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BELTON, TEXASA man in small-town Texas is facing life in prison for allegedly killing a police officer. But the trialwhich commenced Monday after a nearly decade-long waitis a confluence of police use of force, the war on drugs, and the right to self-defense. Its outcome will in part answer the following question: How far does a self-defense claim go when it’s exercised against the state?

At around 5:45 a.m. on May 9, 2014, a SWAT team in Killeen, Texasconsisting of about two dozen officersdescended on Marvin Guy’s modest apartment on Circle M Drive. They were there to execute a no-knock drug raid, a controversial approach that allows law enforcement to forcibly enter a residence, usually with a fabulous display of force, without first announcing themselves. An informant had reportedly told police that Guy was dealing cocaine.

The raid did not go as planned.

Officers smashed Guy’s bedroom window and attempted to breach the door with a battering ram. But something appeared to be lodged behind the door, preventing police from immediately gaining entry and leaving them clogged outside the residence. In the rapidly unfolding mayhem, Guy fired several shots outside of his broken window, allegedly hitting four officers. Police quickly fired over 40 rounds in return. One officer, Detective Charles Dinwiddie, died.

Guy was arrested and ultimately charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted capital murder. But he says he believed the police to be intruders when he was awoken and disoriented early that morning. Witnesses for the prosecution yesterday described the neighborhood as one that was known for its high crime rate. Less than a week before the raid, someone broke into Guy’s neighbor’s residence across the street in similar fashion, forcing entry via a first-floor window and choking a female resident nearly to death.

A series of protracted delaysstemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, Guy’s declining health, disputes over the district attorney’s office releasing all the evidence, and a slew of defense attorneys either quitting or being firedhave lengthened Guy’s stay at the county jail, where he has been held for almost a decade on $4 million bond. For years, the state sought the death penalty, which also slowed trial preparations, as proceedings with the ultimate punishment on the table take more time. Prosecutors withdrew that last year, instead opting to pursue life in prison, to speed the process.

The case is not the first to pit self-defense against no-knock raids. The tactic has come under intense scrutiny in recent years. In 2020, Breonna Taylor was killed by police during a similar raid after her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, grabbed a firearm he legally owned and fired one shot at police, believing them to be intruders. (Police claim they announced themselves before breaking down Walker’s door; Walker says he didn’t hear them.) Charges against him were ultimately dismissed. In 2021, a Florida man went to trial facing three counts of first-degree attempted murder of a law enforcement officer after he shot at deputies during a 2017 drug raid targeting his father. The government also charged the defendant, Andrew Coffee IV, with murdering his girlfriend, Alteria Woods, who was shot and killed by police, as prosecutors posited that Woods died as a result of Coffee’s actions. A jury acquitted him of those charges.

The topic is particularly relevant in Guy’s case, as Texas has the Castle Doctrine, a legal principle grounded in the eponymous idea that someone’s home is their castle. As such, they have no duty to retreat when they believe they’re facing a deadly threat. An exception: It does not apply when the person in question is engaged in illegal activity. The Killeen Police Department (KPD) allegedly found traces of white powder in Guy’s car, on the floor of his apartment, and in the trash, amounting to 1 gram of “suspected cocaine.” He was not charged with a drug crime.

But even if the jury decides Guy is not entitled to protection via the Castle Doctrine, they could still find he acted in self-defense. The state, however, has a radically different theory: At trial yesterday, Bell County Assistant District Attorney Fred Burns laid the groundwork for the notion that the problems cascading from the raid weren’t a result of Guy not having enough information. On the contraryit’s because he knew too much, Burns said.

That theory began to take shape during the testimony of David Daniels, a retired SWAT officer with KPD who was hit by a bullet during the raid. In this telling, Guy had barricaded the door to his apartment not because he was afraid of intruders but because he knew SWAT was coming and plotted to kill the police when they arrived. “We were ambushed,” Daniels said. It was not yet clear how the state would prove Guy’s clairvoyance about the department’s plans.

The subject of no-knock raids has been a fraught one for KPD. The city recently reached a settlement with the family of a man who was killed during a 2019 raid. In 2021, the local council voted to ban the tactic. Unfortunately, that came too late here.

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Crosby leaps Lemieux as Pens’ all-time top scorer

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Crosby leaps Lemieux as Pens' all-time top scorer

PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby broke Mario Lemieux‘s franchise scoring record with a goal and an assist in the first period of the Pittsburgh Penguins‘ game against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday night.

