Fire crews were called in after a partial building collapse in New Haven Wednesday evening.

Fire officials said crews were called to the building on State Street at 6:20 p.m. Chief John Alston said the building was under construction and some partially finished wall on the third floors disconnected. The workers had already gone home for the day and no one was hurt.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the collapse.

“It’s under investigation. We know we have winds. We know we got higher winds coming this evening,” Alston said.

The pieces that fell from the building were caught behind a fence that kept anything from falling into the road. The building department will do an assessment to determine any safety concerns. Alston said it was lucky no one was hurt.

“Think about this two hours earlier with people walking by. It was a beautiful day today. We have some concerns,” he said.

Investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller have told associates that Attorney General William Barr inadequately characterized the findings of their inquiry, which they say could be worse for President Donald Trump than Barr suggested, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The officials didn't elaborate, The Times reported, but it said some members of Mueller's team thought that Barr should have included more of their material in the four-page summary he released March 24. His summary stated that Mueller found no proof that Trump criminally colluded with Russia and that he reached no conclusion about whether Trump obstructed justice.

NBC News hasn't independently verified The Times report, which cited "government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations."

Day two of deliberations in a high profile patient abuse case saw no verdict, but the judge did decide to release surveillance footage at the center of the case to the public.

For the first time, the public can view the key evidence, surveillance video of a former forensic nurse that jurors have been reviewing for well over a week.

NBC Connecticut Investigates broke the story about the patient abuse at Connecticut’s maximum-security mental hospital two years ago.

Former forensic nurse Mark Cusson took a calculated risk electing a jury trial in a patient abuse case that already has some of his former co-workers behind bars.

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, these videos are worth a million. You are able to see the violence and see how Bill Shehadi was treated by Mr. Cusson. All these strung together, show the tormenting behavior that Mr. Shehadi was subjected to by Mr. Cusson,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Jeff Doskos during closing arguments Tuesday.

The video that allegedly shows Cusson abusing longtime patient Bill Shehadi is hard to see, something the defense team hopes will lead to a jury acquitting Cusson.

Most of the four hours of surveillance video, that the prosecution says shows Cusson putting a mop on Shehadi’s head, kicking him off his bed, and throwing a cup of liquid in his face, among other things, is in the dark, besides one very short clip when the lights were turned on in his room.

“You have to feel what went in the room, you have to feel it! You have to be there! You have to decide to do more than look at a tape without an audio to interpret what’s going on in the room”, said Norm Pattis, Cusson’s attorney, during closing arguments Tuesday.

The surveillance video does not have any audio. It never did. It’s one of the things the defense hopes will bolster its claim that the video does not provide enough evidence to convict Mark Cusson.

The fire danger is rising with gusting winds. On Wednesday, firefighters in two towns had to battle brush fires.

"It's a high fire danger, and obviously the high wind conditions today do not help the situation," said South Windsor Fire Chief Kevin Cooney.

For this time of year, the fire danger is typically high. Winter leaves behind brush on the ground that dries out fast.

South Windsor firefighters trudged through rough terrain to reach a brush fire near Clark Street that scorched about four acres. They called in mutual aid to assist.

"Uneven terrain, very challenging to walk on, very labor intensive. It takes a lot of people and a lot of effort," said Cooney.

The strong winds pushed the fire through the dry grass and burned towards nearby homes.

"Our goal is to set up a perimeter around it so it doesn't spread, and once we attack the perimeter, we can work our way in and overhaul the rest of it. But that perimeter was challenging to get ahold of with the winds," said Cooney.

Firefighters managed to quickly get the fire under control and no homes were damaged.

Just a few hours before that in Granby, a brush fire there burned three acres and a small outbuilding.

The low humidity, strong and gusty winds, and dry brush create a high-fire danger in the state. The fire danger on Thursday is expected to be even higher.

Fire departments across the state are on alert and are asking residents to take precautions.

"Don't light cigarettes outside. Don't do any kind of exterior fires because anything in this weather condition doesn't take long to take off," said Cooney.

There were no reports of injuries for either fire. The causes remain under investigation.

