Police have identified the two people who died after a car plowed into a deli in New Haven's Fair Haven section late Friday night.

Officers were called to Justin's Deli Market on Grand Avenue at Blatchley Avenue around 11 p.m. after getting a report of a vehicle into a building.

Police said the vehicle was occupied by the driver as well as a passenger who left the scene.

According to officers, two pedestrians were pinned between the vehicle and the building and have died. Police have identified them as 42-year-old Carlos Kercado, of New Haven, and 32-year-old Emmanuel Torres, of New Haven.

Kercado died two days before he would have turned 43.

”It’s hard to believe…last night, I couldn’t even sleep. It’s not easy for me, my family and, of course, the people who got killed," Miguel Xicohdencael, the owner of Justin's Deli Mart, said.

The driver of the vehicle was listed in stable condition and the passenger was later treated for minor injuries, authorities added.

”Just seeing that first thing in the morning. I worry about the person driving. I can’t even imagine what happened,” said Jean Kobylanski, of New Haven.

”It’s shocking, you know what I mean because we were just out here not too long ago and all of the sudden. It looks fake and to think like any of us could have been walking by,” Madyson Gregg, of New Haven added.

New Haven Police have not released any details on what led up to the crash.

"I can't even imagine what happened," Xicohdencael added.

The city's building department and the building's landlord are assessing the damage and securing the structure.

The investigation into the crash is ongoing.

Contigo has recalled its Contigo Kids Cleanable Water Bottles because the water bottle's clear silicone spout can detach, posing a choking hazard to children.

The recall affects about 5.7 million units of the water bottles, which come in multiple sizes and bottle colors and were sold both online and in stores in the United States, with another 157,000 sold in Canada and about 28,000 in Mexico, a notice Tuesday by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

The company has received 149 reports of the spout detaching, including 18 incidents where spouts were found in children's mouths. No injuries or deaths have been reported, but Contigo said consumers "should immediately stop using the recalled water bottles, take them away from children and contact the company for inspection instructions and a free replacement lid."

The water bottles were sold at Walmart, Costco, Target and other stores nationwide and online on various websites from April 2018 through June 2019 for between $9 and $24.

The affected water bottles come in three sizes (13-ounce, 14-ounce and 20-ounce) and four bottle styles (solid color, graphics, stainless steel and stainless steel solid colors). The affected bottles' silicone spouts will all be clear with a black base and cover, the CPSC said.

Consumers who think they may have purchased one of the recalled water bottles "should carefully review" the company's step-by-step guide to determine if their lid models are affected.

Consumers can contact Contigo toll-free at 888-262-0622 from 8 a.m. ET to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. There is also more information available on Contigo's website at recall.gocontigo.com.

President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that his golf resort near Miami does not have bedbugs, a defense that comes a day after he promoted the club as a possible site for next year's Group of Seven summit, NBC News reported. 

"No bedbugs at Doral," the president wrote of the 800-acre Trump National Doral Miami. "The Radical Left Democrats, upon hearing that the perfectly located (for the next G-7) Doral National MIAMI was under consideration for the next G-7, spread that false and nasty rumor. Not nice!" 

The hashtag "#TrumpBedBugs" had surged earlier on Twitter after users resurfaced a 2016 lawsuit involving allegations of bedbugs at the South Florida club. Eric Linder, a New Jersey insurance executive, sued Trump's resort after claiming he woke up with dozens of bites while staying there in March 2016. The resort and Linder settled in a confidential agreement in 2017, The Miami Herald reported. 

The idea of the president hosting a summit of foreign leaders at one of his properties has drawn criticism and allegations that Trump is seeking to profit off the presidency.

Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, are offering to settle more than 2,000 lawsuits against the company for $10 billion to $12 billion. The potential deal was part of confidential conversations and discussed by Purdue's lawyers at a meeting in Cleveland last Tuesday, Aug. 20, NBC News reported, citing two people familiar with the mediation.

Brought by states, cities and counties, the lawsuits — some of which have been combined into one massive case — allege the company and the Sackler family are responsible for starting and sustaining the opioid crisis.

The lawsuits that Purdue and the Sackler family are seeking to settle allege that their company’s sales practices were deceptive and at least partly responsible for the opioid crisis, which claimed more than 400,000 lives from 1999 to 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some of the lawsuits also allege that after 2007 the Sackler family drained the company of money to enrich themselves.

