Emergency crews are responding to a house fire in Winsted that has closed route 183.
Multiple departments from the area are assisting at 147 Torringford St.
Norfolk's volunteer fire department confirms it is sending a tanker and rehab trailer to the scene. New Hartford Fire Department confirms to NBC Connecticut that a tanker truck is on the way.
Stay with NBC Connecticut for updates on this developing story.
A widespread heat wave is expanding across large parts of the country and has some parts of the nation experiencing triple-digit temperatures for the weekend leading up to the 4th of July holiday.
An estimated 120 million Americans are under some form of heat warning or advisory, stretching from Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Arkansas to New York and parts of New England. The heat index in Washington was forecast to reach over 100 degrees.
Even places where temperatures don't quite reach 100 degrees will still feel like they did, according to Dave Samuel, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather. It was so hot in Chicago Saturday that water was sprayed onto the Michigan Avenue Bridge to cool it down.
Hartford Police have arrested a man from East Hartford after they say he discarded an illegal gun during a pursuit in Hartford on Saturday.
Officers from Hartford Police Street Crimes Unit received information about 38-year-old Lamar White of East Hartford selling narcotics and possibly being in possession of an illegal firearm.
Police established surveillance and when White entered a parked vehicle on Brook Street, they approached him.
When White saw officers approach, police say he fled on foot and ignored their commands to stop. According to police, White discarded a fully-loaded .40 caliber Taurus handgun during the foot pursuit before he was taken into custody. Officers say they recovered the gun.
White is facing charges including criminal possession of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit, weapons in a motor vehicle, reckless endangerment and interfering with police.
A 17-year-old is recovering after being shot multiple times in the leg in Hartford on Saturday.
Officers say the teenager walked into the emergency room at St. Francis Hospital after being shot three times in his left leg. Experts classified the teenager's injuries as non life-threatening.
A blood trail was followed from the emergency room to the curbline near the emergency room entrance, but information about a possible transport vehicle could not be determined, officers say.
According to police, the teenager told them he was near Garden Street and Pliny Street when he heard seven gun shots and felt pain to his left leg, but he refused to provide further information. Officers say they later found shell casings near 89 Pliny Street.
ShotSpotter was not activated during the incident and there were no witnesses, officers say.
Puerto Ricans who fled Hurricane Maria’s devastation and have been living in temporary housing on the mainland were granted a reprieve Saturday night when a federal judge temporarily blocked the government from ending an assistance program that was set to expire, NBC News reported.
U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin of Massachusetts ordered that the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot end its Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program until at least midnight Tuesday, meaning those depending on the aid to pay for hotel and motel rooms should be able to stay at least until check-out time Wednesday, according to online court records.
The national civil-rights group that filed a lawsuit Saturday seeking the restraining order said the end of the FEMA assistance would lead to Puerto Rican evacuees being evicted. The temporary restraining order affects around 1,744 people, an attorney involved in the suit said. The FEMA transitional assistance was to end Saturday.
The judge scheduled a telephone hearing for Monday.
Hartford Police are investigating after a City of Hartford employee was assaulted at Goodwin Park on Saturday.
Officers responded to the Maple Avenue entrance of Goodwin Park for a report of an assault.
According to police, a City of Hartford Department of Public Works worker was closing the park gate for the evening when he was suddenly attacked by three or four men. The employee told police that he was punched and kicked several times all over his body and then the attackers fled on foot in an unknown direction. Police say the suspects' descriptions were limited, but employee believed they were all juveniles.
Citizens across the street say they did not see the assault, but one witness passing by told officers that he saw several juvenile males running from the park and then saw the DPW worker laying on the ground so he called police.
Officers say the incident was not captured on camera and a canvass was negative for suspects.
The employee was transported to Hartford Hospital and is listed in stable condition.
Squantz Pond State Park in New Fairfield has reached capacity on Sunday.
Officials say the park has reached parking capacity and is closed to new vehicles as of 10:00 a.m.
For the latest state park information keep an eye on the Ct State Parks twitter @CTStateParks.
