Oklahoma City – A mentally ill homeless woman died after being arrested outside a shelter and stunned with a Taser while she was on the ground in handcuffs, authorities and witnesses said.
An autopsy was performed on Milisha Thompson, 35, but her cause of death has not been determined pending toxicology tests, police Sgt. Paco Balderrama said Tuesday.
One witness, Edwin Davis, said onlookers began yelling, “You killed her! You killed her!” as Thompson slipped out of consciousness during Saturday’s confrontation outside the City Rescue Mission. But Balderrama said Thompson repeatedly kicked and attacked officers, even after being stunned with the Taser.
After she lost consciousness, officers began CPR, and she was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Two officers involved in the incident were placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.
The woman’s husband said she suffered from schizophrenia and might have been having an episode of the illness, causing her to feel threatened. Marvell Thompson said he and his wife were homeless and living at the rescue mission while recovering from drug addictions. Police found a pipe used for smoking crack cocaine in Milisha Thompson’s possession at the time of her death, Balderrama said.
A surveillance camera at the mission captured most of the incident, but police would not release the tape because the investigation is continuing, Balderrama said.
WASHINGTON
Feds told to limit use of Social Security info
Plagued by regular breaches in the security of personal data, federal agencies were ordered Tuesday to eliminate the unnecessary collection and use of Social Security numbers by early 2009.
That order and several other new security measures against identity theft were outlined in a memo to all department and agency heads from Clay Johnson III, deputy director for management of the Office of Management and Budget.
The order was the culmination of steps taken since the Veterans Affairs Department reported one year ago that a laptop with information for more than 26.5 million military personnel, including data on 2.2 million active-duty military, Guard and Reserve members, was stolen from a department employee.
BALTIMORE
Fire kills at least 6, injures 7 in row house
Fire engulfed a two-story row house Tuesday, killing at least six people and injuring seven others, most of them members of an extended family, authorities said.
The house was rented to a woman and her two sons, including one who used a wheelchair, the building owner said. Among the victims were a 5-year-old boy who died on the way to the hospital and a 3-year-old girl in critical condition.
Firefighters rescued three people, and three others managed to escape. Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. said the heat from the fire was so intense that the victims died quickly.
The cause remained under investigation Tuesday afternoon, but foul play was not considered likely, authorities said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
Charges dismissed, governor renominated
Gov. Ernie Fletcher won the GOP nomination for a second term Tuesday, nine months after authorities dismissed charges that he violated hiring laws in a scheme to reward supporters with state jobs.
Accomplishing what some critics had thought impossible, Fletcher withstood challenges from former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup of Louisville and millionaire businessman Billy Harper of Paducah. With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Fletcher had 51 percent of the vote to Northup’s 36 percent. Harper had 13 percent.
Winning the primary is a remarkable comeback for Fletcher, who took office in 2003 on a promise to clean up the state Capitol but was indicted last year. His attorneys brokered a deal with prosecutors to throw out the allegations.
FLORENCE, Ariz.
20 years after crimes, killer put to death
A condemned killer who fought to drop his appeals, saying he owed it to his victims, was executed Tuesday by injection.
Robert Charles Comer, 50, was the first inmate put to death in Arizona since 2000. He had been convicted for a 1987 crime spree in which he killed a camper east of Phoenix and raped a woman in front of her boyfriend.
Comer lay strapped to a gurney before his execution. He looked around at the more than 20 witnesses. When the warden asked whether he had any last words, the California native replied: “Yes, go Raiders.”
He was pronounced dead about five minutes after the lethal drugs were administered.
DENIZLI, Turkey
Explosion kills six in shopping district
A powerful explosion tore into a shopping district in Ankara on Tuesday, killing six people and injuring more than 70, in the most lethal attack in this country in months, Turkish officials said.
Officials did not say who they thought might be responsible. The wounded included eight Pakistani military officials visiting Ankara for a military fair, the Anatolian News Agency said, citing a Pakistani Embassy official. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a Pakistani was among the dead. It was not clear whether the Pakistani officials had been the target.
The location of the bombing was unusual. Ankara, the nerve center of Turkey’s government, is heavily guarded and has rarely been struck by bombings.