The City of Hartford is one of six places being considered for a presidential or vice presidential debate during the 2020 campaign, according to an announcement from the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Hartford is the only location on the list that is not a university. The other finalists include Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, Creighton University, in Omaha, Nebraska, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the University of Notre Dame, in Notre Dame, Indiana, and the Utah Debate Commission and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Locations that apply to host a debate must fit a number of requirements, including a debate hall of at least 15,000 square feet with air conditioning, ample parking for television trucks and trailers, a media center area and parking, nearby hotels, air and ground transportation options, and a host guarantee of city services, including public safety officers.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin released the following statement on the announcement:

“The 2020 presidential election is one of the most consequential elections in our nation's history, and we would be proud to host a debate here in Hartford. Hosting a presidential debate would give us an opportunity to highlight not only our progress and strength, but also our challenges, many of which will be front and center in the 2020 presidential campaign — from inequality to how we can create inclusive growth in a rapidly changing economy.”

The Commission on Presidential Debates is a non-profit organization that established in 1987 to make sure general election debates between candidates are a part of the campaign process.

The county of San Diego is suing the federal government over the abrupt end to the Safe Release program and the resulting strain placed on county resources in caring for thousands of asylum seekers waiting in the county while their cases are processed.

The county’s claim targets the end of the Safe Release program last October, a policy change made by President Donald Trump’s administration that has resulted in a large number of asylum seekers staying within the county while their claims are being processed.

According to the claim, asylum seekers previously would only “pass through” the county on their way to a final destination – the residence of a friend, family member, or point of contact in the U.S that could house and support them while their claims are processed in immigration court. That was before the administration stopped providing them with assistance getting to those locations outside of the county.

The county says it has been forced to use more resources, and spend more taxpayer money, to provide support for asylum seekers who are now forced to stay in the San Diego area. The county says it’s also protecting its residents against what it called a public health crisis.

The administration’s policy change violates the Administrative Procedure Act, according to the claim, and the county is seeking a judicial declaration that would deem the change unlawful.

It also wants the federal government to resume providing assistance to asylum seeking families in getting to locations outside the county where they can wait for their cases to be processed.

That governmental assistance includes helping asylum seekers get in touch with points of contact in the U.S. and transporting them to the cities across the country where their points of contact reside.

The lawsuit names Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Director Ronald Vitiello, ICE Associate Executive Director Matthew Albence, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, and Chief of Border Patrol Carla Provost.

In response to the lawsuit, District 4 County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said “Donald Trump’s inhumane immigration policies are wrong. His failure does not remove our obligation to do the right thing to help families legally seeking asylum in the United States. I am proud our County is stepping-up to take on Trump. I hope other jurisdictions will join us in this lawsuit.”

Supervisor Dianne Jacob, representing District 2, said, “The federal government’s negligent approach to those seeking asylum is taking a huge toll on San Diego County taxpayers. The county has already spent over $1.3 million to address health and safety issues at the asylum shelter. That figure is ballooning by the day. We are asking the court to require the feds to reinstate the Safe Release program and not leave local governments, non-profits and taxpayers holding the bag. This lawsuit isn’t about broad immigration issues or border security.”

The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to NBC 7's request for comment.

Officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations arrested more than 280 people at an Allen business Wednesday as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, ICE officials say.

HSI officials told NBC 5 that a search warrant was executed at the business as part of an ongoing criminal worksite investigation.

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, ICE officials said the employees were unlawfully working in the US and were arrested on immigration violations.

"As far as immigration related arrests, this is the largest ICE worksite operation at one site in the last 10 years," said Special Agent in Charge Katrina W. Berger, HSI Dallas.

HSI said the investigation began after officials received multiple tips dating back about a year that the company, which repairs and refurbishes electronics used in telecommunications, may have knowingly hired people living in the country illegally and that many of the employees were using fraudulent identification documents.

An audit undertaken in January of the company's I-9 forms indicated numerous hiring irregularities, officials said.

From Texas Sky Ranger, ICE agents could be seen searching and handcuffing a number of people outside CVE Group on Enterprise Boulevard and placing them onto one of five large buses.

"Businesses that knowingly hire illegal aliens create an unfair advantage over their competing businesses," said Berger. "In addition, they take jobs away from U.S. citizens and legal residents, and they create an atmosphere poised for exploiting their illegal workforce."

Wednesday night, dozens of families impacted by the raid took advantage of legal advice offered by LULAC at United Methodist Church in Allen.

Dora Hernandez said her daughter-in-law has worked at CVE for more than a decade. She was arrested when about 200 federal officers executed a search warrant at the business this morning.

