Monday, April 19 top stories

It is Monday, April 19. Hope your weekend was good. Here are today’s top stories.

There were two more mass shootings over the weekend with multiple people killed.

The first — in Austin, Texas, a former police officer, Stephen Broderick, was arrested and accused of fatally shooting his ex-wife Amanda Broderick, his teenage daughter Alyssa, and her boyfriend Willie at an apartment on Sunday.

There was a 20-hour manhunt for Stephen that ended this morning with him being arrested while walking on a road and carrying a pistol.

He is a former police officer who resigned in June 2020 after he was charged with child sexual assault. News reports said the ex-wife, Amanda, filed a protective order fearing for her and her family’s safety last summer and that Stephen had a GPS monitor removed in November.

Now, the second mass shooting. In Kenosha, Wisconsin, three young men in their 20’s were shot and killed at a tavern on early Sunday morning.

Police said a 24-year-old gunman named Rakayo Vinson got into a fight at the tavern, left the bar, and then returned a short time later and opened fire. He was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide.

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Now, here are updates from the Indianapolis FedEx shooting. All eight victims were identified.

Two of the victims were 19-year-old women.

Four of the victims were a part of the Sikh community and between the ages of 50 and 68. The Sikh Coalition said there needs to be a hate crime investigation.

The remaining two victims were a 32-year-old man and a 74-year-old man.

The gunman, who committed suicide, is Brandon Scott Hole (19). He was a former employee at the FedEx facility. News reports said his mother, in March 2020, reported to law enforcement that he might try to commit suicide by cop and that a shotgun he had was seized. But several months later, in July and September 2020, Hole purchased two rifles that he eventually used in the shooting. Police said they were “assault rifles.”

Hole’s family issued a statement on Saturday saying they are devastated and are sending their apologies to victims.

I got word that there were deaf employees at the FedEx facility at the time of the shooting, but that none of them were injured.

NASA said it has successfully flown a small helicopter on Mars. The helicopter came with the Perseverance Rover that touched down in February. The helicopter went up in the air for less than a minute before landing safely. It is the first time that NASA has operated and controlled an aircraft on another world. NASA said it will continue to operate the helicopter to fly higher and further.

A 7-year-old girl named Jaslyn Adams was shot and killed as she sat in a car on Sunday afternoon at a McDonald’s drive-thru in the West Side of Chicago. Her father, who was a 29-year-old man, was also hit and is hospitalized in serious condition. A McDonald’s employee said they saw two gunmen jump out of a car and open fire on the father’s car. A police officer tried to rush the girl to a hospital, but she was pronounced dead upon arrival. Chicago Mayor Lightfoot said she was heartbroken, angered, and said the epidemic of gun violence cutting our children’s lives short cannot go on.

Former president Donald Trump said in a statement that he supports President Biden’s plan to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. Trump said he made it possible by reducing the number from 16,000 to 2,000 during his term. Biden’s plan is to have the troops out by September, but Trump said it should be completed by May. However, several top Republicans have criticized withdrawing troops, citing concerns that it would help enemies of the U.S.

Today the prosecution and the defense in the Derek Chauvin trial delivered their closing arguments on whether the jury should find Chauvin guilty of murder and/or manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. The jury is sequestered as they deliberate. We have no way of knowing how long it’ll take them to come to a decision. I will be interviewing our legal expert Michael Schwartz tonight to go over the charges and what the jury has to consider.

That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light. p stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/travis-county/austin-shooting-suspect-arrested-wanted-for-killing-3-people/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/04/19/austin-shooting-police-search-suspect-stephen-nicholas-broderick/7282033002/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/04/18/kenosha-county-shooting-3-dead-2-injured-somers-house-tavern/7276284002/

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2021/04/19/kenosha-shooting-somers-house-rakayo-vinson-arrested-faces-charge/7282512002/

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/04/19/rakayo-alandis-vinson-charged-first-degree-intentional-homicide-kenosha-county-mass-shooting-somers-house/

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2021/04/19/indianapolis-shooting-fedex-what-we-learned-victims-suspect-over-weekend/7276123002/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56789254

https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/fedex-mass-shooting/couple-preparing-to-celebrate-50th-wedding-anniversary-before-mass-shooting-at-indianapolis-fedex-facility-8-killed-john-steve-weisert/531-1be7b7c4-ba07-46f3-b842-ed87806a06a3

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/04/18/fedex-shooting-indianapolis-gun-previously-seized-brandon-hole/7276098002/

https://nypost.com/2021/04/17/fedex-shooting-gunman-killed-half-his-victims-outside-facility-cops/

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56799755

https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-shooting-7-year-old-shot-homan-square-jaslyn-adams/10527570/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-afghanistan-war-withdrawal/