The man accused of shooting a pastor's wife outside their church was arraigned in court on Monday.

Kunta Kinta Cupe is facing several charges including assault and criminal use of a firearm.

Cupe is accused of shooting Angela Semiday in the hip outside her Arch Street church on August 19 while she was holding a bible study with about a dozen children.

Prosecutors said there was an altercation near the back of the church and Cupe had returned to the site. Details were unavailable because court documents remained sealed tonight.

Cupe's attorney said in court on behalf of his client that the defendant denies the allegations.

Police arrested Cupe Friday after he was stopped in a car on the Meriden and Berlin town line.

He's being held on a $750,000 bond.

Cupe's wife spoke with NBC Connecticut after court. She strongly denied the allegations.

“He did not have no type of weapons on him he didn’t have anything for him to be charged with something that’s not even true. I was with him the whole time.” The woman did not reveal her name. She then told us, "He was definitely set up with everything. He was with his uncle, his uncle picked him up. I don’t know who shot the lady. So my conolences to that lady – I really do truly apologize – because it was not my husband. It was not Kunta Kinta Cupe at all.”

When NBC Connecticut spoke to Semidey last week, she was recovering at home after being released from the hospital.

On Monday, she said she was healing. 

"I am going through a process of healing – both physically and mentally – but in my heart there is no hate,” She told reporter Catalina Trivino, who translated the interview. Semidey only speaks Spanish. She told NBC Connecticut she had to push the dozen children back into the church when gunfire rang out.

Semidey continues to have trouble walking since she was injured. She uses a cane and walker -- but she wants her alleged shooter to know she forgives him.

“I would tell him to accept the Lord as his only savior because he is the one who gave us life and can guide us,” said Semidey.

Felicita Pagan and Julio Herrera hoped 28 Greenmount Terrace would be the perfect home for their growing family, until they learned another family had already settled in.

“We’re now displaced as a result of an infestation of bats in our attic,” Pagan said.

The couple said they spotted bats before, but it wasn’t until early August the situation turned serious. According to Pagan, her 15-month-old daughter, Gabriella, was bitten by a bat while she was sleeping in her play pen.

“We realized she had red marks and was bleeding on her head," said Pagan.

The entire family was forced to undergo rabies shots while Felicita was 9 months pregnant. Now with an 8 day old son, the pair said they are too scared to move back in.

“It is hard for me,” said Herrera. “I’ve never been through anything like this and it hurts me more because of my children.”

Herrera said he signed off when the landlord returned their security deposit and offered twelve hundred dollars to put towards a new place. Now, Herrera said the money won’t cover the cost of mounting medical bills or the items damaged by the bats still in the apartment that they are afraid to retrieve.

“I go in there is one hanging on one curtain another hanging on another curtain they not little they big,” said Herrera.

The couple fears the problem may never be fully exterminated. They said they don’t know where they will go moving forward, but say they are never moving back.

“There is no way I’m bringing my family back into this home,” said Herrera.

With thousands already homeless after the floods in Louisiana, the formation of mold threatens many others in the region, NBC News reported.

As many as 11 people were killed when unrelenting rain flooded the state beginning Aug. 13. Gov. John Bel Edwards called the disaster a "historic, unprecedented flooding event" after the storm system dropped three times as much rain on Louisiana as Hurricane Katrina, according to National Weather Service records.

And many more than the 60,000 residents already left homeless could lose their homes, too.

"Mold removal is a top priority," the state Health Department said in the days following the floods.

Hackers based in Russia were behind two recent attempts to breach state voter registration databases, U.S. intelligence officials tell NBC News.

One official said the attacks have been attributed to Russian intelligence agencies.

"This is the closest we've come to tying a recent hack to the Russian government," the official said.

That person added that "there is serious concern" that the Kremlin may be seeking to sow uncertainty in the U.S. presidential election process.

