California, eight other states and the District of Columbia impose waiting periods for the purchase of a firearm. The others are Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Image copyright
Getty Images
A junior cadet who died helping other students escape a Florida school shooting has been posthumously accepted into a prestigious US military school.
Peter Wang, 15, one of 17 killed in the 14 February attack, was admitted to the class of 2025 at his dream school, West Point Academy.
He was a member of the US Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), a school programme for potential US military officers.
His funeral took place on Tuesday.
The school will confer a letter of admission and honorarium tokens to his family, local West Point alumni Chad Maxey told the Sun Sentinel newspaper.
Florida Governor Rick Scott also reportedly directed the state’s National Guard to honour Peter and two other members of the JROTC at their funerals.
Image copyright
BBC (supplied)
The US Army bestowed the Medal of Heroism on three students who were killed, including Peter, according to US media.
The Cadet Command also approved Junior ROTC Heroism Medals for 14-year-old cadets Alaina Petty and Martin Duque, an army spokesman told US media.
Peter was in uniform when he was fatally shot while holding the door for others fleeing a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, witnesses say.
The recognition comes after an online petition called for him to be laid to rest with military honours, saying he “deserves” to be buried as a hero, because “his selfless and heroic actions have led to the survival of dozens in the area”.
Peter, who had spent part of his childhood in his parents’ native China, had dreamed of attending the West Point military academy, friends say.
Jesse Pan, a neighbour and longstanding friend of Peter’s family, told the BBC Chinese Service he had tried to support the teenager’s parents as they struggled to cope with the loss.
“I was there with his parents, helping translating and finding a funeral home,” he said.
“His parents fainted as soon as they saw his body. He had got multiple shots in front… So horrible.”
Skip Twitter post by @sunrisepost365
End of Twitter post by @sunrisepost365
Meanwhile, about 100 students from Stoneman Douglas have travelled by bus to the Florida state capitol, where they plan to hold a rally against gun violence on Wednesday.
Some of them arrived on Tuesday in time to see the Republican-controlled state legislature reject a proposed ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines.
State lawmakers voted down the measure after opening their session with a prayer for the victims of the Parkland high school shooting.
The students, whose school is shut until 27 February, are hoping their march inspires others across the US.
A larger protest is being planned for Washington DC on 24 March.
Skip Twitter post by @PaulNBlake
End of Twitter post by @PaulNBlake
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for a ban on rapid-fire “bump stock” devices, which were used last October’s Las Vegas massacre, but not in the Florida high school attack.
The Parkland school was the scene of a deadly rampage last week, when an ex-student allegedly opened fire with an AR-15 assault rifle.
The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, had moved in with a friend, who also attended the school, after his adoptive mother died in 2017.
The parents who hosted Mr Cruz, James and Kimberly Snead, told CBS News the teenager was depressed but they did not realise how troubled he was.
“The Nik we knew was not the Nik that everybody else seemed to know,” James Snead told CBS.
“He pulled one over on us. As well as a lot of people,” Mrs Snead said.
Mr Snead, a US army veteran, said he knew Mr Cruz had guns but believed he had the only key to the safe where they were located.
He added that it was Mr Cruz’s right to have guns.
Image copyright
ABC
Law enforcement officials say that Mr Cruz legally purchased seven rifles in the last year, despite several mental health warnings.
The couple also told ABC News that Mr Cruz had texted their son only three minutes before the attack began in Parkland, Florida, to say he was “going to the movies”.
When they first saw him at the police station after he was arrested, he “mumbled” an apology to the parents.
Documents obtained by CBS show that Mr Cruz and his late adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, were visited by Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) after allegations of medical neglect in September 2016.
The investigator reportedly determined that Mr Cruz suffered from depression, ADHD and autism, had cut his arms in a post on social media and once plastered a racist message on his school backpack.
Officials closed the investigation after deciding he was not being mistreated, according to CBS News.
