Haiti missionaries escape

Freed

The 12 remaining Christian Aid Ministries missionaries escaped from their 400 Mawozo gang captors on Dec. 15 after two months of captivity in Haiti. The gang kidnapped the 16 Americans and one Canadian in October, later releasing five. They moved them around and kept them in small, barricaded rooms while demanding ransom. The gang provided baby food for the children, basic hygiene necessities, and sparse meals. The 12 remaining captives found a way to open a door on Dec. 15, escaping their guards’ notice. The group carried the children through brambles, forest, and gang territory 12 miles before a Haitian found them and helped them call the police. Later that day, the missionaries were on a U.S. Coast Guard flight to Florida. The Ohio-based missions group said it will pause its missions to Haiti but not abandon ministry in the country.

Honored

An Oklahoma sixth grader was honored by law enforcement and school officials last month for his heroic actions not just once, but twice in the same day. Davyon Johnson used the Heimlich maneuver on a classmate who was choking on a bottle cap at his school in Muskogee on Dec. 9. A student was trying to fill his water bottle and loosened the cap with his mouth, but the cap slipped into his throat. The choking student stumbled into a nearby classroom, where Davyon was. The sixth grader got behind the other student and performed the Heimlich maneuver, forcing the bottle cap to pop out. Later that day, Davyon helped a disabled woman evacuate her burning house.

Sanctioned

Beijing announced Dec. 21 that four members of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) could no longer travel to China, Hong Kong, or Macao. The targeted officials include chairwoman Nadine Maenza, deputy chairman Nury Turkel, and members Anurima Bhargava and James Carr. The U.S. Treasury announced earlier in December that it had imposed similar sanctions against two Chinese officials over their involvement in targeting Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province. China had promised to retaliate. USCIRF condemned the move and called on China to end its state-led oppression “rather than implementing misguided sanctions.” The commission has spoken out against Chinese atrocities in Xinjiang.

Convicted

In December, a Minneapolis jury convicted former Officer Kim Potter of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright. She may spend up to 15 years in prison. Potter, a 49-year-old veteran of the suburban Brooklyn Center police force, pulled over Wright on April 11 for having expired license tags. When officers attempted to arrest him on another warrant, he tried to drive away. Potter said she feared Wright would hurt another officer and attempted to use her Taser to stun him but mistakenly grabbed her gun and shot him. The death sparked riots outside the Brooklyn Center police station.