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Lt. Johnny Mercil became the latest member of the Minneapolis force to take the stand as part of an effort by prosecutors to dismantle the argument that Chauvin was doing what he was trained to do when he put his knee on George Floyd’s neck last May.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis police are taught to restrain combative suspects with a knee on their back or shoulders if necessary but are told to “stay away from the neck when possible,” a department use-of-force instructor testified Tuesday at former Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

Lt. Johnny Mercil became the latest member of the Minneapolis force to take the stand as part of an effort by prosecutors to dismantle the argument that Chauvin was doing what he was trained to do when he put his knee on George Floyd’s neck last May.

Several experienced officers, including the police chief himself, have testified that Floyd should not have been kept pinned to the pavement by his neck for close to 9 1/2 minutes by prosecutors’ reckoning as the Black man lay face-down, his hands cuffed behind his back.

According to testimony and records submitted Tuesday, Chauvin took a 40-hour course in 2016 on how to recognize people in crisis — including those suffering mental problems or the effects of drug use — and how to use de-escalation techniques to calm them down.

Sgt. Ker Yang, the Minneapolis police official in charge of crisis-intervention training, said officers are taught to “slow things down and re-evaluate and reassess.”

Records show Chauvin also underwent training in the use of force in 2018. Mercil said those who attended were taught that the sanctity of life is a cornerstone of the department’s use-of-force policy and that officers must use the least amount of force required to get a suspect to comply.

Under cross-examination by Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson, Mercil testified that officers are trained to use their knee across a person’s back or shoulder and employ their body weight to maintain control. But Mercil added: “We tell officers to stay away from the neck when possible.”

Nelson has argued that the now-fired white officer “did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career,” and he has suggested that Floyd’s use of illegal drugs and his underlying health conditions are what killed him, not Chauvin’s knee.

In fact, Nelson sought to point out moments in the video footage when he said Chauvin’s knee did not appear to be on Floyd’s neck.

Nelson showed Mercil several images taken from officers’ body-camera videos, asking after each one whether it showed Chauvin’s knee appearing to rest more on Floyd’s back, shoulder or shoulder blades than directly on Floyd’s neck. Mercil often agreed.

Nelson acknowledged the images were difficult to make out. They were taken at different moments during Floyd’s arrest, starting about four minutes after he was first pinned to the ground, according to time stamps on the images

Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death May 25. Floyd, 46, was arrested outside a neighborhood market after being accused of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd, who had taken drugs, frantically struggled with officers who tried to put him in their squad car, saying he was claustrophobic.

Bystander video of Floyd crying that he couldn’t breathe as onlookers yelled at Chauvin to get off him sparked protests around the U.S. that descended into violence in some cases.

Mercil testified that in his experience, it takes less than 10 seconds for someone to be rendered unconscious with a neck restraint. He said someone having a rush of adrenaline or a higher breathing or heart rate can be affected even faster.

Prosecutor Steve Schleicher asked Mercil if any additional body weight on the neck or back would make it more difficult for someone to breathe if the person were handcuffed behind the back and lying face-down. Mercil said yes.

“Have you have ever had a circumstance where an individual has lost their pulse and suddenly come back to life and become more violent?” Schleicher asked, suggesting that Floyd was held down long past the point where he might be a threat.

“Not that I’m aware of, sir,” Mercil replied.

Instead of protecting a fellow officer in what is sometimes called the “blue wall of silence,” some of the most experienced members of the Minneapolis force – including the head of the homicide division — have taken the stand to openly condemn Chauvin’s treatment of Floyd.

Webber reported from Fenton, Mich.

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The Sonoma County district attorney charged the utility with felony and misdemeanor counts in the October 2019 Kincade Fire north of San Francisco. The blaze burned more than 120 square miles and destroyed 374 buildings.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California prosecutor filed 33 criminal charges Tuesday against the troubled Pacific Gas & Electric for a 2019 wildfire officials blamed on the utility.

The Sonoma County district attorney charged the utility with felony and misdemeanor counts in the October 2019 Kincade Fire north of San Francisco. The blaze burned more than 120 square miles and destroyed 374 buildings.

