Tag: Death

Nex Benedict: Trans activists, WH seize on 'non-binary' teen's death as full report awaited

The death of a nonbinary student one day after a fight inside an Oklahoma high school bathroom has led to national outcry and White House condemnation.

Owasso police say the investigation into 16-year-old Nex Benedict’s death on February 8 is ongoing, with the state medical examiner’s office ruling it a suicide. Family members have said that their child was a victim of bullying at the school because Nex identified as nonbinary, neither male nor female. A complete report on Benedict’s death is scheduled to be released on March 27. 

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the preliminary autopsy report from the podium at Friday’s press briefing, calling Benedict’s death “devastating.” 

“As the president said yesterday, every young person deserves to have the fundamental right and freedom to be who they are and feel safe and supported at school and in their communities,” Jean-Pierre said. “Bullying is completely unacceptable, and it is on all of us to take reports of bullying seriously.” 

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This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

The Benedict family released a statement through an attorney emphasizing that though Nex’s death was ruled a suicide, there are “other pertinent portions of the report” that should not be “overshadowed by the ‘classification’ of Nex’s death.” 

“Rather than allow incomplete accounts to take hold and spread any further, the Benedicts feel compelled to provide a summary of those findings which have not yet been released by the Medical Examiner’s office, particularly those that contradict allegations of the assault on Nex being insignificant,” the family attorney said. 

Details released by the family include that the teen suffered non-lethal head and neck trauma, including contusions, lacerations and abrasions. An Abraded contusion on Nex’s chest was consistent with having occurred during CPR, according to the portion of the full medical examiner’s report released by the family. 

“The Benedicts continue to call on our schools, administrators, lawmakers, and communities to come together to prevent any other family from having to suffer through the heartache now borne by Nex’s loved ones,” the attorney said. “Reforms creating school environments that are built upon the pillars of respect, inclusion and grace, and aim to eliminate bullying and hate, are the types of change that all involved should be able to rally behind.” 

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LGBTQ+ advocates have blamed Nex’s death on gender identity-based bullying and harassment, as well as “rhetoric and policies” advanced by Republicans in Oklahoma — such as bills that prohibit children from receiving cross-sex hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery. They have called for the resignation of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, who has said there are only two genders — male and female — and that Oklahoma schools would not allow students to use preferred names or pronouns that differ from their birth sex. 

“We want to be clear, whether Nex died as a direct result of injuries sustained in the brutal hate-motivated attack at school or not, Nex’s death is a result of being the target of physical and emotional harm because of who Nex was,” Freedom Oklahoma, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group, said in a February statement reacting to Benedict’s death.

“This harm is absolutely related to the rhetoric and policies that are commonplace at the Oklahoma Legislature, the State Department of Education, and the Governor’s office, with regard to dehumanizing 2STGNC+ people,” the group said.

Walters has said Benedict’s tragic death has been exploited by the left for political purposes. 

“I think it’s terrible that we’ve had some radical leftists who decided to run with a political agenda and try to weave a narrative that hasn’t been true,” he told the New York Times in an interview in February. “You’ve taken a tragedy, and you’ve had some folks try to exploit it for political gain.”

“We’ve been told [Benedict’s] death wasn’t directly related to the fight at school,” he added. 

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The Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s report said the teen died from a combined overdose of Prozac and Benadryl. The fight in the school bathroom happened on the previous day. 

In video footage from the hospital on the day of the altercation, February 7, Nex tells a police officer that the teen and a friend group were the subject of ridicule over the way they dressed. Benedict, who preferred they/them pronouns, claims that in the bathroom the students said “something like: Why do they laugh like that?” referring to Nex and friends.

“And so I went up there and I poured water on them, and then all three of them came at me,” the teen tells the officer from a hospital bed.

“They came at me. They grabbed on my hair. I grabbed onto them. I threw one of them into a paper towel dispenser, and then they got my legs out from under me and got me on the ground,” the teen says in the video, according to the Associated Press. 

The students allegedly beat the teen to the point of blacking out. 

The next day, paramedics responded to a 911 call at the Benedict family’s house and performed CPR on an unresponsive Nex before rushing her to the hospital, where the teen later died.

On Thursday, the day after Nex’s death was ruled a suicide, the White House released a statement saying that President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were “heartbroken” by the loss. 

“Every young person deserves to have the fundamental right and freedom to be who they are, and feel safe and supported at school and in their communities. Nex Benedict, a kid who just wanted to be accepted, should still be here with us today,” Biden said. 

The president called on the nation to stand in solidarity with nonbinary and transgender people and “recommit to our work to end discrimination and address the suicide crisis impacting too many nonbinary and transgender children.”

“Bullying is hurtful and cruel, and no one should face the bullying that Nex did. Parents and schools must take reports of bullying seriously,” Biden said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Washington state to consider ban on hog-tying after Manuel Ellis' death

Washington state lawmakers are expected to consider a proposal Monday to prohibit police from hog-tying suspects, nearly four years after Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died facedown with his hands and feet cuffed together behind him in a case that became a touchstone for racial justice demonstrators in the Pacific Northwest.

