Top 5 Live-WURD Monday April 13
1. Police video shows killing of black Oklahoma suspect
Authorities have released video showing the fatal encounter of a black suspect with a white reserve sheriff’s deputy who police said thought he was holding a stun gun when he shot the man during an arrest in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The video of the April 2 incident shows a Tulsa County deputy chase and tackle Eric Harris, 44, whom they accuse of trying to sell an illegal gun to an undercover officer.
A deputy tells Harris, “I need you to roll on your stomach.” At about the same time, a woman is heard in the background saying, “Stop fighting.”
While the deputy subdues Harris on the ground, a gunshot rings out and a man says, “Oh, I shot him. I’m sorry.”
2. Obama marks “historic meeting” with Cuban leader Raul Castro
President Obama sat down with Cuban leader Raul Castro in Panama on Saturday, marking the first formal meeting between U.S. and Cuban heads of state in more than half a century.
“This is obviously an historic meeting,” Mr. Obama told reporters.
The president said 50 years of hostility had not produced any constructive change and “it was time for us to try something new.”
Mr. Obama, who’s in Panama attending the Summit of the Americas, reiterated his commitment to normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba, an initiative he began last December.
“We are now in a position to move on a path toward the future,” he said. “Over time it is possible for us to turn the page and develop a new relationship between our two countries.”
3. Dumped like trash: What would cause her to leave son helpless?
The blanket Nyia Parler allegedly used to cover her quadriplegic son before she abandoned him in the woods last week was gone. The Bible she allegedly left on his chest was gone, too.
Parler, 41, of Baltimore Avenue near Alden Street in West Philly, left her son, Daequan Norman, in those woods about a quarter-mile from her home last Monday morning, police said. She then boarded a bus to Silver Spring, Md., to visit her boyfriend, police said, and according to her Facebook page she was OK with that.
“I’m so happy,” Parler said in a Facebook comment Tuesday afternoon, a full 24 hours after her son had been left out in the elements.
Norman wasn’t discovered until 9 p.m. Friday, when a man walking through the woods saw him lying in leaves, covered in the blanket, a wheelchair nearby. That man could not be reached for comment yesterday.
4. Rapper Nelly arrested on felony drug charges in Tennessee
Grammy-award winning rapper Nelly was arrested on felony drug charges on Saturday after a Tennessee state trooper stopped the vehicle he was traveling in and found illegal drugs, authorities said.
The rapper’s motor coach was stopped on Saturday morning on Interstate 40 in Putnam County for not displaying legally required stickers, when a state trooper smelled marijuana from the vehicle, the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security said.
A search turned up methamphetamine, a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, as well as several handguns.
Nelly was charged with felony possession of drugs, simple possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, the department said. One other man traveling in the coach was also arrested and charged.
5. Hillary Clinton set to launch second presidential bid
Hillary Clinton is poised to take another shot at cracking the highest glass ceiling in American politics with an announcement expected later Sunday that she’ll run for president again.
Clinton’s second presidential run — announced in a video — amounts to another chapter in a life that has seen the former first lady go from a child raised in a conservative home outside Chicago to one of the most recognizable women in the world. Clinton became a household name in 1992 when her husband, Bill Clinton, won the presidency.
Since then, Hillary Clinton has become a force in her own right, serving in the Senate for eight years, unsuccessfully running for president in 2008 and leading the State Department from 2009 to 2013.
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Solomon Jones is an Essence bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He is the creator and editor of Solomonjones.com and morning host on 900 am WURD radio. Click here to learn more about Solomon