The utility did not immediately comment.

The 33 charges include recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury to six firefighters.

Fire officials said PG&E transmission lines sparked the fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes and caused nearly 100,000 people to flee.

The charges and related enhancements also accuse the company of destroying inhabited structures and emitting air contaminates “with reckless disregard for the risk of great bodily injury” from toxic wildfire smoke and related particulate matter and ash, thereby endangering public health.

They allege that the utility failed to maintain services and facilities including transmission lines, one of several related misdemeanor charges.

It’s the latest in a series of similar problems for the utility, which was also charged after another devastating fire destroyed much of the Sierra foothills community of Paradise in 2018 in the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s recorded history.

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Fantahun Girma Woldesenbet, a petty officer third class assigned to Fort Detrick, began shooting with a rifle inside a Navy-related business at the Riverside Tech Park, causing people inside to flee, Frederick police and Fort Detrick officials said.

FREDERICK, Md. — A Navy medic shot and critically wounded two U.S. Navy sailors at a Maryland business park Tuesday, then fled to a nearby Army base where he was shot and killed, police and U.S. Navy officials said.

Fantahun Girma Woldesenbet, a petty officer third class assigned to Fort Detrick, began shooting with a rifle inside a Navy-related business at the Riverside Tech Park, causing people inside to flee, Frederick police and Fort Detrick officials said at a news conference. Frederick Police Chief Jason Lando said detectives are still trying to determine a possible motive.

Brigadier General Michael J. Talley said Woldesenbet drove to the base after the initial shooting at the office park and sped past the gate before he could be searched. Talley said he made it about a half-mile into the installation before he was stopped at a parking lot. He then brandished his weapon at officers from the installation’s police force who had pursued him.

Talley said investigators are looking at whether the shooter knew the victims, but refused to speculate, saying, “We don’t want to compromise any aspect of the investigation.”

Fort Detrick is home to the military’s flagship biological defense laboratory and several federal civilian biodefense labs. About 10,000 military personnel and civilians work on the base, which encompasses about 1,300 acres in the city of Frederick.

The base is a huge economic driver in the region, drawing scientists, military personnel and their families. Frederick Mayor Michael O’Connor noted that various defense contractors are located near Fort Detrick and that it wouldn’t be unusual for a member of the military to be off base and working with a private firm that does business with the U.S. government.

“When these incidents happen in other places, you’re always grateful that it’s not your community,” O’Connor added. “But you always know, perhaps in the back of your mind, that that’s just luck — that there isn’t any reason why it couldn’t happen here. And today it did.”

By early afternoon, the Nallin Farm gate at Fort Detrick through which the shooter entered remained closed and two officers were standing by.

Mark Nelson, a firefighter who lives in a row of townhomes across the street from the base, said he heard the base blast warning sirens Tuesday morning.

“I heard, I don’t know what they call it, but they were like air raid sirens, and I knew something was going on,” Nelson said.

Lando called the shootings “very tragic.”

“It’s happening too frequently,” he said. Every time we turn on the TV we’re seeing something like this happening. And now it’s happening in our backyards.”

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Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Jonathan Drew in Durham, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

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The shooting happened the day Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to visit Chicago to speak about COVID-19 vaccine equity.

A 2-year-old boy was shot in the head during an apparent road-rage incident late Tuesday morning on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park.

The boy was at Lurie Children’s Hospital in critical condition, police said.

A dispute over one car not letting the another car into a lane of traffic about 11 a.m. on northbound Lake Shore Drive just south of Soldier Field apparently led to the shooting, Chicago Police Cmdr. Jake Alderden said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Both cars continued north and shooting began on Lake Shore Drive just west of the Shedd Aquarium. Bullet casings were recovered over a two-block stretch as the cars proceeded north, he said.

The vehicle the 2-year-old was in crashed at Monroe Street and Lake Shore Drive, near the Chicago Yacht Club and Maggie Daley Park.

