Search for 2 N.C. river tubers continues
EDEN, N.C. — Searchers combed a North Carolina river Friday for two missing tubers after a group on a recreational float went over a dam, resulting in three deaths and four people rescued from the water.
The group of nine people was floating down the Dan River on inflatable tubes and went over a dam that’s about 8 feet high next to a Duke Energy plant on Wednesday night, Rockingham County Emergency Services Director Rodney Cates told reporters. A Duke Energy employee who saw some of the tubers called 911, Cates said.
Cates said that an air and water search for the remaining two missing tubers went until dark Thursday and resumed Friday morning.
Cates did not release the identities of the people involved. He said four were rescued and taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening.
Cates said it’s unclear why the tubers didn’t contact authorities sooner, but he said it may have been because they didn’t have phones with them.
Police probe Phoenix-area shootings
PHOENIX — Investigators on Friday were trying to determine why a gunman opened fire on vehicles and pedestrians for some 90 minutes across metropolitan Phoenix, leaving one person dead and a dozen others injured in the string of drive-by shootings.
Authorities believe a man they arrested after the shootings on Thursday acted alone. His identity hasn’t been released.
“We don’t know what the motive was,” said Brandon Sheffert, a police spokesman. “We don’t have an idea of what this person was thinking when he went out and did this.” There were at least eight separate shootings in three cities, stoking fear throughout the region and shutting down parts of major freeways as police gathered evidence.
Four people were shot, including the person who died. Others were injured as bullets shattered glass or as their vehicles crashed. Authorities said the injured victims were all adults and expected to fully recover.
After one victim provided authorities a description of the suspect’s vehicle — a white Volkswagen SUV — and the license plate number, firefighters spotted the vehicle and called police, who swarmed a shopping center to take the suspect into custody.
Agency settles excessive-force lawsuit
RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina sheriff’s office has agreed to a $6 million settlement in a lawsuit in which six families accused the department of a pattern of using excessive force doled out by deputies who had allegedly referred to themselves as the “KKK,” an attorney said Thursday.
Raleigh-based attorney Robert Zaytoun announced the settlement with the Harnett County sheriff’s office on behalf of the plaintiffs, WRAL reported. Zaytoun, who said the department’s insurer will pay the settlement, didn’t respond to a phone call seeking additional comment.
The families sued four deputies, Sheriff Wayne Coats and former Sheriff Larry Rollins in November 2016. The lawsuit was filed by the family of John David Livingston, who was shot and killed by a Harnett County deputy after refusing to allow a warrantless search of his home in 2015.
The lawsuit had accused former Deputy Nicholas Kehagias and two other deputies whose surnames begin with the letter K of calling themselves the “KKK” and training together in a type of “fight club.” The suit outlined 43 causes of action against the defendants, who denied a pattern of excessive force and argued that other plaintiffs similarly provoked deputies on separate occasions.
Coats said the settlement wasn’t “in any way an admission of guilt,” adding that “Although I was not the sheriff at the time of the incidents, I still support the men that were involved and I believe they acted appropriately.”
Truck driver at protest to avoid charges
MINNEAPOLIS — A truck driver who drove through a large crowd of protesters on a Minneapolis highway last year during demonstrations over George Floyd’s death will have criminal charges dropped if he remains law-abiding for the next year.
Hennepin County prosecutors entered into a “continuance without prosecution” agreement with Bogdan Vechirko of Otsego on Friday during a virtual court hearing before a district judge, the Star Tribune reported. Vechirko was charged with one felony count of making threats of violence and with criminal vehicular operation, a gross misdemeanor.
Prosecutors alleged that Vechirko attempted to “scare” protesters when he drove onto the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River as thousands of people protested Floyd’s death under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.
One protester suffered abrasions as she tried to jump out of the way to avoid the truck, according to the criminal complaint, but nobody was seriously hurt. Vechirko told investigators he didn’t mean to drive into the protest or hurt anyone and was returning from a fuel delivery in Minneapolis.