The incidents led the FBI to send a "flash alert" earlier this month to election officials nationwide, asking them to be on the lookout for any similar cyber intrusions.

The bulletin does not identify the targeted states, but officials told NBC News they were Illinois and Arizona.

Police responded to a Hartford church just before noon on Sunday after a man caused a commotion at church, punched and stabbed the parishioner who tried to escort him out of the house of worship and yelled racial slurs at churchgoers, according to police. 

Police said they responded to Glory Chapel International Cathedral on Greenfield Street just before noon after an assault with a knife was reported. 

As they were responding, police received a 911 call reporting that parishioners had subdued the man and were waiting for officers to arrive. 

When police met with the victim, he said he was attending services when he heard a loud commotion and went to investigate because he was concerned about the safety of women and children at the church. 

That’s when the victim noticed Tyrell Mohown, 39, who was yelling for no apparent reason and appeared to be under the influence of something or suffering from mental illness, according to the police report. 

The victim said he tried to reason with Mohown and asked him to leave, but it didn’t work. 

Mohown then punched the victim in the face, so the victim punched back to defend himself. 

That’s when Mohown grabbed a knife and lunged at the victim, who was struck in the groin, but the victim told police he wasn’t injured. 

The victim was then able to subdue Mohown. 

Police said Mohown called parishioners “roaches,” made racial statements derogatory to people of Hispanic heritage and yelled “Go back to your island,” among other statements.

Then he threatened to kill people for putting their hands on him, witnesses told police. 

Police said they found a second knife on Mohown while patting him down. 

Mohown has been charged with third-degree assault, second-degree criminal attempt to commit assault, second-degree threatening, carrying a dangerous weapon, intimidation based on bigotry or bias and disorderly conduct.

A driver has ran into one of the gas pumps at a station in Farmington, resulting in a fire, police said. 

Police said the driver backed into Citgo on Main Street at 6:27 p.m. on Monday. 

An elderly man was driving a blue Subaru backed into the gas pump inadvertently, Farmington Police Sergeant Tim McKenzie said. 

"The female clerk did an unbelievable job hitting the emergency shut off for the gas," McKenzie said. "Which saved this from being a worse catastrophe then it was."

There were not injuries reported for the driver or anyone else at the gas station during the fire. 

Two cars have been totaled, while several others were damaged, police said. 

Steven DeLaura, of Unionville, said he was at the gas station with his two-year-old son and 7-year-old nephew when he saw the fuel pump fall on top of his car.

"The very first thing I thought of was getting my son and nephew out of the car and making sure they were safe," DeLaura told NBC Connecticut.

Within "five seconds", DeLaura said he was able to pull his nephew and son from the car when he saw the car engulfed by flames.

"There was fire everywhere," he said. "Gas everywhere."

"I would do anything for my son to protect him. And my nephew."

In the rolling hills of southern Puerto Rico, in the 500-year-old village of Coamo, the music blares from the back of a pickup truck rolling through neighborhoods.

The song warns about the dangers of mosquitoes that carry Zika virus.

As the music gets the attention of residents, a small army of city workers, including the town’s mayor, goes door to door handing out kits with mosquito repellent. Insecticide is sprayed nearby.

The scene in Coamo, a picturesque, mostly Catholic town miles from the beach, is playing out across Puerto Rico.

The prevention efforts are in response to startling numbers showing that Zika is spreading wildly all over the island.

"This is dangerous to our people, to the ladies, to the old people," said Coamo Mayor Juan Carlos "Tato" Garcia Padilla. "We need the help of our people."

Some 2,000 people a week are getting infected and, if current trends hold, a quarter of the island’s 3.5 million people could get Zika by the end of this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Even the many people who show no symptoms can become carriers without knowing it. Tourists can unknowingly carry the virus back to the mainland.

Health experts fear the real impact will be on babies born with life-long disabilities.

