Newly released police radio calls are helping paint a clearer picture of what happened when police say Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and opened fire on students and staff.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office released a detailed timeline Thursday, showing officers' communication and response during and after the shooting. The first warning that someone was firing shots inside the high school came from a 911 call to Coral Springs Communications Center about 2:22 p.m., roughly a minute after the shooting started. Coral Springs Fire officials were then dispatched.

Another minute goes by before the first law enforcement officer, School Resource Deputy Scot Peterson, made a call on his radio.

"Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers, I think we have shots fired, possible shots fired by the 1200 building," Peterson said.

At the time of Peterson's first radio call, the shooting had been going on for about two minutes. The school fire alarm was also going off, apparently activated by smoke or dust from the shooting itself, officials noted.

Records provided by the Broward Sheriff’s Office show Peterson stood 40 yards away from the 1200 building, where the shooting was happening. While he was taking cover, he was communicating over the police radio to BSO.

"I need to shut down Stoneman Douglas, the intersection,” Peterson said about 2:24 p.m. “I’m over on the south side by the 700 building.

Recorded BSO communication doesn’t show that Peterson ever told anyone he was going into the building or needed backup to be able to enter it. And two responding BSO deputies follow Peterson’s instructions to block roads. No one talks about going in.

That's not how BSO deputies are trained to react when there is an active shooter inside a building, according to Colonel Jack Dale, who heads criminal investigations and internal affairs for the agency.

“First, interrupt the shooter, and that is the primary mission of an active shooter response,” said Col. Dale regarding the newly released radio traffic, timeline and training of the agency’s deputies.

Col. Dale said setting a perimeter is secondary.

“When an active shooter ceases, then those secondary responses become appropriate,” he said.

Four minutes into the shooting that lasted approximately six minutes, Peterson is again heard on the police radio calling for the surrounding area to be shut down.

"Get the school locked down, gentlemen,” he is heard saying on his radio.

Though Dale says Peterson's actions were contrary to the training of BSO deputies, Peterson's attorney argues that is "patently untrue." Joseph A. DiRuzzo said Peterson thought the shots were being fired outside the school, in which case an officer is "to seek cover and assess the situation in order to communicate what one observes to other law enforcement."

"Mr. Peterson is confident that his actions on that day were appropriate under the circumstances and that the video (together with the eye-witness testimony of those on the scene) will exonerate him of any sub-par performance," DiRuzzo said in a statement.

But nearly 20 seconds after calling for a school lockdown, Peterson identifies that he heard shots "by, inside the 1200 building."

He continues: "We’re locking down the school right now. Make sure there’s no pedestrian traffic anywhere on Holmberg Road."

BSO says the investigation, including into Peterson's response to the shooting, is "active and continuing." Sheriff Scott Israel had said that Peterson went against protocol and should have gone into the building. Peterson resigned that same day.

Communication shows that at the time of Peterson's call for a lockdown, students are running from the school and 911 lines are "blowing up."

Another forty seconds pass when the shooter moves to the teacher’s lounge on the 1200 building’s third floor, where BSO says he fired shots through the glass window.

"I hear shots fired. Shots fired!” Peterson says.

Seconds later, the shooting stops. No other BSO deputies or Coral Springs officers report they are at the school’s 1200 building.

BSO says video inside the school stairwell shows Cruz dropped his weapon at 2:27 p.m. and exited the building with terrified, fleeing students.

At almost the exact moment that Cruz is exiting, Peterson is back on his police radio.

"Broward, do not approach the 12 or 13-hundred building,” he said at 2:28 p.m. “Stay at least 500 feet away at this point. Stay away from the 12 and 13-hundred building.”

Dale explained that Peterson's communication with fellow officers was appropriate for the situation.

"For the initial stages of the event, Peterson is the eyes on the ground so it’s appropriate for him to relay that information and direct responding personnel," Dale said. 

The BSO records and radio calls show it was not Captain Jan Jordan who told officers to stay away from the school’s building, as initially reported. It was now-former Deputy Peterson, and by the time he advised officers to stay away, Cruz was already outside the school.

