Westport police have arrested two suspects in a robbery at TD Bank on Wednesday afternoon.

Two people robbed TD Bank at 1111 Post Road East just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday, according to police, and one of them had a gun. 

After getting the cash, they fled on Morningside Drive, according to police.

As police were searching for a car matching the description witnesses gave, they noticed a man walking in the area of Greens Farms Road and Westway Road.

He tried to hide from officers, but police were able to take him into custody and found evidence of the robbery, police said.

The man asked to be taken to Norwalk Hospital for a medical issue and was brought to the police department after being released.

Lancelot Andrew Supersad, 19, of Bridgeport, was arrested and charged with first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and first degree, third-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit larceny in the third degree.

He is being held on a $100,000 bond and will be arraigned in Norwalk Superior Court July 3.

At 1:45 a.m. on Thursday, Westport Police arrested Anthony Santiago, 20, of Bridgeport. He was charged with first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, larceny in the third degree and third-degree conspiracy to commit larceny.

He is being held on a $100,000 bond and will be arraigned in Norwalk Superior Court on Thursday.

Westport Police Department ask anyone who witnessed the suspects leaving the scene or has any additional information to call Westport Police at 203-341-6080.


 

A photo exchange from outer space that kept NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio up to date with his family back on Earth touched even more lives when it was shared on Facebook.

One keepsake Mastracchio, 54, packed for his six-month stay aboard the International Space Station was a photograph of his son David and daughter-in-law Christin, during her B-52 pilot training. Mastracchio photographed the couple’s picture from the ISS and David posted it to his Facebook page.

When Christin became an Air Force pilot, she and David took another photo from the B-52 cockpit, this time holding the photo that Mastracchio took from space. They emailed the new picture to Mastracchio, who once again snapped a photo that was posted to Facebook.

“Well, this is probably as far as it will get... A picture of a picture of a picture of a picture... in space,” David Mastracchio captioned the post.

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Mastracchio returned to Earth in May, but the photo loop is still in the internet’s viral orbit, according to NBC News.

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Additional photos Mastracchio took from space garnered social media attention as well. In April he posted a selfie to Twitter with the Earth in the background after he replaced a failed backup computer box on the ISS. The photo got retweeted over 5,000 times.

An EVA selfie. The space suit makes it very difficult to get a good selfie. I tried several today. pic.twitter.com/GvMEOj3ewu

— Rick Mastracchio (@AstroRM) April 23, 2014

Police have arrested a Bridgeport man accused of attacking his girlfriend during a domestic violence incident in West Haven on Wednesday.

Police said Del Pettway, 37, is accused of kicking, choking, cutting and hitting the woman several times.

He also grabbed and threatened to cut the victim’s child, according to police.

Pettway took off in the victim’s car before police arrived, police said.

Officers took him into custody in Bridgeport after a short foot chase.

Pettway, who has a criminal history, was charged with five counts of violating a protective order, one count of risk of injury to a child, second-degree assault, second-degree threatening, second-degree threatening and disorderly conduct.

Bond was set at $100,000.
 

The New Haven man accused of robbing two Wallingford banks in two months is facing new charges for a third robbery that happened in 2011.

Hakim Salam, 48, of New Haven, was charged with third-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit third-degree larceny, second-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery.

Salam is accused of robbing the TD Bank at 7 North Turnpike Road on March 15, 2011.

Investigators identified him as the suspect after Salam was arrested for reportedly robbing the First Niagara Bank on Main Street twice in two months last year.

He was charged in the 2011 robbery while in custody on charges stemming from a Middletown bank robbery in January of this year, along with the two other Wallingford robberies.

Salam will be arraigned later Thursday afternoon. He's being held on $50,000 bond.

A Hartford man is accused of stealing the identity of a California resident and using his social security number to illegally collect more than $37,000 in unemployment benefits.

Ignacio Sotelo-Bustos, 30, of Brown Street in Hartford, is charged with first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community, felony unemployment compensation fraud and first-degree identity theft.

According to the state Department of Criminal Justice, Sotelo-Bustos stole the social security number of a California man and used it to collect $37,270 in unemployment benefits between Jan. 2009 and Feb. 2011, when he was not legally authorized to work in the U.S.

