Rescue crews have recovered the body of a missing swimmer from Bradley Point in West Haven.

A massive search began for Alejandro Zitlalpopoca, 16 of West Haven, after he went missing while swimming with a friend.

Crews from Coast Guard Stations in New Haven and Cape Cod along with the Milford Fire Department and West Haven Fire Department began the search just before 3 p.m.

At 7:18 p.m., his body was recovered 30 yards off shore in approximately five feet of water.

Zitlalpopoca was a senior at West Haven High School. Grief counselors will be available at the school tomorrow for students as well as additional staff to help with the students need as they deal with this loss.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Alejandro's family and friends, and we cannot imagine how heartbroken they must be,"  said West Haven superintendent Neil Cavallaro. "We're devastated to see a student from our district pass away and will have additional support services available at West Haven High School tomorrow for any students or staff who feel they need to talk to someone."

Zitlalpopoca's body will be transfered to the medical examiner's office. The cause of death is under investigation.

Mahan Elementary School students are back in class after the Norwich was evacuated earlier because of a fire in the office area of the building.

The small electrical fire started at 12:45 p.m. and was contained, school officials said.

Police said there was an electrical issue and there are slight smoke conditions.

The school was evacuated as a precaution and buses took students to Kelly Middle School on Mahan Drive, where parents were permitted to pick up their children. Students are now back in the school and safe, police said.

Police ask parents to contact the school before coming to school grounds.

No one is injured and no information was immediately available on cause.
 

Route 66 was closed in East Hampton in both directions after a car collided with a motorcycle Tuesday just before 2 p.m.

The accident happened near Keighley Pond Road, police said.

One person was taken to Hartford Hospital. The extent of that person's injuries has not been released.

The road reopened around 3 p.m.

A 31-year-old Waterbury man is hospitalized after police shot at him, then shot him with a Taser after the man tried to ram a police cruiser and pointed a weapon at law enforcement, police said.

Officers responded to a home on Old Waterbury Road in Southbury on Saturday to investigate a domestic complaint, but the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Tyler Santoro, of Southbury, had fled.

Charges are still pending, but police said Santoro will be charged in connection with a domestic incident that happened Aug. 30 and will be charged for allegedly stealing a neighbor's 2006 Chevrolet Blazer.

Police said Santoro was also in possession of a handgun. Waterbury police spotted the Blazer at 10:45 a.m. Monday and tried to pull it over, but police said Santoro got away.

Half an hour later, Trooper Tyler Spence, who was on patrol on Main Street in Woodbury, saw the stolen SUV, so he and a Woodbury police Officer Tim Wright tried to stop the vehicle and chased the man into Washington, where he crashed on Wykeham and Bell Hill roads, according to police.

Santoro then tried to ram the trooper and officer's vehicle, pointed a weapon at Spence and Wright and refused to drop it, police said. 

Spence opened fire and Santoro took a knife and tried to cut his own neck, according to police. Spence then shot his Taser and police pulled Santoro from the stolen vehicle.

They provided emergency care for the neck injury and an ambulance transported Santoro to the Waterbury Hospital emergency room for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

Spence and Wright sustained minor injuries during the crash and were taken to Saint Mary's Hospital. Both have since been released, according to police.

The State Police Central District Major Crime Squad is investigating with help from the Litchfield State's Attorney Office.

Spence has been assigned to administrative duties throughout the investigation, in accordance with department policy.

Police said Santoro was placed under state police guard at Waterbury Hospital. His has been set at $250,000, but police said he'll likely be charged in the police pursuit and use of force incident.

The case remains under investigation.

Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted by an NFL team, is scheduled to undergo a physical exam with the Dallas Cowboys and could join the Cowboys' practice squad, according to NFL.com.

Sam was released Saturday by the St. Louis Rams, who drafted the defensive end in the seventh round of this year's NFL Draft.

Sam, who was named 2013 SEC defensive player of the year at Missouri, led the Rams with six tackles in last week's preseason loss to the Miami Dolphins and had 2.5 sacks in the preseason.

Sam is expected to be in Dallas on Wednesday, and if he passes the physical, he would be added to the team's practice squad, NFL.com reported, citing a team source.

A man accused of knowingly spreading HIV has been ordered by a judge to stay off dating sites, specifically the gay dating app Grindr.

