A North Stonington farmer wants to know who killed two of his rare pigs. He found them dead over the weekend and believes it was no accident.

"This was not fast and it was horrible to see. These guys fought like crazy against something," said Dugan Tillman-Brown, co-owner of Firefly Farms.

Now he's fighting to find the people responsible for the slaughtering of two of his rare pigs. Tillman Brown says they're called mulefoots and there are only 1000 of them in the world. They're not something you can get at your average livestock auction.

"The only blood on these animals came out of their nose and mouth because they were screaming for so long and so hard like a horse that founders, they frothed blood," said Tillman-Brown.

He found them early Saturday morning. His mom noticed the fence was down in the piglet pasture and saw black lumps in the back. That's when he made the discovery.

"The state of the animals was rather horrific," said Tillman-Brown. "These guys come up to anyone who comes in the pen. They're not afraid."

He also says there were no signs the pigs were electrocuted, adding that the fence isn't powerful enough to do that.

"It is meant as a psychological barrier, not a physical barrier," Tillman-Brown said. "There's not an animal in the world that would've jumped the fence to go after them and wrapped them up and then left them alone. If it was a coyote, if it was a cougar."

North Stonington's first selectman says police told him the animals got tangled up in the fence but he didn't say what they died of.

"There's no way any animal would've jumped over the fence and done that to those pigs. Somebody might tell you it was a bear," said Craig Floyd, Connecticut's only humane farmer and owner of Footsteps Farm.

Tillman-Brown says he's had a tractor and other fencing stolen from the farm and pigs have been mysteriously let out of late. Now he wants to know who slaughtered these valuable animals, ones that would run for nearly $10 per pound.

"So we're looking at $3000 animal minimum so $6000 between the two of them," said Tillman-Brown.

In February two cows were shot in North Stonington and one of them had to be euthanized. Tillman-Brown doesn't think that's connected to his pigs. But the Connecticut Department of Agriculture says it will investigate this most recent incident.
 

A mother of three was shot and killed in front of her 2-year-old daughter Tuesday in South Los Angeles, authorities said.

The victim, identified by family members as Yolanda Major, was driving to visit her mother when she spotted a friend and stopped her car in the 10900 block of South Hobart Boulevard, the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department said in a news release issued Wednesday.

Major and a 30-year-old male friend were talking when another car, described as a white Dodge station wagon, drove up and opened fire, sheriff’s officials said.

The 28-year-old mother was struck in the upper torso and died at the scene, sheriff’s officials said. Her friend was hit in the leg and is in stable condition.

Another friend and Major’s 2-year-old daughter, who were in the vehicle, were not injured during what police say may be a gang-related shooting.

A memorial, pictured below, grew Wednesday evening near the intersection of South Hobard Boulevard and Ponty Street, where Major was slain.

Major's mother, who said she was not familiar with the neighborhood, cradled her grandchildren near the intersection where their mother was killed.

"I had to watch my son tell his boys that their mother was gone," Major's mother, Ava Guerrero-Bucklor, said through tears.

"And I had to let little Michael say, 'Daddy, I want to go to heaven to be with my mom.' ... Who could do something like this?"

Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at 323-980-5500 or by logging on to http://lacrimestoppers.org

Family and friends are mourning the loss of a teen who moved his friend out of harm’s way before being fatally struck by an oncoming pickup truck in  Hesperia, located in San Bernardino County, Calif.

Daniel Sanchez, 17, and his friend, Valeria Rodriguez, also 17, were each riding bicycles on their way to a restaurant on Main Street near Escondido Avenue (map) about 1:25 a.m. Monday when a white pickup truck approached them from behind.

Rodriguez said they were riding side by side on the edge of the paved road when they heard from a distance the truck coming down the lonely street. The girl was closest to the pavement, and as a precaution, Sanchez urged her to switch sides with him.

“He told me, ‘There’s a car coming, move more inside,’” she said. “As soon as his sentence finished, that’s when it happened.”

Sanchez was hit by the truck, whose driver failed to stop.

"He fell on top of me and I imagine he bounced back on the floor and that’s when he hit his head," Rodriguez said.

