Family of woman killed by Arches National Park gate gets $10.5 million
DENVER — A federal judge this week awarded $10.5 million to the family of a Denver woman who was killed when a metal gate at Utah’s Arches National Park swung open, impaled her car and decapitated her.
Esther Nakajjigo, a 25-year-old Ugandan activist who had moved to Colorado in 2019 to attend the Watson Institute in Boulder, died June 13, 2020, while visiting the park with her husband of two months, Ludovic Michaud.
The couple was driving out of the park and passing by a metal pipe gate when one arm of the gate was dislodged by a gust of wind and swung into the car’s path. In less than a second, the metal pole went through the car’s front windshield and killed Nakajjigo, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
Senior Judge Bruce S. Jenkins in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah was tasked with determining the amount of monetary damages. He noted in a nine-page order Monday that Nakajjigo lived a remarkable life.
She grew up in Uganda, and at age 17 used her college tuition money to start a nonprofit community health center that provided free reproductive health services to young women. She gained national notoriety in Uganda through a reality TV show that helped child mothers stay in school and develop life skills, and she was recognized by the United Nations for her efforts.
—The Denver Post
LAPD Chief Michel Moore receives second 5-year term
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday reappointed Chief Michel Moore to a second term as head of one of nation’s largest police departments.
The commission’s approval, by a 5-0 vote, came during a private session at the end of its weekly meeting.
Commissioner Steve Soboroff praised Moore for steering the department through the uncertainty of the pandemic and the national crisis over policing sparked by the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
The vote came after just a few weeks of public hearings on whether to reappoint Moore, an unusually fast timetable for a civilian body that in the past has taken months when considering a chief’s reappointment.
Before voting Tuesday, the panel heard from dozens of people who called in to the remote meeting and were overwhelmingly opposed to Moore’s reappointment.
Moore has publicly stated that he intends to serve only two or three more years, before turning the department over to a new chief ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games.
—Los Angeles Times
2 monkeys taken from Dallas Zoo found alive in nearby town
DALLAS — The Dallas Zoo has confirmed that two emperor tamarin monkeys taken from their enclosure Monday were found alive in a home in Lancaster on Tuesday.
Zoo spokeswoman Kari Streiber said Dallas police called the zoo to come secure and transport them back to the grounds, where they were to be evaluated by veterinarians. They will provide an update Wednesday on social media, Streiber said.
The announcement came hours after police asked for the public’s help identifying a man believed to have information about the monkeys. The department shared surveillance images of a man and said detectives were looking to speak with him, but added that “he is not a person of interest currently.”
Police said Tuesday evening that they received a tip the monkeys might be in an abandoned home in Lancaster, and they found the monkeys in a closet at that location. It was unclear whether anyone was in custody in connection with the case; police said they were continuing to investigate.
Dan Ashe, president of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, a group that accredits zoos, said the organization “continues to maintain utmost confidence” in the Dallas Zoo’s staff and that the zoo’s accreditation was not at risk.
—Dallas Morning News
Death toll from Pakistan's mosque bombing rises to 100
ISLAMABAD — The death toll from a suicide bombing at a crowded mosque that targeted police in the Pakistani city of Peshawar has risen to 100, officials said on Tuesday.
Some 221 others were wounded in Monday's attack on the mosque, which sits inside a high-security zone next to a police headquarters. At least 10 bodies were recovered from the rubble of the mosque's collapsed wall and roof overnight.
Local police official Ayaz Khan said the majority of the victims belonged to the police force, including clerical staff.
As funeral prayers were being offered for the dead, an inquiry was investigating how the multi-layered security infrastructure at the site was breached. "It was no less than an attack on Pakistan," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said of the bombing, which was one of the country's deadliest in years.
The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, distanced itself from the attack but one of its splinter factions claimed responsibility.
The TTP's move to dissociate itself came as Afghanistan's Taliban-run Foreign Ministry condemned the killing of worshippers as contrary to the teachings of Islam.
The Pakistani Taliban is distinct from its Afghan counterpart but they are allied.
—dpa