He was arrested by the Unemployment Compensation Fraud Unit and released on $10,000 bond.

Sotelo-Bustos is due in court July 10.

If convicted, he could spend a total of up to 25 years in prison and pay a fine of more than $20,000.

Newington police have arrested a suspect in a string of burglaries at restaurants and a home in town last year.

Police said they identified Ismael Medina Delgado, 41, of Newington, as a suspect through forensic evidence.    

The burglaries occurred from September 2013 through December 2013 at Newington Pizza, Empire Pizza, Cavos, Yanni’s Pizzeria, The Sloppy Waffle, and J.E. McLaughlin.

Police said they were able to link them to one person from evidence at the crime scenes.

Delgado was arrested twice in June 2014 and has been charged in six separate commercial burglaries in addition to the one residential burglary. 

He is currently in prison on unrelated burglary charges.     

Construction crews renovating Enfield High School have uncovered a time capsule dated 1843-1943, according to the school system.

Enfield Public Schools posted a photo of the time capsule on Twitter and asked anyone with information to contact the superintendent's office.

Etched on the outside is the message, "Do not open until 2043." 

If you know anything about the capsule please contact the Superintendent's office pic.twitter.com/oj9K7AP8gi

— EPS (@EnfieldPS) July 2, 2014

The southern end of Windsor Locks Canal State Park Trail is open once again.

The trail, designed to bypass the Connecticut River rapids in Enfield, was closed earlier the year due to bald eagle nesting, and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection announced its reopening Thursday.

“We are pleased to announce that a young bald eagle has successfully fledged and will be testing its new flying skills along the Connecticut River this Independence Day weekend,” said Jenny Dickson, DEEP Supervising Wildlife Biologist, in a statement. “Temporary closure of the trail allowed the adult eagles to efficiently—and successfully—attend their nest and young during the inclement weather this past spring.

So far, this has been a record-breaking year for bald eagle nesting in Connecticut, according to the DEEP. Bald eagles are protected during the nesting season under the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
 

Connecticut has been given another year by federal education officials to work on school changes, including teacher and principal evaluation.

The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday that it approved a February request by Connecticut officials to extend for one year a waiver from some provisions of No Child Left Behind. Waivers also were granted to Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada, South Dakota and Virginia.

Federal education officials said Connecticut's waiver has helped schools improve student achievement and that the waiver may be renewed.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Thursday the waivers have allowed states to be more innovative.

Connecticut's waiver, first announced in May 2012, gives the state more flexibility to spend federal money and it avoids having to declare nearly half the state's public schools as failing.

One person was killed and three others were injured in a fireworks accident Thursday in Comanche.

Kiwanis Club members were setting up fireworks for Friday's celebration on a baseball field west of a high school when the trailer holding most of the fireworks exploded around 9 a.m. It's not immediately clear what triggered the explosion.

One person was confirmed dead, and several others are being treated for burns, Comanche County Medical Center spokesman Jim Christensen said.

One of those victims was transferred to a burn unit, while two others were treated and released, he said. Their injuries ranged from first- to third-degree burns, mostly on the hands.

Close family and friends confirm to NBC 5 that the man killed is Dr. Russell Reynolds, a local chiropractor and member of the Kiwanis Club. Reynolds was involved in nearly every community event including the July Fourth fireworks show.

The office of State Rep. Dr. J.D. Sheffield, who was scheduled to speak at the fireworks event, released the following statement:

"I was saddened to hear of the tragic loss of Dr Reynolds. My thoughts are with his family, the community of Comanche, and those injured in this accident. I hope they have a speedy recovery. "

All Fourth of July activities planned for Friday night have been canceled after the fireworks accident, the Comanche Chamber of Commerce said.

This was the 24th year the event was set to be held. The event usually draws about 15,000 people, according to the chamber.

On its Facebook page, the Comanche Chamber of Commerce posted:

DUE TO TRAGIC CIRCUMSTANCES THE 4TH ACTIVITIES HAVE BEEN CANCELLED FOR 2014.

The state fire marshal's office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the accident.

A 46-year-old Branford man has been arrested in connection with the burglary of a Madison auto service center last December.

Denis Schoendorf, of Branford, is accused of burglarizing the North Madison Service Center at 1276 Durham Road on Dec. 26, 2013.