"[I'm] very sad because she is like a daughter to me," Hernandez said.

The raid sparked protests in Allen and Dallas, where about a dozen people chanted and held signs outside an ICE field office.

In Garland, Wendy Armas arrived home after spending hours in ICE custody.

Armas, a Guatemalan national with two teenaged children, says she's worked at CVE since arriving in the U.S. five years ago.

She was arrested but released Wednesday night after a promise to appear in court in May.

"The hardest thing was when the bus started taking off. It reversed out and then there was a long moment of silence, people crying, people saying, 'I’m going to leave this country and go back to my own,'” Armas said.

HSI said all of those arrested and detained Wednesday were interviewed by ICE staff to determine if they remain in custody or considered for humanitarian release. In all cases, HSI said, all people living in the country illegally will be fingerprinted and processed for removal from the United States.

Consulates for Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador, as well as ICE, have set up numbers for people to call if they believe their family member was arrested.

A 24-hour toll-free detainee locator hotline is available for family members of those arrested. The hotline is designed to answer questions, in both English and Spanish, about those detained, their location and status. That number is 1-888-351-4024.

You can reach the Mexican Consulate at 1-855-463-6395

You can reach the Honduran Consulate at 214-424-9679 or 214-650-4175

You can reach the Salvadoran Consulate at 469-441-3556

The fire danger is high Thursday and the National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for all of Connecticut.

It has been issued until 8 p.m. because of dry conditions and a lot of wind, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

They said fuels will burn easily today and pose control problems until the winds subside tonight.

On Wednesday, firefighters in at least two towns battled brush fires.

South Windsor firefighters trudged through rough terrain to reach a brush fire near Clark Street that scorched about four acres.

In Granby, a brush fire burned three acres and a small outbuilding.

Fire departments across the state are on alert and are asking residents to take precautions.

"Don't light cigarettes outside. Don't do any kind of exterior fires because anything in this weather condition doesn't take long to take off," South Windsor Fire Chief Kevin Cooney said.

One person is dead after a crash on Route 72 East in Plainville early Thursday morning, according to state police.

State police said the car that crashed is a four-door sedan and appears to be the only vehicle involved.

Police received a call shortly after 3 a.m. reporting that a car had crashed through the guardrail and into the bridge abutment.

The ramp from Route 72 East to Interstate 84 East was closed for nearly six hours, but has reopened.

Investigators are looking for witnesses to come forward and provide information. Anyone who witnessed the crash is asked to call 860-534-1000.

Greenwich police have arrested a Norwalk man who is accused of scamming an elderly woman out of $81,000 and they said there were several other victims as well.

Suffolk County detectives reached out to Greenwich police on Tuesday and said a man had called the elderly victim and told her she needed to help her nephew who was arrested, so the woman sent several packages to Fairfield County through UPS.

The victim had gone to Suffolk County Police after the man contacted her again and told her to send another $20,000 to a house in Greenwich, police said.

The woman did send a package to the Greenwich address, but did not include money. When it arrived, police from Greenwich and Suffolk County were waiting at the house, which was being foreclosed on, according to police.

Police saw a man in a black Ford Focus try and wave down the UPS delivery driver, but the driver would not stop until reaching the house the package had been addressed to, according to police.

When the UPS driver got to the house, the man said he was the recipient and police took him into custody.

Police identified the man as 25-year-old Emmanuel Bazil, of Norwalk.

Inside the Ford Focus, they found marijuana and several pieces of mail that Bazil later admitted to taking, police said.

In a hidden compartment for the spare tire police also found an envelope with $9,000 that had been sent to an address in Stamford. Police said elderly people from California had sent the money and were victims of a similar scam.

Bazil admitted to taking the package from a Stamford address earlier in the day, according to police.

Police said they also recovered another package in Stamford that had $12,000 in cash.

All of the packages had been sent to houses that were being foreclosed on.

Bazil was charged with two counts of larceny in the second-degree, one count of larceny in the third-degree, one count of larceny in the sixth degree, criminal attempt to commit larceny in the first degree, simple trespass and illegal possession of marijuana.

Bond was set at $250,000 and he is due in court on April 17.

A furious rant by a woman trying to shame a Trump supporter at a Palo Alto coffee shop was posted online and went viral this week, and now the woman at the center of the rant and post has lost her job.