A boat carrying dozens of migrants bound for Europe capsized Tuesday in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, with at least 40 people missing and presumed drowned, U.N. officials said, as a support group reported it had gotten a call from someone on the vessel "crying and shouting" that passengers had died already.

At least 65 migrants, mostly from Sudan, were rescued, said Ayoub Gassim, a spokesman for Libya's coast guard, with a search halted for those still missing. The coast guard gave a lower estimate for those missing and feared drowned, saying it was 15 to 20 people.

Gassim told The Associated Press that five people were confirmed dead, including a woman and a child from Morocco whose bodies were recovered near the western town of Khoms, around 75 miles east of Tripoli. The other dead were men from Morocco, Sudan and Somalia.

Tuesday's shipwreck was the latest maritime disaster involving migrants seeking a better life in Europe. One month ago, up to 150 Europe-bound migrants, including women and children, were missing and feared drowned when two boats carrying about 300 people capsized off Libya. In January, 17 died or were missing off Libya and in May, about 65 drowned when their boat sank off Tunisia.

"If today's tragic numbers are confirmed, the number of people drowned in the Mediterranean in 2019 will have reached close to 900," said Charlie Yaxley, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, who gave the estimate of at least 40 dead or missing, among them women and children, based on eyewitness accounts of the survivors.

The U.N.'s migration agency said a total of 859 migrants have died in the Mediterranean as of Aug. 22. It said 45,505 people have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, which represents a 30 percent drop from 2018.

Alarm Phone, an independent support group for people crossing the Mediterranean, said about 100 were aboard the capsized vessel. The group said it received a call from migrants on the boat, who "were in severe distress, crying and shouting, telling us that people had died already."

Libya's coast guard says it has intercepted hundreds of migrants at sea so far in August.

The country became a major crossing point for migrants to Europe after the overthrow and death of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, when the North African nation was thrown into chaos, armed militias proliferated and central authority collapsed.

In recent years, the European Union has partnered with the coast guard and other Libyan forces to try to stop the dangerous sea crossings. Rights groups say those efforts have left migrants at the mercy of brutal armed groups or confined in squalid detention centers that lack adequate food and water.

At least 6,000 migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and other nations are locked in dozens of detention facilities in Libya run by militias accused of torture and other abuses. There are limited supplies for the migrants, who often end up there after arduous journeys at the mercy of abusive traffickers who hold them for ransom from their families.

More than 3,000 migrants are in danger because the detention centers in and around Tripoli are close to fighting between forces loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter and an array of militias loosely aligned with a U.N.-recognized government since April.

At least 44 people were killed in July by an airstrike on a detention center for migrants near the Libyan capital in an attack that the U.N. human rights chief said could amount to a war crime.

The government blamed the airstrike on Hifter's forces, which denied responsibility and accused government-linked militias of storing weapons at the facility.

In Europe, meanwhile, two humanitarian groups that have been flying search-and-rescue missions for migrants out of the Italian island of Lampedusa are protesting a move by Italy's civil aviation authority to ground their planes.

The authority, ENAC, confirmed the grounding of the Moonbird, a Cirrus SR22 single-engine aircraft operated by the German group Sea-Watch, and Colibri, a MCR-4S aircraft operated by French group Pilotes Volontaires. ENAC said the light aircraft are approved for recreational and not professional use.

Both groups dispute the decision.

Sea-Watch spokesman Ruben Neugebauer called the grounding political, saying the Moonbird is in compliance with Italian and national norms. He said the planes document human rights violations by ships that do not respond to rescue calls or by EU-deployed aircraft that signal the presence of migrant boats to Libyan authorities so they are returned to Libya. Both the EU and the U.N. have said Libya is not a safe port for migrants.

Also Tuesday, hard-line Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini banned a German humanitarian ship carrying migrants rescued off Libya from entering Italian territorial waters.

This one targeted a vessel operated by the German group Lifeline that picked up about 100 people Monday in a rubber lifeboat some 31 miles off the Libyan coast. Lifeline has urged the German government to help identify a safe harbor.

Malta on Monday said its armed forces rescued 162 migrants in two operations.

While Italy and Malta are the closest European ports, Italy has enacted a policy to exclude humanitarian rescue ships from bringing migrants to its ports. Malta generally has accepted migrants rescued in its area of responsibility. The positions have led to numerous standoffs.

Associated Press writer Colleen Barry contributed.

