NATIONAL
NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER
NOVEMBER 14-20, 2018
A3
Victim’s dad, NAACP criticize handling of Black attorney’s death by Dave Collins
Dabela, 35, was found shot in the head in his crashed Associated Press Writer Mercedes SUV near his home in Redding shortly HARTFORD, Conn. after 1:30 a.m. on April (AP)—A court fight over 5, 2014. His blood-alcohol first responders’ DNA has broken out in the case of a level was nearly 2.5 times the legal limit for driving, Black Connecticut lawyer police said. Police said he found shot to death in his died of what appeared to overturned SUV. be a self-inflicted gunshot, The lawyer’s father, Dr. and the medical examiner’s Abraham Dabela, has office ruled the death a suiaccused police of covering cide. A prosecutor concludup a murder. But police said evidence points to the ed there was no evidence of a homicide. death being a suicide. Police and firefighters The police officers and submitted DNA samples firefighters in Redding about a year after Dabela’s are trying to fend off an death, and state crime lab attempt to collect samples of their DNA by Dr. Dabela, tests excluded them as the who is trying to determine source of DNA found on the gun. But Keith Altman, one the source of unknown of Dr. Dabela’s attorneys, DNA found on the trigger said it was recently discovof his son’s gun at the ered that three firefighters crash site. who were at the scene did Gugsa Abraham “Abe”
not submit DNA samples. Dabela had been intimidated by Redding firefighters at a local bar a few weeks before his death, Dr. Dabela’s lawyers said. The police investigation has drawn heavy criticism from the state NAACP chapter, which has been doing its own review of the death in the affluent, mostly White suburb of Redding. Dr. Dabela is suing Redding police officials in federal court in Hartford over their handling of the investigation. Police officials, including former Redding Chief Douglas Fuchs, deny allegations in the lawsuit that they rushed to a suicide judgment and failed to adequately investigate the younger Dabela’s death because he was Black.
GUGSA DABELA The elder Dabela, a medical doctor in Maryland, has subpoenaed several police officers and
firefighters to submit DNA samples for an independent analysis. Lawyers for the first responders have filed a motion to quash the subpoenas. A hearing about the subpoenas is scheduled for Dec. 13 before federal Magistrate Judge Donna Martinez. “As long as I live, I’m not going to let this thing die without reaching a conclusion,” Dr. Dabela said. “I’m seeking, and I shall gain, the truth. I knew my son for 35 years ... and my son is not going to kill himself because he had a very bright future. It appears to me that either the police killed him and they want to hide it, or they know the killer and they want to hide it.” Dr. Dabela’s lawyers have raised many questions, including why his son’s DNA
was not found on the gun’s trigger or the bullet that killed him and why there was a footprint on his back. Tests show there was DNA of an unknown person on the trigger, they said. “Everything they’ve done has been used to confirm the finding of suicide,” Altman said. The younger Dabela also once had a dispute with Fuchs, the police chief, over obtaining a gun permit, Dr. Dabela’s lawyers said. Fuchs retired as chief in July amid another lawsuit over his handling of a 2016 suicide. Attorneys for Redding police deny Dr. Dabela’s claims and say first responders shouldn’t have to submit their DNA again because it already has been collected and analyzed.
Mississippi senator’s ‘public hanging’ remark draws rebuke by Emily Wagster Pettus Associated Press Writer
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)—A newly published video shows a White Republican U.S. senator in Mississippi praising someone by saying: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who faces a Black Democratic challenger in a Nov. 27 runoff, said Sunday that her Nov. 2 remark was “an exaggerated expression of regard” for a friend who invited her to speak, and “any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous.” Mississippi has a bitter history of racially motivated lynchings of Black people. The NAACP website says that between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,743 lynchings in the United States, and nearly 73 percent of the victims were Black. It says Mississippi had 581 during that time, the most of any state. Hyde-Smith is challenged by former congressman and former U.S. agriculture secretary Mike Espy. “Cindy Hyde-Smith’s comments are reprehensible,” Espy campaign spokesman Danny Blanton said in a statement Sunday. “They have no place in our political discourse, in Mississippi, or our country. We need leaders, not dividers, and her words show that she lacks the under-
standing and judgment U.S. House seat in Misto represent the people of sissippi, and if he defeats our state.” Hyde-Smith, he would be The video was shot in the first African AmeriTupelo, in front of a statcan since Reconstruction ue of Elvis Presley, who to represent the state in was born in the city in the U.S. Senate. northeastern Mississippi. Hyde-Smith, who is It shows a small group endorsed by President of White people clapping Donald Trump, is the politely for Hyde-Smith first woman to represent after a fellow cattle Mississippi in either rancher introduced her. chamber of Congress, Republican Gov. Phil and after being appointBryant appointed Hydeed is trying to become Smith to temporarily the first woman elected succeed Cochran, who to the U.S. Senate from retired amid health conthe state. cerns in April. She will Lamar White Jr., serve until the special publisher of a left-leanelection is resolved. ing Louisiana news site Hyde-Smith and Espy called The Bayou Brief, each received about 41 posted the video Sunday percent of the vote in a on social media. White four-person race TuesSEN. CINDY HYDE-SMITH, R-Miss., told The Associated day to advance to the speaks to supporters of her cam- Press he received the runoff. The winner gets paign during an election night party video late Saturday from Tuesday, Nov. 6. (Sarah Warnock/The “a very reliable, trusted the final two years of a term started by longtime Clarion-Ledger via AP). source,” but he would not Republican Sen. Thad reveal the person’s name. Cochran. He said that source received it from the Espy in 1986 became the first African person who shot the video. American since Reconstruction to win a White said he believes he received the
video because he has been writing about racism in the South for about a dozen years. “There’s no excuse to say what she said,” White said of Hyde-Smith. The national NAACP president Derrick Johnson, who is from Mississippi, said Hyde-Smith’s comment shows a lack of judgment. “Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s shameful remarks prove once again how Trump has created a social and political climate that normalizes hateful and racist rhetoric,” Johnson said in a statement. “HydeSmith’s decision to joke about ‘hanging,’ in a state known for its violent and terroristic history toward African Americans, is sick. To envision this brutal and degenerate type of frame during a time when Black people, Jewish people and immigrants are still being targeted for violence by White nationalists and racists is hateful and hurtful.” A Republican activist who initially supported another candidate in the special U.S. Senate election said he will vote for Hyde-Smith in the runoff, even though he considers her a weak candidate. “That comment about ‘a public hanging’ is much ado about nothing,” said Scott Brewster of Brandon, who is White. “She’s not very smart and made a tone-deaf comment. It doesn’t make her a racist.”