Thousands evacuated and at least 7 dead as scores of wildfires ravage Northwest
10 September 2020
A one-year-old boy is among at least seven people to have died in wildfires ravaging hundreds of thousands acres in the Northwest U.S. this week, officials in Okanogan County, Washington, confirmed Wednesday.
Details: Okanogan County Sheriff Tony Hawley said the boy's parents were being treated in hospital for third-degree burns after being found in the vicinity of the Cold Springs Fire that's burned about 163,000 acres, per the Seattle Times.
- In California, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said Wednesday at least three people died in the Bear Fire that began in a remote region of Northern California, which has triggered evacuation orders for 20,000 county residents, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.
- In Oregon, Sheriff Joe Kast said during a briefing that two bodies had been found in a vehicle in Marion County, where the Santiam Fire has burned some 159,000 acres, the Statesman Journal notes.
- The Almeda Fire that began in Medford Tuesday has killed at least one person after sweeping from Ashland through Talent and Phoenix, Oregon, Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler said, KDRV reports. Some residents were under partial evacuation Tuesday night.
The big picture: Powerful winds are fueling scores of fires in California, Washington State and Oregon, where hundreds of homes have been destroyed, the New York Times notes.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.