Student shot near Delaware university

Student shot near Delaware university

DOVER, Del.

A student was shot at a residence hall near Delaware State University on Monday, prompting police to lock down the campus for nearly three hours before determining the shooting was an isolated act of violence.

The victim, a male student, was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, said Kay Sass, Dover emergency management coordinator.

The shooting was reported shortly after 5 p.m. at the Living and Learning Commons, said Dover Police Cpl. Mark Hoffman, and the campus was put on lockdown about 5:30 p.m., university spokesman Carlos Holmes said. The residence hall, formerly a Sheraton hotel, is about a half-mile north of the campus.

Neither Sass nor Hoffman offered any description of the shooter, who remained at large late Monday.

Hoffman said police believe the shooting was an isolated incident. Sass said investigators “felt comfortable enough to lift the lockdown” shortly after 8 p.m.

Woman galvanizes right-to-die efforts

PORTLAND, Ore.

Brittany Maynard’s last days started a national conversation about whether it’s OK for a terminally ill person to end his or her own life.

Now that she has died, it’s time to see whether the millions of clicks and views she generated online trigger more than just talk.

Advocates for expanding right-to-die laws beyond a handful of states expect attention from the young woman’s story to carry into the new year, when state legislatures go into session.

“Up and down New England, the East Coast and then in the West, too,” said Peg Sandeen, executive director of the Death with Dignity National Center. “I think on both coasts we’re going to see legislative action.”

That optimism, however, will be met with the political reality that such legislation has been pushed for years, often unsuccessfully.

Prosecutor: Police shooting justified

PROVO, Utah

Utah prosecutors announced Monday that officers were justified in fatally shooting a young man who was wielding a sword as part of a Japanese anime costume.

Two Saratoga Springs officers feared for their lives and the safety of others in the bustling shopping center where the encounter occurred when they fired seven shots at 22-year-old Darrien Hunt on Sept. 10, Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman said Monday in a news conference.

The shooting has prompted accusations from Hunt’s family that he was treated differently because of his race and that his actions didn’t warrant deadly force. Hunt was black, and the two officers are white.

Doctor dies in Sierra Leone

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone

A doctor in Sierra Leone has died of Ebola, the fifth local doctor to die of the disease there, authorities said Monday, as UNICEF announced it was doubling its staff in the three West African nations hard hit by the deadly virus.

The death of Dr. Godfrey George, medical superintendent of Kambia Government Hospital in northern Sierra Leone, was a blow to efforts to keep desperately needed health workers safe in a country ravaged by the world’s worst Ebola outbreak.

At the United Nations in New York, Ebola coordinator Dr. Peter Salama of UNICEF said the U.N. children’s agency would double its staff from 300 to 600 in Guinea, Liberia and in Sierra Leone, where children make up 20 percent of all Ebola cases. About 4,000 children have been orphaned by Ebola, he said.

Associated Press