School officials implemented a "lock-in" at Derby Middle School late Monday morning after a concern arose over a message scrawled on a bathroom stall, according to the superintendent.

Supt. Matthew Conway said in a statement that the message was discovered around 11:45 a.m. Monday. A precautionary lock-in went into effect while police were called to the scene to investigate.

Students were safe and police gave the "all clear" by about 2:40 p.m., when all school activity returned to normal, according to Conway.

Police are searching for the man who robbed a First Niagara Bank in Vernon this morning and prompted a lockdown at the Indian Valley Family YMCA Child Care Center.

Police said a man went into the bank at 348 Hartford Turnpike, demanded cash from the cashier and ran off with the money, heading north on Route 30 and toward the vacant former Bennigan's Restaurant property.

The robber was around 5-feet-10 and was wearing a baseball hat with a tan brim, a dark hooded sweatshirt, a dark blue waist-length Carhartt jacket, sunglasses with yellow lenses and blue jeans, police said.

Police from Vernon and Manchester searched for the man, but could not find him.

Anyone with information about the robber should call Vernon police at 860-872-9126.

An 8-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after firefighters pulled her from her burning apartment on Friday, and now she and her mother are saying "thank you" to the people who saved her.

Shantell King, 8, was sleeping when flames broke out at her home on Hamilton Street in Hartford. Her mother, Michelle Peterson, ran to wake her up, but said they were both knocked to the ground in their rush to escape.

“I’m feeling around trying to find her and I can’t find her anywhere, and she’s not saying anything,” Peterson said, reflecting on the chaos that night. “The only thing I can do is run as fast as I can down the stairs to try to get a firefighter upstairs to help me, because I just can’t find her.”

Emergency responders answered those calls for help. Peterson said a firefighter and police officer sprinted into the fire-ravaged apartment and grabbed her daughter, pulling her to safety.

“I wouldn’t leave the front door of that building until they came out of there with her, and every minute seemed like an hour,” Peterson said. “When they first brought her out and laid her on the ground and she wasn’t moving and her eyes were closed, I thought she was dead. I didn’t know.”

Shantell, who was hospitalized in Bronx and released over the weekend, said she remembers very little of what happened that night.

“I remember in the ambulance when the woke me up, and I remember when I saw the smoke and I got knocked out,” Shantell explained.

Although the apartment has been leveled and the family lost two of their four dogs, Peterson said they’re just grateful to be safe.

“I want to say thank you for saving me,” Shantell said.

“And I want to say the same thing,” her mother added. “I’m just so very grateful because without those men, like I said, my daughter would not be here today, and that’s the only thing that I care about – that she’s safe. I don’t care about anything else.”

Peterson said Shantell is expected to make a full recovery. The two-alarm fire forced 12 families from their homes, and a firefighter and police officer were also treated for smoke inhalation, according to the fire department.

Wallingford police have arrested a teen accused of stealing two cars in one day, crashing into a police cruiser and hitting a fire hydrant, causing a huge geyser.

Police started investigating when they noticed a gray BMW heading the wrong way on Hall Avenue toward North Colony Road at 11:23 p.m. on Sunday, police said.

Officers tried to stop the car, but the driver backed up and hit the police cruiser, causing minor damage, then sped off, going east on Center Street, police said.

When police ran the registration through their computer system, they found that the BMW had been reported stolen from Hamden earlier in the day.

Then, the 911 calls started coming in reporting that a car had crashed at Center and North Elm streets. It was the same car, police would soon learn.

It had hit a fire hydrant, causing a massive geyser, and a crosswalk pole, but the driver was nowhere in sight and witnesses said he’d run off.

Crews from the Wallingford Water Division were called to turn off the water to the hydrant. Crews also created a temporary patch to fill the hole created by the water pressure.

In the meantime, police searched for the driver who caused the damage and an officer noticed a different car, a blue Acura TL, leave a driveway on North Elm Street and drive the wrong way on Academy Street, police said. Police would soon find the car in a driveway on Academy Street and noted that it had fresh damage.

Then, authorities noticed a 17-year-old running through the neighborhood, so they apprehended him and identified his as the person who had been driving the BMW, police said.

Police contacted the owners of Acura TL and found out that the car had been stolen from the driveway of their North Elm Street home. The teen police took into custody had the keys on him, police said.

The juvenile was arrested and charged with second-degree larceny and two counts of third-degree burglary, third-degree larceny, interfering with an officer, two counts of third-degree criminal mischief, three counts of evading responsibility, reckless driving, engaging in a pursuit, two counts of operating a motor vehicle without a license, two counts of wrong way on a one-way street and traveling too fast for conditions.