The spread of the Zika virus has prompted the World Health Organization to declare an international health emergency. Carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, Zika can cause microcephaly in babies, who have unusually small heads and brain damage. A recent study of brain scans of Brazilian babies showed other damage as well.

In adults, Zika virus is also linked with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a form of temporary paralysis, according to the CDC.

There is no vaccine or medicine for Zika.

Zika emerged in the Americas in mid-2015 and since then outbreaks have occurred in multiple South American and Caribbean countries, and now Florida, according to the CDC.

Dr. Judibelle Rivera, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Coamo, is telling patients to wait a year or two before getting pregnant.

She passes out free government-provided birth control, even though fewer pregnancies mean her practice will take a financial hit.

"It's worth it because having babies with something like a handicap for the rest of their lives, that's not good,” she said.

Dr. Nabal Bracero, who runs a fertility clinic in San Juan, echoed her concerns.

"It is a nightmare,” he said. “It is the worst situation you can have in terms of public health."

Some 1,314 pregnant women in Puerto Rico have tested positive for Zika, the CDC said. The numbers are climbing.

Dr. Brenda Rivera heads the fight against the epidemic for the Puerto Rico Health Department.

"I'm at the forefront of the response, so for me it's not just a number," she said. "When I see these numbers go up, it's not just a number, there's a family, there's an individual behind that number. And for me that's very real."

Emergency responders are fanning out across the island, led by Puerto Rico’s emergency management director Angel Crespo.

"It's kind of crazy stuff to deal with it,” said Crespo, who is also the island’s fire chief. "Right now we are incorporating artists. I’m a musician too."

He wrote the Zika prevention song they were playing in Coamo and even made a music video posted on YouTube.

“Ten cuidado del mosquito te pica,” the song starts. It means, “Be careful of the mosquito biting you.”

"We need to explain this seriously, loud and clear, so people can understand how serious is the Zika virus,” Crespo said.

The US government, including a team from the CDC, is helping organize the growing response.

Standing water, especially around houses, has become a target.

The effort reaches to places you might not expect -- even cemeteries. That's because the water in the vases for flowers are mosquito breeding grounds. Workers have turned many of the vases upside down.

But the challenges are monumental. The tropical climate in Puerto Rico means it rains frequently. Puddles form everywhere.

And there are other challenges.

Plans for aerial spraying got shelved amid a public outcry about chemicals being dropped from the air.

The Zika scare comes as Puerto Rico is in the middle of a financial crisis. It can’t pay billions of dollars in debt and tourism is one of the only bright spots in the economy.

Money from the federal government to fight Zika is slow to make it to the front lines.

Even with better funding, the kind of mosquitoes that carry Zika are especially hard to kill.

"There is one insecticide that is working better than the others, but still there is widespread resistance to it," said Dr. Roberto Barrera, chief of entomology for the CDC.

The CDC is advising pregnant women not to go to Puerto Rico and telling visitors to wait at least eight weeks before trying to get pregnant.

Despite the threat, the head of Puerto Rico’s Hotel and Tourism Association said the island is open for business.

“You have to look at the facts – facts versus the fear,” said Clarisa Jimenez.

She called estimates that a quarter of the island could become infected a “worst-case scenario,” but acknowledged pregnant women should stay away and urged everyone to wear repellent.

Many hotels remain busy and tourists still flock to Old San Juan to visit the fortified beach-front walls that have helped defend the island for generations.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport offers daily nonstop flights to the capital of San Juan.

As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico is neither a state nor a country. Its 3.5 million residents are American citizens.

A New York man visiting a San Juan beach said he felt safe.

“You’re a little precautious, you know, but it’s not going to beat the vacation,” Diego Suiter said.

Back in Texas, through Aug. 29, there have been 133 confirmed cases of Zika virus this year. This count includes six pregnant women, two infants infected before birth, and one person who had sexual contact with a traveler. Harris County has had the most cases with 35, but is followed closely by Dallas County with 30. Elsewhere in North Texas, Tarrant County has reported 17 cases, Collin County three and Denton County four.

