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Tuesday, March 31, 2015 — 5

ANDREW VAUGHN/AP

Airport firefighters work at the crash site of Air Canada AC624 that crashed early Sunday morning during a snowstorm, at Stanfield International Airport in 
Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Monday, March 30. 
Toronto officials investigate 
plane crash on Halifax runway

Twenty-five 

taken to hospital 
following crash 

officials say 

TORONTO (AP) — An Air 

Canada passenger plane landed 
so significantly short of the run-
way in Halifax that it hit a power 
line and knocked out power at 
the airport, the lead investigator 
said Monday.

The Airbus 320 landed 1,100 

feet (335 meters) short of the 
runway during an early Sunday 
morning snowstorm. It crashed 
into a bank of antennas and 
sheared off its main landing gear, 
nose cone and an engine before 
skidding on its belly. Twenty-five 
people were taken to the hospital 

and all but one has been released.

Mike Cunningham, regional 

manager for Canada’s Trans-
portation Safety Board, said 
investigators are still trying to 
determine why Flight AC624 
from Toronto landed prema-
turely.

Cunningham said they inter-

viewed the pilots Sunday night 
but that he is prohibited from 
commenting about what they 
said. The cockpit voice recorder 
and flight data are being down-
loaded Monday.

The airport terminal build-

ing went black as the plane hit a 
power line outside several hun-
dred feet outside the airport.

“That’s pretty unique. The 

power line itself is well beyond 
the obstacle clearance criteria 
from that runway and that air-
craft touched down significantly 

short of the runway,” Cunning-
ham said in a telephone inter-
view with The Associated Press.

A power generator on the 

airfield kicked in so the lighting 
there was not affected but two 
generators failed in the termi-
nal building. The power outage 
meant an emergency response 
center had to be moved to a near-
by hotel. Nova Scotia Power later 
restored power, and police said a 
power line south of the runway 
outside airport property was 
damaged.

Cunningham said he’s sure the 

power outage was a contributing 
factor in the delayed response 
in retrieving the 133 passengers 
and five crew members. Passen-
gers complained they were left 
standing on the tarmac for up to 
50 minutes as they were lashed 
by wind-whipped snow before 

buses arrived. He said the length 
of time it took to respond will 
be a big part of their investiga-
tion. Halifax Stanfield Interna-
tional Airport spokesman Peter 
Spurway also said they are also 
conducting an investigation into 
their response.

“We can do better than that,” 

Spurway said. “The question is 
how do we move 138 people safe-
ly off a runway in a snowstorm 
at quarter to one on a Sunday 
morning.”

Spurway said they were lucky 

people weren’t seriously hurt. 
“We are hugely fortunate and 
they are hugely fortunate and we 
are very, very grateful for that,” 
he said.

The airport, Canada’s seventh 

largest with 3.6 million passen-
gers, reopened 5 ½ hours after 
the accident.

Investigators discover 
suspicious note in 
man’s apartment 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) 

— Spence Jackson provided the 
official confirmation a month ago 
that his boss, Missouri Auditor 
Tom Schweich, was dead from 
what police described as a self-
inflicted gunshot wound.

On Monday, police confirmed 

that Jackson had shot himself in 
an apparent suicide — marking a 
second, stunning jolt to Missouri 
politics, though police declined 
to say whether the deaths were 
directly related.

Jackson was found dead Sun-

day evening in his home in Jef-
ferson City, police spokesman 
Capt. Doug Shoemaker said. He 
said investigators found a note in 
Jackson’s apartment, where the 
44-year-old lived alone, but he 
declined to detail what it said.

Schweich fatally shot himself 

at his home on Feb. 26, shortly 
after telling an Associated Press 
reporter he wanted to go public 
with allegations that the Missouri 
Republican Party chairman told 
people he was Jewish. Schweich, 
a Christian with Jewish ancestry, 
said he perceived the remarks to 
be part of an anti-Semitic whis-
pering campaign against him 
ahead of his run for governor.

Jackson, who was Schweich’s 

spokesman, was among the first 
to suggest that the GOP chair-
man, 
John 
Hancock, 
should 

resign. Hancock has denied mak-
ing anti-Semitic remarks, but said 
he may have mistakenly told peo-
ple last year that Schweich was 
Jewish. He remains chairman of 
the party, now roiled ahead of a 

2016 election featuring races for 
U.S. Senate, governor and most of 
Missouri’s other statewide execu-
tive offices.