Temperatures on Sunday were expected to reach around 100 degrees inland and 90 along the shoreline with heat index values of 110 inland and upper 90s at the shore.
New Haven Police are investigating after four people were shot late Saturday night.
Police say they responded to Wayfarer Street and Wilmot Road around 11:20 p.m. to investigate a report of a shooting.
When police arrived, they found two females who were transported to Yale-New Haven Hospital. They were treated and listed in stable condition.
According to police, shortly after the shooting, a man walked into the hospital with a graze wound to his face.
Detectives and uniformed officers were already patrolling the area, where a neighborhood cookout was taking place in the Westville Manor Complex. As the cookout was letting out, the shooting happened, according to police. It is unclear if the victims or shooters attended the cookout.
A few hours later, another man walked into the hospital with a gunshot wound to one of his thighs. It is unknown where he was shot.
Anyone with any information about these incidents is encouraged to call police at (203) 946-6304 or (203) 946-6316. Calls may be made anonymously.
A crash has closed part of the Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike in Southington on Sunday.
Police say a car and a tractor trailer truck collided on the Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike near Marion Avenue.
There is no word if anyone was injured.
This is a developing story.
A Hamden woman has died after a hit-and-run early Sunday morning.
Officers say an adult woman from Hamden was crossing Dixwell Avenue near Morse Street shortly before 2 a.m. when she was hit by a dark colored SUV in the right, northbound travel lane.
The SUV did not stop after it hit her and continued northbound on Dixwell Avenue, according to police.
A witness described the SUV as possibly a hunter green Chevy Trailblazer from 2003-2007. Police say the vehicle should have front-end damage on the passenger side. Some vehicle debris was also found at the scene.
The woman who was hit was transported to Yale-New Haven Hospital with life-threatening injuries, where she later died. Officials have not released the woman's identity.
Any witnesses to the accident should call police at (203) 281-8222.
One person is dead and nine others were injured after a boat exploded in the Bahamas on Saturday.
The explosion happened at 11 a.m. near Exuma.
12 people were on board at the time of the explosion, 10 Americans and two Bahamians. Four passengers that were injured were airlifted to a hospital in Clearwater. The extent of their injuries are currently unknown.
Passengers from a neighboring boat captured the aftermath of the explosion on video.
Investigators are still working to figure out what caused the explosion.
LeBron James is leaving home for Hollywood and an iconic team.
The Los Angeles Lakers have a new superstar — L.A.-Bron.
The four-time NBA MVP announced Sunday night that he has agreed to a four-year, $154 million contract with the Lakers, joining one of the league's most storied franchises and switching conferences to try and dethrone the Golden State Warriors and grow his own legacy.
For the second time in his career, James is saying goodbye to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who drafted the teenage sensation from Akron in 2003 and have to be satisfied with winning just one title in the 11 years they had him.
Unlike his two previous forays in free agency, James did not drag out his decision and made the announcement less than 24 hours after NBA free agency opened.
This Summer of LeBron was barely a fling.
As would be expected, several institutions and personalities took to social media to express their joy at the superstar's arrival in Southern California.
His management agency, Klutch Sports Group, announced his agreement with the Lakers with a simple, short release. It was a stark contrast from eight years ago, when a poorly conceived TV special to announce his departure from Cleveland backfired and damaged James' image.
James isn't planning any more comments and there won't be a welcoming press conference or celebration in Los Angeles, a person familiar with his plans said Sunday night on the condition of anonymity. James will make his next public comments on July 30 in Akron when he opens a public school started by his family foundation.
It was all different this time.
The game's biggest star will now lead a young Lakers team — run by Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson — that has been overmatched in recent years while rebuilding. But the Lakers will instantly rise with James, a three-time champion who after being swept by the Warriors in this year's NBA Finals said he is still driven and very much in "championship mode."
The Lakers' legacy is something that appealed to James and it wasn't long after his announcement that he heard from Kobe Bryant, who won five titles during 20 seasons with Los Angeles.