Captain Jordan, who took criticism for initial reports that she told responding deputies to set a perimeter, is the commander of BSO’s Parkland District. She does not appear on the radio until 2:31 p.m.

It wasn't until 2:29 p.m. that the first law enforcement officers, two deputies from BSO, try to enter the school. They attempt to go into the nearly 1300 building, but were unable to get in.

It was 11 minutes after the shooting began when the first team of officers from Coral Springs and deputies from BSO entered the 12-hundred building. At that point, Cruz had gotten a five-minute head start to get away.

“I don’t know that any chaotic scene like this ever goes perfectly," Col. Dale said in defense of the officers' responses. 

One issue that made the response more chaotic, BSO said, is that BSO and Coral Springs operate on different radio channels. 

“Anything that occurred on the Coral Springs channel would not be able to heard by the (BSO) deputies on the scene, and vice versa,” said Dale. “They would not have the information that was broadcast on the BSO channel.”

Broward County says its current radio system is "nearing its end of life," and it is scheduled to be replaced in 2019.

BSO says some of its radio communications were affected, known as "throttling," because of how many people were using the radios. It led to some people not being able to transmit or receive messages on the radio.

In addition, BSO reports that Peterson and school security employees were communicating on a separate radio from the police. The school radio traffic was not recorded.

All cell phone calls from the school were routed to the Coral Springs 911 dispatchers. Coral Springs then sends those police-related calls to BSO.

BSO says its regional communications center received 71 calls between 2:22 pm and 3:35 pm.  Only one of those calls came from inside the school. Coral Springs received 86 calls during the same time. BSO says they received information on three of those calls.

About half of U.S. adults think the spotlight that the #MeToo movement shined on sexual assault and harassment has helped address gender inequality, according to a news NBC NewsSurveyMonkey poll.

Fifty-one percent of respondents said it was helpful, while 20 percent said it led to unfair treatment of men and 26 percent said it made no difference. Three percent gave no answer.

A higher share of Republicans who responded to the poll (37 percent) believed the #MeToo movement has led men to be treated unfairly than independents (18 percent) or Democrats (7 percent).

The movement has ended the careers of many powerful industries in many industries, from Hollywood to Congress, as men like Harvey Weinstein were accused of serial sexual misconduct and women like Ashley Judd, one of his accusers (he denies it) said "time's up."

Police have made an arrest in a 2010 murder in Norwalk.

Police have charged a 33-year-old Bridgeport man with the murder of 30-year-old Karl Savage, of Norwalk.

Police found Savage’s body at 8:50 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2010 when they received reports of a man down at Nathaniel Ely School.

He’d been shot three times, according to police.

Police arrested David McBride on Thursday. He has been charged with murder and bond was set at $500,000.

President Donald Trump's personal attorney used his Trump Organization email while arranging to transfer money into an account at a Manhattan bank before he wired $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence.

In a statement last month, Michael Cohen said he used his "personal funds to facilitate a payment" to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford and who says she had an intimate relationship with Trump a decade ago. Cohen said Trump's organization or campaign wasn't part to the transaction. 

But an email provided to NBC News by Clifford's current attorney, Michael Avenatti, shows that on Oct. 26, 2017, First Republic Bank confirmed to Cohen that "funds have been deposited into your checking account." The email had no details won the accounts involved.

The next day, Cohen wired money from First Republic to the City National Bank account of lawyer Keith Davidson, who was representing Clifford at the time. "The $130,000 question, however, is from whose account was the money transferred on Oct. 26, 2017," Avenatti said.

Suffield High School was evacuated Friday morning and students have been dismissed after the school received a bomb threat this morning, according to a statement on the school department's Facebook page.

School officials said there is no threat to any of the other buildings.

Police said there is no active threat. It was verbal and everyone is safe.

A 45-year-old man managed to sign a 16-year-old girl out of her Pennsylvania school 10 times in the last few months and now the two are missing, police said.

Kevin Esterly and Amy Yu disappeared from the Lehigh Valley on Monday with cash and some sort of paperwork, according to police.

