The funeral is being held today for a Tolland public works employee who was struck by a public works truck while patching potholes last week and town offices will be closed so employees can attend the services.

David Lee Ridzon, 50, of Willington, was patching potholes on Anderson Road last Thursday when a day of work turned tragic.

The public works department will be closed for the entire day.

More than 1,000 people were expected to attend the funeral and officials are warning of heavy congestion until 1 p.m. in the area of the Tolland Green, Old Post Road, Old Stafford Road, Tolland Stage Road and Merrow Road. 

Avoid these areas if possible because the roads are subject to closure at times for the procession.

According to his obituary, Ridzon is a Tolland native and graduate of Rockville High School. He began working for the Tolland Highway Department after 15 years at Rex Lumber Co., based in South Windsor.

Ridzon leaves behind his wife of 23 years and two daughters ages 19 and 21.

"He was full of laughter, kindness, honesty and just pure love," his obituary says.

A funeral service will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the First Congregational Church on Virginia Lane in Tolland.

Police are seeking the public's help in identifying the person who shot and killed a market employee in the North End of Bridgeport Wednesday morning and said that they don't believe robbery was the motive.

Surveillance video captured a man wearing a black ski mask walking into the store with his right hand in his pocket. From the moment he entered the store, he was looking to the right in the direction of a store clerk. The footage later shows the man sprinting from the store, around the corner, through a parking lot and down a nearby street. Police have released the footage with the hope that someone in the public will recognize the man.

Officers responded to a report of gunfire at T. Market, located at 1482 Reservoir Ave., around 8 a.m. after a 911 call and found a male employee who had been shot in the torso.

The victim, a store employee identified as Hakeem Joseph, 32, of Bridgeport, was rushed to St. Vincent’s Hospital in very serious condition, but died of his injuries.

According to police, a person with a mask came into the store, fired several gunshots at Joseph at the store and fled. Police said Wednesday morning that the victim was shot several times, but said later that several shots were fired, but the victim was hit once.

"It's a very sad day for the city of Bridgeport. We lost a good man today, a young man for no good apparent reason," Bridgeport Police Chief Joseph L. Gaudett Jr. said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Hakeem Joseph and I promise them that we will not rest until we can bring the suspect to justice."

Police reviewed surveillance footage of the shooting and said it doesn't show an attempted robbery, but investigators aren't ruling anything out. There is no information at this time to suggest the shooting was gang-related, according to Gaudett Jr.

According to initial reports, the shooter was wearing a dark gray or black hooded sweatshirt and tan camouflage pants, city officials said.

The suspected shooter was seen running on Trumbull Avenue toward Fiske Avenue and remains at large, police said.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family,” Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch said in a statement. “Violence is at the lowest level in 40 years in Bridgeport. That doesn’t make today any easier for the community or for me.  A man senselessly lost his life, and detectives are working nonstop to find the person responsible.”

This was the second homicide in Bridgeport in 2015, according to the mayor's office.

The case remains under investigation and police working to release the surveillance footage to the public to see if anyone can identify the suspect.

Police ask anyone with information to contact Det. Robert Winkler at 203-581-5224.

Police are issuing a warning after receiving several calls reporting a kidnapping scam targeting Latino Hartford residents.

In each case, a Spanish-speaking scammer calls a parent, claims to have kidnapped one of the person’s children and demands between $500 and $5,000 in ransom money be wired through Western Union.

Police said it is a scam, but local residents have fallen victim to it.

The calls have been traced to Puerto Rico, police said.
 

Two East Hartford massage parlors are closed as police investigate allegations of prostitution and three people have been arrested.

Undercover officers responded to Blossom Spa. at 265 Ellington Road, and Royal Spa, at 144 Main Street East Hartford, on Tuesday after receiving complaints about the businesses.

Police said officers “detected prostitution” at both spas and they are closed as the East Hartford Health Department inspects them.

Police have arrested Yanmin Chang, 33, of Flushing, New York, Yangling Zhang, 58, of New York, and Caifang Wang, 47, of Moodus, and charged them with prostitution.
 

A legal representative for a Dartmouth College fraternity accused of physically branding the skin of new members denied students engaged in criminal wrongdoing. The attorney compared the act of branding by Alpha Delta fraternity members to voluntarily getting a tattoo.

