Police are searching for two men who robbed a pizza delivery driver late Thursday night.
The driver, who works for AAA Pizza in New Haven, was delivering an order to 215 Fairfield Street when a man came out to meet him. A second man with a gun came out from behind the apartment complex and confronted him, according to police.
The two men stole the driver’s cash and pizza and fled down Anthony Street. Police said the deliverer was unharmed.
When a man was turned away from a grocery store for trying to pay with a fake $100 bill, police say he found more unsuspecting victims: Girl Scouts.
Police are searching for a man who bought three boxes of Girl Scout cookies with the counterfeit bill outside a South Pasadena supermarket on Friday.
He had tried to buy detergent in the Vons in the 1100 block of Fair Oaks Avenue at about 5:30 p.m. but an employee recognized that the money was fake, according to a South Pasadena Police Department press release.
The man, believed to be 18 and wearing a white hooded sweatshirt, then left the store, where scouts had set up a table to sell cookies.
He bought three boxes and received change from the girls. Their Girl Scout leader later discovered the bill wasn't real, police said.
Police are asking anyone with information about the theft to call 626-403-7280.
Federal investigators have downloaded the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the plane that skidded off the runway in a snowstorm at LaGuardia Airport.
The recorders from Delta Air Lines flight 1086 were brought to the National Transportation Safety Board's lab in Washington, D.C. after Thursday's accident.
The accident caused only minor injuries to six passengers, but the plane came perilously close to landing in Flushing Bay.
The NTSB says it plans to begin interviewing the flight's crew Saturday.
Meanwhile, both runways have reopened at the airport after the passenger jet skidded off a runway and hit a berm, forcing evacuations, injuring people and grinding traffic at one of the nation's busiest airports to a halt for hours.
The second runway at LaGuardia reopened shortly before 11 a.m. Friday, hours after crews used cranes to remove the plane from its final resting place, wedged on an embankment a few feet from the icy waters of Flushing Bay. Crews had to make repairs to the runway and other parts of the airport that had been damaged during the landing before the strip could reopen.
The plane was removed to a hangar. Photos obtained exclusively by NBC 4 New York show heavy damage to one of the plane's wings, and the front of the fuselage appears to be crumpled from the impact.
The plane, Delta flight 1086, was inbound from Atlanta when it slid off the runway at about 11 a.m. Thursday and careened into the fence during a blinding wintry mix. The crash sparked a minor fuel leak in one of the vessel's wings, and 127 passengers -- including Giants tight end Larry Donnell and star of the Bravo reality show "Jersey Belle" Jaime Primak Sullivan -- were pulled off the plane. Five crew members were also on the plane.
About six reported minor injuries, officials say, and three were taken to the hospital. All are expected to survive.
Delta said all the passengers have gotten full refunds and that crews worked through the night to begin returning belongings to passengers.
Passengers described feeling turbulence as they landed, like a rocking motion. One said the jet hit the runway and didn't slow down until it smashed into the fence, inches from the water.
After the skid, photos on social media showed the tail of the plane dipping into the snow; the nose was pointed slightly upward and appeared to be damaged. Other photos showed the front of the plane smashed through the fence as passengers climbed out onto a wing and trudged through snow to safety.
LaGuardia's two runways were shut down for hours after the skid. One later reopened, but nearly 900 flights out of the airport were canceled.
The NTSB and FAA's investigation comes as some raise questions about when airports should close runways due to wintry weather.
About 3 inches of snow had fallen in New York at the time of the accident, but wind, sleet and snowflakes combined to hamper visibility and make paved surfaces slippery. NBC 4 New York meteorologists say freezing fog was observed near LaGuardia around 11 a.m., which likely coated the already snow-topped runways with an icy glaze and may have contributed to the accident.
There's no rule about how much snow or ice leads to a runway closing. Instead, the Federal Aviation Administration requires airports to measure runways during winter storms to assure planes can safely brake: A specially equipped vehicle races down the runway with a computer checking braking action, and if the runway fails the test it must be closed.