He was arrested July 3 and charged with third-degree burglary, fourth-degree larceny, second-degree criminal trespassing and third-degree criminal mischief.

Schoendorf appeared in court Thursday morning.

A backyard barbecue pit exploded Wednesday night while members of a girls' softball team were roasting marshmallows over it, injuring two of the girls.

The six teen girls were having a sleepover at their coach's Campbell home and had been sitting around the gas-run barbecue pit when it exploded and sent debris flying, fire officials said.

Santa Clara County Fire Battalion Chief Wally Finck said crews responded to the explosion in the 800 block of Briarwood Way sometime around 10:15 p.m.

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The explosion did not start a fire and did not damage any structures, Finck said, but two girls were burned on their legs and feet and taken to the hospital for minor burns.

One girl was seen hopping to an ambulance with a bandage on her left foot. The other girls were picked up by their parents.

Homeowner and coach Ron Fetsch, who also has a daughter on the team, told NBC Bay Area the blast sounded like a "firecracker" and then he started "seeing some blood."

He said he has used the barbecue pit at least 50 times without problems. On Thursday, he had been running it for more than 90 minutes before it exploded.

He said PG&E is investigating.

NBC Bay Area's Bob Redell, Lauren Inderhees and Bay City News contributed to this report.

A convicted felon is facing new charges after police say he fired shots into a moving car with a baby inside in Hartford. Authorities are still looking for his accomplice.

Police said Jashawn Jackson, 20, a felon with six prior arrests in Hartford, and Alexander Molina, a convicted felon with 13 arrests in Hartford, were involved in a dispute with another man around noon Sunday.

The victim was driving his car in the area of 85 Franklin Avenue when the men confronted him, according to police. One allegedly pulled out a gun and ordered the victim out of the car. Police said a small child and two other people were also in the vehicle.

He refused to get out, and the suspect allegedly ran off when witnesses began calling 911, police said.

The victim drove in the direction of Hartford Police Headquarters and saw the suspects approach him in a silver Honda Accord near Maple Avenue and Pawtucket Street.

The driver, identified as Jackson, pulled out a gun and fired three shots into the victim’s car, according to police. One bullet narrowly missed the child, who was sitting in a car seat.

Police said the victim continued to Hartford police barracks to report the shooting. Investigators interviewed witnesses and searched the scene to find a .40-caliber shell casing near the intersection of Maple Avenue and Shultas Place.

Jackson and Alexander Molina, 22, were identified as suspects, and police obtained arrests warrants on Monday. Jackson was taken into custody Wednesday and was on parole at the time, according to police.

Authorities are still searching for Molina.

Jackson is charged with nine offenses, including criminal attempt to commit first-degree assault, first-degree risk of injury to a minor, reckless endangerment, second-degree breach of peace and firearms and motor vehicle charges.

Molina will be charged with second-degree breach of peace, first-degree threatening and carrying a facsimile firearm.

Crews are responding to a fire on Northwood Drive in Guilford, according to the Branford Fire Department, which is providing mutual aid along with Madison.

No additional information was immediately available.

Responding mutual aid to Guilford for the working fire #ctfire

— Madison Hose Co. #1 (@MadisonHose) July 3, 2014

This weekend, Hartford will pay tribute to the hundreds of people injured and killed in a massive fire at the circus 70 years ago.

July 6 marks the anniversary of the infamous blaze that killed more than 150 and injured 700 more.

The fire broke out during an event held by Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus that was attended by nearly 7,000 people. According to a release from the Hartford Fire Department, the inferno has gone down as one of the worst fires in the history of the United States.

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The blaze prompted changes to the city fire code, including establishment of capacity limits, the prohibition of gasoline use, and mandatory use of flame-retardant tents.

Sunday’s remembrance ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m. and will be held at the site of the fire, in the rear of the Fred D. Wish School located at 350 Barbour Street in Hartford.

A toddler was recovered from a locked car in lethargic condition and unable to speak after a passerby at a Long Island shopping center parking lot noticed the little girl alone in the vehicle, police say. 

Police were called to the parking lot of the Big H Shopping Center in Huntington Thursday afternoon after someone called to report seeing a girl locked in a 2000 Nissan Frontier with its windows closed. 