The Old Farmer's Almanac has released its prediction for winter in the Northeast and the Atlantic Corridor.

The Almanac divides the country into 15 regions and makes weather predictions for each region. Connecticut is covered by both the Northeast region and Atlantic Corridor

Is it good news for snow lovers? It doesn't look that way.

In the Northeast, which includes Litchfield County, the Old Farmer's Almanac says it will be milder than normal this winter with near-to-below average snowfall. The snowiest periods will be from mid-November to late-December, the prediction says.

For the Atlantic Corridor, we can expect temperatures well above normal this winter with above-normal precipitation, but below-normal snowfall, according to the Almanac. The snowiest periods for this area, which includes the other seven counties in Connecticut, will be in mid-January through early February.

The Almanac reaches its forecast conclusions "...from a secret formula that was devised by the founder of this Almanac, Robert B. Thomas, in 1792," the publication states. It goes on to say they also use state-of-the-art technology, and apply solar science, climatology, and meteorology to their calculations.

NBC Connecticut Chief Meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan says modern forecasting models are much more reliable and that while the Farmers' Almanac is fun to look at, its predictions are not based on science.

An incoming Harvard University freshman was denied entry to the United States, the school confirmed Tuesday, the day when first years were set to move into their dormitories.

Ismail Ajjawi is an incoming first year, part of the class of 2023. He told The Harvard Crimson, which was first to report the story, that a customs official refused his entry after eight hours at Boston Logan International Airport Friday night that included questioning about his religious practices and friends' posts to social media.

An officer who inspected his phone and laptop for hours "started screaming at me. She said that she found people posting political points of view that oppose the US on my friend[s] list," Ajjawi wrote to the college newspaper, which reported that he is from Palestine but has been living in Lebanon.

Harvard dormitories opened their doors to all first-year students Tuesday, with the first day of classes set for next Tuesday.

"The University is working closely with the student's family and appropriate authorities to resolve this matter so that he can join his classmates in the coming days," a Harvard spokesman said in a statement.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection representative confirmed in an email that Ajjawi "was deemed inadmissible to the United States based on information discovered during the CBP inspection."

The representative didn't say what that information was, but outlined that anyone entering the U.S. "must demonstrate they are admissible into the U.S. by overcoming all grounds of inadmissibility including health-related grounds, criminality, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds."

CBP's examining officers can prevent foreign nationals from entering.

Visa applicants are screened when they apply and afterward, a State Department representative told NBC News, but referred questions about travelers denied entry to the U.S. to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the CBP.

NBC10 Boston has reached out to Ajjawi and AMIDEAST, an organization the Crimson reported had given him a scholarship to study at Harvard.

Ajjawi is back in Lebanon and in touch with a lawyer and the Harvard International Office, according to the Crimson.

The Trump administration has been cracking down on immigration of all kinds, and international students have been affected. The number of international students entering American schools dropped in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years, Reuters reported last year.

In July, Harvard University President Lawrence S. Bacow wrote to the U.S. secretaries of state and homeland security to convey "deep concern over growing uncertainty and anxiety around issues involving international students and scholars."

Foreign faculty, students and researchers are essential to Harvard, he said, but they have been increasingly reporting delays and denials in getting visas.

Beacow wrote, "the visa and immigration process is in­creasingly unpredictable and uncertain. This poses risks not just to the individuals caught up in it, but also to the entirety of our academic enterprise."

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an advocacy group for student and faculty members' rights in American higher education, has spoken out against federal policies about imimgration officials reviewing international academics' social media.

If the actions Ajjawi described to the Crimson are true, they "represent a threat to academic freedom, one that should be taken seriously by those who care about protecting expressive freedoms in the United States," FIRE staffer Sarah McLaughlin said in a statement.

Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus has been found in seven Connecticut towns, according to the latest mosquito trapping and testing report. 

Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus, or EEE, has been found in mosquitoes in Chester, Haddam, Hampton, Killingworth, North Stonington Stonington and Voluntown.

The report says 20 mosquitoes were found with EEE this week and 32 have been found this year to date.

The Uncas Health District and the Ledge Light Health District, which cover parts of eastern Connecticut, are urging residents in Voluntown, Stonington, and North Stonington to remain indoors from one hour before to one our after dawn and dusk.

Learn more here. 

