Boy killed in Colorado reservation shooting was in bed when he was hit

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Boy killed in Colorado reservation shooting was in bed when he was hit

2024-12-27 05:14 Last Updated At：05:20

DENVER (AP) — A 7-year-old boy who died in a shooting that left 24 bullet holes in a home on a tribal reservation in Colorado was lying next to his father in bed when he was hit, according to court documents unsealed Thursday.

Zackieus Lang told investigators that his son was on the right side of the bed and he was sleeping on the left when he heard gunfire just after midnight on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, according to an arrest affidavit for Jeremiah Hight, who is charged in the shooting.

The FBI, which investigates serious crimes on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in the Four Corners region where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet, did not provide a motive. However, one person who was drinking with Hight and others in the hours before the shooting told an FBI agent that Hight had said he planned to “shoot up Zackieus Lang’s house", according to the arrest affidavit.

Hight was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon on a mesa west of Oljato, Utah, on the Navajo Nation reservation by members of the Navajo Police Department’s dog team and the Bureau of Indian Affairs drug enforcement division, Navajo police said. Authorities had been looking for Hight for several days before finding him in a remote area, Navajo police spokesperson Chrissy Largo said.

Investigators found 24 bullet casings from an “assault-style rifle” at the shooting site in Colorado. They were recovered near where a person was seen shooting on a surveillance video, according to the affidavit.

Lang said he saw his son, Zamias Lang, immediately “struggling in pain.”

Hight's arrest came about 24 hours after the FBI announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction in the fatal shooting at the home in Towaoc, Colorado, on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. The town is about 110 miles (177 kilometers) east of where Hight was found.

Hight briefly appeared in federal court in Flagstaff, Arizona, Thursday. He did not contest that he was the person being sought in Zamias Lang's shooting, so he will be sent to Colorado to face charges of second-degree murder and assault with a dangerous weapon in Indian Country and using a firearm during a violent crime, according to court documents.

A message seeking comment was left Thursday for Hight’s lawyer, Luke Stephen Mulligan.

South Korea's opposition-controlled National Assembly votes to impeach acting President Han

2024-12-27 17:34 Last Updated At：17:40

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s opposition-controlled National Assembly voted Friday to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo despite vehement protests by governing party lawmakers, further deepening the country’s political crisis set off by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning imposition of martial law and ensuing impeachment.

Han’s impeachment means he will be stripped of the powers and duties of the president until the Constitutional Court decides whether to dismiss or reinstate him. The court is already reviewing whether to uphold Yoon's earlier impeachment. The impeachments of the country’s top two officials worsen its political turmoil, deepen its economic uncertainty and hurt its international image.

The single-chamber National Assembly passed Han’s impeachment motion with a 192-0 vote. Lawmakers with the governing People Power Party boycotted the vote and surrounded the podium where assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik was seated and shouted that the vote was “invalid” and demanded Woo's resignation. No violence or injuries were reported.

The PPP lawmakers protested after Woo called for a vote on Han’s impeachment motion after announcing its passage required a simple majority in the 300-memer assembly, not a two-thirds majority as claimed by the PPP. Most South Korean officials can be impeached by the National Assembly with a simple majority vote, but a president’s impeachment needs the support of two-thirds. There are no specific laws on the impeachment of an acting president.

In a statement, Han called his impeachment “regrettable” but said he respects the assembly's decision and will suspend his duties to “not add to additional confusion and uncertainty.” He said he will wait for “a swift, wise decision” by the Constitutional Court.

Han’s powers were officially suspended after the copies of his impeachment document were delivered to him and the Constitutional Court. The deputy prime minister and finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, is next in line to take over.

Han, who was appointed prime minister by Yoon, became acting president after Yoon, a conservative, was impeached by the National Assembly about two weeks ago over his short-lived Dec. 3 imposition of martial law. Han quickly clashed with the main liberal opposition Democratic Party as he pushed back against opposition-led efforts to fill three vacant seats on the Constitutional Court, establish an independent investigation into Yoon’s martial law decree and legislate pro-farmer bills.

At the heart of the fighting is the Democratic Party’s demand that Han approve the assembly's nominations of three new Constitutional Court justices to restore its full nine-member bench ahead of its ruling on Yoon’s impeachment. That’s a politically sensitive issue because a court decision to dismiss Yoon as president needs support from at least six justices, and adding more justices will likely increase the prospects for Yoon’s ouster. Yoon’s political allies in the governing party oppose the appointment of the three justices, saying Han shouldn’t exercise the presidential authority to make the appointments while Yoon has yet to be formally removed from office.

On Thursday, Han said he wouldn’t appoint the justices without bipartisan consent. The Democratic Party, which holds a majority in the assembly, submitted an impeachment motion against Han and passed bills calling for the appointment of three justices.

South Korean investigative agencies are probing whether Yoon committed rebellion and abuse of power with his marital law decree. His defense minister, police chief and several other senior military commanders have already been arrested over the deployment of troops and police officers to the National Assembly, which prompted a dramatic standoff that ended when lawmakers managed to enter the chamber and voted unanimously to overrule Yoon’s decree.

Han's impeachment motion accuses him of collaborating and abetting Yoon's declaration of martial law. It also accuses Han of attempting to obstruct the restoration of the Constructional Court's full membership and of delaying investigations into Yoon's alleged rebellion by not appointing independent counsels.