More stories

  • in

    Kenyan-Led Forces Arrive in Haiti After Months of Gang Violence

    The first wave of a 2,500-member international force sent to restore order in the gang-plagued Caribbean nation has arrived, but critics worry the plan will fail.Foreign law enforcement officers began arriving in Haiti on Tuesday, more than year and a half after the prime minister there issued a plea to other countries for help to stop the rampant gang violence that has upended the Caribbean nation.Since that appeal went out in October 2022, more than 7,500 people have been killed by violence — more than 2,500 people so far this year alone, the United Nations said.With the presidency vacant and a weakened national government, dozens of gangs took over much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, putting up roadblocks, kidnapping and killing civilians and attacking entire neighborhoods. About 200,000 people were forced out of their homes between March and May, according to the U.N.Now an initial group of 400 Kenyan police officers are arriving in Haiti to take on the gangs, an effort largely organized by the Biden administration. The Kenyans are the first to deploy of an expected 2,500-member force of international police officers and soldiers from eight countries.“You are undertaking a vital mission that transcends borders and cultures,” President William Ruto of Kenya told the officers on Monday. “Your presence in Haiti will bring hope and relief to communities torn apart by violence and ravaged by disorder.”The Kenyan officers are expected to tackle a long list of priorities, among them retaking control of the country’s main port, as well as freeing major highways from criminal groups that demand drivers for money.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 Killed and Woman Critically Injured in Triple Stabbing in Manhattan

    A 30-year-old man was in custody in connection with the stabbings in the East Village on Sunday, the police said.Three people were stabbed, one fatally, on Sunday evening in the East Village in Manhattan, and a man was in police custody, police officials said.One of the victims, a 38-year-old man, died after he was stabbed in the neck in the vicinity of East 14th Street near Avenue A, the police said. The other two victims were a 51-year-old woman who was stabbed in the leg, and a 32-year-old man who was stabbed in the back. The woman was in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital, and the man was in stable condition. A 30-year-old man was in police custody, and a “cutting instrument” was recovered from the scene, officials said. It was unclear on Sunday whether he would be charged in the stabbings or whether he knew the victims.The police received several 911 calls around 5:45 p.m. about the stabbings. Fozlul Karim, 22, of the Bronx, who is the manager of a Domino’s Pizza on the block, said he was inside cooking when a customer ran into the store. The customer told him several people had been stabbed, and he rushed outside.He and dozens of others watched as officers and emergency medical workers on 14th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A put the woman on a stretcher and wheeled her to an ambulance, according to a cellphone video Mr. Karim took of the scene. One officer yelled “Move, move, move!” so people would get out of the way.Mr. Karim said he was shaken by the episode. “We’re scared,” he said.Hours after the attack, Olivia McLeod, 24, who lives across the street, stood near the scene. Several pieces of blood-spattered clothing were strewn across the pavement.The stabbings, Ms. McLeod said, rattled her, too.“I will keep my head on a swivel from now on,” she said.Dakota Santiago More

  • in

    Man Fatally Stabbed at Manhattan Subway Station, Police Say

    The stabbing, during a dispute between two people, occurred just before 6 p.m. at the West 175th Street A train station.A 40-year-old man was fatally stabbed at an Upper Manhattan subway station Friday night during a dispute with another person, the police said.Officers responding to a 911 call about a person stabbed at the West 175th Street A train station in Washington Heights just before 6 p.m. found the man near the turnstiles on the mezzanine level, the police said. He had been stabbed several times in the torso, the police said.The man, whose name was not released pending notification of his family, was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the police said.No arrests had been made as of Friday night, and the investigation was continuing, the police said.Entrances to the 175th Street station were closed during the investigation, and trains were skipping the station.Dakota Santiago for The New York TimesAround 8:30 p.m., a station entrance on Fort Washington Avenue between West 174th and 175th Streets was closed off with yellow police tape. A trains were skipping the station, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subways. Police officers at the station entrances were directing riders to take the bus or head to stations at West 181st or 168th Streets.M.T.A. surveys show that many riders feel unsafe, but data has not always confirmed the public’s perception. Crime rates rose during the coronavirus pandemic starting in 2020, but last year overall crime in the transit system fell nearly 3 percent compared with 2022 even as the number of daily riders rose 14 percent.There have been five murders in the transit system this year through June 16, according to police data, compared with four during the same time period last year. Overall major crime in the transit system this year is down 5.5 percent compared with the same time period last year. More

