About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 2018)
4A Monday, November 26, 2018 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com NATION RAMON ESPINOSA I Associated Press Migrants break past a line of police as they run toward the Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 25, near the San Ysidro entry point into the U.S. Migrants enveloped in tear gas after attempting to head for US border BY CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press TIJUANA, Mexico — Migrants approaching the U.S. border from Mexico were enveloped with tear gas Sunday after a few tried to breach the fence sepa rating the two countries. U.S. agents shot the gas, according to an Associ ated Press reporter on the scene. Children were screaming and coughing in the mayhem. Honduran migrant Ana Zuniga, 23, said she saw migrants open a small hole in concertina wire at a gap on the Mexican side of a levee, at which point U.S. agents fired tear gas at them. “We ran, but when you run the gas asphyxiates you more,” she told the AP while cradling her 3-year- old daughter Valery in her arms. Mexico’s Milenio TV also showed images of several migrants at the border try ing to jump over the fence. Yards away on the U.S. side, shoppers streamed in and out of an outlet mall. U.S. Border Patrol heli copters flew overhead, while U.S. agents held vigil on foot beyond the wire fence in California. The Border Patrol office in San Diego said via Twitter that pedestrian crossings have been suspended at the San Ysidro port of entry at both the East and West facilities. All northbound and south bound traffic was halted. Earlier Sunday, several hundred Central Ameri can migrants pushed past a blockade of Mexican police who were stand ing guard near the inter national border crossing. They appeared to easily pass through without using violence, and some of the migrants called on each other to remain peaceful. They convened the dem onstration to try to pressure the U.S to hear their asylum claims and carried hand- painted American and Hon duran flags while chanting: “We are not criminals! We are international workers!” A second line of Mexican police carrying plastic riot shields stood guard outside a Mexican customs and immigration plaza. That line of police had installed tall steel panels behind them outside the Chaparral crossing on the Mexican side of the border. Migrants were asked by police to turn back toward Mexico. More than 5,000 migrants have been camped in and around a sports complex in Tijuana after making their way through Mexico in recent weeks via caravan. Many hope to apply for asy lum in the U.S., but agents at the San Ysidro entry point are processing fewer than 100 asylum petitions a day. Irineo Mujica, who has accompanied the migrants for weeks as part of the aid group Pueblo Sin Fron- teras, said the aim of Sun day’s march toward the U.S. border was to make the migrants’ plight more visible to the governments of Mexico and the U.S. “We can’t have all these people here,” Mujica told The Associated Press. Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum on Fri day declared a humanitar ian crisis in his border city of 1.6 million, which he says is struggling to accommo date the crush of migrants. U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter Sun day to express his displea sure with the caravans in Mexico. “Would be very SMART if Mexico would stop the Caravans long before they get to our Southern Border, or if originating countries would not let them form (it is a way they get certain people out of their country and dump in U.S. No lon ger),” he wrote. Mexico’s Interior Minis try said Sunday the coun try has sent 11,000 Central Americans back to their countries of origin since Oct. 19. It said that 1,906 of them were members of the recent caravans. Mexico is on track to send a total of around 100,000 Central Americans back home by the end of this year. Police: Man shot woman at Walmart, turned gun on self AUSTIN L. MILLER I Associated Press Authorities block access to a home in Ocala, Fla., shortly after a shooting at a nearby Walmart. Police said David Johnson was hospitalized after he fatally shot a woman and turned the gun on himself a short time later. Associated Press OCALA, Fla. — A 54-year- old man suspected of the fatal weekend shooting of a woman in a Walmart store in north Florida has been hos pitalized with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. Ocala police said in a Facebook post, that David Johnson shot Carli Cronin, 30, in an apparent domestic dispute on Saturday in the garden section of a Walmart in that city. Witnesses told police Cronin screamed for help before she was shot multiple times. Employees called 911 and attempted to intervene. Investigators said Johnson left the store on a bike after the shooting. A SWAT team surrounded a home a few miles (kilome ters) away a short time later and evacuated neighbors before Johnson was found inside with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to authorities. Police said he was taken to the hospital and wasn’t expected to survive his injuries. Scotty Ballard told the Ocala Star-Banner that Cro nin was his roommate and that Johnson and