[Warning: This story contains spoilers for Black Panther]
Black Panther is the new king of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is the studio’s best-reviewed movie, it’s breaking box-office records and it’s also the rare tentpole that’s truly speaking to broader cultural moment.
The team at Heat Vision is breaking down the twists, turns and impactful moments — and is also welcoming indie filmmaker (and Marvel fanatic) Theo Brown as a guest to help process everything.
Aaron Couch: Any time a Marvel movie comes out, the immediate question becomes “where does this rank in the MCU pantheon?” But the conversation for this movie is …. “wait, is this the best Marvel movie ever?” It’s a fair question. I’ve got to go by the feeling I had leaving the theater, as well as the way that feeling lingered for days. As much as really I like most of the Marvel movies, the first Avengers, the first Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther are the ones that have had similar effects, where I left feeling I’d seen something truly new.
Graeme McMillan: This is, for me, the best of the Marvel movies. It feels the most complete, and the most fully realized.
Couch: Graeme, I must stop you here. This is now three Marvel movies in a row that you really liked. Am I going to have to stop teasing you about being “grumpy”?
McMillan: I’m as shocked as you are, Aaron. But this movie is just… really good. There’s no over-reliance on other Marvel movies — even T’Chaka’s death in Civil War is given just the right amount of flashbacks to make it feel part of this story — and enough of an emotional journey for T’Challa, but also Killmonger, to feel like a complete story in and of itself. Plus, you know, every single person in this movie is charming and the kind of character you want to see appear in multiple movies, from Okoye to W’Kabi to Shuri, who completely stole every single scene she was in. Forget about the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy: Just make every single Marvel movie about these guys from now on, please.
Richard Newby: That’s one of the things that really struck me about the movie; every character is given a viable backstory and enough set-up for the future to lead their own film. Feige has talked a lot about the potential for spin-offs going forward, particularly with James Gunn’s cosmic side of the MCU, but I think almost every character in Black Panther is just as worthy of that potential. And despite taking place in almost entirely single location, Wakanda feels just as rich in terms of history and location as the planets we’ve visited in the Guardians of the Galaxy films. A sequel is guaranteed, but if the MCU really wanted to continue to break new ground going forward, I think Marvel Team-Up style movies with the Black Panther characters could be a good place to start. I’d pay top dollar to see Shuri team-up with Valkyrie, or a Nakia and Black Widow spy movie. And then there’s Killmonger, who could have an entire movie to himself with his backstory. More Michael B. Jordan in the MCU would never be a bad thing.
Patrick Shanley: I truly love Chadwick Boseman and have been a diehard fan of his since 42, so to see him leading a Marvel tentpole has been very exciting for me as a fanboy of his. That said, Jordan really steals the show here with much more limited screen time. I think it’s not much of a stretch to say that his Killmonger is now the standard for Marvel villains.
Rebecca Sun: Seeing how capably intersectional Black Panther manages to be really underscores how little excuse there is for pretty much every other action tentpole to be giving half of the population such short shrift. There’s no “token female” in Black Panther because the film is so naturally populated with multiple women who occupy distinct, multifaceted roles. Nakia is not just the love interest; she’s also a spy and humanitarian. Shuri is not just a tech whiz; she’s also a princess who loves goofing on her brother. Okoye is not just the head of the kingdom’s special forces; she’s also a woman torn between sworn duty and what her heart believes to be right (she also is no asexualized warrior; Black Panther makes clear that this is a strong black woman who also is someone’s beloved).
Theo Brown: As soon as I saw it, I wanted more. More fleshed out stories about the Jabari tribe, or W’Kabi and his life as the guardians of Wakanda’s borders, or of course, the Dora Milaje (who have given me a reason to add Rise of the Black Panther to my comic pull list). And doesn’t Shuri feel like the MCU version of Riri Williams, who created her own Iron Man suit? Just saying, it works pretty well…
Ryan Parker: Michael B. Jordan is exceptional in this movie, and I loved his character. For the first time in a Marvel film, I really believed the villain and his motivation. I even sympathized with him. It made the story just that much more powerful. For a while, I couldn’t decide who I wanted to be victorious.