Sanchez sustained severe head injuries and was airlifted to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, where he soon slipped into a coma. His brain was swelling and skull was fractured in four different places when doctors performed surgery on him, his family said. He died while on life support at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Investigators said they have no leads on the driver.

Rodriguez was bruised, but was fine, she said.

Family members described Sanchez as a jokester who was friendly and loving. His final act of kindness was switching sides with his close friend in a dangerous situation.

“He was thinking of someone else until his last moment,” said his aunt, Monica Sanchez Gonzalez. “He had the biggest heart.”

Sanchez graduated from Oak Hills High School in May and planned on follow in his grandfather’s footsteps in becoming an electrician, his mother said. He was the oldest of seven children.

“My 16-year-old, he lost his best friend,” said the single mother, Rocio Sanchez. “They’re taking it really hard. It’s nothing but tears and overwhelming breakdowns at the moment. He’d smother us and kiss us. They’re overwhelmed, it’s very hard. “

Sanchez’s mother is asking for her son’s killer to come forward.

“I want justice, I want prosecution. I don’t want revenge, but he needs to pay for what he did,” she said. “If he would have stayed and it was just a tragic accident, I would have understood. But he left and that’s something I can’t get over.”

Sanchez's family plans on posting fliers Thursday hoping to get more information on the pickup truck and driver.

Anyone with information on the case was asked to call the Hesperia Police Department at (760) 947-1500.

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Someone was burning documents on the grounds of an embroiled San Diego-area school district whose former superintendent is a subject in two criminal investigations.

Six San Diego police patrol cars and an unmarked vehicle were parked outside San Ysidro School District headquarters at 4350 Otay Mesa Road Wednesday afternoon.

FBI investigators were also on scene interviewing people after witnesses reported seeing burned and shredded documents with San Ysidro letterhead. 

Crime scene tape cordoned off a dumpster filled with trash bags containing shredded paper. In another area, a charred trash can could be seen behind police tape.

In an interview with investigators, a custodial supervisor said district officials started burning documents Sunday.

Araleci Felix, who works for Purchasing Document, said she smelled smoke Tuesday around noon.

Felix, 30, has worked for the district for 8 years. She said there seemed to be a lot of smoke but did not call police or fire.

Others reported smelling smoke later in the night.

San Ysidro Board Trustee Jean Romero said the former superintendent Manuel Paul came to the district's offices Tuesday to clear out his personal items from the office.

Paul resigned from his position in April after his indictment in an alleged "pay-to-play" criminal investigation. The district agreed to pay him through the end of the school year, June 30.

Romero said the superintendent waited until school was out to be respectful of students and staff.

She also said she was waiting to hear more from district counsel on the situation.

"The board is committed to having a new beginning once school starts again and bringing a positive environment to our students and staff. We hope we can get back on track," Romero said.

All district administrators are out of the office Wednesday. Assistant Superintendent Gloria Madera is on vacation until Monday, July 8.

Gil Abed, an outside attorney for the district, was made aware of the police activity by NBC 7 News and does not yet have a comment on the police activity.

San Ysidro District is among three school South County districts involved in a lengthy investigation into an alleged pay-to-play scheme with contractors and school construction projects.

Fifteen former and current educators and school officials have been charged with 232 felony and misdemeanor criminal charges in the case.

Prosecutors say the school officials traded their votes on multi-million dollar construction contracts for gifts and other favors.

Paul has pleaded not guilty to to perjury charges, and for accepting a gift from a single source over the legal limit.

Paul is listed in court documents accepting meals from contractors and dining with Sweetwater Superintendent Gandara.

In April, a San Diego Superior Court judge shot down a motion by on behalf of the district requesting a protective order on materials and documents from a deposition in an $18 million lawsuit.

The lawsuit stems from the district's cancellation of a services contract with Eco Business Alliance to install solar power systems at district campuses. Because no solar panels were ever installed, no district funds were ever spent on the endeavor.

Paul admitted in a June deposition to accepting thousands in cash from a contractor in a Chula Vista restaurant parking lot. He said, at the time, the money was for Trustee Yolanda Hernandez's re-election campaign.

