The owner of the Bronx bodega where 15-year-old Lesandro "Junior" Guzman-Feliz was dragged and brutally slashed and stabbed outside by a mob of men is detailing the chilling moments inside the store before the vicious attack.
In a conference with reporters Friday, Modesto Cruz tearfully explained what happened the night the boy was killed in a grisly mistaken-identity machete attack.
"He told me, 'They looking for me, they running for me.' I help him down," said Cruz.
Surveillance video showed the teen jumping over the counter in an attempt to get away from the men chasing after him. Cruz, who was closing the store, at first thought it was a robbery.
But Guzman-Feliz stayed down on the ground, and as the suspects stormed the bodega, Cruz said he tried to keep the teen hidden.
"He was so scared. I remember his face, and he was so scared," he said.
The attackers spotted Guzman-Feliz, and a scuffle ensued. Cruz said he was scared for his life -- the group had showed a weapon.
Then the men on video grab Guzman-Feliz, drag him out, and slash and stab him outside.
"Soon as they take him out from the store, I made my first phone call at 11:39," said Cruz. "I spent four minutes with operator, I was just telling him, 'Please, send the police, you already got my address.'"
The surveillance video goes on to show the teen at the door after the attack, with Cruz pointing away. Cruz said he was trying to point him toward St. Barnabas Hospital the next block over, afraid the ambulance was taking too long.
Now Cruz and his attorney are confronting the anger and outrage over the teen's death, with community members accusing the bodega owner of not coming to Guzman-Feliz's aid.
Cruz said that like many in the Bronx community, he's shaken, saddened, and reliving those fear-filled moments in the bodega that night.
"I don't know how to explain in English. I just want his mother to understand that the pain is not only hers, we feel the pain, too. We are part of the community," he said.
Cruz's store remained closed for days after the killing as the sidewalk outside became the site of a sprawling memorial for the boy known as Junior.
Guzman-Feliz was laid to rest following an emotional funeral Wednesday. Eight suspects have been arrested in his killing, six of them in New Jersey. All will face charges of murder and other crimes.
U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has increased its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months — and that Kim Jong Un may try to hide those facilities as he seeks more concessions in nuclear talks with the Trump administration, U.S. officials told NBC News.
The intelligence assessment, which has not previously been reported, seems to counter the sentiments expressed by President Donald Trump, who tweeted after his historic June 12 summit with Kim that "there was no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea."
Analysts at the CIA and other intelligence agencies don't see it that way, according to more than a dozen American officials who are familiar with their assessments and spoke on the condition of anonymity. They see a regime positioning itself to extract every concession it can from the Trump administration — while clinging to nuclear weapons it believes are essential to survival.
An out-of-control driver in a stolen vehicle crashed into seven other cars in Harlem Friday evening, injuring seven people, before fleeing the scene, officials say.
Witnesses said a black car was traveling erratically in the opposite lane of travel near 125th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue at about 5:15 p.m. when it slid sideways, hitting several other vehicles.
The wild wreck left debris up and down the block. The driver then ran off into the nearest subway.
"He could have waited for police but no, he went into the subway, jumped the turnstile and went on the subway," said witness Kevin Deshields.
Seven people were injured and taken to the hospital, officials say. Police have not released a description of the suspect.
Cancer hasn’t stopped 4-year-old Jamison from dreaming of becoming a police officer.
On a recent trip to Yankee Stadium, Jamison’s favorite part of the game had nothing to do with the players on the field or the snacks in the stadium, but the chance to meet an NYPD officer.
The staff at Ronald McDonald House, where Jamison and his family are staying while he battles cancer, picked up on his interest and quickly reached out to the NYPD to have them pay a visit to their biggest fan. The very next night, dozens of officers streamed in to see their youngest recruit.
The boy appeared shy, or perhaps simply in awe at first, but then the glowing smile on Jamison's face was undeniable as he was introduced to the officers of the 19th Precinct. There were hugs and high-fives all around as they presented him with a generous supply of NYPD gear, including his very own police badge.
"It’s like Christmas," one officer joked in the video.
In addition to the gifts, Jamison was given the chance to feel like part of the force when he sat in a real NYPD squad car and got to work the signals.
When the night came to an end, the NYPD officers gave him a siren salute as they drove back to the stationm making for an unforgettable evening for Jamison and his family.
Ronald McDonald House of NY is an organization that provides temporary lodging and care for more than 35,000 families who are battling childhood cancer. More information can be found on their website.
On a sunny day in New City, New York, Little League president Michael Cohen keeps a watchful eye over everything.
“In my line of work,” said Cohen, “I don’t trust anybody.”
It’s not hard to understand why. Cohen became president of the New City Little League after a former treasurer of the league, Joyce Bidnick, pled guilty to stealing more than $400,000 from the league. She served six months in jail and paid the league back as part of her guilty plea. She declined to comment for this article.
“I was devastated,” said Cohen. “You think these are your neighbors and that they are doing the right thing.”
A New York dad, whose identity the I-Team is concealing, proves his point.
“I was asked to be treasurer. I took a couple of thousand dollars at first to help pay my mortgage.”
But he kept returning to the league account. He estimates he wrote more than 15 checks to himself, taking nearly $200,000. It was three years before he was caught and convicted.
“There was always a cushion there,” said the man when asked how no one noticed that the money was missing. “I was taking from Peter to pay Paul.”
Rockland County Assistant District Attorney Richard Moran is well accustomed to these Little League cases.
