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A shooting late Tuesday night at apartments off River Bluff Road left a 26-year-old man dead and two others injured.

Greenville Police Chief Mark Holtzman said Rufus Gregory Stancil of West Third Street was killed. He was pronounced dead on scene in the parking lot in the 100 block of River Bluff.

Officers responded about 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday to a shooting call and was told there was at least one victim, Holtzman said. Additional calls came in, indicating that there were at least two victims.

Upon arrival, police found Stancil dead in the parking lot. Two other people had been shot and were transported to Vidant Medical Center for treatment.

Multiple rounds were fired, Holtzman said, and there are two crime scenes off River Bluff. Stancil was found in a parking lot in the 100 block. Officers also found shell casings in the 200 block. Both areas were roped off with crime scene tape.

Holtzman said Stancils family members arrived on scene and officers had notified them of his death. Several people stood nearby and were crying.

The conditions of the other victims are unknown. Holtzman could not say where on the body each person was shot nor if the injuries are considered life-threatening.

A news release issued early Wednesday said the police department is temporarily withholding the names of those victimspending the notification of family members. The release also said no further information about the shooting would be released overnight.

The chief said the investigation is in the early stages and he could not provide details about any suspects or what might have prompted the incident.

Dozens of Greenville police vehicles remained on scene into the early-morning hours Wednesday. A crime scene investigation unit pulled up about 1:30 a.m.

Officers were canvassing the area, shining flashlights in grassy spots near two of the apartment buildings inside the crime scene tape.

A man who was running in the area before the shooting said he heard between 40 and 50 shots ring out.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, Tyler Norville said, describing what he heard.

Norville, 23, said he usually runs in the area late at night because its cooler. He was near the front of the neighborhood when the gunfire erupted, and he said he saw a couple vehicles leaving at a high rate of speed.

Soon, the entire street was filled with police vehicles, Norville said.

Norville, along with several others in the neighborhood, walked closer to the scene to find out what happened. Others watched from their balconies.

Greenville police, Greenville Fire-Rescue and the Pitt County Sheriffs Office responded.

Check back for additional details.

Contact Kristin Zachary at kzachary@reflector.comor 252-329-9571. Follow her on Twitter @kristinzachary.

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New: One killed, two injured in River Bluff shooting - Daily Reflector - Greenville Daily Reflector

In a second-floor classroom of Seminary Hall at Northeastern State University, a few inquisitive minds are considering a life of crime fighting.

During a summer youth camp offered through NSU Continuing Education, the kids are dipping their toes into a multi-faceted pool of careers that includes police departments, sheriffs' offices, forensics, district attorneys' offices, corrections, probations and parole, ethics activity and victims advocacy.

All are topics to be discussed with experts during the Criminal Justice Camp, running through Thursday.

"Last year, we did a week-long mock crime," said Haley Stocks, camp director. "This year, we've broken it down so that each day they have a crime to solve. Instead of one big story, they now get exposure to multiple miniature scenarios."

The Criminal Justice Camp has six campers this year. They are high school students, and some are traveling a distance this week to attend.

"This has been a lot of fun, and my favorite part of today was going to the mock crime scene," said Josh Burris, a high school junior from Fort Gibson.

Campers had two hours to gather evidence at the mock crime scene, then found out what a grand jury might think of their work.

"We broke into two groups and looked at statements and decided who we wanted to prosecute," Burris said. "We came back into the room, and each group was the other's jurors, and decided if there was enough evidence for probable cause. There is a lot of other good stuff coming up on the schedule, and I think I'm going to like this camp."

Ethan Long, a junior at Wilburton High School, decided the camp was worth the trip. He has an uncle and older brother who respectively work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

"They kind of spurred me," Long said. "I really like trying to figure this out. At first, I wanted to do what they do, but I got to looking into law enforcement and there is all sorts of stuff. I'd like to do all of them - but can't. Today, I especially like the Cherokee Marshal and his discussion of the SWAT team. I might decide to do that."

Monday's last speaker was Capt. Danny Tanner of the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service. He returns Wednesday morning to allow the campers a close inspection of the CNMS armored vehicle.

