Nitrogen leak fatal to 6 poultry workers
GAINESVILLE, Ga, -- A liquid-nitrogen leak at a northeast Georgia poultry plant killed six people Thursday and sent 11 others to the hospital, officials said.
At least three of those injured at the Foundation Food Group plant in Gainesville were reported in critical condition.
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Poultry plants rely on refrigeration systems that can include liquid nitrogen. Sheriff's deputies, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the state fire marshal were investigating the deaths and cause of the leak.
"It will be a lengthy process," Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch said. "It's not something that's quick."
Nicholas Ancrum, the Foundation Food Group's head of human resources, called the leak a tragic accident and said early indications are that a nitrogen line ruptured.
When leaked into the air, liquid nitrogen vaporizes into an odorless gas that's capable of displacing oxygen. That means leaks in enclosed spaces can become deadly by pushing away breathable air, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.
Gainesville is the hub of Georgia's poultry industry, which is the largest in the country. Thousands of employees work in processing plants around the city and much of the workforce, like in many meat processing plants nationwide, is Hispanic.
2 officers at shooting scene back on job
KENOSHA, Wis. -- Two police officers who were on the scene when a white officer shot and partially paralyzed a Black man in Wisconsin, triggering several nights of violent protests, have returned to duty, according to police officials.
Officer Rusten Sheskey, who shot Jacob Blake seven times on Aug. 23 in Kenosha, remains on administrative leave while a police review board examines the case.
Sheskey was placed on administrative leave after Blake's shooting along with officers Vincent Arenas and Brittany Meronek. Arenas and Meronek returned to duty Jan. 20, according to a police statement issued Wednesday.
"Officers Arenas and Meronek were not charged with a crime and after review by the Kenosha County District Attorney and an independent investigator, former Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, the actions taken by the officers were reasonable and justified," the statement said.
Hundreds of people were arrested and numerous businesses were destroyed during protests after Blake's shooting. Kyle Rittenhouse, a white teenager from Antioch, Ill., is accused of fatally shooting two men and wounding a third during one night of violence.
Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley on Jan. 5 declined to file charges against Sheskey, concluding he couldn't disprove the officer's contention that he acted in self-defense.
Boy faces 6 charges in relatives' killings
INDIANAPOLIS -- A 17-year-old Indianapolis boy accused of fatally shooting his father, stepmother, two teenage relatives and a pregnant 19-year-old woman was charged with six counts of murder Thursday, according to a prosecutor and court documents.
Raymond Ronald Lee Childs III, who was arrested Monday in the shootings a day earlier, was charged as an adult, Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears announced. One of the six murder counts was in the death of the unborn child, Mears said.
"Not only did so many people lose their lives but you think about that family and what they were anticipating -- the baby was due in a week," Mears said during a news conference.
Childs also faces an attempted-murder charge in the wounding of another relative, a 15-year-old boy who was the sole survivor of the shooting on Indianapolis' near northeast side, according to court records. Childs also was charged with carrying a handgun without a license.
During his initial hearing on Thursday afternoon, a magistrate entered an innocent plea for Childs, ordered him held without bail and appointed a public defender.
Cemetery to change whites-only wording
The board of a Louisiana cemetery that denied burial to a Black sheriff's deputy held an emergency meeting Thursday to remove a whites-only provision from its sales contracts.
Board president H. Creig Vizena said he was stunned and ashamed to learn that the family of Allen Parish Deputy Darrell Semien, who died Sunday, had been told that he could not be buried at the Oaklin Springs Cemetery near Oberlin in southwest Louisiana because he was Black.
"It's horrible," Vizena said. He said the board members were meeting for the express purpose of removing "white" from a contract stipulation that the cemetery is for "the remains of white human beings."
Karla Semien of Oberlin wrote Tuesday on Facebook that a woman at the cemetery had told her that her husband could not be buried there because it was for whites only.
Vizena said that when he told other members about the language, each one said it had to be fixed.
The offensive wording wasn't in the cemetery association's bylaws but only in sales contracts used since the cemetery was created in the late 1950s, Vizena said.
