Terrified Man Who Fled New York Blast Immediately Returned To Help Victims

In the immediate aftermath of the explosion that rocked Manhattan on Saturday night, a bystander who initially fled the blast returned to the scene and offered help to the victims.

Ramon Lopez, 43, calmed stunned individuals who had been hit by metal shards and led one of them to an ambulance, USA Today reports.

He also filmed the experience, which you can watch in the video below. (Warning: Content is graphic.)

Lopez was on West 23rd and Sixth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood when a homemade explosive filled with shrapnel detonated. Lopez ran about a half-block until he decided to turn around and help.

The first person he spotted was a woman with bloodstained clothes and an eye injury. In the video, she can be heard saying: “What’s wrong with my eye? I heard an explosion and I fell.”

As Lopez leads her to emergency personnel, he speaks reassuringly to her: “I’m holding you,” he says. “You’re OK, nothing’s going to happen to you.”

He also ran into a woman who had a small spherical fragment lodged in her arm.

“I was telling [the victims] it was minor, but it was major,” he told USA Today of their injuries. “If I told them it was major they would collapse.”

Twenty-nine people were injured in the explosion, which occurred around 8:30 p.m. Sept. 17. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted the next day that all the victims had been accounted for and released from the hospital. There were no fatalities.

All 29 victims have been confirmed released from the hospital with no fatalities. We give thanks for that.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) September 18, 2016

Ahmad Khan Rahami, the 28-year-old suspect wanted in connection with the explosion, was arrested Monday morning in Linden, New Jersey, after a shootout with police.

Rahami is also believed to be linked to a small bomb that went off near a five-kilometer race in New Jersey on Saturday morning and an unexploded pressure cooker bomb found near the scene of the Chelsea blast.

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Terrified Man Who Fled New York Blast Immediately Returned To Help Victims

Rodney King's Daughter Stands With LAPD 25 Years After Dad's Beating

It’s been 25 years since Lori King witnessed her unarmed father, Rodney King, get brutally beaten by cops from the Los Angeles Police Department.

The beating led to the 1992 L.A. riots, which lasted three days and left 55 dead. Her father’s public call for peace ― “Can we all just get along?” ― became the foundation for what King stands for today. Now, she told the Associated Press, four years after her father’s death, she’s working with the LAPD to help unite them with the communities they serve.

“That’s actually what my dad stood for, so I’m following in his footsteps. He had no hatred in his heart for police,” King told AP at an event with young community members and the LAPD on Thursday.

King, who said she’s had a few negative encounters with law enforcement herself, said she realizes that it’s hard for communities to trust police,”but it’s not going to get anything resolved by hating.”

King said she’s been able to overcome the 1991 tragedy because of her father’s solution-oriented spirit. 

Capt. Ruby Flores Malachi said that King’s courage to forgive speaks volumes.

“The importance of her being here today is huge, is monumental,” Malachi said to the attendees. “That’s a huge step in the right direction. We need to be able to come together and look at each other as people and not by the skin color or the uniform that you wear.”

Watch footage from the event below. 

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Rodney King's Daughter Stands With LAPD 25 Years After Dad's Beating

Corey Lewandowski Cluelessly Turns Bomb Suspect Search Into Immigration Rant

We’ll give him this: Corey Lewandowski sticks to his point, even if he looks ignorant doing it.

Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, turned the search for NYC bomb suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami into a rant against undocumented immigrants Monday even as fellow CNN broadcasters reminded him that Rahami, who later was reportedly caught, is a naturalized U.S. citizen. The bizarre exchange on CNN’s “New Day” was reported by Media Matters.

Co-host Alisyn Camerota asked Lewandowski whether Trump’s prediction of “more and more” attacks was the proper tone for this moment.

Lewandowski answered that his tone “re-highlights the problems we have with our immigration system. What we know is that 40 percent of the people who are in the country illegally have overstayed their visas. And what we hear from the reports this morning is that this person is either potentially of Afghani descent or...”

Camerota interrupted: “A naturalized citizen. That’s not overstaying his visa.”

Co-host Chris Cuomo reminded Lewandowski again that the suspect is neither a refugee nor someone who overstayed his visa.

Lewandowski, hired by CNN as a political commentator shortly after he was fired by Trump in June, then clumsily steered the conversation to Trump’s promise to “root out terrorism” and again questioned whether Rahami was in the country legally.

Meanwhile on Monday, Trump boasted that he called the Manhattan explosion a “bombing” before officials did. Lewandowski ran with that as well, pointing out that his former boss called the Brussels massacre a terrorist attack before any official.

 H/T Media Matters

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Corey Lewandowski Cluelessly Turns Bomb Suspect Search Into Immigration Rant

Authorities Identify Ahmad Khan Rahami As Suspect In Manhattan Explosion

By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) - Authorities have identified a suspect in the Manhattan explosion case as a 28-year-old New Jersey resident of Afghan descent who may be armed and dangerous, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday.

The New York Police Department released a photo of Ahmad Khan Rahami, who was wanted for questioning in the Saturday night explosions in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, de Blasio said on CNN.

“He could be armed and dangerous,” de Blasio said, warning that residents should be vigilant and report sightings to authorities.

In Elizabeth, New Jersey, on Monday, the FBI was executing a search warrant, Mayor Christian Bollwage told CNN earlier.

“They will be there for the next few hours, going through this location to find any evidence possible, whether it’s in relation to this incident or the Chelsea incident,” he said.

An explosive device left near a train station in Elizabeth, blew up earlier on Monday when a bomb squad robot cut a wire on the mechanism, one of as many as five potential bombs found at the site, the city’s mayor said.

No one was injured in the blast that followed a series of attacks in the United States over the weekend, including the Saturday night bombing that hurt 29 people in Manhattan.