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Responding officers broke the car window and removed the girl from the car. 

"When we got in through the window, it was a very, very hot blast of heat," said Officer Aaron Klein. The toddler was "beet red, drips of sweat coming off her face, and she looked to be in pain."

He estimated the temperature was above 120 degrees. 

"I can speak for myself, it was beyond hot in that car," hKlein added. 

Klein's partner, Officer Derek Mangi, said it was "very upsetting holding her and feeling how hot she was. It was scary."

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The toddler was taken to Huntington Hospital with heat exhaustion. She is expected to be OK and and will be released to her mother, police say. 

The girl's 30-year-old father, Melvin Marroquin of Maryland, returned to the vehicle about 10 minutes after officers arrived and told police he had been shopping at a Marshalls store.

"He told me intially he forgot," said Mangi. "I don't know how anyone could have forgot." 

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The father eventually admitted he'd left his daughter in the car for about 25 minutes, according to the officers. 

Marroquin, who was arrested on charges of child endangerment and reckless endangerment, is expected to be held overnight and arraigned Friday at First District Court in Central Islip.

It's not clear if Marroquin has an attorney. 

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it takes just 10 minutes for the temperature inside a locked car to go up 20 degrees. 

A nurse who saved a three-month-old baby in a near-drowning says she was compelled to stop her car when she saw a mother standing next to a child who was lying on the grass next to a canal.

"I just was looking at the baby – the baby was so cute and so beautiful – and I was just asking, 'God, please let me be able to do something to save this baby's life,'" Maureen Brown said at a Thursday press conference.

Brown had stopped Tuesday when she saw the mother and baby in the grass next to a canal in the Riviera Isles community in Miramar on Tuesday afternoon.

She said she approached the woman, Inakesha Armour, and asked if the baby were OK. Instead of answering, she says, the woman asked to use her phone.

"She kept asking to use the phone," Brown said. "I said, 'Yes, you can use my phone, but is that a baby on the ground? Is that your baby? Is the baby OK?' She turned to me and said, 'I think I killed my baby,'" Brown said. "I just turned to her and I said, 'Let's go help your baby.'"

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Brown said her nursing instincts kicked in when she began performing CPR on the child.

"I got out of my car and I ran to the baby, and as I was running I called 911," she said. "The baby's color was a blue, blue – so as a nurse, I thought, 'There's hope here.' So I started trying to clear the baby's airway."

Brown can be heard on the recorded 911 call telling operators: "I was driving by. There's a baby on the ground... Looks like the baby was in water... We need 911 right away."

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Once police arrived at the scene, they took over the life-saving efforts, and the baby was revived.

The baby was first taken to Memorial Hospital in Miramar and was later transported to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, where he remains in critical condition.

Police took Armour into custody at the scene. She was charged with two counts of attempted premeditated murder of her child, Cayden Armour, after she was overheard telling her husband over the phone that she "did it again," police said. It is unclear if she has an attorney.

In court Thursday, the baby's condition was said to be good from the neck down, but doctors are still awaiting tests from neurologists.

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Family members say Armour had been struggling with post-partum depression, according to police. The baby's father, Conlan Armour, told police the family did their best to make sure Inakesha Armour was always with someone else when she was in the presence of the child, police said.

According to the police report, the husband told police that his wife had tried to hurt the baby previously by intentionally giving him adult cough syrup. Police said Inasheka Armour told them in an interview after her arrest she also tried to smother the baby with a pillow during the cough medicine incident, but her mother intervened.

Inasheka Armour remains in jail and is under a suicide watch.

Brown urged the public at Thursday's press conference to learn CPR, including infant CPR, and further awareness of post-partum depression.

San Diego resident Alejandra Ceja-Aguilar knows more than most what it’s been like for the undocumented immigrant children and mothers from Central America.

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When she was five years old, she and her family escaped the cartel violence and drug activity in Michoacán, Mexico. Her family made it to a Burger King in Nogales, Arizona. Then her parents left her and her sister.

“I was told, 'You stay here, and you watch your sister.' I'm five years old, and my little sister is three,” Ceja told NBC 7.

“Some people may look back and say that was neglect on behalf of my parents. It's called survival. It's what you do to save your family,” she said.

Sponsors helped reunite her family, Ceja said.

