Judge orders release of records on Uvalde shooting response
The Texas Department of Public Safety has been ordered to release records on the Uvalde school shooting by a state district judge. The records could provide further insight into law enforcement’s response to the massacre.
The 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting was Texas’ deadliest, leaving 21 people dead — 19 of them children.
One hour and 20 minutes elapsed between the first call to 911 and the moment police confronted the shooter, leading to a national uproar over law enforcement’s response to the massacre.
Investigations have shown law enforcement missed opportunities to slow the gunman or stop him before he entered the school, even as 376 officers responded to the shooting.
The release ordered Thursday is a result of a lawsuit by a group of media outlets, including ABC News and The Texas Tribune. The lawsuit alleged that the department violated state law by refusing to release records following the shooting.
—The Dallas Morning News
France arrests 600 people in latest clashes over teen’s killing
More than 600 people were arrested in France in the third straight night of street violence over the police killing of a teenager in a Paris suburb.
The majority of those arrested overnight Thursday were between 14 and 18 years old, Agence France-Presse reported.
Protesters targeted municipal buildings, such as town halls and libraries in Marseille and in the Seine-Saint-Denis department north of Paris. A hotel caught fire in Roubaix in northern France and some stores were vandalized, including in central Paris, according to AFP.
President Emmanuel Macron is set to hold another crisis meeting Friday afternoon, AFP reported, citing his office.
Anger erupted across the country after Nahel, 17, was fatally shot at close range in his car Tuesday in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris. Video posted on social media showed two police officers leaning into the car, with one of them shooting as the driver pulls away. Authorities haven’t released Nahel’s last name.
—Bloomberg News
FBI launches national database to track swatting incidents
The FBI has launched a national database to track swatting incidents, a dangerous sort of prank call that has become more and more common in recent years.
Chief Scott Schubert with the bureau’s Criminal Justice Information Services headquarters told NBC News that the national online database was formed in May in response to a rise in swatting incidents. The collaborative effort — supported by hundreds of police departments and law enforcement agencies nationwide — will provide the bureau with “a common operating picture of what’s going on across the country.”
It marks the first time a central agency has tracked swatting incidents.
Swatting is a form of cyber harassment that typically involves a caller alerting law enforcement to an active shooter situation or some other sort of immediate danger that does not actually exist. The goal is to illicit a large police response which often includes the arrival of a SWAT team.
Though often described as a prank call, the results can be potentially devastating.
In 2021, Tennessee man Mark Herring died of a heart attack after a horde of heavily armored law enforcement officers descended on his home. Authorities were responding to a report that Herring killed a woman on the property. He was targeted in the swatting attack over his refusal to sell his Twitter handle, @Tennessee, police said.
—New York Daily News
Trial for North Miami Beach mayor set on charges he voted 3 times
MIAMI — A trial date has been set for North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, who is accused of illegally voting three times last year in a district where he was not allowed to cast a ballot.
Through his attorney, DeFillipo pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Friday. The trial is scheduled for Sept. 5.
DeFillipo’s attorney Michael Pizzi said the allegations against his client were false and he plans to file a motion to dismiss the case. “Today begins the road to Mayor DeFillipo’s exoneration and vindication,” Pizzi said in a statement.
DeFillipo was arrested on May 31 at his North Miami Beach condo on allegations he voted outside his registered area three times. The arrest came amid allegations that DeFillipo lives in Davie, which he has repeatedly denied. The North Miami Beach city charter requires elected officials to live in the city.
Despite filing documents to update his address with the North Miami Beach clerk in 2021, he did not change his address with the Department of Motor Vehicles until December 2022, according to an arrest warrant. Florida law requires a change be made within 30 days. DeFillipo also had not changed his address with the Miami-Dade County Elections Department until after he voted in the elections, the warrant said.
—Miami Herald
