US hit with mass shootings and fatal accidents on Fourth of July holiday
Indianapolis metropolitan police chief Chris Bailey told reporters early Saturday morning that the Fourth of July mayhem a day earlier was 'completely unacceptable and unnecessary' – and that parents and guardians needed to better control their children.
'Hundreds of unsupervised kids down here,' he said, while speaking in the city's downtown. 'I don't know how many times I had to say it: We are not your children's keepers. You are! And parents and guardians have got to step up.'
Police said one minor had died at a hospital after the shooting.
Mass shootings – defined as cases where four or more shooting victims are injured or killed – were reported in other cities, including Philadelphia and Chicago and Brockton, Massachusetts, where six people were hospitalized following an early morning fight Saturday.
Violence and shootings often surge in the summer months, especially around the Fourth of July, historically one of the deadliest days of the year in the US.
The shooting in Chicago, which left seven people in serious or critical condition, came on the heels of another mass shooting that happened late Wednesday in that city in a busy neighborhood known for its restaurants and nightlife. Four people were killed and 14 others injured.
As of Saturday, there had been more than 205 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive. Perennially high numbers of mass shootings in the US have prompted many to call for more meaningful gun control, though Congress has largely left such pleas unheeded over the years.
In the New York City borough of Queens, police said one person was dead and three injured in a triple stabbing following fireworks celebrating the 249th anniversary of the US's declaration of independence from the UK.
Meanwhile, a Wareham, Massachusetts, man is dead after being hit by a firework. Police said they found 70-year-old Robert Spagnuolo with a 'facial injury'. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officials in Georgia reported two boat explosions Friday on lakes. Seven people ranging in age from five to 45 suffered second- and third-degree burns when a boat exploded on Lake Lanier, according to the Georgia department of natural resources.
Seven more people suffered burns when a boat exploded and then sank on Lake Nottely, the department said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
Sean 'Diddy' Combs gets standing ovation from inmates after court victory, his lawyer says
Sean 'Diddy' Combs got a standing ovation from fellow inmates when the music mogul returned to jail after winning acquittals on potential life-in-prison charges, providing what his lawyer says might have been the best thing he could do for Black incarcerated men in America. 'They all said: 'We never get to see anyone who beats the government,'' attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a weekend interview days after a jury acquitted Combs of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges. Combs, 55, remains jailed after his Wednesday conviction on prostitution-related charges and could still face several years in prison at an upcoming sentencing after being credited for 10 months already served. After federal agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami in March 2024, the lawyer said he told Combs to expect arrest on sex trafficking charges. 'I said: 'Maybe it's your fate in life to be the guy who wins,'' he recalled during a telephone interview briefly interrupted by a jailhouse call from Combs. 'They need to see that someone can win. I think he took that to heart.' Blunt trial strategy works The verdict came after a veteran team of eight defense lawyers led by Agnifilo executed a trial strategy that resonated with jurors. Combs passed lawyers notes during effective cross examinations of nearly three dozen witnesses over two months, including Combs' ex-employees. The lawyers told jurors Combs was a jealous domestic abuser with a drug problem who participated in the swinger lifestyle through threesomes involving Combs, his girlfriends and another man. 'You may think to yourself, wow, he is a really bad boyfriend,' Combs' lawyer Teny Geragos told jurors in her May opening statement. But that, she said, 'is simply not sex trafficking.' Agnifilo said the blunt talk was a 'no brainer." 'The violence was so clear and up front and we knew the government was going to try to confuse the jury into thinking it was part of a sex trafficking effort. So we had to tell the jury what it was so they wouldn't think it was something it wasn't,' he said. Combs and his lawyers seemed deflated Tuesday when jurors said they were deadlocked on the racketeering count but reached a verdict on sex trafficking and lesser prostitution-related charges. A judge ordered them back to deliberate Wednesday. 'No one knows what to think,' Agnifilo said. Then he slept on it. Morning surprise awakes lawyer 'I wake up at three in the morning and I text Teny and say: 'We have to get a bail application together," he recalled. 'It's going to be a good verdict for us but I think he went down on the prostitution counts so let's try to get him out.' He said he 'kind of whipped everybody into feeling better' after concluding jurors would have convicted him of racketeering if they had convicted him of sex trafficking because trafficking was an alleged component of racketeering. Agnifilo met with Combs before court and Combs entered the courtroom rejuvenated. Smiling, the onetime Catholic schoolboy prayed with family. In less than an hour, the jury matched Agnifilo's prediction. The seemingly chastened Combs mouthed 'thank you' to jurors and smiled as family and supporters applauded. After he was escorted from the room, spectators cheered the defense team, a few chanting: 'Dream Team! Dream Team!' Several lawyers, including Geragos, cried. 'This was a major victory for the defense and a major loss for the prosecution,' said Mitchell Epner, a lawyer who worked with Agnifilo as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey over two decades ago. He credited 'a dream team of defense lawyers' against prosecutors who almost always win. Agnifilo showcased what would become his trial strategy — belittling the charges and mocking the investigation that led to them — last September in arguing unsuccessfully for bail. The case against Combs was what happens when the 'federal government comes into our bedrooms,' he said. Lawyers gently questioned most witnesses During an eight-week trial, Combs' lawyers picked apart the prosecution case with mostly gentle but firm cross-examinations. Combs never testified and his lawyers called no witnesses. Sarah Krissoff, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan from 2008 to 2021, said Combs' defense team 'had a narrative from the beginning and they did all of it without putting on any witnesses. That's masterful.' Ironically, Agnifilo expanded the use of racketeering laws as a federal prosecutor on an organized crime task force in New Jersey two decades ago, using them often to indict street gangs in violence-torn cities. 