The device had been left in a backpack placed in a trash can near a train station and a bar, Bollwage told reporters earlier.

As many as five potential explosive devices tumbled out of the backpack when it was emptied, Bollwage said. After cordoning off the area, a bomb squad used a robot to cut a wire to try to disable the device, but inadvertently set off an explosion, he said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the investigation was focusing on a person of interest in the case.

“The evidence might suggest a foreign connection,” Cuomo said in television interviews on Monday morning.

The Chelsea blast followed a pipe bomb explosion on Saturday morning along the route of a running race in the New Jersey beach town of Seaside Park. No one was injured in that blast.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey in Washington; Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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Authorities Identify Ahmad Khan Rahami As Suspect In Manhattan Explosion

Black Students Say They Were Harassed With Bananas At American University

Students at American University in Washington D.C. have condemned the school over what they said was an inadequate response to racially-charged incidents on campus this month.

In one case, a rotting banana was left at the door of a black student’s dorm room. In addition, someone drew a penis on a whiteboard attached to her door. 

“I wouldn’t let people drive me out,” Neah Gray, the freshman who found the banana, told the newspaper. “But it’s kind of sad that this kind of thing still happens.”

In another incident, someone threw a rotten banana at a black student, according to the American University Black Student Alliance. The organization said that the actions were part of a pattern of behavior at the university; last year, racist epithets were written on the dorm doors of black students. 

The university described one of the incidents as “not characterized as bias related,” and announced that “conduct charges” were taking place through the “Student Conduct process.” It was not clear which incident the university was referring to. 

On Friday, the administration also announced plans for a town hall meeting to be held that very night.

That response didn’t sit well with many students, who said they weren’t given enough notice to attend the meeting.

“Black women are under threat on campus ― they are being used as target practice,” Jada Bell, the Black Student Alliance’s outreach coordinator, told BuzzFeed. “We’re literally being attacked and assaulted on campus, and there’s nothing being done about it by the administration.”

As a result, the university’s student senate issued a resolution late Sunday not only condemning the incidents, but also the school’s response.

American University student Ryan Shepard said signs were later posted around campus:

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Black Students Say They Were Harassed With Bananas At American University

Ex-Airman Gets 18 Months' Probation In Toddler's Death

A Delaware mother whose toddler suffered fatal brain injuries while in the care of a former airman expressed outrage after the man was sentenced to 18 months of probation for the child’s 2012 death.

Justin Corbett, who was initially charged with first-degree murder in 21-month-old Evan Dudley’s death, faced up to eight years in prison after convicted in July on a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, The Associated Press reported.

On Thursday, a judge sentenced the 28-year-old to the full eight years, before suspending it for 31 days time served and probation, citing his clean criminal history and “exemplary military record,” the AP reported. 

Corbett had maintained that the child ― whom he was watching while the toddler’s mother, fellow airman Nicole Dudley, was serving in the Middle East ― sustained his injuries by falling down stairs.

A Delaware Online reporter, speaking to Dudley on Thursday, asked the mother if she believed justice had been served. Her answer: “Absolutely not.”

“You have a man who killed Evan who is walking free. The evidence speaks for itself,” she said outside the Kent County Superior Court in Dover.

A coroner reported that her son suffered serious brain injuries, as well as a detached retina and multiple bruises to his head and body. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide by blunt-force trauma, Delaware State News reported.

“I’ve been in that house and have seen those stairs. It’s just not possible,” Dudley told Delaware Online of the eight carpeted steps in Corbett’s home.

Ahead of Corbett’s sentencing, the married father took the stand and expressed his grief to Dudley over the loss of her son.

“Nikki, I can’t ever start to understand the pain you feel,” he said, according to Delaware Online. “I will bear the burden of this tragedy my whole life. I am truly aware of the pain this accident and I have caused you, and for that, I am truly sorry.”

His apology appeared to offer little, if any, comfort to the grieving mother.

“Just because you’re in the military doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be held accountable for your actions,” she later told the AP. “I think the jury failed, I think the judge failed and I think justice was not served.”

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Ex-Airman Gets 18 Months' Probation In Toddler's Death

Suspect Killed In Mall Stabbing Spree Referenced Allah: Police

A man wearing a private security uniform wounded eight people in a knife attack on Saturday at a mall in central Minnesota before he was shot dead by an off-duty police officer, authorities said.

The man made references to Allah and asked at least one person if they were Muslim before he assaulted them at the Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud, the city’s Police Chief William Blair Anderson told reporters.

“Whether that was a terrorist attack or not, I’m not willing to say that right now because we just don’t know,” Anderson said at a news conference.

“We’ll figure out what this is and when we do we will be transparent about it,” he added. He gave no details of the identities of the victims.

The knife attack in St. Cloud, a community about 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul, comes at a time of heightened concern in the United States about the threat of violence in public places.

An explosion rocked New York City’s bustling Chelsea district on Saturday, injuring at least 29 people in what authorities described as a deliberate, criminal act. But they said investigators had turned up no evidence of a “terror connection.”

In St. Cloud, the attacker entered the mall in the evening as it was busy with shoppers, Anderson said.

He attacked his victims at several sites in the shopping center, which will remained closed on Sunday as police investigate, the police chief said.

The eight wounded were transported to St. Cloud Hospital but none were believed to have life-threatening injuries, said Chris Nelson, a communications specialist for the medical facility.

One victim was expected to remain there, but the other seven patients had already been released or were expected to be let go shortly, officials said.

Police officials said they were still interviewing witnesses hours after the attack.

The off-duty police officer who shot the suspect was from a jurisdiction outside of St. Cloud, Anderson said. He would not say which agency employs the officer.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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Suspect Killed In Mall Stabbing Spree Referenced Allah: Police