Thomas Guerra, 29, has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor health and safety violation. The Imperial Beach man is accused of giving HIV to an ex-boyfriend after assuring the man he was HIV-negative.

Guerra stood silently behind his attorney in court on Tuesday as prosecutors filed an amended complaint, naming the communicable disease Guerra is accused of transmitting as HIV. 

The judge denied prosecutors' request to increase bail from $2,500 to $50,000, citing he had seen no evidence of additional victims or current online dating activity. However, the judge agreed to bar Guerra from using all dating websites, including Grindr.

According to court documents, Guerra assured the victim he was HIV-negative when they started dating in April 2013.

Guerra said he didn’t know about his infection when his partner contracted the virus, but the victim said he found text messages, videos and emails that proved Guerra knew he had HIV since 2007.

Another man who said he had been a former partner of Guerra’s told NBC 7 that Guerra would tell people he was HIV-negative, have sex with them and then brag about it.

Guerra faces a $1,000 fine and six months in jail if convicted. More charges could be filed against him as the investigation continues, according to the City Attorney’s Office.

Another readiness hearing is scheduled for Oct. 16. A jury trial is set to begin Nov. 13.
 

PG&E was hit Tuesday with $1.4 billion in penalties by the California Public Utilities Commission  for safety violations related to the 2010 gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno.

The new fines and penalties bring the total amount Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has been ordered to pay in the wake of the explosion -- which killed eight people and injured 66 others on Sept. 9, 2010 -- to more than $2 billion.

The CPUC said the figure reached by two administrative law judges over the San Bruno pipeline explosion reflected nearly 3,800 violations of state and federal law, regulations and standards by PG&E in the operation of its gas pipelines.

The penalty is meant to ``send a strong message to PG&E, and all other pipeline operators, that they must comply with mandated federal and state pipeline safety requirements, or face severe consequences,'' Timothy J. Sullivan, one of the two judges, wrote in the order.

The largest share -- $950 million -- of the penalty is a fine to be paid directly to the state. That amount drew objections from city officials in San Bruno, the utility and a private ratepayers-advocacy group that the overall penalty should be focused on spending for the safe operation of the aging pipeline network.

``We are accountable and fully accept that a penalty is appropriate,'' the utility said in a statement.

Asked whether PG&E would appeal, utility spokesman Greg Snapper said, ``We're reviewing the decision and believe that any penalty should go toward pipeline safety.''

The recommended penalty requires approval by members of the state utility board. PG&E and other parties in the case have 30 days to lodge an appeal.

The commission previously ordered PG&E to pay $635 million for pipeline modernization in the wake of the Sept. 9, 2010, blast in the suburb of San Francisco. The explosion destroyed more than three dozen homes and was California's deadliest utility disaster in decades.

The blast occurred when a 30-inch natural-gas transmission line installed in 1956 ruptured. At the time, survivors described the heat of the blast burning the back of their necks like a blowtorch as they ran away.

The $1.4 billion penalty also includes $400 million for pipeline improvements, and about $50 million to enhance pipeline safety. PG&E cannot recover any of the money from customers, including the earlier $635 million penalty, although a ratepayers' group called The Utility Reform Network maintained PG&E could raise rates in other rate cases to indirectly offset the penalty.

Sending $950 million to the state's general fund, with no strings attached, means it could be spent in any way the governor and Legislature see fit, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance.

The public utility commission staff recommended in July that the utility pay at least $300 million in fines.

San Bruno city officials were just beginning to study Tuesday's decision but on first read believed the overall judgment fell short of what was needed to ensure PG&E upgraded pipeline safety as much as necessary, city manager Connie Jackson said.

San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane commends the record-setting penalty but said he is disappointed the decision does not include independent oversight to ensure the CPUC and PG&E Follow through on pipeline safety plans.

“We need a revamping,” Ruane said. “We’ve asked for an independent monitor to any future actions by the PUC and the utility – any utility – and a pipeline safety trust who in some way is overseeing that and implementing safer pipeline regulations going forward. So, it’s a very unfortunate situation.”

The mayor said the city is also upset the majority of the fine is going to the state’s general fund.

“This reflects, if you will, a payday for Gov. Jerry Brown, when we believe this money should be directed instead to a safer pipeline system,” Ruane said. “I call on the governor to see that these funds are reinvested for pipeline safety.”

