Thursday, April 8 top stories
It is Thursday, April 8. Here are today’s top stories.
NBC News reported that on Wednesday, almost 25% of the adults in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated — meaning two doses of the Pfizer or the Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
I will show you a graphic that shows that there are 200 million adults in this country and that over 64 million are fully vaccinated.
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The three states that have the most percentage of full vaccinations according to their populations are New Mexico, South Dakota, and Maine. In this map, the darker the state color, the higher the percentage of vaccinations.
On Wednesday afternoon in South Carolina, a former NFL player named Phillip Adams is accused of shooting and killing five people, including two children, before turning the gun on himself.
The five who died were Dr. Robert Lesslie, his wife Barbara and their two young grandchildren, ages 9 and 5. The fifth person killed was a man who worked at the doctor’s home — James Lewis. A sixth person was seriously injured with gunshot wounds and hospitalized.
Police searched for a suspect for several hours before finding Adams’ body at a home near the doctor’s home — it seemed like it was Adams’ parents’ home. He had a .45 caliber firearm.
AP said the doctor once treated Adams, but it’s not clear what relationship they had.
Adams had a severe ankle injury and several concussions in his 5-year NFL career.
Adams’ father said his son is a good kid, but he thinks football messed him up.
Today President Joe Biden gave an address outside of the White House to address gun violence, saying it is an epidemic and an international embarrassment. He was flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
They plan to establish federal rules on ghost guns (untraceable firearms that can be assembled together) and on stabilizing braces that transform a pistol into a “rifle,” which is what the Boulder supermarket shooter used two weeks ago.
Biden said gun violence is the leading cause of death for Black men between the ages of 15 and 34 and wants to provide funding for community violence programs.
Garland said gun violence has killed 11,000 people in America this year alone.
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In New York City, a 27-year-old man named Joseph Russo was arrested and charged with hate crimes in connection to three separate incidents in which Asian Americans were attacked. The first incident was about a month ago in which Russo is suspected of pushing down a 64-year-old Asian American woman on a sidewalk. The second incident was about two weeks ago in which he is suspected of pulling a 32-year-old Asian American’s hair on a sidewalk. The third incident was on Monday in which Russo is suspected of shoving a 77-year-old Asian American man who was shopping for vegetables.
The NYPD said it has ramped up patrols in predominantly Asian communities and sending Asian American undercover officers in areas where hate crimes have occurred.
Here are some updates from the Derek Chauvin trial from this morning. I will show you some clips but I have to warn that they are graphic.
A doctor testified that George Floyd couldn’t breathe normally because he had three police officers kneeling on him.
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The doctor said Floyd tried to use his right fingers to push himself off the street to breathe, but couldn’t because he was chained to his left arm.
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The court then showed images of Floyd’s face pressing down on the street in an attempt to breathe.
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Next, the court showed that Chauvin’s left boot lifted above the floor, which meant he pressed the equivalent of 90 pounds of force on Floyd’s neck.
[Video clip]
The prosecutors also showed a clip what they believed was the last moment of George Floyd’s life — it showed Floyd’s eyes widening one last time before his face went blank with his mouth open on the street.
The prosecutors are showing all of this to the jury to try and prove that George Floyd died because of Chauvin’s actions. The defense attorney has tried to blame the death on the drugs that was in George Floyd’s system.
That is all the top news briefs for today. Check out our other videos. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/one-4-u-s-adults-are-now-fully-vaccinated-n1263331
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/08/us/york-county-south-carolina-mass-shooting/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/phillip-adams-kills-5-then-himself-south-carolina-aaf71f2618f139ab3781592634c8e37c
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/08/us/biden-news-today
https://abcnews.go.com/US/york-city-police-arrest-man-separate-attacks-asian/story?id=76941690&cid=social_twitter_abcn