OAKLAND, Calif. — A police officer shot during a traffic stop has been pronounced brain dead but remained on life support, police said Sunday. Earlier Sunday, police had announced that he had Officer John Hege, 41, was being kept alive while a final decision was made about donating his organs, police said.
Police said a 26-year-old parolee wanted on a parole violation opened fire on Hege and Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, during a traffic stop Saturday afternoon, killing Dunakin, police said.
Lovelle Mixon, the suspect, was slain later Saturday in a gunfight with police that left two more officers dead. Thomason identified those officers as 43-year-old Sgt. Ervin Romans and 35-year-old Sgt. Daniel Sakai.
DEA looks for thrown-out cash
Federal drug agents plan to review video of a freeway chase in San Diego to identify motorists who haven’t turned over thousands of dollars in cash that fleeing suspects threw out of their truck. Television and surveillance cameras captured the scene of two men throwing out fistfuls of cash while leading police on the chase Thursday. Many drivers stopped to collect the money. Several have turned it over to police but investigators believe some have not.
Florida: Space shuttle moves
Confronted with orbiting junk again, NASA from Cape Canaveral ordered the astronauts aboard the linked space station and shuttle Discovery to move out of the way of a piece of debris Sunday. Discovery’s pilots fired their ship’s thrusters to reorient the two spacecraft and thereby avoid a 4-inch piece from a 10-year-old Chinese satellite rocket motor that was due to pass uncomfortably close during today’s planned spacewalk.
D.C.: Millionaires’ audits drop
The Internal Revenue Service is not living up to its pledge to crack down on wealthy tax cheats, the IRS watchdog group Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse said, citing a drop in audits of millionaires last year. The tax agency disputes the conclusion, ascribing the “slight” decline in audits to its focus on getting people their economic stimulus checks. Those with incomes of $1 million and above had a 5.6 percent chance of getting audited in fiscal year 2008, which ended last September, down from 6.8 percent the previous year, according to IRS figures.
Michigan: Tasered teen dies
Police in Bay City said a 15-year-old boy has died after being Tasered by officers who were trying to break up a fight early Sunday. A police statement said two males were arguing in an apartment, and one of them “attempted to fight the officers.” Police say officers Tasered him, and his reaction led them to immediately call for emergency medical help. He was pronounced dead at Bay Regional Medical Center.
Saudi Arabia: Hardline clerics urge TV ban on women, music
A group of Saudi clerics urged the kingdom’s new information minister on Sunday to ban women from appearing on TV or in newspapers and magazines. In a statement, the 35 hardline clergymen also called on Abdel Aziz Khoja to prohibit the playing of music and music shows on television.
China: Tibetan monks arrested
Police arrested 93 monks Sunday after hundreds of Tibetans attacked a police station and government officials in northwestern China, state media reported. The Tibetans were arrested for their involvement in a violent protest Saturday apparently triggered by the disappearance of a Tibetan who escaped from police custody in Qinghai province, Xinhua said. A Tibetan exile said the protest was sparked by the apparent suicide of the monk, who was under investigation for unfurling a Tibetan flag.
Australia: Airport biker brawl
Warring bikers brawled through the Sydney airport Sunday, beating one suspected gang member to death and brandishing metal poles “like swords,” one witness said, as they rampaged through the main domestic terminal in front of terrified travelers. Police said a group of suspected gang members was ambushed as they disembarked from an airplane. Police said 15 men were involved in the brawl, which went from the ground floor up one level to the departures hall before most of the men fled.
From Herald news services
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