A District man whose father died New Year's Eve 2012 while waiting 40 minutes for anambulance has filed a lawsuit against D.C. Fire and EMS.

Durand Ford Jr. told News4's Shomari Stone earlier this year that his father, Durand Ford Sr., went into cardiac arrest Jan. 1 and his family called 911 around 1 a.m. to request assistance.

That night, more than 50 firefighters called out sick, approxmately 1⁄4 of the force, according to the lawsuit. It's a number the firefighters' union called "unusual," though a spokesperson denied there was a coordinated sick-out that night.

Durand Ford Jr. and his family are suing for wrongful death, survival action and punitive damages, totaling $12 million.

"Durand Ford Sr.'s ultimate death was the direct and proximate result of the grossly negligent acts and/or omissions" of the fire department, the lawsuit states.

A spokesperson for D.C. fire told Stone that the department would not comment on the lawsuit.

According to records obtained by News4, at approximately 1:47 a.m. D.C. Fire asked Prince George's County Fire for assistance in responding to Ford's family's call. About a minute later, an ambulance was dispatched from Oxon Hill -- seven miles away from Ford's Southeast D.C. home. The ambulance arrived in ten minutes.

Ford's home is only a mile and a half from the nearest D.C. firehouse.

D.C. Fire has come under scrutiny recently when a report revealed the department is understaffed and over budget by the millions.

News4's I-Team investigated ambulance delays following the death of a 53-year-old man last December. An ambulance was deployed to his home 10 minutes after an initial call, but a paramedic to conduct "Advanced Life Support" was not on board. That crew arrived 20 minutes after the first 911 call, and the man died five days later.

Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe testified in March only 58 of the District's 111 ambulances were in service, and only 245 paramedics were employed, short of a target of 300.

Last month, an ambulance broke down along Interstate 295 while transporting a gunshot victim.

Councilwoman Mary Cheh is calling for Ellerbe's resignation. The D.C. fire department also said it would not comment on Cheh's request.

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A New Haven firefighter is one of three people under arrest in an illegal fireworks bust along the shoreline after police seized several boxes of fireworks and thousands of dollars in cash.

West Haven Police arrested Luigio Zaccariello, 28, of Martin Street, and Robert Crisco, 43, of Lloyd Street in New Haven at Zaccariello’s home. Authorities charged the two with multiple felony and misdemeanor explosives and fireworks charges.

"They actually collected $2,000 cash in West Haven. They also estimated the fireworks to be in the tens of thousands of dollars for street value," said West Haven Sgt. Dave Tammaro.

As the investigation continued, it led police to Hunter's Trail in Madison. Madison police and fire officials responded and also found a large cache of fireworks and took Matthew Hagan, 54, into custody, according to West Haven Police. The charges filed against him were not immediately known.

Connecticut State Police received an anonymous tip that led them to the bust.

When we visited the address listed in the police report, which authorities also noted as Zaccariello's home, a woman answered the door and said Zaccariello had nothing to do with it.

The other man arrested, Crisco, is a veteran New Haven firefighter. He is now on administrative leave with pay pending a departmental investigation.

"The citizens of our city have an expectation that their public safety officials, whether fire or police, are certainly going to be of high moral standard," said New Haven Assistant Fire Chief Patrick Egan.

Authorities say it's a dangerous situation that could have ended differently.

"People who live at that address, the neighbors who have no idea what is next door to them. I mean, it's a potential disaster," said Sgt. Tammaro.

Zaccariello was also charged with risk of injury to a minor and reckless endangerment relating to two children living in the home where the explosives were discovered.

Police seized the explosives and fireworks and transported them to a magazine storage facility pending destruction.

Nine people were injured and brought to local hospitals after a bus crash on Interstate 95 southbound around 11 a.m. Wednesday, police said.

One of the nine sustained serious injuries, officials said. All other injuries were minor.

Two coach buses, a tractor-trailer and a car were involved in a crash between exits 31 and 30 in Stratford.

One bus was traveling from Boston to New York and the other was traveling from Canada to New York.

Several people were onboard, according to police. All other passengers refused treatment.