Couch: As much fun as Loki is … Jordan just makes him seem almost silly and superfluous. When Jordan was cast, I half-assumed that Coogler was bringing him on board for a small role out of tradition since they are such close collaborators. The trailers did not spoil the fact that Jordan has a huge role and is as much the star as Boseman is. He is the best MCU villain, and injects more politics into the movie than even anything in the excellent Captain America: Winter Soldier. The same goes for legends like Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett. Usually when actors of their caliber (ala Anthony Hopkins in the Thor movies) are cast in films like this, they rarely get enough to do. But that’s not the case here.
Brown: I think that Jordan’s cause comes across much more urgently because he’s dealing with real stakes that are much larger than the MCU — in his mind, he’s positioned himself as an hero for impoverished Africans and African Americans across the globe. It has a bit of a heavier weight to it than Loki just wanting people to kneel and bow to him. These are real world problems that could have real world consequences.
Newby: I think Killmonger works as well as he does because the politics are stemming from a very emotional place. I love Winter Soldier, but it’s concern over potential threats feels slightly removed from the characters, and is ultimately dictated by good and evil when it comes down to the wire. But with Killmonger everything political is personal. Jordan puts him in this moral gray area by portraying him like an open wound surrounded by scar tissue.
McMillan: As Ryan said, I love how sympathetic Killmonger actually is, on multiple levels. He’s wrong, sure— but he’s not entirely wrong, and that tension is compelling. As is the tension in T’Challa’s initial desire to keep Wakanda separate from the rest of the world, especially as a movie released right now, with the current administration threatening to become more isolationist in terms of international aid. Nakia being the voice of conscience throughout the whole thing is wonderful, and another political message, subtly: it’s the woman of color who’s right all along. When was the last time we got to see that in a massive mainstream movie?
Sun: Black Panther‘s inclusiveness reminds me of Wonder Woman‘s. Both films could have stayed within the bounds of their built-in marketing taglines – “the black (male) superhero movie,” “the (white) lady superhero movie” – and yet took the time to do what all their counterparts dedicated to white male heroism seldom do. (In Wonder Woman‘s case, offer brief yet poignant glimpses into the personal obstacles faced by Diana and Steve’s Native American and Arab allies.)
Newby: I love that T’Challa is surrounded by black women in the movie, because as much as Black Panther is a story of fathers and sons, it’s also a story of how women shape the throne and its policies. And to go back to Killmonger for a second, it’s very interesting to see how he interacts with his female accomplice, and her fate, juxtaposed with T’Challa’s relationships with the women in his life. I’d argue that Killmonger’s greatest tragedy isn’t that he grew up without a father, but that he grew up without a mother, sister, or lover who speaks her mind — or even speaks at all. T’Challa succeeds both as king and as superhero because of the women in his life and that speaks volumes.
Brown: Richard, I’ve been thinking about that a lot, especially after more viewings. I love that the women in the film seem to match some parallels of what women in black communities unfortunately far too often deal with — like showcasing how the mother alone is the matriarch of the family, managing her own emotions while keeping the family intact and pushing forward for greatness regardless of the circumstances. Or how being educated in the STEM fields and accomplishing high raking positions are prevalent in the women on screen (African American women are one of the most educated groups in America, statistics say). I felt like there was a lot of nods of affirmation with these things.
Parker: One of the aspects that sets it apart from other Marvel films is its pacing. I love how well it is paced. I am a huge Marvel nerd, but in most of the films, the fight scenes just go on way too long — to the point where I am almost bored. Not Black Panther. Scenes were just long enough for some great action and plot movement and then, BAM, on to the next. Oh, and that car chase scene was some of the most fun I have had watching a movie in some time.