The restraint technique has long drawn concern due to the risk of suffocation, and while many cities and counties have banned the restraint technique, it remains in use in others.

Democratic Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, who sponsored the bill, said she doesn’t want anyone else to experience the “dehumanization” Ellis faced before his death.

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“How do we move through the need for folks to enforce the laws, but do it in a way where they’re treating people the way we expect, which is as human beings?” she said.

In the last four years, states across the U.S. have rushed to pass sweeping policing reforms, prompted by racial injustice protests and the death of George Floyd and others at the hands of law enforcement. Few have banned prone restraint, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

California prohibited law enforcement in 2021 from using techniques that “involve a substantial risk of positional asphyxia,” in which the body’s position hinders the ability to breathe. That same year, Minnesota banned correctional officers from using prone restraint unless “deadly force is justified.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has recommended against the practice since at least 1995 to avoid deaths in custody, and many local jurisdictions bar it.

The attorney general’s office in Washington recommended against using hog-tying in its model use-of-force policy released in 2022. At least four local agencies continue to permit it, according to policies they submitted to the attorney general’s office that year.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said it still allows hog-tying but declined to comment on the bill. One of the department’s deputies was involved in restraining Ellis, whose face was covered by a spit-hood when he died.

Ellis was walking home in March 2020 when he passed a patrol car with Tacoma police officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank, who are white. Burbank and Collins said Ellis tried to get into a stranger’s car and then attacked the officers when they confronted him in the city about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Seattle.

Witnesses said the officers jumped out of their car as Ellis walked by and knocked him to the ground.

He was shocked and beaten. Officers wrapped a hobble restraint device around his legs and linked it to his handcuffs behind his back while he remained in the prone position, according to a probable cause statement filed by the Washington attorney general’s office.

After the hobble was applied, Ellis stopped moving, the statement said.

A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by lack of oxygen. Collins, Burbank and a third officer, Timothy Rankine, were charged with murder or manslaughter. Defense attorneys argued Ellis’ death was caused by methamphetamine intoxication and a heart condition, and a jury acquitted them in December.

Trudeau, who represents Tacoma, said she made sure Ellis’ sister, Monet Carter-Mixon, approved of her efforts before introducing the bill.

Democratic Sen. John Lovick, who worked as a state trooper for more than 30 years, joined Trudeau in sponsoring the bill.

Republican Rep. Gina Mosbrucker, a member of the House public safety committee, said she looked forward to learning more about the legislation.

“If it does turn out that this form of restraint for combative detainees is dangerous in any way, then I think the state should put together a grant and some money to buy and train on alternative methods to make sure that the officer and the person arrested is safe,” she said.

The bill comes a few years after a wave of ambitious police reform legislation passed in the state in 2021.

The legislation included requirements that officers could use force only when they had probable cause to make an arrest or to prevent imminent injury, and required them to use appropriate de-escalation tactics if possible.

The following year, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee approved bills fixing some elements of that legislation, including making it clear officers may use force to help detain or transport people in behavioral health crises.

Breonna Taylor's death: Mistrial declared after jury fails to reach verdict in case of ex-Louisville cop

Jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict on federal civil rights charges Thursday in the trial of a former Louisville police officer charged in the police raid that killed Breonna Taylor, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial.

Brett Hankison was charged with using excessive force that violated the rights of Taylor, her boyfriend and her next-door neighbors. Hankison fired 10 shots into the Black woman’s window and a glass door after officers came under fire during a flawed drug warrant search on March 13, 2020. Some of his shots flew into a neighboring apartment, but none of them struck anyone.

The 12-member, mostly white jury struggled fruitlessly to reach a verdict over several days. On Thursday afternoon, they sent a note to the judge saying they were at an impasse. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings urged them to keep trying, and they returned to deliberations.

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The judge reported there were “elevated voices” coming from the jury room at times during deliberations, and court security officials had to visit the room. Jurors then told the judge Thursday they were deadlocked on both counts against Hankison, and could not come to a decision — prompting Jennings’ declaration of a mistrial.

The mistrial could result in a retrial of Hankison, but that would be determined by federal prosecutors at a later date.

Federal prosecutors didn’t immediately respond to an email afterward seeking comment.

Before the mistrial was declared, the lead federal prosecutor, Michael Songer, said in court that it would take “enormous resources … to retry this case.” Songer wanted the jury to keep deliberating.

Jennings said she believed the jury would not be able to reach a verdict. “I think the totality of the circumstances may be beyond repair in this case,” the judge said. “They have a disagreement that they cannot get past.”

Lonita Baker, an attorney for Taylor’s family, said afterward that Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, was disappointed with the outcome but remained encouraged “because a mistrial is not an acquittal. And so we live another day to fight for justice for Breonna.”

Hankison, 47, was acquitted by a Kentucky jury last year on wanton endangerment charges. State prosecutors had alleged he illegally put Taylor’s neighbors in danger. Months after his acquittal last year, the U.S. Department of Justice brought the new charges against Hankison, along with separate charges against a group of other officers involved in crafting the warrant.