"They're probably together somewhere," Colonial Regional Police Detective Gary Hammer said.

As of Friday evening, both were still missing, police said. The U.S. Marshal's Office and agents with the FBI are now assisting with the search.

Esterly and Yu apparently had a secret relationship for months, and investigators said Yu may even have gone on family vacations with Esterly. He is married with two children.

According to a warrant issued after the two disappeared, Esterly signed Yu out of school 10 times between Nov. 13 and Feb. 9 without her parents' permission.

Investigators said it now appears that the girl may have added Esterly to her school emergency contact list as a stepfather. That, they said, would have allowed him to remove the girl from school.

"That's when they came to find out that this young lady had added this gentleman, this Kevin Esterly, as a stepfather on school records," Hammer told NBC10.

Police said Yu's mother called Feb. 9 to report Esterly had signed her child out of Lehigh Valley Academy earlier that day.

CEO Susan Mauser did say the school has a procedure for signing out a student that only allows a person on the student's emergency contact list to take the student from school. She said the school is investigating whether that procedure was followed.

"We can confirm that Mr. Esterly was last present on school grounds on February 9, 2018," Mauser said in a statement. "After that date, due to circumstances we cannot disclose pursuant to student privacy constraints, he was prohibited from entering school grounds, and the police were to be notified if he returned."

On Feb. 15, records show police told Esterly to stay away from the teen's home.

Esterly may be driving a 1999 two-door, red Honda Accord with the license plate KLT-0529. Anyone with information about either person's whereabouts should call Allentown police at 610-437-7751 or by dialing 911.

Parkland school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz appeared in court Friday, a day after withdrawing his not guilty plea.

Cruz, 19, appeared before a judge to face 17 counts of attempted murder in the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He also faces 17 counts of first-degree murder, for which he previously appeared in court.

Cruz kept his head bowed throughout the appearance before Judge Kim Mollica, who said he would remain behind bars without bond. His attorneys didn't argue against the bond order.

Cruz was formally indicted by a grand jury on the 34 counts on Wednesday. On Thursday, he withdrew his plea of not guilty and changed it to "standing mute." By standing mute, Cruz is pleading neither guilty nor not guilty to the charges.

The public defender's office has said Cruz would plead guilty if prosecutors do not pursue the death penalty, but no decision has been announced on that.

A celebrated figure-skating coach has been suspended nearly 20 years after male skaters first leveled sexual misconduct allegations against him, NBC News reported.

Richard Callaghan, who coached Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski, was suspended by the U.S. Figure Skating Committee and the watchdog group U.S. Center for SafeSport amid a new investigation.

Callaghan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday afternoon. SafeSport does not comment on pending investigations and the nature of the current complaint against him is unknown.

Craig Maurizi, a skater who worked with Callaghan for two decades, accused him of inappropriate sexual conduct with him beginning when he was 15 years old, according to The New York Times. Maurizi filed a complaint with the U.S. Figure Skating Association in 1999, but that grievance was dismissed. NBC News has reached out to the lawyer who represented Callaghan in 1999. And another former student alleged Callaghan exposed himself in a hotel room in 1992.

"The Game" between Harvard and Yale will be at Fenway Park this year and tickets go on sale on Friday, April 27.

This Ivy League college football rivalry will be played in front of the Green Monster on Nov. 17.

“It is thrilling to host one of the most celebrated rivalries in college football at Fenway Park this November,” Mark Lev, managing director of Fenway Sports Management, said in a statement.

The battle between Harvard's Crimson and Yale's Bulldogs is the football season finale for both Harvard and Yale.

The two teams first met on November 13, 1875 and Harvard won, 4-0.

This game pre-dated the modern football scoring system and resembled more of rugby than what we know of American football today, according to Fenway Sports Management.

Yale leads the series 67-59-8. This 2018 game also marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 game, which famously ended with a 29-29 tie.

Fenway Park is the home of the Boston Red Sox.

“This promises to be a special experience for each of the schools, alumni and the student-athletes on the field. We’re excited that Fenway Park is going to be the setting for this historic rivalry,” Lev said in a statement.