The runway had been plowed minutes before, and two other pilots had reported good braking conditions, said Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport. It appeared the pilot did everything he could to slow the aircraft, he said
In October, a Delta MD-88 flight from Atlanta with about 63 people on board struck the concrete pier supporting the same runway involved in Thursday's accident, and had its landing gear ripped off. The 75-ton plane skidded, 2,700 feet on its nose wheel and belly; the fuselage cleared the pier by only 16 inches, according to NTSB data. Three minor injuries were reported.
Lawmakers on the state Labor Committee have given preliminary approval to a measure that would provide firefighters with additional coverage specially for cancer treatment.
Firefighter in Waterbury say cancer diagnoses have become a serious problem for both current and former members of the department. Three have been diagnosed with varying kinds of cancer over the past year.
Brad Sabol, a seven-year veteran of the department, was diagnosed with testicular cancer just yesterday.
“It’s not something I expected. I’m otherwise healthy. I haven’t had any other major medical problems," Sabol said. "It came out of nowhere, a shock.”
His health insurance will cover many of the new expenses but there are some unknowns, and now he worries about missing work for treatment.
“More than an issue of the insurance is the time off. If it’s covered then I have the time off that I need. If not, I may run out of sick time while I’m undergoing chemo, that could become an issue,” he said.
Lawmakers on the Labor Committee have given preliminary approval to a measure that would give firefighters additional coverage specifically for cancer treatment.
Doctors have pinpointed some direct links between fighting fires and certain types of cancer.
“What we found is that when these materials combust – couches, mattresses – when these materials combust, they give up these harmful flame retardants, these chemicals that are now proven to cause cancer in firefighters," said Dr. Michael Hamrock, of Massachusetts.
Hamrock has worked with firefighters in Boston and helped to treat several who eventually passed away.
"We've lost too many good firefighters to cancer," Hamrock said.
Firefighters have accepted a donation of fresh hoods that would protect them from some carcinogens. Dirty, smoke-stained hoods, Hamrock said, still carry harmful carcinogens that could be harmful firefighters' health.
Lawmakers say they don't think the measure will be difficult sell, even though it doesn't yet have a precise price tag.
“I think science speaks for itself in dealing with this issue," said State Rep. Jeffrey Berger, a Democrat who represents Waterbury.
Dan Huften, another Waterbury firefighter of 18 years who retired after hurting his back, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last year. He says the measure is something that he knows some but not all firefighters will need down the road. He's helped lead the effort to get lawmakers to act.
“When I found out my diagnosis and I delved into this topic, I was astounded how prevalent the issue of cancer in firefighters was," Huften said.
“Our intent is for none of our guys to ever have to use this legislation to prevent this cancer from happening to us, but more importantly, the legislation would help our families – God forbid – if we did succumb to this disease,” he said.
Police have arrested the driver who struck a Hartford patrol car at the scene of a massive water main break Friday night.
The driver has been charged with driving under the influence.
Police said the officer was responding to the scene of a water main break that flooded Sisson Avenue. Neither the driver nor the officer was hurt.
No additional information was immediately available.
Fifty years ago Saturday, a 52-mile march planned from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, faltered at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The voting rights demonstrators encountered state troopers who attacked them with tear gas, whips and clubs — a violent encounter that became known as Bloody Sunday.
The march was completed two weeks later, this time led by Martin Luther King Jr. and protected by a federal court order. Five months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The bridge itself is named for a Confederate general, and now a Selma student group has launched a petition calling for it to be renamed.
Here are some of the key actors in that historic clash, and what they did in the years that followed.
John Lewis
As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which he had helped to form, Lewis led the first march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge and was knocked down and beaten in the head with a billy club.
He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1977 and afterward took a job in the administration of President Jimmy Carter as associate director of ACTION, then the federal volunteer agency.
In 1981, he was elected to the Atlanta City Council, and in 1986 to the U.S. House of Representatives representing Georgia’s 5th District. Now 75, he still holds the seat.
Hosea Williams
Williams earned his spot at the front of the march in place of King by a coin toss and continued leading civil rights marches after King was assassinated in 1968.
Williams was elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1974, serving until 1984, then lost a bid for the U.S. Senate. He went on to serve on the Atlanta City Council and as a DeKalb County commissioner.
But he also was arrested more than 25 times for traffic violations and faced questions about the financing of some of his charitable operations, according to his obituary in The New York Times. He died in 2000 at age 74.
