Houston's police chief Art Acevedo criticised politicians for not standing up to the National Rifle Association after the the fatal shooting of an officer. 'The NRA doesn't like the fact that we want to take firearms out of the hands of boyfriends that abuse their girlfriends. And who killed our sergeant? A boyfriend abusing his girlfriend,' Acevedo said
Category Archives: Texas
Thousands evacuated after explosions at Texas chemical plant – video
About 60,000 people within a four-mile radius of the Port Neches chemical plant in Texas were ordered to leave after a series of explosions. Three workers were injured in the initial blast and there was a second, larger explosion followed by a number of smaller explosions later in the day. Local residents said windows and doors were blown out by the blasts
Continue reading...Father of black woman killed by police in her Fort Worth home dies
Marquis Jefferson, whose daughter Atatiana was shot dead by police during a welfare check, has died from a heart attack
The father of a black woman fatally shot by a white police officer inside her Fort Worth, Texas, home has died.
A spokesman for Marquis Jefferson, Bruce Carter, told the Dallas Morning News that the father of Atatiana Jefferson suffered a heart attack and died Saturday night at a Dallas hospital. Carter told KDFW that Jefferson “just couldn’t get back from what happened with his daughter”.
Continue reading...Beto O’Rourke withdraws from Democratic race – and faces Trump’s abuse
- The rise and fall of Beto: how a star’s campaign faded
- President: ‘poor bastard … made a total fool of himself’
Beto O’Rourke withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on Friday. His decision met with tributes from his former competitors and insults from Donald Trump.
Related: Who anointed Beto O'Rourke to be our political saviour? He did | Moira Donegan
Continue reading...The rise and fall of Beto O’Rourke: how the Democratic star’s campaign faded
The former congressman shone in last year’s Senate run. But his charm failed to translate to the presidential race
Donald Trump is quick to taunt the Democratic candidates for president as they fall. “Zero per cent Tim Ryan” got the treatment last week when he quit the race. Beto O’Rourke, whose campaign ended with a whimper on Friday night, was soon mocked by the US president.
“Oh no,” Trump wrote, “Beto just dropped out of race for President despite him saying he was ‘born for this’. I don’t think so!”
Continue reading...Exclusive: Texas immigration center guard accused of assaulting boy, five
Family asks Department of Homeland Security to halt their deportation to Honduras to investigate the alleged assault
A private prison guard physically assaulted a five-year-old boy at an immigration detention center in Texas, according to a complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Related: She raised her niece like a daughter. Then the US government separated them at the border
Continue reading...Wife’s harrowing 911 call as Australian man Brenton Estorffe lay dying after home invasion
Angeleanna Estorffe tells operator ‘I think he’s really hurt’ after her husband was shot by intruders
Harrowing audio has been released of Angeleanna Estorffe struggling to tell a 911 dispatcher her Australian husband was dying after being shot by intruders in their Texas family home.
Brenton Estorffe and his wife were asleep when the intruders broke a window at the rear of their home in Katy, near Houston, just after midnight on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Fort Worth woman was playing video games at home when officer killed her
Family attorney says Atatiana Jefferson, 28, was playing video games with her eight-year-old nephew when she was shot dead
Protesters gathered on Sunday in Fort Worth to call for the arrest of the white police officer who shot dead a black woman in her home after arriving to conduct a welfare check.
Related: 'That's murder': Fort Worth police officer shoots woman inside her home
Continue reading...‘That’s murder’: Fort Worth police officer shoots woman inside her home
- Lawyer and family of Atatiana Jefferson, 28, demand answers
- Police called after report front door standing open
After a white police officer responding to a report of a house door standing open killed a black woman inside her own home on Saturday, an attorney for the woman’s family said the officer had not had time to perceive a threat before shooting.
“You didn’t hear the officer shout, ‘Gun, gun, gun,’” attorney Lee Merritt said after viewing video taken from a Fort Worth officer’s bodycam during the shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson, 28.
Continue reading...Witness in Amber Guyger murder case found shot dead in Dallas
Joshua Brown, who testified against a white police officer who murdered her black neighbor, has been killed: reports
A witness in the murder trial of a white Dallas police officer who fatally shot her black neighbor has been killed in a shooting, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing authorities.
The newspaper reported that authorities said Joshua Brown, who lived in the same apartment complex as Amber Guyger and Botham Jean, was shot and killed Friday in Dallas. Guyger was still in her police uniform after a long shift when, according to her trial testimony, she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own one floor below and shot him after pushing open his unlocked door and thinking he was a burglar.