Police said no injuries were reported. The teen was held on a $100,000 bond.

The school van driver who crashed into a utility pole while bringing four siblings to school in September was under the influence of cocaine and Lorazepam, according to police.

Police said Catherine Caron, 52, of Baltic, was driving four brothers and sisters the morning of Sept. 10 when she veered off Quarry Road in Willimantic and collided with a phone pole on the way to Windham Memorial Middle School.

Caron told investigators “she looked down for a minute and when she looked up the airbags were deploying,” according to the warrant for her arrest. Students said she fell asleep at the wheel, and police noticed Caron’s speech was slurred and her pupils were abnormally small.

Investigators searched Caron’s belongings and found a bottle of Lorazepam in her purse, with the label ripped off. Caron became defensive when police asked how she got the pills. She told them, “I don’t know how they got in there,” and said she may have mistakenly taken the bottle from her sister’s house over the weekend, according to the warrant.

Caron said she needs daily medication and thought she had “accidentally taken one of her sister’s pills by mistake,” the warrant says. Drug testing revealed cocaine and Lorazepam in Caron’s system.

The students riding in the van – two boys ages 15 and 17 and girls ages 9 and 13 – were treated at Windham Hospital for abrasions in their necks and abdomens, according to police. Their mother told investigators “she [entrusts] the lives of her children to these drivers to get her children to school and that this accident should have been avoided.”

Caron has been charged with driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance and risk of injury to a minor. She appeared in court Monday and is due back before a judge Dec. 15.

Stamford police have arrested a local man after finding thousands of images of child porn on his laptop, according to police.

Police started their investigation in August after learning that someone at 101 Greenwich Avenue, a multifamily home, had been downloading child pornography, police said.

Police went to the house with a search warrant on Friday and found that the only modem in the house was in Ranjer Gonzalez’s bedroom, police said.

The 34-year-old Stamford man initially denied any involvement with child porn, but police said he was trying to hide a laptop under his bed. When authorities analyzed it, they found 18 videos and 11,400 images of child porn.

Police brought Gonzalez to police headquarters and charged him with first-degree possession of child pornography and importing child pornography. Bond was set at $150,000.

Police also called the state Department of Children and Families because a 3-year-old girl was in the room next to Gonzalez’s.

Police are investigating a crash on Mather Street in Hamden after a car went off the road and flipped over.

One person had to be extricated, police said.

The victim was able to walk away from the wreck, but is being treated by paramedics, police said.

No additional information is available.
 

A man was arrested in Springfield, Massachusetts, after police say he brought a shotgun to the strip club where his stepdaughter was working Sunday.

Police say 51-year-old John Peloquin had asked a bartender to call him if a specific dancer was working. After he received the call and learned that his stepdaughter was there, he arrived and had a loud argument with her.

Peloquin was escorted outside, but threw a shotgun shell at the manager before going back to his car and retrieving the weapon.

According to Springfield police, Peloquin smashed a window with the butt of the gun after employees locked the doors.

Local and state police stopped Peloquin and arrested him after finding shells and a small amount of marijuana in his car, police said.

Peloquin is charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault and battery, threatening to commit a crime, malicious damage of property over $250, breach of peace while armed and other firearm charges.

The state's Office of Fiscal Analysis and the Office of Policy and Management released a pair of reports over the weekend showing that the state could face as much as a $100 million budget deficit.

According to the OFA, the figure is $89 million, but the OPM, which is run by the governor’s budget manager, projects the shortfall at $99 million.

Democrats who control the legislature say a cautious approach to assessing the budget projections is best, reminding constituents that the current estimates are a small piece of a much bigger pie.

“That is a very small percentage of the overall budget,” said Democratic State Sen. Martin Looney, of New Haven. “These kinds of things have happened before.”

Gov. Dan Malloy said during the campaign that the state didn’t have a potential deficit on the horizon and added that even if one existed, he wouldn’t raise taxes to increase revenues.

State Sen. Looney, who is expected to be elected as the president pro tempore of the Connecticut State Senate, refused to rule out such a blanket promise.

"We're at the very beginning of the process and I think it's far too soon to say what we will do,” Looney said. "I think that we have not even begun the process at this point."

Republican State Sen. Len Fasano, of New Haven, said he thinks the Malloy administration has known about a possible shortfall for much longer than a few days.

"I think that they knew about it,” said Fasano. “I think they didn't want to speak about it before the election, although the governor was asked a number of times and he refused to say there was a deficit."

Last week, the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management denied any allegation that the administration had advance knowledge of a shortfall. He said his agency’s report was always scheduled to come out after the Nov. 4 election.

Fasano said now is the time for Republicans and Democrats to work together to find solutions, considering the tight results from the election that saw the GOP make gains in both the House and Senate.

"We need to make some structural changes and we need to make them now so we avoid the deficit from getting larger in the future," Fasano said. "So we should be sitting down and not letting him do it by his executive authority, which he has a right to do. We should be sitting down as a unit and figuring out what's best to do for the state of Connecticut."
 

Timex is selling special watches in an effort to help restore the struggling Holy Land section of Waterbury.

The watchmaker, once based in Waterbury, has produced an everyday watch priced at $50 and a special edition watch that costs $125.

Proceeds will help the city foot the bill to keep Holy Land up and running, which costs an average of $60,000 per year, according to the Republican-American.

Watches are available for purchase via email, through the Holy Land website, at the Timexpo Museum in Waterbury and at the Holy Land Peace Hall Store, according to a spokesperson for the mayor's office.

You can also support Holy Land restoration by purchasing a holiday ornament or Holy Land brick to be used during redevelopment.

Holy Land serves "as an historic, cultural and educational landmark honoring religious and spiritual traditions," according to the mission statement posted on the Holy Land website.

Precious reminders of the sacrifice of a World War II veteran shot down over Germany were returned to his family in Virginia, thanks to a South Carolina couple who found them at a yard sale and went out of their way for strangers.

Lt. Tom Comi was a navigator in the Army Air Corps, the predecessor to the modern Air Force. He was shot down and wounded over Germany in July 1944 and didn’t survive as a prisoner of war. But before he died, Lt. Comi asked for one of his brothers’ wives to name a child after him.

Seventy years later, the medals Lt. Comi earned, including the Purple Heart, wound up in a yard sale in South Carolina two weeks ago, when a retired Marine and his wife bought them, tracked down Lt. Comi’s family in Sterling and put the medals in the mail.

"I got the package, and when we opened it up, I was shocked to find out what they had sent," said Lt. Comi’s grandnephew, also named Tom Comi.

"I'm quite impressed with his career because I didn't know about the Purple Hearts, the Distinguished Flying Cross — and the air medals are just amazing,” said Lt. Comi’s nephew, who is also named Tom Comi. “I spent 21 years in the military myself, and achievements that are rewarded are special."

The Comis want to meet the couple who found the medals.

“We can’t say enough about the effort they made,” Lt. Comi’s grandnephew said.

And they want to find Lt. Comi’s grandson, who they believe should keep the medals.

"We found out he was in the Marine Corps,” Lt. Comi’s nephew said. “I don't know where he is now, so we'll do our best to find him."

A 91-year-old woman mauled by her own dog is fighting for her life three days after the attack.

Police said the woman suffered serious arm injuries when the dog attacked around 4 p.m. Friday at the victim's home on Judith Terrace in Stratford.

The dog mauled her in the kitchen, and although the victim was gravely hurt, she was conscious and managed to call 911 on her own. First responders rushed her to Bridgeport Hospital, where she remains in critical condition, hospital officials said.

According to her daughter, the victim has owned the black-and-white Keeshond mix for eight years and has never had a problem with the animal. Now she's dealing with skin grafts and kidney failure, and family members fear she is dying.

Neighbors described the victim as a quiet and kind woman and said they were reeling from the news.

"To think a dog could just turn on you and attack you like that... it's kind of crazy," said Amy Garrison, of Stratford. "I really have no idea, because you think you know your own dog."

Animal Control officers brought the dog to an animal shelter in Stratford following the attack. The animal's future remains uncertain – as does the future of the victim.

A homeless couple brutally attacked an MTBA inspector and hurled racial slurs at him as he tried to close down Boston's Downtown Crossing station early Sunday morning, police say.

Robert Snyder and Shayla Witts were arraigned Monday in Boston Municipal Court on charges including aggravated assault and battery on a public employee and civil rights violations.

The MBTA inspector said he was escorting the pair, who he said were intoxicated, out of the station when Snyder sucker punched him and put him in a bear hug. Witts then began punching him and pulling his hair out of his head, the victim said.

Snyder and Witts, who are white, repeatedly hurled racial epithets as they attacked the victim, who is black, police said. Police said they also used multiple racial epithets during questioning.

Police who responded to the station said they saw that the victim was bleeding profusely, that there were several hair extensions and fresh blood on the ground and that Snyder had blood stains on his shirt.

Snyder initially said he was thrown down the stairs by the employee, and when asked if he punched the employee said "No," then told police "I punched him a few times" while smiling, police said.

According to police, Witts said the fight started when an employee told them to leave the station and a gate was slammed on her and Snyder. When asked, she admitted to punching an employee and pulling out his hair.

The Los Angeles District Attorney will not file domestic violence charges against USC football player Josh Shaw, the office confirmed Monday, citing "insufficient evidence."

Shaw, a USC Trojans co-captain, had been the subject of a domestic violence investigation by Los Angeles police after admitting to lying about how he hurt both of his ankles. 

Shaw initially told a university blog that he sprained his ankles after he jumped from a second-floor balcony of his cousin’s Palmdale apartment on Aug. 23 to pull his struggling 7-year-old nephew from a pool. He admitted the story was "a complete fabrication" days later and was suspended "from all team activities" indefinitely.

Police then said they took a burglary report that same night, in which the victim named Shaw as her boyfriend, and began looking into emerging domestic violence allegations.

The night of the report about 10:30, Shaw and his girlfriend were "involved in a heated argument inside the apartment" when his girlfriend threw a lamp to the floor, according to a DA charge evaluation document dated Nov. 13 obtained by NBC4 on Monday.

Shaw then walked out to the balcony to "calm himself," the document stated. Neighbors heard screams from inside the apartment during the argument and called 911.

When police arrived, Shaw saw officers from the balcony and "panicked," so he "climbed over the railing, hung by his hands and fell approximately 20 feet," hurting his ankles, the document stated.

After responding to the 911 call of neighbors hearing screaming, police forced their way inside the apartment to find a lamp on the floor and an open sliding glass door. No one was inside.

When Shaw's girlfriend returned that night, she told police she was at the apartment complex gym when the call was placed, but in a later interview admitted she lied about going to the gym. She later said she was, in fact, at the apartment during the incident with Shaw, but denied that Shaw physically or sexually assaulted her.

Shaw told police that the pair did argue, but "adamantly denied" any assault. The victim has "remained steadfast that nothing happened" and has refused further interviews with police.

"There is insufficient evidence to prove that Mr. Shaw assaulted the victim in any manner," the document stated. "Accordingly, this case is declined."

It was not immediately clear if or when Shaw would be reinstated to rejoin team activities.

USC spokesman Tim Tessalone told The Associated Press that as planned, the school will conduct its own investigation now that local authorities have concluded theirs. He did not indicate how long the probe will take.

Connecticut Light and Power customers are facing another proposed rate hike, and some say they don't know how they'll be able to afford it.

Concerned customers aired their grievances at a meeting in East Hartford on Monday, the same day the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority approved an unrelated generation fee increase for CL&P and United Illuminating.

"This is an increase of almost 60 percent on this flat rate. That’s a tremendous burden for anyone," said Terri Eickel, executive director of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network.

The proposed rate hike would increase the flat customer fee from $16 to $25 on the average homeowner's monthly bill. It would also spike CL&P's delivery fee by 5.9 percent beginning Dec. 1, 2014.

"We certainly sympathize with customers and their own certain set of circumstances that they’re all dealing with, and we just remind them that this is really about making the necessary targeted investments into the system," said CL&P spokesperson Tricia Modifica.

Representatives for CL&P said the increases will pay for system upgrades like stronger utility poles, wires and transformers.

"Over time, you need to make investments into this large complex system so we can make sure it does deliver that reliable power for our customers," explained Modifica.

However, the labor, religious and environmental groups who met Monday night said they plan to push PURA to reject CL&P’s proposal.

"When you have the fixed rate, no matter what you do, no matter how much you save, that fixed rate portion of the bill remains the same, so it’s contrary to state policy," said John Harrity, president of the CT State Council of Machinists.

Harrity also said it runs contrary to energy efficiency and conservation because the flat fee would be imposed no matter your energy consumption.

It could be the end of the road for a building that's stood in Stafford Springs for nearly 200 years. Plans are in the works to tear down the historic building and replace it with a dollar store.

In 1816, Parley Converse, considered a key player in the town's development, built the home on West Main Street for his family. Through the years, it's served as the Maple Grove Inn, a four-star restaurant and, presently, the Stafford Tavern. There are even rumors the building is haunted.

But the four-unit mixed use structure for adult tenants could soon be replaced by a Dollar General. The building is under contract in a commercial zone to be removed, yet the contract gives time to move or take down the building should anyone show interest in the commercial space.

"We don't want to see this amazing historic structure be lost to simple retail development," said resident Ed Bareiss.

Bareiss, who protested Cumberland Farms' attempt to purchase the building 10 years ago, has started up once again by gathering hundreds of supporters online. Protesters plan to rally at the site the afternoon of Dec. 6.

