It’s Monday, March 28th – and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - Miami Beach's curfew that was instituted after several shootings in the city ended Monday morning after legal challenges from some business owners and some frustration from visitors.
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The city had been operating under a state of emergency, with a curfew and a rollback of alcohol sales to 6 p.m. which started Thursday. Friday, a legal challenge survived in court. The curfew ran from 11:59 p.m. through 6 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday until it ended on Monday morning. The curfew came after five people were injured in two separate shootings that took place March 19th and 20th.
No. 2 - A rising middle school football player in Missouri, only 14 but already 6 feet, 5 inches tall and well over 300 pounds, Tyre Sampson fell to his death from a towering Florida amusement ride.
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Lawyers for his family want to know if negligence about his size, or other factors, played a role. Investigators on Saturday continued to examine what happened Thursday night when Sampson dropped out of his seat from a 430-foot, free-fall amusement park ride that is taller than the Statue of Liberty along a busy street in the heart of Orlando’s tourist district not far from Disney World. The ride takes patrons up to that height, tilts so they face the ground for a moment or two, and then plummets toward the ground at speeds of 75 mph (about 121 kph) or more. The well-known civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is working with Hilliard and represents Tyre's father, Yarnell Sampson, said the family is “shocked and heartbroken at the loss of their son.”
No. 3 - Ukraine’s priorities at the Ukrainian-Russian talks in Turkey this week will be “sovereignty and territorial integrity,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told his nation Sunday in his nightly address.
“We are looking for peace, really, without delay,” he said. “There is an opportunity and a need for a face-to-face meeting in Turkey. This is not bad. Let’s see the outcome.” This week, he said, “I will continue to appeal to the parliaments of other countries” to remind them of the dire situation in besieged cities like Mariupol. Earlier Sunday, Zelenskyy told reporters that the issue of neutrality – and agreeing to stay out of NATO – should be put to Ukrainian voters in a referendum after Russian troops withdraw from the country.
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No. 4 - The music has stopped in downtown Miami after the three-day Ultra Music Festival came to an end Sunday night.
Tens of thousands made their way to Bayfront Park for the event, which had been canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic. Although festival-goers seem to be having a great time, safety remained a concern for Miami Police and Miami Fire Rescue. On Friday, Miami Fire Rescue says there were 64 calls for medical service, and 14 people went to the hospital. On Saturday, 53 more people were evaluated and 16 were transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
No. 5 - The clock struck midnight for the No. 10 seed Miami Hurricanes men's basketball team in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday - and the magical run ended in a way they would like to quickly forget.
The 'Canes watched a six-point lead at the half evaporate as the top seeded Kansas Jayhawks outscored Miami by 32 points in the second half to get the 76-50 win in the Midwest Region final in Chicago. Normally known for their defense in the tournament, Miami allowed Kansas to shoot 50 percent from the field while the Hurricanes committed 14 turnovers in the game. The Hurricanes, in their 11th season under head coach Jim Larranaga, advanced to the Elite Eight round for the first time in program history. They will lose Sam Waardenburg, guard Charlie Moore and Kameron McGusty to graduation and could lose sophomore guard Isaiah Wong to the NBA Draft if he declares.
No. 6 - Will Smith confronted actor and comedian Chris Rock on the Oscars stage after the comedian made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Rock joked about Pinkett Smith starring in "G.I. Jane 2," apparently because her head is shaved. She did not laugh at the joke. Smith could then be seen walking to the stage, where he appeared to slap Rock with an open hand. Pinkett Smith last year publicly shared that she has alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that leads to hair loss. Viewers at home were confused as to whether the altercation was staged at first, although the audio was cut as Smith seemed to yell an obscenity at Rock while walking back to his seat in the audience. Los Angeles police said late Sunday that they were aware of the incident involving "one individual slapping another," but the "individual involved" — presumably Rock — decided not to file a police report.