  • in

    After Splash Park Shooting, Michigan Community Feels a Familiar Pain

    The violence in the city of Rochester Hills, which injured nine people including children, comes three years after the shooting at Oxford High School in the same county. One day after a shooting in a splash park in suburban Detroit injured nine people, including children, residents on Sunday were struggling to process what happened, with bafflement, fear and shock. “It was hard to go to sleep last night. It’s hard to function this morning,” said Alex Roser, a 33-year-old pharmacy technician who said he grew up in the area.On Saturday afternoon, a gunman opened fire at a splash pad — a play area for children with blue cylinders that spray water — in Rochester Hills. The police identified the shooter as Michael William Nash, 42, and said that the handgun recovered at the scene was legally purchased in 2015 and registered to him. Authorities said that a motive was not yet known but that the attack appeared to be random. Mr. Nash was found dead with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound later on Saturday in his home nearby, they said. The wounded included an 8-year-old boy, a 4-year-old boy and their 39-year-old mother, authorities said. Others at the park that day were a city employee and 14 of his friends and family members. The city employee’s wife was shot, Mayor Bryan Barnett of Rochester Hills said Sunday. He added that two of the victims were in critical condition, while the others were stable.As the community reeled, it was not lost on residents that this was the second shooting in the area in recent years: In 2021 at Oxford High School in the same county, a student fatally shot four of his classmates and injured seven others. And many were horrified that this time it happened so close to their home, in a city that promotes itself on its website as one of the safest in America. 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

    Euro 2024 Shooting: Police in Hamburg Shoot Man With Ax

    The shooting took place in Hamburg, in an area packed with soccer fans, and hours before the Netherlands and Poland were set to play in the city.A man wielding an ax on a street crowded with soccer fans was shot by the police on Sunday in Hamburg, Germany, only hours before the city was to host a game at the European Championship.The man threatened police officers with “a pickax and an incendiary device,” a police spokesman said on Sunday. When he did not respond to warnings, the police said, he was shot.The man was injured and was being treated, they confirmed. No fans nor police officers were injured.The incident took place in Hamburg’s entertainment district, a section of the city known as the Reeperbahn that is filled with restaurants and bars. At the time, the area was packed with thousands of fans who had arrived to see the Netherlands play Poland on Sunday afternoon.According to a spokeswoman for the Hamburg police and videos of the incident posted online, the man came out of a small restaurant with a small, double-bladed ax and a firebomb and threatened officers nearby.Standing behind a police barrier as fans watched only steps away, the man — dressed all in black — shouted and moved toward a group of about a dozen police officers, several of whom were pointing their weapons at him from either side of the barrier. He held the small ax in one hand and what appeared to be a bottle with a rag in its neck in the other.At the time of the incident, Hamburg’s Reeperbahn area was packed with thousands of fans who had arrived to see the Netherlands play Poland on Sunday afternoon.Lena Mucha for The New York TimesWhen a police officer sprayed pepper spray in the man’s direction, he turned and began running up the street as fans scattered out of his path. Officers moved to surround him a short distance up the narrow street, and soon after, at least four gunshots rang out and the man fell to the ground.The police said that the man had been injured, but they could not give further updates on his condition. He was placed in an ambulance and driven away.The gunshots, captured in several videos that were posted online, were a sudden and jarring intrusion into what had been a festive lunchtime atmosphere. Within minutes, scores of police officers had gathered and set up a cordon around the scene of the shooting, and loudspeaker announcements — and the looming kickoff — cleared the area.The site of the shooting was a 10-minute walk from the city’s official fan zone, which was thronged with many more thousands of fans at the time, and a short train ride from the 57,000-seat Volksparkstadion, where the Netherlands and Poland were to meet in the first of three tournament games set for Sunday.The shooting came on the third day of the monthlong tournament, which brings together the continent’s best 24 teams every four years, and amid a heightened police presence.The German authorities said last week that about 22,000 police officers would be working each day of the tournament, and that they would be supplemented by hundreds more from the participating countries. More