The penalty was historic in terms of financial charges levied against utilities on safety violations, said Britt Strottman, a lawyer for San Bruno. However, ``a lot of the utilities do not cause the same amount of devastation and destruction that was a result of the PG&E explosion in San Bruno,'' Strottman said.

A 2011 investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded the rupture occurred in a weak weld in a pipeline that PG&E records had shown as being smooth and unwelded. Among other safety failings, PG&E let 95 minutes go by before shutting off the natural gas that was fueling the fire, the federal investigators said.

That same 2011 federal investigation also faulted what it called the California Public Utilities Commission's weak oversight of the utility, which serves customers in the northern two-thirds of California.

The San Bruno blast prompted congressional hearings on pipeline safety and recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board and other government bodies that utilities intensify their oversight of decades-old natural gas lines.

This year, federal prosecutors separately indicted PG&E on 27 counts alleging the utility violated pipeline safety requirements.

PG&E faces additional fines of more than $1 billion if convicted of the federal charges, which are separate from the state financial penalties. PG&E has pleaded not guilty to the counts.

Separately, PG&E was hit with about 160 lawsuits from people who lost family members, suffered injuries or had property damage.   

Bay City News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Dr. Kent Brantly, the American doctor who contracted Ebola while working with relief organization Samaritan's Purse in Liberia, told NBC in an exclusive interview that he felt like he was about to die when he was isolated in a Liberian hospital.

"I said to the nurse who was taking care of me, 'I'm sick. I have no reserve. And I don't know how long I can keep this up,'" the Fort Worth doctor told Matt Lauer in Asheville, North Carolina, where his family has been living in seclusion since he left an Atlanta hospital almost two weeks ago.

A portion of the interview, Brantly's first ever, was airing Tuesday on "Nightly News," and another portion will air Wednesday morning on the "Today" show. The full report will air in an hour-long NBC News primetime special on Friday.

"I said, 'I don't know how you're going to breathe for me when I quit breathing,'" Brantly recalled telling the nurse in Liberia. "'Cause that was the reality. I thought, 'I— I'm not gonna be able to continue breathing this way.' And they had no way to breathe for me if I had to quit breathing."

Brantly's wife Amber, who lived with her husband and children in Liberia, and the doctors who treated him at Emory University Hospital have also spoken with Lauer, and NBC News cameras had exclusive access to the isolation room where Brantly was treated.

Amber described to Lauer how scared she had felt when she found out her husband had contracted Ebola.

"I knew what was coming," she said. "I knew how it ends. I knew how everyone had ended up so far."

Brantly was flown out of Liberia a month ago after contracting Ebola in July. He was isolated and spent three weeks being treated at Emory University Hospital before he was declared cured and discharged on what he called "a miraculous day."

Aid worker Nancy Writebol, 59, was also flown to Emory Hospital for treatment in early August and was quietly released several days before Brantly, also cured of the potentially deadly disease.

On Tuesday, NBC News reported another American missionary doctor has tested positive for Ebola, the aid group SIM USA said. The doctor was treating obstetric patients at ELWA hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, though not in the hospital’s isolation unit, NBC News reported.

A 74-year-old man was convicted Tuesday of the serial murders of three women who were strangled to death and dumped in alleys in the Los Angeles area in the 1980s.

The third murder occurred almost exactly a quarter of a century ago today.

Samuel Little, who was in his late 40s when the crimes occurred, is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jurors deliberated for about two hours before reaching the verdict.

Semen and other DNA from the victims' clothing matched Little's DNA profile so closely that, for at least two pieces of evidence, the chance of a random match was one in 450 quintillion, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told jurors, according to City News Service.

He was accused of murdering three women between 1987 and 1989, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

A jury of seven women and five men deliberated just two hours before finding Little guilty of the first-degree murders of Carol Alford, 41, on or about July 13, 1987; Audrey Nelson, 35, on or about Aug. 14, 1989; and Guadalupe Apodaca, 46, on or about Sept. 3, 1989.

In April 2012, LAPD detectives were notified that a DNA match was obtained identifying Little as the suspect in Nelson’s murder. DNA matches also came back on the other two victims tying Little to their murders. All three victims were strangled to death.

Little's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Michael Pentz, questioned the evidence, and challenged the prosecutor's insistence that DNA proved his client's guilt, according to CNS.

Pentz told jurors that the DNA results would show "that Mr. Little had nothing to do with the homicides."

Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said the victims were troubled and had lost their way. Drugs and prostitution made them vulnerable and easy targets for Little.

A grand jury indicted Little in April 2013 of the three murders with the special circumstance of multiple murders. Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty.

Little returns to court on Sept. 25 for sentencing.

A state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection employee was injured when he fell 20 feet over a wall while mowing grass near a boat launch in Hartland on Tuesday, according to the DEEP.

LifeStar medical helicopter responded to Howell's Pond in Hartland after the worker fell near Dish Mill Road, according to Litchfield County Dispatch.

State officials said they believe the employee was pushing a large lawn mower and doing routine work when the accident happened.

According to the DEEP, the injured worker was a seasonal employee who had just started work with the agency this summer as part of the DEEP Field Support group.

A coworker at the scene called for help, and LifeStar airlifted the injured worker to Saint Francis Hospital, where he was treated for broken bones, a spokesperson for the DEEP said.

His injuries are not life-threatening.

Former New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker, currently of the Denver Broncos, has been suspended for four games for violating the NFL's performance enhancing drug policy, according to NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk.

A source told Pro Football Talk that Welker took MDMA, better known as "molly," which had been cut with amphetamines, at the Kentucky Derby.

MDMA is banned under the league's substance abuse policy, while amphetamines are banned under the PED policy.

Welker was an extremely important figure in the Patriots' offense for six seasons. As Tom Brady's target, he caught 672 balls for 7,459 yards and 37 touchdowns in 94 regular season games between 2007 and 2012.

After leaving New England and signing with the Denver Broncos, Welker became a target for Brady's longtime rival, Peyton Manning. He appeared in 13 regular season games with the Broncos, making 73 catches for 778 yards and 10 touchdowns.

The suspension comes shortly after the slot receiver suffered his third concussion in 10 months, leading many to question whether he should retire.

A 14-year-old boy helped save his 2-year-old sister when a man tried to abduct her in Northern Virginia last weekend.

According to a news release from Prince William County police, the incident was reported around 6:40 p.m. in the 1400 block of Geraldine Court in Woodbridge Sunday. 

Police say a stranger picked up a 2-year-old girl who was playing with a group of children in the area and tried to walk away with her.

Her 14-year-old brother saw the man trying to take his sister, followed him and confronted him until the man let his little sister go. 

A witness then followed the accused abductor and called police. Shortly after, 26-year-old Patrick F. Rooney of Woodbridge was arrested and investigators say he was drunk. He's facing attempted abduction charges and is being held behind bars without bond.

Copyright Associated Press / NBC Connecticut

One of two men on death row for killing a Cheshire family and burning down their house in 2007 is asking for a new trial, citing phone conversations among police that were never released to the defense.

Joshua Komisarjevsky, who was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to death alongside Steven Hayes, filed a motion to appeal the verdict on Aug. 29. The men are accused of brutally attacking and murdering Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters in their home on Sorghum Mill Drive.

According to the motion, Komisarjevsky’s attorneys “have learned of a number of police calls that would have provided substantial additional support for his contention during the guilt-innocence phase that the police response… was inadequate, and that, therefore, a number of the Cheshire police officers who testified against him had a motive, self-interest, bias a prejudice against him.”

Among the calls that were allegedly withheld is one from an officer who was at the house watching Hayes drive Hawke-Petit back from the bank, where he asked her to withdraw money. During the trial, police said Hayes had already returned when they arrived.

Another call came from a sergeant on scene who did not testify at either trial, and two more calls instructed a hostage negotiator and SWAT officer not to report to the police station, according to the motion.

“It is difficult to imagine that the State’s failure to preserve this evidence was not in bad faith, and therefore, that failure violated the appellant’s federal due process rights,” the motion says, claiming violation of Komisarjevsky’s Eighth and 14th Amendment rights.

“The State's treatment of the police calls deprived the appellant of a powerful tool to impeach the police officers who testified against him at the guilt-innocence phase and, thus, might well have produced his convictions for capital felony, which made him eligible for the death penalty,” it continues.

In a 2012 death row interview, Komisarjevsky offered no remorse and said he tries not to think about the brutal attacks.

Connecticut has repealed the death penalty since the convictions of Komisarjevsky and Hayes.

A man tried to force a 9-year-old girl to perform a sexual act on him in New London on Monday, then attempted to sexually assault a 15-year-old boy who intervened when the girl escaped to her home, police said.