The Rev. Andrew Young
An aide to King, Young served as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and he helped to draft the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
He was elected to a seat in Congress from Georgia, was named ambassador to the United Nations by President Carter and then served two terms as mayor of Atlanta.
Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and President Bill Clinton appointed him to oversee the Southern Africa Development Fund.
The Rev. Ralph Abernathy
Abernathy had worked with King to establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and became its second president after King’s assassination.
He helped to organize the Poor People’s March on Washington and the Atlanta sanitation workers’ strike and the Charleston, South Carolina, hospital workers strike. But he was criticized for writing about King's infidelities in his authobiography, "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down."
Abernathy died in 1990 at age 64.
The Rev. James Orange
Orange’s arrest in Alabama while trying to register voters helped spark the historic march.
Demonstrators protested his arrest just after it, and one, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was shot by a state trooper while trying to protect his mother and grandfather from being beaten. He later died, and his death became a key catalyst for the Selma march.
Orange went on to become a labor organizer for the AFL-CIO and for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. He died at age 65 in 2008 in Atlanta.
The Rev. Cordy Tindell Vivian
Known as C.T., Vivian became a national figure when he was punched in the face by Sheriff Jim Clark while leading a group trying to register to vote at the Dallas County, Alabama, courthouse in Selma, just weeks before the first Selma march. The punch was caught by television cameras.
Vivian was a member of the executive staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and later went on to organize other anti-discrimination groups. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2013. He is 90.
Diane Nash
Nash sat-in at Nashville lunch counters and helped to coordinate Freedom Rides of young people on buses that were supposed to have been desegregated.
She kept at it even after U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy tried to persuade the students to turn to voter registration instead.
Nash later turned her efforts to opposing the war in Vietnam.
She was married to James Bevel, but they divorced.
James Bevel
A top aide to King, Bevel was a key organizer of the march, inspired by the shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson by an Alabama state trooper. He was later forced out of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, however.
He later became the running mate of perennial fringe presidential candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., who was at the time in prison for mail fraud and income tax evasion.
He was convicted of incest soon before he died in 2008 at 72.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
A rabbi, writer and social activist, Heschel was photographed marching alongside King in Selma.
He had also served as a Jewish liaison with the Vatican during the Second Vatican Council.
Heschel was a civil rights activist who was also opposed the Vietnam War, co-founding Clergy Concerned About Vietnam.
He died in 1972.
Frank M. Johnson Jr.
A federal judge, Johnson issued the historic order that allowed King to lead the successful march from Selma to Montgomery.
A law school friend of Gov. George Wallace, he was part of a panel that earlier struck down segregated seating on Montgomery, Alabama, city buses. He went on to outlaw poll taxes, strike down laws barring blacks and women from jury service, expand the right to court-appointed lawyers for poor people, and call for Alabama to reform its mental hospitals.
He retired from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta in 1992 and died in Montgomery in 1999 at the age of 80.
John Doar
As U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Doar led the federal participants in the march and went on to prosecute three Klansmen who killed a white volunteer, Viola Liuzzo, on the march's last night. (Johnson sentenced them to the maximum of 10 years in prison.)
Earlier, Doar had escorted James Meredith when Meredith integrated the University of Mississippi in 1962, and he helped to investigate the murder of the three civil rights workers in Mississippi. He later led the team making the case for impeaching President Richard Nixon.
In 2012, when awarding Doar the Presidential Medal of Honor, President Obama called him the face of the Justice Department in the South. Doar died in November at the age of 92.
Annie Lee Cooper
Cooper was standing in line in 1965 waiting to register to vote at the Dallas County, Alabama, courthouse when Sheriff James Clark prodded her with his billy club.
She turned around, hit him and sent him flying.
In retaliation, the sheriff’s deputies held her down while Clark struck her repeatedly with his club.
Cooper died in 2010 at the age of 100.
Sheriff Jim Clark
Clark became sheriff of Dallas County, Alabama, in 1955, and while he was in office, protesters were regularly beaten and tear gassed.
Clark himself led the troopers who chased back the original marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He remained convinced decades later that he had done the right thing.
“Basically, I’d do the same thing today if I had to do it all over again,” he told The Montgomery Advertiser in 2006, a year before his death. “I did what I thought was right to uphold the law.”
