07 July 2021
Search of the Surfside condominium collapse shifted from rescue to recovery on Wednesday as hopes of finding survivors faded, AP reports.
The latest: The death toll from the June 24 Champlain Towers South collapse has climbed to 46, with 94 people still missing. The decision to move to recovery comes after rescue teams searched through new areas of rubble made accessible following the demolition of the remaining part of the building.
- The decision allows responders to use different techniques to sort through the wreckage, according to former Miami-Dade fire chief Dave Downey, who previously told the Washington Post that he had to make similar calls in Florida and twice while in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
- Families were told Wednesday in a private briefing that emergency crews would continue to search for victims' bodies, but rescue dogs and sound devices would be removed from the site, per AP.
- Rescue crews have searched the rubble for 14 days, with the only recovered survivor found in the early hours after the collapse, USA Today notes.
The big picture: At least32 victims have been identified and next of kin have been notified, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a press briefing earlier Wednesday.
- "Our first responders have truly searched that pile every day since the collapse as if they’re searching for their own families," Levine Cava added, who spoke through tears as she communicated the death toll in Spanish.
- The first funeral was held for victims of the tragedy on Tuesday. Lucia Guara, 10, and her 4-year-old sister, Emma, were buried in the same white coffin in a grave alongside their parents, Marcus and Ana Guara, WPLG reports.
- Rescuers had removed about 124 tons of debris from the site as of Tuesday, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue chief Alan Cominsky said.
Go deeper: Remembering the victims of the Surfside condo collapse
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.