Police arrested Clayton Denny, 37, after responding to calls reporting that two men were fighting on Grand Street just before 6 p.m. on Monday.

Denny approached the 9-year-old girl on her birthday and attempted to kiss her, then grabbed her wrist and "tried to have her perform a sexual act on him," according to police.

The girl was able to get away and Denny chased her as she ran home, police said.

When a 15-year-old boy who saw what was happening stopped Denny at the door to the girl's house, Denny tried to sexually assault the teen and raised a fist to punch him when the teen backed away, according to the incident report.

Police said Denny ran and officers found him hiding several blocks away in the backyard of 37 Spring Street.

He led officers on a short foot chase and struggled with police.

Denny was charged with criminal attempt to commit first-degree sexual assault, two counts of risk of injury to minors, first-degree unlawful restraint, resisting arrest, breach of peace and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police are holding him in custody on a $250,000 bond.

Denny also has two outstanding warrants for his arrest on charges of violating a standing criminal protective order, second-degree burglary, violation of a protective order, third-degree criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.

It is not clear if he has an attorney.

The minimum wage battle rages on, and fast food workers in more than 150 cities around the country, including Hartford and New Haven, are expected to walk out this week in a push for $15 per hour.

According to a news release from Connecticut Working Families, employees of McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Dunkin Donuts and other franchises will strike Thursday at 11:30 a.m.

They’ll do “whatever it takes” to earn $15 per hour and the right to unionize and will be joined by clergy, community leaders, officials and activists, according to the release.

“Time and time again, [McDonald’s] and other industry players have tried to sidestep workers’ calls, inventing a make-believe world in which responsibility for wages and working conditions falls squarely only on the shoulders of the franchisees, not the corporations that control how food is served and priced,” said Taylor Leake, communications director for Connecticut Working Families, in the release.

Fast food workers in Seattle are now earning $15 per hour, a feat attributed to a campaign that began in New York City, when 200 fast food employees walked out in November 2012.

“As it spreads, the movement is challenging fast-food companies’ outdated notion that their workers are teenagers looking for pocket change,” Leake said.

Hartford workers will gather at the McDonald’s at 172 Washington Street on Thursday morning in hopes of bringing home higher wages someday soon.

Fast food employees protested in a similar strike in May, two months after Connecticut became the first state to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.

The 28-year-old suspect in a Southington bank robbery and crash on Tuesday morning has taken his life, and police said he robbed the same bank two years ago.

Officers surrounded a house at the corner of Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike and Meriden Avenue as they investigated a robbery at the TD Bank at 921 Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike in the Plantsville section of town just after 9 a.m. Tuesday.

When police responded to the bank after receiving a call from staff, the robber – identified as Brian Jacobs – fled the bank in a car, crashed into a vehicle, drove away and then crashed again, according to Southington police Lt. Michael Baribault.

He then took off running from the car and led police on a foot chase along Marion Avenue, ultimately breaking into an empty house two miles from the bank robbery site on the corner of that road.

Jacobs slit his throat and was rushed by ambulance to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police said it's the second time in two years he robbed the TD Bank on Meriden-Waterbury Turnpike.

No residents were home at the time of the incident. The area was cordoned off by crime scene tape and Marion Avenue was closed in the area, but the road has since reopened.

South End Elementary School and John F. Kennedy Middle School were locked down and Strong Elementary School went on external lockdown on Tuesday morning, according to automated calls received by parents in Southington.

All lockdowns were lifted at 10:15 a.m. when police determined that there was no threat to the school or community, police said.

TD Bank has also reopened.

The case remains under investigation.

The city of Hartford has selected one of three finalists to develop the Downtown North section and build a minor-league baseball stadium.

Mayor Pedro Segarra said Tuesday the city has chosen DoNo Hartford, LLC as the developer of the area just north of I-84 in Hartford.  

Segarra will convene a special meeting of the Common Council on Thursday to listen to details on a resolution, which includes transferring 19 properties to DoNo Hartford, LLC for $1 each. There will be no vote on the resolution on Thursday, Segarra said.

"The ballpark has proven to be the catalyst that was needed to drive private investment and development of the Downtown North property. We have a developer who’s committed to investing over $350 million to create a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood that will better utilize long vacant and underperforming land and reconnect Hartford’s downtown with North Hartford," Segarra said in a statement on Tuesday evening. "The new ballpark will be paid for by private investment and revenues generated by the entire Downtown North development and will be a source of pride for neighbors and all City residents.”

