Raoul Cunningham, president of the Louisville, Kentucky, branch of the NAACP, speaks at DC Vote rally on Capitol Hill in support of S. 1257, the DC House Voting Rights Act, 17 Sep 2007. (Flikr Photo/Keith Ivey)
 
by Joseph Gerth
The Courier-Journal
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Raoul Cunningham was a gangly 17-year-old high school junior when Louisville police came for him at the lunch counter of the old Stewart's Department Store in February 1961. They handcuffed him, he says, and hauled him off to the old Children's Center juvenile facility on East Chestnut Street.

Over the next two years, that scenario would be repeated hundreds of times as Cunningham and other African-American high school students — mainly from Central and Male — waged a battle of sit-ins, squat-ins and stand-ins against restaurants, movie houses and other businesses that wouldn't serve them because of their race.

In this photo copied from the 2010 Sleepy Hollow High School yearbook, high school student Andrea Rubello is shown. (AP Photo/Sleepy Hollow High School)

by Verena Dobnik

NEW YORK (AP) — The police officer who accidentally killed a Long Island college student along with an armed intruder faced perhaps the most harrowing decision in law enforcement: choosing the split-second moment when the risk is so high that you must pull the trigger.

That's the moment authorities say a Nassau County police officer experienced early Friday morning when a masked man holding 21-year-old Andrea Rebello in a headlock pointed a loaded handgun at him.

"The big question is, how do you know, when someone's pointing a gun at you, whether you should keep talking to them, or shoot?" said Michele Galietta, a professor of psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who helps train police officers. "That's what makes the job of an officer amazingly difficult."

She spoke Sunday as Hofstra University students honored Rebello, a popular public relations major, by wearing white ribbons at their graduation ceremony.

On Saturday evening, flags on the Hempstead campus were at half-staff and students held a silent outdoor vigil in front of a photo of the young woman. Surrounded by candles and flowers, they sang "Ave Maria."

Rebello's funeral is scheduled for Wednesday in Sleepy Hollow, in Westchester County, north of New York City.

Her life ended in the seconds that forced the veteran police officer to make a fatal decision, but the questions surrounding the student's death are just beginning, along with an internal investigation by the Nassau County Police Department.

The bare facts are simple.

This undated photo provided by the Nassau County Police Department shows Dalton Smith of Hempstead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Nassau County Police Department)

Rebello and the intruder, Dalton Smith, died early Friday when the officer fired eight shots, hitting him seven times, with one bullet striking Rebello once in the head, according to county homicide squad Lt. John Azzata.

With a gun pointed at her, Smith "kept saying, 'I'm going to kill her,' and then he pointed the gun at the police officer," according to Azzata.

The officer acted quickly, saying later that he believed his and Rebello's life were in danger, according to authorities.

No doubt, he was acting to try to save lives — his own and that of the young woman, Galietta said.

"What we're asking the cop to anticipate is, 'What is going on in the suspect's mind at the moment?'" she said. "We're always trying to de-escalate, to contain a situation, but the issue of safety comes in first, and that's the evaluation the officer has to make."

Eugene O'Donnell, a former New York City police officer and professor of law and police studies at John Jay College, said the crucial issue may be whether or not police had deemed it a hostage situation. If so, he said, there are protocols police follow to buy time, slow down, isolate and assess.

But O'Donnell said the officers may have had few options because of "an eyeball to eyeball confrontation between the officer and the offender."

"It may have been too fluid to deteriorate for the officers to do anything else," O'Donnell said. "It underscores that there's no two of these that are exactly alike."

Police tactical manuals are meant to assist officers in making the best decision possible, but in the end, "they're not 100 percent foolproof," Galietta said. "In a situation like that, you can follow procedure, and it doesn't mean it comes out perfectly."

The officer who fired the shots is an eight-year NYPD veteran and has been with Nassau County police for 12 years.

He is now out on sick leave, Azzata said.

Procedurally, the Nassau County district attorney's office would determine whether an officer's use of deadly force was justified. O'Donnell said. A spokesman for the district attorney's office did not respond to a request for comment Saturday night.

There are some rules governing the use of force for New York police officers. A subsection of Article 35 of New York Penal Law prohibits against recklessly endangering innocent people.