'I knew the weak points in the statute,' he said. 'The statute is very mechanical. If you know how the car works, you know where the fail points are.' He said prosecutors had 'dozens of fail points.' 'They didn't have a conspiracy, they just didn't,' he said. 'They basically had Combs' personal life and tried to build racketeering around personal assistants.' Some personal assistants, even after viewing videos of Combs beating his longtime girlfriend, Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura, had glowing things to say about Combs on cross examination. Once freed, Combs likely to re-enter domestic abusers program For Combs, Agnifilo sees a long road ahead once he is freed as he works on personal demons, likely re-entering a program for domestic batterers that he had just started before his arrest. 'He's doing OK,' said Agnifilo, who speaks with him four or five times daily. He said Combs genuinely desires improvement and 'realizes he has flaws like everyone else that he never worked on.' 'He burns hot in all matters. I think what he has come to see is that he has these flaws and there's no amount of fame and no amount of fortune' that can erase them," he said. 'You can't cover them up." For Agnifilo, a final surprise awaited him after Combs' bail was rejected when a man collapsed into violent seizures at the elevators outside the courtroom. 'I'm like: 'What the hell?'' recalled the lawyer schooled in treating seizures. Agnifilo straddled him, pulling him onto his side and using a foot to prevent him from rolling backward while a law partner, Jacob Kaplan, put a backpack under the man's head and Agnifilo's daughter took his pulse. 'We made sure he didn't choke on vomit. It was crazy. I was worried about him,' he said. The man was eventually taken away conscious by rescue workers, leaving Agnifilo to ponder a tumultuous day. 'It was like I was getting punked by God,' he said.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Hot dog survives locker ordeal at Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle
BERLIN, July 6 (Reuters) - A dog was rescued from a locker for valuables at Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany after its owner shut her pet inside over the objections of other tourists so that she could visit the famous attraction, police said on Sunday. Neuschwanstein, a picture-postcard castle with surging turrets nestled in the Alps near the border with Austria, is one of Germany's top tourist attractions. Despite it being a hot summer's day and half the locker already having been filled by a pram, the woman locked the dog inside the small space and left to tour the castle, police in the nearby town of Fuessen said in a statement. Security staff were alerted and freed the dog, they added. "The dog was fortunately unharmed but visibly glad when it was rescued from the already hot locker," the police statement said, adding that officers deployed to the scene took him back to the police station. The police did not specify what breed the dog was but said it was of "medium" size and about 60 cm (two feet) tall at the shoulder. An officer on duty at Fuessen police station contacted by telephone said the dog was a mongrel. Police said they had initiated criminal proceedings against the owner on suspicion of breaking Germany's animal welfare law.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Theory emerges about what caused triple-fatal crash in country Victoria
Three people are dead and another has been critically injured after a horror crash on a regional road that police suspect might have been caused by a kangaroo. The collision involving two SUVs occurred about 7.20am on Sunday on Bolinda-Darraweit Road in the Macedon Ranges, northwest of Melbourne. The triple fatality brought the number of lives lost on Victorian roads in 72 hours to six, prompting renewed warnings from authorities. Three people travelling in one SUV died at the scene, while two others involved in the crash were taken to hospital, one of whom had life-threatening injuries. A dead kangaroo was found near the scene, with police looking into whether one of the SUVs had veered to avoid it. 'It appears one of the vehicles has veered into incoming traffic ... and they've collided head-on, which has caused the catastrophic scene,' Senior Sergeant Ben Morris told reporters. 'We're not 100 per cent sure ... we're still working through the scene to confirm the involvement of the animal.' A motorist died hours later after a head-on collision on the Western Highway in Buangor, about 181km west of Melbourne. Police were called to the scene after a car reportedly veered onto the wrong side of the freeway and collided with another vehicle. The driver of the first car died at the scene and has yet to be formally identified. The second car's driver was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while a female passenger was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries. In a separate incident on Saturday night, a rider died and another is fighting for life after a crash involving two motorcycles and two vehicles on the Western Freeway at Grangefields, near Melbourne. A 16-year-old boy died in the city's east on Friday after being hit by a car, while an e-bike rider was critically injured in Geelong. Road Policing Command Superintendent Justin Goldsmith said most of the serious collisions at the weekend were on regional roads. 'Every life lost is one too many,' he said. 'What we have seen this weekend has been devastating and there are many families whose lives have changed forever as a result of the trauma on our roads.' Ambulance Victoria CEO Jordan Emery described the fatalities and injuries as the most horrific of circumstances. 'As a paramedic, I realise that these events are part of our job, but the tragic loss of life through road trauma is especially tough,' he said.'If there is one message we can send, it's to please take care when on the road. The impact is felt well beyond those behind the wheel.' There have been 156 lives lost on Victorian roads this year, 15 more than the same time in 2024.