Crosby, who began the night one point behind Lemieux, now has 645 goals and 1,079 assists for 1,724 points in 1,387 games. It also moved him past Lemieux for the eighth-most points in NHL history.

Crosby tipped Erik Karlsson‘s point shot at 7:58 of the first period for a goal to tie the record. He then broke the mark with 7:20 left in the period when his shot on a power play hit Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell tapped the rebound behind Jakub Dobes.

Crosby, Rust and Rakell embraced behind the net after the goal and the Penguins spilled over the bench to congratulate their captain. Later in the period, a video message recorded by Lemieux congratulating Crosby on the accomplishment was played.

“I knew when we played together in 2005, that you were going to be a very special player, and accomplish a lot of great things in your career,” Lemieux said in a message posted on the club’s social media accounts. “Here we are, 20 years later, you are now one of the best to ever play the game.”

Lemieux, a Hall of Famer who also owned the franchise following his second retirement, became the Penguins’ all-time points leader, surpassing then-assistant coach Rick Kehoe on January 20, 1989, when Crosby was 17 months old. Lemieux, who was in the lineup when Crosby recorded his first NHL point, finished his career with 1,723 points in 915 games.

Crosby, the No. 1 pick in 2005, is the seventh outright all-time points leader in 58 years of the franchise’s history and the ninth active player to lead a franchise in points. Crosby previously broke Lemieux’s record for most assists in franchise history this past Dec. 29 against the New York Islanders. Crosby is 45 goals behind Lemieux’s franchise record of 690.

Crosby is now third on the NHL’s all-time points list with a single franchise, behind only Steve Yzerman (1,755) and Gordie Howe (1,809), both with Detroit.

Crosby also passed Phil Esposito (449) for sole possession of the ninth-most even-strength goals in NHL history. He also tied Adam Oates for the eighth-most assists in NHL history in the first period. Crosby, who has 20 goals this season, achieved his 18th 20-goal season. Only six players in NHL history have more.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Technology

Waymo resumes robotaxi service in San Francisco after blackout chaos — Musk says Tesla car service unaffected

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Waymo resumes robotaxi service in San Francisco after blackout chaos — Musk says Tesla car service unaffected

Alphabet-owned Waymo has resumed its driverless ride-hail service in the San Francisco Bay Area after a temporary pause during blackouts that plagued the city beginning on Saturday afternoon.

“Yesterday’s power outage was a widespread event that caused gridlock across San Francisco, with non-functioning traffic signals and transit disruptions,” a Waymo spokesperson, Suzanne Philion, told CNBC in an e-mailed statement Sunday afternoon.

“While the failure of the utility infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adjusts to traffic flow during such events,” she added.

Waymo notice of service outage in San Francisco.

Source: Waymo

As power outages spread yesterday, videos shared on social media appeared to show multiple Waymo vehicles stalled in traffic in different parts of the city.

San Francisco resident Matt Schoolfield said he saw at least three Waymo autonomous vehicles stopped in traffic Saturday around 9:45 p.m. local time, including one he photographed on Turk Boulevard near Parker Avenue.

“They were just stopping in the middle of the street,” Schoolfield said.

A Waymo vehicle stuck between Parker and Beaumont, on the north side of Turk Boulevard in San Francisco.

Credit: Matt Schoolfield

The power outages began around 1:09 p.m. Saturday and peaked roughly two hours later, affecting about 130,000 customers, according to Pacific Gas and Electric. As of Sunday morning, about 21,000 customers remained without power, mainly in the Presidio, the Richmond District, Golden Gate Park and parts of downtown San Francisco.

PG&E said the outage was caused by a fire at a substation that resulted in “significant and extensive” damage, and said it could not yet provide a precise timeline for full restoration.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a 9 p.m. update on X that police officers, fire crews, parking control officers and city ambassadors were deployed across affected neighborhoods.

Waymo’s Philion also told CNBC that “While the Waymo Driver is designed to treat non-functional signals as four-way stops, the sheer scale of the outage led to instances where vehicles remained stationary longer than usual to confirm the state of the affected intersections. This contributed to traffic friction during the height of the congestion.”

Waymo “closely coordinated with San Francisco city officials,” she said, and proactively paused its service as of Saturday evening and in the first half of the day on Sunday.

“The majority of active trips were successfully completed before vehicles were safely returned to depots or pulled over,” she noted.

Amid the disruption, Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on X: “Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage.”

