No charges for suspected shooter in Miami club massacre
MIAMI — Miami-Dade prosecutors have dropped the case against one of the suspected gunmen in a North Miami-Dade banquet hall mass shooting, saying homicide detectives improperly got a confession after he asked for an attorney.
The state on Wednesday chose not to formerly charge Warneric Buckner, 20, of Miami Gardens, with three counts of first-degree murder and 20 counts of attempted murder.
Buckner was believed to be one of three men in ski masks who got out of a stolen Nissan Pathfinder and opened fire on the crowd outside El Mula Banquet Hall on May 30. The men ran back to the SUV — as others in the parking lot fired back.
Killed in the shooting were Desmond Owens and Clayton Dillard III, both 26, and Shankquia Lechelle Peterson, 32. Twenty people were wounded outside the hall, which was hosting a rap show; investigators believe the shooting was the escalation of a feud between rival gangs from North Miami-Dade.
The first arrest came in September, when Miami-Dade homicide detectives arrested the suspected lookout, Davonte Barnes, 22. He is still awaiting trial.
Then in early October, police arrested Buckner after he reportedly confessed he was a passenger in the front right seat of the SUV. He admitted he was “armed with a large firearm” and “fired into the crowd but could not recall how many shots he took,” according to an arrest report.
—Miami Herald
Fewer people moving to California, more leaving, study says
LOS ANGELES — The number of people moving to California from other states has dropped significantly since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and more Californians are leaving the state, according to a new study released Wednesday.
The two trends signal that population loss due to domestic migration out of the Golden State has more than doubled since the beginning of the pandemic. The pattern has rippled across California: New entrances to the state have dropped in every county since the end of March 2020. When Californians do move, researchers said they are slightly more likely to leave the state than they were before the start of the pandemic.
Entrances to California from other states have dropped 38% since March of last year, while the number of residents leaving to other states has increased 12%, the report from the nonpartisan California Policy Lab said.
“The public’s attention has been focused on the so-called ‘CalExodus’ phenomenon, but the reality is that the dramatic drop in ‘CalEntrances’ since the pandemic began has been a bigger driver of recent population changes in the state,” Natalie Holmes, research fellow at the California Policy Lab, said in a statement.
The study found “no evidence of a pronounced exodus” from the state but showed that net entrances from other states have dropped significantly since the start of the pandemic.
—Los Angeles Times
Oxford leaders immune to liability in school shooting, lawyer says
DETROIT — Oxford Community School officials will claim they are immune from a $100 million lawsuit filed by survivors of the nation's deadliest school shooting since 2018 that left four students dead and seven people wounded, according to a federal court filing Wednesday.
The strategy was revealed by school district lawyer Timothy Mullins in a legal response seeking to block the issuance of subpoenas that would give lawyers for two survivors access to surveillance footage and other evidence from the Nov. 30 shooting.
The school district should not have to provide any information, the lawyer argued, until U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith decides whether Oxford officials, including Timothy Throne and High School Principal Steven Wolf, teacher and counselors are protected by qualified immunity.
"Defendants will immediately file motions based on qualified immunity, making discovery improper at this stage," Mullins wrote. "Plaintiffs are advancing constitutional claims against individual defendants in their individual capacity, that are barred by qualified immunity."
The filing came six days after sisters Riley Franz, 17, an Oxford High School senior, and Bella Franz, 14, a freshman, filed the $100 million lawsuit. Riley was shot in the neck while next to Bella as they exited a restroom during the attack.
The complaint — the first in what legal experts anticipate will be a flurry of complaints — alleges school officials knew accused shooter Ethan Crumbley posted threatening comments on social media but failed to protect fellow students and downplayed the danger.
—The Detroit News
Special prosecutor again seeking full report on Smollett case
CHICAGO — The team of special prosecutors handling the Jussie Smollett case is again asking permission to release its full report on authorities’ conduct related to the matter.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb intends to go before Judge Michael Toomin on Monday to make the request, court records show. Toomin has twice denied Webb permission to publicly release the full details of his investigation since the report contains information gathered as part of grand jury proceedings, which by law are kept secret. Not even Smollett’s attorneys were allowed to see the complete report.
But now that Smollett has been convicted of falsely reporting to police that he was the victim of a hate crime attack, Webb is trying again, arguing that Toomin appointed a special prosecutor in part to restore public confidence in the court system after Cook County prosecutors’ handling of the matter.
“The trial of Mr. Smollett being complete, it is now appropriate for the seal on the OSP’s Summary Report to be lifted and for it to be publicly available,” Webb wrote in a motion filed Wednesday.
But Smollett has not yet been sentenced, and his attorneys have promised to appeal, meaning the case could be tied up in courts for years to come.
—Chicago Tribune