Newby: The pacing reminded me a lot of the pacing in Coogler’s previous movie, Creed. No scene is extraneous or fails to add another important layer to a character. Plus, the characters’ backstories are woven in organically. Coogler manages to position all the players in a way that makes Black Panther feel like a true ensemble piece where everyone gets in on the action and the emotional beats without bringing the film to a halt. Even Martin Freeman’s Everett K. Ross, who could have been one character too many, gets to make his mark by the film’s climax.
Shanley: And that’s quite a hard thing to accomplish, yet Marvel has now done it twice (previously in Civil War and here in Black Panther). Coogler really handles screen time and character depth masterfully in this movie. The film never feels bloated, despite the fact that even minor side characters have fully fleshed out, and truly interesting, backstories. I wasn’t lacking for it, but that give me even more hope for what will be a completely jam-packed Infinity War.
McMillan: Really, the only problem I had with the movie was the climactic fight, and that’s because it felt too much like “Two CGI guys fight each other surrounded by CGI.” The earlier chase sequence avoided that, and felt wonderfully physical and real, and you’re right — the pacing for almost all of the movie was far better than the other Marvel movies. I wonder how something like Avengers: Infinity War is going to feel after a movie like this?
Brown: I know that after watching the Avengers: Infinity War trailer for the umpteenth time, the fact that it seems to have a major battle in Wakanda is all the more interesting now, given the tech, culture, and diverse armies they have. I’m personally much more invested in this city than I was in Asgard (R.I.P.), so I can’t wait to see what Marvel gives us in a few months. What a time to be alive.
Parker: Did anyone else catch the Back to the Future: Part II reference in there with the shoes? That was just brilliant. Also, I love how meta it is at the end with the Disneyland reference. Normally, something like that would make me roll my eyes, but I loved it in this instance.
Sun: Ryan, clearly you are out of touch with today’s youths, because Shuri’s mocking of her brother’s sandals is a reference to the “What are Thooose?” Vine meme of 2015.
Couch: Guys, I think you are both right. The reference speaks both to today’s youths and to the oldsters.
Sun: Either way, to me it was a stunningly hip reference that emphasized not only how organically Black Panther has tapped into the zeitgeist but also how it may be the realest MCU movie yet. I’m still marveling (pun intended) at the audacity of Ryan Coogler to use a superhero vehicle to make a movie about geopolitics and the African-American experience. Killmonger’s last line will haunt me for a very long time.
The indictment Friday of 13 Russians accused of waging “information warfare” in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is raising new questions about why the Trump administration still has not imposed sanctions designed to punish Russia and deter it from interfering in the 2018 midterms.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was asked on the CBS program “60 Minutes” why the administration has not done what Congress directed when it overwhelmingly passed legislation last summer calling for new sanctions.
“We have and we are,” he responded. “We’ve taken steps that have already prevented a number of Russian military sales as a result of the legislation, and we are evaluating additional individuals for possible sanctioning.”
But while the administration argues that the threat of sanctions has met the intended effect of the law, there have been no new sanctions on Russia since its passage, leading Democrats to express outrage.
Trump begrudgingly signed the law in August, but warned it was unconstitutional in parts. Since then, there have been questions about whether he would fully enforce the law designed to tie his hands and force him to clamp down on Russia, especially because he’s also repeatedly declined to even criticize Russia’s actions.
In October, the administration missed a deadline by weeks to publish a list of Russian entities and individuals in the defense and intelligence sectors. Those groups are already under sanctions, but anyone doing business with them would face American sanctions starting January 29.
But when that day came, the State and Treasury departments did not impose any sanctions, instead saying the threat of sanctions had achieved the goal of disrupting and ending billions of dollars worth of such deals.
“Since the enactment of the CAATSA legislation, we estimate that foreign governments have abandoned planned or announced purchases of several billion dollars in Russian defense acquisitions,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement at the time, using an acronym for the law – Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.
The administration has not published any evidence or details of the allegedly disrupted deals, citing private diplomatic conversations. Trump administration officials did, however, brief members of Congress about their efforts, which at least satisfied even Democrats initially.
