Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 28, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba «> PAGE A14 A14 NEWS I WORLD FRIDAY,JANUARY28,2022 • WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMSuspect in custody after three officers wounded JUAN A.LOZANO ANDTERRY WALLACE Houston — a suspect led Houston police on a chase Thursday that ended with him wounding three officers in a shootout, stealing a car and barricading himself inside a home for hours before surrendering, authorities said. The incident began about 2:40 p.m. as officers responded to a family disturbance call at a home in northeast Houston, Police Chief Troy Finner said at a news conference. All three injured officers were in stable condition after being taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital. Two officers were transported by another patrol officer’s vehicle while the Houston Fire Department took the third. One of the officers was shot in the arm, another was shot in the leg and the third was shot in the foot, said Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union. “We are just grateful to God they are all right,” Finner said. Police had responded to a report of a shooting at the home of the suspect’s girlfriend, according to Griffith. When officers arrived, the suspect, whose name had not been released by authorities, fled in a vehicle and led police on a chase for several miles. The chase ended when the suspect’s vehicle crashed at an intersection in a residential neighbourhood just off Interstate 69 on the southeastern edge of downtown Houston. “Officers, as they got out of vehicle, the suspect immediately fired upon officers, striking three officers. All the officers returned fire,” Finner said. It was not known if the officers’ gunfire injured the suspect. Finner said it’s possible the suspect fired more than 50 rounds. Officers described the gun the suspect used as “a fully automatic weapon,” he said. The suspect fled the scene and car-jacked at gunpoint a white Mercedes, Finner said. He then drove to a home located several miles northeast of where the crash occurred. Officers surrounded the home. The suspect fired multiple times but did not hit any of the officers, who returned fire, Finner said. The suspect remained barricaded in the home until about 7:45 p.m. Thursday when he emerged with hands up from the unit where police believed he lived, Finner said. The man, whose identity police did not immediately release, was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the neck, the chief said. The suspect was believed to be the only person in the home. It was not immediately known why he went there, Finner said. Mayor Sylvester Turner said he visited the wounded officers and found them talkative and in good spirits. Turner said Thursday’s shooting highlighted the dangers law enforcement faces each day and the rising violent crime that has affected Houston and other U.S. cities the last couple of years. Finner said it’s been “a tough week for law enforcement” in Houston. On Sunday, a Houston-area deputy constable was fatally shot during a traffic stop, and a Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputy was fatally struck by a vehicle early Monday as he stood by his BRETTCOOMER/HOUSTONCHRONICLEVIAAP Police investigate the scene where three Houston officers were wounded Thursday. motorcycle while blocking a Houston highway exit ramp during an off-duty job escorting heavy machinery. Turner said that he and Finner planned to announce next week “some additional steps” the city will take to ad dress rising crime in Houston. “It’s going to take all of us working together to have a very safe city,” Turner said. — The Associated PressMan executed for 1996 killing after Supreme Court clears way JAY REEVES ATMORE, Ala. — Alabama executed an inmate by lethal injection for a 1996 murder on Thursday after a divided U.S. Supreme Court sided with the state and rejected defence claims the man had an intellectual disability that cost him a chance to choose a less “torturous,” yet untried, execution method. Matthew Reeves, 43, was put to death at Holman Prison after the court lifted a lower court order that had prevented corrections workers from executing the prisoner. He was pronounced dead at 9:24 p.m. CST, state Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. Reeves was convicted of killing a driver who gave him a ride in 1996. Evidence showed Reeves went to a party afterward and celebrated the killing. Reeves was convicted of capital murder for the killing of Willie Johnson, who died from a shotgun blast to the neck during a robbery in Selma on Nov. 27, 1996, after picking up Reeves and others on the side of a rural highway. After the dying man was robbed of $360, Reeves, then 18, went to a party where he danced and mimicked Johnson’s death convulsions, authorities said. A witness said Reeves’ hands were still stained with blood at the celebration, a court ruling said. While courts have upheld Reeves’ conviction, the last-minute fight by his lawyers seeking to stop the execution involved his intellect, his rights under federal disability law and how the state planned to kill him. The Supreme Court on Thursday evening tossed out a decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had ruled Wednesday that a district judge didn’t abuse his discretion in ruling that the state couldn’t execute Reeves by any method other than nitrogen hypoxia, which has never been used. In 2018, Alabama death row inmates had a chance to sign a form choosing either lethal injection or nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method after legislators approved the use of nitrogen. But Reeves was among the inmates who didn’t fill out the form stating a preference. Suing under the American With Disabilities Act, Reeves claimed he had intellectual disabilities that prevented him from understanding the form offering him the chance to choose nitrogen hypoxia — a method never used in the U.S. — over lethal injection, which the inmate’s lawyers called “torturous.” Reeves also claimed the state failed to help him understand the form. But the state argued he wasn’t so disabled that he couldn’t understand the choice. It was a divided court that let the execution proceed. Justice Amy Coney Barrett said she would deny the state’s request, while Justice Stephen Breyer, who just announced his retirement, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined with Justice Elena Kagan in a dissent that said the execution shouldn’t occur. The state had previously asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift a lower court injunction and allow the execution, but the panel on Wednesday had refused and said a judge didn’t abuse his discretion in ruling that the state couldn’t execute Reeves by any method other than nitrogen hypoxia, which has never been used. Alabama appealed that decision, sending the case to the Supreme Court. Alabama switched from the electric chair to lethal injection after 2002, and in 2018 legislators approved the use of another method, nitrogen hypoxia, amid defense challenges to injections and shortages of chemicals needed for the procedure. The new method would cause death by replacing oxygen that the inmate breathes with nitrogen. A poor reader and intellectually disabled, Reeves wasn’t capable of making such a decision without assistance that should have been provided under the American With Disabilities Act, his lawyers argued. A prison worker who gave Reeves a form didn’t offer aid to help him understand, they said. With Reeves contending he would have chosen nitrogen hypoxia over a “torturous” lethal injection had he comprehended the form, the defense filed suit asking a court to halt the lethal injection. U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker, Jr. blocked execution plans, ruling that Reeves had a good chance of winning the claim under the disabilities law. A defence expert concluded Reeves reads at a first grade level and has the language competency of someone as young as 4, but the state disagreed that Reeves had a disability that would prevent him from understanding his options. An Alabama inmate who was put to death by lethal injection last year, Willie B. Smith, unsuccessfully raised claims about being intellectually unable to make the choice for nitrogen hypoxia. — The Associated Press Read now in Lifestyles WHISKERS & I/O mgs Stories about furry felines, ^ feathered friends, cuddly canines && more. -ADVERTISING- Have a story to share? Contact charlene.adam@freepress.mb.ca A_14_Jan-28-22_FP_01.indd 14 2022-01-27 9:51 PM ;