Midday Roundup: Mourners rally in Florida after roadside police shooting

Life cut short. The family of a Florida man shot and killed early Sunday morning by a plainclothes police officer is demanding answers. Corey Jones, 31, was on his way home from a gig his band had played Saturday night when his car broke down on Interstate 95 in Palm Beach Gardens. He was waiting on a tow truck when Officer Nouman Raja pulled up in an unmarked vehicle. Palm Beach Gardens police say Raja thought the vehicle was abandoned but as he walked around it, Jones confronted him with a gun. Raja did not have a dash cam on his car, nor was he wearing a body camera, so no recording of the interaction exists. But Jones ended up dead, and his family says he is the latest victim of police brutality against African-American men. Jones’ uncle, Fred Banks, said his nephew probably had his gun out because it was late at night and he was scared. Because Raja was not in uniform, Jones might not have known the man confronting him was a police officer. The police department is investigating the incident, and the family plans a rally outside the department today. Jones, who worked as a public housing inspector, graduated with two degrees from the University of Akron and volunteered with My Brother’s Keeper.

Deadly raid. One U.S. commando is dead after a raid on an Islamic State (ISIS) prison in northern Iraq that freed 70 Kurdish captives and reportedly left at least 12 ISIS fighters dead. The raid marks the first time a U.S. service member has died in combat in Iraq since the start of the campaign against ISIS last year. U.S. officials have not released any details about the raid, including the name of the soldier who died. But U.S. airstrikes have targeted the northern Iraqi town of Hawija, where the prison is located, in the last few weeks. Kurdish fighters, who worked with U.S. soldiers on the raid, recently have battled ISIS militants in the area.

Moving on. Ahmed Mohamed, the Muslim boy arrested last month after bringing a homemade clock to his Dallas-area school, is moving with his family to Qatar. The Qatar Foundation for Education has given Mohamed a full scholarship to finish his high school and college education. His father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, said he wants his children to live in a place where they won’t be treated differently because of their faith. The family claimed teachers at the Irving high school never would have mistaken Mohamed’s clock for a bomb if he hadn’t been Muslim. The family’s decision to leave the United States has sparked mixed reactions from U.S. Muslim activists. Some say it’s understandable because Muslims feel “under siege.” But others say it sends the wrong message and predict the family won’t find life in Qatar as comfortable as they think. “Here in America, you have much more freedom practicing the faith,” said Yaser Birjas, imam of the Valley Ranch Islamic Center in Irving.

Knife attack. A knife-wielding man in Sweden killed a teacher and a student and wounded another teacher and student today before being shot and killed by police. The attacker, who has not been identified, walked into a cafe at the entrance to the school in Trollhattan, near Goteborg, Sweden’s second-largest city. He was dressed all in black and wore a mask. One student said he thought it was some kind of Halloween prank. Police shot the attacker twice. They don’t yet know the motive for the attack.

Copy cat? Someone set fire to the front doors of another St. Louis church last night. But this time, the church housed a predominantly white congregation. Last night’s fire at Shrine of St. Joseph’s Church is the eighth arson in the last few weeks. Since it was outside the radius of the other fires, which were set at churches in mostly African-American neighborhoods, police aren’t sure whether the same arsonist is involved. Federal investigators are working with local police on the case, which could end up being classified a hate crime. So far, the fires haven’t injured anyone, although at least one church sustained substantial damage.