"It is a private business transaction, and there aren't a lot of legal protections for the community. But this is a special case," said Bareiss.

Property owner David Bacchiochi said he's lost $67,000 in the 10 years he's owned the space and that with so many structural problems, there's not much he can do to salvage the building. The building needs a new roof due to leaks and a crumbling roof, he said. Three chimneys on the building are also leaning. He also said half of exiting tenants complained of high heating costs, difficulty getting furniture into the building, car noise and restaurant smoke.

The building insurance "has been canceled [four] times due to the age of the structure, lead paint" and "kitchen failed inspections" as well as the access drive width, according to Bacchiochi. The building is not insured for fires, he said

Still, many are hoping a solution can be reached before a piece of history is erased.

"I believe when you take on a building like this there's a moral responsibility to take care of the piece of the town, the heart of the town," said Stafford Springs resident Alyssa Skewes.

Bacchiochi said he's not against someone coming in and paying to move the building to another property. The cutoff for doing so is April, when the deal is expected to be complete.

The town Stafford gave First Selectman Richard Shuck the green light in May to hire Donald Poland, a planning consultant and Connecticut Planning & Development, LLC, to review the town's conservation and development plan for "residential, commercial, and economic development," Bacchiochi said.

"Like it or not, this is Stafford’s ‘suburban strip’ commercial area. More important, it has great potential for future commercial—primarily retail and service—use and development,"  Bacchiochi wrote to NBC Connecticut in an email. "Therefore, commercial development for this area should be promoted."

Dollar Store could not be reached for comment.

A former Boy Scout troop leader accused of sexually assaulting young boys gave them alcohol and pornography and ordered them not to tell, threatening at least one victim with a handgun, according to police.

Police said David Kress, 52, of Thompson, Connecticut, sexually assaulted at least half a dozen boys ages 11 to 16 over a period of 20 years while leading Boy Scout Troop 66.

Victims told police Kress gave them alcohol and showed them pornographic magazines before raping them and asking them to perform sexual acts on each other, according to the warrant for his arrest.

The victims told police Kress would sexually assault them on Boy Scout camping trips, at his home in Thompson and at various houses where Kress was installing counter tops through his company New England Interior, the warrant says.

Kress told one victim he “had to take this to the grave” and pulled out a handgun in front of another boy, telling him the gun “was for his parents if he talked,” according to the warrant.

A victim told police that at one point, another scout leader walked into the bathroom while Kress was sexually assaulting him. According to the warrant, Kress said he was checking the scout for bruises, and the troop leader left.

Kress told police he has not worked with children in a decade. He has most recently been employed at Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts, where the troop used to go camping, according to the warrant.

In March of this year, Kress told his co-worker at Nichols College that he had been missing his shifts lately because he was depressed. He admitted to assaulting the boys and said he himself had been molested when he was young, according to the warrant.

When police confronted Kress about the assaults, Kress said “he could help himself by putting a bullet in his head” and was taken to the hospital for an emergency committal, the warrant says.

Kress, who is a member of the Thompson Zoning Board of Appeals, has been charged with three counts of employing minors in an obscene performance.

Thompson First Selectman Paul Lenky said the town is waiting to see how the court case unfolds before deciding whether to remove Kress from his position.

Kress' attorney could not be reached for comment.

Kress is scheduled to be arraigned in court on Nov. 26, according to the state judicial website. 

Expect delays and closures later Tuesday morning and afternoon on Interstate 84, Route 8 and I-95 due to statewide bridge inspections.

The bridge inspections will cause the following lane closures and delays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., according to the state Department of Transportation:

• East Hartford: I-84 eastbound, right shoulder HOV lane near exit 59
• Farmington: Route 6 eastbound, alternating right and left lane closures; area between South Road and Wolf Pit Road
• Montville: Rt. 2A westbound between Rt. 12 and exit 2 on the right shoulder
• Newtown: I-84 eastbound and westbound, alternating right and left lane closures at exits 11-13
• Waterbury: Route 8 North and South, alternating right and left shoulder closures exits 34-30
• Stamford: I-95, alternating left and right lane closures between exits 7 and 9
• Westport: Rt. 136 (Bridge Street), closed between Riverside and Imperial avenues
• Wilton and Redding: Route 106 in Wilton and Simpaug Turnpike in Redding are closed.

For more information on closures throughout the week, visit the state DOT website.

The Booker T. Washington Academy, at 240 Greene St. in New Haven, is closed for the day because of a boiler problem, according to Principal Dr. Laura Main.

Booker T Washington Academy is a charter school in New Haven.