LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is warning Nebraska nursing homes not to refuse to treatment patients with HIV.

The civil rights group said Tuesday that it sent letters to six Nebraska nursing homes that refused to treat a man with HIV in the months before his death.

The ACLU says the nursing homes refused to treat John Shelor, so he wound up in a facility in Broken Bow that was more than an hour from his home in Bertrand. He died July 31.

ACLU of Nebraska Executive Director Danielle Conrad says state and federal law prohibits treating someone differently because they have HIV.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Investigators say a man who accidentally shot an off-duty Omaha police officer was cleaning a gun when the officer startled him.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Tuesday that the 70-year-old man was in his home cleaning the exterior of the handgun when he unexpectedly encountered 38-year-old Ben Weidner at his door. Investigators say the man was startled and reacted by squeezing the handgun and trigger. A shot was fired and struck Weidner in the abdomen.

Officials say the homeowner believed the gun was unloaded at the time he was cleaning it.

Investigators say the man and Weidner know each other and are on good terms. The shooting has been determined to be accidental, and no criminal charges are expected.

Weidner is expected to recover.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A judge has ruled that an Omaha man convicted of killing four people in the summer of 2013 is mentally fit enough to face a death penalty hearing.

Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon on Tuesday declared Nikko Jenkins competent. His death penalty hearing has been set for Nov. 14, when Jenkins will go before a three-judge panel that will decide whether his crimes merit the death penalty.

The hearing has been delayed several times as mental health evaluations sought to determine whether Jenkins, who has mutilated himself multiple times in prison, is mentally competent.

Jenkins was convicted in 2014 of four counts of first-degree murder for the August 2013 shooting deaths of Juan Uribe-Pena, Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz, Curtis Bradford and Andrea Kruger.

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A joint task force of North Dakota and federal officials is investigating a clash between Dakota Access pipeline protesters and private security guards earlier this month.

The Morton County Sheriff’s Department is heading up the probe of the Sept. 3 incident, after which security guards and protesters reported injuries.

Tribal officials say about 30 protesters were pepper-sprayed and some were bitten by dogs at the construction site near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

The task force includes members of the Morton and Mercer County sheriff’s departments, the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier says the BIA is representing Native American tribes.

A North Dakota state agency that regulates private investigation and security firms is also looking into the incident.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An effort to have DNA results admitted into evidence in the case against a former doctor accused of killing four people with ties to an Omaha medical school could delay his trial.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine has asked the Nebraska Supreme Court to delay the first-degree murder trial of Anthony Garcia, which is set to begin next Monday. Kleine also asked the high court on Monday to vacate District Judge Gary Randall’s decision excluding advanced DNA analysis from trial.

Garcia is charged in the March 2008 slayings of Dr. William Hunter’s 11-year-old son and the family’s housekeeper, as well as the May 2013 killings of Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife. Prosecutors say Garcia was seeking revenge over being fired from a Creighton University School of Medicine residency program.