More information about the game will be announced at a later date. For further information, you can visit their website here. 

People are getting emotional about a heartbroken man’s thoughtful gesture on Facebook.

The man posted a message earlier this week titled “FREE ENGAGEMENT RING – READ AND SHARE.”

In the early morning post, Steven Crocker explains that he has an engagement ring he bought but never got to use. “No need to give a backstory,” he wrote, “but I am still heartbroken about it.”

“I’ve thought about this a lot and obviously by the timestamp of this post you can tell it has kept me up at night.”

The Virginia Beach man said he bought the 14-karat, white gold ring for $1,700 and wants to give it away to someone who is in love but can’t afford a band for their partner.

“I’ll send it anywhere in the U.S. where someone is head-over-heels,” he wrote, asking those who are interested to email him a video explaining why they deserve it.

“It’s not the fanciest ring in the world but it can potentially make someone very happy for the rest of their life.”

He said he has no ill-will towards his ex, and that she “is a phenomenal person and doesn’t deserve anything bad to be said about her.”

“Life happens. It’s okay. This gesture is bigger than her or me.”

The responses to his post were overwhelmingly positive, with one woman saying, “You have restored my faith in humanity,” and another woman writing, “You’re an awesome human.”

Some people suggested couples they knew who would be good candidates for the ring, while others shared their own stories of love and hardship.

One woman from Puerto Rico said she’d been married for 30 years but she and her husband never had any rings to express their love. A Texas man said he and his girlfriend “don’t have much” and that he would like the ring so he can marry her.

A woman from Georgia said she's 57 years old and never found love. She said she planned to marry herself “because I have learned to love myself.” Another woman said she’d been married 50 years but never had a ring; “Now at 68, I’d like a nice engagement ring!” she wrote.

One woman, whose response got the most likes, had an entirely different suggestion: “My advice – Hold on to the ring. You will find your soulmate one day. Don’t give up hope.”

Police are investigating after a teacher brought a plastic toy gun to Rockville High School Tuesday and a statement police released from the superintendent says the teacher is on administrative leave.

Authorities were notified on Tuesday that a Rockville High School teacher brought a plastic toy gun to school and they seized the toy gun from the teacher, according to police.

Police do not believe there is any threat to the school, staff or students. No charges have been filed and police said they are working with school officials to ensure the safety of the students and staff.

Police also released a statement from Vernon Superintendent Dr. Joseph Macary.

“The staff member is on administrative leave and is not allowed on school property. There is an on-going investigation by the Vernon Public Schools and the Vernon Police Department. The safety and security of our students and staff is our top priority. We continue to work collaboratively with the Vernon Police Department on school safety and security. As there was no specific threat to the school or students, this is an informational e-mail to parents and guardians,” the statement says, in part.

Every spring we set our clocks forward an hour — but why? Before you spring forward this weekend, learn the real story behind Daylight Saving Time.

Daniel Oates calls it “a perverse fraternity”: the group of police chiefs and sheriffs from Aurora, Colorado, to Parkland, Florida, who have had to confront mass shooters, and who know the horror and confusion that follow when a gunman fires into a crowd.

As the country grapples with the latest school massacre, their uncommon experience gives them a rare perspective on the debate over armed teachers, background checks, concealed guns and whether military-style assault rifles should be available for civilians to purchase.

Three weeks after authorities say 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz shot 17 people to death at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, four members of that fraternity shared their thoughts about how to prevent violence in the United States, where Americans are up to 25 times more likely to die by gunshot than people in other developed countries. 

But while they faced the same heartbreak, they reflect the same divisions that have paralyzed Congress, where many Democrats have pushed for gun control and many Republicans have stressed mental health and other issues. The question now is whether Parkland will break the stalemate.  

When James Holmes killed 12 people in a movie theater in Aurora, where Oates was then police chief, Holmes was heavily armed. He had a version of an AR-15 rifle and other weapons, he wore body armor, a gas mask and helmet, and the Aurora police officer who found him outside standing by his car later testified he thought Holmes was a fellow officer because of his gear. A movie-goer with a handgun would have been no match in the 2012 bloodbath, Oates said.

