Latest news with #O'Hara
CBS News
5 hours ago
- General
- CBS News
Minneapolis police bringing back Operation Safe Summer amid recent shootings
A recent shooting is raising a lot of questions about safety in the Twin Cities. Police said gunfire broke out at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis late Sunday night. Stageina Whiting, 23, was killed. Five others were hurt and had to be rushed to the hospital. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said he and his officers arrived to find a chaotic scene. "I don't know what can motivate people to come armed to a gathering like this in the way that they did," O'Hara said. "It's sickening, and we need people to come forward and provide some additional information." That mass shooting — along with another shooting outside Mariucci Arena after a high school graduation — is now sparking worry about what might come this summer. Crime typically spikes this time of year, but O'Hara says recent events are still concerning. It's why the department is bringing back a partnership between local, state and federal law enforcement leaders. MPD said Operation Safe Summer aims to target the "disproportionate amount of violence in Minneapolis neighborhoods" and the "individuals responsible." According to police, it's led to dozens of arrests and recovered firearms and kept illegal drugs off the streets. This is the program's fourth summer in a row. MPD is expected to share more on this initiative at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
1 dead, several wounded in Minnesota's Boom Island Park ‘war zone'
A woman was killed and five men wounded late Sunday when a mass shooting turned Minneapolis's Boom Island Park into a 'war zone,' officials said. Another woman was hospitalized after being knocked unconscious in the chaotic aftermath, Minnesota Police Chief Brian O'Hara told reporters at a Monday-morning press conference at the park. Investigators said there was likely more than one shooter, given the number of shell casings, and that no arrests had been made. The Hennepin County Medical examiner identified the woman killed as 23-year-old Stageina Katraya Shapryia Whiting from Brooklyn Center on Monday. She suffered a gunshot wound to the torso. The gunfire broke out during a dispute at a large gathering in the Mississippi River-adjacent park, O'Hara said, and calls began coming in around 9:30 p.m. Police arrived to find about 100 people in the park. Chief O'Hara said a large crowd had gathered at the park Sunday evening, perhaps for a BBQ, when an argument escalated into gunfire. His investigators believe multiple shooters were involved in the incident, as hundreds of pieces of evidence were strewn around the park, many of them empty shell casings. 'It's more akin to a war zone, the amount of casings found in the park. It's sickening and we need people to come forward,' O'Hara said. 'The level of violence displayed in this shooting is absolutely sickening, and our investigators will work diligently to bring whoever is responsible to justice.' Mayor Jacob Frey called the violence 'completely unacceptable' in a social media post stating that just this week, the city launched 'Operation Safe Summer' to curb violence. City statistics showed more than three dozen law enforcement units responded to the gunfire. CBS News reports that at least one Minneapolis City Council member wants to see Boom Island close its gates by 8 p.m.
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
From ‘The Pitt' to ‘Hamlet': Patrick Ball and a twisty take on Shakespeare come to the L.A. stage
To be or not to be a crazed murderer, that is the question at the bloody heart of the world premiere adaptation of 'Hamlet' opening Wednesday at the Mark Taper Forum with Patrick Ball in the central role, fresh off his star-making turn as Dr. Frank Langdon in the Max hit series 'The Pitt.' Co-starring Gina Torres from 'Suits,' this adaptation from director Robert O'Hara spins one of theater's most famous plays into a modern-day world of decaying Hollywood glamour. There is a mansion on the coast and the remnants of a 1930s soundstage. Hamlet's family runs a movie studio. The Danish prince is Hollywood royalty, and rather than being a tragic hero, his sanity and motive for murder are interrogated 'CSI'-style in a bracing second act that flips the script on the first 90 minutes, which are viewed entirely from Hamlet's perspective. There are added scenes and plenty of salty language, with dialogue that shifts from classical to 21st century vernacular. To be in this position at all — with his face on billboards, bus benches and streetlight banners across the city — is a 'miracle,' Ball says. He was a relative unknown before scoring a starring role on the zeitgeisty medical drama 'The Pitt,' which premiered in January and averaged more than 10 million viewers per episode, becoming one of Max's top five original series premieres of all time. Prior to that his only screen experience was a single episode of 'Law & Order.' He had, however, spent a decade 'grinding,' he says, 'auditioning for film and TV, getting close but never happening.' He also spent four years traveling for regional theater, performing in shows including 'Romeo & Juliet,' 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and 'The Lover' in places like Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Boston and San Diego. 