"Welcome to the family @KingJames," Bryant said on Twitter. "#lakers4life #striveforgreatness."
Los Angeles will also provide James with a larger platform for his business interests and social activism. He already owns two homes in Southern California and has a film production company.
This is the third time in eight years James has changed teams. After bolting from Cleveland in 2010, he returned in an emotional homecoming four years later, determined to make the Cavs champions. The 33-year-old had previously said he wanted to finish his career in Ohio, and although he's leaving again, Cavs fans are more forgiving after he ended the city's 52-year sport title drought in 2016.
But there will always be a portion of Cleveland fans disappointed that James left again and that he wouldn't give the Cavs a longer commitment. His deal with the Lakers is his longest since he signed for six years with Miami in 2010.
James informed the Cavs on Friday that he was not exercising his $35.6 million option and becoming a free agent. While in Los Angeles following a family vacation, he spoke to Cavs general manager Koby Altman moments after free agency opened on Sunday, and it appears that was more a courtesy than a chance for Cleveland to make one last pitch.
The decision to join the Lakers was not a surprise to his innermost circle, with one person telling AP that it had been presumed for some time that he was headed to Los Angeles next season. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one authorized that detail be released publicly.
James gave Cleveland something to remember in his final season. He played in all 82 regular-season games and then somehow carried a team that underwent several transformations to a fourth straight conference title and matchup against the Warriors.
As has been the case in the past, James didn't have enough help as the Cavs were swept, dropping him to 3-6 in the NBA Finals — a record sometimes used to compare him to Michael Jordan.
His stay with the Cavaliers will best be remembered for 2016, when he rallied the Cavs from a 3-1 deficit in the finals to stun the Warriors. James helped seal a Game 7 win with a chase-down block of Andre Iguodala, the signature moment of a career that has shown no signs of decay.
With the Lakers, James will be playing in the Western Conference for the first time and just down the Pacific Coast Highway from the Warriors, the team that has stymied him three times in the past four finals.
The chance to play for one of America's most storied franchises was appealing to James, who prides himself on knowing the game's history. In Los Angeles, championships are the standard and he'll feel new pressure in upholding the legacies of Johnson, Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West and other Lakers greats.
One of James' new teammates, Kyle Kuzma, took to Twitter to share a GIF of the two players embracing on the court during a game in the 2017-18 season.
NBC4 spoke with Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball, who said he found out about James' arrival after the news broke.
"James is my favorite player," Ball said. "Just to have the opportunity to play with him is really crazy."
Ball added, "Today, we just got the best player in the world. It doesn't get much better than that."
Beyond Ball and Kuzma, the Lakers' organization is likely jumping for joy, as James' capture is the first major free agent signing for Lakers president of basketball operations Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka.
Johnson recently put a two-year timeline on his ability to sign top tier free agents. Less than a week later, Johnson and the Lakers secured the services of the top free agent in the market and arguably the greatest basketball player of all time.
In addition to James, the Lakers also reportedly agreed to re-sign Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on a $12 million one-year contract according to ESPN. Caldwell-Pope is also part of James' Klutch Sports Group. ESPN also reported that Lance Stevenson, who is famous for blowing in James' ear during a game, also agreed to join the Lakers on Sunday.
A woman dubbed "Pool Patrol Paula" by the internet has been fired by the skin care company Rodan + Fields after she allegedly assaulted a black teenager at a pool and told him he didn't belong there, NBC News reported.
Authorities say Stephanie Sebby-Strempel, a white, South Carolina woman, was charged with third-degree assault after hitting a 15-year-old boy in the face and chest during an encounter at a pool on June 24 in Summerville, South Carolina, according to a Dorchester County Sheriff's Office incident report.
She was also charged with resisting arrest after allegedly biting a sheriff's detective and pushing another into a wall when they tried to arrest her. The report, citing the unidentified teen, alleges that Sebby-Strempel called the boy "a punk," used "racial slurs" and said he didn't belong at the community pool — even though he had been invited there by a family friend who lives in the neighborhood.
Efforts to reach Sebby-Strempel on Sunday were not successful.
