Latest news with #Hernandez-Garcia
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
18-year-old charged in Oakland chase that killed math teacher insists car wasn't stolen: attorney
The Brief Eric Scott Hernandez-Garcia insisted through his attorney that he did not steal the Infiniti that the CHP was chasing. Charging documents do not allege the car was stolen, though it didn't have any plates. Hernandez-Garcia, who is charged with the death of a Castlemont math teacher, delayed entering a plea until June 20. OAKLAND, Calif. - The attorney of an 18-year-old charged with felony vehicular manslaughter after the CHP pursued him and which led to the death of an innocent Castlemont math teacher in Oakland told KTVU a different version of events ahead of his Monday court hearing. Attorney Roseann Torres said that Eric Scott Hernandez-Garcia, who is "deathly afraid of police" was out on May 28 getting snacks at the store in his mother's Infiniti G35 when a California Highway Patrol officer started pursuing him. Authorities originally stated that the car was stolen. But Hernandez-Garcia, through his attorney, insists it was not; he said his mother owns the car. Video at the scene showed the Infiniti had no rear plates, something that Torres was not immediately able to explain. However, the teen's claims appear to have validity. On Monday, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Roberto Morales told KTVU that deputies spotted an Infiniti G35 driving recklessly on May 5 and issued a "seizure warrant" for the car. Morales acknowledged that deputies did not know who was driving at the time and said at that point, the car had rear plates and did not come back as stolen. It was this car that the CHP spotted on May 28, leaving the parking lot near the intersection of 102nd Avenue and International Bouelvard, when the driver took off. Hernandez-Garcia was driving the car that day. It's unclear if the Infiniti had plates on May 28, and if it didn't, how the CHP was alerted to the fact that the car was wanted. Torres also emphasized that Hernandez-Garcia had no weapons or drugs on him at the time, and that police had tried to stop him before, but he doesn't know why. She described Hernandez-Garcia as a scared teen, and is very traumatized by police. Torres asked, and was granted, her client's plea to be delayed until June 20. "All the police reports, the witnesses, Ring cameras, and things that are mentioned that we'll be obtaining," she said outside court. "We have to get the full extent of the evidence before we start the case, so today is too soon after the incident happened." Hernandez-Garcia was supposed to graduate Aspire High School this Saturday. On Friday, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office charged Hernandez-Garcia with seven felonies following the death of Marvin Boomer, a beloved Castlemont High teacher. Boomer was walking with his girlfriend at 7:45 p.m. at East 21st Street and Park Boulevard. At the same moment, California Highway Patrol officers were in pursuit of Hernandez-Garcia because they recognized his "wanted" Infiniti. Hernandez-Garcia ended up striking a minivan with two people inside, and then, five blocks later, a parked car, a tree and a fire hydrant, which ended up getting knocked off its base and flying into Boomer, killing him. According to a statement from Michelle D. Bernard, president and CEO of the Bernard Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy, who described herself as the official spokesperson for the Boomer family and his girlfriend, Boomer's family is "grief-stricken over the devastating and senseless loss." Bernard said that Boomer pushed his girlfriend out of the way, as the Infiniti was barreling toward them, saving her life. "It is clear that Marvin's actions spared her from also being killed," Bernard said in a statement. Boomer's sister and girlfriend, who did not identify herself by name, also issued statements on Monday, asking for privacy. "Marvin gave his life to save mine," his girlfriend wrote. "I'm still here because of him. But I lost the love of my life. I am living with unimaginable pain—physical and emotional. Let Marvin's legacy be honored with truth, dignity, and care." Click to open this PDF in a new window.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Massive black hole 'waking up' in Virgo constellation
A massive black hole at the heart of a galaxy in the Virgo constellation is waking up, shooting out intense X-ray flares at regular intervals that have puzzled scientists, a study said Friday. Astronomers previously had little reason to pay any attention to galaxy SDSS1335+0728, which is 300 million light years from Earth. But in 2019, the galaxy suddenly started shining with a brightness that turned some telescopes its way. Then in February last year, Chilean astronomers started noticing regular bursts of X-rays coming from the galaxy. This was a sign that the galaxy's sleeping black hole was waking from its slumber, according to the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Most galaxies, including our home Milky Way, have a supermassive black hole squatting at their heart, like a spider in a web. These invisible monsters gobble up everything that comes their way -- not even light can escape their almighty suck. If an unlucky star swings too close, it gets torn apart. The star's shattered material becomes a stream that spins rapidly around the black hole, forming what is called an accretion disc that is gradually swallowed. But black holes can also go through long periods of inactivity when they do not attract matter. And after a fairly uneventful period, the bright, compact region at the heart of galaxy SDSS1335+0728 has been classified as an "active galactic nucleus" -- and