4 children, shooting suspect found dead
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Four young children were discovered dead at a west Orlando apartment complex nearly 24 hours after a standoff that began when an Orlando police officer was shot responding to a domestic violence call.
The gunman was also discovered dead of a gunshot wound, believed to be self-inflicted, in a closet when officers entered the apartment between 8:30 and 9 p.m. Eastern time, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said at a news conference just before midnight.
The children were 1, 6, 10 and 11.
"We have no idea when those children lost their lives," Mina said.
Earlier Monday, police had identified the suspect as 35-year-old Gary Wayne Lindsey Jr., a felon currently on probation for arson and other charges. The wounded officer, Kevin Valencia, was recovering after surgery at Orlando Regional Medical Center and was expected to live.
Sessions revises asylum-eligibility rules
Attorney General Jeff Sessions ruled Monday that victims of domestic abuse and gang violence generally will not qualify for asylum under federal law, a decision that advocates say will affect tens of thousands of foreign nationals seeking safe harbor in the United States.
Sessions' ruling overturned a 2016 decision by the Justice Department's Board of Immigration Appeals that said a battered woman from El Salvador was eligible for asylum under federal law. The administrative appeals court is normally the highest authority on the issue, but the attorney general has the power to assign cases to himself and set precedents.
Past appeals court rulings granted asylum to migrants who said they suffered persecution because they were victims of gang violence or domestic abuse in nations that were unwilling or unable to protect them.
But in the ruling, Sessions said such cases would be less common going forward.
"The mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes -- such as domestic violence or gang violence -- or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim," he said.
Texas firefighter suffers emergency, dies
FORT DAVIS, Texas -- Officials say a Texas firefighter who was battling wildfires in the western part of the state has died after suffering a medical emergency.
Weatherford Fire Marshal Bob Hopkins told the Star-Telegram that Andy Loller died Sunday en route to a hospital in Odessa. Hopkins said the 42-year-old Weatherford firefighter had been sent to help fight wildfires burning in the Davis Mountains.
A firefighting team with the U.S. Forest Service said up to 18 blazes have been reported in the area this wildfire season. They have burned more than 40 square miles and are believed to have been started by lightning strikes or other natural causes.
Texas-born cartel boss gets 49 years
ATLANTA -- A Texas-born man who prosecutors say rose to the top ranks of a Mexican drug cartel using ruthless violence to defeat rivals and secure control of drug trafficking routes was sentenced Monday by a federal judge in Atlanta to serve nearly five decades in prison.
Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie" because of his light eyes and complexion, was sentenced to serve 49 years and one month and was also ordered to forfeit $192 million, which prosecutors say is a conservative estimate of the value of the cocaine Valdez was responsible for importing into the United States.
Valdez, 44, was born and raised in the border town of Laredo, Texas, and began dealing marijuana when he was still a linebacker on the football team, prosecutors said. He climbed the ranks of the Beltran Leyva cartel. After Mexican marines killed Arturo Beltran Leyva in December 2009, Valdez and Beltran Leyva's brother, Hector, began a bloody fight for control that left dismembered and decapitated bodies in the streets and often hanging from bridges in Cuernavaca and Acapulco.
Mexican federal police arrested Valdez and four others outside Mexico City in August 2010.
A Section on 06/12/2018