But the year after Selma, Clark was defeated in a re-elected bid, and afterward he sold mobile homes, according to his obituary in The New York Times.
In 1978, he was convicted on conspiring to smuggle marijuana and was imprisoned. He died in 2007.
People’s United Bank is closing the branch on 225 Bank Street in Waterbury, and all employees will be transferred by the end of July, according to the bank.
A spokesperson for the bank said the building’s lease is set to expire, and the branch plans to move to company-owned space.
There are still three other People’s United branches in Waterbury, all located inside Stop & Shop stores.
An Iraqi newlywed who was shot dead as he took photos of his first snow Wednesday night, less than three weeks after he moved to Dallas, will be mourned and laid to rest Saturday, as police try to find his killer.
Ahmed Adnan Ibrahim Al-Jumaili, 36, was with his wife and brother when he was shot in the chest in an apparently random shooting in the parking lot of the Walnut Bend Apartments late Wednesday night. He died soon after at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
His distraught father-in-law Mohammed Al Taae told NBC 5 he couldn't believe his new son-in-law had escaped ISIS and other dangers in Iraq, only to die in a random and senseless shooting in Dallas.
Al-Jumaili had moved to the United States just 20 days earlier to marry his wife, after working up to the move for more than a year, Al Taae said. In Iraq, he had been a contractor for an Internet company in Baghdad and often worked with the U.S. Army and Air Force.
"He just bought a car," Al Taae said. "[He was] trying to find a decent job to start his life."
Investigators admitted Friday they had few leads in the investigation into Al-Jumaili's killing but hope someone will come forward with information that leads to an arrest. Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information.
Witnesses said they saw as many as four male suspects enter the apartment complex on foot and head toward an area near where Al-Jumaili and his family were enjoying the snow, police said. Moments later, shots were fired from what police believe was a rifle.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations' local chapter's executive director Alia Salem said the civil rights group had been involved in the investigation over concerns the shooting may have been racially or religiously motivated, though she added that initial evidence doesn't suggest it was.
The reward offered by Crime Stoppers is for information leading to an arrest and indictment in the case. Tipsters can remain anonymous and should call 214-373-TIPS (8477). Tipsters can also contact Detective Montenegro with the Dallas Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 214-671-3624, and refer to case number 49093-2015.
NBC 5's Amanda Guerra contributed to this report.
One of two brothers accused of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Wilson III was arraigned overnight Friday, the other remains in the hospital, restrained with the fallen hero's handcuffs.
Officer Wilson, 30, died Thursday from injuries sustained during an attempted robbery in the GameStop store at Hope Plaza Shopping Center at 2101 W. Lehigh Ave.
"He was making a security check and he was also picking up a gift for his 8-year-old son who had done exceptionally well at school, said Philadelphia Police Homicide Capt. Darrell Clark.
The father of two was in full uniform when brothers Carlton Hipps, 30, and Ramone Williams, 26, entered the store and announced a robbery, said investigators. The officer and the brothers engaged in a gunbattle which resulted in Wilson's death, Clark said.
"They were both firing at him," said Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. "He was actually being hit during the exchange of gunfire but he continued to fight, continued to shoot until the fatal wound was fired and it brought him down."
Hipps was injured in a shootout with Wilson's partner outside the store following the attempted robbery. He's being restrained with Wilson's handcuffs in Einstein Hospital, according to police.
Williams tried to blend into a nearby crowd to avoid arrest after the deadly shooting. Witnesses pointed him out to authorities and he was taken into custody.
He was arraigned overnight Friday.
Both men face murder and attempted robbery charges.
Wilson was hailed a hero following his death and that title was cemented earlier Friday when surveillance video of the gunbattle inside the store was released.
The video shows Officer Wilson act immediately, moving away from store patrons before firing his weapon.
"Not only in doing his job did he protect the store, he protected the employees," said Capt. Clark. "Like I said before, he was a hero."
Officer Wilson is an 8-year veteran of the 22nd District Police. He leaves behind two sons, 8 and 1.
A trust fund was set up for the boys Friday. It's being managed by the Police and Fire Federal Credit Unions. Actor and comedian Dan Aykroyd has promised a donation to Wilson's children. He made the announcement during an appearance at the Philadelphia Flower Show.
