An accomplice’s panic attacks may have foiled two convicts’ jailbreak plans. Washington might send another 500 U.S. troops to Iraq. And journalists evacuated a White House media briefing after a bomb threat.
It’s Wednesday, and here are five things to know for your New Day:
PRISON ESCAPE
Accomplice breakdown? Panic attacks may have foiled the last leg of their meticulous jail break. Now, residents say, convicted killers Richard Matt and David Sweat have been wandering through backyards and fields on foot. A female accomplice was supposed to pick them up, investigators think. But Joyce Mitchell, a prison tailor, checked herself into a hospital for panic attacks right after the convicts saw the light of day, a source close to the investigation said. She may have changed her mind. Mitchell hasn’t been charged.
POOL PARTY VIDEO
Officer quits: When former police officer Eric Casebolt slammed a girl in a bathing suit to the ground, a cell phone recorded it. And after it spread online, some people alleged racism. Casebolt is white; the girl is African-American. Yesterday, he resigned from the McKinney, Texas, police department. The cell phone belonged to a white teenager, who said Casebolt skipped over him when he lit into his black friends, barking at them to all sit down. Before he grabbed the girl, the officer could be seen unholstering his gun.
IRAQ TROOPS
Still no ‘boots:’ The additional 500 U.S. troops President Obama is thinking of sending to Iraq would do pretty much the same things the 3,050 U.S. troops in Iraq are doing. They wouldn’ battle ISIS themselves. Instead, they would train more Iraqis for the task, while they run security and give air support. Whether or not the troops deploy may depend on the Iraqi government, which is expected to add military training sites — including one in Anbar province, which is next to Baghdad and under ISIS siege.
DC THREATS
Time to leave: Officials told journalists to get up and leave the room in the middle of a White House news briefing yesterday. Why? Somebody called in a bomb threat to police. The target? The press briefing room. And that was the second bomb threat of the day. Hours before, a bomb threat called in to police forced the evacuation of hearing about the TSA in a Senate office building.
FREDDY GRAY CASE
Recuse yourself: Attorneys for six Baltimore police officers facing charges in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray filed a motion yesterday for prosecutor Marilyn Mosby to either drop the charges or recuse herself in the case. Mosby, the state’s attorney for the city of Baltimore, was partially at fault for police zealousness at the time Gray died of severe spinal injuries, they say, because her office issued orders to crack down on an open-air drug market in that neighborhood. Mosby sees no conflict of interests and said she will prosecute.