Chicago officials have released a graphic body-camera video showing a police officer shooting and killing a 13-year-old boy while he appeared to be raising his hands.
Adam Toledo was killed two weeks ago in an alley in a Mexican neighborhood in the city.
The nine-minute video from Eric Stillman’s body camera showed the 34-year-old officer getting out of his squad car and running after Toledo yelling “Stop” to Toledo and ordering him to show his hands.
The boy appeared to raise his hands right before Stillman fired one shot and then ran to the boy as he fell to the ground.
The police officer is heard calling for an ambulance in the video.
The Chicago Police Department said immediately following the incident that Toledo had a gun in his hand.
The release of the video was likely to rattle a nation already on edge over issues of policing, justice and race relations. Tensions were high on Thursday as a former suburban police officer in Minnesota appeared in court after she was charged in the killing last Sunday of a Black man during a traffic stop.
Hours earlier, the prosecution and defense rested their cases in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged in the death of George Floyd, which ignited a wave of protests last year.
Advocacy organisation Global Citizen has called on governments, businesses and philanthropists to pledge more funds to help get at least two billion COVID-19 vaccine doses for lower-income countries amid the pandemic.
Reports indicate that several African countries may not receive enough COVID-19 vaccines to achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus.
Global Citizen says donations to raise money for COVID-19 vaccines can be made during the global streaming concert on May the 8th.
Singers, Jennifer Lopez, Selena Gomez, the Foo Fighters and Eddie Vedder will be among those due to appear in the Vax Live Concert.
Global Citizen Director for Southern and East Africa, Chebet Chikumbu, says “The event is in a broadcast format. We have been able to collaborate with world leaders, artists, the business community and powered by our global citizens to ensure that we can witness a financial commitment being made towards this very important endeavour.”
Global Citizen calling for equitable vaccine rollout:
“VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World” will be hosted by singer Selena Gomez and also feature the Foo Fighters and Eddie Vedder, according to organiser Global Citizen, an international advocacy group.
“This is really an opportunity to call on world leaders to make sure that the 27 million heroic healthcare workers around the world that don’t yet have access to a vaccine can get access over the coming months,” Global Citizen Chief Executive Hugh Evans told Reuters.
The event will also campaign for fair and equal access to vaccines for all.
“The reality is that right now many of the wealthiest nations are starting to stockpile vaccines,” said Evans, adding the broadcast would urge nations to donate excess doses and give financial support to the Covax facility, backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
Covax aims to secure 2 billion vaccine doses for lower-income countries by the end of 2021.
“The great news is there have already been many nations around the world that are starting to donate doses,” Evans said.” Australia, for example, donated a million doses to Papua New Guinea. We know the Norwegian government decided to make a donation of doses.
“There’s really great momentum that is building,” he added.
South African telecommunications regulator ICASA announced on Monday an emergency release of broadband spectrum to meet a spike in internet demand during the country’s lockdown to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
“The emergency release of this spectrum does not … negate the processes that are currently underway for permanent assignment of spectrum through an auction, the process which the Authority had committed to finalise by the end of 2020,” said the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in a statement.
The temporary release of high demand spectrum will last for the duration of the national state of disaster declared by President Cyril Ramaphosa, said ICASA, as South Africa implements a 21-day lockdown from March, 27, in a bid to curb infection rates.
The emergency release is expected to ease network congestion and maintain the quality of broadband services in Africa’s most industrialised economy. Licencees are required to submit their applications to ICASA by April 9, the regulator added.
Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed its first case of coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa hit by the epidemic to seven.
The patient is a Congolese citizen who lives in France and returned to Congo on March 8 with no symptoms of the virus, Health Minister Eteni Longondo told reporters.
The patient and others with him have been placed in quarantine, Longondo said.
“What I’d like to tell people is not to panic,” he said, recommending people wash their hands regularly and stay at least one meter apart from people who have a cough.
The outbreak has largely spared sub-Saharan Africa so far, but since February a few cases have been registered in Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Cameroon, Togo and Burkina Faso.
North African countries have registered dozens of cases.
Congo’s first coronavirus case comes as its long-running Ebola epidemic appears to be on the wane.
The last patient being treated for Ebola was discharged on March 3 – the first time there have been no active cases since the outbreak was declared in August 2018.
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