“That’s part of the myth that’s put forward from the NRA after these events,” he said.

The National Rifle Association argues, to block gun control, that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” an assertion made by its executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, immediately after the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Most research does not back the claim.

Oates, now the police chief in Miami Beach, Florida, would ban AR-15-style rifles, a popular weapon based on the military’s M-16 and the weapon of choice in recent massacres from Newtown to the holiday party in San Bernardino, California, the outdoor concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the tiny church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Arming teachers, as proposed by President Donald Trump and seconded by the NRA and other gun control opponents, would just add to the potential for tragedy, he said.

“The infinitely smarter answer is to prevent guns from getting in schools. That would be much easier and safer than training the teacher workforce in the United States to be armed,” Oates said. “I don’t think there’s any place in our society for assault weapons except in the hands of police officers.”

In Wilson County, Texas, which includes Sutherland Springs, Sheriff Joe D. Tackitt Jr. said he expected more teachers, churchgoers and others to carry concealed weapons following the Nov. 5 shooting that left 26 people dead at the First Baptist Church, “because sometimes one person could be in the right position to take out an active shooter.”

Tackitt would ban “bump stocks,” devices that effectively turn semi-automatic weapons into faster-shooting automatic ones, and he supports stricter background checks, though he is not sure how they should be implemented.

Currently, background checks are required only for gun sales by licensed firearm dealers, not for unlicensed sales at gun shows or over the internet. It is a loophole gun-control advocates want closed.

But Tackitt said that anyone who could pass a background check should be able to buy an AR-15.

“I know in our area, you’re not going to be able to go and knock on somebody’s door and say, ‘Hey, I want to see all your weapons,’ because they’re not going to let you see them, they’re not going to give their weapons up,” Tackitt said.

No one in Congress has proposed confiscating guns, but top Democrats want a ban on assault rifles while Republican leaders, like the NRA, are focused on school safety. Trump is seesawing from one position to another and the divide is as rancorous as it typically is.

One narrow proposal with a chance, which comes from a bipartisan group of lawmakers, would improve the National Instant Background Check System by tightening federal and state cooperation.

The police chief of Orlando, Florida, where Omar Mateen killed 49 people inside the Pulse nightclub, is, like Oates, opposed to arming teachers. Police officers receive intensive training and carry their firearms every day, said Chief John Mina, who is running for sheriff of Orange County as an independent. Teachers would not have body armor or extra magazines, might not be prepared for a struggle over a weapon and could become targets themselves, once students learn who has a weapon and who does not, he said. Instead, he would add armed security, single entries, metal detectors and random checks of backpacks and lockers.

“I just don’t think arming our teachers is the right fit, for all jurisdictions,” he said. “They have so many other responsibilities. They’re in charge of keeping students educated. Carrying a gun is hard work.”

Florida's Legislature this week approved a previously unimaginable bill that  places new restrictions on firearms in a state that just received an F rating on its gun laws from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The bill was signed by Gov. Rick Scott on Friday.

The measure does not ban assault rifles, as Democrats sought, and it would allow school districts to arm librarians, coaches and other employees though not full-time teachers. But it also raises the minimum age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21, prohibits bump stocks and provides millions in funding for schools for safety and mental-health care.

And it allows police to temporarily confiscate guns from people who are involuntarily committed for mental evaluation under Florida's Baker Act, or go to court to remove guns for up to a year from those who poses a threat to themselves or others. 

Mina said he approved making it more difficult for people who are threatening to harm others or themselves from having weapons as the new Florida law does. California, Connecticut, Indiana, Oregon and Washington also have enacted so-called red-flag laws that enable a judge to issue what are known as gun-violence restraining orders to temporarily confiscate weapons.

Mina is in favor of raising the purchase age to 21, expanding background checks and banning bump stocks. As far as a ban on assault rifles, he said it would have little chance of passing.

“Any of that legislation is going to be tough to get passed but I think both sides of this issue need to work a little bit harder and come up with something that’s going to make both sides of the issue a little uncomfortable,” he said. “And I don’t know what that is.”

