Teen apparently scaled a restricted-area fence to retrieve his hat

A South Carolina teenager died this weekend after he was struck and killed by a rollercoaster in Georgia’s Six Flags Amusement Park, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Asia Leeshawn Ferguson, age 17, and a friend scaled two fences that surrounded the Batman ride as a short cut to get back into the park Saturday afternoon, police said. Ferguson was decapitated and died instantly when the coaster hit him. Both fences, police say, were marked with warning signs, one saying “restricted area” for “authorized personnel only” and other saying “Danger zone” and “Do not enter.” “The area’s clearly defined with signs. It’s very tragic that these individuals would decide to jump over the fence. It would be hard to imagine somebody not seeing the signs and jumping two fences,” Sgt. Dana Pierce, a Cobb County Police spokesman, told reporters. The Batman Ride travels up to 50 m.p.h. Ferguson, whose family was in the park when the tragedy occurred, was in Georgia on a church trip, reports the newspaper. No one who was actually on the ride was injured in the incident. Afterward, the ride was closed to the public. It was scheduled to reopen today. This is the second fatality at the same park and on the same ride. In 2002, 58-year-old Samuel Milton Guyton was killed when he was kicked in the head by a teen girl on the Batman ride. Here’s more.
 

NAACP wins a round in a long-running racial-profiling case
The NAACP won a major victory in its long-running battle with the Maryland State Police when Baltimore circuit court judge ruled that the civil rights group may review documents relating to allegations of racial profiling. The Maryland chapter of the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last year accusing the law enforcement agency of withholding information about its handling of racial-profiling complaints. In his decision Friday, Judge Timothy Martin gave the NAACP’s lawyers 120 days to examine the documents and pick the ones they want copied. Responding to concerns expressed by attorneys for the Maryland troopers, Martin ordered names of officers and people who filed complaints blacked out. “I believe the fair approach is to find a middle ground,” Martin told The (Baltimore) Sun. “I know state police fear a precedent, but I believe the NAACP is entitled to disclosure of these documents.” Brian L. Schwalb, lead attorney for the NAACP and ACLU, said, “We are not on a witch hunt against troopers,” he said. The decision comes on the heels of another major racial-profiling decision three months ago. In that case, the state of Maryland settled the infamous 1998 “Driving While Black” case after being accused of stopping motorists because of their race. Six plaintiffs received a total of $400,000. Maryland troopers are required to document the race of drivers they stop, because of a federal ruling in 2003.

TAGS: carolina, decapitated, flags, maryland, NAACP, profiling, racial, six, South, teenager

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