Thousands of people came to Connecticut from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit the island, and, there's a large part of the Puerto Rican community that was here before the storm. They still have family back at home and are concerned about what Tropical Storm Dorian could mean for them.

“I’m worried about it, you know, I have family there,” said Enrique Martinez from New Britain.

“It’s really hard for us right now to think that something like that could happen to us again,” Armando Gonzalez from Hartford said.

No matter how far, Puerto Ricans in Connecticut feel their hearts are on the island as it braces itself for high winds and flooding.

It's a chilling forecast for families that lost so much after Hurricane Maria nearly two years ago.

“The hurricane was something that was really devastating,” Gonzalez said.

“It affected everybody. Everybody. And they’re still going through it right now. A lot of people hasn't recovered yet from the hurricane,” added Martinez.

Despite the fear of what could happen this week, many today said Puerto Ricans are more prepared this time around.

“I’m in contact with my family, and I think that we've been preparing since Maria because that was a big lesson for us,” said Idalia Rodriquez who is from Guayanilla, Puerto Rico. She still lives there, and happens to be visiting her sister in Connecticut this week, but wishes she were home.

“I have my things there and my family is all there. Whenever these things happen we're united,” Rodriguez said.

An estimated 10,000 people came to Connecticut in 2017, and over 400 families stayed.

“We are here but our hearts are there,” said Sheila Rivera who moved to Hartford after Maria. “It's very hard.”

Rivera remembers that hurricane like it was yesterday. She describes being locked up inside for 16 hours with her family as it passed.

“The winds were so strong,” said Rivera, “So there we were, inside with family. Praying.”

Maria left Sheila with broken windows, water damage, and no power for months. And the storm's aftermath shut down her kids’ school for six months, which led her to move to Connecticut.

“Leaving family behind is really hard,” she said. “I hope they don't run out water and that power isn't out for too long.”

As Rivera’s happy and healthy kids start the new school year Tuesday, she prays her family back home on the island stays safe in whatever may come tomorrow.

“Maria was something we didn't expect. Even though the newscasts said it was going to be hard,” Sheila said. “I think what we went through during Maria is what has led people to prepare more this time around.”

The clock is ticking for some students as they wait for the first day of school.

Many parents are getting ahead of the curve by utilizing some recommendations from sleep experts.

The first tip is to slowly and gradually get their children back into a routine.

Akeeta Anderson says there’s a constant struggle to get her daughters back on track for sleeping.

“It’s not hard getting them in the bed, it’s just hard getting to go to sleep,” said Anderson. “We are trying to buckle down before the start of school.”

Anderson says it’s a little easier said than done even with set guidelines.

“Bedtime is 8:30 in my household but sometimes the girls are used to being up and streaming and doing all other things that kids do,” said Anderson. “We are hoping to brush our teeth earlier and beginning the process of winding down.”

The key is starting early before the new school year.

Dr. Lynelle Schneeberg is a sleep psychologist and mentions proper planning equals much success.

“I encourage parents to start getting them up a little bit earlier so change the rise time back to the time that they would need for the school day,” said Dr. Schneeberg.

Dialing back on the amount of time kids are using their electronics is another issue to address.

“A lot of times the blue light from your mobile devices makes your brain think that it is still daytime, still wake-time so that’s issue number one,” Schneeberg said.

Schneeberg says there’s always a temptation to keep lurking on social media which can be dangerous for teenagers.

“By staying up earlier, it opens the door for cyber-bullies to enter right before kids head to bed,” said Schneeberg. “As it get’s closer to the start of school, it would be great to pick a book and a book light and turning those screens off an hour before bedtime.”

Schneeberg says nightly routines are great for getting kids ready for sleep but it extends beyond the night.

“If you do the same thing every night in the same order, it starts to help you get sleepy when you need to,” ,” said Schneeberg. “Sun light exposure, activity and a meal are imperative.

Schneeberg says those three ingredients, sun-light exposure, activity and a meal, are key to a recipe of success.

Maria Conti has two daughters and agrees with earlier bedtimes.

“It makes my life so much easier the next morning when they're in the bed and wake up in a good mood,” said Conti. “

But, sometimes the struggle can begin at night creating more hardships for parents. Schneeberg says you may want to start giving your kids "sleep tickets”.

"You can finish the routines, say goodnight to your child give them a couple of tickets, these are just little tickets, you make yourself,” said Schneeberg.

Conti says she plans to try out these suggestions soon.

