What's happened
A pro-Palestinian professor has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and battery in the death of a Jewish protester during a street protest in California.
Why it matters
The incident highlights the tensions and violence that have arisen during demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war, and raises questions about hate crimes and the safety of protesters.
What the papers say
The Independent says the evidence only supports charges of involuntary manslaughter and battery, while the New York Times reports that the authorities have not ruled out a hate crime. The AP News highlights that the suspect could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years to life if convicted, and the NY Post discusses the biases and privileges that may have protected the suspect in the past.
How we got here
The incident occurred during duelling pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel rallies in Thousand Oaks, California. The victim, Paul Kessler, died after falling and hitting his head during a physical altercation with the suspect, Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji, a professor of computer science at Moorpark College.
More on these topics
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Jews or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and a nation originating from the Israelites and Hebrews of historical Israel and Judah.
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California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.5 million residents across a total area of about 163,696 square miles, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area, and is also the world's thirty-fourt
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The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs, are an ethnonational group comprising the modern descendants of the peoples who have lived in Palestine continuously over the centuries and who today are largely culturally and
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Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately 40 miles from Downtown Los Angeles, and is less than 15 miles from the Los Angeles neighborhood of
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Israel, formally known as the State of Israel, is a country in Western Asia, located on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea.