Columbus officer who shot 13-year-old boy feared gunfight

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The white Ohio police officer who fatally shot a black 13-year-old boy after a suspected robbery last year feared a “gun fight” with the teen, who the officer said pulled a gun from his pants, records show.

Columbus police Officer Bryan Mason fired when he saw a laser sight on the weapon, which turned out to be a BB gun, Mason said in a formal statement and interview with detectives obtained by The Associated Press through a records request.

Tyre King refused to comply with Mason’s commands to “get down” and tugged on his gun in his waistband a couple of times as if it were caught on something, Mason said in a statement.

The teen’s “refusal to comply with my commands and his continuing attempts to pull the gun out, caused me to believe that he was going to engage me in a gun fight,” Mason said.

When Tyre pulled out the gun and Mason saw the laser sight, “I believed he was going to shoot me, and I fired my gun at him,” Mason said in his statement. He said he never considered the gun wasn’t real.

Police later determined the gun was inoperable because it lacked a propellant cartridge and could only have fired a BB if it was held upside down, records show.

Attorneys representing the boy’s family criticized the report Thursday, calling it incomplete and minimal. They say witnesses tell a different story of events that night and an investigation continues.

“It is clear that the Columbus Division of Police has either an inability to hold Officer Mason accountable for his use of force against citizens, or no interest in doing so,” said attorneys Sean Walton and Chanda Brown.

Columbus police declined to comment, citing possible litigation.

The shooting was a flashpoint in and around Columbus and spurred protests, including disruptions at Columbus City Council meetings. It added to a list of killings of black males by police in Ohio and other states that have attracted national attention.

In May, a grand jury voted not to indict Mason in the September 2016 shooting. A message was left with the officer through the local police union.

Powerball jackpot climbs to $510 million, 8th largest

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Powerball jackpot has climbed to an estimated $510 million, making it one of the largest in U.S. history.

No one matched all six numbers in Wednesday night’s drawing, so the national lottery game will continue to grow ahead of the next drawing Saturday night. At $510 million, the drawing would be the eighth largest lottery jackpot.

The prize figure refers to the annuity option, in which winnings would be paid out over 29 years. A winner who took the cash option would snag $324.2 million, though that would be subject to state and federal taxes.

Powerball is played in 44 states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292.2 million.

EpiPen maker finalizes settlement for government overcharges

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — EpiPen maker Mylan has finalized a $465 million government agreement settling allegations it overbilled Medicaid for its emergency allergy injectors for a decade — charges brought after rival Sanofi filed a whistleblower lawsuit and tipped off the government.

It’s the second settlement with the Department of Justice that Mylan has made since 2009 for allegedly overcharging the government for its medicines.

Mylan NV, technically based in England but with operational headquarters near Pittsburgh, became a poster child for pharmaceutical industry greed for hiking the list price of EpiPens repeatedly. It raised the price per pair from $94 in 2007 to $608 last year, while experts estimate it costs less than $10 to produce one EpiPen.

Last September, a House panel grilled Mylan CEO Heather Bresch about the skyrocketing cost of the devices, which patients inject in the thigh to stop a runaway allergic reaction to foods such as nuts and eggs or insect bites and stings.

On Thursday, the Department of Justice disclosed that its EpiPen case began when Sanofi-Aventis US LLC filed a lawsuit against Mylan under the False Claims Act.

The law allows individuals and companies to sue on behalf of the government over improper charges to government programs and to receive a share of any money recovered. Sanofi is to receive about $38.7 million. The federal government and all 50 states will split the bulk of the settlement.

Sanofi made a rival auto-injector called Auvi-Q. The French drugmaker recalled nearly 500,000 of its devices from the market in 2015, due to some not administering the correct dose of the hormone epinephrine to reverse a severe allergic attack.

EpiPens have long dominated the market and continue to do so, between their name recognition and deals Mylan has made to get preferable or exclusive coverage from insurers and prescription benefit managers.

According to the Justice Department, Mylan paid Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program for the poor and disabled, too-low rebates for EpiPens by improperly classifying the brand-name product as a generic. Drugmakers are required to pay Medicaid rebates of 13 percent for generic products it purchases, versus a 23.1 percent rebate for brand-name drugs, which cost far more.

EpiPen has been incorrectly classified since late 1997 as a generic product under Medicaid. Mylan acquired rights to EpiPen in 2007 and didn’t change its classification.

In addition, Mylan wasn’t paying Medicaid a second rebate required whenever a brand-name drug’s price rises more than inflation, which averaged less than 2 percent a year from 2007 through 2016.