The nation in brief

Dallas police gather Tuesday outside the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where two injured officers were being treated.
Dallas police gather Tuesday outside the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where two injured officers were being treated.

Mistrial called in border killing of teen

PHOENIX — Prosecutors are evaluating whether to pursue a retrial for a U.S. Border Patrol agent on manslaughter charges after an Arizona jury deadlocked on the lesser counts.

A mistrial was declared Monday in the case of Agent Lonnie Swartz after Tucson jurors acquitted him of a second-degree murder charge in the 2012 shooting death of a teenager from Mexico.

The decision means prosecutors could seek another trial for Swartz on the manslaughter charge in the death of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was fatally shot as he threw rocks at authorities during a drug-smuggling attempt.

The jury deliberated about 18 hours over five days in what human-rights attorneys say was the first prosecution of a Border Patrol agent in a fatal shooting across the border.

Swartz fired 16 shots late on Oct. 10, 2012, through a 20-foot fence that sits on an embankment above Mexico’s Calle Internacional, a Nogales street lined with homes and small businesses.

Prosecutors acknowledged during the monthlong trial that Elena Rodriguez was lobbing rocks across the border during a drug-smuggling attempt. But they say he did not deserve to die.

Defense attorneys countered that Swartz was justified in using lethal force against rock-throwers and shot from the U.S. side of the border in self-defense.

S.C. prison-riot deaths all from stabbing

BISHOPVILLE, S.C. — A coroner said Tuesday that the seven inmates killed during a South Carolina prison riot earlier this month all bled to death from stab wounds.

Lee County Coroner Larry Logan said each of the inmates who died had several stab or cutting wounds inflicted inside Lee Correctional Institution on April 15 and 16.

Authorities say inmates in three wings of the maximum-security prison fought uninterrupted for several hours in a battle over territory and contraband. Inmates reported seeing men slowly die as prison officials tried to gather enough people to restore order.

At least 20 inmates have been killed by other inmates in South Carolina prisons in the past 16 months.

The State Law Enforcement Division continues to investigate the riot. No charges have been filed.

Twenty-two inmates were hurt.

Island lawmakers push for power plan

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s Senate has ordered government agencies to explain why tens of thousands of people in rural areas remain without power or appropriate shelter as anger grows about the lack of basic services more than seven months after hurricanes Irma and Maria.

The agencies have been given five days to present a plan on how and when they will address the needs of rural towns, an order that came as police in a small mountain town blocked power crews from leaving Tuesday. Joining the protest were the mayor and dozens of people who noted that nearly 40 percent of Las Piedras’ inhabitants were still without electricity service as crews prepared to leave for another town on company orders.

More than 33,000 power customers across Puerto Rico remain in the dark since Hurricane Irma brushed past Puerto Rico’s northeastern coast as a Category 5 storm Sept. 6, followed by Maria which hit the island Sept. 20 as a Category 4 storm, killing dozens of people.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing federal power restoration efforts, has said it expects power to be restored to everyone by late May. However, federal legislators have requested that the agency’s mission be extended as the Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1.

Dallas gunfire critically hurts 2 officers

DALLAS — Two Dallas police officers and a home-improvement store employee are out of surgery after being shot outside the store Tuesday, authorities said.

Meanwhile, Dallas police say they have arrested a suspect in the shooting that happened about 4:15 p.m. at a Home Depot in northern Dallas. Police Chief U. Renee Hall said 29-year-old Armando Luis Juarez was arrested on warrants charging aggravated assault on a police officer and felony theft.

In a tweet about the shooting Tuesday evening, the Dallas Police Department said the officers were critically wounded. Hall provided no updates on the conditions of the two police officers and the store employee. She asked for continued prayers for their recovery.

The two officers went to the store to assist an off-duty police officer with taking a man into custody, then the shooting occurred, Hall said.

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