Shooter in 2022 Buffalo mass shooting wants trial moved to New York City
Derek Gee/Buffalo News/Pool via Xinhua
(BUFFALO, N.Y) — Payton Gendron, the teenager who killed 10 Black people at the Topps supermarket in East Buffalo in 2022, claims he cannot get a fair trial in Western New York, so his federal death-penalty eligible case should move to New York City, his attorneys said in a new court filing.
Gendron pleaded guilty in November 2022 to state charges, including domestic terrorism motivated by hate, and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of federal crimes.
His federal trial is scheduled to begin in September.
Gendron’s attorneys argued that “due to the overwhelming amount of pretrial publicity, combined with the impact of this case on Buffalo’s segregated communities of color, it is impossible for Payton Gendron to select a fair and impartial jury in the Western District of New York.”
The lawyers asked for change of venue to the Southern District of New York, encompassing Manhattan, the Bronx and the northern suburbs, because it is “far enough from the local media market to be less impacted by it” and because “the S.D.N.Y. also has sufficient minority representation that has not been directly impacted by the shooting and its aftermath that a diverse and representative jury should be able to be selected.”
There was no immediate comment from federal prosecutors, who would be expected to file their opposition or consent in court papers.
Gendron has separately asked the judge to strike the death penalty as a possible punishment, arguing the decision to seek it had a “discriminatory intent and discriminatory effect.”
The judge has yet to rule.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — A New York resident making s’mores in their backyard is suspected of accidentally igniting a series of wildfires over the weekend that swept through hundreds of acres of the Pine Barrens region of Long Island, authorities said Monday.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said the “operating theory” is that a fire was started at about 9:30 a.m. ET Saturday when a resident used cardboard to start a fire to make s’mores, a confection that includes toasted marshmallows and chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers.
“The individual making s’mores was unable to get the fire lit due to the winds, but they used cardboard to initially light that fire,” Catalina said during a news conference on Monday. “The person subsequently discovers that the fire does ignite in the backyard area and all goes up in fire.”
Catalina said the initial fire was extinguished by 10:30 a.m., but investigators believe embers blew about an eighth of a mile southeast of the s’mores fire and started a second blaze just before 1 p.m. in the Manorville community of Suffolk County.
Northwest winds of up to 45 mph quickly spread embers from Manorville, igniting a fire in Eastport and another fire in the publicly protected Pine Barrens region of West Hampton, according to Catalina.
“It was initially reported that there were four separate fires, or reported at one time,” Catalina said. “All of those fires are in a direct line with the strong northwest wind that was blowing that day. And it is believed that the embers from each fire traveled and continuously started more fires. So that is the operating theory right now.”
Catalina said the department has 25 arson investigators probing the blaze to determine the exact cause of the fire, but added, “So far, our investigation is pointing strongly toward an accidental origin for Saturday’s fires.”
The combined fires burned about 600 acres of wildland and prompted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency. At least two commercial structures were damaged, officials said.
Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine said Monday that two volunteer firefighters were injured battling the blazes on Saturday, with one being airlifted to Stony Brook Hospital in Stony Brook with second-degree burns to the face. The other hospitalized firefighter suffered a non-life-threatening head injury, Romaine said.
The fires in Suffolk County are “100% contained,” Amanda Lefton, the acting commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said. Firefighters will remain on-scene over the next few days to prevent any spot fires from igniting, Lefton said.
Romaine said that at one point during Saturday’s blazes, firefighters feared the blaze would jump Sunrise Highway and spread into the more populated communities of Suffolk County.
He said the fire was fueled by hundreds of dead pine trees in the Pine Barrens region.
“Without the combined efforts of everyone involved, we would not have been able to stop this fire,” Romaine said. “This was a fire that could have been far more serious than it was.”
More than 600 firefighters from 80 volunteer Suffolk County fire departments responded to the blaze, battling flames and smoke visible from as far away as Connecticut, Romaine said.
(NEW YORK) — A four-day, once-in-a-generation weather event turned deadly on day 1 on Wednesday — and the risk for destructive storms and tornadoes will continue on Thursday, and the threat of flooding will increase.
Here’s what you need to know:
Wednesday
The rare weather event began Wednesday with a tornado outbreak that led to at least 20 reported tornadoes from Arkansas to Indiana.
Matt Ziegler documented the moment a tornado ripped through his town of Lake City, Arkansas.
“I’ve always heard that they sound like a train on a track, but to be honest with you, it was eerily quiet,” he told ABC News. “If you weren’t looking, you wouldn’t know that there was a major tornado just a field over from us.”
At least four weather-related fatalities have been confirmed in Tennessee, according to state officials.
The governors of Tennessee and Kentucky have declared states of emergency.
“We are facing one of the most serious weather events we’ve had forecast,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned on social media. “Please stay alert, take all precautions, and be prepared.”
Thursday
On Thursday, the severe weather risk is a level 3 out of 5, bringing the chance for a few strong tornadoes from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Tennessee.
The flooding threat ramps up on Thursday as the system begins to stall and dump heavy rain over the same areas.
Overall, more than 38 million people are under a general flood watch until Sunday morning, spanning 11 states from Arkansas to Ohio including the cities of Louisville, Kentucky; Indianapolis; and Cleveland.