“We’ll make sure to try to get them to bed as early as they can,” said Conti. “I think it will help the kids especially their development and learning at school."

Just one week before the school year starts in Shelton, some parents are concerned as a spat plays out between the city and the Office of the Superintendent.

As of Tuesday, the superintendent’s office said they weren’t sure the city has met the requirements of their transportation agreement, specifically to drug test drivers who worked this summer.

The school district’s top boss says he’ll be inspecting driver’s records Wednesday.

The city took over the school bus operations at the end of the school year, after a contract with a national provider ended.

Mayor Mark Lauretti said while they didn’t do drug tests immediately, the national provider had just days before and that the superintendent’s office claim is all just politics.

In the meantime, parents who spoke with NBC Connecticut said they don’t even know the school bus schedule yet.

They are concerned, as the wheels on the bus make being a working parent possible.

“It’s very important for us because we have to get to and from work and putting them on the bus makes it easiest to get to work on time,” says Tiffany Blue-Royal, a mother of a 6-year-old.

Safety is big concern for parents.

“My little guy right here, he’s in kindergarten, so I’m putting the hands driving my little baby to school and it’s scary,” said Jennifer Picheco, mother of a 6-year-old.

A statement Wednesday afternoon from the Office of the Superintendent titled “The Uncertainty of School Transportation in Shelton” said this is the second year in a row “the district, the students and their families, face uncertainty about reliable and safe transportation to and from school,” as the office of the superintendent questions the city’s commitment to their agreement to drug test and have a background test done for every bus driver.

Lauretti said safety is his number one priority. He said the drivers had been tested by the national operator not long before the transportation system changed hands.

“This is all part of the political posturing that goes on. We used the same bus drivers, the same management team, the same vehicles that they did just ten days prior.”

The mayor explained that the city thought that covered the drivers for the summer. He said new testing was done last week.

Superintendent Clouet said in a written statement, " I am hopeful that the City is making every effort to meet the requirements of the commitment they made. Starting the school year on time, with reliable and safe transportation is essential for our students and their families."

For parents, this spat is a stresser just seven days before their kids are supposed to board the bus.

“Is it being resolved? Is it being fixed? Things like that and it doesn’t help with the kids ‘cause then it stresses the kids out too,” said Blue-Royal.

“I really don’t know what’s going on because nothing is ever very clear, so you just want to know the answers and you want to make sure that the kids are safe,” Picheco

The union for the bus drivers said they can’t comment on the conflict between the mayor and superintendent, but they said “Shelton’s school bus drivers are following instructions from their employer and will be ready to deliver Shelton’s most precious cargo when school starts for students next week.”

New Haven police are investigating a double shooting Tuesday night.

Police confirmed it happened on State Street in the area of May Street.

Details on injuries were not immediately available.

NBC Connecticut has a crew headed to the scene and will provide updates as they come into the newsroom.

The NBC Connecticut meteorologists are tracking some rainy weather for Wednesday.

Tropical Depression 6 will send some moisture toward New England Wednesday evening. The moisture will interact with a cold front moving in from the west.

Showers will develop Wednesday afternoon, with locally heavy rain by evening. There will be a wide variation in rain totals across the state with some areas seeing little rain and others seeing over 2 inches.

Localized flash flooding is possible.

It all clears out by Thursday morning before daybreak.

Track conditions in your area using our interactive radar.

West Hartford police have arrested a man on arson charges after a fire at a condominium complex Tuesday.

Police arrested 38-year-old Daigin Mosby Tuesday after a fire at the Westwood Condominiums at 100 Kane Street Tuesday morning. Mosby, who is a resident of the complex, was charged with first-degree arson and reckless endangerment.

No one was hurt in the fire that forced tenants from their homes during the early morning hours.

Approximately eight to 10 apartments have been affected by smoke, water or fire, authorities said. The Red Cross and West Hartford Social Services are offering assistance.

Residents affected by the fire can get information on available services by visiting the Red Cross Comfort Center after 2 p.m. at the Elmwood Community Center. It's located at 1106 New Britain Ave. in West Hartford.

Mosby is currently being held at the West Hartford Police Department on a $500,000 bond.

One person died and at least five people were hurt, two of them seriously, after a four-story building under construction partially collapsed in the Bronx Tuesday morning, authorities said. 

