In brief: U.S. Embassy warns that Acapulco is dangerous and violent
MEXICO CITY – The U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a security message Friday warning U.S. citizens to avoid the Pacific resort of Acapulco because of violence and protests.
In yet another blow to a coastal city once favored by U.S. movie stars and jet-setters in the 1950s and ’60s, the embassy said its personnel “have been instructed to defer non-essential travel to Acapulco, by air or land,” and added that it “cautions U.S. citizens to follow the same guidelines.”
The alert noted that “protests and violent incidents continue in Guerrero state in response to the disappearance of 43 students there.”
Robbers make off with Ebola blood
CONAKRY, Guinea – It was a highway robbery, but the bandits got more than they bargained for when they stopped a taxi in Guinea and made off with blood samples that are believed to be infected with the deadly Ebola virus.
Authorities publicly appealed on national radio Friday to the unidentified robbers to hand over the samples that were stolen from the taxi during its 165-mile trek on winding rural roads from the central Kankan prefecture to a test site in southern Gueckedou.
The samples, stored in tightly wrapped vials tucked into a cooler bag, were in the care of a Red Cross courier who was among nine passengers sharing a taxi when three bandits on a motorbike led the attack near the town of Kissidougou, a local Red Cross official said.
Dr. Barry Moumie, who heads patient care for the national Ebola response coordination committee, told the Associated Press: “We have informed the security services. If these thieves handle this blood, it will be dangerous.”
Officer shoots, kills man by accident
NEW YORK – A rookie police officer walking with his gun drawn in a darkened stairwell of a public housing complex accidentally shot and killed a man who was leaving the building with his girlfriend, authorities said Friday.
The shooting of 28-year-old Akai Gurley, who was unarmed and not involved in criminal activity, according to police, occurred late Thursday night as 26-year-old Officer Peter Liang and another rookie officer patrolled the Louis Pink Houses in Brooklyn’s gritty East New York neighborhood.
The officers had descended onto an eighth-floor landing when, 14 steps away, Gurley and his girlfriend had opened a door into the seventh-floor landing after giving up their wait for the elevator so he could head to the lobby.
Liang, for reasons unclear, had his gun drawn, police said. He was about 10 feet from Gurley when, without a word and apparently by accident, he fired a shot, police said.
Man survives fall off bank, onto car
SAN FRANCISCO – A worker fell screaming 11 stories from the roof of a bank building Friday morning onto a moving car, crushing its roof and sending shattered glass flying into the street, police and witnesses said.
The man suffered critical injuries, but he was conscious, police said.
The car’s driver, Mohammad Alcozai, was not injured. He told KGO-TV that he’s happy to be alive, especially after his car’s roof almost completely collapsed in the accident. He said he is praying that the worker survives.
“I’m very happy that I wasn’t hurt,” Alcozai told the news channel shortly after the accident. “Hopefully, he can make it. I pray for him that he can make it.”