'I had settled upon the fact that that was going to be it for me. And I was happy with that,' Ball says. 'And the dream of Hollywood was something that I had let go of, and I made peace with the fact that that wasn't going to be my life.' Then all of a sudden 'The Pitt' happened — and it felt like kismet. The North Carolina native's mother is an emergency room nurse and his father is a paramedic. The stories told on the Noah Wyle-led drama resonated with him. His parents read through the pilot episode and said, 'This checks out. This is real medicine,' Ball says, recalling how excited they were for him. To be able to tell stories that are meaningful to the community he grew up in, he says, feels like a blessing. So does working with seasoned pros like O'Hara and Torres. O'Hara, who is also an established playwright, received a Tony nomination in 2020 for directing Jeremy O. Harris' critically acclaimed 'Slave Play,' which set a box-office record during its West Coast premiere at the Taper, grossing $1.4 million in five weeks. Ball says that after seeing the show in New York, he spent the next four hours straight discussing it with the friend he went with. O'Hara is obsessed with true-crime shows like '48 Hours,' in which culprits stick to their stories of innocence even when faced with video replays of their guilt, so he built the second act of his production in a moody, film-noir, flashback style, with a detective questioning characters after the play's end-of-show massacre. Think David Lynch meets Alfred Hitchcock with a Salvador Dali-painted set. 'I think that the audience watching will go: 'Wait a second, really, you put poison in his ear? Who puts poison in an ear?' O'Hara says during an interview after rehearsal, while Ball and Torres sit laughing beside him. 'And where are you guys getting all this poison? Poison in the glass, poison on the sword. This is something I didn't make up, but somehow Claudius has a stash of poison.' And what about that ghost? Shakespeare's Hamlet sees a ghost who tells him that his uncle Claudius murdered his father; O'Hara's Hamlet may or may not have seen a ghost. He might just be a crazy person pretending to act extra crazy in order to get away with murder. In the highly stylized universe of Hollywood noir, glamour and mental illness walk hand-in-hand; entitlement and privilege run amok. Shakespeare rarely writes about common people, O'Hara notes. 'Which goes back to the L.A.-ness of it all,' Ball chimes in. 'My title is 'prince,' right? And what's the American equivalent of that? It's celebrity. The Elsinore of America is Hollywood. So to be able to tell this story, in that way, in this town, is a very cool opportunity.' To Ball's surprise, O'Hara hadn't seen 'The Pitt' when he decided to cast Ball as Hamlet. O'Hara, rather, reacted to the strength of Ball's audition, which Ball self-taped on his phone in a frenetic style that Ball later felt was 'insane.' 'You have to have confidence, you have to have the audacity to believe that you are going to do Hamlet — and that you can do Hamlet,' O'Hara says. 'Because if I had to deal with someone who I had to pump up, or I had to make him believe that he can do it, it would be a whole different process.' O'Hara knew one thing for sure: He wanted Torres to play Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. He loved her in 'The Matrix' sequels and also as the formidable lawyer Jessica Pearson on 'Suits.' He was so certain that he didn't even ask her to audition. Torres, however, had reservations. 'My first thought was, 'I don't know if my peri-menopausal brain can do this,'' she says, laughing. But then she read O'Hara's script and she was sold. 'I was so seduced by the idea that we get to see a Gertrude that we've never seen before.' Torres' screen resume is miles long but her stage credits, not so much. Which is funny, she says, because as a New York native, her only goal was to be a Broadway star. But she got cast in a recurring role on a soap opera, and then a pilot and away she went. 'Talk to any New York actor, and they're like, 'I'm just doing enough TV so that I can go back home and do theater.' I hear it all the time. And then eight years go by,' she says. There is an electric moment between the time a stage manager calls 'places' and the curtain rises, Torres says. That's the feeling actors live for. 'We just fly,' she says. 'And we're chasing that sense of flight and connecting on stage, and if something goes wrong, we're using it. We're not starting over, we're not gonna stop. There's no safety net.' That feeling is something O'Hara sought to harness with his adaptation. He doesn't ask for more than one run-through a day. He wants to keep things fresh, with the possibility of freedom and breakthroughs. The cast, he says, must have room to find the play. 'I don't want it to be drilled in,' he says. 'I want there to be a little bit of titillating and vibration going on.'