Donations can be made at various branches around the city.
A mass to honor the fallen officer is scheduled for Sunday morning at St. Martin De Porres Church in North Philadelpia on Lehigh Ave. in North Philadelphia at 10 a.m.
The Springfield Police Department is mourning the loss of one of its own. K-9 "Grom" was killed in a freak accident when he ran into sharp branches protruding from a fallen tree, according to the police department.
Officials said Grom was running along a wooded trail in Palmer, Massachusetts, on Friday afternoon with his partner of two years, Officer Jasinski, when he hit the tree branches.
Grom died instantly. He was only 3 years old.
Springfield police said Grom was "highly regarded" among K-9 teams in Connecticut and Massachuestts. He patrolled the streets of Springfield, helping to track suspects and uncover illegal drugs.
K-9 officers from around the region gathered in Palmer on Friday to say pay "one final tribute" to a police dog described as one of the very best.
Police in West Hartford have arrested a couple accused of bringing their young children to buy heroin and hiding drugs in a toddler's jacket.
Officers stopped William Kulas and his wife, Ingrid Walczyk, at the intersection of Farmington Avenue and Walkley Road in West Hartford on Friday.
Walczyk admitted to having drug paraphernalia and told officers she hid 14 bags of heroin in her 3-year-old's jacket pocket, according to police.
Police said Kulas was arrested last week after he was found with 50 bags of heroin in his car.
A woman convicted of killing her mother and dumping her body was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, a judge said Friday as her family, who still want answers, looked on.
A jury found Ghazal Mansury guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her 79-year-old mother in January. The body was found days later near the Barona Indian Reservation.
The Serra Mesa woman had admitted to disposing of her mother Mehria Mansury's body in a remote area, but she pleaded not guilty to killing her.
A dozen family members were inside the courtroom during the emotional sentencing.
"We know it happened, we know who did it, we know all the story," said Mehria's niece Homaira S. Rassoul. "It's just for her to fess up, as they say, will be the last stitch to put in the wound and close it. The scar will always be there."
Rassoul spoke to her cousin Ghazal in court, saying the family just wants answers as to why she killed her mother. She said Mehria's sisters are in serious grieving, some now suffering from depression.
Ghazal, who declined the chance to speak before the court, did get a little emotional as she listened to her cousin, but the judge said she has shown no sign of remorse. For that, he gave her no probation.
Mehria was last seen alive on Sept. 23, 2013 by other family members. Mansury told relatives her mother went on a walk and never returned, which prompted a missing person search throughout the area.
On Oct. 2, 2013, investigators discovered Mehria's dead body under a tree near the Barona Indian Reservation. The next day, Mansury was arrested for her mother's murder.
Prosecutors say on Mansury's computer, they found online search terms like "homicide" and "how to clean blood stains."
Mansury claims she opened a door and knocked her mother over, and when she asked if she was OK, her mother replied, "Yes," according to the defendant. When Mansury returned, she says she found her mother dead, so she put her body in the trunk and dumped her elsewhere.
A witness who testified at trial told the jury Mansury had strangeld her mother with a bicycle inner-tube. Others said Mansury had a long-standing animosity toward Mehria. The tipping point allegedly came when a dog was taken away from her.
"There was a documented history of a relationship that had broken down. We knew that the drugs played a part. We knew that Ms. Mansury's choice of friends played a part," said Deputy District Attorney Paul Greenwood. "But more than that, Ms. Mansury unfortunately did not like her mother. That was very clear."
Investigators do not have a cause of death because Mehria's body was exposed to the elements and wild animals, prosecutors say.
Police are searching for the driver who killed a 4-year-old California girl in a hit-and-run crash when she ran into a street while playing with her parents Friday.
Violeta Khachaturyan died after the 5:30 p.m. incident at East Wilson Avenue and Olive Street in Glendale, police said.
Violeta ran into the street, was struck by a white or cream colored car car and was thrown at least four car lengths into the back of another vehicle. The impact was so severe she smashed the window of the parked car.
"This is a child that had hopes and dreams that one day she could be something and now she's no longer with us," said family friend Arshak Bareghmayan, who called Violeta fun and energetic.
