Man charged in killing of infant

Man charged in killing of infant

CHICAGO

A Chicago man accused of killing a 6-month-old girl in a shooting that also wounded her father was seeking revenge for the theft of a video-game console, authorities said Monday.

Koman Willis was charged with first-degree murder Monday in the death of the infant, Jonylah Watkins, who was shot March 11 while sitting in her father’s lap in a minivan. The baby’s father, Jonathan Watkins, was seriously wounded in the attack, and police say he was the intended target.

The shooting, which took place in the middle of the day in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the city’s South Side, was one of several earlier this year that brought attention to gang violence in Chicago.

Japanese mayor apologizes to US

TOKYO

An outspoken Japanese politician apologized Monday for saying U.S. troops should patronize adult- entertainment businesses as a way to reduce sex crimes but defended another inflammatory remark about Japan’s use of sex slaves before and during World War II.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, co-leader of an emerging nationalist party, said his remarks two weeks ago rose from a “sense of crisis” about cases of sexual assaults by U.S. military personnel on Japanese civilians in Okinawa, where a large number of U.S. troops are based under a bilateral security treaty.

Hashimoto also said he had not tried to condone a system of so-called comfort women, but meant to say military authorities at the time, not only in Japan but in many other countries, considered it necessary.

Police: Man shoots adult daughters

OROSI, Calif.

A California man shot his two adult daughters Monday, killing one and critically injuring the other before apparently committing suicide while his three young grandchildren were in the home, authorities said.

An 8-year-old girl called to report gunfire before dawn, and deputies arrived to find 63-year-old Anthony Alvarez dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

Jennifer Kimble, 37, was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds. She was the daughter of Alvarez and the mother of the three children in the home — two boys ages 13 and 11, and the 8-year-old girl.

2 NY officials see Liberty security risk

NEW YORK

New security plans for the Statue of Liberty could leave visitors vulnerable when it reopens July Fourth, New York officials said Monday.

Sen. Charles Schumer and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly called for the National Park Service to reverse its plan, which calls for visitors to board boats in either lower Manhattan or New Jersey and stop at nearby Ellis Island for security.

Texas suspect was sought in NC killing

EDEN, Texas

Officials say a Marine suspected in a string of West Texas shootings that left one person dead and five wounded was sought for questioning in a North Carolina homicide.

Master Sgt. Jonathan Cress at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base, N.C., said today that the Marine was wanted for questioning in a homicide in nearby Jacksonville, N.C.

The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the man as 23-year-old Esteban J. Smith of the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base.

In a statement Monday, DPS spokesman Tom Vinger says Smith later died in a gunfight with an agency trooper and a state game warden. Authorities say the Texas shootings seemed to be random.

Associated Press