"He gave us a history of the marshal service and how it came about," Stocks said. "He also discussed how they operate with state and federal courts. We started today with three detectives from the Tahlequah Police Department, and they gave overviews and details of some of the cases they've worked. Then they heard from an attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Muskogee."

On Tuesday, the campers will hear from representatives from the FBI, the district attorney's office, Court Appointed Special Advocates, and experts on probation and parole and ethics activity. Wednesday includes a visit from a corrections officer and discussion of crime scene investigation with the Broken Arrow Police Department over a mock case. Thursday includes another mock crime scene and a mock trial.

"There will be an end of camp ceremony on Thursday to honor the students for all of their hard work," Stocks said. "It is a camp, but they will be learning a lot. They are solving mock crimes every day."

See more here:
Campers learn facets of law enforcement - Tahlequah Daily Press

The European Union slapped a record $2.7-billion fine on Internet giant Google on Tuesday for allegedly taking advantage of its dominance in online searches to direct customers to its own online shopping business.

European regulators gave the Mountain View, Calif., company 90 days to stop or face more fines of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide revenue of its parent company, Alphabet Inc.

Google says it is considering an appeal.

The European Commission, which polices EU competition rules, alleges Google elevates its shopping service even when other options might have better deals.

The commission said Google gave prominent placement in its search results only to its own comparison shopping service, whilst demoting rival services. It stifled competition on the merits in comparison shopping markets.

What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told reporters.

Google says it's just trying to package its search results in a way that makes it easier for people to find what they want.

When you shop online, you want to find the products you're looking for quickly and easily. And advertisers want to promote those same products. That's why Google shows shopping ads, connecting our users with thousands of advertisers, large and small, in ways that are useful for both, Kent Walker, senior vice president at Google, said in a statement.

We will review the commission's decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case, he said.

The fine is the highest ever imposed in Europe for anti-competitive behavior, exceeding a 1.06-billion-euro penalty on Silicon Valley chip maker Intel in 2009.

But the penalty is likely to leave a bigger dent in Google's pride and reputation than its finances. Alphabet has more than $92 billion in cash, including nearly $56 billion in accounts outside of Europe.

Vestager said the commission's probe, which started in 2008, looked at some 1.7 billion search queries. Investigators found that on average even Google Shopping's most highly ranked rivals only appeared on Page 4 of Google search results. Vestager said that 90% of user-clicks are on Page 1.

As a result, competitors were much less likely to be clicked on, she said.

It is up to Google to decide what changes it wants to make to comply with the commission's ruling, but any remedy must ensure that rival companies receive the same treatment as Google Shopping.

We will monitor Google's compliance closely, Vestager said.

She noted that any company or person who has suffered damages due to the company's practices can make claims to national courts.

More broadly, Vestager said, the probe has established that Google is dominant in general Internet search in all 31 countries of the European economic area. This will affect other cases the European Commission might build against the Internet giant's various businesses, such as Google Images.

She also noted that regulators are making good progress in their other Google probes into Android and search advertising, and that the preliminary conclusion is that they breach EU antitrust rules.

The commission has come under fire in the United States for a perceived bias against U.S. companies.

Vestager said that she has examined statistics concerning antitrust, merger control and state aid decisions and that she can find no facts to support any kind of bias.

Alphabet shares fell 2.5% on Tuesday to $948.09.

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UPDATES:

3:50 p.m.: This article was updated with Alphabets stock movement.

6:35 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details and context, and with comments from Margrethe Vestager and Kent Walker.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m.

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European Union fines Google a record $2.7 billion for ...

Brussels:The European Union and Britain on Friday tripped over the first item in their Brexit talks protecting the rights of each other's citizens highlighting the potential for trouble ahead in their marathon negotiations.

Representational image. AP

While British prime minister Theresa May declared that she had offered a "fair and serious" proposal on citizens' rights, European Union chief Donald Tusk dismissed it as falling "below our expectations." Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said "thousands of questions" remained on the key topic.

The 27 European Union leaders demanded many more details on the United Kingdom proposal to guarantee the rights of the 3 million European Unioncitizens who now live in Britain.