“As far as thefts go, it’s one of the most egregious ones you can have,” Moran told the I-Team.
He has prosecuted cases in New City and Stony Point, just two among the 35 that the I-Team found in the tri-state area over the past eight years in which adults stole hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for things like debts, college bills, weddings and vacations.
Erik Carroza, founder of the Center for Fraud Prevention to help youth leagues to improve their financial integrity says he has been able to document about 250 cases of embezzlement across the country over the last several years.
“The total amount embezzled exceeded over $17 million,” said Carroza.
The first mistake, says Carroza, is trusting too much.
“There’s this personal relationship in youth sports, so they’re reluctant to challenge the financial process,” said Carroza in an interview with the I-Team.
District attorney Moran says a few simple changes can help tighten up the financial workings of the leagues. First, they should require two signatures for checks and money withdrawals. The league should provide board members and parents if they ask, with balance sheets, detailing financial transactions. And Moran suggests that leagues self-audit.
“Parents shouldn’t be shy about asking members of this Little League board for things such as the balance sheets, the expenses, and things of that nature,” said Moran.
Cohen is taking steps in New City to ensure these scandals come to a stop. There is no longer any cash, Cohen told the I-Team. “We self-audit, our checks require two signatures, the treasurer can’t write a check by himself, and the bookkeeper has no access,” Cohen said.
These steps are being taken in the hopes that the focus of these little league teams can return to the kids involved, who “just want to play ball, softball, baseball, that’s all they want to do,” said Cohen.
New details are being revealed in the chilling death of a 74-year-old Connecticut woman who was found in a pool of blood, her neck stabbed three times with a kitchen knife, next to her own bed earlier this month.
The arrest warrant for Eden Claxton's 75-year-old husband, Allen, was unsealed Friday -- and it paints a picture of a man prosecutors allege was desperate to end medical and financial struggles by murder-suicide.
Emergency crews responding to a 911 call from Allen Claxton the morning of June 11 found Eden Claxton's butchered body in the master bedroom of their upscale Hycliff Terrace home in Stamford home. Allen Claxton was at the top of the stairs calling for them to come to him, according to the arrest warrant. Police arrived.
Allen Claxton had a rope around his neck and told them someone had grabbed him from behind and tried to strangle him; his white T-shirt and white shorts were covered in what appeared to be blood, the warrant says. He had two swollen eyes, which were black and blue, a swollen tongue, cuts to his left hand and blood on his face -- and was taken to a hospital to be treated for his injuries, according to court records.
Investigators went to the master bedroom. There they found Eden Claxton, barely clothed, her right arm bent over her neck with a fist in a clenched position as if she had desperately tried to stop the bleeding.
Inches from her body was a kitchen knife about 8 to 10 inches long, and it appeared someone had tried to wipe off the blood. There was blood on the sheets and pillow on her side of the bed, blood on the window frame, blood on the floor -- and an apparent effort to wipe it clean with two tissues, the arrest warrant says.
Officers noticed apparent drops of blood on the stairwell leading downstairs and followed them; they found blood on the outer kitchen door handle and lock leading to the side of the house, and more apparent blood that seemed to have been cleaned up on the floor in front of the door. In the kitchen there was a butcher block of knives; it was full.
The cops then went to the basement, where they found another butcher block of knives. That one had knives missing. Nothing else was disturbed.
According to the arrest warrant, Allen Claxton told cops he and Eden were in bed around 7 a.m. that day and they heard a noise like something fell off a shelf. He went downstairs to check it out, saw nothing unusual and came back upstairs with a knife. When he reached the top, he says he felt something slip around his neck and then passed out. When he awoke about three minutes later in one of the home's bedrooms, not the master, he didn't have the knife. He went into the master bedroom and saw his wife in a pool of blood, the arrest warrant says. He called 911.
Allen Claxton told officers he didn't see who choked him. He also kept asking where his wife was and was eventually told she was dead. He went on to tell officers his wife had breast cancer, glaucoma and other ailments, while he was battling his own blood disorder, but, when asked, denied that he or his wife would be driven to suicide by their illnesses.
An emergency room doctor reported to police that Allen Claxton's injuries were consistent with a "botched hanging." Investigators challenged Allen Claxton's account of a third party assailant; they asked how he cut such deep lacerations to his hand that he needed stitches and he said he didn't remember, according to the arrest warrant.
A search of the home found handwritten notes by Allen Claxton that conveyed research of suicide and murder; others indicated a financial strain with a desperation to relieve that strain, the arrest warrant says. A review of Allen Claxton's email accounts found personal thoughts on depression, anxiety and murder/suicide, the arrest warrant says.
One email stood out. According to the arrest warrant, it said, in part, "Every day is the same slipping towards the event which will shatter our lives. I spend every day paying bills and watching our money disappear. To be foreclosed from the place which has been home for thirty years and with no knowledge of how to live anywhere else is paralyzing. This is why life continues unchanged hoping for some miracle. The only way out of this is an (sic) to create an horrific event where we both die at the same time. We are elderly and if we were younger the plan would be different. We are alone and the few friends we have will be horrified but they are not family members and the shock will pass. Our children did not see us frequently and we are not part of their lives."
"Taking your own life is not something I ever contemplated but I also never planted (sic) to become so destitute. I have never felt anything other than love for my wife so helping her with her own death is a (sic) tragic and fills me with guilt," the email said.
Investigators learned Eden Claxton had stage 2 breast cancer and was scheduled for a mastectomy June 20, nine days after she was found dead.