Unlike Waymo, Tesla does not operate a driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco.

Tesla’s local ride-hailing service uses vehicles equipped with “FSD (Supervised),” a premium driver assistance system. The service requires a human driver behind the wheel at all times.

According to state regulators — including the California Department of Motor Vehicles and California Public Utilities Commission — Tesla has not obtained permits to conduct driverless testing or services in the state without human safety supervisors behind the wheel, ready to steer or brake at any time.

Tesla is vying to become a robotaxi titan, but does not yet operate commercial, driverless services. Tesla’s Robotaxi app allows users to hail a ride; however, its vehicles currently have human safety supervisors or drivers on board, even in states where the company has obtained permits for driverless operations.

Waymo, which leads the nascent industry in the West, is Tesla’s chief competitor in AVs, along with Chinese players like Baidu-owned Apollo Go.

The outage-related disruptions in San Francisco come as robotaxi services are becoming more common in other major U.S. cities. Waymo is among a small number of companies operating fully driverless ride-hailing services for the public, even as unease about autonomous vehicles remains high.

A survey by the American Automobile Association earlier this year found that about two-thirds of U.S. drivers said they were fearful of autonomous vehicles.

The Waymo pause in San Francisco indicates cities are not yet ready for highly automated vehicles to inundate their streets, said Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and co-author of “How to Make AI Useful.”

“Something in the design and development of this technology was missed that clearly illustrates it was not the robust solution many would like to believe it is,” he said.

Reimer noted that power outages are entirely predictable. “Not for eternity, but in the foreseeable future, we will need to mix human and machine intelligence, and have human backup systems in place around highly automated systems, including robotaxis,” he said.

State and city regulators will need to consider what the maximum penetration of highly automated vehicles should be in their region, Reimer added, and AV developers should be held responsible for “chaos gridlock,” just as human drivers would be held responsible for how they drive during a blackout.

CNBC’s Riya Bhattacharjee contributed reporting.

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Environment

E-quipment highlight: Komatsu PC365-11 hybrid excavator

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E-quipment highlight: Komatsu PC365-11 hybrid excavator

Thanks to a clever, fully electric swing system and “boom up” power assist features, the big PC365-11 hybrid excavator from Komatsu promises better performance and serious fuel savings compared to conventional diesel machines.

Komatsu says its PC365-11 hybrid excavator uses a “boom-up” power assist feature that captures and stores kinetic energy during different operation cycles, then taps into that power to provide an extra energy boost when needed. The result is 15% more productivity and a 20% improvement in fuel efficiency when compared to non-hybrid excavators in ~40 ton class.

“The PC365LC-11 was engineered for excellence in multifunction applications by leveraging its innovative electric powertrain system to boost job site productivity while reducing fuel consumption,” says Matthew Moen, Komatsu’s product manager. “To highlight these performance enhancements, we’re emphasizing the concept of ‘multifunction plus’ as the defining feature of this machine.”

How it works


Komatsu hybrid explainer; via Komatsu.

Komatsu’s hybrid system replaces the conventional hydraulic swing function with a fully electric swing motor that draws power from an ultracapacitor (as opposed to a battery) energy storage unit. As excavator slows or stops swinging, something like a regenerative braking system captures the kinetic energy that would normally be lost as heat and stores it in the capacitor. Once there, the stored energy can be quickly released to power the swing motor or assist the engine, delivering up to an extra 70 hp when needed to support heavy lifting or digging cycles.

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And, thanks to Komatsu’s proprietary software, all of this energy capture and reuse happens automagically during normal work, without the need for external charging. The fuel savings happen because removing the hydraulic load from the ICE engine allows it to run at an ultra-low idle, while the productivity comes from the greater power and overall speed of the electric operations vs. conventional hydraulics.

Electrek’s Take


Komatsu lunar excavator; image by the author.

Trust me when I tell you that Komatsu didn’t wake up one day and decide to build a capacitor-based hybrid crane. One of their customers had the idea and came to them, promising orders. That’s what Komatsu does – from undersea remote control dozers to lunar mining rigs (above), if you bring Komatsu an order, they will absolutely find a way to fill it.

As for PC365-11 hybrid excavator, it’s packed with clever tech, overall – offering significant fuel, emissions, and TCO reductions without dramatically changing the operational logistics of an existing fleet’s operations. That’s all the sales pitch it needs.

SOURCE: Komatsu, via Equipment World.


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