OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha taxpayers must cover a nearly $240,000 medical bill for a man who was shot by police officers after he shot one of them, city officials said.

John Ezell Jr., 36, spent more than a month in Nebraska Medical Center after he was wounded on Sept. 11, Assistant City Attorney Jeff Bloom said.

Ezell was a passenger in a car that police stopped. Authorities say he shot and wounded Officer Ken Fortune as he approached the vehicle and that he shot at other officers before he was hit several times by their return fire.

He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, assault on an officer and other charges, according to court records. They don’t list a trial date.

Fortune has recovered and returned to duty.

Bloom said the city is constitutionally required to provide medical treatment to people who need it while in police custody, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

It’s understandable if some people object to the city picking up the medical tab, particularly for someone accused of firing at police, said Sam Walker, an emeritus professor in the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

But Walker said there are compelling issues at play in this instance.

“We try to make this a decent and humane society, and if someone is injured, the person who caused that (the police) should be liable,” he said.

Bloom said the city liability would have been reduced if Ezell were insured, but he wasn’t.

Ezell’s medical bill actually was more than $479,000, but the hospital agreed to halve it. The City Council is set to vote Tuesday on paying the bill.

“I’m sure there’s going to be a number of council members who will hold their nose and vote for it,” said City Council President Ben Gray. “I’m going to be one of them. We’re obligated to do it.”

CLEARWATER, Neb. (AP) — Federal safety regulators are proposing to fine a northeast Nebraska dairy where an employee was fatally injured .

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a news release Monday that Thiele Dairy, in Clearwater, didn’t develop and implement safety programs related to grain bin entry. The company faces penalties totaling nearly $79,000.

One of the dairy’s owners, Tom Thiele, declined to comment.

The accident occurred July 9 when an auger being used to remove corn from inside a bin lacerated one of the man’s legs. He’s been identified as 52-year-old Robert Pokorny. He lived in Clearwater.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say one person was injured in a duplex fire that displaced several people in Lincoln.

Firefighters were dispatched around 4 a.m. Sunday. Fire officials say the flames were contained to the kitchen area of one side, but the heat and smoke damage made both units unlivable, displacing a half-dozen residents or more.

Investigators say combustible items left on a stove ignited when a burner accidentally was turned on.

The person was injured and taken to a hospital after going back inside a unit to look for a dog. Fire officials say the dog died. The person’s name hasn’t been released.

HARTINGTON, Neb. (AP) — A 28-year-old caregiver has been accused of stealing more than $14,000 from the northeast Nebraska man she’s been helping.

Cedar County Court records say Kayla Hansen, of Coleridge, is charged with abuse of a vulnerable adult and two related crimes. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for her.

The records say Hansen cleaned the man’s house and drove him to medical appointments. The documents say she had access to his bank account and debit card and used them to pay her own bills and those of relatives.

HALLAM, Neb. (AP) — Southeastern Nebraska officials say a person who had stopped to help a motorist change a flat tire on a dark highway west of Hallam was hit and killed by another motorist.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office says the person and another pedestrian had been helping someone change a flat tire Friday night at the intersection of Highway 77 and a county road when they were both hit by a pickup truck. One pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene. The other, 61-year-old Karen Meyer of rural Cortland, was flown to a hospital in critical condition.

The name of the person killed has not been released.

Investigators say the driver of the pickup was a 74-year-old man from Beatrice.

No charges had been announced by midday Saturday. An autopsy has been ordered as part of the investigation.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Volunteers are being asked to help place holiday wreaths on the graves of veterans at the Omaha National Cemetery.

The wreath-laying will be held Saturday, starting at 11 a.m.

Cemetery director Cindy Van Bibber says the ceremony helps continue the mission of maintaining the national cemetery as a national shrine and “is a wonderful way for the community to come together to pay respect during the holiday season.”

Families, local citizens and veterans service organizations are expected to place over 1,300 wreaths as a part of Wreaths Across America. All 136 VA national cemeteries receive at least seven wreaths, one for each service branch, one for the Merchant Marine and one for prisoners of war and those missing In action.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska high school’s students and staff have formed focus groups in an effort to reduce racial tension and other conflicts.