Allen Claxton was arrested this week. He pleaded not guilty to murder and was released after posting $1.5 million bond. His attorney confirmed those facts Thursday when News 4 New York reached out for comment.
Allen Claxton also had to surrender his passport and was ordered not to leave the state without permission.
The man who police say killed four journalists and a staffer at The Capital Gazette barricaded the exit door so employees couldn't escape, a prosecutor said Friday.
Jarrod Ramos, 38, allegedly opened fire inside the newspaper office Thursday, killing five and injuring two others. He had a long, acrimonious history with the newspaper, including a lawsuit and years of harassment of its journalists.
Ramos, a former information-technology worker for the federal government, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, according to court documents. Ramos appeared in an Annapolis courtroom via video feed Friday. He appeared to watch attentively during the hearing but never spoke. Ramos was ordered held without bail after Judge Thomas J. Pryal determined that Ramos remains a flight risk and a danger to the community given the severity of his actions. It was not immediately clear whether Ramos has an attorney.
Ramos has been put on suicide watch. Pryal was told about the watch during the hearing.
Pryal also was given details about the suspect. The 5-foot-10 Ramos is single, with no children. He has lived in Maryland most of his life, including for the past 17 years in an apartment in Laurel, Maryland.
Police searched his apartment late Thursday night.
"We did find evidence at the residence. I can't go into a whole bunch of details about it, but I will tell you that it's evidence showing the origination of planning, things like that," Police Chief Timothy Altomare said during a news conference Friday morning.
Ramos, armed with a pump-action shotgun, shot out the doors to The Capital Gazette and shot the victims as he encountered them, charging documents say. Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Wes Adams said Ramos had an escape plan and possibly barricaded the back door of the newsroom to prevent victims from escaping. Responding officers found him under a desk, where he was attempting to hide, authorities say.
"The fella was there to kill as many people as he could kill," Altomare said.
"I will not say his name today. I refuse to do it."
Altomare said the weapon Ramos used in the shooting was legally purchased about a year ago.
Police say Ramos hid under a desk after the shooting and willingly went into custody, but has not cooperated with investigators.
"Generally active shooters are wanting to go out in a blaze of glory. I just can't get in his head. I can't do it. I wish I could today, truly," Altomare said.
Altomare said Friday that there had been a "lag" on getting finger print results. Authorities were able to identify him using facial recognition software and "a couple other techniques," he said.
Ramos had a well-documented history of harassing the paper's journalists, a feud that apparently began over a column about Ramos pleading guilty to harassing a woman.
In 2012, he filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper, alleging he was harmed by an article about his conviction. The suit was dismissed by a judge who wrote Ramos hadn't shown "anything that was published about you is, in fact, false." An appeals court later upheld the dismissal.
Ramos often railed against its staff members in profanity-laced tweets.
Altomare said detectives spoke with legal counsel for The Capital and several members of the staff about the threats, but the newspaper did not wish to pursue criminal charges, as they feared it would exacerbate the situation.
According to a police report written in 2013, a detective didn't believe Ramos was a threat to The Capital.
"I'm angry that this guy was still walking around and making all these tweets." former Capital Editor Tom Marquardt told the News4 I-Team.
Acting Police Chief William Krampf of Anne Arundel County called it a targeted attack in which the gunman "looked for his victims."
"This person was prepared today to come in, this person was prepared to shoot people," Krampf said.
Journalists crawled under desks and sought other hiding places in what they described as minutes of terror as they heard the gunman's footsteps and the repeated blasts of the shotgun as he moved about the newsroom.
"It was unfortunate to see such good-hearted people ultimately suffer such untimely, senseless death," shooting survivor and Capital Gazette intern Anthony Messenger told the "Today" show Friday.
While Thursday's attack on The Capital Gazette in Annapolis came amid months of verbal and online attacks on the "fake news media" from politicians and others from President Donald Trump on down, there was no immediate indication the shooting was connected to that rhetoric. The shooting prompted New York City police to tighten security at news organizations in the nation's media capital out of an abundance of caution.
Trump said Friday that the shooting "shocked the conscience of the nation and filled our hearts with grief."
"Journalists, like all Americans, should be free of the fear of being violently attacked while doing their jobs," he said at the White House during an event to mark the six-month anniversary of his tax reform law.
Trump said in a message to victims' families that "there are no words to express our sorrow."
Those killed at the Gazette included Rob Hiaasen, 59, the paper's assistant managing editor and brother of novelist Carl Hiaasen. Carl Hiaasen said he was "devastated and heartsick" at losing his brother, "one of the most gentle and funny people I've ever known."
Also slain were Gerald Fischman, editorial page editor; features reporter Wendi Winters; reporter John McNamara, and sales assistant Rebecca Smith. Two other employees, identified by police as Rachael Pacella and Janet Cooley, had non-life threatening injuries and were later released from a hospital.
Hundreds of people gathered for a candlelight march Friday night at the Maryland State House in honor of the victims.
Phil Davis, a courts and crime reporter for the paper, tweeted that the gunman shot out the glass door to the office and fired into the newsroom, sending people scrambling under desks.
"There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload," he wrote in a tweet. In a later interview appearing on the paper's online site, Davis likened the newspaper office to a "war zone."
"I'm a police reporter. I write about this stuff — not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death — all the time," he said. "But as much as I'm going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don't know until you're there and you feel helpless."
Reporter Selene San Felice told CNN she was at her desk but ran after hearing shots, only to find a back door locked. She then watched as a colleague was shot, adding she didn't glimpse the gunman.
