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DOVI7 12/01/16 **CHILL
UNC-CH SERIALS DEPARTMENT
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VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 38 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA -SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2016 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Judicial Candidates Vie
For State’s High Courts
Young ladies enjoying participating the PhoenixFest Parade and street Fair. See
story and photos on page 8.
NAA CP head says shooting
victim’s history doesn’t matter
By Emery P. Dalesio
CHARLOTTE (AP) - A restraining order filed against a North Carolina man killed by police last week
shouldn’t matter because officers who confronted him didn’t know about that history before he was shot
to death, a civil rights leader said.
Corine Mack, president of the local NAACP chapter, said blacks typically are “demonized” after being
killed by police.
“I don’t want to hear any of that,” Mack said at a news conference Tuesday announcing demands that
include implementation of police reforms approved last year.
Court documents say Keith Lamont Scott had a restraining order filed against him a year ago when he
threatened to kill his wife and her son with a gun.
Keith Scott’s wife filed the order Oct. 5, that law enforcement officers who encounter him should be
aware that he “carries a 9mm black” gun. Police have said Scott had a handgun when they approached
him at an apartment complex last week.
Officers told Scott repeatedly to drop the weapon and he was shot to death when he didn’t follow their
orders, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney has said.
The family of Scott, 43, has said he was not armed. Videos released by police and the family are in
conclusive, and state authorities are investigating. Protests over the shooting spanned the past week, and
some of those protests turned violent. Charlotte streets were mostly quiet Tuesday night for the first time
since the shooting on Sept. 20.
Tuesday evening, the police headquarters building had to be evacuated as a bomb squad checked out a
suspicious package. A robot removed the package from the building and police said on their Twitter page
that the package was taken to a remote location to be rendered harmless.
In the restraining order last fall, Rakeyia Scott sought to keep her husband away because “he hit my
8-year-old in the head a total of three times with his fist,” she said in the restraining order.
“He kicked me and threaten to kill us last night with his gun,” she said in the order filed in Gaston
County, where the couple then lived. “He said he is a 'killer’ and we should know that.”
Rakeyia Scott checked boxes on the form informing law officers who would serve the restraining order
that her husband had neither a permit issued by a county sheriff to buy a handgun nor a state permit to
carry a concealed handgun, which requires a criminal background check. She said he worked as a mall
security guard.
When deputies went to serve the restraining order two days after it was filed, Scott had already moved
to South Carolina, where he has family. About a week after that, Rakeyia Scott filed a separate court no
tice voluntarily dismissing the order, saying: “He is no longer a threat to me and my family.”
In a video released last week capturing the moments before and after Scott was shot by police, Rakeyia
Scott can be heard telling officers: “Don’t shoot him! He has no weapon.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said they found Scott’s DNA and fingerprints on a handgun recovered
at the scene and that he was wearing an ankle holster when he was killed.
Police released a photo of a small, black handgun they said was recovered from the scene of Scott’s
shooting on Sept. 20. Police have not described the gun in detail, but printing on the side of the barrel said
it was a Colt Series 80 Mustang .380 caliber, which shoots a 9mm bullet, according to Steven Howard, a
firearms consultant in Lansing, Michigan, who has testified as an expert witness in court cases.
It’s not clear if the gun mentioned in the restraining order is the same one police said they recovered.
North Carolina could provide
Clinton knockout over Trump
By Thomas Beaumont
RALEIGH (AP) - Republican Donald Trump can do little to stop Democrat Hillary Clinton from win
ning the presidency if she carries North Carolina, where their close race reflects the national liabilities of
both candidates.
Trump is struggling with conservative Democrats, especially women in the big and booming suburbs
of Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, who’ve long been part of the OOP’s winning formula in North Caro
lina.
Clinton has her own worries: Younger voters who helped Barack Obama win the state in 2008 and
come close in 2012 are far more hesitant to back her.
In a scenario playing out across the most contested states, Clinton’s pursuit of new supporters is aided
by a huge, data-driven ground force in North Carolina, while Trump is sticking with his come-what-may
plan.
“Both candidates have problems here,” said Paul Shumaker, an adviser to U.S. Sen. Richard Burr,
R-N.C., who is seeking re-election. “But I think the Clinton people are more attuned about fixing their
problems than Trump’s are.”
Clinton, in a visit Sunday to Charlotte, addressed congregants at a black church less than two weeks
after the police-involved shooting death of a black man. The shooting led to two nights of violent protests
and a debate over race relations.
“We’ve got to take action. We’ve got to start now, not tomorrow. Not next year, now,” Clinton said.
(Continued On Page 13)
.SCC
VeU^ it
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
As the pivotal November 8 th
general 1 election draws near,
with Early Voting beginning
Thursday, October 20 th and
ending Saturday, Nov. 5 th ,
African-American voters have
a large slate of candidates vying
for statewide judicial seats to
consider.