The woman, who posted the incident on Facebook under the user name Parker Mankey, admitted she was trying to publicly shame someone for wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. She confronted the man at a Starbucks and vowed to expose his personal information so other people could track him down and shame him too.

Richard Johnston, one of the owners of a nearby music shop called Gryphon Stringed Instruments, identified the woman as one of his employees, Rebecca Mankey, who worked as his store manager and accountant for four years. He fired her Tuesday after he found out about the Starbucks incident.

"I think surprised is an understatement," Johnston said. "I think dumbfounded and confused is probably more accurate. Expressing what you believe is not the problem. It’s attacking people for what they believe is the problem."

In the Facebook post, Mankey wrote in detail about yelling and cursing at a man named Victor, who ended up leaving the coffee shop but not because he felt threatened, he said.

"This woman comes over, and she says 'Is that a Trump hat?' I said, 'I think it is, yes.' And then she turned to the rest of the audience, the people in Starbucks and said 'Hey, everybody! Come over here! Let’s get this guy! He’s a hater! I’m calling him out! He hates brown people. He’s a Nazi," Victor recalled.

Mankey's Facebook post describes a similar story to Victor's, and it adds a response to another user that she is going to protest outside Victor’s work and "make him feel as unsafe as he made every brown person he met today."

"I’m surprised that someone would go that far," Starbucks customer Aliza Ben-Baruch said. "I think it’s a little bit telling of their mental state."

NBC Bay Area tried to contact Mankey for comment but was unsuccessful. The Parker Mankey Facebook page has been deactivated.

"I feel bad someone gets fired from their job, but that’s the way it is between her and her job," Victor said.

Police are seeking two skateboarders in what officials on Wednesday called "extreme vandalism" at the gravesite of former President Gerald Ford and first lady Betty Ford in Michigan, NBC News reported. 

In security camera video, a young man and woman can be seen approaching the gravesite at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum on March 27. The pair can be seen kicking a skateboard across the front of the memorial; then they hoist themselves to sit on top of it, where the young man appears to try to rip one of the letters out of the inscription.

Rep. Tim Ryan announced Thursday that he is running for president, adding to the growing 2020 field of Democratic candidates, NBC News reported.

The Ohio congressman made the announcement online as he was set to appear on daytime talk show "the View." According to his campaign, he plans a kickoff rally with local union leaders in Youngstown, Ohio, highlighting his longstanding ties with the area's working class community.

Ryan is known for having challenged then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is now speaker of the House, for the leadership of the Democrats in Congress after the 2016 election. The attempt was unsuccessful, but he became a fixture on cable news.

His message is progressive and worker-friendly, and he's already made several trips to New Hampshire and Iowa.

Researchers are predicting a "slightly below-average" 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, with 13 named storms and five hurricanes.

Of those five hurricanes, two are expected to be major, according to the Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project.

Dr. Philip Klotzbach, hurricane specialist at CSU, presented the forecast Thursday from the National Tropical Weather Conference in South Padre, Texas.

Klotzbach said the primary reason for the below average forecast is based on an anticipated continuation of a weak El Niño. Unusually cool ocean water in the Atlantic is also a factor in the reduced forecast. Hurricanes need to fuel from warm ocean water to form and intensify.

However, Klotzbach warned that there is still quite a bit of uncertainty in the forecast for the season. If El Niño does not continue through the summer, that could increase topical activity toward the end of the season.

Last year's active season saw 15 named storms and eight hurricanes including two Category 4 hurricanes, Florence and Michael. Michael made landfall on the Florida Panhandle as one of the strongest storms ever to hit the United States, with its highest winds reaching 155 mph.

The Atlantic Basin annual average is 12 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.

Hurricane season begins June 1 and runs through November.

Dunkin' Donuts Park's planned "unofficial opener" for the 2019 season will have to wait a few more days.

The UConn Huskies were scheduled to take on the Cincinnati Bearcats at the home of the Yard Goats in Hartford Friday night, but that game is being moved to Sunday.

The game is being postponed due to the threat of inclement weather. 

The rescheduled game will take place at 12:05 p.m. Sunday.  Gates will open at 11 a.m.

Tickets are still available at the box office at Dunkin’ Donuts Park. Tickets can also be ordered over the phone by calling 860-246-4628 or online at www.yardgoatsbaseball.com.