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., then the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “welcomed” the briefing and said he “appreciate[d] the administration’s engagement with Congress on this issue.” Cardin was one of the authors of the sanctions law, officially called the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA.
Since then, the pressure for more sanctions has escalated. Last Thursday, the White House released a statement blaming Russia for a massive cyber attack last year known as the “NotPetya” that overwhelmed Ukraine and hit some businesses, banks, and media organizations in other countries. The following day, special counsel Robert Mueller announced indictments against 13 Russian citizens, laying out in great detail Russia’s intricate plot to interfere and disrupt the U.S. presidential election.
Together, the two underscored the seriousness of the cyber threat from Russia, renewing calls for sanctions — and criticism of Trump for not taking seriously enough the danger, especially after his top administration officials like Tillerson and CIA director Mike Pompeo have warned Russia is looking to interfere again in the 2018 congressional elections.
“Since coming into office, President Trump has failed to address the ongoing threat to our security posed by Russia’s international assault on the democratic process,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., now the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Friday.
“He continues to ignore congressional will with respect to the mandatory sanctions passed last year. It has been more than six months since [the sanctions bill] was signed into law, and not one, mandatory sanction has been imposed,” he added. “It’s inexcusable.”
But the administration has deflected, saying new sanctions could be coming. Tillerson’s comments echoed those of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who was grilled during congressional testimony last week.
“We are actively working on Russia’s sanctions,” he told the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday.
After Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, interrogated him about whether Trump has asked him to impose sanctions, Mnuchin said the president was supportive.
“I told him we would be doing sanctions against Russia, and he was pleased to hear that,” he said.
Among those potential new sanctions, the law ordered the administration to impose sanctions for Russians and those who aid Russia in cyberattacks — unless the White House can certify that “the Government of the Russian Federation has made significant efforts to reduce the number and intensity of cyber intrusions.”
Four top Democrats urged the imposition of these sanctions in a letter to Trump and Tillerson last month, but the administration has not yet taken any steps to implement those.
Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.
AVALON, Calif. — Authorities say a buffalo has gored a man camping on Southern California’s Catalina Island.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials say the man was sitting on a log Saturday evening and the buffalo was grazing nearby.
Sgt. Ray Ward says that when the buffalo came closer, the man tried to move away and that’s when the animal charged.
Ward says the buffalo gored the man’s left arm. He didn’t know the extent of the injuries.
The Orange County Register reports that the man was treated at the scene and then airlifted to a hospital on the mainland.
Buffalo are common and roam freely on the back side of Catalina Island, where there are campgrounds. Ward says it’s very rare for them to attack humans.
TEHRAN, Iran — A commercial plane crashed on Sunday in a foggy, mountainous region of Iran, most likely killing all 66 people on board, the state news media reported.
The Iran Aseman Airlines plane went down near its destination, the city of Yasuj, about 485 miles south of the capital, Tehran.
Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai, a spokesman for Aseman Airlines, initially told state television that everyone aboard the ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flights, had been killed.
The airline later issued a statement saying it could not reach the crash site and could not “accurately and definitely confirm” everyone had died.
The plane was carrying 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members, according to The Associated Press. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
The Iranian Red Crescent said it had sent people to the area, and the authorities said they would be investigating.
But fog prevented rescue helicopters from reaching the site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported. Mr. Tabatabai said the plane had crashed into Mount Dena, which has an elevation of about 14,500 feet.
News reports said the plane disappeared from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Mehrabad International Airport, in western Tehran, which mainly serves domestic flights but has some international routes.
TURKMENISTAN
Caspian
Sea
AFGHAN.
Tehran
Tabas
IRAN
MT. DENA
IRAQ
Yasuj
KUWAIT
Persian Gulf
SAUDI ARABIA
400 miles
By The New York Times
Under decades of international sanctions, Iran’s commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with accidents occurring regularly in recent years.
