Tornado hits Mississippi
HATTIESBURG, Miss., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A tornado hit Hattiesburg, Miss., and surrounding areas Sunday afternoon, causing considerable damage, authorities said.
The funnel cloud that touched down in Lamar County inflicted damage on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi and the Oak Grove High school campus, the Hattiesburg American reported.
The Biloxi Sun Herald reported National Weather Service meteorologist Joanne Culin confirmed the touchdown in northern Lamar County and that by 5:40 p.m. EST it had moved into Forrest County.
She said the twister took down power lines and flung debris as it made its way through the two counties.
The Biloxi newspaper said several businesses and buildings were extensively damaged, including the Ogletree Alumni House on the Southern Mississippi campus.
4 wounded in Mardi Gras shooting
NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- New Orleans police Sunday released a private citizen's video showing the Bourbon Street shooting during Mardi Gras festivities that wounded four people.
Police said they hoped the tape would help lead to the arrest of three suspects wanted in the Saturday night gun play in the jam-packed French Quarter street, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported.
Investigators said the shooting started about 9:30 p.m. after a verbal argument between two of the suspects and one of the victims, an 18-year-old youth. Police said the two suspects left only to return soon after with a third man who approached the 18-year-old and shot him three times in the stomach, leaving him in critical condition.
Three bystanders were wounded by the spray of bullets -- 22-year-old woman hit in the chin and right foot, and a 21-year-old woman shot in the left leg and a 29-year-old man shot in the buttocks. They were hospitalized in stable condition.
2 questioned in Hadiya's slaying
CHICAGO, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- The day after Hadiya Pendleton was buried, police questioned two individuals about the 15-year-old Chicago girl's shooting death, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The newspaper's police sources described the two young men being questioned as persons of interest. The 19- and 20-year-old men were pulled over early Sunday.
No charges had been filed against the two men, one of whom court files showed has a previous weapons conviction, the Tribune said.
A relative of Hadiya called the development a "good response."
Arresting those responsible "will bring a small level of closure to the family, although [the shooter] still will be allowed to eat, drink, mingle," family spokeswoman said Shatira Wilks. "The thing about that is, Hadiya is no longer to do so."
Hadiya, an honor student, was fatally shot and two other teenagers were wounded Jan. 29 in a park about a mile north of President Barack Obama's Kenwood home, eight days after she performed with the King College Prep band in Washington during Obama's inauguration festivities. Hadiya was not the shooter's target.
$1M reward for rogue ex-cop's capture
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Los Angeles police are offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a rogue ex-cop wanted for three killings.
The reward is a combination of public money and private donations, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. It comes as law enforcement scour southern California in search of Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, who is accused of killing the daughter of a retired LAPD captain and her fiance. He also is alleged to have shot three police officers, one fatally, in Riverside County.
Beck called Donner a domestic terrorist in explaining the unusually large reward for his capture -- the largest in Los Angeles history, USA TODAY said Sunday.
One day after killing the first two people, Dorner published a manifesto online saying he was seeking revenge for his termination in 2008 for allegedly making a false accusation against his training officer.
Since Thursday the search has focused on the Big Bear mountains when his pickup was found in flames on a forest road between Bear Mountain and Snow Summit ski resorts.
Beck said the department is reopening its investigation into Dorner's termination. Dorner had said training officer Teresa Evans kicked a mentally ill man during an arrest in 2007 in San Pedro. An internal affairs investigation concluded Evans did not kick the man and Dorner was fired, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Beck said Saturday the renewed investigation into Dorner's termination was "not to appease a murderer," but to offer complete transparency to the public and to protect an "increasingly positive relationship with the community."