Continue reading...‘This is gonna look so bad’: bodycam footage shows Texas police leading black man by rope – video
A white police officer in Texas could be heard saying ‘this is gonna look so bad’ while leading a homeless black man by a rope down the street in newly released body camera footage.
Two Galveston police officers arrested 43-year-old Donald Neely on 3 August, accusing him of criminal trespass. Images shared online of the two white officers leading Neely using a rope tied to his handcuffs sparked public outrage, leading to a Texas Rangers investigation and a Galveston county sheriff’s office review
Continue reading...Texas police officer who led black man by rope said ‘This is gonna look so bad’
- Galveston police release mounted officers’ body-cam videos
- Officers arrested Donald Neely on suspicion of criminal trespass
A white Texas police officer can be heard twice on a body camera video saying leading a homeless black man by a rope down city streets while he and his partner are on horseback will look “bad”.
Related: Texas police apologise after officers on horseback led black man by rope
Continue reading...Amber Guyger: ex-officer sentenced as murdered man’s brother urges healing
- Brother of Botham Jean hugs woman who killed him
- Jury shown racist text messages Guyger sent to partner
A jury has sentenced Amber Guyger to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean, after viewing racist text messages sent by the former Dallas police officer.
Prosecutors had symbolically asked for a minimum sentence of 28 years. Jean, who was 26 when he died, would have turned 28 last Sunday.
Continue reading...Brother of murdered Botham Jean hugs ex-officer Amber Guyger after she is sentenced – video
There were emotional scenes as the former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced by a Texas jury to 10 years in prison, after she was found guilty of murder for walking into a neighbour’s apartment and shooting him as he ate ice cream. After the sentence was handed down, Jean's younger brother, Brandt, offered Guyger his forgiveness. ’I forgive you, and I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you. I'm speaking for myself, not my family, but I love you just like anyone else,’ Brandt Jean told Guyger. He then asked the judge's permission to hug Guyger and the two embraced for about a minute
Continue reading...Amber Guyger guilty of murdering black neighbor Botham Jean in his own home
- Ex-officer shot and killed Jean in his apartment last year
- Chants of ‘black lives matter’ after guilty verdict read out
A former police officer who argued she had a right to use lethal force when she killed an innocent man after mistakenly entering his apartment has been convicted of murder.
Amber Guyger faces a lengthy prison sentence after a jury found her guilty of the murder of Botham Jean in Dallas on 6 September last year – a verdict Jean family attorneys hailed as a significant moment in the battle to hold police accountable.
Continue reading...‘Big Tex’: largest captive alligator in US found after escaping in Imelda flooding
Alligator found near a pond on the Gator Country property. A number of his smaller friends, however, are still missing
Residents of Beaumont, Texas, who saw this summer’s alligator horror movie Crawl might have suffered more sleepless nights this week, after the largest gator ever captured in the US was reported missing amid flooding caused by Tropical Storm Imelda.
Related: Trump jumps shark with retweets attacking Fox News host
Continue reading...Tropical Depression Imelda hits south-east Texas – in pictures
Tropical Depression Imelda has flooded south-east Texas, a region that had only just started to recover from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Some areas have received almost 30in of rain, with Governor Gregg Abbott declaring a state of disaster for 13 counties
Continue reading...Storm Imelda lashes Texas with ‘life-threatening’ amounts of rainfall – video
More than 1,000 people have been evacuated after tropical storm Imelda brought chaos to Texas with up to 40 inches of rainfall and flash flooding. Governor Greg Abbott declared 13 counties disaster zones as the National Weather Service warned 'life-threatening amounts of rainfall' had fallen, with more expected over Thursday
Continue reading...Beto O’Rourke on gun control: ‘Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15’ – video
Presidential contender Beto O'Rourke does not shy away from saying he would require citizens to turn in their military-style weapons when asked about gun control during Thursday night's Democratic debate. 'Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,' O’Rourke said in one of the biggest lines of the night. O'Rourke added: 'We're not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans any more.' He said some people at a gun show accepted the weapons were not needed for hunting.
Continue reading...Family and nun fight for retrial as man convicted by all-white jury faces death
Supporters of Rodney Reed, scheduled for execution in November, point to racial bias and questionable evidence
“He never had a chance.” That’s what Sandra Reed said at the start of a rally in front of the Texas governor’s mansion calling for a retrial for her son, Rodney Reed.
Reed, 51, has been on death row in Texas since 1998 and is scheduled to be executed on 20 November for murder.
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