"I heard footsteps a couple of times," she said. "I was breathing really loud and was trying not to, but I couldn't be quiet."
The reporter recalled a June 2016 mass shooting attack on Orlando's gay nightclub Pulse and how terrified people crouching inside had texted loved ones as dozens were killed. Said San Felice, "And there I was sitting under a desk, texting my parents and telling them I loved them."
Survivors said the shooting — though it seemed agonizingly long — lasted mere minutes. And police said their response was swift.
Police spokesman Lt. Ryan Frashure said officers arrived within about 60 seconds and took the gunman into custody without an exchange of gunfire. Ramos attempted to hide under a desk until police found him, according to a charging document.
About 170 people were then evacuated from the building, which houses other offices. Many left with their hands up as police and other emergency vehicles arrived.
Investigators remained on the cordoned-off site early Friday as they sought clues to the gunman's motives.
"The shooter has not been very forthcoming, so we don't have any information yet on motive," Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh said.
Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley said the community was grieving the attack on its paper.
"These are the guys that come to city council meetings, have to listen to boring politicians and sit there,'' Buckley said. "They don't make a lot of money. It's just immoral that their lives should be in danger."
Appearing on MSNBC Friday, Buckley called for a look into gun control and mental health issues, saying that "this can't be the new normal."
"We can't keep accepting this," he said.
Buckley added that he thought there would be "some traction" after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and the students' March for Our Lives campaign. However, he expressed disappointment at the lack of change that has taken place since that Feb. 14 massacre.
"We shouldn't be mad all the time. ... We need to take a deep breath ... We got to stop hating one another," Buckley said.
In April, Maryland’s governor signed a “red-flag” bill into law that will allow family members or police officers to ask a judge to order someone’s firearms be removed temporarily. The law applies to all guns and goes into effect in October.
Lindsay Nichols, the federal policy director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said that had the law been effect, “Given the facts of this case, I think there was a strong possibility that law enforcement would have been able to obtain an extreme risk protection order against this person and therefore the person’s guns might have been removed or he wouldn’t have been able to buy this gun.”
The Capital Gazette newspaper is part of Capital Gazette Communications, which also publishes the Maryland Gazette and CapitalGazette.com. It is owned by The Baltimore Sun.
Late Thursday night, the paper unveiled its front page, featuring the photos of their five colleagues who had been killed just hours earlier.
The opinion page, which was left nearly blank intentionally, also featured a tribute to the victims.
"Today, we are speechless. This page is intentionally left blank today to commemorate the victims of Thursday's shooting at our office," the page read.
The Associated Press Media Editors promised to help Capital Gazette journalists as they recover. An APME statement called on newspapers nationwide to help the paper continue its community coverage and fight for freedom of the press.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The heat can prove dangerous, even deadly, especially for senior citizens. But often the cost of getting an air conditioner installed can be prohibitive. Lynda Baquero found a program that offers help for free.
Pods are being built in one of the hardest hit areas of Puerto Rico in an effort to alleviate the housing crisis after Hurricane Maria. Gaby Acevedo reports.
There's a plan to study the possibility of building a pedestrian bridge to connect Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights right to the center of Brooklyn Bridge Park. But not everyone is on board. Roseanne Colletti reports.
More information is coming out about the five people killed in the Annapolis newspaper shooting as the investigation into the shooting continues. Checkey Beckford reports.
The shooting in a Maryland newsroom this week that left five people dead came less than six months before a new law takes effect in that state that allows people to raise “red flags” restricting a person’s access to guns.
There is no way of knowing if the events in Annapolis would have played out differently, but the new law, an extreme risk protective order law, allows relatives and law enforcement officials to ask a court to temporarily restrict a person’s access to guns if they are found to be a risk to themselves or others. The law will go into effect in October.
“Given the facts of this case, I think there was a strong possibility that law enforcement would have been able to obtain an extreme risk protection order against this person and therefore the person’s guns might have been removed or he wouldn’t have been able to buy this gun,” said Lindsay Nichols, the federal policy director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun control advocacy group.
Maryland’s gun laws are typically stronger for handguns than long guns but the extreme risk protection order applies to all firearms, she noted.
The accused shooter, 38-year-old Jarrod Ramos, bought the pump-action shotgun he used in the killings legally a year or so ago, Anne Arundel County Police Chief Timothy Altomare told reporters on Friday.
Ramos apparently had a longstanding grudge against the newspaper over a 2011 column about his pleading guilty to criminal harassment. According to court records, he pleaded guilty to the charge in July 2011 in Anne Arundel County and later sued the newspaper unsuccessfully over the column. A former publisher, Thomas Marquardt, told The Baltimore Sun that Ramos began harassing the newspaper’s staff shortly after the column was published.
The misdemeanor harassment conviction, for "misuse of electronic mail," would not have disqualified Ramos from buying a shotgun. Some convictions would prevent a licensed gun dealer from selling a weapon to a person — felonies, violent crimes and misdemeanors that carry penalties of two years — but not his harassment charge. The maximum sentence for that misdemeanor is one year in jail, a fine up to $500 or both.
Maryland also does not require a private seller to conduct a background check before the sale of a rifle or shotgun, though the checks are generally required for handgun sales, Nichols said.
“So the harassment conviction would not have prevented him from passing a background check, and a background check may have not even been required,” she said. “Maryland does have an assault weapons ban that may have prevented him from obtaining a more deadly weapon. But there is clearly still a lot of work to be done, even in a state like Maryland with relatively strong gun laws.”