With over 26 years on the
North Carolina bench, Wake
Superior Court Judge Michael
Morgan, a Democrat, is running
to oust incumbent state Senior
Supreme Court Associate Robert
H. Edmunds Jr., a Republican
for an eight-year term. If
Judge Morgan were to win
the Edmunds seat, that would
immediately shift the balance
on the 4-3 Republican-majority
court.
Judge Morgan would also
join Associate Justice Cheri
Beasley as the second African-
American serving on the state’s
seven-member High Court, and
the court’s only black male.
“Supreme Court justices
review the courts’ records that
are generated in the lower courts.
They are a reviewing court to see
what errors have been committed
potentially in the courts below,”
he says.
Morgan has served as state
administrative law judge for five
years; district court judge for ten
years; and his current position of
superior court judge for eleven
years.
A native of Cherry Point, NC,
Mike Morgan is the oldest offive
children. He
graduated from New Bern
public schools. Morgan got
his B.A. in both History and
Sociology from Duke University
in 1976. He earned his Juris
Doctor Degree with honors
from North Carolina Central
University in 1979. From
1983 to 1989, Morgan was an
assistant state Attorney General
in the NC Dept of Justice. From
1989 to 1994, he served as a NC
administrative law judge; from
1994 to 2004 a district court
judge; and from 2005 to the
present a Wake County superior
court judge.
People having
trouble getting new
Smithsonian
museum passes
WASHINGTON (AP)
- People are facing long
waits and error messages
on a ticket site as they try
to get passes to the Smith
sonian’s new National Mu
seum of African American
History and Culture.
The museum has planned
to begin online distribution
Oct. 3 of more timed-entry
passes for the first three
months of2017.
The Smithsonian has
tweeted that it’s looking
into the problem.
The Smithsonian began
offering passes in late Au
gust for opening day and
beyond, but by the time
of the museum’s dedica
tion ceremony on Sept. 24,
passes for all the available
timeslots had already been
distributed.
A limited number of
same-day passes are avail
able first-come, first-served
at the museum.
“This [NC Supreme Court]
seat must be guaranteed to be
fair and impartial, and the fact
that I’ve been elected and re-
elected by the great citizens
of Wake County shows that
I have that capacity,” Judge
Morgan, who proudly adds that
he has been rated high for his
professionalism and integrity by
his legal peers, says.
Wake County trial attorney
Abraham Penn Jones, who
previously served as a Superior
Court judge for many years,
is vying for the NC Court of
“While there is an abundance
of legal talent in our state, 1
believe it would be difficult tc
find a candidate with the extern
of my experience, say Jones.
Jones served on the bend
in the Tenth Judicial Districi
from 1995 to 2012, presiding
over civil and criminal trials
among other duties. Previous
to that, Jones headed up his
own law practice for five years
after working as an associate a:
Adams, McCullough and Bearc
Law Firm from March 1987 tc
May 1990.
(Continued On Page 13)
Wake Superior Court Judge Michael Morgan
East Carolina University band
members kneel during anthem
GREENVILLE (AP) - About a dozen members of the
East Carolina University marching band took a knee dur
ing the playing of the national anthem prior to the school’s
football game against the University of Central Florida.
WITN in Greenville reports (http://bit.ly/2dhkUrU)
the band members took a knee before Saturday’s kickoff.
Some band members played their instruments while on a
knee, while others didn’t play at all.
When the band took the field for halftime, it was met
with boos.
ECU Chancellor Cecil Staton issued a statement say
ing that while the school acknowledges the disappoint
ment felt by fans, he urged them to act with respect for
each other’s views.
The movement began when San Francisco 49ers quar
terback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem
before preseason games, citing racial injustice and police
brutality.
Obama welcomes relatives of
1936 African-American
Olympians
By STEPHEN WHYNO
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Relatives of Jesse Owens and America’s
17 other black athletes from the 1936 Olympics were welcomed to
the White House on Thursday by President Barack Obama for the
acknowledgement they didn’t receive along with their white counter
parts 80 years ago.
Along with the relatives of the 1936 African-American Olympi
ans, gloved-fist protesters Tommie Smith and John Carlos and mem
bers of the 2016 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams met the presi
dent and first lady Michelle Obama. Obama congratulated the Rio
athletes, thanked Smith and Carlos for waking up Americans in 1968
and praised 1936 Olympians who made a statement in front of Adolf
Hitler in Nazi Germany.
After running down a list of accomplishments of U.S. athletes in
Rio, Obama singled out some people who ''paved the way” for the
current diverse Olympic team, including Owens, Smith and Carlos.
Owens winning four gold medals and being snubbed by Hitler is a
piece of American history, but Obama made sure to note that the ac
complishments at the 1936 Berlin Olympics weren’t just about him.
"It was other African-American athletes in the middle of Nazi
Germany under the gaze of Adolf Hitler than put a lie to notions of
racial superiority _ whooped 'em and taught them a thing or two
about democracy and taught them a thing or two about the American
character,” Obama said. "We’re honored to have many oftheir fami
lies here today.” (Continued On pPPage 13)