A good Samaritan in a passing Tesla saw the crashed car and drove the boy and a male and female occupant to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The boy, who was shot in the temple, was later transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital, police said.

A handgun was recovered from an occupant of the crashed vehicle, though police couldn’t immediately say if it was used in the shooting or if it was possessed legally.

Alderden expected information about the other car involved in the shooting, which fled the scene, to be released soon.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

A bullet hole could be seen in the rear passenger window of the crashed vehicle. Northbound Lake Shore Drive was closed until about 1:30 p.m. as police investigated.

The shooting occurred two hours before Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Chicago to speak about COVID-19 vaccine equity.

CPD said it could not immediately say how many road-rage shootings happen in the city each year.

Illinois State Police said there have 56 expressway shootings in the Chicago area this year, a 167% increase compared to last year at this time. Between Jan. 1, 2020, through April 5, 2020, state police investigated 21 expressway shootings. State police couldn’t say how many of those shootings were road-rage incidents.

Police have responded to at least five other shootings this year in the Loop.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Last weekend two men were wounded in separate shootings on Lower Wacker Drive. On Easter, an 18-year-old man was shot about 7:10 a.m. while driving with his girlfriend in the first block of North Lower Wacker, police said. Struck in the neck, he was hospitalized in critical condition. Before dawn Saturday, a 29-year-old man was shot in his knee as he traveled in a vehicle on Lower Wacker, police said.

On March 19, three people were arrested for allegedly firing gunshots shortly after midnight in the first block of East Lake Street, police said. A hotel security guard gave a vehicle description to police, who found the car on Wacker Drive.

In October 2020, prosecutors said Lake Shore Drive became a “shooting gallery” when someone shot out the eye of a 19-year-old woman in a vehicle at Jackson Boulevard, just south of where the child was shot Tuesday.

Chicago police’s 1st District, which covers the Loop and South Loop, has seen two other shootings this year through March 28, according to police statistics. Overall crime in the district has fallen 35% over the same period last year, according to the numbers. Meanwhile, reports of sex assault and vehicle thefts have increased over the last year.

Contributing: Madeline Kenney

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Surveillance video of the March 29 attack near Times Square showed that the doormen didn’t step outside and approach the woman until more than a minute after the violence stopped and the assailant walked away.

NEW YORK — Two New York City apartment building workers have been fired for failing to help an Asian American woman as she was being violently attacked on the sidewalk outside, the building’s management company said Tuesday.

Surveillance video of the March 29 attack near Times Square showed that the doormen didn’t step outside and approach the woman until more than a minute after the violence stopped and the assailant walked away.

The men watched from the lobby as 65-year-old Vilma Kari was repeatedly kicked and stomped, the video showed. One of them closed the building’s door as Kari lay on the ground seconds after the attack ended.

The building’s management company, The Brodsky Organization, initially suspended the doormen pending an investigation. That investigation was completed on Tuesday and the doormen were fired, the company said.

“While the full lobby video shows that once the assailant had departed, the doormen emerged to assist the victim and flag down an NYPD vehicle, it is clear that required emergency and safety protocols were not followed,” the company said in a statement.

The Brodsky Organization also pledged to give all building services employees training on emergency response protocols, anti-bias awareness and bystander intervention.

The doormen’s union, SEIU 32BJ, confirmed that they had been fired but declined to comment further. The union previously said that the doormen waited until the attacker walked away to check on Kari and flag down a nearby patrol car because they thought he had a knife.

The surveillance video shows a police car pulling up about a minute after the doormen went outside. The workers and officers are seen with her on the sidewalk for several more minutes before the video cuts off.

Brandon Elliot, a 38-year-old parolee convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago, was charged with assault and attempted assault as hate crimes. He is scheduled to be arraigned on a felony indictment on April 21. His lawyers have urged the public to “reserve judgment until all the facts are presented in court.”

Kari, who emigrated from the Philippines several decades ago, was attacked outside a luxury apartment building while walking to church. She suffered serious injuries including a fractured pelvis and spent a day in the hospital.

