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Atlanta shooting suspect has been charged with murder
ATLANTA (AP) -- The suspect in a mass shooting in Atlanta that left one woman dead and four others wounded has been charged with one count of murder and four counts of aggravated assault, Fulton County Jail records show. Deion Patterson waived his first court appearance Thursday after police say he opened fire in the waiting room of an Atlanta medical practice Wednesday. Workers and others in a bustling commercial district took shelter for hours during the manhunt.
Tyre Nichols died of blunt force injuries, autopsy shows
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Tyre Nichols died of blunt force injuries to the head after he was beaten by Memphis police during a January arrest, an autopsy report released Thursday showed. The autopsy said the manner of death was homicide. It described multiple contusions, brain injuries, cuts and bruises to the head and other parts of the body. Nichols was Black, as were the five police officers fired and charged with second-degree murder and other counts after his death.
West Virginia settles with Kroger, opioid money now tops $1B
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- West Virginia has settled with Kroger for $68 million over its role in distributing highly addictive prescription painkillers into the U.S. state that has lost more lives to opioid overdoses per capita than any other. That brings West Virginia's total opioid litigation dollars up to more than $1 billion, more than any other state per capita, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said at a press conference at the state Capitol in Charleston. "Let this be a warning to others: We fight hard for those affected the most by the opioid epidemic and will stop at nothing in getting justice for them," he said.
BMW: Don't drive older models with Takata air bag inflators
DETROIT (AP) -- BMW is warning the owners of about 90,000 older vehicles in the U.S. not to drive them due to an increasing threat that the air bags might explode in a crash. The warning covers vehicles from the 2000 through 2006 model years that previously had been recalled to replace faulty and dangerous air bag inflators made by Takata. The company used volatile ammonium nitrate to inflate the air bags in a crash. But the chemical can deteriorate over time when exposed to heat and humidity and blow apart a metal canister, hurling shrapnel that can injure or kill drivers and passengers.
COVID dropped to 4th leading cause of death in US last year
NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. deaths fell last year, and COVID-19 dropped to the nation's No. 4 cause, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. COVID-19 deaths trailed those caused by heart disease, cancer and injuries such as drug overdoses, motor vehicle fatalities and shootings. In 2020 and 2021, only heart disease and cancer were ahead of the coronavirus. U.S. deaths usually rise year-to-year, in part because the nation's population has been growing. The pandemic accelerated that trend, making 2021 the deadliest in U.S. history, with more than 3.4 million deaths. But 2022 saw the first drop in deaths since 2009.