National Roundup

Connecticut
48 arrested in crackdown on illegal car racing
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Police in New Haven, Connecticut, have arrested 48 people and towed 10 vehicles in a crackdown on illegal drag racing in the city.

Most of the arrests were made near a McDonald’s restaurant, a major staging area for the drag races.

Some of those arrested were racers and some were spectators. One was a juvenile.

They were charged with several offenses, from third-degree trespass, to operation of an unregistered vehicle and misuse of a marker place.

All those arrested were released on a promise to appear in court.

Texas
Questions intensify after officer kills woman at home
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A white police officer who fatally shot a 28-year-old black woman inside her Texas home was set to be interviewed by investigators as questions and outrage grow over the shooting.

The Fort Worth Police Department said officers responded about 2:25 a.m. Saturday after a neighbor called a non-emergency line to report the home’s front door had been left open. The responding officer fired a shot through the home’s window, killing Atatiana Jefferson.

Police said Jefferson was with her 8-year-old nephew when she was killed. A family attorney, Lee Merritt, said the pair had stayed up late playing video games and “lost track of time” when they heard noise outside of Jefferson’s bedroom window.

“You didn’t hear the officer shout, ‘Gun, gun, gun,’” Merritt told Dallas TV station KXAS after viewing video taken from a Fort Worth officer’s bodycam. “He didn’t have time to perceive a threat. That’s murder.”

The shooting occurred in Fort Worth, about 30 miles west of Dallas, where another high-profile police shooting occurred last year. In that case, white Dallas police officer Amber Guyger fatally shot her black neighbor Botham Jean inside his own apartment after Guyger said she mistook it as her own.

Fort Worth police said in a statement that officers saw someone near a window inside the home and that one of them drew his duty weapon and fired after “perceiving a threat.” The video released by police shows two officers searching the home from the outside with flashlights before one shouts, “Put your hands up, show me your hands.” One shot is then fired through a window.
In the video, the officer does not identify himself as police.

Fort Worth police said it released the bodycam footage soon after the shooting to provide transparency, but that any “camera footage inside the residence” could not be distributed due to state law. However, the bodycam video released to media included blurred still frames showing a gun inside a bedroom at the home. It’s unclear if the firearm was found near Jefferson, and police have not said that the officer who shot her thought she had a gun. The police statement released Saturday said only that officers who entered the residence after the shooting found a firearm, and Lt. Brandon O’Neil would not answer reporters’ questions Sunday on why police released images of the gun.

A large crowd gathered outside Jefferson’s home Sunday night for a vigil after earlier demonstrations briefly stopped traffic on part of Interstate 35.

Jefferson was a 2014 graduate of Xavier University in New Orleans and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology, the university said.

Merritt told the Star-Telegram that Jefferson was working in pharmaceutical equipment sales and was considering going back to medical school.

The Fort Worth Police Officers Association issued a statement Sunday calling for “a thorough and transparent investigation” into the shooting.

“The members of the FWPOA love the citizens that we serve, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Atatiana Jefferson; our hearts are heavy,” the statement said.

The shooting comes less than two weeks after Guyger, the former Dallas police officer, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of murder in the fatal shooting of Jean. Guyger, 31, said during her trial that mistook Jean’s apartment for her own, which was one floor below Jean’s. Merritt also represents Jean’s family.


Illinois
Serial stowaway remains jailed after latest airport arrest
CHICAGO (AP) — A 67-year-old woman with a history of sneaking onto flights without a ticket will remain jailed after the latest incident in which police say she tried to get past security at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Marilyn Hartman was arrested Friday night and later charged with felony criminal trespass. A judge on Sunday granted her bail but ordered that she stay in custody until a related probation hearing.

Hartman’s arrest marks the latest chapter in a story that’s played out for a decade at airports across the U.S., including last year when she was arrested after sneaking on a flight from O’Hare to London.

She ultimately pleaded guilty to criminal trespassing and was sentenced in March to 18 months’ probation after agreeing to stay away from Chicago’s two commercial airports.

Alaska
Native village sues federal agency over gaming hall
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska Native Village filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Interior Department in a continuing campaign to open a tribal gambling hall, officials said.

Officials from Eklutna filed the lawsuit seeking to open a hall in Chugiak, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of downtown Anchorage, The Anchorage Daily News reported .

The complaint filed in August in federal district court in Washington, D.C., represents the tribal government’s latest attempt to open the area’s first federally licensed gambling facility. The tribe has pursued the plan for more than 20 years, saying the gambling operation could boost jobs, tourism and the economy, officials said.

Eklutna is a Denaina Native community and a federally recognized tribal government, which would allow it to avoid paying a state gambling tax and fee.

The Chugiak hall would be have pull-tabs, bingo and lotteries, as well as electronic versions of the games. It would not host blackjack, slot machines and similar Vegas-style games permitted under federal law but banned by the state, officials said.

The lawsuit challenges the Interior Department’s 2018 decision that the tribe does not have governmental authority over an allotment of land where it wants to build the facility.

Eklutna tribe President Aaron Leggett said the lawsuit is “an important step toward solving longstanding issues and creating new opportunities for the first people of Alaska’s largest city.”

The state expects to decide by the end of the month whether to intervene, Alaska Assistant Attorney General Maria Bahr said.