WACO, Texas – A grand jury declined to recommend charges for three Waco, Texas, police officers who shot bikers during a gunfight between rival motorcycle clubs in which nine people were killed and 20 others were hurt, the police department said Wednesday.
The gun battle happened in May 2015 outside a Twin Peaks restaurant where motorcycle clubs had gathered for a meeting, including members of the Bandidos and Cossacks, which the state considers to be gangs.
The McLennan County district attorney’s office asked the grand jury whether the shootings were justified after the officers had been cleared by an internal police investigation, according to Waco police spokesman Sgt. Patrick Swanton.
The officers, who were placed on paid administrative leave after the shooting, will return to full duty immediately, Waco’s interim police chief, Frank Gentsch, said in a news release.
JERUSALEM – Former Israeli President Shimon Peres’ condition was showing slight improvements after he suffered a major stroke, with his physicians saying Wednesday that he had regained consciousness and squeezed his doctor’s hand, while the nation rallied in prayer and support for the 93-year-old elder statesman and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Dr. Yitzhak Kreiss, director of the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, said Peres’ condition remained serious Wednesday afternoon, 24 hours after the stroke.
But he said Peres’ neurological signs were improving. He said that Peres, who had been placed in and out of a medically induced coma, was regaining consciousness from time to time and reacting to stimulation. Peres remained on mild sedatives and a respirator, Kreiss said.
Earlier Wednesday, Rafi Walden, Peres’ son-in-law and personal physician, said there appeared to be no imminent threat to his life anymore.
Associated Press
