Page 23 - Florida Sentinel 8-16-19

National
Black Father Shot Dead By White Man After White Supremacist Rant
Black Man Framed By NYPD For Rape And Robbery At 17 Awarded Nearly $10 Million After 30 Years In Prison
A beloved North Carolina barber and father of three was shot dead after a con- frontation with a man spout- ing racial slurs.
On August 6, Julius “Juice” Randolph Samp- son, Jr. was killed outside the BJ’s Restaurant & Brew- house, in Winston-Salem after a fight broke out inside with Robert Granato and spilled outside the facility where gunshots erupted, The Winston-Salem Chronicle re- ports.
When the Winston-Salem Police arrived, Sampson was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to reports, Granato spouted white su- premacist views and got into a heated argument and an al- tercation inside the brewery
ROBERT ANTHONY GRANATO
with Sampson before taking it outside and brandishing a weapon before discharging it, killing him.
After the killing made headlines, the #JusticeFor- Juice hashtag went viral for Sampson who was a well-
known barber at the Supreme Legacy Barbershop. Sampson had reportedly re- cently married and was a fa- ther of three.
Sampson’s wife said in a statement on Facebook, “I want the world to know the amazing young man that was senselessly snatched away from me and our family. I want awareness and justice for my husband. My husband wasn’t an animal that de- served slaughtering.”
Granato’s social media accounts revealed the 22- year-old’s support of white supremacist groups and one photo shows him with weapons while another shows him with a shirt that says ‘Murica’ while flashing the infamous white power symbol.
MARK DENNY
Mark Denny is celebrating his bittersweet victory after he was released from prison nearly 30 years after he was wrongly convicted of rape and robbery.
The NYC man entered into a settlement that was approved by the Comptroller Scott Stringer who agreed to pay out $9.75 million settlement to stave off a $50 lawsuit Denny was aiming to file against the city and the NYPD.
Denny claimed he was framed by cops for a crime he didn’t commit, according to records obtained by The New York Post through the Freedom of Information Law.
On May 24, Denny gave up his rights to sue or hold the city liable in exchange for the set- tlement.
“It was in the best interest of the city to settle pre-litigation,”
Stringer spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays told the outlet.
Denny was convicted of robbing a Brooklyn Burger King, along with three others back in 1987 when he was 17. He was also accused of raping an 18-year-old female em- ployee. Denny maintained his innocence but was convicted and sentenced up to 57 years in prison in 1989.
The Innocence Project, which helped the now exoner- ated Central Park Five prove their own innocence, took up Denny’s case after he argued he was “targeted and framed” by dozens of NYPD detectives.
The Kings County district attorney’s Conviction Review Unit found that Denny wasn’t on the scene that night. He was freed December 2017.
Kalisa Villafana Becomes First Black Woman In Florida State History To Earn A Doctoral Degree In Nuclear Physics
On Friday (August 9), Kalisa Villafana became Florida State University’s first Black woman graduate to earn a doctoral degree in nuclear physics.
Receiving her undergrad- uate degree from Florida A&M University, she re- turned to her native Trinidad and Tobago to work. After a year though, Villafana de- cided she wanted an ad- vanced degree in order to provide greater career oppor- tunities.
“When it comes to a Ph.D. program you have to feel like you’re going to thrive and the people there want you to suc- ceed,” she told ABC News. “That was what I got from FSU. None of the other schools I visited gave me that energy.”
Aside from her academic
KALISA VILLAFANA achievements, Villafana
served as a mentor to minor- ity students with an aim of encouraging them to pursue graduate studies. It’s some- thing she hopes to continue post-graduation.
“I want to show them how to get to the next point,” she
said. “In Trinidad, many peo- ple don’t know how to get to the United States and get a Ph.D. that’s paid for by the school. They don’t know how to go from being an interna- tional student from the is- lands to a doctor in the U. S.”
Career wise, Villafana has plans to work as a process engineer with Intel Corporation in Arizona. Her ultimate goal is to work as a medical physicist specializing in cancer research.
“Hopefully, [young girls] see that they too can be a physicist,” she said to the news network. “You may not see a lot of us, but we’re there. We’re out there.”
Kalisa Villafana’s re- cent graduation makes her 96th Black woman in the country with a Ph.D. in physics.
New Jersey Man Who Begged Cops For Help Died From Bath Salts
The Passaic County Prose- cutor’s Office made the an- nouncement Monday, citing an official ruling from the county medical examiner’s office that 27-year-old Jameek Low- ery’s death was caused by a medical event — not police force, according to NJ.com.
Lowery’s drug use and preexisting medical conditions “triggered an adverse physical reaction including multiple organ failure and cardiac arrest that ultimately led to his death,” the prosecutor’s office said in a release obtained by the news site.
“This reaction was occurring during the police and medical personnel’s interaction with Mr. Lowery and was inde- pendent of and unrelated to any force utilized.”
Lowery, of Patterson, livestreamed himself on Face- book while hallucinating in the precinct last January and beg- ging officers to help him.
JAMEEK LOWERY
“I’m just paranoid,” Low- ery says in the recorded video. “I just need some water.”
The officers can be seen standing in the lobby, trying to assess the situation.
“All right, the hospital has water,” one of the officers can be heard saying in the video.
Lowery was taken to St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, where he was placed on life support. He died two days later.
His death sparked protests in the streets of Paterson, as crowds at the time demanded answers on how Lowery died.
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