“We’re very aware of the politi-

cal issues surrounding Mr. Sch-
weich’s death. And then within 
a month we have the death of his 
spokesperson,” Shoemaker said 
Monday.

He said Jefferson City investi-

gators have reached out to police 
in Clayton, the St. Louis suburb 
where Schweich lived, but that his 
department wouldn’t comment 
“or entertain questions that may 
link the deaths to a political issue, 
perceived or real.”

Jackson had worked in Mis-

souri political and state govern-
ment jobs for 15 years, including 
for former Missouri Gov. Matt 
Blunt. Blunt issued a statement 
Monday saying he was saddened 
to learn of his friend’s death.

“Spence was a gifted commu-

nicator who dedicated his talents 
in public affairs to public service,” 
Blunt said. “Spence was hard-
working, well-liked and quick-
witted.”

Jackson began working for 

Blunt as he ran for secretary of 
state in 2000 and rose with him 
as Blunt later became governor. 
Jackson also served as a spokes-
man for the state Department of 
Economic Development and for 
Sarah Steelman’s unsuccessful 
2008 gubernatorial bid. He joined 
Schweich’s staff at the auditor’s 
office in October 2011.

The Missouri House paused 

for a moment of silence Monday 
afternoon to remember Jackson.

State Auditor John Watson, 

who took over following Sch-
weich’s death, said Jackson was 
a respected, long-time servant in 
state government.

Auditor found 
dead in home

Personal information 
of Arizona policemen 
involved in shootings 

to remain public

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona 

Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed leg-
islation Monday requiring law 
enforcement agencies to keep 
the names of officers involved 
in shootings secret for two 
months, nixing a bill that was 
inspired by last year’s events 
Ferguson, Missouri, and simi-
lar incidents around the coun-
try.

Ducey said in a lengthy veto 

letter that he sympathized 
with backers who sought to 
protect officers. But he said he 
listened most to police chiefs 
who told him that an arbitrary 
hold on releasing the names of 
officers would limit their abil-
ity to manage complex commu-
nity-police relations.

Legislatures 
around 
the 

nation are taking up various 
pieces of police shooting leg-
islation, including proposals 
requiring police to wear body 
cameras or mandating that 
shooting 
investigations 
be 

done by outside agencies. But 
Arizona is apparently the only 
state considering new rules for 
releasing the names of officers, 
said Ezekiel Edwards, director 
of the Criminal Law Reform 
Project at the American Civil 
Liberties Union.

Ducey, a Republican, faced 

pressure to veto the measure 

from police chiefs, who worried 
they couldn’t manage commu-
nity relations or stop unfounded 
rumors about an involved offi-
cer.

Police 
unions, 
however, 

supported the bill, saying the 
required two-month delay will 
give time for investigations to 
play out. They call it a com-
mon-sense measure that will 
ensure officer safety.

The death of Michael Brown 

in Ferguson, Missouri, drew 
intense criticism and wide-
spread protests last year. State 
Legislatures have been looking 
at police-transparency laws 
since Brown’s Aug. 8 shooting 
death by former police officer 
Darren Wilson, whose name 
was released a week later.

Tucson Police Chief Roberto 

Villasenor wrote to Ducey last 
week in his role as president 
of the Arizona Association of 
Chiefs of Police urging the 
veto.

In an interview, he said it 

would be wrong to ignore “the 
elephant in the room” of poor 
police-community 
relations 

that has been the highlight of 
much law enforcement news 
coverage in the past year.

“Enacting legislation that 

would hamper that trust by 
not allowing officers’ names to 
be released is not in my opin-
ion the best way to improve or 
repair that level of trust,” Vil-
lasenor said.

Republican lawmakers who 

backed the proposal said it was 
designed to protect officers.

“The simple fact remains 

that we live in a world where 
misinformation 
can 
put 

everybody in jeopardy, espe-
cially police officers,” state 
Sen. 
John 
Kavanagh 
said 

last week. “And until we get 
those facts straight, we need 
to shield those cops and their 
families from being assassi-
nated by lunatics or political 
zealots.”