The incident comes on the heels of another situation in which a white woman was captured on video in California calling police on an eight-year-old black girl for selling water without a permit. She became known across the internet as "Permit Patty."
Experts say there's been a shift in the way authorities are handling police-involved shootings in minority communities, NBC News reported.
Prosecutors are bringing charges that take into account both witnesses and videos, while simultaneously acknowledging that they are going to have a difficult time going to trial and obtaining a conviction, Philip Stinson, an associate professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University, said.
He added that he believes police investigators and prosecutors are giving more weight to witness statements than they did previously.
In the recent shooting deaths of both Antwon Rose of East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Anthony Marcel Green of Georgia, it took just one week for the officers to be charged. The officer who shot Rose was charged with homicide; the officer who shot Green was charged with voluntary manslaughter.
The FBI says that sexual assaults on flights are increasing "at an alarming rate" and they're unsure why, NBC News reported.
FBI Special Agent David Rodski said last week that reports of sexual assault on planes went up to 63 last year, a 66 percent increase from 38 investigated in 2014. And the victims aren't just passengers. They're flight attendants, too. A recent survey conducted for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union found that more than two-thirds of its members have experienced in-air sexual harassment.
The latest figures still likely represent just a fraction of such incidents, since assault victims often choose not to come forward, and even if they do, there's no regulatory agency that comprehensively tracks the reports.
Some politicians are trying to respond to the issue through legislation, like the Stopping Assault While Flying Enforcement Act of 2017, which would require all air carriers operating in U.S. skies to train flight personnel on how to respond to sexual assaults.
If you are planning on starting a business, Connecticut is pretty far down on the list of places to start one, according to a new study from WalletHub.
The website used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and looked at business environment, access to resources and business costs to rank the state. Texas came in at the top overall as the best state to start a business, while Connecticut ranks 43rd.
Our state came in 45th for average growth in the number of small businesses, 42nd for office-space affordability, fourth for labor costs, 43rd for the average length of the work week in hours, 43rd for cost of living and 33rd in industry variety.
The study also found that Connecticut has the highest labor costs and Connecticut ranked fourth highest for most-educated population, behind Massachusetts, Colorado and Maryland.
The states that ranked worse than Connecticut include New Jersey, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Hawaii.
Wallace de Oliveira Rocha dreamed of owning an official Brazil national team jersey ahead of the 2018 World Cup. But at $250 Reals ($66 USD), the 12-year-old from Vila Cruzeiro, a favela north of Rio de Janeiro, knew it was a long shot for his poverty-stricken family to afford.
Hours before the Brazilian team stepped on the field at Rostov Arena in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, for their premiere game against Switzerland, Rocha’s mom, Sandra Rocha, took her youngest of five children to a local seamstress in their shantytown and asked if she could help, according to a local photographer who shared the family's story with NBC.
"Tia Neuza" (Auntie Neuza), as she is affectionately known among residents in the Penha neighborhood, grabbed a piece of yellow fabric and sat at her sewing machine. She fashioned a sleeveless tank with green trimmings and charged them $10 Reals ($2.75 USD) — another bill Sandra would have to pay on credit.
For Brazil’s second game against Costa Rica on June 22, Wallace wanted to personalize his "jersey." His mother had suggested he use his name, but Wallace already had one in mind: Philippe Coutinho.
Tia Neuza used a green marker to write "Coutinho" and "11," the attacker's national squad number, on the shirt.
Wallace, donning his makeshift jersey, and his cousin made their way to a free viewing party for the match where locals were projecting the game on a large screen outside on the street. The young fan was then captured in a photo by Brazilian photographer Bruno Itan.
“What caught my attention about Wallace was his creativity. He doesn’t have any money, but that didn’t stop him from representing his favorite player and number,” Itan told NBC in an email. “I actually noticed him before taking the photo and waited for Coutinho to appear on the screen during the national anthem to snap the shot.”
Coutinho scored the first of Brazil's two goals in that game, beating Costa Rica 2-1.
Itan didn’t speak to Wallace that day. To the photographer from the notorious Alemão favela, Rio’s largest and one of the most dangerous, Wallace was just another subject in his effort to capture how residents in Rio’s slums cheer on the Seleção.
After posting the photo on his Instagram page, one of several he added that day, the image of a young, poor boy gazing at his idol while wearing a DIY shirt bearing his name garnered thousands of likes and over a hundred comments in 24 hours. Many users tagged Coutinho in the hopes that the soccer star would see the photo.
The response gave Itan an idea: he was going to find a way to connect the boy and the Brazilian ace.
Itan returned to Vila Cruzeiro the next day and tracked down Wallace. He then launched a social media campaign, asking users to share the photo with the hashtag #Wallace11 and to tag Coutinho.
“I want this photo to reach Philippe Coutinho so that he can see what an inspiration he is to kids in the favelas and to send a motivational message to Wallace, or who knows, maybe an autographed jersey,” Itan wrote in the post.
Within four hours the photo had traveled 10,000 miles across the world and reached Coutinho in Moscow.
"I got the photo! I sent you a private message, please respond when you can," Coutinho commented in Itan’s post.
Itan told NBC Coutinho plans on meeting Wallace when he returns to Brazil after the World Cup. And despite being busy training for last Wednesday’s match against Serbia, Coutinho took a moment to thank the young fan for his support in a recorded a video message.
The photographer shared the video with Wallace Tuesday during a surprise visit to the Rocha family's home.
"He was quiet, pensive, trying to take it all in. I don't think he could believe that one of the best players in the world, his idol since Coutinho played for Liverpool, made a video for him, a kid from the slums," Itan recalled to NBC.
And that wasn’t the only gift Itan came bearing. A stranger who saw the Instagram post donated an official team jersey for Wallace.
The Rochas live in a one-room shack, Itan said. Wallace's mother is unemployed and his stepfather is the sole breadwinner. They have a television, but no cable or internet. Wallace told Itan the neighbor lets him use her WI-FI to stream videos of Coutinho playing.
Asked what teams the 26-year-old midfielder has played for, according to Itan, Wallace didn't hesitate to recite Coutinho's soccer biography.
Wallace is also a soccer player. The self-proclaimed ace spends his Saturdays at the Vila Cruzeiro's Vacaria field playing with two different soccer groups. His dream is to play for Rio's Vasco da Gama junior league, following in the footsteps of his idol. He hopes to eventually be good enough to play for a major professional team so he could buy his mom a house.
"His family is very poor. I really hope this changes his life and theirs," Itan said.
Wallace's mom told Brazil's OGlobo in an interview Sunday that she has not yet paid Tia Neuza, whose real name is Neuza Teresa, for the shirt the seamstress made, "but God willing we will be able to do so soon."
Meanwhile, Wallace has a second official team jersey en route to his home in Rio. Coutinho sent Wallace an autographed jersey over the weekend and asked the boy to wear it for the duration of the World Cup in support of the national team, OGlobo reported. On Monday, Brazil secured a spot in the quarterfinals by defeating Mexico 2-0.
Wallace told OGlobo that he feels like his makeshift jersey is the actual lucky jersey that has brought the team success.
"I'm going to wait until after the World Cup to try it on. I'm going to continue wearing this one," Wallace said.
The victim in a 2011 case against the alleged gunman in Thursday's shooting at the Capital Gazette felt an immediate sense of panic after hearing about the killings, believing the shooter may be the same man who'd terrorized her for years, she told NBC News.
Authorities say the suspect, Jarrod Ramos, had a long-held grudge against the newspaper, dating back to a story the paper published about Ramos' criminal harassment of the woman, known as Lori. On Thursday, he opened fire at the paper in Annapolis, Maryland, police say, killing five employees.
Lori, speaking exclusively to NBC News in an interview that aired Monday morning on "Today," said Ramos had terrorized her for years and forced her to move out of the state for her own safety.
"I would be afraid that he could show up anywhere, at any time, and kill me," Lori said.