The sanctions have prevented the oil-rich country from updating its fleet, forcing it to use substandard Russian planes and to patch up older jets far past their normal years of service, drawing on spare parts bought on the black market.
In 2014, a locally built Iranian passenger plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Mehrabad Airport, killing 39 people and reviving questions about the safety of an aviation sector hobbled by sanctions.
Continue reading the main story
That plane was based on a relatively obscure Ukrainian design that had been involved in previous Iranian air disasters. The Sepahan Air regional airliner, bound for Tabas in eastern Iran, went down in a residential area shortly after takeoff at 9:20 a.m.
In November 2006, an Iranian military plane crashed at Mehrabad Airport, killing all 38 people on board, including 35 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, state television reported.
The Antonov 74 aircraft, headed to Shiraz in the south of Iran, crashed shortly after takeoff, the airport’s director said.
Earlier that year, a plane carrying 147 passengers caught fire while landing in northeastern Iran, killing 29 people and injuring 47.
The plane, a Russian-made Tupolev-154, apparently blew a tire while landing in Mashhad, slipped off the runway and burst into flames, the governor of Khorasan Province said.
After the landmark nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, Iran signed deals with Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes.
The ATR 72 involved in the crash on Sunday, a French-Italian short-haul aircraft, was introduced in the late 1980s. The fleet of Aseman Airlines was delivered from 1993 to 2009.
Continue reading the main story
Well, at least NBC will still be able to interview Adam Rippon, right? In a reversal of news she had broken earlier on Sunday, USA Today’s Christine Brennan reported that the figure skater will not, after all, take a job with the network as a correspondent for the rest of the Winter Olympics.
Rippon “decided overnight that he would rather remain as an Olympian,” Brennan reported, citing a source “who would not speak publicly because of the sensitivity of the matter.” She said he did not “want to relinquish his official Olympic standing, give up credential, move out of Team USA housing and miss [the] closing ceremony.”
“I am so flattered that NBC wanted me to work as a correspondent, but if I took this opportunity, I would have to leave the Olympic team and I would have to leave the [Olympic] Village,” Rippon said Sunday on NBCSN (via USA Today). “It’s so important to me, you know, I worked so hard to be on this Olympic team, and my teammates and my friends were there for me during my events, and that meant so much to me, that I really feel like I need to be there for them during their events.”
An openly gay skater who helped the United States win a bronze medal in team competition, Rippon became one of the biggest breakout stars at Pyeongchang not just for his athletic exploits but for saying things that have been at turns smart, creative and refreshing for viewers. NBC had confirmed the news of its hiring of the 28-year-old Pennsylvania native, but he apparently had a change of heart.
Hiring Rippon would not have come without controversy for NBC. He is at odds with Vice President Mike Pence over gay rights and has said he will not go with the U.S. team to visit President Donald Trump if invited to the White House.
Rippon has been a must-see as an interview subject, whether he’s speaking about being bullied as a kid or just kidding around. It is, as he has said, “really fun to be me,” and that has been clear from his very first TV moments. Here’s a quick look at some of his greatest hits so far:
–There’s his minty-fresh self-awareness.
“The other day I was joking to one of my friends. He was like, ‘You’re kind of everywhere right now.’ I was like, ‘I know; I’m America’s sweetheart.’ He laughed in my face.” -The Washington Post
Britney Spears or toilets or serious matters.
And Rippon showed viewers what they might be missing while speaking in NBCSN with anchor Liam McHugh. While answering viewer questions submitted via Twitter, Rippon claimed that to “deal with a pit stain,” he wears “a thin mesh shirt,” said that he gets his eyebrows dyed and asserted, “There’s no such thing as a wardrobe malfunction, only a wardrobe opportunity.
Days after losing his appendix, Justin Olsen is happy to be back in his bobsled »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The key witness in the case of a Chilean bishop accused of covering sexual abuse said on Saturday he gave “eye opening” testimony to a papally mandated investigator and hoped it would lead to the truth.
