More stories

  • in

    2 Men Sentenced for Attacking Officers at Jan. 6 Capitol Riot

    One of the men, from New Jersey, referred to lawmakers as “traitors” and encouraged other rioters to drag them out of the building by their hair, prosecutors said.A man from New Jersey and another from New York were sentenced to prison on Friday after federal prosecutors said they had breached the U.S. Capitol building and attacked law enforcement officers during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.The New Jersey man, Michael Oliveras, 51, was sentenced to five years in prison. He broke into the Capitol with rioters and urged them to drag members of Congress out of the building by their hair, according to a news release.Prosecutors said Mr. Oliveras, who lived in Lindenwold, N.J., traveled to Washington to try to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. According to the release, he documented his attack online, not only posting on social media that he had booked a hotel room near the building to scope it out, but also detailing when he entered the Capitol.Mr. Oliveras, carrying an American flag, marched to the West Front of the Capitol and confronted police officers, the release said. About 10 minutes later, a video he recorded showed him barging into the building and looking for lawmakers, yelling, “Where are they?” He also called them “traitors,” prosecutors said.“Drag them out by their hair,” he yelled, using an expletive.Mr. Oliveras entered and was ejected from the Capitol twice. During an unsuccessful third attempt, he stood in a doorway telling others to “push” and then brawled with officers.He continued with the riot for hours into the evening, marching to the other side of the building and encouraging others as they destroyed media equipment, the release said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Dallas Police Officer Darron Burks ‘Executed’ in Premeditated Attack, Officials Say

    Two other officers were also shot, and one of them remains hospitalized. After a pursuit, the suspect was killed by the police, authorities said.A police officer in Dallas was fatally shot on Thursday night in what officials described as a premeditated execution.The officer, Darron Burks, 46, was parked in his patrol vehicle in the Oak Cliff section of the city, southwest of downtown, at around 10 p.m. during a break between assignments when a man approached him on the driver’s side. The man, who officials said appeared to record the encounter on his cellphone, briefly spoke to Officer Burks, then pulled out a handgun and shot him dead.Two other officers were shot by the suspect while they were checking on Officer Burks, who had not responded to a dispatcher’s attempt to contact him, officials said. Senior Corporal Jamie Farmer, who was shot in the leg, has been released from the hospital. Senior Corporal Karissa David, who was shot in the face, remains in critical but stable condition.The suspect, identified by officials as Corey Cobb-Bey, 30, fled the scene. After officers pursued him onto an expressway, he got out of his vehicle with a gun, approached the officers and pointed his weapon, the police said. Six officers then fired, fatally shooting him. It was unclear on Saturday what might have motivated the attack. At a news conference on Friday, Eddie Garcia, the Dallas police chief, said the information the force gathered made it clear that Officer Burks was killed in a targeted attack. “I know that the word ‘ambush’ has been thrown around in the last 24 hours or so,” he said. “That’s not what happened here. Officer Burks was executed.”For some residents, the brutal manner in which the police said Officer Burks was killed called to mind a 2016 shooting, when a heavily armed sniper gunned down five officers in downtown Dallas during a protest against fatal police shootings. That shooting remains the deadliest single attack on law enforcement since Sept. 11.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Who Are the Far-Right Groups Behind the U.K. Riots?

    After a deadly stabbing at a children’s event in northwestern England, an array of online influencers, anti-Muslim extremists and fascist groups have stoked the unrest, experts say.Violent unrest has erupted in several towns and cities in Britain in recent days, and the authorities are bracing for further disorder this weekend as far-right agitators plan more rallies around the country.The violence has been driven by online disinformation and extremist right-wing groups intent on creating disorder after a deadly knife attack on a children’s event in northwestern England, experts said.A disparate range of far-right factions and individuals, including neo-Nazis, violence-prone soccer fans and anti-Muslim campaigners, have promoted and taken part in the unrest, which has also been stoked by online influencers.Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to deploy additional police officers to crack down on the disorder. “This is not a protest that has got out of hand,” he said on Thursday. “It is a group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence.”Here is what we know about the unrest and some of those involved.Where have riots taken place?The first riot took place on Tuesday evening in Southport, a town in northwestern England, after a deadly stabbing attack the previous day at a children’s dance and yoga class. Three girls died of their injuries, and eight other children and two adults were wounded.The suspect, Axel Rudakubana, was born in Britain, but in the hours after the attack, disinformation about his identity — including the false claim that he was an undocumented migrant — spread rapidly online. Far-right activists used messaging apps including Telegram and X to urge people to take to the streets.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Passenger Who Tried to Open Cockpit Gets 19 Months in Prison

