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October 4, 2006
Marchers Demand Justice
(AP) — Organizers of a march held along
with a regional meeting of the N AACP called
for a new trial for a man convicted of man­
slaughter in the death of a University of
Oregon student last year.
More than 100 people marched through
downtown Salem on Saturday to protest against
the conviction of Darrell Sky Walker, son of
former NBA guard Darrell Walker.
In July, a judge denied a request for a new
trial. Lawyers for Walker argued that a new
jury should hear additional testimony suggest­
ing that another man punched Phillip Gillins,
22, as he was walking home with two friends
on June 10, 2005.
Gillins fell, struck his head and died two
days later of a brain injury.
Organizers said they hoped to raise aware­
ness of the case of Walker, who was sen­
tenced to more than six years in prison.
Walker's mother, Alesia Williams, told the
crowd she was not giving up her pursuit of
justice.
"I'm for justice." she said. "I'm for the safety
of the public and think when people doacri me,
they should be put in jail. But you shouldn't be
in jail for something you didn't do. That's not
fair. I want some justice and I want it now."
Neighbors gather near an Amish schoolhouse where police say a gunman shot several children in
Nickel Mines, Penn., after taking about a dozen girls hostage. (AP photo)
Amish School Shooting Shocks
(A P )-A milk-truck driver carry­
ing th re e g u n s an d a g ru d g e
stormed a one-room Amish school-
house in Nickel Mines, Pa. M on­
day, sent the boys and adults o ut­
side, barricaded the doors with two-
by-fours. and then opened fire on a
dozen girls, killing five o f them be­
fore com m itting suicide.
It was the nation's third deadly
school shooting in less than a week,
and it sent shock waves through
Lancaster County's bucolic Amish
country, a picturesque landscape
Charles Roberts
o f horse-draw n buggies, green pas­
tu res and n ea t-as-a-p in farm s, and plastic ties, authorities said.
"This is a horrendous, horrific
where violent crime is virtually non­
incident Ibrthe Amish com m unity.
existent.
Fourother victims were critically They're solid citizens in the com ­
w ounded, state police said. Most munity. T hey’re good people. They
o f the victims had been shot, execu­ don't deserve ... no one deserves
tion-style, at point-blank range, this," State Police Com m issioner
after being lined up along the chalk­ Jeffrey B. M iller said.
The attack bore sim ilarities to a
board, their feet bound with wire
deadly school shooting last week
in Bai ley, Colo., and authorities there
raised the possibility that the Penn­
sylvania attack was a copycat crime.
The gunman, Charles Carl R ob­
erts IV, a 31-year-old truck driver
from the nearby town o f Bart, was
bent on killing young girls as a way
of "acting out in revenge for som e­
thing that happened 20 years ago,"
M illersaid.
The gun man told h i s w i fe by ce 11
phone shortly before opening fire
that he had molested two young
relatives decades ago and was tor­
mented by "dreams of molesting
again," authorities said Tuesday.
Roberts was not Amish and ap ­
peared to have nothing against the
Amish com m unity, M illersaid. In­
stead, M iller said, he apparently
picked the school because it was
close by, there were girls there, and
it had little or no security.
Vancouver Police Defend Shooting
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— a s ta n d a r d p r o c e d u r e in
sh o o tin g s by law en fo rcem en t
o fficers — but ap p aren tly w as
ju stifie d in the shooting, acting
(AP) — A police officer fatally Police C h ief M itchell K. B arker
shot a transient who was cam ping said M onday.
He said Dam on, sitting in the
behind a W al-M art store because a
toy gun the man pointed at him and grass with his back to Raquer. dis­
refused to drop looked real, au­ regarded several dem ands to show
thorities said.
his hands and then pointed a "rep­
D ouglas Damon. 64, known on lica" gun at the detective. Fearing
the streets as "Grandpa," was shot for his safety. Raquer fired a shot
to death at midday Sunday after that hit Damon in the head, the
residents near the store com plained acting chief said.
Raquer had every reason to be­
to police about hom eless people in
the area.
lieve the gun Damon held was real,
D etectiv e G reg R aquer. 42, a and less-than-lethal force was not
n in e-y ear veteran w ho fired the an option, Barker said.
Damon found the toy gun near
fatal shot w hile w orking overtim e
on patrol, rem ained on paid leave some trees behind the store, ac­
Man killed
pointing toy gun
cording to Chalin Lee Dickens, 31,
who said he had been cam ping with
Damon behind the store for about
a week. Dickens said he was in
another store at the time o f the
shooting.
D am on's alcoholism and other
health problem s ham pered efforts
to m ove him into stable housing,
said K atherine G arrett, the p ro ­
gram d irec to r o f S hare O utreach,
a p ro g ram for visitin g the h o m e­
less w ith food and inform ation on
serv ices. She said D am on picked
up Social Security checks at Share
H ouse and often ate there.
"He was one of my little favor­
ites," Garrett said. "He was ju st a
sweet little guy. Everybody called
him grandpa."
Jury Looks at Police Custody Death
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A M ultnom ah C ounty G rand
Jury began m eeting T u esd ay to
c o n s id e r p o s s ib le c r im in a l
c h a rg es ag ain st the Portland
p olice o fficers inv o lv ed in the
d eath o f a man w ho d ied w hile
in p olice custody.
On Sept. 17, Ja m esC h assed ie d
in a police ca r th at w as taking
him to a h ospital. P olice say he
had been in a fig h t w ith o fficers
in dow ntow n Portland prior to
his death.
A state m edical ex am in er
co n clu d ed that C h asse died o f
blunt force traum a to the chest,
but also ruled the death to be
an accident.
Food Stamp
Benefits
Increase
Food-stam p households will re­
ceive small increases this month in
the am ount o f their benefit and in
how much they can earn to qualify.
The federal governm ent which
finances the food-stam p program
revises paym ents annually to re­
flect changes in food, housing and
other costs.
Households with incomes be­
low 185 percent o f the federal pov ­
erty level ($3,084 a month for a
fjimily o f four) may qualify for ben­
efits. which are based on house­
hold income, size and expenses.
Fora family of four receiving the
m axim um benefit, the food-stam p
benefit increases by $ 12 from $5( )6
a month to $518. Gross monthly
family income to qualify for I ikk I
stam ps rises from $2,097 or less to
$2,167.
For an individual receiving the
maximum benefit, the monthly food
stam p benefit will increase by $3.
from $152 to $ 1 5 5 .1 he individual
alsocaneam u p to $ 1.062 in monthly
gross income, compared with $ 1.037
before ( k t . I.
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