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NATION/WORLD Thursday, September 22, 2016 East Oregonian Page 7A Police try to quell anger after shooting triggers unrest Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Author- ities tried to quell public anger and correct what they characterized as false information Wednesday after a night of looting and arson added Charlotte to the list of U.S. cities that have erupted in violence over the death of a black man at the hands of police. With oficials refusing to release any video of the shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, two starkly different versions emerged: Police say Scott disre- garded repeated demands to drop his gun, while neighborhood resi- dents say he was holding a book, not a weapon, as he waited for his son to get off the school bus. The killing inlamed racial tensions in a city that seemed to have steered clear of the troubles that engulfed other places. As Charlotte’s white mayor and black police chief stood at City Hall and appealed for calm, African-American leaders who said they were speaking for Scott’s family held their own news confer- ence near where he was killed on Tuesday, reminding the crowd of other shootings and abuses of black men. John Barnett, who runs a civil rights group called True Healing Under God, or THUG, warned that the video might be the only way for the police to regain the community’s trust: “Just telling us this is still under investigation is not good enough for the windows of the Wal-Mart.” On Tuesday night, a protest near the apartment complex where the shooting took place turned violent. Dozens of demonstrators threw rocks at police and reporters, damaged squad cars, closed part of Interstate 85, and looted and set on ire a stopped truck. Authorities used tear gas to break up the protests. Sixteen oficers suffered minor injuries. One person was arrested. The violence broke out shortly after a woman who appeared to be Scott’s daughter posted a profanity-laced, hour-long video on Facebook, saying her father had an unspeciied disability and was unarmed. In the footage, she is at the cordoned-off shooting scene, yelling at oficers. “My daddy is dead!” the woman screams on the video, which has not been authenticated by The Associ- ated Press. On Wednesday, Charlotte-Meck- lenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said: “It’s time to change the narrative, because I can tell you from the facts that the story’s a little bit different as to how it’s been portrayed so far, especially through social media.” The police chief said oficers were serving arrest warrants on another person when they saw Scott get out of a vehicle with a handgun. A black plainclothes oficer in a vest emblazoned “Police” shot Scott after the oficer and other uniformed members of the force Clinton, Trump decry latest police shootings of black men Jeff Siner/The Charlotte Observer via AP Oficers stand in formation in front of protesters in Charlotte, N.C. on Tuesday. made “loud, clear” demands that he drop the gun, the chief said. Putney was adamant that Scott posed a threat, even if he didn’t point his weapon at oficers, and said a gun was found next to the dead man. “I can tell you we did not ind a book,” the chief said. Neighbors, though, said that the oficer who ired was white and that Scott had his hands in the air. The three uniformed oficers had body cameras; the plainclothes oficer did not, police said. But the chief said he cannot release the video because the investigation is still underway. No cellphone video has emerged on social media, as happened in other cases around the country. The plainclothes oficer, identi- ied as Brently Vinson, a two-year member of the department, has been placed on leave, standard procedure in such cases. Scott’s mother described her son as a family man. “And he was a likable person. And he loved his wife and his children,” Vernita Walker told The Charlotte Observer. Scott has a lengthy criminal record, including convictions in Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina. Texas records showed he was convicted of evading arrest with a vehicle in 2005, and several months later, of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The unrest took many by surprise in Charlotte, the banking capital of the South with a population of 830,000 people, about 35 percent of them black. The city managed to pull through a racially charged shooting three years ago without the unrest that erupted in recent years in such places as Baltimore, Milwaukee and Ferguson, Missouri. In 2013, Charlotte police charged one of their own, Randall Kerrick, with voluntary manslaughter days after the white oficer shot an unarmed black man who had been in a wreck and was looking for help. The jury deadlocked and the charge was dropped last summer. There Students at the University of North Carolina Charlotte com- fort one another during a vigil following Tuesday’s fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday. Jeff Siner/The Charlotte Observer via AP Protesters demonstrate in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 20. Au- thorities used tear gas to disperse protesters in an overnight demonstration that broke out Tuesday after Keith Lamont Scott was fatally shot by an oficer at an apartment complex. were a few protests but no violence. At the apartment complex where Scott was killed, some people who said they witnessed the shooting told their version with an air of certainty even when they were hundreds of yards away. Taheshia Williams said her balcony overlooks the shady parking spot where Scott was Tuesday afternoon. She said he often waited there for his son because a bicycle accident several years ago left him stuttering and susceptible to seizures if he stayed out in the hot sun too long. On Tuesday, she said, Scott had only a book in his hands and was CLEVELAND (AP) — Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton decried a fresh round of police-involved shootings on Wednesday, with the Republican nominee saying he was “very troubled” by the killing of a black man by a white police oficer in Oklahoma. Courting black voters who have long spurned Republicans, Trump’s event in Cleveland Heights’ New Spirit Revival Center took a bizarre turn when he was introduced by boxing promoter Don King, who used a racial slur as he made the case for black voters to support Trump. Trump’s latest foray into the black community not only sought to connect with voters in Cleveland, home to a large community of African-American voters key to Clinton’s prospects in Ohio, but also with moderate suburban voters, who frequently hear Clinton describe Trump as extreme. King, introducing Trump, raised eyebrows when he said a black man is always framed by his skin color, recalling that he once told pop icon Michael Jackson “if you’re poor, you’re a ‘poor Negro.’ If you’re rich, you’re a ‘rich Negro.’” An educated black man is “an intellectual negro.” King, who is black, continued: “If you’re a dancing and sliding and gliding n-----— I mean Negro — you are ‘a dancing and sliding and gliding Negro.’” Gasps and laughs could be heard from the audience. The King incident underscored the often clumsy way in which Trump has made his appeal to minority voters. Many black community leaders and voters have been offended by his dire depiction of life in minority communities. Trump’s outreach has also been viewed cynically as an attempt by his campaign to soothe concerns among more moderate, suburban voters. following orders. “He got out of his car, he walked back to comply, and all his compli- ance did was get him murdered,” Williams said. The American Civil Liberties Union urged the police chief to release the video. And some leaders called for a boycott of Charlotte. “Since black lives do not matter for this city, our black dollars shouldn’t matter,” said B.J. Murphy, a radio host and leader of the Nation of Islam. Mylan CEO defends EpiPen cost to angry lawmakers WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of pharmaceutical company Mylan is defending the cost for life-saving EpiPens, signaling the company has no plans to lower prices despite a public outcry and questions from skeptical lawmakers. “Price and access exist in a balance, and we believe we have struck that balance,” Heather Bresch says in prepared testimony released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ahead of her Wednesday appearance before the panel. The price of EpiPens has grown to $608 for a two-pack, an increase of more than 500 percent since 2007. Republicans and Democrats have said families struggling to pay for the emergency allergy shots have every right to be outraged by Mylan, a company whose sales are in excess of $11 billion. Bresch says in the testi- mony that she wishes the company had “better antic- ipated the magnitude and acceleration” of the rising prices for some families. “We never intended this,” she says. But she says investments are necessary to ensure more access for those who need it and the company has made strides to more widely distribute the drug to schools and others. “We don’t want to go back to a time — not that long ago — when awareness of anaphylaxis was much lower and epinephrine auto injectors were only available in schools with a prescription for an individual child,” she says. “Achieving this level of expansion of awareness requires signiicant invest- ment.” House Oversight chairman Rep. Jason Chaf- fetz, R-Utah, and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, have said they also want to examine ways to encourage greater competition in the EpiPen market. Bresch has some familiarity with Capitol Hill — she is the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va. But lawmakers so far haven’t given any deference to her because she is related to a colleague. Several other committees have called for investigations into the matter. EpiPens are used in emer- gencies to stop potentially fatal allergic reactions to insect bites and stings, and foods like nuts and eggs. People usually keep multiple EpiPens handy at home, school or work, but the syringes, preilled with the hormone epinephrine, expire after a year. Bresch noted that Mylan has said it will begin selling its generic version for $300 for a pair. That will still bring Mylan tens of millions of dollars while helping it retain market share against current and future brand-name and generic competition. U.S., Russia abandon diplomatic niceties in testy Syria debate UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Russia abandoned diplomatic niceties Wednesday in a fractious public debate over Syria, blaming each other for spoiling the country’s cease-ire and offering only temporary patches to stem the bloodshed. Secretary of State John Kerry called for all warplanes to halt lights over aid routes, while Russia’s chief diplomat spoke of a possible three-day pause in ighting. In a U.N. Security Council session originally envisioned to enshrine Syria’s Sept. 9 truce, world powers rued the possibility of a darker phase in the conlict amid increased attacks on humanitarian workers. The council’s nations all sought to revive the U.S.- Russian cease-ire deal, but once again illustrated why they’ve been unable for more than ive years to stop Syria’s civil war. “Supposedly we all want the same goal. I’ve heard that again and again,” a visibly angry Kerry told the council. “Everybody sits there and says we want a united Syria, secular, respecting the rights of all people, in which the people of Syria can choose their leadership. But we are proving woefully inadequate in our ability to be able to get to the table and have that conversation and make it happen.” While the U.S. and Russia have previously butted heads over several proposed resolutions critical of the Syrian government, Wednesday’s agenda didn’t even include a suggested course of action. Instead, the two-hour discussion served as a warm-up act for a Thursday meeting blocks away in New York that will include Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and their counterparts from more than a dozen European and Arab countries. Kerry blamed Russia, lambasting what he portrayed as a cynical response to an airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy this week that killed 20 civilians and raised “profound doubt” about Russia and Syria’s willingness to abide by the cease-ire. The U.S. believes with very high degree of conidence that a Russian-piloted aircraft carried out the strike, said a senior American oficial, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity. “This is not a joke,” Kerry exclaimed, urging all to stop the “word games that duck responsibility or avoid the choices ... with respect to war and peace, life and death.” Breast Cancer Care Specialist ... 541-278-3224 Cancer Clinic................................ 541-278-6576 Cardiopulmonary Services ......... 541-278-8284 Diabetes Education ..................... 541-278-3239 Education ..................................... 541-278-2627 Home Health Care/Hospice......... 541-276-4100 Lactation Services ....................... 541-966-2541 Nutrition Counseling ................... 541-278-3235 Sleep Disorders Lab .................... 541-278-3685 Radiology/Diagnostic Imaging ... 541-278-3228 Maternity and OB Care ................ 541-278-3261 Outpatient Physical Therapy ...... 541-278-6610 Family Clinic ................................ 541-966-0535 541-276-5121 2801 St. Anthony Way Pendleton