Arizona public-records laws 

currently require the release 
of an officer’s name as soon 
as possible, unless the agency 
cites specific reasons for a tem-
porary delay. In practice, agen-
cies typically have released the 
name within several days but 
can hold off indefinitely if the 
officer’s safety is in jeopardy.

Ducey pointed to the option 

of withholding an officer’s 
name when necessary as a 
determining factor in his deci-
sion.

“There are many examples 

of our police departments 
exercising this authority in a 
manner that protects the offi-
cer’s identity while ultimately 
providing disclosure after the 
situation has cooled,” Ducey 
said in his veto letter.

The police chiefs and law-

yers for The Arizona Republic 
also pointed to provisions that 
might shield all police disci-
plinary records.

Ducey said those provisions 

“seem to stretch outside the 
scope of protecting officers 
and their families from unjus-
tified retaliation by creating 
new and expansive exceptions 
to the Public Records Act.”

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Gov. vetoes bill to 
shield officer names

Homicide rate 
drops while city 
families remain 

frusterated

CHICAGO (AP) — A few 

years ago, violence on Chicago 
streets thrust a recently elected 
mayor into the national spot-
light as shootouts in some of the 
city’s most troubled neighbor-
hoods fueled nearly constant 
bloodshed.

Rahm Emanuel spent nearly 

$200 million over two years to 
flood those streets with police 
working overtime. His police 
department also collected a 
trove of information about indi-
vidual gang members and set up 
meetings between gang mem-
bers and the parents of homi-
cide victims to illustrate the 
high human cost of gunfire.

Since then, the city’s over-

all violence has declined, but 
the number of slayings in some 
minority neighborhoods actu-
ally jumped. And while police 
boast of historic drops in the 
homicide rate, many frustrated 
families in those areas say their 
communities have seen little to 
no improvement or have actu-
ally deteriorated.

“It’s worse,” said Anthony 

Jackson, a 62-year-old retired 
maintenance man as he made 
his way to his home in the heart 

of a neighborhood that last year 
saw a dramatic spike in homi-
cides — to about half the number 
of the entire city of Washington, 
D.C. “We’re just out here on our 
own.”

The stubborn violence con-

tributes to the mayor’s overall 
challenge in his bid for a sec-
ond term and puts him in the 
somewhat 
awkward 
position 

of simultaneously touting his 
success against crime while 
acknowledging that much more 
needs to be done.

“The truth is that as much 

progress as we’ve made over the 
past four years, we simply have 
to do better,” Emanuel said in a 
speech.

The total number of homi-

cides in Chicago fell from more 
than 500 in 2012 to just over 
400 last year, the lowest level in 
a half-century. But the number 
of shootings climbed 12 per-
cent, from 1,866 to 2,084, dur-
ing the same period.

The discontent goes beyond 

the bullets. Despite Emanuel’s 
success in attracting companies 
to the thriving Loop district, 
the only businesses that seem 
to survive in many minority 
neighborhoods are dusty mar-
kets, fast-food restaurants and 
dollar stores.

The result was that Emanuel 

did not receive enough votes 
last month to avoid an April 
runoff with Cook County Com-
missioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia. 

Much of the support the mayor 
had from black voters four years 
ago vanished in the primary. 
Though Emanuel was the clear 
winner in every majority-black 
ward, he received fewer than 
half the votes in them. Four 
years ago, he received more 
than half the votes in every sin-
gle one.

Jackson voted for Emanuel in 

2011, but he doesn’t know who 
he will support in the April 7 
election.

In the Harrison police dis-

trict, where Jackson lives, the 
number of homicides climbed 
from 35 in 2013 to 51 last year, 
and the number of shootings 
climbed at more than double the 
citywide rate. Police have not 
offered a definitive reason other 
than to point to what Superin-
tendent Garry McCarthy calls 
“severe gang conflicts.”

And Emanuel’s decision to 

close dozens of schools added 
more boarded-up buildings to 
streets already littered with 
them, with residents complain-
ing that the schools became 
larger versions of the aban-
doned houses that are magnets 
for gangs and drug dealers.

“What people see is these 

parts of the city have been aban-
doned, and the investment has 
gone elsewhere,” said Marshall 
Hatch, a prominent minister on 
the city’s West Side, standing 
near the shuttered Goldblatt 
Elementary School.

Violence after mayor’s 
race wanes in Chicago