Page 4 - Aruba Today

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U.S. NEWSTuesday 23 February 2016

Uber acknowledges getting complaints Some victims in mass shooting
about Kalamazoo shooting suspect support efforts to hack iPhone

JEFF KAROUB ratically more than an hour rides, the company said. Associated Press support in a case that
Associated Press before the shootings be- Since Dalton’s arrest, sev- WASHINGTON (AP) — has sparked a national
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) gan. eral people have come Some victims and affect- debate over digital pri-
— The Uber ride-hailing ser- Matt Mellen told Kalam- forward to say that he ed families in the mass vacy rights and national
vice acknowledged Mon- azoo television station picked them up for Uber in shootings in southern Cali- security interests. Magis-
day that it received com- WWMT that he hailed a ride the hours after the first at- fornia will file documents trate Judge Sheri Pym in
plaints about erratic driving around 4:30 p.m. Saturday. tack. The Associated Press in support of a U.S. mag- California ordered Apple
by the suspect in the ran- He said driver Jason Dalton could not confirm those istrate judge’s order that last week to assist inves-
dom shootings that killed six introduced himself as “Me- accounts. Apple Inc. help the FBI tigators by creating spe-
people in Kalamazoo, and Me” and had a dog in the Kalamazoo County Sheriff hack into a locked iPhone cialized software that
a prosecutor said the man backseat. Richard Fuller said Uber is as part of the terrorism in- would let the FBI rapidly
admitted his role in the at- Mellen sat in front. About a cooperating with law en- vestigation, a lawyer said test random passcode
tacks. mile into the trip, Dalton got forcement officials, and he Monday. A Los Angeles combinations to try to un-
Jason Dalton, the 45-year- a phone call, and when he believes the company will attorney, Stephen Larson, lock the iPhone and view
old former insurance ad- hung up, he began driving “help us fill in some timeline said he represents at least data stored on it. Farook
several families of victims had worked as a county
Jason Dalton, of Kalamazoo Township, Mich., is arraigned via video Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, in Ka- and other employees he health inspector. Larson
lamazoo, Mich. Dalton is charged with multiple counts of murder in a series of random shootings declined to identify but said the government has
in western Michigan. who were affected by the a strong case because
shootings. He said the U.S. of Farook’s diminished pri-
(Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP) attorney in the case, Ei- vacy interests as a “dead,
leen Decker, sought his murderous terrorist” and
juster, appeared briefly in blowing through stop signs gaps.” Investigators are help. Larson said he will because the phone was
court by video link and was and sideswiping cars, Mel- particularly interested in file a brief supporting the owned by his employer,
charged with six counts of len said. communication between Justice Department be- the county government.
murder. A judge denied “We were driving through Dalton and Uber, as well as fore March 3. “You’re weighing that
him bail. medians, driving through customers he might have The brief gives the Justice against the interest of en-
During a talk with investiga- the lawn, speeding along, driven, the sheriff said. Department additional forcement in an investiga-
tors, Dalton waived his right and when we came to a Police have not provided support in a case that has tion and the victims and
against self-incrimination stop, I jumped out of the a motive. The victims had sparked a national de- their interest in obtaining
and confessed his role in car and ran away,” Mellen no apparent connection bate over digital privacy this knowledge,” he said.
the shootings, Kalamazoo said. He said he called po- to the gunman or to each rights and national secu- Larson, a former U.S. dis-
County Prosecutor Jeff lice and that when he got other. Questions about mo- rity interests. The judge trict judge, said he knew
Getting said. to his friend’s house, his fi- tive and Dalton’s frame ordered Apple last week Pym, the magistrate, and
Dalton admitted “that he ancée posted a warning to of mind are “going to be to assist investigators by described her as an “ex-
took people’s lives,” Kal- friends on Facebook. the hardest to answer for creating specialized soft- traordinary jurist” when
amazoo police Det. Cory Uber said riders com- anybody,” Fuller said. He ware that would let the FBI she argued in his court-
Ghiringhelli told the judge. plained Saturday about expects some answers to rapidly test random pass- room as a then-federal
The murder charges carry Dalton’s driving. When emerge in court, but he code combinations to try prosecutor.Apple Inc.
a mandatory life sentence. alerted to unsafe driving, doubts they will be satisfy- to unlock the iPhone and chief executive Tim Cook
Michigan does not have company policy is to con- ing. view data stored on it. acknowledged in a letter
the death penalty. tact the driver. But Uber of- “In the end, I ask people, The iPhone 5C was used to employees earlier Mon-
Dalton picked up Uber ficials would not say wheth- because I keep hearing by Syed Farook, who with day that that “it does not
fares after the first shoot- er anyone at the company this question of why, ‘What his wife, Tashfeen Malik, feel right” to refuse to help
ing and probably got more spoke to Dalton, deferring would be the answer that killed 14 people at an of- the FBI, but he said to do
riders after the subsequent to law enforcement. would be an acceptable fice holiday party before so would threaten data
shootings, Getting said. Dalton passed a back- answer for you?’ They have they died in a gun battle security for millions by cre-
An Uber passenger said ground check and be- to think about it for a mo- with police. The govern- ating essentially a mas-
he called police to report came a driver on Jan. 25. ment, and they say, ‘Prob- ment said they had been ter key that could later
that Dalton was driving er- He had given about 100 ably nothing.’q at least partly inspired by be duplicated and used
the Islamic State group. against other phones.
The couple physically “We have no tolerance
destroyed two personal or sympathy for terrorists,”
phones so completely Cook wrote in an early
that the FBI has been un- morning email. “When
able to recover informa- they commit unspeak-
tion from them. able acts like the tragic
Larson said the victims attacks in San Bernardino,
“have questions that go we work to help the au-
simply beyond the criminal thorities pursue justice for
investigation ... in terms of the victims.”
why this happened, how Cook’s email came hours
this happened, why they after FBI director James
were targeted, is there Comey said in an online
anything about them on post that Apple owes it to
the iPhone — things that the San Bernardino victims
are more of a personal to cooperate and the FBI
victim” view, Larson said. “can’t look the survivors
An appeal by victims in in the eye, or ourselves in
the case gives the Justice the mirror, if we don’t fol-
Department additional low this lead.”q