Juan Carlos Cruz met in a church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side for about four hours with Archbishop Charles Scicluna, one of the most experienced and respected Vatican investigators of clergy sexual abuse.
“It’s been a good experience and I leave here very hopeful today,” he told reporters afterwards. “I feel that I was heard … it was very intense and very detailed and very, sometimes, eye-opening for them.”
“Hopefully it will lead to good things,” he said.
The Vatican announced on Jan. 30 that Pope Francis had appointed Scicluna to look into accusations that Bishop Juan Barros of the diocese of Osorno in Chile had covered up crimes against minors.
It was a dramatic U-turn for the pope, who eight days earlier told reporters aboard his plane returning from Latin America he was sure Barros was innocent and that the Vatican had received no concrete evidence against him.
“For the first time I feel that someone is listening,” said Cruz, who now lives in Philadelphia and works for a large-multinational company in nearby Delaware.
“We’ll see what the outcome is of all this, but I feel that Monsignor Scicluna is a very good man, and I think he was sincerely moved by what I was saying. He cried,” Cruz said.
“He was hearing my testimony, and I was telling him about the abuse, about the cover up [and] the way survivors, not just me, are treated … the personal toll it takes on someone. He was crying … it wasn’t an act … I felt that he was concerned and that he was listening,” Cruz said.
Scicluna declined to comment on the details of the testimony.
As a teenager, Cruz was sexually abused by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing him and other teenage boys over many years. Karadima always denied the allegations.
The Vatican ordered him to follow a life of prayer and penitence and banned him from public ministry, but he avoided criminal prosecution because under Chilean law too much time had elapsed since the offences. The 87-year-old still lives in Chile.
Cruz says Barros witnessed the abuse by Karadima, who was Barros’ mentor years ago in a Santiago parish. Barros has always denied this and said he was unaware of any wrongdoing by Karadima, who had trained him to become a priest.
The Karadima case has gripped Chile for years and many Chileans protested the pope’s decision to make Barros a bishop in 2015. It cast a long shadow over the pope’s trip to Chile last month.
Scicluna will travel to Chile on Tuesday to continue his investigation of Barros there.
Cruz said he was “emotionally drained” but felt empathy from Scicluna and another priest from the Vatican’s doctrinal office in Rome who also took part in the meeting.
During his visit to Chile last month, the pope testily told a Chilean reporter: “The day I see proof against Bishop Barros, then I will talk. There is not a single piece of evidence against him. It is all slander. Is that clear?”
He later apologized to victims, acknowledging that his choice of words and tone of voice had “wounded many.”
Cruz said all victims deserved to be heard with the same respect and treatment he received from Scicluna.
“The pope needs to understand that is what survivors need. Cases don’t have to come to the media for them to pay attention,” he said.
Writing by Philip Pullella
With Bridgeport draped in blue Saturday to honor slain Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer, the city laid the fallen officer to rest with stories of his selflessness and harsh words for the man charged with his murder.
Thousands attended the funeral at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, where the two-hour service and subsequent procession combined for one of most impressive — and stately — civic farewells in recent memory. Elected officials, department brass and rank-and-file officers from across North America filled the cavernous sanctuary on the South Side, while the Dan Ryan Expressway was closed so hundreds of police vehicles could lead the hearse carrying Bauer’s flag-draped casket to a suburban cemetery.
The mourners were comforted throughout the day by the Bridgeport community, which tied blue ribbons around trees and hung the commander’s photo in storefront windows. Some residents brought doughnuts and coffee to officers standing outside the church in frigid temperatures, while others opened their homes for them to warm up or use the bathroom.
Bridgeport residents Erica and Gerardo Avitia brought their two daughters, 3 and 2, to watch the funeral procession. Holding signs with Bauer’s picture on them, the couple said they wanted to show their support for the city and its grief-stricken Police Department.
“There’s not too many things that unite this city,” Erica Avitia said as she held one of her girls. “This is someone who stood up for values and morals. We’re here to support his family, and the men and women who do this every day.”
