The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Tuesday, April 14, 2015 — 5
GERRY BROOME)/AP
A North Carolina State Highway patrolman walks the grounds on campus following a shooting at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, N.C., Monday, April 13, 2015.
Manhunt begins for former
student in campus shooting
Officer says he
mistakenly used
handgun to stop
fleeing suspect
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) —
Prosecutors charged a reserve
sheriff’s deputy with manslaugh-
ter Monday in the death of a man
who was fatally shot as he lay on
the ground at the officer’s feet — a
shooting that was certain to raise
questions about the use of volun-
teer officers to supplement full-
time police.
The sheriff’s office has said
Robert
Bates,
a
73-year-old
insurance executive who was
volunteering on an undercover
operation in Tulsa, mistakenly
pulled out his handgun instead of
his stun gun and shot the suspect
as he struggled with deputies.
Bates, who is white, was
charged
with
second-degree
manslaughter
involving
“cul-
pable negligence” for the April 2
death of Eric Harris, a 44-year-
old black man. If convicted, he
could face up to four years in
prison.
It was the latest fatal shooting
by a police officer to draw national
attention after months of investiga-
tions and protests of other deaths
in Ferguson, Missouri, New York
City, Los Angeles and other else-
where.
A video of the incident shot by
a deputy with a sunglass camera
and released Friday at the request
of the victim’s family, shows a dep-
uty chase and tackle Harris, whom
they said tried to sell an illegal gun
to an undercover officer.
As the deputy subdues Harris
on the ground, a gunshot rings out
and a man says: “Oh, I shot him. I’m
sorry.”
Harris screams: “He shot me.
Oh, my God,” and a deputy replies:
“You f---ing ran. Shut the f--- up.”
When Harris says he’s losing his
breath, a deputy replies, “F--- your
breath.”
Harris was treated by medics at
the scene and died in a Tulsa hos-
pital.
The family said in a statement
that it was “saddened, shocked,
confused and disturbed.”
“Perhaps the most disturbing
aspect of all of this is the inhu-
mane and malicious treatment of
Eric after he was shot,” the fam-
ily wrote. “These deputies treated
Eric as less than human. They
treated Eric as if his life had no
value.”
At a news conference on Mon-
day, Andre Harris, the victim’s
brother, said he does not believe the
shooting was racially motivated.
Oklahoma law defines culpable
negligence as “the omission to do
something which a reasonably
careful person would do, or the
lack of the usual ordinary care
and caution in the performance
of an act usually and ordinar-
ily exercised by a person under
similar circumstances and con-
ditions,” Tulsa County District
Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said
in a statement.
A telephone message left
Monday with Bates’ attorney,
Scott Woods, was not immedi-
ately returned.
Tulsa Police Sgt. Jim Clark,
who investigated the shooting
as an independent consultant
at the request of the sheriff’s
office, concluded that Bates had
been so engrossed in the stress
of the moment that he did not
think clearly about what he had
in his hand.
The use of reserve officers is
commonplace across Oklahoma
and much of the nation. Cities
and counties often turn to them
for extra manpower because
Oklahoma cop
faces charges
Officers barracade
driveway leading to
suspect’s home
GOLDSBORO, N.C. (AP) —
A 20-year-old former commu-
nity college student fatally shot a
campus print shop director that
had recently fired him, just as his
old boss arrived for work Mon-
day morning, school officials and
authorities said.
A manhunt was underway for
the suspect, Kenneth Morgan
Stancil III. Authorities are pursu-
ing him on an open count of mur-
der, Wayne County Sheriff Larry
Pierce said.
Authorities believe Stancil has
left the area but is still in North
Carolina. They have not released a
motive for the shooting.
Stancil entered a large Wayne
Community
College
building
around 8 a.m. with a rifle and went
to the third-floor print shop, per-
haps using a back staircase so he
would go unnoticed, authorities
and school officials said. Stan-
cil’s former work-study boss, Ron
Lane, was killed in the print shop.
He had worked at the school for 18
years.
The shooting frightened stu-
dents and the campus was put on
lockdown as officers stormed the
building.
First-year student Jovaun Wil-
liams, 24, told The Associated
Press that he was climbing a stair-
case inside the building and had
almost reached the second floor
when he heard a single muffled
pop.
He recognized the sound as
a gunshot, similar to the kind
he heard growing up in a tough
neighborhood near Long Beach,
California. He didn’t know where
it came from.
“You hear a shot and my big-
gest things is, get out of there,” he
said. “It definitely wasn’t where I
was at, so that was good enough
for me.”
By the time he walked back
downstairs, he saw police offi-
cers running into the building
with their guns drawn. The
building, the Wayne Learning
Center, houses the cafeteria and
library, among other things, school
spokeswoman Tara Humphries
said.
Stancil was a third-year student
at the college but it wasn’t immedi-
ately clear when he last attended.
Goldsboro city spokeswoman Kim
Best said he was let go recently, but
she didn’t say when.
Police are using helicopters and
dogs to search for him. Authori-
ties weren’t sure how he left cam-
pus, including whether he left in a
vehicle.
At
one
point,
authorities
thought they had cornered the
shooter in a restroom and fired
tear gas into it, only to find that it
was not Stancil in the bathroom,
Effler said.
Authorities
have
described
Stancil as a white man, about
5-foot-11, with a goatee and a tat-
too around his left eye and on his
neck.
Sheriff’s deputies blocked the
driveway to the white mobile
home listed as the residence Stan-
cil shared with his mother and two
younger brothers.