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘Incredibly frustrating': Group to speak at city council over stolen French bulldog
Amanda O'Hara is leading a group of people to Tuesday night's Charlotte City Council meeting with one goal in mind: get answers. 'The fact Julio is still missing nearly two months later is incredibly frustrating,' O'Hara told Channel 9's Eli Brand. She's demanding action to find Julio, a French bulldog. Channel 9 reported when Julio was stolen from his owner, Jayla Gittens, while she was moving from her north Charlotte apartment complex. Her car was also stolen. That happened in early April. Since then, a juvenile and his mother have been charged in connection with the theft. Gittens' car was eventually recovered, but Julio hasn't been seen since. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Woman says man stole her French Bulldog while she was moving Cash reward offered for help finding missing French bulldog Charlotte mother accused in theft of French Bulldog 'We want answers and since city council isn't answering us, we're taking it to their footsteps,' O'Hara said. O'Hara says she and multiple others have been emailing councilmembers and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department looking for help. They've even taken their own steps. 'We have taken action ... we have been driving around; sometimes I spend two hours driving around different neighborhoods looking if I can see anything that would give me an indication of where Julio is,' O'Hara said. Last week, police arrested the teen's mother, accused of sending pictures to the dog's owner and demanding ransom in return. The group's goal Tuesday night will be to get answers before more crimes can be committed. 'It's a dog now, it could be your kid later. So we really want to make sure these crimes are not going unchecked,' O'Hara said. (VIDEO: Robber holds Charlotte woman at gunpoint in home, steals French bulldog)
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
5 years after George Floyd's death, Minneapolis police work to rebuild trust and a 'decimated' force
When Brian O'Hara arrived in Minneapolis as the new chief of police in 2022, he said that he found a department that was depleted, having lost about half of its officers, amid widespread protests and backlash after the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, by a Minneapolis police officer. "The cops would openly tell me that if anybody asks them about becoming a cop, they tell them, 'Don't come here, everybody hates us,'" O'Hara told ABC News. "When I first got here, all of them, but especially the third precinct, was absolutely miserable, and the cops were so depressed," he added, pointing to the precinct that was burnt down after a man set it on fire during the 2020 protests. As the fifth anniversary of Floyd's killing approaches, O'Hara told ABC News that while the department has made some strides in rebuilding the police force and implementing reforms, the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is facing "very real challenges" that lie ahead. "There's a whole lot of open wounds still here in the city. And while there has been some healing, not everybody's healed, not everything has improved," O'Hara said in an interview with ABC News' Alex Perez that is set to air on ABC News Live Prime on Friday. "We still have very real challenges in this city." What happened to police reform? The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it is moving to drop a police reform agreement, known as a consent decree, that the Biden-era department reached with the city of Minneapolis in January. The court-enforceable agreement was born out of a probe into MPD that was launched after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. But when President Donald Trump took office, the agreement was not finalized and had yet to be certified by a federal judge. Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family of George Floyd, said in a statement on Wednesday that the DOJ's move to drop the agreement is a "slap in the face" that will "deepen the divide between law enforcement and the people." O'Hara joined Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in a press conference on Wednesday, where the mayor vowed that the city will move forward with the proposed reforms "with or without" Trump. Frey and O'Hara noted that reforms are already underway as part of a state-enforced consent decree, which has been in effect for more than a year. The agreement was reached by the city of Minneapolis with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the Effective Law Enforcement for All (ELEFA), an independent nonprofit, was hired last year to monitor the settlement. Minneapolis officials held a press conference on Tuesday where the independent monitor overseeing the consent decree released its second progress report, according to ABC News' Minneapolis affiliate KSTP. Director of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department Michelle Phillips noted during the press conference that for the first time in 10 years, the office of police conduct reviews is fully staffed and said that MPD is "on pace" to "eliminate" a backlog of 234 police complaints. "We are not where we want to be, but we are surely not where we were," Phillips said. O'Hara described the report as "fair," and announced earlier this week that his department has appointed two civilians to head MPD's Internal Affairs Bureau and the Constitutional Policing Bureau. Asked if the Trump administration dropping the consent decree could undermine MPD's efforts to build trust with the community, O'Hara told ABC News, he worries that due to "heightened" divisions, people wouldn't "care what the facts are." "This is going to play out that, 'well, Trump got rid of it, so they're not doing it,' and nobody's going to hear anything else, which is unfortunate," O'Hara said. Rebuilding after George Floyd Reflecting on the five-year anniversary of Floyd's killing, O'Hara said that it is still extraordinarily "difficult" to be a police officer in Minneapolis. Former MPD officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in prison in July 2022 on federal civil rights charges in the death of Floyd. The video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck sent shockwaves across the U.S. and sparked widespread protests, propelling Minneapolis and its police force into the national spotlight. O'Hara, who previously served as Public Safety Director for Newark, New Jersey, during the implementation of a federal consent decree, said that it's "traumatizing" to be a police officer anywhere, but it's "more difficult" in Minneapolis. "Unlike being a cop in Newark or in other places, they just don't get any deference," he said. "Every time [they] show up, they have to prove that they're one of the good guys." Reflecting on strides that MPD has made since he came to Minneapolis in 2022, the chief pointed to more "aggressive" efforts in recruitment that are helping to rebuild a once "decimated" police force. According to O'Hara, the department, which lost more than half of its 900 officers after Floyd was killed, now has nearly 600 sworn officers, almost reaching the minimum of 731, which is a ratio based on the city's population. He said that he is expecting a new class of 40 recruits to join the department in June -- the largest class since the 1990s. O'Hara also noted that about 60% of the new recruits are officers of color. And with every new class joining MPD, things are starting to turn around even for officers at the third precinct, O'Hara said. Recalling a recent visit to the third precinct, whose officers "still don't have a building" after it was burned in 2020, the chief said there were 12 officers, most of whom are Black, for the roll call, and there appeared to be a shift in morale. "They were happy. They were talking to each other," he said. "I hadn't seen that before." 5 years after George Floyd's death, Minneapolis police work to rebuild trust and a 'decimated' force originally appeared on