"She ran across the street... and next thing we know we just heard a loud bang and the child just flew across the street and that's it."
The girl's parents Anna and Robert were too devestated to speak about the incident. A memorial was set up near where she was hit.
An eyewitness named Sabrina said they had tried to stop her from running onto the road.
"The family was calling something and then I guess she didn't listen and the car just hit her. All I saw is that she flew from the car," said Sabrina, who didn't give her last name.
Police do not know if the driver was man or a woman, and the family have appealed for information.
"We do encourage everyone, the driver, to please come forward... if anybody knows any information, if anybody has seen anything, this is the time to do the right thing," Bareghmayan added.
Jason Kandel, Robert Kovacik and Rosa Ordaz contributed to this article
Emergency crews were called to the Waterbury-Oxford Airport when a single-engine plane skidded 50 feet off the runway and struck a snow bank Friday evening.
Airport manager Matt Kelly said the plane veered off the runway while attempting to leave around 5:20 p.m. Photos posted on the Oxford Ambulance Association's Facebook page show a single-engine aircraft embedded in the snow.
Kelly said the pilot was traveling with a single passenger, neither of whom was hurt. Authorities have not released their identities but said both are men.
"They were shaken up from the ordeal, so they seemed fine," said Oxford Fire Chief Scott Pelletier.
The runway was closed for more than two hours while crews towed the plane to a hangar.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the aircraft is a single-engine Mooney M-20 registered to Atlas Aviation LLC in Darien.
The cause of the incident is unclear, but Kelly said weather does not appear to have been a factor, since the pavement is dry.
FAA officials are investigating to determine the cause of the crash.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
A mountain lion that wandered near a shopping center in Southern California Friday morning died shortly after it was tranquilized by officials from California's Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The 2-year-old male cat was seen prowling near a Macy's at the Promenade Mall in Temecula at about 6 a.m., according to a witness who recorded video of the animal being taken away by officials.
"They tried to do the right thing, they have the training and equipment to do the right thing... and it doesn't always work out," said Capt. Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Video of the incident showed the mountain lion breathing in the back of a pickup truck after officers picked it up off the ground.
"It was a big enough cat that you would certainly see it coming from a long ways away," said Joe Fanaselle, a witness who saw the cat before it died.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating if the mountain lion had pre-existing health conditions, said spokesman Kyle Orr, who noted mountain lions very rarely die after being darted.
When they do, it's because the dart damaged a sensitive area of the animal, like the spine, or if the lion has an allergic reaction to the tranquilizer used in the dart, he said.
A special forensic unit was examining the mountain lion in San Bernardino to learn more about its death, he added.
Wardens believe the lion may have found its way to the mall by using a nearby wash off Margarita Road.
The White House was put on lockdown Saturday morning after a nearby food vendor cart suffered a small explosion, causing a security sweep before President Barack Obama and his family were about to leave for Selma, Alabama, according to a White House pool report.
Photos posted on Twitter from Will Sweet show heavy smoke from one of the food locations in the 400 block of 15th Street, Northwest on Saturday morning.
D.C. fire officials said the fire was extinguished and one person was evaluated on the scene, but not transported to a hospital.
So this fire just broke out right outside the White House.... pic.twitter.com/jxMdPIgmRI
— Will Sweet (@will_sweet1) March 7, 2015
Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary told The Associated Press, around the same time a bomb-sniffing dog detected something on a vehicle nearby. That vehicle was checked out by the Secret Service and other officers and cleared at 11:48 a.m.
The fire at the vendor cart briefly delayed the departure of President Barack Obama and the first family to commemorate the historic 50th anniversary of the civil rights march in to Selma.
The White House press pool was out on the South Lawn for the departure when a loud explosion was heard, the pool report said. The Secret Service moved the press back into the White House and initiated a lockdown of the building.
Obama and his family left the White House by motorcade instead of helicopter an hour later and boarded Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Reuters reported.
A mother and her two children – a 4-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl – were killed by a semi-truck as they were walking to a bus stop on the Chicago's South Side Friday.
Fire officials said the semi struck the three pedestrians just after 5 p.m. at 43rd and Ashland Avenue.
