One police officer shot and killed, two others wounded in Dallas shooting
(DALLAS) — One police officer has been shot and killed and two others wounded after a shooting in Dallas, Texas, authorities have confirmed.
Dallas police officers were called to a report of an officer in distress on the 900 block of E. Ledbetter Drive in southern Dallas, according to Kristin Lowman, Dallas Police Department’s communications director, who addressed the media early Friday morning.
When officers arrived, they found an officer shot in his marked patrol vehicle and the responding officers began to exchange gunfire with a suspect at the scene, Lowman said. Two police officers were shot in that exchange.
The suspect fled the scene and Dallas police officers pursued the individual to the 1000 block of Stemmons Freeway down I-35E in Lewisville, police said.
The suspect eventually stopped and exited their vehicle carrying a long gun when Dallas officers shot and killed the individual.
All three officers were immediately taken to local hospitals where one of them died from the injuries sustained in the shooting, officials said. The other two are currently in critical and stable conditions, respectively.
Officials did not give any possible motive for the shooting and the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
(BOSTON) — Harvard University “failed its Jewish students” and must face a lawsuit over antisemitism on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel, a federal judge in Boston ruled.
Judge Richard Stearns said Jewish students plausibly claimed Harvard had been indifferent to their fears of walking through the campus and missing classes and extracurricular activities when they were allegedly harassed by pro-Palestinian protesters.
He did not rule on the merits of the claims, only that the lawsuit could move forward.
“The protests were, at times, confrontational and physically violent, and plaintiffs legitimately fear their repetition,” Stearns wrote. “[P]laintiffs have plausibly pled that they were subject to severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment.”
Stearns said he was “dubious” of Harvard’s claim that it allowed the protests to continue in order to protect the free speech rights of demonstrators. Instead, Harvard’s reaction was “at best, indecisive, vacillating, and at times internally contradictory,” the judge concluded.
“To conclude that the [lawsuit] has not plausibly alleged deliberate indifference would reward Harvard for virtuous public declarations that for the most part, according to the allegations of the [lawsuit], proved hollow when it came to taking disciplinary measures against offending students and faculty,” Stearns wrote in the opinion. “In other words, the facts as pled show that Harvard failed its Jewish students.”
In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for Harvard said the university “has and will continue to take concrete steps to address the root causes of antisemitism on campus and protect our Jewish and Israeli students, ensuring they may pursue their education free from harassment and discrimination.”
“We appreciate that the Court dismissed the claim that Harvard directly discriminated against members of our community, and we understand that the court considers it too early to make determinations on other claims,” the spokesperson added. “Harvard is confident that once the facts in this case are made clear, it will be evident that Harvard has acted fairly and with deep concern for supporting our Jewish and Israeli students.”
In a statement in December, then-Harvard President Claudine Gay said there are “some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students.”
“Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard,” she said, adding, “Those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”
In the months since Oct. 7, numerous universities have faced criticism for their handling of both antisemitism and Islamophobia on campuses.
More than a dozen pro-Palestinian Harvard students filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in January, alleging the university had failed to protect them from harassment, threats and assault.
Harvard isn’t the only one to face a lawsuit. Jewish students have also sued UCLA, New York University and Columbia University over their response to pro-Palestinian campus protests.
The U.S. Department of Education has opened Title VI discrimination investigations into both antisemitism and Islamophobia at several educational institutions, including major universities and the New York City Department of Education.
Federal officials have said the Jewish community, as well as the Muslim and Arab communities, have faced a sharp uptick in threats and hate speech since Oct. 7.
In January, Gay stepped down following a congressional hearing about antisemitism at the school and amid accusations of plagiarism.
(MOUNDRIDGE, Kan.) — A toddler was rescued Sunday afternoon after getting stuck underground in a PVC pipe, officials said.
Emergency responders in Moundridge, Kansas, “acted swiftly and worked diligently for approximately 15-20 minutes to safely recover the child,” the Moundridge Police Department said in a press release.
The 14-month-old boy was “understandably shaken,” but was not injured in the incident, police said.
The boy fell into the sump pump drain while playing outside, according to Wichita, Kansas, ABC affiliate KAKE.
“Kids are always a concern, especially small kids,” Moundridge EMS Director Brian Falco told KAKE. “He doesn’t communicate. He doesn’t follow instructions. It’s not like an adult.”
The pipe was about 1 foot in diameter and about 10 to 12 feet deep, police said.
Police specifically commended one officer, identified as Officer Ronnie Wagner, who they said “constructed a makeshift ‘catch pole’ using a smaller PVC pipe and rope.”
“This creative solution was instrumental in lifting the child safely from the pipe,” police said.
Police thanked first responders for their work in rescuing the toddler.
“We extend our deepest gratitude to all the first responders for their swift and effective action, which transformed a dangerous situation into a successful rescue,” police said.
(NEW YORK) — A former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the death of George Floyd was released from prison Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed to ABC News.
Thomas Lane, 41, pleaded guilty in May 2022 to state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss charges against him for aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder.
He was sentenced to three years in prison for the state charges.
Previously, in February 2022, a federal jury convicted Lane — as well as two other former officers — for violating Floyd’s civil rights when they failed to intervene in his murder in May 2020.
He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for the federal charges.
Lane served the two sentences concurrently at FCI Englewood in Colorado. His sentence on federal charges expired earlier this year, according to a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson, while his sentence on state charges ended Tuesday.
Lane will spend the next year on supervised release, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Corrections told ABC News.
Derek Chauvin — the officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, killing him — was convicted on murder charges and sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison.
In a move unrelated to Lane, Chauvin was moved to a federal prison in Big Springs, Texas, on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the situation. Chauvin was stabbed at a federal prison in Phoenix last November.
In the wake of Floyd’s murder, protests against racial injustice and police brutality broke out across the U.S. and even internationally, drawing millions.
“Thomas Lane served his time and paid his debt to society. I wish him well in his re-entry into his community,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement to Duluth ABC affiliate WDIO-TV.