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ICYMI: News you may have missed in the past week
Charlie Crist speaks out against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Orlando, teenager dies after fall from Icon Park ride and more news you might have missed
» Suspected Sanford mosque killer believed he was protecting property of Julius Caesar
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The suspected killer of a maintenance man at Sanford’s Husseini Islamic Center has been shot by police in Indian River County. According to authorities, 38-year-old Ahmed Raslan is suspected of killing an as-yet unnamed 59-year-old worker at the mosque last Thursday. Social media posts from the suspect indicate he thought he was going to the mosque to reclaim the property of Julius Caesar. Raslan drove away in the victim’s vehicle and was found by Indian River deputies in the parking lot of a Sam’s Club. Body camera footage shows the altercation between Raslan and police, where police shot the suspect multiple times. He is currently hospitalized.
» Teenager dies after fall from tower ride at Orlando’s Icon Park
A 14-year-old has died after falling from Icon Park’s recently opened freefall tower ride. Authorities were called to the park on International Drive late last Thursday, following the incident. Video from before the ride leaves the ground show riders questioning if the ride has a seatbelt. (It does not.) As it lifts off, a voice can be heard yelling from the ground about seatbelts. Graphic videos from the scene show the child coming loose from the ride’s seats as it drops and falling to the ground. The 14-year-old was taken to an area hospital where he later died of his injuries. The fall is the second deadly accident in two years at the Orlando park. A construction worker performing a check on the park’s Starflyer attraction fell in 2020.
» Florida fights against allowing DNA testing for Orange County
Death Row inmate
In a case involving a man who has been on Death Row for more than four decades, Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office and the inmate’s lawyers are battling in the Florida Supreme Court about allowing DNA testing of evidence. Moody’s office is objecting to an agreement that Orlando-area State Attorney Monique Worrell reached last year with lawyers for Death Row inmate Henry Sireci to allow the DNA testing. Moody’s office appealed to the Supreme Court after an Orange County circuit judge issued an order approving the release of evidence for testing. Sireci’s attorneys filed a 76-page brief last Thursday countering the state’s objection, saying state attorneys have discretion to allow DNA testing in cases where inmates argue they are innocent. Sireci, 73, was sentenced to death in the 1975 murder of used-car dealer Howard Poteet, but has maintained that he did not kill Poteet. “Every time an innocent person is in prison or on Death Row, the person who actually committed the crime has not been brought to justice. Thus, wrongful convictions harm not just core principles of justice and due process, but the safety of the public,” Sireci’s lawyers’ brief said.
» New Orlando monument honors first interracial Little League baseball game played in the South
A monument honoring the first interracial Little League baseball game played in the South was unveiled at Lake Lorna Doone Park last Thursday. The monument, called “Barrier Breakers,” celebrates a game between the Pensacola Jaycees and the Orlando Kiwanis from 1955. The bronze monument is of two 12-year-old boys, one Black and one white, in uniforms representing the two teams. Players who were a part of the historic game were present for the ceremony, as were Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and City Commissioner Regina Hill. The monument was commissioned by the Edward E. Haddock Jr. Family Foundation.
» Charlie Crist, local representatives speak out against ‘Don’t Say
Gay’ legislation in Orlando
Florida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist said that the “Don’t Say Gay” bill is wrong, unconscionable and hurts Florida’s students, teachers and the LGTBQ+ community during a panel discussion at UCF last Wednesday. Crist was joined at the “Say Gay” event by Orlando-area State Reps. Anna Eskamani and Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, LQBTQ+ activists and UCF students to speak out against the bill after it passed the Florida Legislature earlier this month. “‘Don’t Say Gay’ is a heinous piece of legislation that silences teachers in their own classrooms and takes away the safe spaces of millions of LGBTQ students who may have no where else to turn,” Crist said. The bill passed the state Senate on March 8 and was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday.
