Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
An attorney for one of the three former Minneapolis police officers on trial for allegedly violating George Floyd's civil rights suggested Friday that the department's training is inadequate when it comes to intervening when a colleague is using excessive force and that new recruits are told to obey their senior officers.
Federal prosecutors say former Officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao didn't follow their training when they failed to act to save Floyd's life on May 25, 2020, as fellow Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on the Black man's neck for 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed, facedown and gasping for air. Kueng kneeled on Floyd's back, Lane held his legs and Thao kept bystanders back.
Inspector Katie Blackwell, the police department's former head of training, testified Friday that officers are trained that they have a duty to intervene to stop fellow officers from using unreasonable force. They are also trained on the use of neck restraints and that officers must provide follow-up care because the restraints can be dangerous. She said Kueng, Lane and Thao acted in a way that was "inconsistent" with the department's policies.
But Kueng's attorney, Thomas Plunkett, pushed back, suggesting that it was the department that failed the officers.
Plunkett said department policy states that an officer is required to stop or attempt to stop another employee from using inappropriate force, pointing out that Blackwell left "attempt to stop" out of her prior testimony. He also said that when officers are trained in use-of-force scenarios, intervention is not taught.
"There's no intervention scenario, isn't that correct?" Plunkett said.
"Not one exactly for intervention," Blackwell said.
Plunkett got Blackwell to agree that recruits are taught that they should never argue with an instructor. Lane and Keung were rookies, while Chauvin was the most senior of the four officers at the scene that day.
During his opening statement, Plunkett noted that Chauvin was Kueng's field training officer, and as such had "considerable sway" over his future. He also said Chauvin called "all of the shots" as the senior officer at the scene. On Friday, Plunkett said department policy would have called for Lane to be in charge at the scene, but Chauvin took over.
Blackwell, who was testifying for a second day, spent hours talking about policy and training. She said Thao took repeated refresher courses on use-of-force policies, including as recently as 2018 and 2019, and that Lane and Kueng had repeated lessons on the same subjects while attending the academy in 2019.
She said officers are taught that they have a duty to use the least amount of force necessary and must stop once the person is no longer resisting, then render any necessary medical aid they're trained to provide until medical personnel arrive "to make sure that we do everything we can to save a person's life."
She also acknowledged that at some point Lane stopped holding Floyd's legs and that Kueng did not have his knee on Floyd's back the whole time, but said it is department policy that officers have a duty to intervene to stop another officer from using excessive force.
Blackwell said she saw nothing that would have prevented Thao and Kueng from stopping Chauvin. And although police body camera video shows that Lane was rebuffed when he twice asked if they should roll Floyd onto his side -- something Blackwell testified is critical -- he still had a duty to intervene.
Plunkett noted that the department's policy says officers can use their legs and arms to perform neck restraints, but that Blackwell testified that officers aren't actually trained in using their legs to do them.
Officers had responded to a 911 call about Floyd, 46, trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a corner store. Bystander cellphone video of the killing triggered worldwide protests and a reexamination of racism and policing.
Kueng, who is Black, Lane, who is white, and Thao, who is Hmong American, are charged with willfully depriving Floyd of his constitutional rights while acting under "colour of law," or government authority. One count against all three officers alleges that they saw that Floyd needed medical care and failed to help. A count against Thao and Kueng contends that they didn't intervene to stop Chauvin. Both counts allege that the officers' actions resulted in Floyd's death.
Prosecutors have argued that the "willful" standard can be met by showing "blatantly wrongful conduct" that deprived Floyd of his rights.
Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in state court last year, and he pleaded guilty in December to a federal civil rights charge. Lane, Kueng and Thao also face a separate state trial in June on charges alleging that they aided and abetted murder and manslaughter.
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Webber contributed from Fenton, Michigan.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
Ontario Provincial Police say two people were killed after a car and a transport truck collided in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Limoges, Ont. on Tuesday afternoon.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Police are investigating after a BMW exploded in the St-Lambert Exo train station parking lot on Montreal's South Shore.
A group of lawyers has written what they call a groundbreaking book about how mental health is perceived in the legal profession.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.