Author: Staff

One person was killed and at seven others were injured in a shooting at Grambling State University in Louisiana on Sunday. The university said one non-student was killed, and at least one enrolled student was injured in the shooting which took place at 1:15 p.m. during a homecoming event. In a statement shared to Facebook, the University posted: “All persons present sheltered in place and were released once the all-clear was given by University Police.”   The university also canceled the remaining homecoming activities scheduled, and cancelled classes on Monday and Tuesday.  A curfew was also put into immediate effect from 9:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.

Sunday’s incident was the second fatal shooting on the campus this week. On Friday, state police issued an arrest warrant for a suspect in a shooting last Wednesday that killed 19-year-old Damarius Murphy and injured a 16-year-old. The university had increased security following the Wednesday shooting, informing students there would be “increased law enforcement presence” throughout the rest of the homecoming events.

Grambling State University President Rick Gallot issued a statement saying: “Our campus community has worked tirelessly to keep our students and others safe for the homecoming activities. Yet, with all of our planning and coordination with our local, parish, regional, and state law enforcement partners, we still find ourselves grieving the loss of life and injuries just as too many communities in our country have experienced as well.”

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According to officials, a Haitian gang with past abductions has been blamed for kidnapping a group at a Haitian airport that included 17 missionaries, five of them children. A source at the U.S. embassy said nineteen people were abducted by a gang at a checkpoint in Haiti during an airport run on Saturday. Sources at the Haitian presidential office said the kidnapping occurred at the intersection of “Carrefour Boen” and “La Tremblay 17”.

It is unclear where the victims were taken. The Embassy is working with a special group of Americans in the country who are investigating. 16 Americans and one Canadian, as well as two Haitian citizens, are included in the group. Two French priests were also kidnapped in a separate attack at the same location earlier in the day, the source said. The Haitian government suspects the gang known as 400 Mawozo to be responsible for the abductions.

The Ohio-based ministry Christian Aid Ministries confirmed that a group of 17 people were “abducted” while on a trip to an orphanage on Saturday, saying in a statement: “We request urgent prayer for the group of Christian Aid Ministries workers who were abducted while on a trip to visit an orphanage on Saturday, October 16. We are seeking God’s direction for a resolution, and authorities are seeking ways to help.”  The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it is “in regular contact with senior Haitian authorities and will continue to work with them and interagency partners. The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State.”

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Authorities announced on Thursday that prominent South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was arrested and charged with misappropriating insurance settlement funds in the wrongful death suit that followed the mysterious trip and fall death of his longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. The heirs of Satterfield, a family housekeeper who died three years ago in what was initially described as an accidental fall, have insisted they received none of the proceeds from a $4.3 million settlement they said was orchestrated in secret by Murdaugh.

The 52-year-old Murdaugh was arrested in Orlando, Florida, upon his release from a drug rehabilitation facility. Murdaugh claimed that he was shot in the head on a roadside in September, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (“SLED”). He faces two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses and is expected to appear at an extradition hearing on Friday before he’s arraigned in Columbia, South Carolina. Murdaugh has been taken to Orange County Corrections where he will be held until he receives an extradition hearing. Upon extradition being granted or waived, he will be brought back to South Carolina to receive a bond hearing.

Murdaugh, a well-known attorney in the South Carolina Lowcountry, was thrust into the national spotlight after he came home on the night of June 7, 2021, to find his wife, Maggie, 52, and youngest son, Paul, 22, shot to death on the grounds of their hunting lodge. From the beginning, authorities have considered Murdaugh a person of interest in the deaths of his wife and son, though his attorneys insist that his client was not involved. Murdaugh was fired in June from his job at his family’s law firm after being accused of embezzlement. He was shot in the head, gone to rehab for substance abuse and arrested and accused of hiring a hitman to help him commit suicide so his surviving son could cash in on a $10 million life insurance policy.

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An advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Thursday to approve the Moderna COVID-19 booster shot for recipients over 18. In the first day of a two-day meeting to evaluate requests from both Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to authorize their booster doses, the panel voted 19-0 to approve Moderna boosters beginning at least six months after completion of the initial two-dose regimen. On Friday, the committee will meet to evaluate the Johnson & Johnson booster dose, which is produced by subsidiary Janssen.

The authorization applies to people 65 years and older as well to those between 18 and 64 who are at high risk for the disease. Moderna officials said in a tweet: “We are grateful for the opportunity to present the clinical data package for our COVID-19 booster vaccine to the FDA’s advisory committee today. We thank the committee for their review & for their unanimous vote in support of EUA of the 50 [microgram] booster dose.”

Last month, the FDA approved a third shot of the vaccine made by Pfizer for people over 65, as well as recipients between 18 and 64 who are at high risk of severe illness and who face frequent institutional or occupational exposure to COVID-19. Almost 9 million people in the United States have received a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine over the past few weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The panel’s recommendations will have to be approved by the FDA and CDC before Americans could begin to receive the Moderna and Janssen boosters. The soonest the agencies could grant that approval is Oct. 22.

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