hate crime charge
A New York man, Saadah Masoud, who was accused of committing a series of attacks on Jews in New York City in 2021 and 2022, pleaded guilty this week to a federal hate crimes conspiracy charge. A federal judge, Denise L. Cote of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, said she would sentence Masoud, who could face up to five years in prison, March 3. Masoud’s guilty plea comes amid a heightened focus by authorities on episodes of antisemitism and extremist violence in New York. Masoud’s case was the first to be charged by a newly created civil rights unit within the Southern District of New York’s criminal division.
Pakistan names a new army chief, amid political drama centered on the military
In a changing of the guard that some analysts say has come to be at least as crucial to Pakistani affairs as civilian political cycles, Pakistan on Thursday announced the rise of a new army chief. After weeks of intense speculation and backstage negotiations over who would lead Pakistan’s nuclear-armed military for at least the next three years, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government said Thursday that he had chosen Lt. Gen. Syed Asim Munir. The most senior general in the country’s army, Munir formerly served as the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, the intelligence wing known as ISI, and the Directorate-General for Military Intelligence.
Lawmakers back bill to enshrine abortion rights in France’s Constitution
French lawmakers on Thursday backed a proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the country’s constitution, in a move devised as a direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The bill, passed by the National Assembly, the lower and more powerful house of the French parliament, faces possible opposition in the Senate, before the constitution could be amended, leaving ample time and opportunity for lawmakers or voters to ultimately reject it. The vote was a symbolic milestone at a time when the right to abortion is increasingly challenged in France’s European neighbors.
By wire sources