To be sure, support for the Chicago Police Department served as a common thread throughout the day. Eulogists repeatedly referred to the department’s heartbroken ranks, and the funeral’s officiant went so far as to say the law did not do enough to protect law-enforcement officers like Bauer.
“Paul did not give his life. His life was taken,” said the Rev. Dan Brandt, who serves as the Police Department’s chaplain. “He fought for his life, and it was stolen by a four-time convicted felon.”
Bauer, 53, was fatally shot Tuesday after he thrust himself into the pursuit of a felon carrying a gun outside the Thompson Center, authorities said.
Shomari Legghette is being held without bond on charges of first-degree murder of a peace officer, armed violence, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and two counts of possession of a controlled substance. According to prosecutors, Legghette’s extensive criminal history includes convictions in two drug cases, a gun offense, a misdemeanor battery and an armed robbery in the late 1990s in which he and a co-defendant robbed two people at gunpoint before leading police on a high-speed expressway chase. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for that offense.
He was last paroled from prison in August 2016 after completing a two-year sentence for drug possession, prison officials said.
In a hard-line homily, Brandt likened Legghette to a leper, saying he should have been segregated from society long before the shooting. Jesus had compassion for lepers, but they were still kept from the public during biblical times, he said.
Bauer “encountered the leprosy of our society: one who did spend time away from the camp … in prison … in isolation because of a violent past,” Brandt said. “One who should have never have been out in society, but who was due to a broken system, a system that Paul himself very publicly and loudly spoke out against.”
The comment drew strong applause and a collective “amen” from mourners watching from an overflow room in the church basement.
The rest of the funeral — the city’s first for a slain police officer in more than six years — followed in a more traditional vein, with speakers paying tribute to Bauer’s service and sacrifice. He was remembered as an unassuming kid from Gage Park who wanted to protect his city, an understanding supervisor who cared about the people under his command and a high-ranking official who remained a patrolman at heart.
Indeed, Bauer, who had long ago been promoted above the riskier responsibilities of a street cop, had no official obligation to enter the scuffle with Legghette, authorities said.
“Those who served under him felt like they served alongside him,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a eulogy that often left the hard-boiled politician struggling to maintain his composure.
The traditional Catholic service included several personal stories about Bauer, whose dedication to his family and community has been well-documented in the days since his death. He walked his daughter to school each day, made sure wounded veterans had the best spots for viewing at the annual Air and Water Show, and declined to attend his own promotion ceremony because he disliked the spotlight.
A few days before his death, he purchased a snowblower so he could clear the sidewalks on his block.
“He was a man of faith, and he lived like a man of faith,” said Capt. Mel Roman, who worked closely with Bauer at the Near North District.
Officers patrolling Lower Wacker Drive because of a recent shooting and drug sales approached Legghette on Tuesday afternoon, but he bolted when an officer stepped out of his police vehicle, identified himself as an officer and approached him, authorities said.
The officer gave chase on foot and radioed a description. Bauer, downtown for a meeting with aldermen after attending training for mass shootings earlier in the day, was on duty and in uniform in his police vehicle at Lake and Clark streets when he heard the radio call of a fleeing suspect. Moments later, Bauer saw Legghette running nearby, got out of his vehicle and ran after him.
Bauer chased down Legghette at the top of the stairwell outside the Thompson Center and attempted to detain him, authorities said. But the two struggled, ending up on a landing below. The skirmish continued there. Legghette drew a handgun and fired seven shots, fatally wounding Bauer, prosecutors said.
Bauer’s weapon was still holstered. His police radio and handcuffs were found next to his body.
A few days before his death, Bauer and his family attended a special Mass in memory of fallen police officers. The commander did one of the Bible readings that morning because his 13-year-old daughter, Grace, who typically handled the duties, had a sore throat.
On Saturday, the remarkably composed teen gave the first reading at her father’s funeral. She read from the Book of Isaiah, speaking in a clear, strong voice.
“Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life,” the passage reads.