Page 30 - Florida Sentinel 5-10-19

National
Black Man Acquitted And Found
Chase Bank Calls Police On Black Mayor In His Own City
Not Guilty In Rochester Triple
Murder Now Shot Dead
A Rochester, N. Y. man, who was acquitted of killing three people outside of the Rochester Boys and Girls Club in 2015, was fatally shot over the weekend.
Police are asking the public not to jump to conclusions or to seek to avenge the death of Jalen Everett, 24, who was shot at least once in the torso and gunned down around 8 p.m. on Saturday while he rode in a car on Dewey Avenue, according to The New York Post. Everett was taken to Strong Memorial Hospi- tal where he was pronounced dead.
Police Chief La’Ron Single- tary urged the public not to get caught up in rumors that the- murder was in retaliation for the triple slayings in 2015. Single- tary also pleaded with the pub- lic to not allow the death to prompt more violence.
“A lot of people are drawing comparisons,” Singletary said at a news conference, according to The New York Post. “Until you hear it from us in regards to what the motive is, everything else is just pure speculation. Let us focus on the task at hand.”
Over the weekend, people gathered for a vigil near the shooting site while investigators said they are still searching for suspects in Everett’s killing and a motive for the shooting.
Not Guilty
Everett was acquitted in the
tripling slayings in a second trial
JALEN EVERETT
more than two years ago. He was one of three men initially charged in the earlier slayings after gunfire broke out aimed at a crowd leaving a basketball game held at the Boys and Girls Club.
Jalen Everett was acquitted of taking part in a 2015 triple shooting outside a Boys and Girls Club in Rochester.
Three people, Jonah Bar- ley, Raekwon Manigault and Johnny Johnson were all fa- tally shot in the head, and several others were left wounded.
Prosecutors put Everett at the scene of the crime saying the shots came from a vehicle that he and the two other suspects were riding in. Everett was convicted of murder during his first trial, however a judge overturned the ruling after allegations surfaced of juror misconduct.
In January 2017, a second jury found Everett not guilty of murder.
On Monday, Mayor Richard Thomas discussed how staff at JP Morgan & Chase sum- moned the police on him, his staff member, and a Mount Vernon Po- lice detective as the Mayor sought to deposit a six figure check and get access to the City’s online banking records.
A Chase employee called the police on Wednesday, April 25, after Mayor Thomas was invited into a conference room and after Mayor Thomas had introduced the two people with him, including the police detective.
The response by the White Plains Police Department was re- solved amicably after one of the responding officers recognized the Mount Vernon Police detective.
Mayor Thomas believes that race certainly played a role in the Chase employees calling the po- lice. The two staffers who accom- panied Mayor Thomas are black
MAYOR RICHARD THOMAS
and Hispanic.
“As a Mayor and as a young,
well-educated black man living during this turbulent time in soci- ety where police are being called on black people for going about everyday life, this is unaccept- able,” Mayor Thomas wrote in a letter to Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. “We’ve seen this happen
to the two black men at a Star- bucks in Philadelphia. We’ve also seen this happen to Oregon Rep. Janelle Bynum while she was campaigning. Now it happened to me.”
On Monday, Mayor Thomas will visit the Office of Currency Comptroller to file a racial profil- ing/redlining complaint.
Mayor Thomas was at Chase’s offices at 925 Westchester Avenue in White Plains to invoke existing rights as an authorized ac- count signatory and enforce a re- cent court order giving him full access to all the City’s financial records.
Supreme Court Justice Susan Cacace recently ordered Mount Vernon Comptroller Deb- orah Reynolds to stop blocking Mayor Thomas’ access to the critical financial records that allow him to determine how much money the City truly has.
Suspect Caught In Killing Of Mississippi Officer At Station
University Of Alabama's First
Biloxi Police Chief John Miller said one of his depart- ment’s officers was driving home through Wiggins, 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of the Gulf Coast city when the of- ficer spotted a man at the side of the road who looked like the target of an intense manhunt.