Still living in fear of the man she says cyber-stalked her for years, she asked NBC to withhold her full name and location and to mask her identity.
Seen only in shadow during the interview, she told NBC, "I have been tormented and traumatized and terrorized for so long that it has, I think, changed the fiber of my being."
Ramos is being held without bond, charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the deadly rampage at the Capital Gazette. A suspected motive for the crime was an ongoing grudge Ramos held against the paper for coverage of his criminal harassment conviction in 2011.
Lori, the victim in that case, recalled their interactions started out as friendly.
"He reached out to me via email to ask if I remembered him from high school," she said. "I replied to him nicely that I did not."
Months later, after several exchanges, things changed dramatically. Lori said that when she didn't respond to emails quickly enough, his messages turned threatening.
"He said, 'F you, go kill yourself,'" Lori told NBC. "'You're gonna need a protective order.'"
Lori got police involved but said Ramos still wouldn't stop.
"He is very cold; he is very calcuated; he is very intelligent," she said.
Ramos pleaded guilty to criminally harassing Lori in July 2011. The Capital wrote an article about the case. Afterward, Ramos sued the paper for defamation. His lawsuit was dismissed in 2015, but Ramos continued to write threatening messages about the paper and its employees on social media.
Lori said she's speaking up because she wants to empower other stalking victims.
"One thing that I do feel now is that he can no longer silence me," she said.
In 2013, the newspaper alerted police about Ramos' online threats, but police said the staff chose not to pursue charges for fear they would provoke him.
NBC News has reached out to the attorney now representing Ramos but has not heard back.
CORRECTION (July 2, 2018, 11:51 a.m.): An earlier version of this article included an incorrect spelling of the victim's name. It is Lori.
Thirty-five people were arrested during a rally in Hartford this morning held to call for the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Hundreds of people took part in a rally outside ICE offices at the Ribicoff Federal Building on Main Street in Hartford.
The local protest comes days after demonstrators turned out in hundreds of cities across the country this weekend to protest the separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border and to press President Donald Trump's administration to reunite the families quickly.
“Seeing all the picture of children makes me really, extremely sad and I feel like it’s my duty to come out here and show my support against the cause and support everybody here, immigrants everywhere,” Frances McPherson, of West Hartford, said.
Police said they responded at 8:42 a.m. and the protest and demonstration was blocking the main entrance to the building.
Hartford police estimated about 350 to 400 people were protesting.
Officers sectioned off the area of Main Street between Capitol Avenue and Sheldon Street so people could get into and out of the building.
The 35 people who were arrested have been charged with breach of peace, disorderly conduct and trespassing. One person was also charged with Interfering.
Police said two of the people who were arrested were from out of state. One is from Oregon and the other is from Illinois.
Sharon Hospital plans to close its maternity ward.
A news release from Sharon Hospital and Health Quest said there has been a decline in the number of babies delivered in the area and the hospital will shift its focus to other aspects of women’s healthcare. It’s not clear when the maternity ward will close.
“We’ve taken great pride in delivering beautiful babies over the years; however, a hospital’s mission is to serve the overall needs of the community population,” hospital President Peter Cordeau said in a statement. “Demographics demonstrate the critical need to turn our focus to providing healthcare to aging women.”
Claritas Company provides Sharon with analytics and it projects the hospital’s population of women in child-bearing age to decline by about 5 percent between 2017 and 2027, while the number of people over age 65 is projected to grow by 27 percent, according to a news release.
The hospital will continue to provide pre- and post-natal care as well as general gynecology and lactation services.
It also plans to create a women’s advisory group; bring a 3-D mammography unit to the hospital; expand services to include peri-menopausal care, heart health, integrative care, aesthetics and more.
“As demographics shift, the changes we make today will allow us to best prepare to meet our community’s healthcare needs and ensure our hospital’s long-term success and sustainability,” Joel Jones, chairman of the Sharon Hospital Board of Trustees, said in a news release.
The emergency department will receive training to provide care if an emergency delivery is needed after deliveries stop.