Fire destroyed an abandoned house in Waterbury early Tuesday morning. 

The fire broke out on West Grove Street, near Sperry Street and investigators are working to figure out what caused the fire.

Water was out for hours after a water main break on Capitol Avenue in Hartford early Tuesday morning, but it has been restored. 

The break happened around 7 a.m. in an 8-in water main at Beacon Street that was installed in 1910 and the main was shut down between Beacon Street and Prospect Avenue, affecting two gas stations and a two-family residence.

Hamid Zaki's Gulf Station was one of the affected businesses.

"I checked the restroom. There was no water in the restroom," Zaki said. "I couldn't make coffee."

Police warned this morning that the road wa possibly caving and photos from the scene showed a large indentation in a section of the road.

Officials from MDC said they have replaced 2,000 feet of water main on Capitol Avenue from Lafayatte to Main Street. The main that broke this morning was not scheduled for repair for the next five years or more.

A 44-year-old man is dead after a fire in an apartment on Bull Hill Lane in West Haven. 

Firefighters and police responded to 153 Bull Hill Lane at 4:30 a.m. for an apartment fire and found Robert Graziano. a resident of the building.

He was brought to a local hospital and has died, officials said. 

Dozens of tenants at Squire Village in Manchester were evacuated after a construction crew hit a gas line this morning, but they have been allowed back in their apartments. 

The crew was working on a community center at Squire Village on Spencer Street when it hit a 2-inch gas line around 9 a.m., according to officials. 

Three buildings were evacuated, which affected residents of 22 apartments, and they had to wait outside for two hours, but no one was injured. 

"We are continuing to monitor the amount of natural gas in the air, in the building and in the surrounding area," Fire Chief David Billings said this morning. "If there were to be an explosive level of natural gas in the environment, we would move  people further away."

Incumbent U.S. Sen. John McCain is running for re-nomination in Arizona's primary election Tuesday, and he is expected to defeat his leading opponent, former state senator Kelli Ward. For her part, Ward has adopted a Trump-like style of rhetoric during her campaign, highlighting the scourge of illegal immigration and opposing amnesty measures for the undocumented, NBC News reported.

Trump has endorsed McCain, though earlier this campaign cycle he disregarded the 80-year-old senator's status as a war hero. McCain has also agreed to support Trump's presidential run, even though he came out against the real estate mogul's statements about the parents of a fallen soldier who spoke against Trump at the GOP convention.

An unexpected loss for McCain in the primary would indicate a rising backlash against establishment GOP politicians. McCain is also predicted to defeat the favorite potential Democratic nominee, Ann Kirkpatrick, in a general election, though the Democratic contender is expected to use McCain's endorsement of Trump against him.

Police have arrested three teens in Hartford who are suspected of car thefts in Berlin.

Authorities said two of the teens have an extensive criminal history and one had previously been arrested at least five times for similar crimes. 

A resident of Overhill Drive in Berlin called local police at 6:46 a.m. on Monday and reported someone broke into his house through a window screen, grabbed keys for two vehicles in the driveway and stole the cars, according to police. 

Berlin police entered the vehicles in their system as stolen at 9:35 a.m. and Hartford police stopped one of the vehicles around 11 a.m. following a brief chase in which the 16-year-old driver rammed a police cruiser, police said. 

Officers took the 16-year-old driver and 19-year-old Gerald Jackson passenger into custody. The driver has previously been arrested in Hartford five times, including for two pursuits, and has been issued a summons to appear in juvenile court, officials said. 

Berlin police said the victim’s other stolen car was found in Hartford at 1:10 p.m.

The suspects told police they had rifled through cars in several neighborhoods in Newington and Wethersfield, looking for unlocked cars or cars with the keys in them, before going to Berlin, police said. 

Hartford Police charged all Jackson and the two juveniles in connection with the stolen cars and a home breakin-in in Berlin. Police said the suspects admitted to being involved in other crimes. 