Public schools in Nashville, Tennessee, are closed on Thursday.
A particularly dangerous situation, or PDS, flood watch is in effect until Sunday morning for about 4 million people in parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Cities in the PDS flood watch include Memphis; Little Rock; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Union City, Tennessee; Paducah, Kentucky; and Evansville, Indiana.
On Thursday, a rare high risk (level 4 of 4) warning for excessive rainfall is in effect in northeast Arkansas, northwest Tennessee, as well as Memphis, and western Kentucky.
Friday
Friday’s severe weather threat is a level 3 of 5 for nearly all of Arkansas, with strong tornadoes possible.
A moderate risk (level 3 of 4) for excessive rainfall is in place for Friday from just east of Dallas to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Springfield, Missouri, to St. Louis.
Saturday
Saturday’s severe weather threat is a level 3 of 5 for Arkansas, Louisiana, western Mississippi and eastern Texas, with strong tornadoes possible.
For flooding, a rare high risk threat is in effect on Saturday from Memphis to Jonesboro to Evansville.
Rain totals
The four-day event will dump 10 to 15 inches of rain or more over the area from Jonesboro to Paducah.
Seven to 10 inches of rain is possible from Little Rock to Memphis to Louisville to Cincinnati.
The system will finally move east Sunday afternoon, bringing rain to the Southeast on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
(COOPERSTOWN, NY) — Pete Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and 15 other deceased baseball players have been removed from MLB’s permanent list of banned players, according to a memo from the league’s commissioner.
The decision allows Rose, who accepted a ban for life from MLB in 1989 for gambling on games, to be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously.
The decision only applies to dead players who have been placed on the ineligible list.
“The National Baseball Hall of Fame has always maintained that anyone removed from Baseball’s permanently ineligible list will become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration,” Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark said in a statement. “Major League Baseball’s decision to remove deceased individuals from the permanently ineligible list will allow for the Hall of Fame candidacy of such individuals to now be considered.”
However, a vote by the Historical Overview Committee, often known as the veterans committee, which considers players who made their greatest impact prior to 1980, will not vote on candidates to be included in the hall again until December 2027.
Rose died last October at 83 years old. Rose petitioned the league to be removed from the list in 1992, 1998, 2003, 2015 and 2022 — but either was rejected or received no response each time, including from Manfred.
Rose and Jackson are likely the only two players on the list of players whose body of work would make them likely to be voted to the Hall of Fame.
Rose’s workmanlike attitude and hustle on the field won him innumerable fans. By the end of his 24-year career, 19 of which were with the Cincinnati Reds, he held the record for most career hits, as well as games played, plate appearances and at-bats. He was also a 17-time All-Star, the 1973 NL MVP and 1963 Rookie of the Year.
He also won three World Series — two with Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine” clubs in 1975 and 1976, and a third with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980.
But Rose will always be remembered for being banned for life over gambling on games while he was managing the Reds.
With Rose under suspicion, new MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti commissioned an investigation led by John Dowd, a lawyer with the Department of Justice, in April 1989. By June, the damning report was released, documenting at least 52 bets on Reds games in 1987, his first season as solely a manager after serving as player/manager for three seasons. The bets totaled thousands of dollars per day, according to the Dowd Report.
“While it is my preference not to disturb decisions made by prior Commissioners, Mr. Rose was not placed on the permanently ineligible list by Commissioner action but rather as the result of a 1989 settlement of potential litigation with the Commissioner’s Office,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday. “My decision today is consistent with Commissioner Giamatti’s expectations of that agreement.”
Jackson, meanwhile, was banned from baseball for life in 1920 by then-Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis in connection to the so-called “Black Sox Scandal.”
Jackson and seven other members of the Chicago White Sox were given money by an organized gambling ring to fix the 1919 World Series for the Reds. The players made a paltry sum of money compared to today’s mega-millionaire contracts and were angry about the team owner, Charles Comiskey, paying them a pittance. There was no baseball players union at the time.
All eight of the players — featured in the 1988 movie “Eight Men Out” — have been reinstated: Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Happy Felsch, Chick Gandil, Fred McMullin, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver and Lefty Williams. Gandil was known as the ringleader of the group and allegedly set up the payment, while it’s always been disputed how much Jackson even knew about the plan. He did, however, allegedly admit to accepting $5,000 as part of the scheme, according to testimony from a criminal trial over the case, something he later recanted.
If he did accept money, he didn’t show any signs of throwing games on the field. Jackson hit 12-for-35 (.375) with three doubles, five runs scored and six runs batted in over the eight games in the series. The World Series was a best-of-9 format at the time.
Jackson was one of the best hitters of the early 20th century. Over 13 seasons with Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago, the outfielder had a lifetime batting average of .356 with a .423 on-base percentage. He finished in the top 10 in MVP voting four times and led the majors in hits twice, triples twice and total bases twice.
The other former players banned from the league and now reinstated — who are not as widely known — were Joe Gedeon, Gene Paulette, Benny Kauff, Lee Magee, Phil Douglas, Cozy Dolan, Jimmy O’Connell and William Cox.