An employee at the Cricket phone store across the street from the incident said the mother and her two children came into the store prior to the accident to inquire about buying a phone for the daughter. The mother told the employee she had been going through a rough time lately because her car had been stolen.
The mother and her children were walking to the bus stop at 43rd Street and Ashland after leaving the phone store when they were struck by the semi.
The children were rushed to Mt. Sinai Hospital and the mother to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital, but all three victims succumbed to their injuries.
Police confirmed the mother was the first to be pronounced dead at 5:27 p.m., and the two children followed shortly.
The Cook County medical examiner's office identified the mother as 30-year-old Elizabeth Peralta-Luna and the children as 4-year-old Dylan Peralta and 9-year-old Elizabeth Peralta. They lived in the 5400 block of Sawyer Avenue in the Gage Park neighborhood.
Zachary Barngrover, a 23-year-old Iowa man who was driving the semi, was cited with failing to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk and making an improper left turn on a two-way road, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Barngrover said he did not seen the mother and her children as they crossed the street.
Thirty people at a massive college party were standing on a garage roof in Central California when it collapsed Saturday morning, injuring eight and sending four to the hospital, authorities said.
Over 1,000 students attended the party at off-campus housing near Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, a university of about 20,000 people, according to a deputy fire chief with the San Luis Obispo Fire Department. No one died in the collapse.
The damaged garage is located in the 300 block of Hathaway Street, according to the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Department, several blocks from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
The party was being held for St. Patrick's Day and was not affiliated with Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Gater said.
Pictures from the party showed it was still packed with people wearing green after sunrise. Twitter users and the school's newspaper, the Mustang News, which posted video of the collapse, were calling the party "St. Fratty's Day."
Collapse occurred at scene of party on Hathaway attended by over 1000 students. 7 students were injured. pic.twitter.com/H0EnEHEEaK
— SLO City Fire (@SLO_City_Fire) March 7, 2015
The garage collapsed at about 6:20 a.m. with 30 people on top, Gater said. Some people may have been inside the garage, which was on a property with three adjoining homes.
One woman had moderate injuries while seven others had minor injuries. Four were taken to local hospitals, Gater said.
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo released a statement at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning wishing those who were injured aa speedy recovery and saying it was in contact with public safety agencies to find out what occurred and "decide how we will respond."
It did not indicate if any of the people who were hurt were students.
A tweet from the San Luis Obispo Fire Department initially said it was a "mass casualty incident."
Water has been restored after a water main break on Sisson Avenue in Hartford swamped the street with 2 feet of water Friday night, prompting police to block off the area and shut down ramps to Interstate 84.
Crews were still on scene early Saturday morning, spending about four hours patching up the street. Water was restored at 2:30 a.m.
Thawing on Thursday and refreezing on Friday as it got colder caused the water main break, according to public works crews.
The weather has led to a record number of water main breaks in the capital city. It's typical for public works crews to respond to about 30 breaks in February, but this past month they responded to 70.
Although state police troopers said sewage spilled into the roadway, Hartford police said no sewer lines were affected. According to a spokesperson for the Metropolitan District Commission, the company isn't aware of any problems with waste water.
The break flooded basements in the area, including the Hartford fire station on Sisson Avenue, according to Hartford police, and froze on the roadway.
"The water immediately froze as soon as it hit the roadway," explained Hartford Police Sgt. Paul Cicero. "DPW is here now salting the roadway."
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan District Commission said workers shut down the 12-inch water main at 9:20 p.m. Police said the "significant" break was reported around 6 p.m. Friday in the area of 145 Sisson Avenue.
The shutoff cut water service to the fire station, but Hartford police said fire operations have continued uninterrupted. It took crews six hours to fix the break, which did not affect water service to any homes.
Police said the effects will linger through the weekend. Sisson Avenue remained closed overnight and has since reopened.
The MDC has not released information on a potential cause, but Hartford police said cold weather may have come into play.
Authorities also charged a driver with DUI after he struck a police cruiser that was responding to the scene. The officer was not in the cruiser at the time. Neither the driver nor the officer were injured, police said.
Sisson Avenue was closed overnight for about 10 hours between Capitol Avenue and Warrenton Avenue.
The ramps to I-84 were closed for several hours but have since reopened.