  • in

    Prosecutor Drops Murder Charges Against Minnesota Trooper Amid Pushback

    The prosecution of Ryan Londregan, a white Minnesota state trooper who fatally shot a Black motorist last year, sparked rare bipartisan outrage. The top prosecutor in Minneapolis has dropped murder charges against a state trooper who fatally shot a motorist last year after a traffic stop, her office said on Sunday, a stunning turnaround in a case that ignited a political firestorm.The trooper, Ryan Londregan, had been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Ricky Cobb II. But the prosecutor, Mary Moriarty, a longtime public defender who was elected Hennepin County attorney in 2022, said she concluded that the evidence was too weak to take to trial.For months, Ms. Moriarty defended the murder charges amid criticism from both Democratic and Republican officials, as well as law enforcement officials. In a statement on Sunday, she said that the announcement dismissing the charges was “one of the most difficult I’ve made in my career.”The pushback over the charges reflected a shifting view on policing in the state four years after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer sparked a national outcry over racism and abuses by law enforcement. Mr. Cobb, 33, was Black; Trooper Londregan, 27, is white. Ms. Moriarty took office promising sweeping changes in the wake of Mr. Floyd’s murder, including stronger efforts to hold officers accountable for misconduct. Civil rights activists had hailed her decision to charge Trooper Londregan as courageous. Gov. Tim Walz, a fellow Democrat, had voiced his unease and made clear that he was considering using his legal authority to remove the case from her purview. In recent months, six of the state’s eight members of Congress issued statements criticizing the prosecution. 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

    Two Killed in Shooting in Minneapolis

    Two police officers were also injured after a person opened fire south of downtown on Thursday, the authorities said.Two people were killed and two police officers were left injured after a shooting at an apartment building south of downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, the authorities said. A shooter, who police have not identified, was also killed, they said.The episode took place in Whittier, a neighborhood about a mile south of downtown, the Minneapolis Police Department said on X. The circumstances of the injuries and deaths were not clear.The police said in an email on Thursday evening that the public was not in danger.Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said on social media that the Minnesota State Patrol was on the scene to help local law enforcement and that the state was ready to provide resources.Jeremy Zoss, a spokesman for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, said he did not have any more information to provide about the episode.This is a developing story. More

  • in

    NYPD Responded Aggressively to Protests After Promises to Change

    Violent responses to pro-Palestinian activists follow a sweeping agreement aimed at striking an equilibrium between preserving public safety and the rights of protesters.Last September, the New York Police Department signed a sweeping agreement in federal court that was meant to end overwhelming responses to protests that often led to violent clashes, large-scale arrests and expensive civil rights lawsuits.The sight of hundreds of officers in tactical gear moving in on pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, on Saturday suggested to civil libertarians that the department might not abide by the agreement when it is fully implemented. At least two officers wearing the white shirts of commanders were filmed punching three protesters who were prone in the middle of a crosswalk.And film clips of recent campus protests showed some officers pushing and dragging students, a handful of whom later said they had been injured by the police, though many officers appeared to show restraint during the arrests.“I think members of the public are very concerned that the police will be unwilling or unable to meet their end of the bargain,” said Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney with Legal Aid, which, along with the New York Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit against the city over the department’s response to protests in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd.That lawsuit was later combined with a complaint filed by Letitia James, the state attorney general, over what she called widespread abuses during the Black Lives Matter protests. Last fall, police officials and Ms. James reached the agreement in federal court, intended to strike a new equilibrium between the department’s need to preserve public safety and the rights of protesters.The city, along with two major police unions, agreed to develop policies and training that would teach the department to respond gradually to demonstrations, rather than sending in large numbers of officers immediately, and to emphasize de-escalation over an immediate show of force. The implementation was expected to take three years.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