The Giffords Law Center, which evaluates the strength of each state’s gun laws, has awarded Maryland an A-, one of only a half-dozen states to receive a top high mark. This year, Maryland also passed a law requiring a person convicted of domestic violence crimes, even some misdemeanors, to surrender firearms.
Only Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois and Massachusetts require the licensing of rifles, though California does maintain records of all long gun sales. Any time a long gun is sold in California, a record must be sent to the state Department of Justice.
Red flag laws, also called gun violence restraining orders, gained attention after the shooting deaths of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February. The mother of the alleged shooter, Nikolas Cruz, had contacted police over behavior she found troubling.
Afterward, Florida quickly passed a red flag law, followed by Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont, according to another gun control advocacy group, Everytown for Gun Safety. Other states that are considering such legislation: Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Texas Gov. Greg Abbot says he wants to explore a law, but the Texas Tribune notes that it has previously gone nowhere in the Texas Legislature.
Before the Parkland shooting, only five states had such a red flag law in place, while now 11 do.
After the Parkland shooting, the National Rifle Association offered some conditional support for red flag laws.
“We need to stop dangerous people before they act,” Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, said in a video. “So Congress should provide funding to states to adopt risk protection orders.”
But it also said it did not support the kind of red flag laws that had already been passed at that point, which would include ones in California and Washington state, and it sued to block the new Florida law contending that its provision banning sales to those under 21 was a violation of the Second Amendment.
Gun control advocates remain skeptical about what the NRA would support. In an email, the NRA said the organization believes there should be laws in place to prevent "truly dangerous individuals" from accessing firearms. But it stressed the organization's commitment to fully protecting the "Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens" and said that laws like Maryland's would need to "include criminal penalties for those who bring false or frivolous charges."
A review by the Oregonian newspaper of the red flag law that went into effect in Oregon last year found that in the four months from Jan. 1 to April 30, judges had granted gun removals in 24 of the 27 cases filed. At least four of the gun owners had threatened to shoot people in public places, but most removals were meant to prevent suicides and domestic violence shootings.
A study from the University of Indiana found that red flag laws in Indiana and Connecticut were associated with a drop in the rate of suicides by firearms in both states. Indiana’s rate dropped by 8 percent in the decade after the law was enacted; Connecticut saw a 14 percent drop in the eight years after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, when the state tightened enforcement of its law.
Nichols, of the Giffords Law Center, said that red flag laws are based on the best predictors of future violence, including threats of violence or suicide or actual acts of violence or suicide attempts. The removal of weapons are temporary, generally lasting about a year, and follow judicial due process, she said.
“They really fill an important gap because they enable family members and law enforcement to temporarily remove guns from a person that they know to be dangerous,” Nichols said.
“They provide this great opportunity to prevent these sorts of tragedies from happening in the future,” she said.
A San Diego County Sheriff's deputy used his position as a uniformed officer to take advantage of a woman in a North County motel room while her 12-year-old daughter was nearby, the woman told NBC 7 Thursday.
She is the 18th woman to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against six-year SDSO veteran Richard Fischer, who is awaiting trial on charges stemming from incidents dating back to May 2015.
"I’m broken towards him," the woman told NBC 7. "I am angry, very angry. The fact that my child — I had her with me, he didn’t even care."
The woman asked to remain anonymous due to the nature of the incident.
She told NBC 7 that last October, when sheriff's deputies responded to the woman's home for a domestic disturbance, Fischer suggested she and her daughter get a room at the Days Inn near the San Marcos sheriff’s substation so he could keep an eye on her.
The woman said he showed up at the motel, requested to come into her room and guided her into the bathroom to talk so her daughter couldn't hear.
That's when she said Fischer pulled his body against her, groped her up and down and told her how beautiful she was.
The woman said she was vulnerable at that time, having just gotten into an argument with her now ex-husband, and that she was paralyzed with fear.
"The thought of retaliating or even try to — he is a San Diego sheriff," she said. "How do you do that? And he is so much, way bigger than me. How do you do that? Who’s going to believe you? And I could only think of just protecting my daughter."
The woman's account is similar to another woman's, who last month presented her testimony at a preliminary hearing for Fischer and said he took advantage of her after offering to escort her home from an incident with an ex-boyfriend.
Fischer is awaiting trial on charges of groping or touching more than a dozen women who had called 911 for help or were in custody, according to the San Diego County District Attorney's office.
"As we see over time, it appears he is getting bolder with what he’s doing," the woman’s attorney Marlea Dell’anno said. "To do this while a 12-year-old is sleeping in the room is unbelievable."
Fischer was arrested and charged on Feb. 22. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied all allegations.
Women say Fischer was in uniform and on duty when he inappropriately touched them in their homes or while they were in custody.
The DA's office said Fischer would return to victims' homes late at night after the call had been cleared from dispatch records and no other deputies were present.
Several times the unwanted touching and questioning occurred minutes or even hours after other deputies had left the scene, the women claim.
Prosecutors said half of the victims had called the sheriff's department after they were victims of a crime. The other half of the victims were in custody and handcuffed when the alleged assaults occurred.
"These are simply allegations," Fischer's defense attorney Richard Pinckard told Judge David Danielson during his arraignment. "Mr. Fischer has a very strong desire to go through this process to clear his name."
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is not commenting on the latest allegations because the case against Fischer is ongoing.
Fischer was placed on paid administrative leave in October when the first accusation surfaced. After the criminal charges were filed, Fischer was placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the criminal case, Sheriff Bill Gore said.