The driver of a tractor-trailer said a vehicle cut him off and he and the driver of a coach bus behind him slowed down suddenly.

However, the driver of another coach bus behind them could not stop in time and hit the first bus, pushing it into the truck, according to state police. A car behind the other vehicles was unable to stop and was also involved in the collision, police said.

Injured passengers were were taken to Bridgeport Hospital and St. Vincent's Medical Center.

Traffic was moving through the area again as of 2 p.m.

Police said they issued two infractions.

Thieves with very expensive taste in liquor were caught on camera lifting $1.1 million worth of Spirits of the Tsars Golden Vodka.

The heist happened the night of June 22 when a group of men showed up at a customs warehouse in northwest Miami-Dade in a new white Mercedes-Benz. Surveillance video shows that, during a period of about five hours, a car, van and box truck all pulled up to the warehouse.

When they left, 752 cases of the pricey vodka were gone. The liquor was valued at $1.1 million, according to the company.

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Spirits of the Tsars Golden Vodka President Mark Owens said the crooks "successfully broke a hole right where the vodka is stored and didn’t set off any alarms."

The owner of the vodka is surprised that out of all the other valuable things in storage waiting to clear customs, the brazen bandits went straight for his merchandise.

"They appeared to know where to put the hole, right in the middle of the aisle next to the vodka," Owens said.

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The pricey vodka, made in the Ukraine, comes in a bottle adorned with a 24-carat gold veneer logo and sells for anywhere between $250 and $300 at select liquor stores and $1,200 at nightclubs. Though it was insured, the merchandise is irreplaceable because only a limited quantity is made every year.

Authorities are now offering a $5,000 cash reward for information that will lead to the arrest of those responsible. Anyone with information is asked to call 786-629-2022.

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State police have charged 15 people with driving under the influence since they began the holiday weekend crackdown yesterday and they have issued more than 550 speeding tickets.

State Police started the July 4th Holiday Operation at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday and it will continue until midnight on July 7.

State police have responded to 103 crashes and 19 injuries were reported.

The issued 552 speeding tickets, 152 tickets for seatbelt violations and cited 1,407 other moving violations.   

In 2012, state police responded to 323 crashes, made 45 DUI arrests and issued 1,059 speeding tickets.
 

A car struck a tree in the area of North Cole and Church streets in Old Saybrook around midnight.

The driver and a passenger were taken to the hospital, officials said.

No additional information was available.
 

Police have issued a Silver Alert for a 15-year-old Hartford girl who has been missing since yesterday.

Selena Jackson was last seen wearing a white tank top, a green scarf, ripped blue jean capris and black flip-flops.

Selena has black hair and brown eyes. She is 5-feet-3 and weighs 145 pounds.

She is considered an endangered runaway, according to the alert.

If you have any information on Selena’s whereabouts, call Hartford police at 860-757-4000.

With a phone to his ear, dozens of workers at his command, and unknown pressure mounting towards a July 4th deadline – Auggie Santore is as cool as they come.

You wouldn’t know his name, or his face, but his shoulders are newsworthy – they’re the ones taking the blame for San Diego's busted Big Bay Boom Fireworks Display of 2012. That's when thousands of fireworks went off in 15 seconds within minutes before the show was supposed to begin -- disappointing thousands of people who were camped out to watch the display.

“Freak glitch, yeah freak glitch,” said Santore whose 123-year-old family company is footing the $125,000 bill for this year’s show because it is “the right thing to do” given last year’s computer glitch and epic fail.

“There were no demands and no contentious nature. Just a sheer pledge on our part unrequested. We stand by what we do. We’re very good at what we do,” said Santore who is overseeing the final preparations of four barges filled with thousands of fireworks.

They are all scheduled to be fired off in millisecond increments from San Diego Bay during the county’s largest Independence Day display in what’s being called the most anticipated pyrotechnic sequel ever in San Diego.

Given the circumstances you might think there is some pressure building.

“We take every precaution in every instance and certainly we understand there is extra scrutiny here, but I can’t put people under that type of pressure, because anytime you work under pressure, if you’re so nervous, then you start to make mistakes,” said Santore.

