Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

'We have a long way to go:' Descendants of first black Americans on race relations

Four hundred years after the first ship carrying enslaved Africans arrived on the coast of Virginia, the descendants of one of the first black American families say race relations in the United States still have "a long way to go." The Tucker family, who trace their ancestry to the 1624 census of the then English colony of Virginia, has experienced every chapter of African-American history.

Mexican man who shielded wife in Texas mass shooting dies

A Mexican man who threw himself in front of his wife to shield her from bullets in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, died on Monday, officials and his family said, raising the toll of Mexican nationals killed in one of two weekend mass shootings in the United States to eight. Juan de Dios Velazquez, 77, had moved to El Paso with his wife Estela Nicolasa, 65, from Ciudad Juarez, just across the border in Mexico, six months before they were caught in Saturday's mass shooting at a Walmart store.

Private funeral mass held for granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy

A private funeral mass was held on Monday for the 22-year-old granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, who died last week after being found unresponsive at the family's compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, a family spokesman said. Saoirse Kennedy Hill was laid to rest following the mass at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts, Kennedy family spokesman Brian O'Connor said.

Two more Texas shooting victims die in attack, Trump to visit El Paso

Two more victims of a shooting rampage at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, died of their wounds on Monday, police said, raising the death toll to 22 in the massacre as U.S. President Donald Trump planned a visit to the stricken community. The latest fatalities bring to 31 the number of people killed during the weekend in mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, that have touched off a new furor over gun violence in the United States.

El Paso lands in heart of debates over gun violence and immigration

Artist Manuel Oliver had planned to unveil his mural on Sunday at a community event in El Paso, the latest of his works to celebrate the life of his murdered son. The boy, fatally shot with 16 others in 2018 at a Parkland, Florida, high school, would have turned 19 on Sunday, Oliver said. Joaquin Oliver had been quietly devoted to the cause of immigrants, his father said, and the artist chose El Paso because he saw the border city as an immigration success story.

U.S. emergency alert test on TV and radio expected this week

A test of the U.S. Emergency Alert System will be sent to radios and televisions across the United States on Wednesday, excluding cell phones hit by a presidential alert last year, U.S. agencies said on Monday. This test will evaluate the U.S. government's readiness to alert residents of an emergency in the "absence of internet connectivity" and will last for around one minute, the agencies said.

Long before shooting, Dayton gunman threatened fellow students with 'hit list'

The 24-year-old gunman who killed nine people in a rampage in Dayton, Ohio, had a troubled past, including threatening fellow students in high school, authorities said, but police said it was too soon to establish a motive for the slaughter. The gunman, wielding an assault-style rifle and wearing body armor and a mask, inflicted carnage early on Sunday on a neighborhood known for its night life.

Twenty year sentence for Florida man who sent explosives to Trump critics

A Florida man who mailed pipes filled with explosives to prominent Democrats and critics of U.S. President Donald Trump was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday. Cesar Sayoc, 57, who pleaded guilty in March to using weapons of mass destruction and other crimes, began crying when U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan read the sentence.

Trump condemns white supremacy, vague on gun measures after U.S. shootings

President Donald Trump on Monday proposed tighter monitoring of the internet, mental health reform and wider use of the death penalty in response to two mass shootings over the weekend that killed 31 people in Texas and Ohio. Trump, a Republican, whom Democrats have accused of stoking racial divisions, said Americans must "condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy," a day after Texas officials said racial hatred was a possible motive in the killings of 22 people in the southern border city of El Paso.

Singer R. Kelly charged in Minnesota with soliciting sex from minor

Singer R. Kelly, jailed in New York last month after he was charged in Brooklyn and Chicago with numerous sexual misconduct felonies, was charged on Monday in Minnesota with soliciting sex from a minor at a Minneapolis hotel room 18 years ago. The 52-year-old R&B vocalist known for such hits as "I Believe I Can Fly," is accused in the Minnesota case of paying a 17-year-old girl $200 to take off her clothes and dance for him, and then engaging in sexual contact. (Complaint: http://bit.ly/2YKuBYK)