    Juan Rivas, who threatened flight attendants with a champagne bottle and a plastic knife, tried to open an exit door of an American Airlines plane, prosecutors said.A California man who tried to intimidate flight attendants on an American Airlines flight using plastic silverware from a service cart and a glass champagne bottle, and then tried unsuccessfully to open an exit door and the cockpit, was sentenced on Wednesday to 19 months in prison.The man, Juan Remberto Rivas, 52, was arrested and charged with interfering with flight crew members on Feb. 13, 2022, after a flight from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.During the flight, Mr. Rivas, who, according to court records, admitted to using methamphetamines before the flight, began to panic and told flight attendants that the plane was not moving and that his family was in danger, court records said.His behavior led to a physical struggle that forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Kansas City, Mo.Mr. Rivas, who pleaded guilty in January, had faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison but prosecutors sought a sentence of 41 to 51 months despite him threatening to “bring down the plane,” court records and the attorney’s office said.“The government believes that the defendant’s actions were reckless because of his use of methamphetamine, rather than an intentional effort to bring down the aircraft,” the prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul S. Becker, argued in a sentencing memorandum.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    2 Officers Shot on Lower East Side in Street Chase of Robbery Suspect

    One officer was shot in the leg and the other in the groin after they responded to a report of an armed robbery at a mahjong parlor. Both are in stable condition.A gunman shot two police sergeants who were trying to arrest him minutes after an armed robbery in a mahjong parlor on the Lower East Side in Manhattan on Thursday, Police Department officials said.One officer was shot in the groin, and the other was grazed by a bullet in the leg, Joseph Kenny, the chief of detectives, said at a news conference on Thursday at Bellevue Hospital, where the officers were being treated for their wounds. Both were in stable condition, said Chief Kenny, who was joined at the news conference by Mayor Eric Adams.The sergeant who was grazed will be released from the hospital on Thursday night, and the sergeant who was shot in the groin will be held overnight for observation. A man, Joshua Dorsett, 22, was taken into custody at the scene, Chief Kenny said.Around 4:15 p.m., the police responded to a 911 call regarding a man on the second floor of a building on Canal Street near Eldridge Street, Chief Kenny said. The man, whom the police later identified as Mr. Dorsett, had pulled out a gun and pointed it at several women at the mahjong parlor, a popular neighborhood spot where people gather and bet money on mahjong games, he said.Mr. Dorsett demanded that the women hand over their purses. He grabbed a number of purses, ran out of the building and fled north on foot, Chief Kenny said. Seven minutes later, police officers on Delancey Street saw Mr. Dorsett, who fit the description of the gunman.A footchase ensued. Francisco Huayta, who works on the Lower East Side, was on the corner of Delancey and Eldridge Streets shortly after 4 p.m. when he saw a man sprinting away from police officers, he said. The two sergeants grabbed Mr. Dorsett and pushed him up against a vehicle, Chief Kenny said. The sergeants demanded that he show his hands. As they did, Mr. Dorsett began to pull a loaded gun out of his front pants pocket, Chief Kenny said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Parole Denied for Native American Activist Convicted in 1975 Killings

    Supporters say Leonard Peltier, 79, was unfairly blamed for the deaths of two F.B.I. agents in a shootout with activists.A Native American activist who was convicted of killing two federal agents nearly 50 years ago has once again been denied parole, the U.S. Parole Commission announced on Tuesday. The decision came despite decades of complaints from supporters that the activist, Leonard Peltier, did not get a fair trial and was unjustly convicted.Mr. Peltier, 79, was given two life sentences for his role in a shootout between activists and F.B.I. agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975 that left two agents and an activist dead. His health has greatly declined in recent years, after multiple bouts of Covid-19, a stroke and an aortic aneurysm.Mr. Peltier’s supporters — who over the years have come to include members of Congress, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, former members of the prosecution and the judge who originally sentenced him — say that F.B.I. agents coerced witnesses in the case and that prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence.“Obviously, they deserve justice,” James Mazzola, deputy director of research at Amnesty International USA, said of the families of the federal agents who were killed. But keeping Mr. Peltier in prison, he said, “is not justice.”Supporters of Mr. Peltier have tried repeatedly over the years to win his release through parole or through a presidential pardon or commutation of his sentence.In a letter to the Justice Department in 2022, Christopher Wray, director of the F.B.I., firmly opposed granting Mr. Peltier clemency.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Man in Custody in Fatal Shooting of N.Y.P.D. Officer