Mina said that he learned from the 2016 Pulse attack that all police officers need body armor that will stop a rifle round, along with Kevlar helmets. Mateen, who pledged loyalty to the Islamic State, was killed in a shoot-out with law enforcement.

He had been investigated several times by the FBI after making comments about terrorists overseas, and he was abusive toward his wife, Noor Salman, who is now on trial on charges of aiding him before the attack, but the agency found no evidence that he was a threat.

In San Bernardino, California, where Syed Farook, 28, and his 27-year-old wife, Tashfeen Malik, also pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and killed 14 people at the Inland Regional Center, Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said mental-health care needs to be addressed. Police officers can do little with people who lack the ability to take care of themselves, who refuse to take medication or get treatment.

“We are very, very weak on mental-health care,” Burguan said. “We have very, very few resources dedicated to mental-health care. The bottom line is there are a lot of people that are walking the streets and there’s not a lot we can do with them and that’s a very frustrating thing from a law enforcement standpoint.”

Tackitt said his department had not received any warnings about the Sutherland Springs shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, who killed 26 churchgoers, among them little children, at the First Baptist Church. Kelley had escaped from a mental-health hospital, where he was sent after being accused of assaulting his wife and fracturing his baby stepson's skull, but the military failed to enter his domestic-violence case into a database that would have prohibited his purchase of a rifle.

Wilson is a rural county, with at most five patrol deputies at a time, and before officers could arrive, a neighbor confronted Kelley with his own AR-15. Stephen Willeford wounded Kelley, and then, with another man, chased him down and found him dead. Kelley, 26, had shot himself in the head.

“He says, ’I’m not a hero, I did it what anyone else would have done,’ but there was no one else around,” Tackitt said. “He stepped up. The guy could have easily shot him when he was running up there.”

Opponents of gun control have trumpeted Willeford’s training as an NRA instructor to argue against attempts to ban the AR-15, though without acknowledging that the rifle itself, designed to kill quickly and efficiently, made the massacre possible. Officials have said that a videotape of the attack — the church taped its services — shows Kelley pausing only to reload as he shot his victims in the head over about seven minutes. Willeford’s bravery aside, it was the deadliest shooting in Texas history.

One bright spot for Oates and Mina are the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, many of whom are lobbying passionately for gun control and other changes. Students who grew up in the shadow of Columbine, who know to silence cell phones and barricade classrooms when gunmen rampage through the hallways, are infuriated with lawmakers inaction.

“What if the children of America become more powerful than our politicians,” asked Jaclyn Corin, the school’s junior class president, in a videotape produced as part of a series of #WhatIf questions designed to pressure Congress.

Whether they can build a lasting movement could be answered on March 24, when what they are calling a “March for Our Lives” will take place in Washington, D.C., in every state, and a half a dozen cities in Canada.

“They’re articulate as can be,” Oates said. “There are no inhibitions. They’re not particularly beholden to any interest group and their passion and their anger isn’t muffled in any way. And I think it’s very powerful. Yes, that might just make a difference.”

Two women accused of stealing customers' valuables at grocery stores in West Hartford are being sought after by police. 

The two suspects allegedly stole a purse from an customer at Trader Joe's on New Britain Ave on Jan. 17, West Hartford police said.

The same women then went across the street to the Westfarms Mall and tried to use the victim's credit card to make a purchase sometime around 3:30 p.m., according to police. 

On Feb. 25, police believe one of the women involved in the original theft stole a wallet at Whole Foods at Bishop's Corner. Again, she went to the Westfarms Mall and used the stolen credit cards at the Apple Store and Macy's, according to police.

The cases remain under investigation. 

West Hartford Police would like to remind people to keep valuables with them at all times. They say it's common for thieves to look for unattended items in shopping carts and take them when the owner's backs are turning.

Anyone who has any information regarding these cases are asked to call investigating officers at (860) 523-5203 or (860) 570-8999 x87364.

A school bus went off the road while driving in Coventry on Friday. 