"As far as we can tell when they went into the house they only got as far as the keys they were specifically looking for the keys when they went into that and that’s what they were looking for all night. Because we got information from them that they had gone through vehicles in Newington and Wethersfield specifically looking for keys," said Deputy Chief John Klett with the Berlin Police Department.

Berlin detectives continue to investigate and said they expect to submit arrest warrants for the crimes committed in Berlin. 

Berlin police are also urging residents to lock their homes and vehicles and report any suspicious activity in their neighborhoods. 

Union employees at Hartford Distributors Incorporated, an alcohol distributor in Manchester, said they have reached a contact agreement with the company. 

Officials from the local Teamsters union 1035 said they voted to approve a proposed new five-year contract, which gives drivers a 5 percent raise each year. 

Warehouse workers will receive a 3.3 percent raise each year. The contract also retains worker health benefits. 

HDI workers were locked out for months during the contract dispute.

Two men in Canada believe they were switched at birth at a federally run hospital in a remote region of the country 41 years ago — the second such mix-up the hospital experienced that year, NBC News reported.

The friends, David Tait Jr. and Leon Swanson, were born three days apart at Norway House Indian Hospital in northern Manitoba in the winter of 1975.

Members of their tiny indigenous community always joked that the two resembled the others' parents, Swanson told reporters last Friday at a news conference in Winnipeg. The two decided to undergo DNA testing after another set of men discovered last November through DNA tests that they had been switched at birth at the same hospital, also in 1975.

Health Canada is reviewing files from the hospital during that time period and has hired "an independent third party to do a dedicated and thorough investigation of all available hospital records from the period to determine what happened and whether there is any other cause for concern beyond the two cases identified," Canada's health minister said in a statement that was emailed to NBC News.

Even without Swanson's results officially in, the men were overwhelmed with emotion when speaking about being sent home with the wrong families as newborns.

Charges have been filed against a former Plainfield High School science teacher accused of inappropriate behavior with the student and he turned himself in to police today. 

Ryan C. Clair, 26, has been charged with risk of injury to a minor and failure to report as a mandated reporter. 

Police said they started to investigate on April 27 when they became aware of an incident at Plainfield High School involved a teacher at the school and juvenile student. 

During the investigation, police said they Clair engaged in inappropriate behavior with the student, but no additional information has been released about the allegations.

School officials placed him on administrative leave and Clair later resigned. 

Clair has been charged with risk of injury to a minor and failure to report as a mandated reporter. 

He turned himself in to police around 7 a.m. on Tuesday. He has been released a $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Danielson Superior Court on Sept. 12.

Six U.S. Department of Agriculture facilities in five states were closed Tuesday until further notice after the government agency received "anonymous" threats.

The messages, which arrived on Monday, raised concern "for the safety of USDA personnel and its facilities," spokesman Matt Herrick said in a statement.

The FBI and local law enforcement are now investigating, Herrick said.

The USDA operations that have been shuttered are in Fort Collins, Colorado; Hamden, Connecticut, Beltsville, Maryland, Raleigh, North Carolina, and in Kearneysville and Leetown, West Virginia, NBC News reported.

"Personnel at these locations have been made aware of the threats and will not report to these offices until further notice," Herrick said in his statement.

The USDA regulates farming, forestry and food safety.

An 18-year veteran of Connecticut state police has been charged with first-degree threatening and has been suspended amid an internal affairs investigation.

State police said they responded to the North Stonington home of David Greene to investigate after someone reported he threatened her.

The woman told police she and Greene had returned from an event just before midnight on August 26, when Greene made threatening statements that made her fear for her safety, according to state police.  He had a firearm at the time of the incident, police said.

Greene was arrested and has been charged with first-degree threatening.

State police said he was assigned to Troop E in Montville.

Greene is due back in court on Sept. 22.

It’s not clear if he has an attorney.