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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Taylor, a 26-year-old nursing student, “should be alive today” when he announced the federal charges in August 2022. The charges that Hankison faced carried a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Hankison was the only officer who fired his weapon the night of the Taylor raid to be criminally charged. Prosecutors determined that two other officers were justified in returning fire after one was shot in the leg.

Songer said Monday in the trial’s closing arguments that Hankison “was a law enforcement officer, but he was not above the law.” Songer argued that Hankison couldn’t see a target and knew firing blindly into the building was wrong.

Hankison’s attorney, Stewart Mathews, countered that he was acting quickly to help his fellow officers, who he believed were being “executed” by a gunman shooting from inside Taylor’s apartment. Taylor’s boyfriend had fired a single shot when police burst through the door. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said he believed an intruder was barging in.

“If his perception was reasonable in the chaos of that moment, that was not criminal,” Mathews said.

The night of the raid, Hankison said he saw the shot from Taylor’s boyfriend in the hallway after her door was breached. He backed up and ran around the corner of the building, firing shots into the side of the apartment.

“I had to react,” he testified. “I had no choice.”

The single shot from Taylor’s boyfriend hit former police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who dropped to the ground and fired six shots. Another officer, Myles Cosgrove, fired 16 rounds down the hallway, including the bullet that killed Taylor. Mattingly testified as a defense witness for Hankison in the federal trial, while Cosgrove was called to testify by prosecutors.

Cosgrove was fired by Louisville police along with Hankison. Mattingly retired.

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Taylor’s death didn’t initially garner much attention, but after the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020 and the release of Taylor’s boyfriend’s 911 call, street protests over police brutality erupted around the country. Demonstrators in Louisville shouted Taylor’s name for months, along with high-profile Black celebrities like Oprah and Lebron James who demanded accountability for the police officers involved in the case.

Taylor’s case also cast intense scrutiny on so-called “no-knock” warrants, which were later banned in the city of Louisville. The warrants allow officers to enter a residence without warning, but in the Taylor raid officers said they knocked and announced their presence. The Louisville police chief at the time was subsequently fired because officers had not used body cameras the night of the raid.

Three other former officers involved in drawing up the warrant have been charged in a separate federal case. One of them, Kelly Goodlett, has pleaded guilty to helping falsify the warrant. She is expected to testify against former detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany in their trial next year.

Goodlett’s guilty plea remains the only criminal conviction of a police officer involved in the Taylor case.

Man in China jailed for scaring neighbor's 1,100 chickens to death amid feud: report

A man in China was sentenced to prison after he snuck onto his neighbor’s property and scared 1,100 chickens to death.

The man, identified only by his last name Gu, snuck onto his neighbor Zhong’s chicken farm and used a flashlight to frighten the chickens, causing them to kill each other, China Daily reported.

The light from the flashlight terrified the chickens, causing them to flee to a corner of the coop where they trampled over one another trying to get away.

The incident came during a feud between the two neighbors that began in April 2022, when Gu cut down Zhong’s trees without his permission, the outlet reported. Zhong’s wife then towed the trees away, which infuriated Gu.

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Gu then snuck onto Zhong’s property one night and startled the chickens by shining a flashlight on them, causing 500 chickens to flee into a corner and die from crushing one another.

Police arrested Gu and ordered him to pay Zhong 3,000 yuan, or roughly $436, but Gu was not deterred.

Gu returned to Zhong’s property a second time and used the same tactic, which caused an additional 640 chickens to die, according to China Daily.

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According to Chinese authorities, the roughly 1,100 chickens that died in the two incidents were worth about 13,840 yuan, or about $2,015. 

A court in Hengyang County, located in central China’s Hunan province, ruled Tuesday that Gu had intentionally caused Zhong to suffer property loss, according to China Daily.

The court sentenced Gu to six months in prison and one year of probation.

Michigan man who beat Indiana boy to death convicted of murder, other counts

A jury has convicted a Michigan man of murder and other charges in the beating death of a 3-year-old boy in Lafayette.

Jermaine Garnes of West Bloomfield, Michigan, was convicted of murder, neglect resulting in death, aggravated battery resulting in death and battery on a person under 14 resulting in death. The jury returned the verdicts Wednesday.

Garnes and his girlfriend, Crystal Lynn Cox, were both charged in August 2021 in connection with the death of 3-year-old Zeus Cox. The little boy was found dead on a bedroom floor with bruises on his chest, stomach and other areas of his body.

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The couple gave police conflicting accounts. Cox said he had fallen on concrete and later ran into a table. Garnes told police Zeus had fallen off his bike.

Witnesses told police Garnes struck the 3-year-old with his fist.

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An autopsy revealed the 3-year-old died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries to his abdomen that ruptured the boy’s intestines and caused rib fractures and internal bleeding.

Cox was found guilty of murder, neglect resulting in death, aggravated battery resulting in death, and battery on a person under 14 resulting in death last May and was sentenced to 53 years in prison.

Garnes’ sentencing has not yet been scheduled.