Shot in the Back, Widow Acquitted

The Police Beat: A private autopsy has fed outrage over the fatal police shooting this week of an unarmed black man in Sacramento, Calif.

The autopsy commissioned by the family of 22-year-old Stephon Clark found that he had been shot eight times, six of them in the back and one in the side of his neck. Dr. Bennet Omalu, a private medical examiner, said the one shot that hit Clark in the front of his leg struck while he was falling down.

Two police officers fired a total of 20 shots. Making the case a little murkier, though, Omalu said the first shot in the side forced Clark to turn so that much of the barrage of 20 bullets hit him in the back.

Omalu said Clark “bled massively” from wounds that included  a shattered vertebrae, a collapsed lung and an arm broken into “tiny bits.”

The official autopsy has not been released and it’s difficult to match Omalu’s interpretation with the police helicopter night video of the shooting.

The police officers had responded to a call about a man breaking car windows. They chased Clark into his grandmother’s back yard and shot him, they said, when he “advanced toward the officers” with what they thought was a gun in his hand. It was a cellphone.

In Baton Rouge, La., the cop who shot and killed 37-year-old Alton Sterling in a struggle on the ground outside a food mart has been fired and another officer suspended for three days.

Off.  Blane Salamoni threatened to shoot Sterling seconds into the confrontation and moments later killed him.

The officers were answering a call about a man with a gun and they were pretty brusque approaching Sterling. He was less than cooperative. They found a gun in his pocket after the officer shot him.

Nation: Noor Salman, the widow of the man, who massacred 49 people in Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub, was found not guilty yesterday of charges that she aided and abetted her husband. Her defense portrayed her as an abused wife whose husband never told her about his plans. She was home asleep with their infant child at the time of the attack. Hundreds of Kentucky school teachers gathered outside the governor’s office chanting “vote them out” after the legislature passed significant changes to public employee retirement benefits. The legislature is pushing a “cash balance” retirement plan that is more like a 401k. The retiree is not guaranteed a set monthly income.

World: Israeli troops killed at least 16 Palestinians and wounded many more in a massive demonstration in which the Palestinians were demanding to return home to territory that is now Israeli.

Now This: Fox News host Laura Ingraham announced she’s taking a week off for Easter as about a dozen advertisers have left her show for publicly insulting a 17-year-old about not getting into college. Ingraham tweeted about the Parkland, Fla. high school student David Hogg, who has become prominent in the anti-gun movement after the massacre at his school. Hogg rejected Ingraham’s apology and tweeted,  “Have some healthy reflections this Holy Week.”

The Obit Page: Anita Shreve, the bestselling author who wrote “The Weight of Water” and “The Pilot’s Wife,” has died of cancer in New Hampshire at age 71. A 1997 review of “Water” said, “Ms. Shreve unravels themes of adultery, jealousy, crimes of passion, incest, negligence, loss and guilt, and then manages somehow to knit them all together into an engrossing tale.”

Slapshot: Former college goalie Scott Foster was just watching the Chicago Blackhawks play Winnipeg Thursday night when he was suddenly drafted into the game. The Blackhawks’ two goalies both were hurt and Foster was in the arena as an emergency backup. He’s a recreational goalie who never played a whistle of pro hockey.

Foster put on the pads, stopped seven shots, and sealed Chicago’s 6-2 win. Foster said, “The initial shock happened when I had to dress. I think you just kind of black out after that.”

Nunsense: In his Good Friday address Pope Francis urged people to “rediscover shame” as if Catholics are ever allowed to forget it.

Monday, April 29, 2024

Page Two

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Wright Stuff

Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's Been Said

"In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have, no excuses."

-Andrew Cuomo, resigning as governor of New York after accusations of sexual harassment

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