    Guy Rivera, 34, fired on Officer Jonathan Diller, 31, after being ordered out of an illegally parked car in Queens, the authorities said.A 34-year-old man was in police custody on Tuesday in the fatal shooting of Police Officer Jonathan Diller during a traffic stop in Queens.The man, Guy Rivera, 34, was sitting in the front seat of an S.U.V. parked in Far Rockaway shortly before 6 p.m. on Monday when Officer Diller and his partner approached, the police said. Mr. Rivera refused to step out of the illegally parked car and then fired his weapon through the passenger window, the authorities said.His shot hit Officer Diller, 31, in the torso, just beneath his protective vest, the police said.Officer Diller’s partner, Officer Veckash Khedna, returned fire, shooting Mr. Rivera in the back, according to the police and an internal Police Department report.A memorial for Officer Diller at his precinct’s satellite location in Queens.Dave Sanders for The New York TimesA second man, Lindy Jones, 41, was sitting in the driver’s seat, the police said, and was taken into custody after the shooting. He has not been arrested or charged.Mr. Rivera had surgery at Jamaica Hospital and is expected to survive. He has not yet been arrested or charged in the killing because of his medical condition, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Police Officer Is Killed During a Traffic Stop in Queens

    The authorities arrived in the Far Rockaway neighborhood at about 6 p.m. and found the police officer and a man wounded by gunfire.A police officer died on Monday after being shot during a traffic stop in Queens, the police and city officials said.The suspected gunman, who was also wounded, was the first to fire his gun during the evening encounter in Far Rockaway, striking the officer, Jonathan Diller, in the torso below his protective vest, Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban said at a news conference at Jamaica Hospital, where Officer Diller was taken.The officer’s partner returned fire, striking the man, who was also taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he is being treated for his injuries, officials said at the news conference. “This is a devastating moment,” said Mayor Eric Adams, who also spoke at the news conference. “We have to bury another cop,” he added. Officer Diller joined the Police Department in February 2021, according to city records. He has been recognized three times for “excellent police duty.”In a social media post, Commissioner Caban said Officer Diller and his wife had a young child.“We struggle to find the words to express the tragedy of losing one of our own,” the commissioner wrote.Police officials said the officer approached the car in Far Rockaway because it had been illegally parked. Dakota Santiago for The New York TimesOfficials did not identify the suspect or the second person who was in the vehicle. It was unclear on Monday whether the driver or the passenger had shot Officer Diller, but the driver was arrested on a gun charge last year, police officials said. The police said the episode had begun shortly before 6 p.m. on Monday, when Officer Diller and his partner from the Police Department’s community response team approached the car because it was illegally parked at a bus stop on Mott Avenue. Officer Diller asked the suspect several times to get out of the car, said Joseph Kenny, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, but the suspect refused, pointed a gun at the officer and fired.Officers in the area heard the shots and sprinted toward the scene, according to security footage from a Mott Avenue deli about two blocks away. Jummai Ezedebego, 57, who was nearby at the Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue subway station, also heard the gunfire and watched as other passengers scattered and helicopters whirred overhead. “Everybody was running and the police started coming,” Ms. Ezedebego said. Later that night, officers put yellow police tape around a gray S.U.V. parked on Mott Avenue. Shards of glass littered the sidewalk, and the front passenger door window appeared to have been pierced by a bullet. Before Monday, the two most recent New York police officers killed in the line of duty were Wilbert Mora and his partner, Jason Rivera. The officers were gunned down in January 2022 as they answered a domestic disturbance call in Harlem.“We should never be here,” Commissioner Caban said at the news conference. “And we’re here far too many times,” he added. Dakota Santiago More