Four alleged victims have reached settlements with San Diego County in civil lawsuits.
Fischer is out on bail and on unpaid leave while the case against him moves forward.
A man believed to be connected by DNA to the 1974 cold case of a woman slain inside a chuch on the campus of Stanford University allegedly shot and killed himself at a San Jose apartment complex Thursday as authorities arrived to serve a warrant, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said.
At around 9:05 a.m., deputies made verbal contact at a closed front door with an occupant in the apartment near Merrill Drive and Camden Avenue. As deputies made entry, they observed a man with a handgun, and the deputies immediately backed away, according to San Jose police.
A short time later, a gunshot was heard. Deputies eventually re-entered the residence and discovered a man, later identified as Steve Crawford, with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Sheriff's detectives believe Crawford was connected to the slaying of Arlis Perry, 19, who was found dead and naked from the waist down at Stanford Memorial Church on Oct. 13, 1974.
"It was an extremely brutal homicide in a church at Stanford," Smith said.
Crawford was the security guard who found Perry with an ice pick in the back of her head, several candles near and on her body. Police collected DNA samples from semen found at the scene, the Stanford Daily reported.
Smith said the department's homicide unit has been working the case "actively" since it occurred.
At the time of her death, Perry had just moved from North Dakota to the Bay Area to be with her husband, Bruce Perry, who was attending Stanford, according to a book “The Ultimate Evil“ by journalist Maury Terry.
Detectives were able to get DNA evidence retested, and authorities received more information, which led them to Crawford at the San Jose apartment complex, Smith said.
No officers were involved in the shooting Thursday, Smith said.
Stanford University released a statement later Thursday.
"We extend our gratitude to local law enforcement for their efforts over decades to try to resolve this disturbing case. It remains a heart-wrenching memory at the university. Stanford has been cooperating with investigators over many years, and we know they’ve been working tirelessly to try to bring this case to a conclusion."
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and the San Jose Police Department's Homicide Unit are conducting a joint criminal investigation, police said.
An employee's touching final PA announcement at a Long Island Toys R Us has gone viral online.
Ryan Madigan' sign-off at the bankrupt toy store chain's Lake Grove location has been seen 75,000 times since it was posted late on Thursday, the last day of business Toys R Us locations nationwide.
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"For one last time, we are closed!" Madigan says into the loudspeaker.
He adds "I wanna also thank each and every one of my coworkers and managers for being the best staff I've ever worked with, and being more than just coworkers and managers. They are a second family that I have come to work with every day and love ever since."
He finishes, "with that being said, we will not be open tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. As always have a wonderful night."
Madigan, a 21-year-old English and rhetorical theory major at Binghamton University, said that he had worked at the store since he was 16. He said it was a "dream come true" as an action figure collector and that he will miss seeing his coworkers.
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I couldn’t have asked for a better first job that this one and I have been blessed to work with such amazing people," he said.
He added that he has another summer job lined up with his dad but he feels for his coworkers who might not have gotten another job.
"I was surprised by (Toys R Us') closing, and was very upset about the fact that so many people I care about and know we’re losing their jobs," he said. "I’ll miss it, but I knew I had to leave eventually since I’m approaching my final year of college."
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A 44-year-old woman who heard a knock on the door of her Brooklyn home opened it up to see a stranger who was covering his face with a shirt -- he socked her in the mouth, knocking out her teeth, law enforcement sources tell News 4.
The violent attack happened around 11 a.m. Friday in East New York, according to police, and the victim says it was her courageous puppy that saved her from even further injury.
"I was on the phone with the super, and as I was on the phone with him, I opened the door," the shaken victim told News 4 Friday. "The guy hit me in the face, broke my teeth and I was fighting with him."
The stranger, who had a shirt covering his mouth, "tried to close the door behind him, and I was fighting with him in the doorway, right by the bathroom door we were fighting," the woman said.
The woman, bloody and with her teeth knocked out, fought back, thinking of her son sleeping in a back bedroom. Then her dog started barking and broke out of his cage, rushing straight at the woman's attacker.
The stranger ran off. He took nothing with him and remains on the loose, along with an accomplice.
The woman believes her 5-month-old pit bull, Gotti, saved her life.
"I don't know how but he got out of the cage. The guy saw the dog and started running," she said.
"If he didn't see the dog, I would probably be worse. Worse off," the woman said, getting emotional.
Anyone with information is asked to call police.
A school bus carrying several children crashed and overturned on the New Jersey Turnpike, but no serious injuries were reported.
State police said no other vehicles were involved in the crash, which occurred around 11:40 a.m. Friday near southbound milepost 29.8 in Cherry Hill. The bus ended up on its side on the shoulder of the roadway.
Roughly 30 people were aboard the bus, including 20 children who had minor injuries. They were being treated at Cooper University Hospital.
Authorities didn't know if the children were part of an organized group, though most were wearing similarly colored shirts. Most of them were standing along the grassy shoulder while they waited for a replacement bus to pick them up.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The tragic slaying of a New York teen last week has captivated the community but the New York City Police Foundation plans to continue to honor Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz by establishing a scholarship in his name.
The foundation announced Thursday that the The New York City Police Foundation Lesandro Guzman-Feliz Memorial College Fund will provide two NYPD Explorer high school graduates up to $5,000 each in reimbursement of tuition and school supplies upon enrollment in an accredited school for the fall semester.
“The murder of Junior has sent shockwaves of sadness across our city,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “Junior’s life was taken too soon, but it will not be in vain. This scholarship will help more young New Yorkers learn about law enforcement and public service, and ensure that Junior’s legacy will never be forgotten.”