Dispatch said the bus got into the snow in the area of Route 6 and South Street. A call came into police at 4:09 p.m.

Students were safely taken off the bus and no injuries were reported.

An act of kindness shared on social media has landed a waitress at a Texas Waffle House a $16,000 scholarship to college.

Evoni Williams, 18, of Galveston, was working a very busy shift at the Waffle House in La Marque on March 3, when an older, partially disabled customer asked for help cutting his food.

Another customer in the restaurant, Laura Wolf, noticed the man was on oxygen and struggling to breathe when he mentioned that his hands "don't work too good." She snapped a photo of Williams cutting the man's food and then shared the following post on Facebook where she said she was "thankful to have seen this act of kindness and caring."

In the following days the photo would be seen more than 102,000 times, including by some of Williams' friends who tagged her in the post.

Williams and Wolf got in touch and eventually met. Meanwhile, as the post began to go viral, officials with the City of La Marque and Texas Southern University jumped into action.

Representatives for both appeared together at a news conference Thursday at the restaurant where they each brought Williams to tears recognizing her kindness and compassion.

First, city officials shared a proclamation with Williams that March 8, 2018, was declared Evoni Williams Day. Soon after, Wendell Williams, special assistant to the president of TSU, said she was exactly the kind of student they wanted at the university and awarded her a $16,000 scholarship.

Williams, still shocked at the unfolding events and a little timid, then fielded questions about the incident from the assembled media, saying, "That's just me. It just came from the heart. I would do it any other time, not just this time."

In an interview recorded by KPRC-TV, Williams said she had food ready to deliver but stopped to cut some of the meat for the man so that he would have some thing to eat right away. After delivering food to her other customers, Williams said she went back and continued to cut the rest of the man's food.

Williams said she'd started working at the restaurant in June 2017 so that she could save money for college. When asked by the media if she'd been thinking about where she'd like to go she said, "Yes, well, not no more!"

East Hartford Fire Chief John Oates wants to know why Eversource needed three hours Thursday morning to remove a tree limb that fell on one of its fire trucks.

The limb fell on to the truck while crews were on the scene of a house fire.

The firefighters all walked away without any injuries, but question why they couldn’t walk away sooner. 

Both the East Hartford Fire Department and Eversource have records indicating the call for the downed tree came through just after 5 a.m.

"By 6:09 a.m., our records show that our crew was there at the site where the tree fell on the truck," Eversource spokesperson Mitch Gross said.

But the fire department said the crew that showed up around 6 a.m. didn’t have the resources to move the tree and that the proper line crew didn’t arrive until much later.

Oats said the tree didn’t come off of the truck until nearly four hours after the initial call at 9:38 a.m.

Gross said the three-hour timeframe was necessary in order to make the area safe.

"Something like that impacts our ability to provide emergency services to the entire community should have a higher priority than some of the other things," Oates said.

That sense of priority for a utility company, said Gross, can only go so far.

"We cannot respond to situations like police, fire, or ambulance," Gross said. "We’re not emergency vehicles. We get there as quickly and as safely as we can."

Claire’s Stores Inc., the popular accessories chain, is preparing to file for bankruptcy, according to a Bloomberg report. The company did not immediately comment on the report.

A gunman has taken several people hostage inside a veterans home in Northern California. The ongoing standoff has kept the facility on lockdown for hours. Officials said they have identified the suspect but have not released his name. The hostages’ conditions and the suspect’s motive are unknown.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told NBC News that he "couldn't care less" if Russian citizens tried to interfere in the 2016 American presidential election because, he claims, they were not connected to the Kremlin.

In an exclusive and at-times combative interview with NBC's Megyn Kelly, Putin again denied the charge by U.S. intelligence services that he ordered meddling in the November 2016 vote that put Donald Trump in the White House.

"Why have you decided the Russian authorities, myself included, gave anybody permission to do this?" asked Putin, who will probably be returned as president in the March 18 elections.

Putin was unmoved by an indictment filed by special counsel Robert Mueller last month that accused 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies of interfering in the election — including supporting Trump's campaign and "disparaging" Hillary Clinton's.