Kari’s daughter, Elizabeth Kari, posted Sunday on a fundraising webpage she set up for her mother’s care that Vilma Kari “has been resting these past few days and wants to send her best as your energy, prayers, and thoughts have reached her and our family.”

The attack, among the latest in a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, drew widespread condemnation and raised alarms about what appeared to be the failure of bystanders to help. Police said no one called 911 and that patrol officers driving by came upon Kari after she was assaulted.

Elizabeth Kari said that a person across the street who was not seen on surveillance video helped by screaming to distract the attacker.

A widely seen snippet of the surveillance video ended as the attacker was walking away from Kari. Elizabeth Kari said that the attacker was crossing the street and heading toward the bystander who screamed at him. That person has remained anonymous, she said.

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The shooting happened the day Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to visit Chicago to speak about COVID-19 vaccine equity.

A 2-year-old boy was in critical condition after he was shot in the head while he traveled in a car late Tuesday morning on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park.

Witnesses reported hearing gunshots about 11 a.m. in the 300 block of South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago police said in a statement. The car then crashed in the northbound lanes of the 100 block of Lake Shore Drive, police said.

A female passenger in the car was seen exiting with the child and then being driven by a citizen to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said. The child, shot in the temple, was expected to be transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital in critical condition, police said.

Police initially said the child was 3 years old, but later clarified he was 2 years old.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

It wasn’t immediately clear if the gunshot came from inside or outside the car, a police spokeswoman said. A bullet hole could be seen in the rear passenger window of the crashed vehicle. Northbound Lake Shore Drive was closed until about 1:30 p.m. for a police investigation.

Additional details about the shooting were not immediately released.

The shooting happened the day Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to visit Chicago to speak about COVID-19 vaccine equity.

Police have responded to at least five other shootings this year in the Loop.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Last weekend two men were wounded in separate shootings on Lower Wacker Drive. On Easter, an 18-year-old man was shot about 7:10 a.m. while driving with his girlfriend in the first block of North Lower Wacker, police said. Struck in the neck, he was hospitalized in critical condition. Before dawn Saturday, a 29-year-old man was shot in his knee as he traveled in a vehicle on Lower Wacker, police said.

On March 19, three people were arrested for allegedly firing gunshots shortly after midnight in the first block of East Lake Street, police said. A hotel security guard gave a vehicle description to police, who found the car on Wacker Drive.

In October 2020, prosecutors said Lake Shore Drive became a “shooting gallery” when someone shot out the eye of a 19-year-old woman in a vehicle at Jackson Boulevard, just south of where the child was shot Tuesday.

Chicago police’s 1st District, which covers the Loop and South Loop, has seen two other shootings this year through March 28, according to police statistics. Overall crime in the district has fallen 35% over the same period last year, according to the numbers. Meanwhile, reports of sex assault and vehicle thefts have increased over the last year.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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Stubblefield spent the past 11 years on Dana Altman’s staff at Oregon and was promoted to associate head coach before this past season.

DePaul on Tuesday hired longtime Oregon assistant Tony Stubblefield as head coach to rebuild a basketball program that has struggled in recent decades.

Stubblefield, who agreed last week to take the job, is the first major hire for DePaul athletic director DeWayne Peevy since he took over in August after 12 years in Kentucky’s athletic department. It will be up to him to restore a program with a proud history.

“I’m very familiar with the tradition of success this program has achieved, and I know we can achieve it again together,” Stubblefield said in a statement. “The challenge ahead is the most exciting part.”

Stubblefield takes over after Dave Leitao was fired last month six years into his second tenure.

“Relationships, recruiting and vision were everything with this hire,” Peevy said. “We knew we had to find the right person for where our program is right now. Tony quickly demonstrated his eagerness to begin rebuilding this program to national prominence. That, coupled with over 28 years of Division I college coaching experience, extensive college basketball relationships, an elite history of recruiting and his alignment with our vision for the future, made him quickly rise to the top of our candidate list.”

Peevy said DePaul, with help from Chicago-based executive search firm DHR International, vetted and interviewed more than 30 candidates.