The president of the New York City Police Foundation, Susan Birnbaum, shared similar sentiments saying: “Out of this tragedy, future students like Junior will be able to pursue their dreams and, just as importantly, his name will live on.”
Fifteen-year-old Guzman-Feliz, affectionately called Junior, was murdered on June 20 when he was ambushed in a busy Bronx bodega by a group who killed him in a vicious machete attack that was captured on surveillance camera.
The young boy had dreams of becoming an NYPD police officer.
"There is no better way to honor a young man whose stated dream was to become one of the greatest detectives in the world than by establishing a memorial scholarship in his honor,” Police Commissioner James O'Neill said in a statement.
Cops previously said the machete killing of Guzman-Feliz appeared to be linked to the Trinitarios gang. Various men have been arrested in connection to the slaying.
Talk about a failed bailout.
A lawsuit against New York's AmTrust insurance company claims owners of the multi-billion dollar business walked away from their pledge to rescue Tower Insurance when Tower could no longer pay its bills.
Back in 2014, AmTrust CEO Barry Zyskind said his family of companies would merge with Tower and pay $200 million to "stabilize" the troubled insurance firm. But three days after the New York Department of Financial Services approved the acquisition, Tower's profitable books of commercial and personal liability policies were transferred to other AmTrust affiliates. Meanwhile, thousands of active insurance claims against Tower were dumped in a separate company called CastlePoint, which went into a form of bankruptcy in 2016.
“I don’t think there was ever any intent to acquire these companies, rehabilitate them and get them functioning. I think the intent was to acquire them [and] keep the good, [and] get rid of the bad,” said Paul Edelstein, an attorney for one of the accident victims with an insurance claim against Tower. “If this turns out to be completely legal, it’s absolutely unethical and immoral.”
Edelstein represents Eita Pruss, a car accident victim who was run over in 2014 by a vehicle that was insured by Tower and several other insurance companies. In August 2016, Pruss agreed to a $9 million settlement whereby Tower would pay $5 million. Though the settlement appeared final, with a state Supreme Court judge having signed off, AmTrust declined to honor the payment because of Tower’s insolvency.
Just a few days before Pruss’ settlement agreement was signed, AmTrust’s previous CFO, Ron Pipoly, told shareholders “Tower’s legacy liabilities will remain with Tower and we have no exposure.”
As a result of Tower’s failure, state insurance guaranty funds across the country are having to pay on claims that would have otherwise been handled in the private sector. The I-Team examined court records and found New York state insurance guaranty funds have already obligated almost $10 million for claimants against Tower. New Jersey’s guaranty funds have already obligated almost $9 million.
Richard Loconte, a spokesman for the New York Department of Financial Services, sent the I-Team a statement arguing insurance regulators did the best they could with the information they had when they oversaw AmTrust's acquisition of Tower.
“In 2014, DFS approved AmTrust’s transaction with Tower because it provided additional reinsurance protections for policyholder claims borne by a troubled insurer,” Loconte wrote. “The transaction was approved to protect policyholders, based on the information available at the time.”
Under New York law, when a private insurance company goes bankrupt, a claimant can obtain a maximum of $1 million from the state guarantee fund.
Pruss received the maximum payout, but that still leaves her $4 million short. She says AmTrust should honor the balance of her claim.
“You cannot trust AmTrust anymore,” said Pruss.
Hunter Hoffman, a spokesman for AmTrust, suggested Pruss should seek the rest of her settlement from the owner of the car that hit her.
“Our sympathies go out to Ms. Pruss,” Hoffman said in an email to the I-Team, but he declined to specifically address her lawsuit, citing the pending nature of the litigation.
Last week, AmTrust shareholders voted to convert the insurance giant from a publicly traded company to a private company. That decision comes just a month after AmTrust announced it has been under federal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for the past five years. AmTrust has not said whether that federal probe involves the acquisition of Tower.
Individual taxpayers will be able to use a postcard-sized form to file their returns for the 2019 tax season, CNBC reported.
The form will replace the current 1040, 1040A and 1040 EZ forms, according to the Treasury Department.
"The new, postcard-size Form1040 is designed to simplify and expedite filing tax returns, providing much-needed relief to hardworking taxpayers," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
The government was separating migrant parents from their kids for months prior to the official introduction of zero tolerance, running what a U.S. official called a "pilot program" for widespread prosecutions in Texas, but apparently did not create a clear system for parents to track or reunite with their kids, NBC News reported.
Officials have said that at least 2,342 children were separated from their parents after being apprehended crossing the border unlawfully since May 5, when the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy towards migrants went into effect.
But numbers provided to NBC News by the Department of Homeland Security show that another 1,768 were separated from their parents between October 2016 and February 2018, bringing the total number of separated kids to more than 4,100. It's unclear how many were separated after President Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2017.
A DHS official told NBC News that the practice of dividing parents and kids predates the Trump presidency but also confirmed to NBC that, from July 2017 to October 2017, the Trump administration ran what the official called a "pilot program" for zero tolerance in El Paso.
In response to questions from NBC, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection said that prior to zero tolerance,the agency had no policy of separating families for reasons other than medical need, fraud or criminal cases, which could include criminal immigration violations.
This is one whopper of a love story.
For each for the last 50 years, Lloyd and Sandi Howard have been celebrated their wedding anniversaries at Burger King, according to NBC's "Today" show.