A next-door neighbor on the
road lined with brick ranch homes,
Barbara Williams, said Stancil’s
grandparents lived on the other
side of the mobile home, where
they operated an assisted living
home. A sign in the front yard said
“Stancil Family Care Home.” An
elderly man with a cane who
came to the front door declined
comment to an AP reporter.
DAMIAN DOVARGANES)/AP
Members of the board committee of the Metropolitan Water District, MWD moved forwards on a proposal that would cut regional
water deliveries by 15 percent beginning this summer, during a meeting in Los Angeles on Monday, April 13, 2015.
California water suppliers
to reduce delivery amounts
Officials propose to
cut regional delivery
by fifteen perecent
LOS ANGELES (AP) — One
of California’s largest water
wholesalers
moved
forward
Monday on a plan to reduce
the amount of water it delivers
to more than two dozen cities
and agencies serving 19 million
people amid the lengthening
drought.
If approved by the board of
the Metropolitan Water Dis-
trict of Southern California on
Tuesday, regional water deliv-
eries would be cut by 15 percent
beginning in July. The district
serves parts of Los Angeles,
Orange, San Diego, Riverside,
San Bernardino and Ventura
counties.
The effects of the cuts would
vary between local water dis-
tricts. Places that have done a
poor job of conserving would
have to crack down on outdoor
watering and take other con-
servation measures and boost
water rates to avoid paying a
high price for extra water.
Several committee members
wanted a deeper cut in deliv-
eries — 20 percent — but were
outvoted by others who feared
it could hurt the economy.
Businesses “could be scram-
bling for the hills” if the reduc-
tion was steeper, said Michael
Touhey, who represents the
Upper
San
Gabriel
Valley
Municipal Water District.
California
is
enduring
a
fourth year of parched condi-
tions, prompting Gov. Jerry
Brown earlier this month to call
for a mandatory 25 percent cut
in urban water use compared
with 2013 levels.
To meet Brown’s goal, the
State Water Resources Control
Board released draft reduction
targets for more than 400 water
agencies that must cut their
water use by anywhere from
10 percent to 35 percent. The
targets are based on per-capita
water use.
MWD’s general manager
Jeffrey Kightlinger said lim-
iting water supplies to mem-
ber agencies is necessary to
meet demand and stretch
storage reserves, which cur-
rently stand at about 1.2 mil-
lion acre-feet, less than half
of what was in storage at the
end of 2012.
MWD
officials
said
the
proposed
water
delivery
restrictions — along with con-
servation, rebate programs and
other tools — could help local
water districts meet the gover-
nor’s goal. The cuts would stay
in effect for a year.
The agency noted that it has
a proven record of aggressive
water conservation. Per capita
water use in Southern Califor-
nia has declined by about 24
percent since 1990, even as the
region’s population grew by 5
million, and it has spent $750
million over 25 years on water
use efficiency.
Last year, MWD delivered 2.1
million acre-feet of water and
will supply 300,000 acre-feet
less this year under the pro-
posal. An acre-foot is enough
to cover a football field with a
foot of water or meet the annual
needs of about two households.
Cities that need more water
would have to pay a penalty
— up to four times the normal
price — for extra deliveries.
The proposed tightening of
water supplies comes as state
surveyors earlier this month
found the lowest snow level in
the Sierra Nevada snowpack in
65 years of record-keeping.
U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry
objects to decision
MOSCOW (AP) — President
Vladimir Putin on Monday sanc-
tioned the delivery of a highly
capable Russian air defense mis-
sile system to Iran, a game chang-
er move that would significantly
bolster the Islamic republic’s mili-
tary capability and fuel Israel’s
concerns.
U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry objected to Moscow’s deci-
sion in a phone call to Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,
and the White House indicated
the move could endanger plans to
ultimately lift sanctions on Iran as
part of a proposed nuclear deal.
White House press secretary
Josh Earnest said unity and coor-
dination with nations like Rus-
sia is critical to the success of the
negotiations. Washington has said
Moscow played a constructive
role in the Iranian nuclear talks,
despite sharp differences between
Russia and the West over Ukraine.
Putin’s move was quickly wel-
comed by Tehran, while it worried
Israel, which saw it as a sign that
Iran already had begun to cash in
on the emerging nuclear deal with
world powers that is expected to
be finalized by the end of June.
Putin’s
spokesman,
Dmitry
Peskov, said the missile system
could be shipped to Iran at any
moment.
Russia signed the $800 mil-
lion contract to sell Iran the S-300
missile system in 2007, but sus-
pended their delivery three years
later because of strong objections
from the United States and Israel.
Putin on Monday lifted that ban.
The preliminary agreement on
settling the Iranian nuclear stand-
off struck earlier this month made
the 2010 Russian ban unneces-
sary, Lavrov said in a televised
statement.
The
framework
agreement
reached by Iran and six world
powers is intended to significant-
ly restrict its ability to produce
nuclear weapons while giving it
relief from international sanc-
tions. The agreement is supposed
to be finalized by June 30, and
there is no firm agreement yet on
how or when to lift the interna-
tional sanctions on Iran.
The S-300 missile system,
which has a range of up to 200
kilometers (125 miles) and the
capability to track down and
strike multiple targets simul-
taneously, is one of the most
potent air defense weapons in
the world.
“The S-300 is exclusively a
defensive weapon, which can’t
serve offensive purposes and
will not jeopardize the security
of any country, including, of
course, Israel,” Lavrov said.
Putin lifts sanctions on
weapon sales to Iran