Monday, April 12 top stories

It is Monday, April 12. Here are today’s top stories.

On Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota — near Minneapolis — a police officer shot and killed a 20-year-old Black man named Daunte Wright after pulling him over.

Brooklyn Center Police said one of their officers discovered that Wright had a warrant and when they tried to arrest him, he went back into his car and the officer shot at him. The car traveled for several blocks but crashed into another vehicle. Wright was pronounced dead at the scene. His girlfriend was in the passenger seat and was injured, but does not have serious physical injuries.

Wright’s mother said he called her when he was being pulled over and said it was because he had air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror. She said her family gave him the car just two weeks ago. She said when she got to the scene of the crash, he saw his son lying on the ground. He leaves behind a 1-year-old baby.

There were hundreds of protesters who clashed with police officers at the police department overnight, exchanging thrown rocks for rubber bullets and tear gas. Several stores were broken into and looted.

This afternoon, the police chief said the officer, who was a female, meant to fire her taser, but fired a gunshot instead. They released a body camera video that showed as Wright was being handcuffed next to the driver's door, he broke free and tried to jump back in his car. You can see an officer’s hands holding a firearm and pointing it to Wright. She was heard after the shooting, “Holy s—, I shot him.”

This is happening at a location about 10 miles away from the site of the Derek Chauvin trial. Chauvin’s defense attorney asked the judge to sequester jurors so they wouldn’t see news about the protests, but the judge denied the request.

A police officer in Windsor, Virginia was fired after a video from December showed him pepper-spraying and pointing his gun at a Black and Latino Army officer during a traffic stop. Here is a video from WAVY TV 10 News.

[Video clip]

The officer who used the pepper-spray was fired. The army officer’s name is Caron Nazario. He filed a lawsuit a few weeks ago against the two police officers. Nazario’s lawsuit said he was driving from his Army duty station to home when he was pulled over and wanted to stop at a well-lit area.

The police officers thought he was “eluding police” and was suspicious because they didn’t see a rear license plate. Nazario had a temporary license plate taped on the rear glass window because the car was new.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has ordered an independent investigation.

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Hideki Matsuyama of Japan won the 2021 Masters golf tournament on Sunday. He is the first Japanese man to win a major championship.

It is another proud moment for Japan, because last week Japanese player Tsubasa Kajitani won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur tournament.

Regeneron, the company that created an antibody cocktail that is a powerful treatment for those who are infected with Covid-19, announced that its trials, which involved over 1,500 people, shows that its drugs are safe and effective and that they would ask the FDA for emergency authorization to provide it to more people in our population, especially those who have high-risk health issues that make them unable to receive vaccines.

The Regeneron drug was given to former president Donald Trump when he was hospitalized with the coronavirus.

There was an explosion at an Iranian nuclear facility that caused a major power failure. Iranians say Israel carried out a sabotage operation. The New York Times said their sources said Israel had a role in it. It could take nine months or more to repair the damage and resume nuclear production. This has happened during a time that the Biden administration is seeking to revive the nuclear agreement that the Trump administration revoked. The U.S. said they were not involved.

News reports say there are at least 50,000 Russian troops that have mobilized at the border with Ukraine. There are another 35,000 Russian-backed separatists (those who support Russia) in border areas. Ukrainian President Zelensky visited his troops stationed in trenches at the front lines. He said he has tried to get in touch with Russian President Putin, but they haven’t responded. Zelensky is asking the U.S. and NATO to support them with weapons, resources, and funding.

In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine, and there have been fighting at the border over the years that has killed about 13,000 people.

That is all the top stories for today. Check out our other videos. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.

https://apnews.com/article/officer-virginia-stop-black-army-lieutenant-caron-nazario-e3dea15f20e74cfc8664e0906ea7181e

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/11/us/brooklyn-center-minnesota-police-shooting.html

https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/2021-masters-leaderboard-scores-hideki-matsuyama-makes-history-as-first-japanese-man-to-win-golf-major/live/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/04/12/covid-vaccine-variant-deaths-hesitancy/7182823002/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/11/world/middleeast/iran-nuclear-natanz.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/12/europe/ukraine-zelensky-front-lines/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/12/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-news-putin-moves-russian-troops-to-border-and-crimea/