They also helped her through the process of becoming a U.S. citizen in 2000. She went on to earn a Master's degree in counseling and currently works with families caring for disabled or chronically ill adults.

Her experiences, Ceja said, have given her a sense of what today's undocumented immigrant children are going through.

Hundreds of undocumented children are set to arrive in San Diego in the coming weeks as the federal government grapples with a flood of Central American children fleeing into the U.S.

More than 52,000 unaccompanied children who crossed the Texas-Mexico border have been detained since October, in what President Barack Obama has called a humanitarian crisis.

Ceja was heartbroken to watch Tuesday's protest in Murrieta, where demonstrators blocked buses carrying undocumented immigrants on their way to a processing center.

“I’ve had so many opportunities. And to see that there are these children who we’re not even acknowledging as people, we’re just saying to take them out...,” she said. “I just go back and think, I wasn't a headache. I was a person. I was just 5 years old.”

They are the reasons why she’s planning to open up her home to the undocumented immigrant children and families being transported to Southern California from Texas.

“I know these kids are afraid, and they’re looking for home, and home is where Mom and Dad are,” she said.

Ceja said she has applied to be a foster parent and is preparing to receive a family as early as Friday from the group of undocumented immigrants who arrived in San Diego this week.

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Getting approved as a foster family will be necessary for those people who want to help the unaccompanied minors, according to Pedro Rios with American Friends Service Committee.

Many local non-profits are taking a cautious approach and coming up with a plan on how to best help these immigrants, Rios said.

Although it’s great families want to open their doors, he said they need to consider some important things. “As simple as a hot warm shower is something to consider. Consider whether the children need to be enrolled in school,” Rios said.

Rios said that if the children are unaccompanied and you offer to house them, it’s essentially a foster care situation, and host families will need to take classes and agree to a background check.

“No one taking in a child should be on a public benefits. there needs to be income coming in from at least one person in that family,” he said.

Although the situation is complex, Ceja said for her, the decision is simple.

“I want to help those families. I want to help those children and let them know that we care, and I get it,” she said.

A mother of four took down 26 burgers Thursday to become the sixth champion of Z-Burger's annual Independence Burger Eating Championship.

Molly Schuyler beat last year's winner, Patrick "Deep-Dish" Bertoletti, by a mere one burger to claim the $1,500 prize. She was the only female competitor.

Sixteen contestants competed to see who could gobble the most burgers in 10 minutes. Schuyler, a native of Bellevue, Nebraska, even saved some room to try another Z-Burger staple after the competition.

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"I'm getting ready to have milkshakes," she said.

Rosslyn, Virginia's own Ian "the Invader" Hickman ate 15 burgers to tie for fourth place. Hickman, a financial analyst and "casual" competitive eater, took home a $400 prize.

As for Schuyler, she said the experience was "totally awesome," and already has plans for the prize money.

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"I've got four kids and car payments to make," she said.

The contest was hosted at the burger chain's Wisconsin Avenue location in Washington, D.C.

The MTA has fired nine conductors-in-training who are accused of cheating on a safety exam.

The transit agency says someone allegedly stole the test from an instructor’s bag, used his phone to take pictures of it and sent it to classmates in advance of the exam.

"We have disbanded the training class and referred this matter to the MTA inspector general to investigate what happened," Aaron Donovan, a spokesperson for the transit authority, said.

The test covered the "physical characteristics of a section of the railroad such as signals, curves and speed limits," according to the MTA.

The cheating scandal is one more in a series of difficult issues for the railroad.

Last month, rail service was disrupted by back to back mechanical failures that kept the Walk Bridge in South Norwalk open and prohibited rail travel over it.

The rail service has also dealt with extended power failures that disrupted rail service, derailments and additional problems.

Investigators said they've worried for years that the MTA's testing isn't as secure as it should be. The MTA says riders should rest assured and know that the cheating happened in a classroom far from the rails.

Riders were upset by the scandal.

"It should be on par with cheating on your EMT exam," said Sarah Gray of New York. "Any exam where it's evaluating your skills to be taking other people's lives in your hands should be taken much more seriously."

"You'd think that they would have the best intentions going into this job of keeping their passengers safe so it is a little cause for concern," said David Volle of New York.