Friday, April 16 top stories
It is Friday, April 16. Here are today’s top stories.
On Thursday night, a gunman carried out a mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, killing eight people before committing suicide. Seven people were injured.
Indianapolis police officers said the gunman drove up to the facility’s parking lot and immediately started shooting and then entered the facility. Police said when they arrived on the scene, they saw employees running out of the facility. When they went inside, the gunman turned the gun on himself. Police said the entire shooting probably only lasted one to two minutes.
The facility is close to the Indianapolis International Airport.
A witness said he saw the gunman wearing a hood and carrying an AR-type rifle, shooting at random directions and shouting. News reports said the shooter is a 19-year-old man named Brandon Hole and that he is an ex-employee.
Many employees and their family members were stressed out because they couldn’t call each other due to a policy at the FedEx facility that workers were to give up their cellphones before going onto the work floor. Family members had to wait until they could see their loved ones at a meeting place at a hotel.
Chicago law enforcement released a police officer’s body camera video that showed him shooting a 13-year-old Latino boy named Adam Toledo in an alley right after he dropped a gun and turned around with his hands up. The incident was on March 29 in the early morning.
Prior to the shooting, the police officer was driving to an area where gunshots were detected by a technology called ShotSpotter. The officer first saw two people in an alley — a 21-year-old man and the boy. The officer chased the boy down an alley and then shot him. The man was arrested and charged with felony endangerment of a child and other felony charges.
The Toledo family said they are exploring next steps and may take legal action against the police officer or the city of Chicago.
A member of the Oath Keepers group, Jon Ryan Schaffer, pleaded guilty to charges related to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and has “flipped” and is cooperating with the FBI. He is the first person charged to “flip.” The Washington Post said it is a “new stage” in the investigation because prosecutors can “work up the chain of defendants to gather evidence and better understand the full scope of any planning and organizing of the violence.”
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There have been news headlines the past two days about “packing” or “expanding” the Supreme Court from its traditional nine members to add more justices.
It started last week when President Joe Biden signed an executive order to establish a commission to study reforms like adding justices, establishing term limits, or how the Court selects cases.
Here is a recap from deaf law professor, Michael Schwartz.
Michael Schwartz, Law Professor:
The impetus for Biden’s Commission was the three appointments by former President Donald Trump that resulted in a 6-3 conservative majority, which has people worried that the Court may overturn the constitutional right to abortion, roll back gay rights, and block climate change proposals. That is why some people on the left support an expansion of the Supreme Court to counter this conservative majority.
The Constitution does not say how many justices the Supreme Court must have. It is up to Congress, which has left the number at nine since 1869. In 1937, President FDR tried to pack the Court – increase the number of justices – but that did not succeed. What will happen after the Commission files its report is anyone’s guess.
Alex: Thank you for the recap, Schwartz.
Yesterday there were four Democratic lawmakers who unveiled a bill to increase the Supreme Court seats to go from nine to 13. However House Speaker Pelosi said she doesn’t plan to bring it to the floor but supports Biden’s commission.
NPR explained that progressive groups feel Republicans manipulated the court by blocking Barack Obama’s nominee for a year and for rushing through another justice right after Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and before the election. Top Republican lawmakers say if Democrats succeeded, it would destroy the court and its independence.
That’s all the top stories for this week. Check out our other videos. Have a good weekend and stay with the light.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/16/us/indianapolis-fedex-shooting
https://apnews.com/article/fedex-indianapolis-mass-shooting-e92ad3117c56357b3b2c71a2903e68a8
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/15/us/adam-toledo-police-shooting-body-camera/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/video-adam-toledo-police-shooting-chicago-940231e45653ca1381b538db05a8aa82
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/guilty-plea-capitol-riot/2021/04/16/f7d5d420-9eb6-11eb-9d05-ae06f4529ece_story.html