Stubblefield spent the past 11 years on Dana Altman’s staff at Oregon and was promoted to associate head coach before this past season. Oregon made seven NCAA Tournaments in that span, with a Final Four appearance in 2017 and a Sweet 16 run this year. The Ducks also won four Pac-12 regular-season championships and three conference tournaments.

Stubblefield helped assemble recruiting classes that included Troy Brown Jr., Louis King and Bol Bol. He was Cincinnati’s recruiting coordinator from 2006 to 2010 and spent six years at New Mexico State, serving as interim coach when Lou Henson missed the 2004-05 season due to health reasons.

Now, he will try to restore a program that once ruled winters in Chicago.

The Blue Demons went 5-14 overall in a season that started about a month late because of COVID-19 issues. They finished last in the Big East Conference for the fifth consecutive year at 2-13.

Leitao was 127-146 over nine years at DePaul. He led the Blue Demons to a 58-34 record from 2002 to 2005 and their most recent NCAA Tournament appearance, in 2004. But his second stint was nowhere near as successful.

DePaul plays in the powerful Big East, in a sparkling arena and in a city known for producing talented players. One of Stubblefield’s most important tasks will be keeping some of Chicago’s elite high school players home.

The Blue Demons have finished last in the Big East 11 of the past 13 seasons and have been upstaged in recent years by Loyola, another Catholic school on the city’s North Side.

The Ramblers made the Final Four in 2018 and advanced to the Sweet 16 this year in their return to the NCAA Tournament. They beat ACC Tournament champion Georgia Tech and Illinois — the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region — before losing to Oregon State. Loyola has a new coach, with Porter Moser leaving for Oklahoma and assistant Drew Valentine getting promoted to replace him.

DePaul President A. Gabriel Esteban said Stubblefield is the right person to lead the Blue Demons.

“With more than 20 years of coaching experience at the college level, I know Coach Stubblefield will be an excellent mentor for our student-athletes,” Esteban said. “In my conversations with him, Tony expressed his admiration for the DePaul community, specifically our Catholic, Vincentian mission.”

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Ritter played the wizard Eldred Worple in “Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince,” and a devious political operative in the James Bond film “Quantum of Solace.”

LONDON — Versatile British actor Paul Ritter, whose roles ranged from a hapless suburban patriarch in sitcom “Friday Night Dinner” to a Soviet engineer who helps cause a nuclear disaster in “Chernobyl,” has died, his agent said Tuesday. He was 54 and had been suffering from a brain tumor.

A familiar face to British television viewers and theatregoers, Ritter played Martin Goodman, the eccentric father of a London Jewish family, in the acerbic but warm Channel 4 sitcom “Friday Night Dinner.”

He also played ill-fated nuclear engineer Anatoly Dyatlov in the Emmy-winning HBO drama “Chernobyl;” the wizard Eldred Worple in “Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince;” and a devious political operative in the James Bond film “Quantum of Solace.”

Those who worked with Ritter in his most famous roles rated him highly. Robert Popper, the creator of “Friday Night Dinner,” said Ritter “was a lovely, wonderful human being. Kind, funny, super caring and the greatest actor I ever worked with.”

“Chernobyl” screenwriter Craig Mazin said on Twitter that Ritter was “one of the most gentle, gracious and brilliant people I’ve ever known, much less worked with. We lost him today, and far too soon. I wish his family and loved ones peace and comfort as they mourn the passing of this beautiful man.”

Ritter was a compelling stage actor, a frequent and memorable cast member in productions at Britain’s National Theatre, including “All My Sons,” “Coram Boy” and “The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.” He also appeared in “Art” at London’s Old Vic and on a West End stage as Prime Minister John Major, performing opposite Helen Mirren’s Queen Elizabeth II in the royal drama “The Audience.”

Getty Images

The actor was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 for his performance in Alan Ayckbourn’s farce “The Norman Conquests” on Broadway.

Actor Russell Tovey said Ritter was “one of the nicest and best actors you’ll ever meet.”