Since many of those citizens will want to stay even as Britain itself leaves the European Union, it is an immediate issue where May has a lot of leverage. The British leader is insisting that the European Union needs to give the 1.5 million Britons living on the continent equal respect. She will outline a more detailed proposal next Monday, when May addresses her parliament in London.

Alongside citizens' rights, the Brexit negotiators will address the substantial bill that Britain will have to pay to quit the European Union and the problems surrounding the border in Ireland.

"I want to reassure all those European Union citizens who are in the United Kingdom, who've made their lives and homes in the United Kingdom, that no one will have to leave, we won't be seeing families split apart. This is a fair and serious offer," May said.

Yet many European Union leaders were nonplussed by May's offer, saying there was a clear deal to leave such Brexit issues to the top negotiators, Michel Barnier for the European Union and David Davis for Britain.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said May's move was "not yet the breakthrough" that EU nations were looking for, adding "there is a long road in front of us." Tusk agreed.

"My first impression is that the United Kingdom's offer is below our expectations, and that it risks worsening the situation of citizens," Tusk said. "It will be for our negotiating team to analyse the offer line by line."

Exactly one year after British voters chose to leave the European Union and after months of political chaos at home, a weakened May sent her team into the Brexit negotiations that began Monday. The issue of citizens' rights was seen as her strongest point to make an immediate impact.

Many said she missed the mark.

"We don't want to buy a pig in a poke," said Belgian prime minister Charles Michel, calling May's opening "an extremely vague proposal for something that is incredibly complicated."

May promised that the fate of European Union citizens would be a priority in Brexit negotiations. She laid out benchmarks for their rights and said they should be shielded from excessive harm because of the political divorce.

German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel said preserving residency rights for European Unioncitizens was such an indisputable goal that any stumbles over the issue showed how fraught the talks would be.

"The situation must be really tense if such an obvious thing is now considered as news. Of course people should at least have the right to stay, that is a minimum and personally I cannot imagine things differently," Gabriel said in Paris.

Under May's proposal, European Unioncitizens with legal residence in the United Kingdom will not be asked to leave and will be offered a chance to regularize their situation after Brexit. May also promised to cut the burdensome bureaucracy such paperwork can involve. European Union citizens now face an imposing 85-page form to tackle if they want to stay.

Continued here:
Brexit: Britain, European Union clash over first proposal on protecting citizens' rights - Firstpost

Human rights are under threat across the EU, says FRA Director Michael OFlaherty. But the goodwill and support for the vulnerable in so many places around Europe should give us hope. We need to harness this positivity to ensure that human rights remain the bedrock of our societies. And we must do much more to show that human rights are not just for a select few, but for everyone.

Let us make now the time, when we end the scourge of poverty, within our European Union and beyond, as part of our commitment to secure the rights and freedoms of all, said Maltese President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca. Let us affirm the fundamental dignity of all human beings, by acting upon our duty to strive for the best interests all individuals and communities, and especially, the most vulnerable members of our society.

The EU is facing persisting high poverty levels and rates of youth unemployment demoralising to those entering the labour market for the first time. We are also witnessing political groupings that seek to capitalise on fears within the population for their own short-term electoral gains by championing nationalist and sometimes racist agendas. All of this increases the importance and difficulty of communicating human rights, whether as an expert in the field, a politician, or a journalist.

Is Europe doing enough to protect fundamental rights? will take stock of human rights developments in the EU over the last 10 years. The symposium will address the three most burning issues on the EUs policy agenda by focusing on migration and asylum, insecurity and fear, and poverty and social exclusion. Particular attention will be paid to the childrens perspective, and children themselves will take part in the event as speakers and commentators.

FRAs annual flagship Fundamental Rights Report and Opinions, now available in all EU languages, will be presented at the symposium, and together the Agencys new report on the detention of child migrants will form the backdrop to the discussions.

For further information please contact: media@fra.europa.eu

Tel.: +43 1 580 30 642

The event will be livestreamed from 9am CET on 28 June here. The event hashtag is #rightsreport17.

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Is Europe doing enough to protect fundamental rights? - EU News