Cronin had dated for about nine months but weren’t currently together. Ballard told the newspa per that the pair had been arguing all day Saturday because he wanted to get back together and she did not. Ballard said Johnson threatened Cronin, saying at one point he was “coming strapped” for her. On Saturday afternoon, Ballard and Cronin went to Walmart to get furnishings for their apartment. Bal lard said he was an aisle away when the shooting happened. Johnson’s family gath ered at Ocala Regional Medical Center on Sat urday night. His brother, Kenneth Johnson, told the newspaper that his brother had been turning his life around, adding that “he’s not this monster, but a man with a broken heart. ” Kenneth Johnson said Cronin was “the true love” of his brother’s life. Auto Insurance Specialist • Easy Payments • Any Driver • Any Age NEW LOCATION! 2415 OLD CORNELIA HWY., GAINESVILLE Next to Rabbittown Cafe 770-450-4500 Officers on trial, accused of lying about teen’s death From left, former Detective David March, Chicago Police Officer Thomas Gaffney and former officer Joseph Walsh appear at a pre-trial hearing at Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on Oct. 30. BY DON BABWIN Associated Press CHICAGO — Dashcam video showing Jason Van Dyke pointing his gun at black teenager Laquan McDonald and firing 16 times was key evidence in the murder conviction of the white Chicago police officer. The same video will be at the forefront again this week, as three more officers stand trial, accused of lying to protect Van Dyke in the aftermath of the killing. The trial starting Tues day of David March, Joseph Walsh and Thomas Gaff ney won’t receive nearly as much media attention as Van Dyke's, but there’s no understating the signifi cance of using that same video to underscore what prosecutors call the Chi cago Police Department‘s unofficial code of silence, in which officers cover for each other. “When you go out and talk to people who are living in communities that have experienced police abuse, what really makes them feel betrayed and lose faith in the system is the officers who cover up what they’ve seen or don’t say any thing,” said Christy Lopez, a Georgetown University law professor who led a federal probe of the city’s police force. “So, yes, this is very significant.” Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, agrees but for a very differ ent reason. “This is going to have a chilling effect on appropri ate, aggressive policing,” he said. The charges of con spiracy, misconduct and obstruction of justice boil down to the accusation that March, Walsh and Gaffney falsified their reports about the October 2014 shooting and didn’t interview wit nesses who could have pro vided accounts they didn’t want to record. Prosecutors contend that Walsh, who was Van Dyke’s partner and Gaffney, a patrolman, wrote among other things that McDon ald assaulted Van Dyke. Gaffney claimed Van Dyke and other officers had been injured. Further, Walsh sup ported Van Dyke’s claim that McDonald lunged at the two of them with a knife and, even after bul lets knocked McDonald down, he “attempted to get up while still armed with a knife.” None of these details was apparent on the dashcam video that captured the shooting and has been shown on news shows countless times since a judge ordered the city to make it public a year after the shooting. Prosecutors say March — a detective who investi gated the shooting and who along with Walsh has since left the department — not only cleared Van Dyke of any wrongdoing by say ing the video matched wit ness accounts, but also told another officer to include false information in her report. Gaffney remains on the force but has been suspended. While no other officers have been charged, the special prosecutor, Patri cia Brown Holmes, said it is clear that others on the force, including brass, ZBIGNIEW BZDAKI Associated Press wanted Van Dyke to be cleared. “We should be applaud ing him, not second guess ing him,” wrote a sergeant identified only as March’s supervisor in an email to a lieutenant. Prosecutors contend police also shooed witnesses from the scene, and that the defendants and others met at a station to “conceal the true facts” of the shooting. Not surprisingly, attor neys for the three dismiss any talk of conspiracy. “The whole indictment is a sham, based not on evidence, but on politics,” March’s attorney, James McKay, said at a recent hearing. Lopez, the law profes sor, said a conviction would send a powerful message to police officers all over the country that, “You can be held accountable, even if you didn’t pull the trigger.” But Robert Weisskopf, a retired Chicago police offi cer and former president of the lieutenants’ union, said that message has already been sent. “Are you really going to work that hard and do any thing more than the bare minimum if you think you could go to prison, lose your mortgage, have protesters in front of your house?” he asked. “They’re going to say, ‘Screw that.’” ■^ERICA’S ORIGINAL BUTCHfd TENDERNESS and SAVE 75%' on Omaha Steaks 30 GOURMET ITEMS! The Family Gourmet Feast 2 (5 oz.) Filet Mignons 2 (5 oz.) Top Sirloins 2 (4 oz.) 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