Mistakes are something he and Garden State Fireworks cannot afford.

The busted display of 2012 was followed by bad publicity and vicious online attacks, one person even writing through Facebook they wished his plane would crash.

Santore says no one wants this year’s show to succeed more than him.

“I know the type of preparation, when it was 2 a.m. in May and when everyone was sleeping, I was up working on millisecond increments of this display last year, so if anyone was to be disappointed that would be me considering the amount I invested from my life in the process,” he added.

It’s a process with more hype than ever.

Santore is just looking forward to watching San Diegans point fingers again – this time, at the sky.

Hamden police have arrested a New Haven man accused of stabbing his ex-roommate in a parking lot on Wednesday night. 

Police were responding to a report of a fight in the parking lot of 1245 Dixwell around 8:30 p.m. when Officer Michael Nawrocki noticed a car speeding away from the area and stopped it on Mill Rock Road, police said.

The driver, Samuel Redd, 28, of New Haven, had been stabbed in the shoulder and told Nawrocki he was driving himself to a local hospital, according to police.

Police contacted Hamden Fire Rescue for medical assistance and Redd was transported to Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Police investigated and said Redd and his former roommate, Maurice Heard, 29, were involved in a verbal altercation in the area of 1245 Dixwell Avenue that turned physical and Heard stabbed Redd in the shoulder.

Heard, of New Haven, was charged with assault in the second degree and breach of peace.
He was detained at police headquarters on a $5,000 bond, is scheduled to appear in court in Meriden on July 5.

Police have also filed charges against Redd. He was charged with breach of peace.

A 93-year-old Enfield woman was attacked and her jewelry stolen after a man broke into her house Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Enfield police arrested Toby A. Berthiaume, 47, in connection with the robbery. Berthiaume, of 116 Windsor Street in Enfield, was charged with home invasion, first-degree burglary, third-degree assault and fourth-degree larceny, according to police.

Berthiaume is being held on $1 million bond and is due in court July 5.

Someone has the hots for fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

Former Russian secret agent Anna Chapman, a celebrity in her homeland since being outed as a spy posing as a New York real estate agent in 2010, tweeted her apparent desires on Wednesday.

“Snowden, will you marry me?!,” Chapman wrote.

She later tweeted “@nsa will you look after our children?” to an account that does not represent the federal agency.

Chapman was later contacted by The Wall Street Journal and asked if she was serious about the proposal.

For full world news coverage, visit NBCNews.com

“You are welcome to use your imagination,” she responded, according to the newspaper.

The 31-year-old former spy was deported back to Russia with nine others in a prisoner swap after she was outed in 2010. She has gone on to become a national celebrity and model in Russia and has hosted her own national television show, “Secrets of the World.”

Snowden, 30, has been trapped in transit at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport since arriving there from Hong Kong on June 23.

U.S. authorities have revoked the ex-CIA contractor's passport and demanded his return to the U.S. to face espionage charges for the leaks that revealed how the NSA secretly gathers “metadata” on Americans’ phone calls and snoops on emails of foreigners.

Snowden has sought asylum from 21 countries, according to the WikiLeaks secret-spilling organization. Several countries have said he does not meet their requirements because he is not on their soil or on their border, while India and Brazil have rejected his request outright, NBC News reported.

The 16-year-old boy who died after being pulled from Hopeville Pond in the Jewett City borough of Griswold has been identified as Brandon Jozile of Norwich, authorities say.

State police and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials received a report Thursday morning that Jozile was unconscious and missing in the water at Hopeville Pond State Park. With assistance from several local police forces, they scoured the water in search of the boy.

Jozile was pulled from the water and transported to the Backus Hospital emergency care clinic in Plainfield, where he was declared dead Thursday afternoon.

Officials said Jozile was on a group trip with members of the First Haitian Baptist Church in Norwich.

He was found in 12 to 15 feet of water, authorities said.

State Environmental Conservation Police are investigating.

A northbound Metro-North train ran over a mattress in the Bronx Thursday, sparking a fire that shorted out the third rail, according to the MTA.

Authorities say the fire, which is being investigated as a possible act of vandalism, started in the rear compartment of a train near the Tremont station just after noon.

