400 Years Since 1619

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Almost Two Weeks After Death, Broadway will Dim Lights to Honor Diahann Carroll

As they say: better late than never.

Simone Biles is now most decorated gymnast in history after winning her 24th world medal

Simone Biles has officially achieved G.O.A.T. status by becoming the most-decorated gymnast at the world championships, winning gold on balance beam and floor exercises.

Biles earned a record-breaking 24th and 25th medals at the World Gymnastics Championship in Stuttgart, Germany, over the weekend, USA Today reports. She has surpassed the previous record by Vitaly Scherbo, who earned 23 medals over the course of six years in the 1990s. Biles has done it in just five. She tied Scherbo on Saturday by winning gold on vault. She earned her 24th medal on the balance beam Sunday morning.

TheGrio previously reported, last Saturday, Biles served up two new skills that had never been performed in competition; the triple-double during her floor routine and the double-double dismount on the balance beam, which became a signature move bearing her name Biles II, CNN reports. The 22-year-old now has a total of four signature moves.

“If I were to label myself as a superstar, it would bring more expectations on me and I would feel pressured, more in the limelight, rather than now,” Biles said at a press conference before her performance last weekend at the 2019 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Gymnastics Championship.

“I just go out there and compete,” she added. “I try to represent Simone… not ‘Simone Biles’ whenever I go out there, because at the end of the day, I’m still a human being before I’m ‘Simone Biles, the superstar.’”

On Tuesday, the gymnast won her 21st medal, leading team USA to their fifth consecutive world team championship. On Thursday, Biles bagged her fifth all-around world title when she beat China’s Tang Xijing by a 2.1 points.

“Every year it feels better and better just because we’re adding to the legacy,” Biles told reporters at the event. “I feel like I never think of records. I just go out there and do what I came to do, which is compete for the country.”

American Sunisa Lee, 16, took home the silver in her world-championships debut, and Russia’s Angelina Melnikova claimed bronze.

The post Simone Biles is now most decorated gymnast in history after winning her 24th world medal appeared first on theGrio.

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Family of woman shot and killed in her bedroom by Texas police demand answers

The Fort Worth Police Department in Texas is under serious fire after an unarmed 28-year-old woman was fatally shot inside her home by an officer responding to a welfare check.

Atatiana Jefferson was reportedly playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew early Saturday morning when she heard a noise in her backyard and went to investigate. That’s when she was shot by an officer through her bedroom window, according to police bodycam footage, heavy.com reports.

Just before 2:30 a.m. Oct. 12, the officer, whose name has not been released, responded to neighbor James Smith’s call that the front door to Jefferson’s home was open and the lights were on– something Smith found quite concerning.

According to multiple reports, bodycam video does not show the officer announcing himself or knocking on the door. Instead, the cop walks to the side of the house, where he opens a gate to the backyard and uses a flashlight to search the exterior of the property. When he sees a person watching him from a window inside the house, he yells “Put your hands up. Show me your hands!” He then shoots through the window– striking and killing Jefferson.

Meanwhile, Smith is giving a side-eye to the officer’s response, telling WFAA he saw no lights, heard no sirens and noted that none of the responding officers identified themselves before the shooting. He insists there was no arguing, fighting, domestic violence and “nothing that they should have been concerned about as far as them coming with guns drawn to my neighbor’s house,” he said.

“Three or four tactical officers come from around the corner, somehow walk across the street in front of her house, past the front door which was open… Go down the side of her house to the rear of her house, and in less than a minute I heard gunshots,” he added.

According to the Fort Worth Police Department, the trigger happy cop perceived a threat and fired one shot. Jefferson died at the scene. Authorities released images of a firearm inside the home, but have not stated if Jefferson was armed with the weapon at the time of her death.

One Twitter user commented, “You ever notice how they are so quick to tell us ‘there was a gun in the house?'”

You ever notice how they are so quick to tell us ” there was a gun in the house”?

— CoolBeadsbyBootC (@CoolBeadsBootC) October 13, 2019

“It was nothing nefarious or illegal about owning a fire arm, and they presented in no way that the fire arm lead to their use of deadly force,” Merritt said. “The hardest part about it is, I spoke with an 8-year-old who explained what it was like inside of the house.”

The officer responsible for Jefferson’s death is currently on administrative leave pending an investigation.

Community leaders and neighbors believe the bodycam footage fails to support the typical “officer was in fear of his life” narrative, and family attorney Lee Merritt calls it another police-involved murder of an unarmed Black civilian.

Jefferson reportedly worked at Xavier University of Louisiana, where she also studied biology and majored in chemistry with a minor in pre-med. A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family cover “funeral cost and other expenses associated with this tragedy,” Merritt wrote on Twitter.

For all those who have reached out looking to support the family. This campaign is managed directly by Atatiana’s immediate family and will support them with funeral cost and other expenses associated with this tragedy. https://t.co/AAvTzwlDyA

— S. Lee Merritt, Esq. (@MeritLaw) October 13, 2019

The GoFundMe page notes that Jefferson was working in pharmaceutical equipment sales. The fundraiser has been trending on Twitter with the hashtag #SayHerName.

The shooting happened just weeks after Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger, was found guilty of murder after shooting her unarmed neighbor Botham Jean inside his own apartment last year. Guyger was slapped with a 10 years in prison. Three days after her trail ended, a key witness in the case, Joshua Brown, was shot to death in what many believe was an orchestrated police-involved hit, although the Dallas Police Department claims Brown’s death was the result of a drug deal gone bad.

The post Family of woman shot and killed in her bedroom by Texas police demand answers appeared first on theGrio.

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Called [the N-Word], ‘Woke’ White Man Ejected From Trump Rally for Wearing Colin Kaepernick Jersey

Not sure if he was trying to have a big social media moment — with an attention grabby stunt —or not, but Saul Eugene has made the news.

New G.O.A.T.: Simone Biles Makes History Winning 25th World Championship Medal

Numbers don’t lie. And neither does the number of medals won.

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