Hartford received four proposals earlier this summer. Three plans – from CV Properties, the Hooker Brewing Company and Centerplan Development Company with Leyland Alliance – met the criteria for development.

CV Properties proposed a $217-million project, including a 6,000-seat stadium, brewery, residential and office space and a supermarket with covered parking, while the Hooker Brewing Company outlined a $16-million 40,000-square-foot stadium and beer garden.

The proposal selected by Hartford includes a $350-million development including a 6,000-seat stadium, Little League park, brewery and supermarket.

"We can't comment at this point but Centerplan continues to be very eager to work with the City of Hartford and invest in its future," said Yves-George A. Joseph II, vice president of development at Centerplan.

The resolution would authorize the city to lease back the ballpark from DoNo Hartford, LLC for an initial term of 25 years and then sublease it to Connecticut Double Play, LLC, the parent company of the New Britain Rock Cats.

The ball club would rent the stadium for $500,000 per year for the first 15 years of the deal and $600,000 for the final 10 years of the initial agreement.

Joseph A. Foran High School in Milford is closed Wednesday while workers continue to repair an air conditioning malfunction that sent students home early Tuesday.

Students were released at 10 a.m. Tuesday due to the high heat and humidity after school officials noticed the high school's air conditioning system wasn't working properly.

Administrators said the windows at Foran do not open.

Milford Asst. Supt. Michael Cummings said the school will remain closed Wednesday.

Foran High School Principal Max Berkowitz notified parents and guardians of the early dismissal through the School Messenger system on Tuesday.

The Durham Bus company came to transport students home who normally take the bus, according to a news release from the school.

Residents across Riverside County reported hearing loud rumbling followed by a strong jolt when a magnitude-3.7 earthquake struck the San Jacinto area Tuesday night.

The temblor hit about 7:38 p.m. at a depth of a little more than 8 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was followed by a magnitude-2.9 aftershock nearly an hour later.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages.

The epicenter was located in a San Jacinto residential neighborhood in the 900 block of Yorkshire Lane, according to the USGS.

"It felt like it was like, 'Boom!'" said a man who lives in a home in that neighborhood. "It maybe lasted like 15 seconds."

A Twitter user in Winchester described the tremor as a "short jolt." Another user in Moreno Valley said it felt like a "gentle roller."

"It was loud," said Gina Dolce on the NBCLA Facebook page. "Sounded like an explosion."

"Shook here in San Jacinto! It was a loud one. Heard it before I felt it!" said another Facebook user.

"I live in Hemet, and we just moved to CA, so it's our first one. Wow...a little freaked and excited! Did not expect the noise...sounded and felt like a train ran right next to the house," said Jennifer Blenk Walsh on Facebook.

Residents as far away as Diamond Bar, Palm Desert and parts of Orange County reported feeling the shaking.

Gadi Schwartz contributed to this report.

A Sacred Heart University student was sexually assaulted in her Fairfield home early Monday morning and police have released a sketch of the attacker in hopes that someone can identify him.

Police said the student was attacked around 3 a.m. Monday while she was entering her house on Berkeley Road, located off campus in the southeast section of town near Tunxis Hill Park.

She has roommates but was home alone at the time, according to police. They said the assailant broke into her house and struggled with the victim before assaulting her and running off.

"Obviously, someone who is brazen enough to break into somebody's home and then on top of that assault them is really someone we need to get a hold of right away," explained Fairfield police spokesman Lt. James Perez.

The suspect is described as a short, stocky man between 5-foot-2 and 5-foot-6 in his 20s with some acne on his face. He speaks with a Spanish accent and has dark, spiky hair and light-colored eyes, police said.

It's not clear if he got away on foot or in a car, but police said the victim didn't see or hear a vehicle leaving the scene.

Sacred Heart officials said they don't believe the attacker is a student, and police said the suspect and victim don't appear to have known each other.

The university is offering counseling and support to the victim and her family.

In a statement released Tuesday, Sacred Heart officials said safety is their top priority and that they "send safety tips to students on a number of topics."

"The University also complies with all federal and state requirements to assist and respond to victims of sexual assault," the statement reads.

Anyone who can identify the man from the sketch or who has additional information should call the Detective Bureau at 203-254-4840.