Associated Press writers Frank Eltman in Mineola, N.Y., and Jake Pearson contributed to this report.

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Abdulah Salim, Jr. holds photograph of his father Dr. Reginald A. Hawkins who was a prominent Charlotte civil rights leader, in Silver Spring, Md. In the spring of 1963, a Hawkins led 65 people on a four-mile march from an African American college to the center of Charlotte’s downtown. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
 
by Mitch Weiss

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — In the spring of 1963, a prominent civil rights leader led dozens of protesters on a four-mile march from a predominantly African-American college campus to the center of Charlotte's downtown.

At the rally, Dr. Reginald Hawkins warned city leaders that if something wasn't done to end segregation, future marches might not be so peaceful

Nearly two weeks later, civil rights and White business leaders quietly joined forces to desegregate the city's upscale restaurants and hotels. In a simple but powerful gesture, they ate lunch together in the restaurants, peacefully opening the door to integration.

Members of the Black Riders Liberation Party arrive at a service for Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X, at the Islamic Center of Northern California in Oakland, Calif., May 17, 2013. Authorities say Shabazz was beaten to death last week in a dispute over a $1,200 bar bill in Mexico City. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
 
by Terry Collins
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Hundreds gathered Friday to remember the late grandson of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X as mourners said Malcolm Shabazz was well on his way to cementing his own legacy.

More than 200 people attended a traditional Islamic service in Oakland for the 28-year-old Shabazz, who authorities say was beaten to death last week over a $1,200 bar bill in Mexico City.

The service, which lasted more than two hours, featured plenty of prayer, songs, spoken word and tears. Many among the procession of speakers said while they initially connected with Shabazz because of his famous grandfather, they learned to appreciate a man they called "Young Malcolm" as a leader in his own right.

"If I could put into one word how I feel about Malcolm, it would be, 'inspiration,'" Hussein Mekki, 32, of Houston, Texas, told fellow mourners. "Hopefully that will continue, and he can inspire us for the rest of our lives."

Despite troubles early in life, from setting a blaze in his grandmother's apartment that resulted in the death of Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz, to stints in juvenile hall and prison, mourners said Shabazz was seeking redemption with plans to write a memoir and another book denouncing youth violence.

Abdel Malik Ali, 55, a community activist from Oakland, said "Young Malcolm" appeared ready to fuse the history of Malcolm X along with his own experiences he described as "Generation Next."

Shabazz, who also was the father of a young girl, wanted to help build mosques and education centers across America, Ali said.

"He was looking for his own voice, his own place in this world," Ali said. "He had his struggles just like everybody else, but he eventually took on a huge responsibility in embracing his family's legacy that's harder than anybody could ever imagine."

While Shabazz was originally from New York, he settled in the Bay Area more than three years ago after taking a spiritual pilgrimage to Mecca at the advice of friends and local political activist Yuri Kochiyama, who knew his grandfather and wrote to Shabazz while he was incarcerated.

Close friend Hashim Ali Alauddeen, a doctoral student in Islamic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said Friday that Shabazz had plans to attend community college in the area and eventually seek a bachelor's degree in African-American studies at Berkeley.

"His heart was sincere. He strived to do what's right," Alauddeen said tearfully as he stood over Shabazz's casket while delivering his friend's eulogy. "He did his best to purify his soul. His intention and his sincerity were to serve God."

Shabazz died May 9 after he was beaten outside a bar near Plaza Garibaldi, a downtown square that is home to Mexico City's mariachis. Before his trip to Mexico, Shabazz had connected with a labor and construction group in California, and he traveled to Mexico to meet with one of its organizers who had been deported in April.

Labor activist Miguel Suarez, who was traveling with Shabazz, told The Associated Press last week that he and Shabazz were lured to the bar by a young woman who spoke to Shabazz in English.

Authorities in Mexico City say Suarez told investigators that he and Shabazz drank about a dozen beers and then the waiters demanded they pay a tab of 15,000 pesos, or about $1,200.

Mexico City's top prosecutor said two waiters arrested in the case had served Shabazz earlier. An autopsy found Shabazz died of blows to the head, face and torso.

Alauddeen said Shabazz's body will be buried in New York next to his grandparents.