That officer’s suspicions were on the money. He called Wiggins police who in turn ar- rested 19-year-old Darian Tawan Atkinson, wanted for capital murder in the slaying of Biloxi Patrolman Robert McKeithen.
Atkinson, tall and lanky in a blue and black baseball jer- sey, gave something close to a grin as officers yanked him from the back of a police cruiser and paraded him past watching reporters and cheer- ing police officers back in Biloxi, only feet away from where McKeithen was gunned down after 10 p.m. Sunday night. The 23-year-vet- eran of the Biloxi force had been planning to retire this year.
“It’s been a long couple of days,” said Miller, who told reporters he was going to bed as he got news of the capture. “We feel vindicated. He’s been treated properly and fairly. And now we will grieve for the family.”
Miller wouldn’t say if Atkinson had told police any- thing. He said Atkinson
sault rifles, looking for the man. Miller said he expected at least one person would be charged as an accessory for il- legally aiding Atkinson.
It remains unclear whether McKeithen was targeted or shot at random
“I can say that’s probably the saddest thing about this case is we have no motive, we have no reason for him to do this to anybody,” Harrison County Sheriff Troy Peter- son said at a news conference earlier Monday evening.
Authorities say the gunman approached McKeithen in the station’s parking lot Sun- day night after coming inside the station, shooting the officer multiple times. Images from a surveillance camera inside the station showed a suspect wear- ing navy blue shorts, a black T- shirt, a red beanie cap and dark high-top sneakers.
Miller said earlier Monday that the suspect, then still unidentified, “seemed a bit nonchalant” as he walked around. Miller turned the in- vestigation over to the neigh- boring Gulfport Police Department, saying it was bet- ter to have an outside agency investigate the death of one of Biloxi’s own officers.
Gulfport police spokesman Sgt. James Griffin said in- vestigators determined Atkin- son’s identity through tips and interviews throughout the day.
Black Student Receives Honorary
Degree 63 Years After Expulsion
In 1956, Autherine Lucy Foster broke racial boundaries when she enrolled at the all- white University of Alabama. Her enrollment was preceded by a lengthy court battle. She first applied to the university in 1952 but her acceptance was rescinded because of the color of her skin.
After finally being able to at- tend, like many trail blazers of her time, her courage was met with intolerance and outrage. So in its efforts to restore order, the school expelled Foster just three days after she enrolled due to persistent protests and death threats.
But on Friday, 63 years after she was removed from campus, Foster received a warm wel- come and a standing ovation upon her return to receive an honorary degree during gradua- tion ceremonies.
“I wasn’t crying, but tears was just rolling down my eyes be- cause it’s just so different and so unique for me to be able to come back to such a university as this,” Foster told WBRC.
“A legendary moment,” the
AUTHERINE LUCY FOSTER
school tweeted on Friday. “Thank you to civil rights pioneer + #UA legend Autherine Lucy Foster for her tenacious spirit in the face of adversity.”
After Foster was ousted in 1956, black students weren’t wel- come on campus until 1963—five months after Gov. George Wallace infamously pledged “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation for- ever” in one of the most divisive outbursts in the history of the United States.
But thankfully, that shroud of overt hatred on campus is no more.
Less than 24 hours after po- lice say a Mississippi man gunned down a uniformed of- ficer in police station parking lot, the now-arrested suspect was marched on Monday night back into the same Biloxi po- lice station.
would be questioned and then transported to the Harrison County jail in Gulfport. It’s un- clear when Atkinson will go before a judge or if he has a lawyer.
“Next we want to make sure that we have a solid case,” Miller said. “We want the dis- trict attorney to be pleased with the case we present, and we want this guy to pay for what he’s done.”
It’s unclear how Atkinson got to Wiggins after a day when police searched locations in Biloxi, sometimes carrying as-
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