Hartford police are investigating after brownies were found at the Journalism & Media Academy Magnet School. Police initially said they were marijuana brownies, but later said there is no reason to believe there were any illicit ingredients in them. 

Police said they responded to the school to seize the brownies, which school administrators already had in their possession.

No additional information was immediately available.

A teen claiming to be an Aurora boy who disappeared in 2011 when he was 6 years old has apparently escaped two kidnappers who have held him for the past seven years, according to an Ohio police report. Now, the missing boy's grandmother hopes the long-lost boy remembers her and they will be reunited.

The 14-year-old boy told police in Newport, Kentucky, that his name is Timmothy Pitzen and he had just fled from a Red Roof Inn in Ohio and "kept running across a bridge" into Kentucky.

Alana Anderson, Pitzen’s maternal grandmother, said Wednesday she was told a boy claiming to be her grandson was in a children’s hospital in Kentucky.

“We never forgot, never stopped thinking about him everyday, stayed in touch with the police,” she said. “It just went cold and I just prayed that when he was old enough that he would remember us and contact us—that was kind of the best I could hope for, for a long time.”

However, Anderson said she's cautiously optimistic, telling The Associate Press "there have been so many tips and sightings and what not and you try not to panic or be overly excited." 

Timmothy's disappearance has remained a mystery since Amy Fry Pitzen picked him up at school, took him to a zoo and water park in the Midwest before she was found dead of an apparent suicide in a Rockford motel room on May 14, 2011. A note left behind in the motel room said that Timmothy was safe and in someone's care, but the boy was never found.

This year would mark his 14th birthday.

Anderson told the AP that her daughter was having problems with her fourth marriage and had battled depression for years.

The last time Anderson saw her grandson he was just over 6 years old. Asked if Pitzen would recognizer her, Anderson responded “I hope so.”

Pitzen's family has had many emotional days over the last several years but nothing like this.

His aunt, Kara Jacobs, told NBC 5 all they can do now is pray until a DNA test confirms the boy’s identity.

"Regardless of what anybody said I knew he was alive," she said.

That thought has carried Jacobs and her family through seven years of pain and uncertainty. For seven years, a heartbroken family waited for the call from detectives that finally came Wednesday.

“We’ve always felt strongly this day would come," Jacobs said. "When it comes, it’s hard to realize what’s happening when it does come, and we are still waiting to see if it is actually Timothy."

Now that the shock is wearing off, the family says the emotions are settling in. They’ve experienced false alarms before, but this lead is the most solid yet.

“We hope it’s true," Jacobs said. "What is hard is the story that he escaped from captors and your mind goes in too many directions that you don’t want to think about.”

Hesitant to get their hopes up, the family says it is relying on faith.

"I would ask for anyone out there to please pray for Tim," Jacobs added.

Earlier Wednesday, two Aurora detectives traveled to the Cincinnati area to investigate the teen's story, the Aurora Police Department said. The department said the FBI was also investigating and they hope confirm the boy's identity Thursday.

The last boost in the case came in 2014, when a woman in the northern Illinois town of Rockton contacted police saying she saw a boy that resembled Timmothy at her garage sale, according to the Chicago Tribune. The tip came after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released an age-progression image showing what Timmothy would have looked like at the age of 9. It remained unclear if the boy the woman saw was in fact Timmothy. 

Fry Pitzen's cell phone, I-Pass and the clothing she was seen wearing on other surveillance videos, as well as Timmothy’s Spider Man backpack and his toys from the SUV, remained missing years after the boy disappeared, according to police.

When he went missing, Timmothy stood about 4 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed about 70 pounds, officials said. Anyone with information is asked to call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or Aurora Police at 630-256-5500.

Only the shoulder is getting by on Route 8 North in Seymour after a crash.

State police said the lanes are closed between exits 21 and 22 after a car and a tractor-trailer collided.

Traffic is being detoured off at exit 21.

The injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Seven Seymour High School students were taken to the hospital Thursday morning after an incident involving smoking a vape pen that contained some sort of illicit substance, according to Seymour EMS and police.

A note from the principal says the school went into a “stay put” because of a situation in which several students shared a vape pen. One of the students who shared the pen became ill and school officials called police and emergency medical services.

The school district’s office was notified of the incident around 8:30 a.m., according to one message that went to the school community.

A police dog was also brought in to check for illegal substances. 

Police have not yet identified the substance that was in the vape pen.

No additional information was immediately available.