The Monroe couple began celebrating at the fast food chain because they were running late for a show in New York City on their first anniversary, on June 22, 1969, the report said. They said they were again heading somewhere on their second anniversary and decided to stop in another Burger King for lunch.
"I forget where we were going, but it was around lunchtime, and we realized that it just happened to be our anniversary," Lloyd told "Today." "We just figured — maybe for good luck — that we’d just keep going back on our anniversary."
Since then, a meal at Burger King has been a tradition, through sickness and health. The couple dropped in for a meal on their daughter's high school graduation day when it fell on another anniversary, and Lloyd even got drive-thru meals one year when Sandi was under the weather, according to Today.
For their 50th, on June 22, they got an extra special surprise with their Whoppers. "Today" reported that the two daughters, and six grandchildren were waiting to celebrate with them.
"They were all there, and they'd never met us at Burger King before — it was a total surprise," Sandi told Today. "We were just floored. The most important thing was to be with them."
Read more about Sandi and Lloyd Howard's tradition at Today.com
A new government cancer map shows that rates of childhood cancer are highest in the Northeast United States and lowest in the South, NBC News reported.
Rates of pediatric lymphoma and brain cancer are higher in the Northeast while leukemia is more common in the West, according to the map.
It isn't clear why the rates vary and, since pediatric cancer is so rare, it's unclear what patients and parents should take away from the data. Its main value, according to the team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that wrote the report, is in keeping doctors, hospitals and the government vigilant on pediatric cancer.
It could simply be that some areas have better systems for detecting cancer, the team said.
Two men were charged in connection to a mail theft spree in New York, authorities say.
Steven Carson, 27, and Derek Brown, 28, both of Yonkers, were charged with stealing mail from Postal Service mailboxes, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman and Inspector-in-Charge of the New York Office of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Peter Rendina announced in a joint statement Friday.
According to court documents, on April 2, 2018, Brown redeemed a stolen gift card at a Gap store the same day that a Bronxville victim mailed the card. Two days later, Carson deposited two money orders stolen from the mail into an account in Brown’s name.
Additional allegations state that on April 20, 2018, both men fled from police officers during a traffic stop in Eastchester, New York, after police recovered a bag full of mail in the vehicle they were in. The bag allegedly contained more than $66,000 in stolen checks and money orders taken from the mail.
Allegedly, Carson was also captured on video surveillance on four separate occasions – April 18, 19, 20 and May 4, 2018 – opening locked Postal Service boxes and stealing mail in Bronxville.
Authorities say the investigation is ongoing.
Both men have been charged with one count of mail theft, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Carson is also charged with one count of stealing a Postal Service key, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Both men are scheduled to appear in federal court in White Plains Friday.
It is not immediately clear if any of the men retained an attorney who could comment on these charges.
These latest charges come after other recent arrests in connection to mailbox thefts in Yonkers.
In early June, A former United States Postal Service employee was arrested in connection with incidents of alleged mail theft in Yonkers and in May a young man was also arrested as part of the ongoing investigation into mail theft crimes.
As a man with a shotgun stalked his newspaper's office, a new sports intern hid under a desk with another staffer and quietly called 911, thinking that if he spoke to police, he would be shot next.
Anthony Messenger had only just started working at The Capital Gazette when a gunman broke in to "unleash hell on the office," as the college senior put it during an interview with NBC's "Today" show Friday. Messenger said he was "still trying to decompress" after five people were killed and two others injured in the shooting in Annapolis, Maryland.
The gunman passed by Messenger and his colleague, Gazette staff writer Selene San Felice, giving him a chance to call police back. The line was busy, so he texted a friend asking for help in calling 911. And then he gave San Felice his phone, so she could let loved ones know the agony they were going through.
"In that moment I thought I was going to die," Messenger said. "So, the only thing I could think– the only solace in that moment was, here, Selene you can have my phone. Text whoever you need to text."
She was the one who tweeted, from Messenger's account, "Active shooter 888 Bestgate please help us," which initially tipped off the world that the shooting was taking place, Messenger said.
San Felice had covered the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, she told CNN Thursday night: "I remember being so upset hearing about the victims who were texting their families, and there I was, sitting under a desk texting my parents, telling them I loved them."
Messenger and San Felice survived the shooting, allegedly committed by Jarrod Ramos, who was charged with five counts of first-degree murder. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney; he was being arraigned Friday morning.
The 38-year-old had sued The Capital Gazette for defamation in 2012 over a column about his guilty plea to criminal harassment the year before. Ramos' case was dismissed and he lost an appeal.
Messenger said it wasn't immediately clear to him or other survivors who the shooter was and he wasn't aware of Ramos' history with the newspaper.
He thought the first sound he heard was fireworks, then heard a second explosion, but didn't realize that the shooting was intentional until he and San Felice tried to flee the office through a back door, only to find it was jammed or locked.
"We see these things on the news all the time, so it's not—unfortunately we are kind of desensitized to them," Messenger said. "I quickly recognized, oh, this is a malicious situation. He is here to do harm."
Police said they responded to the shooting within 60 seconds and took the gunman into custody without exchanging gunfire.
After the danger was clear and they were able to leave, Messenger said, "it was chaos. The office was kind of in shambles."
He passed two bodies of his colleagues — he tried not to look, but when he did it "it was sickening," he said.
He said his heart is going out to the families and friends of the victims and that he's not sure if he'll complete the internship.
"That's never something that crossed my mind when I took the internship, that I might see people die — people that were nothing but welcoming and comforting to me," Messenger said.