Actor-comedian Rob Delaney tweeted that Ritter had “knocked it out of the PARK in Chernobyl. Watching it I consciously thought, ‘Oh, we have a new movie star.’ Between that & how funny he was in Friday Night Dinner… just unreal talent.”

Agency Markham, Froggatt & Irwin said Ritter died Monday night “peacefully at home with his wife Polly and sons Frank and Noah by his side.”

“Paul was an exceptionally talented actor playing an enormous variety of roles on stage and screen with extraordinary skill,” the agency said. “He was fiercely intelligent, kind and very funny. We will miss him greatly.”

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“I want to see the Yermin fans, the Yerminator fans” at home opener, Mercedes said. The feeling is probably mutual.

If there’s a White Sox Opening Day roster projection out there with Yermin Mercedes’ name on it, we want to see it.

The truth is, it probably doesn’t exist.

Projecting what Mercedes did in his first four games this season? Not a chance.

Mercedes’ track record as a good-hitting catcher in 10 seasons of minor league ball, as well as his throwing skills exhibited during spring training notwithstanding, most Sox roster forecasts had Yasmani Grandal and veteran Jonathan Lucroy as the 1-2 punch, with former first-round draft choice Zack Collins having a shot as the backup or a third catcher because of his left-handed bat.

Collins was the talk of spring training, even though Mercedes also had another good spring after hitting a team-high four Cactus League homers while batting .346 in spring training last year. All that got him was one plate appearance during the regular season.

Mercedes not only made the team this year after the Sox released Lucroy, who was the Nationals’ Opening Day starter Tuesday, he has done things nobody has done in the history of baseball. He is one of the best stories in the game in the first week of the season.

“Hollywood golden ridiculous,” is how broadcaster Jason Benetti called it.

It’s Mercedes’ golden world right now and we’re just along for the fascinating ride, for however long it lasts. The ride stops at Guaranteed Rate Field for the home opener Thursday, and if you want to see Mercedes in the lineup.

And he wants to see you.

“I want to see my fans over there on Opening Day in Chicago,” Mercedes said Monday after going 3-for-4 in the Sox’ 6-0 win over the Mariners, raising his average to .667 (12-for-18). “I want everyone to talk to me. I want to see my people. I want to see the Yermin fans, the Yerminator fans. I’m so excited, I can’t wait.”

Manager Tony La Russa never expected to use Mercedes as much as he has. But the 5-11, 245-pound 28-year-old rookie, often with his shirt tail hanging out, became the first player to start a season going 8-for-8 as his designated hitter. After starting him in the Sox’ second game, La Russa hasn’t been able to keep him out of the lineup.

Mercedes’ 12 hits through Monday were the most by any player in the modern era over his first four career starts. He was the first player with three-plus hits in a game three times in his first four career starts since Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella in 1948.

Mercedes’ 12 hits were the most by any Sox player over his first four games of a season, surpassing Ducky Holmes’ 11 in 1904.

He is also the first Sox player with three-plus hits in a game three times in his first four games of a season.

La Russa has been trying to get at-bats for the left-handed hitting Jake Lamb, but he was committed to Mercedes as the DH only for the first two games of the Mariners series with two left-handers pitching.

Mercedes jerseys are being manufactured for purchase to keep up with expected demand, Mercedes is capturing the fancy of the baseball world with his bat and boyish good nature and his at-bats have become appointment television.

La Russa knows he almost has to play him Thursday.

“I’d be booed in the introductions,” he said.

With Eloy Jimenez out, Mercedes’ offense has been a welcome, needed boost. Mercedes’ phenomenal run is not sustainable, but he does own a .302/.366/.491 career hitting line in 2,128 minor league at-bats. He has a sound two-strike approach and possesses power.

As Grandal told him, just keep doing what you’re doing and be yourself.

“He said, ‘Keep it Yermin,’ ” Mercedes said Monday. “I’m Yermin so I don’t want to do another thing. Just be the same guy all the time. Don’t change anything.

“I tried to do another thing but it wasn’t working much. But then I came back, and I do Yermin.”

Which has been more than enough, and all that everybody wants.

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