US police officer who brutally assaulted Indian in Alabama arrested, will be fired; FBI to probe matter

February 13, 2015

Washington, Feb 13: One of the two police officers who allegedly assaulted the 57-year-old Indian man in Alabama has been arrested and FBI will be conducting a probe into the matter to find out if there were any federal violations in the incident.

assaulted IndianLarry Muncey, the Madison City Chief of Police while apologising to the victim Sureshbhai Patel, who was wrongfully assaulted by two police officers, without any provocation just because he did not know English and was unable to answer to their questions, informed that Federal Bureau of Investigation will also be conducting a probe into the matter.

"I sincerely apologise to Mr Patel, Mr Patel's family and our community. We strive to exceed expectations," Muncey told reporters at a news conference.

"Additionally FBI would be conducting a parallel inquiry to ascertain if there were any federal violations," Muncey said after he released audio and videos related to the incident.

"As a result of the investigations, I found that Mr Parkers's actions did not meet the high standard and expectations of the Madison City Police Department," he said, adding, that he (Muncey) has proposed termination of officer Parker, who has now been arrested for third-degree assault.

The incident occurred on the morning of February 6 while walking down the sidewalk in the neighbourhood, Patel, a permanent US resident, "was violently assaulted by a police official without provocation, and left partially paralysed," according to the 11-page lawsuit filed.

A day before, Patel had arrived in the United States to assist his son and daughter-in-law in caring for their 17-month-old child, who was developmentally delayed after a premature birth.

In the video, Patel is seen walking quietly in a sidewalk. He is not seen peeping at any of the houses or garage as was the police told in an non-emergency call it received from a neighbour, after which a police car was rushed to the neighbourhood.

In the video, two police officers are see approaching Patel and asking him questions – like name, address and identity card.

Patel is heard saying "No English" and pointing figure towards his son's home. Soon one of the police officer, later identified as Parker, is seen violently throwing Patel on the ground and threatening him not to leave. It is at this time it appears Patel was paralysed, apparently by shock.

Moments later when two police officers try to walk him, Patel is not able to stand on his own. Patel was severely injured in the incident, said his attorney Henry F Sherrod.

Patel has been partly paralysed and is currently under treatment at a city hospital.

The incident was condemned by Indian community members across the globe.

In the Meanwhile, an online fundraising campaign has started to help the Patel family with their mounting medical bills.

By yesterday evening nearly USD 12,000 was raised out of the target of USD 12,000. The amount was raised by 278 people in one single day.

The funds raised will be provided directly to the family to help cover medical bills and other fees related to this incident.

Angered by the incident, SAALT (South Asian Americans Living Together) in a statement demanded immediate disciplinary action and termination of the officials concerned.

It asked Madison Police to investigate with expediency and thoroughness the reasons that led to the police encounter with Patel, what occurred during the incident, and the subsequent steps taken by the police department, including a timeline to publicly release the investigation's findings.

New York-based Indian American attorney Ravi Batra said the local Madison cop dishonored his badge, and violated Sureshbhai Patel's federal civil rights and state rights.

"The governor of Alabama needs to speak out and mayor of Madison need to retrain their cops while holding Police Chief Larry Muncey responsible," he said.

"Our federal government, led by President Obama, can move Sureshbhai to Walter Reade hospital - where US presidents go for care, and give him the best medical care to repair his spinal injuries," Batra said in a statement.

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February 4,2020

Kolkata, Feb 4: A Thailand national on Tuesday gave birth during a flight from Doha to Bangkok.

The unnamed woman passenger went into labour and delivered the baby with the help of a cabin crew of Qatar airways at around 3 am.

The aircraft made the emergency landing in Kolkata and the woman was admitted to a private hospital here. Both the mother and the baby are doing fine.

"An unscheduled flight from Doha to Bangkok QR-830 landed around 03:09 am at Kolkata airport in medical priority landing. The pilot of Qatar flight had asked SOS to ATC for medical priority landing. The flight landed safely, the airport team with the doctor was attending the concerned." Kolkata Airport official said while speaking to news agency.

More details in this regard are awaited.

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June 25,2020

Ottawa, Jun 25: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took his son out for ice cream on Wednesday in his first family outing since Canada started easing out of its pandemic lockdown.

It was also Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in Quebec province.

Wearing masks, the Canadian leader and his six-year-old son Hadrien were cheered at Chocolats Favoris in Gatineau, Quebec.

According to a pool report, Trudeau said the shop tapped into a federal emergency wage subsidy and business loan in order to weather the pandemic, and "avoid being frozen out of the frozen treat market."

Hadrien is said to have bounced with excitement, settling on a vanilla cone with a cookie topping while dad bought a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate for himself.

Father and son then headed out to the patio, where they doffed their masks to eat their cones.

Canada's provinces and territories declared states of emergency mid-March, closing schools and non-essential businesses in response to the pandemic.

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May 25,2020

Karachi, May 25: The pilot of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)'s crashed plane ignored three warnings from the air traffic controllers about the aircraft's altitude and speed before the landing, saying he was satisfied and would handle the situation, according to a report on Monday.

The national flag carrier's PK-8303 tragedy on Friday, in which 97 people were killed and two miraculously survived, is one of the most catastrophic aviation disasters in the country's history.

The Airbus A-320 from Lahore to Karachi was 15 nautical miles from the Jinnah International Airport, flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet above the ground instead of 7,000 when the Air Traffic Control (ATC) issued its first warning to lower the plane's altitude, Geo News quoted an ATC report as saying.

Instead of lowering the altitude, the pilot responded by saying that he was satisfied. When only 10 nautical miles were left till the airport, the plane was at an altitude of 7,000 feet instead of 3,000 feet, it said.

The ATC issued a second warning to the pilot to lower the plane's altitude. However, the pilot responded again by stating that he was satisfied and would handle the situation, saying he was ready for landing, the report said.

The report said that the plane had enough fuel to fly for two hours and 34 minutes, while its total flying time was recorded at one hour and 33 minutes.

Pakistani investigators are trying to find out if the crash is attributable to a pilot error or a technical glitch.

According to a report prepared by the country's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the plane's engines had scraped the runway thrice on the pilot's first attempt to land, causing friction and sparks recorded by the experts.

When the aircraft scraped the ground on the first failed attempt at landing, the engine's oil tank and fuel pump may have been damaged and started to leak, preventing the pilot from achieving the required thrust and speed to raise the aircraft to safety, the report said.

The pilot made a decision "on his own" to undertake a "go-around" after he failed to land the first time. It was only during the go-around that the ATC was informed that landing gear was not deploying, it said.

"The pilot was directed by the air traffic controller to take the aircraft to 3,000 feet, but he managed only 1,800. When the cockpit was reminded to go for the 3,000 feet level, the first officer said 'we are trying'," the report said.

Experts said that the failure to achieve the directed height indicates that the engines were not responding. The aircraft, thereafter, tilted and crashed suddenly.

The flight crashed at the Jinnah Garden area near Model Colony in Malir on Friday afternoon, minutes before its landing in Karachi's Jinnah International Airport. Eleven people on the ground were injured.

The probe team, headed by Air Commodore Muhammad Usman Ghani, President of the Aircraft Accident and Investigation Board, is expected to submit a full report in about three months.

According to the PIA's engineering and maintenance department, the last check of the plane was done on March 21 this year and it had flown from Muscat to Lahore a day before the crash.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pakistan government had allowed the limited domestic flight operations from five major airports - Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta - from May 16.

After the plane tragedy, the PIA has called off its domestic operation.

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