NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

5 hurt near club where Brown performing

SAN JOSE, Calif.

Police say a shooting injured five people near a club where Grammy-winner Chris Brown was performing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Police say Brown escaped injury in the early Sunday shooting. The San Jose Mercury News says the shooting happened near San Jose’s Fiesta nightclub, where Brown was performing for a private party. Cellphone video posted online by fans appears to show Brown wincing as the shots rang out nearby, then being ushered away.

Police say all five people injured in the shootings are expected to survive. Police say they have detained several people. No information was immediately available Sunday on the motive in the shootings.

‘Taken 3’ topples reign of ‘Hobbit’ at box office

LOS ANGELES

After three weeks atop the box office, “The Hobbit” has been taken down by Liam Neeson.

“Taken 3” nabbed the top spot at the weekend box office in North America with $40.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The third installment of the 20th Century Fox thriller series stars Neeson as a vengeance-seeking retired CIA operative with “a very particular set of skills.”

Paramount’s civil-rights drama “Selma” arrived in second place behind “Taken 3” with $11.2 million. The film chronicles the historic 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and stars David Oyelowo as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Into the Woods” milked $9.7 million in third place in its third week at the box office.

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” slid to fourth place with $9.4 million after three straight weeks in first place.

In fifth place was “Unbroken” with $8.7 million.

2 Tuskegee Airmen die at 91 on same day

LOS ANGELES

Two members of the Tuskegee Airmen — the famed all-black squadron that flew in World War II — died on the same day. The men, lifelong friends who enlisted together, were 91.

Clarence E. Huntley Jr. and Joseph Shambrey died Jan. 5 in their Los Angeles homes, relatives said Sunday.

Huntley and Shambrey enlisted in 1942. They were shipped overseas to Italy in 1944 with the 100th Fighter Squadron of the Army Air Force’s 332nd Fighter Group. As mechanics, they kept the combat planes flying.

In addition to facing danger, the Tuskegee Airmen faced racism.

Shambrey’s son, Tim Shambrey of Altadena, said his father recalled getting off a train in Alabama where a hospitality station was welcoming returning white troops with handshakes and free coffee.

“When he and his buddies came off, dressed in their uniforms, of course they didn’t get any congratulations” and were asked to pay for their coffee, Shambrey said.

They did so.

“The thing about those men is that they were very proud” and decided not to make a fuss, Shambrey said. “They were already used to so much discrimination.”

In later life, Shambrey didn’t talk much about his war service but he had barbecues that sometimes drew 150 people, including a lot of his old Army buddies, his son said.

Huntley also didn’t talk much with his family about the war, said his daughter, Shelia McGee of LA.

Associated Press