The MTA said there were no injuries and the 750 passengers on the train were escorted onto the platform.

Firefighters were able to quickly put out the blaze.

There were 30 to 60 minute delays on the Metro-North's Harlem and New Haven lines for a few hours but normal service had resumed by 3 p.m., officials said.

The owner of a dog shot and killed by police in Southern California called Wednesday for threats against the officers involved in the shooting to stop. Local authorities, meanwhile, released a new video that they say shows the officer was justified in opening fire.

Read: Witness Describes Dog Shooting

Leon Rosby and his family conducted a news conference to address the shooting and fallout, which included threats against members of the Hawthorne Police Department and other individuals. Rosby's dog, Max, was shot and killed Sunday in Hawthorne, about 15 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles. An officer fired after the Rottweiler jumped from an open car window and lunged toward him during a SWAT stand-off with armed robbers.

"Just calm down," said Rosby. "Stop threatening them and their families. All police officers are not bad."

Police also issued a statement Wednesday regarding the shooting, captured on video: "This Department truly feels in the loss of the Rottweiler dog 'Max' and for those impacted by such. We, as a department, as animal owners ourselves, and the officer directly involved himself, all relate and empathize in this."

The statement, posted on the Hawthorne Police Department's Facebook page, addressed the threats, issued primarily through social media, and the department's investigation into the shooting. The statement had more than 1,300 comments Thursday morning.

"Unfortunately, in the midst of this social media response, fallacies are being perpetuated and outright criminal threats are being made," the statement continued. "In the public forum of various websites, department employees have been mis-identified as the officer who shot. This has led to criminal threats of harm directed not only at city employees, but also at similarly-named public citizens who just happen to live and work in our surrounding region."

The police department re-assigned the officers Wednesday to other patrol areas and placed their families under protection.

"These aren't just threats off ill-will," said Hawthorne Police Chief Robert Fager. "These are absolutely threats to life."

The shooting Sunday at 137th Street and Jefferson Avenue in Hawthorne was captured on at least two cameras -- one video was posted on YouTube, a second released Wednesday by the Hawthorne Police Department was delivered to police headquarters by a resident, according to police.

In the YouTube video (Warning: Disturbing Content), Rosby can be seen with the dog on a leash when he was recording the nearly two-hour police stand-off. After the subjects of the stand-off were arrested, Rosby placed the dog in a car near the street corner and officers began taking him into custody on suspicion of interfering with police activity.

Police said he was playing "loud, distracting" music in his vehicle and walking in close proximity to the officers involved in the stand-off.

"These acts, in totality, created an increasingly dangerous situation," according to a police statement.

As officers handcuffed Rosby, the dog jumped from the open car window and ran toward the officers. One officer opened fire, shooting and killing the animal in the street.

The video released Wednesday shows the confrontation from another angle. The officer can be seen pointing a gun at the dog before it lunges toward the officer. The video -- the department obscured officers' faces -- shows "there wasn't anything else that could have been done," police said.

Rosby can be heard yelling, "Don't shoot my dog, man. Don't shoot him."

The department does not provide training specific to aggressive dogs, Fager told NBC4.

A court date in the obstruction case against Rosby is scheduled for next month.

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In the six years since Madelyn Cruz moved from the Bronx, New York to Bristol, she’d never seen a bear wandering through her neighborhood.

That changed on Thursday morning when she was sitting down to breakfast with her husband and daughter.

It was around 10:30 a.m. when they noticed a bear wandering through the neighbor’s yard on Crown Street, Cruz said.

At first, they were shocked.

“I’m from the city. I’ve never seen a bear before,” Cruz said.

Then, they started filming the bear and noticed a man following behind the animal, Cruz said.

They called 911 for animal control and it seems they were not the only ones because animal control quickly pulled up to respond to the situation.

NBC Connecticut has left a message with animal control.

There were 118 bear sightings in Bristol between July 5, 2012 and May 29, 2013, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Web site.

The one the Criuz family saw this morning did not appear to be tagged.

The state has posted a list of dos and don'ts when to keep in mind if you spot a bear.