Lincoln Southeast High School principal Brent Toalson said he plans to use restorative justice methods to help students resolve disputes and try to change the school’s culture.

Tensions heightened last spring when the student newspaper ran stories about President Donald Trump’s first year in office, including ones on the immigration debate, the Lincoln Journal Star reported . The restorative justice approach was spearheaded by a conversation between Toalson and Southeast High senior Deia Lasu.

Lasu wrote Toalson a letter after he quoted Coretta Scott King during a morning announcement, highlighting the late activist’s call for a “colorblind” society.

“The colorblind ideal won’t work for everyone,” Lasu said. “It won’t work for me.”

She told her principal in a letter she saw being colorblind as a form of privilege — an act of disregarding other races and cultures, not accepting them.

Toalson was impressed that she wanted to change things. They formed a collaborative relationship, bringing other students to the table, held focus groups with students and staff on race and ultimately created a peer mediation group.

“I thought peer mediation could empower kids, make the kids who came to me feel like they were part of the solution,” Toalson said. “What began as a conversation with a couple of students around race … led to the formation of a group that really has a much broader goal of changing (school) climate by resolving issues that arise, some that may be racial in nature.”

In the past decade, Southeast’s demographics have changed significantly. The percent of students of color has nearly doubled, from less than 14 percent to 25 percent.

Melissa Ortiz, a member of the peer mediation group, said things are starting to change at Southeast already.

“With what we’re doing now, we’ll send a message to all students that their voice does matter,” said Ortiz, who also is a co-leader of the school’s Latino Club. “They are validated. They will be heard.”

Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) arrested a drunk driver following a pursuit on Interstate 80 that covered nearly 20 miles in eastern Nebraska Thursday afternoon.

At approximately, 4:45 p.m. Thursday, December 13, NSP dispatchers received a report of a reckless driver traveling eastbound on I-80 in Seward County. Troopers located the vehicle at mile marker 381, near the Milford interchange. The vehicle was observed speeding at 93 miles per hour in a 75 miles per hour zone.

Troopers attempted a traffic stop, but the black Ford Fusion fled. A pursuit was initiated, with speeds reaching as high as 120 miles per hour as the suspect headed toward Lincoln. Speeds decreased as the suspect reached the city limits of Lincoln.

At mile marker 398, a trooper was able to successfully perform a tactical vehicle intervention to bring the pursuit to an end. The suspect, Scott Underwood, 42, of Lincoln, was taken into custody immediately. The pursuit lasted approximately 15 minutes.

Troopers detected the odor of alcohol on Underwood’s breath, discovered an open container of alcohol in the vehicle, and discovered that Underwood’s driver’s license was currently revoked.

Underwood was arrested for driving under the influence, refusing to submit to a blood-alcohol content test, operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest, willful reckless driving, possession of an open container, driving during revocation, and other traffic violations. He was lodged in Lancaster County Jail.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The mother of a 33-year-old Lincoln woman who was critically injured in May while crossing a street is suing the driver who hit her.

Halley Hansen is unable to live independently and is cognitively impaired because of her traumatic brain injury. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Lancaster County District Court seeks nearly $630,000 for her daughter’s medical bills and more than $10.1 million for the estimated cost of future care.

Authorities say Hansen was in the crosswalk on A Street east of Capitol Parkway just after 1 p.m. when Louis Keester turned left and hit her with his Toyota Venza. Hansen was thrown to the ground, her head hitting the street. Keester later pleaded guilty to a failure to yield to a pedestrian charge.

MADISON, Neb. (AP) — A former Madison city employee alleges in a lawsuit that she lost her job because she supported a recall effort against Mayor Al Brandl.

The Norfolk Daily News reports that Gina Ainsworth filed the lawsuit Tuesday in district court. Ainsworth was employed by the city from April 2010 until Dec. 12, 2016, and says she received positive feedback from supervisors and co-workers while working under three different mayors.

Ainsworth says she exercised her free-speech rights and displayed a sign in her yard in favor of recalling Brandl during an unsuccessful 2016 recall campaign. She alleges that she received a call on Dec. 12 that she would not be reappointed later that day during the city council meeting and was given the opportunity to resign.

Brandl hasn’t responded to the lawsuit.