The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
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

