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Mar 23, 2012

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thumbnail High school students walk out in protest of Trayvon Martin shooting
Mar 23rd 2012, 17:13

NBC Miami

An aerial photo shows students in Miami forming a TM on a football field in protest of the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

By Brian Hamacher and Lisa Orkin Emmanuel, NBCMiami.com

Hundreds of students at several South Florida high schools staged walkouts Friday morning in a massive protest against the lack of an arrest in the Trayvon Martin shooting.

Students from Miami Central, Miami Edison, Miami Norland, American Senior, William H. Turner High and Southridge High in Miami and Blanche Ely High School in Broward held walkouts.


Click here for a complete list of schools that held walkouts.

See video, read the original story on the walkout at NBCMiami.com

At Miami Central and Turner, students were seen pouring out of the school buildings and into the streets just after 9 a.m.

Miami-Dade Police later reported a crwod of students had congregated at Southland Mall.

Miami-Dade Schools Police spokesman Sgt. Ivan Silva said there had been no incidents reported.

"Our job is to make sure the demonstrations are being run in safe and peaceful manner," Silva said.

Miami-Dade Police said they were helping with crowd control as well.

Miami-Dade School District officials didn't return calls for comment. Broward County Public Schools spokeswoman Nadine Drew said the protests in that county were organized with the help of the school staff.

"For the most part they are being organized and are being supported by the school family as an outpouring show of support," she said. "I think the reaction is similar to the national reaction. I don't think our students are any different than others."

Gerardo Mora / Getty Images

Trayvon Martin's photo is seen during a protest this week in Sanford, Fla.

Students at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School, where Martin was attending when he was killed, will be making a banner for Martin that will be signed by students.

On Thursday, students at Miami's Carol City High School staged a massive walkout outside the Miami Gardens school. Police said the school's principal had approved of an on-campus demonstration but that students left school grounds.

Republicans join call for Trayvon Martin inquiry

Martin, 17, was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on Feb. 26 in Sanford.

Martin was visiting with his father at his father's girlfriend's home in a gated community and had gone to buy a bag of Skittles and iced tea at a nearby convenience store and was walking back when the shooting happened.

Obama: 'If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon'

Though Martin was unarmed, Zimmerman told police the shooting was self-defense, and no charges have been filed in the case.

Martin's ninth-grade teacher, Noemy Pascual, remembered him as a good student. He went to George T. Baker Aviation School two years ago, and she taught him three classes of Aerospace Technology.

"He was a normal student. He was well-behaved. He passed all the classes," she said.

She said he left the school because he went to live with his father in Miami Gardens.

"Really, we always feel bad because to lose a young life. It's terrible," she said. "I told my husband 'Oh, he was my student."

Thursday night, the Rev. Al Sharpton held a rally in Sanford with Martin's parents to push for Zimmerman's arrest. Hours before the rally, Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. announced he was temporarily stepping down until the completion of the Martin shooting investigation.

"We did not come here for a temporary leave of absence. We came for permanent justice," Sharpton said. "From top to bottom, we don’t need temporary relief. We need permanent change."

About a half-hour into the rally, which was attended by around 8,000 people, word came that Gov. Rick Scott had appointed a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into Martin's death.

The governor said he appointed Angela Corey, a prosecutor for the Jacksonville area, to lead the investigation after Norman Wolfinger, the state attorney for Seminole and Brevard counties, recused himself.

Scott also appointed a task force led by Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll to hold hearings about the shooting and make recommendations for changing state laws and procedures.

The U.S. Justice Department and FBI are also investigating the shooting. Martin's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, met with representatives from both departments before Thursday night's rally to discuss the case.

Sharpton told those gathered at the rally that "Zimmerman should have been arrested that night" and that police had probable cause.

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thumbnail Rap video gone wrong: Man fatally shot, run over
Mar 23rd 2012, 16:02

A Philadelphia man was fatally shot and then accidentally run over Thursday night during the filming of an amateur rap video. WCAU-TV's Byron Scott reports.

By NBC10.com

A man was shot and killed then accidentally run over Thursday night during the filming of an amateur rap video, according to Philadelphia police.

The shooting happened as cameras rolled around 7 p.m. at N 5th and Tabor Streets in the Olney section of Philadelphia. There were about 100 people at the filming of the video, according to police.

A 33-year-old man was hit in the head and later pronounced dead at the hospital.

For more, visit NBC10.com

"He collapsed on the street in the 500 block of Tabor and during all the confusion he was run over by a vehicle trying to get out of the area after hearing the gunshots," said Chief Inspector Scott Small.

Police say the driver won’t be charged.

Officers took three men with guns into custody after watching amateur video of the incident. Investigators tell NBC10 that they believe one of those men is the shooter.

"We immediately watched the video... and we were able to determine the description of the shooter who was seen clearly on the tape," Small said.

Police don't know what prompted the gunfire.

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thumbnail Judge clears way for killing of salmon-gulping sea lions
Mar 23rd 2012, 15:03

By msnbc.com news services

Richard Clement / Reuters, file

Sea lions rest inside an open cage on the Columbia River at the Bonneville Dam in North Bonneville, Wash., in April 2008.

Oregon state authorities can resume killing California sea lions that feast on endangered salmon bottled up at a dam on the Columbia River, but fewer than one-third as many as federal biologists previously had authorized, a judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington, D.C., on Thursday denied the Humane Society of the United States' request to stop the killing at the Bonneville Dam while a lawsuit challenging the program goes forward. But he limited the killing to 30 animals a year instead of the 92 authorized by federal authorities, and ordered that none of them may be shot. 


"Obviously we are very disappointed that this program was not halted," said Sharon Young, marine issues field director of the Humane Society. "But, we are grateful that the court put some restraints on it."

It was the group's third attempt to permanently halt the killings since they started in 2008.

The floating traps are out and if any of the 92 California sea lions branded as regular salmon eaters are seen inside them, the gates will be sprung, and the animals killed by lethal injection, said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Jessica Sall. She said they have no plans to shoot any animals. California sea lions that hang around the dams eating salmon, and refuse to leave despite hazing by rubber bullets and firecrackers, go on a kill list.

Adult salmon and steelhead returning to spawn get bottled up at the fish ladders over Bonneville, located east of Portland, Ore. California sea lions, which are federally protected as marine mammals, but not as threatened or endangered species, swim about 145 miles upriver to the dam to feed on the fish in the spring.

Since 2008, 28 sea lions have been killed and 10 placed in institutions under similar salmon-protection programs overseen by the Fisheries Service.

The limits imposed by the judge should not pose a problem, Sall said. The department did not anticipate killing more than 30 animals in any one year. Over the past four years, only 41 have been trapped and killed or sent to a zoo or aquarium. The current authorization from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service is good for four years.

The Humane Society lawsuit contends that the Fisheries Service erred when it decided that sea lions eating up to 4.2 percent of the fish passing over the dam amounted to a significant obstacle to the restoration of endangered salmon, when fishermen are allowed to take up to 17 percent. It adds that killing sea lions will have no effect on restoring salmon, which face a greater threat from fishermen and predation by walleye and bass introduced into the river for sport fishermen to catch.

The department, a co-defendant in the case, counters that while sea lions kill some protected salmon, fishermen are only allowed to kill hatchery-bred fish. The department says it is able to estimate how many wild fish die after being released, and to shut down the season if necessary.

Salmon returns to the Columbia Basin in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana have declined steadily from harm caused by dams, logging, agriculture and urban development since settlement of the region began in the 1840s. Only a small percentage of the fish are wild, with the great majority produced in hatcheries. There are 14 different types of wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin protected by the Endangered Species Act.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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