A call about the collapse on 208th Street by Steuben Avenue in Norwood came in shortly before noon; it wasn't clear how many people were in the eight-unit building at the time. The man who died was identified as 47-year-old Segundo Huerta. He was trapped in the pile of steel and rubble when the building came crashing down.

People walking by the building called police after witness the third floor collapse, with some saying they heard shouting coming from inside the building before it came down.

Chopper 4 showed crews removing what appeared to be cinder blocks to get to the trapped individual. Firefighters were able to reach that person, and pull that person from the debris, but the individual could not be saved.

A fire official said it took crews about an hour to uncover the worker killed in the debris, and were never able to communicate with him, saying it appeared he had been crushed. The two workers with serious injuries are Segundo's relatives. They were taken to the hospital, while the other three suffered only minor injuries.

Buildings inspectors were at the scene to conduct an investigation, an agency spokesperson said. The DOB released a statement Monday evening, calling Huerta's death a "preventable tragedy" that they will continue to investigate "aggressively and bring all appropriate enforcement actions against those responsible."

Huerta is survived by his wife and his five children; the oldest one is 19 years old and his youngest are two 5-year-old twin boys. His wife said the Ecuadorian worker was a good man who worked hard to provide for his kids.

A DOB source told News 4 that the preliminary cause of the collapse may have been due to an overloading of concrete masonry blocks on the third floor, leading to the floor crashing into the second floor and trapping the worker who died.

Prior to the accident, no violations were recorded at the construction site, the source said. The Department of Buildings issued permits for the new building in May 2019.

The general contractor for the project is Pioneer General Construction. The company did not respond to a request for comment, other than that they are looking into the incident.

An attack on a bar in Mexico's Gulf coast city of Coatzacoalcos killed 23 people and injured 13 late Tuesday.

The attackers started a fire that ripped through the bar, killing eight women and 15 men. There was no immediate information on the condition of the injured.

Photos of the scene showed tables and chairs jumbled around, apparently as people tried to flee.

The state prosecutor's office in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz said the search was continuing for the attackers.

Veracruz Gov. Cuitlahuac Garcia suggested that a gang dispute was involved in the attack.

"In Veracruz, criminal gangs are no longer tolerated," Garcia wrote of the attack, adding police, the armed forces and newly formed National Guard are searching for the attackers.

State police identified the establishment as the "Bar Caballo Blanco."

The tatty bar is located in a storefront on a busy commercial street in Coatzacoalcos, a city whose main industry has long been oil and oil refining.

The fire may have been started with gasoline bombs.

It came almost eight years to the day after a fire at a casino in the northern city of Monterrey killed 52 people. The Zetas drug cartel staged that 2011 attack to enforce demands for protection payments.

The Zetas, now splintered, have also been active in Coatzacoalcos.

The attack, along with the killing of 19 people in the western city of Uruapan earlier this month, is likely to renew fears that the violence of the 2006-2012 drug war has returned.

Police are releasing new details about a man accused of attempting to rape one woman and assault two others inside a Massachusetts high school on Monday.

Timothy Grover, 55, of Dracut, was arrested Monday after a 20-year-old woman reported that she had been assaulted inside Lowell High School. The alleged assault happened a day before students were set to return to school from their summer vacation.

Lowell police said Tuesday morning that around 4 p.m. Monday, a woman flagged down a police officer on Arcand Drive and told the officer that a man had just tried to attack and rape her inside the high school. Police later learned that the same man had allegedly assaulted two other victims inside the school.

One of the women who was assaulted was a teacher.

Grover followed a woman into the school, mumbling to her that she should call police because someone was going to rape her, prosecutors alleged in court Tuesday. When the woman asked Grover who would rape her, Grover allegedly said, "I am."

The woman was able to escape, according to police. That's when Grover allegedly headed to the auditorium and cornered a student.

"He starts touching my neck. That's when I turned around and I yelled at him," the student, an 18-year-old who identified himself as Bukuru. "I started swearing at him, 'You don't know me, why are you touching me like that?'"

Bukuru said Grover continued to harass him, also shoving a teacher. Grover allegedly grabbed the teen's sweater.

"He was in my face, I'm like, 'Yo, can you please let me go?' He said, 'No,'" Bukuru recalled. "He's just in my face, he wasn't letting go, that's when I hit him."

A description of the suspect was broadcast to all officers in the area, and within minutes, park rangers found a man fitting the description at Kirk and Paige streets.

