The nation in brief

Video cameras found at site of slayings Fatal police shooting gets 2nd review Hurricane weakens, heads toward Gulf Funeral held for 110-year-old veteran

Video cameras found at site of slayings

TULSA -- A search warrant affidavit in the stabbing deaths of a Broken Arrow, Okla., couple and three of their children says video cameras were found where last month's slayings took place.

The affidavit, filed Thursday and first obtained by the Tulsa World, says the cameras were near three of the victims and appeared connected to one or more of the computers taken from the home.

The affidavit did not say whether the cameras were activated, but it did say "live footage recordings from surveillance cameras" could be found on a thumb drive taken from the home. The document also listed audio recordings and photographs among other possible items that could be found on the thumb drive.

The document states that several electronic devices were removed from the home by police and taken to the Broken Arrow Police Department.

Brothers Robert Bever, 18, and Michael Bever, 16, both charged as adults, have pleaded innocent to five counts of first-degree murder and a single count of assault and battery with intent to kill. A 13-year-old sister was also stabbed, but survived, while a 2-year-old sister was found unharmed inside the home.

Fatal police shooting gets 2nd review

ST. LOUIS -- Prosecutors announced an investigation separate from a police probe into the death of a suspect killed by a St. Louis officer, after an autopsy showed the 18-year-old was shot in the back.

Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce announced Friday a simultaneous investigation after learning the autopsy results on Mansur Ball-Bey, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The past practice has been for the prosecution to await the police results before proceeding.

The shooting Wednesday sparked an evening of protests and came on the heels of the one-year anniversary of the day Michael Brown was killed by a white officer in nearby Ferguson -- a killing that sparked protests, the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

Attorney Brian Millikan, who is representing the officer who fired the deadly shot and another officer who also opened fire, said the officers were in separate positions when Ball-Bey turned toward one officer with a gun. He said one of the officers was firing in defense of his partner.

Police Chief Sam Dotson said at a news conference Friday that he could not yet conclude whether the shooting of Ball-Bey was justified because information was still developing, and he urged the public to withhold judgment.

Hurricane weakens, heads toward Gulf

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A weakening Hurricane Danny approached Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Saturday but was expected to be of little relief to residents of the drought-stricken northern Caribbean.

On Saturday afternoon, the Category 1 hurricane was located at latitude 15.5 N and longitude 52.4 W, about 635 miles east of the Leeward Islands, with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. It was traveling west-northwest at 12 mph.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said it expected Danny to turn west later Saturday and weaken further. Forecasters said it likely would be downgraded to a tropical storm before reaching the Leeward Islands late today or early Monday.

Danny was expected to pass over Antigua and Barbuda early Monday and reach the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico early Tuesday.

Meteorologists said it was too early to predict how much rainfall Danny would generate over Puerto Rico, which has implemented extreme water-rationing measures since May as it struggles with one of the worst droughts in its history.

Forecasters said the storm was likely to glance the island's northeast region and drop the heaviest rains over open waters north of the U.S. territory.

Nearly 25 percent of Puerto Rico is considered to be in an extreme drought, and another 45 percent is under a severe one, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.

Funeral held for 110-year-old veteran

DETROIT -- Funeral services were held in Detroit for a woman who was believed to be the oldest U.S. veteran at the time of her death.

Relatives and acquaintances of Emma Didlake gathered Saturday at Second Baptist Church. Didlake, of West Bloomfield, Mich., northwest of Detroit, died Aug. 16 at age 110.

She was a 38-year-old wife and mother of five when she signed up in 1943 for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. Didlake served about seven months stateside during World War II as a private and driver.

Born in Alabama, she moved with her family to Detroit in 1944.

Didlake met last month with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.

After her death, Obama said Didlake was a "trailblazer for generations of Americans who have sacrificed so much for their country."

-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS

A Section on 08/23/2015

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