given the nickname "Ansky". "This rare event provides an opportunity for astronomers to observe a black hole's behaviour in real time" using several X-ray telescopes, astronomer Lorena Hernandez-Garcia of Chile's Valparaiso University said in a statement. - 'Pushes models to their limits' - Ansky's short-lived X-ray flares are called quasiperiodic eruptions, or QPEs. "This is the first time we have observed such an event in a black hole that seems to be waking up," Hernandez-Garcia said. "We don't yet understand what causes them." The current theory is that QPEs are linked to the accretion discs that form after black holes swallow stars. But there is no sign that Ansky has recently feasted on a star. And its flares are quite unusual. "The bursts of X-rays from Ansky are 10 times longer and 10 times more luminous than what we see from a typical QPE," said Joheen Chakraborty, a PhD student at MIT and member of the research team. "Each of these eruptions is releasing a hundred times more energy than we have seen elsewhere." The intervals of 4.5 days between these blasts are also the longest ever observed, he added. "This pushes our models to their limits and challenges our existing ideas about how these X-ray flashes are being generated," he said in the statement. Astronomers have had to come up with some theories for what could be causing these strange bursts. One was that the accretion disc was formed by gas getting sucked into the black hole, which only shoots out X-ray flares when a small celestial object such as a star crosses its path. "Simply imagine a black hole and disc around it," Norbert Schartel, chief scientist of the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton telescope which has observed Ansky, told AFP. Now imagine the star crossing the disc twice every time it orbits -- shooting out flares -- but at a particular angle which means "there is no real strong force to drag it in," he said. X-ray astronomer Erwan Quintin told AFP that "for QPEs, we're still at the point where we have more models than data". "We need more observations to understand what's happening." ber/dl/gil
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Massive black hole 'waking up' in Virgo constellation
A massive black hole at the heart of a galaxy in the Virgo constellation is waking up, shooting out intense X-ray flares at regular intervals that have puzzled scientists, a study said Friday. Astronomers previously had little reason to pay any attention to galaxy SDSS1335+0728, which is 300 million light years from Earth. But in 2019, the galaxy suddenly started shining with a brightness that turned some telescopes its way. Then in February last year, Chilean astronomers started noticing regular bursts of X-rays coming from the galaxy. This was a sign that the galaxy's sleeping black hole was waking from its slumber, according to the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Most galaxies, including our home Milky Way, have a supermassive black hole squatting at their heart, like a spider in a web. These invisible monsters gobble up everything that comes their way -- not even light can escape their almighty suck. If an unlucky star swings too close, it gets torn apart. The star's shattered material becomes a stream that spins rapidly around the black hole, forming what is called an accretion disc that is gradually swallowed. But black holes can also go through long periods of inactivity when they do not attract matter. And after a fairly uneventful period, the bright, compact region at the heart of galaxy SDSS1335+0728 has been classified as an "active galactic nucleus" -- and given the nickname "Ansky". "This rare event provides an opportunity for astronomers to observe a black hole's behaviour in real time" using several X-ray telescopes, astronomer Lorena Hernandez-Garcia of Chile's Valparaiso University said in a statement. - 'Pushes models to their limits' - Ansky's short-lived X-ray flares are called quasiperiodic eruptions, or QPEs. "This is the first time we have observed such an event in a black hole that seems to be waking up," Hernandez-Garcia said. "We don't yet understand what causes them." The current theory is that QPEs are linked to the accretion discs that form after black holes swallow stars. But there is no sign that Ansky has recently feasted on a star. And its flares are quite unusual. "The bursts of X-rays from Ansky are 10 times longer and 10 times more luminous than what we see from a typical QPE," said Joheen Chakraborty, a PhD student at MIT and member of the research team. "Each of these eruptions is releasing a hundred times more energy than we have seen elsewhere." The intervals of 4.5 days between these blasts are also the longest ever observed, he added. "This pushes our models to their limits and challenges our existing ideas about how these X-ray flashes are being generated," he said in the statement. Astronomers have had to come up with some theories for what could be causing these strange bursts. One was that the accretion disc was formed by gas getting sucked into the black hole, which only shoots out X-ray flares when a small celestial object such as a star crosses its path. "Simply imagine a black hole and disc around it," Norbert Schartel, chief scientist of the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton telescope which has observed Ansky, told AFP. Now imagine the star crossing the disc twice every time it orbits -- shooting out flares -- but at a particular angle which means "there is no real strong force to drag it in," he said. X-ray astronomer Erwan Quintin told AFP that "for QPEs, we're still at the point where we have more models than data". "We need more observations to understand what's happening." ber/dl/gil