When police arrived, they found park rangers struggling with the suspect. Officers said he was combative and drunk. The man, later identified as Grover, was allegedly yelling profanities and threatening the officers. Police said Grover then kicked and attempted to bite an officer.

Grover was identified by one of the victims and placed under arrest for assault with intent to rape, assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon. After further investigation, he was also charged with two counts of assault and battery for allegedly assaulting two other victims inside the high school.

Police described the incident as a "random attack," and said Grover had no connection with any of the victims.

Grover is well known in Lowell. He owns a security firm and helped found two residential programs designed to help women struggling with substance abuse, most notably The Megan House Foundation.

The Megan House Foundation issued a statement Tuesday saying that Grover "separated completely from The Megan House more than 18 months ago and has not been involved with any aspect of its operations since that time."

A former employee of Grover's was stunned by the allegations.

"I feel really sad for Tim, but at the same time, what he did is reprehensible," said Mitchel Mejias. "You can't do stuff like that."

Lowell Public Schools issued a statement about the "unfortunate incident that took place at Lowell High School."

"Following the incident, school leadership notified staff of the occurrence and took the opportunity to re-emphasize safety protocols for maintaining a secure environment," the district said in its statement.

Grover entered a not guilty plea at his arraignment Tuesday in Lowell District Court and was ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing on Friday.

His lawyer, Daniel Thompson, said Grover denies the charges "in their entirety."

A Groton man has been charged with manslaughter after a head-on crash in Stonington killed two people last year.

Police said 38-year-old Jose Vicente Noriega-Gonzalez was arrested on Tuesday on a warrant stemming from a deadly crash on Interstate 95 in Stonington that happened on December 16, 2018.

According to officers, Noriega-Gonzalez was driving north on I-95 southbound around 12:45 a.m. As he was driving in the wrong direction, he collided with another vehicle, just north of exit 91.

The front seat passenger in Noriega-Gonzalez's vehicle, later identified as 37-year-old Eric Ramakers, of Phoenix, Arizona, died at the scene. The front seat passenger in the other vehicle, later identified as 26-year-old Lorna Valcin, of Braintree, Massachusetts, also died at the scene, authorities added.

Noriega-Gonzalez and the driver of the other vehicle were transported to the hospital to be treated for serious injuries. A passenger in the other vehicle was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, officials said.

Police said Noriega-Gonzalez is facing charges including two counts of manslaughter with a motor vehicle, two counts of assault, reckless endangerment, driving wrong way on a divided highway and illegal operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence.

His bond has been set at $1,500,000 and he is due in court on September 10.

Route 5 in Wallingford is closed between Wallace Row and High Street after a water main break, according to police. 

Impassioned students and parents at a New Jersey town made their voices heard as they slammed a plan to take away meals for students with outstanding lunch debt.

Community members gathered Tuesday night for a meeting to discuss the strict enforcement of a policy that would affect students at the Cherry Hill Public School District. Under the policy, students with an outstanding debt of $10 or more would get a tuna sandwich for lunch, while those owing $20 or more would get no lunch at all.

"This is ridiculous," one community member said during public comment in front of the district's board of education. Another man called the situation a "public relations fiasco" and a "disaster."

The uproar comes after the district earlier this month proposed enforcing the policy, which has been on the books since 2017. The policy, Superintendent Joseph Meloche said, is in line with state requirements, but has not been enforced.

The district contends that it has been challenged by unpaid lunch debts over the last few years. In 2017, it forgave about $25,000 in lunch debt, but despite that, it now once again finds itself about $14,000 in the hole, Meloche said.

"Wiping out the debt - paying the money that that family owes - does not help those children because we've been feeding the kids and we will continue to feed the kids," Meloche said during Tuesday's meeting.

Nearly 20% of students in the Cherry Hill Public School District are considered "economically disadvantaged," NBC News reported. However, board of education member Ruth Schultz said that while some families can't afford to pay their debts, others simply refuse to.

Still, parents and students oppose the district's plan to collect the money.

"The easily recognizable tuna fish sandwich will become a badge of shame. What the board may fail to recognize is that school cafeterias are not always friendly places, and students will be stigmatized because of the food they carry," Oliver Adler, student body president at Cherry Hill East High School, said.

Cherry Hell West High School 9th grader Eva Friddell implored board members not to "take it out on the kids for what the parents have done."

The school board said it has not yet withheld lunch from any student, adding that it will revise the policy and call for a vote on it in September.