Dartmouth said Alpha Delta was already on suspension for violating alcohol rules before the new reports of physical branding surfaced from the fall of 2014. A college spokesman said the Ivy League school has extended and strengthened that suspension due to the branding allegations.

The fraternity house was one of the inspirations for the rowdy scenes in the 1978 Jim Belushi movie "Animal House."

More recently, it has had a history of hazing, underage drinking violations, and hosting unregistered parties, the college said.

Attorney George Ostler said a small number of fraternity members voluntarily chose to get body brands, the Associated Press reported, but the practice was never a condition of membership. He said no hazing occurred, no one was injured, and noted members are cooperating fully with the college.

New England Cable News knocked on the front door of Alpha Delta but no one answered. A young man who identified himself as a fraternity brother politely declined to comment to necn.

"They did that as a part of initiation to our [different] fraternity but it wasn't a real brand," recalled Dartmouth alum Hale Irwin, of Middlesex, Vermont. "You were blindfolded and they had a piece of dry ice they put it on your leg-- and they had a branding iron and a piece of meat so you smelled your 'flesh' burning. But was it really real here? That's a little out of control."

The chief of police in Hanover, New Hampshire, Charlie Dennis, told necn there is an active investigation into whether anything criminal happened at Alpha Delta. He said he has a policy of not commenting on open investigations.

Dartmouth declined on-camera interviews, but issued the following statement about the Alpha Delta case:

Alpha Delta fraternity has been charged with violating Dartmouth's standards of conduct in connection with the reported branding of some new members of the fraternity by other members in the fall of 2014.

The activities in question reportedly occurred inside the Alpha Delta fraternity house, while the fraternity was on suspension for policy violations in the winter and spring of 2014. The organization has a significant three-year history of disciplinary violations, including hazing, underage service of alcohol, and hosting unregistered events.

Because of the serious nature of the charges, and the evidence gathered to date, Dartmouth is strengthening and extending the terms of AD's current suspension pending the outcome of the disciplinary process.

If Alpha Delta is found responsible during that process, a range of possible disciplinary sanctions could be imposed including, but not limited to, probation, suspension, or permanent revocation of recognition.

Nathan Grant, a high school junior from Cincinnati, Ohio, was touring Dartmouth Wednesday and said the culture around campus Greek life is on his mind during his college search.

"You see a lot of Greek life on TV and you're kind of worried because you see many positive things but also negative things," Grant said. "As long as you make the right options and choices, I think you should be fine."

It is unclear how the branding was performed; whether it was done by the application of heat, chemicals, or other means. A Dartmouth spokesman said he could not provide details on the method of branding or how the reports surfaced, instead simply referring necn to the college's statement.

A fire at 9 Countryside Circle in North Branford Wednesday afternoon has displaced two people.

Fire trucks and at least one ambulance from North Branford responded after receiving a call reporting the fire at about 12:21 p.m.  The structure fire was still blazing when they arrived.

The fire damage has left the home uninhabitable. The American Red Cross is helping two residents that have been displaced.

No one was injured.

Officials from the North Haven Fire Department said they assisted at the scene and sent two pieces of equipment.

Police said there were no road closures, but there was some congestion on Clintonville Road.

Countryside Circle is located off Clintonville Road.

The state fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.

A brand-new baby hippopotamus was born at the San Diego Zoo, officials announced Tuesday.

The hippo was born around 6:30 a.m. Monday and is doing well, Jenny Mehlow of San Diego Zoo Global said. Keepers have been observing the newborn and its mother, Funani, and the calf has already nursed several times, Mehlow said.

For now, the calf will be staying very close to its mother since baby hippos typically nurse for about eight months. The sex of the hippo is not known yet, as keepers have not been able to get a close enough look at the baby.

Hippo calves are usually about 50 pounds at birth, zoo officials said.

Mehlow said this is the fifth calf raised by Funani at the San Diego Zoo. The 30-year-old mother has birthed 11 calves since 1989. Her mate is Otis, an adult male hippo brought to the San Diego Zoo from the Los Angeles Zoo in 2009 specifically to breed with her.

Last March, Funani gave birth to another baby hippo. Sadly, that calf died just days after its birth.

Mehlow said this newborn has had no issues thus far. The zoo's animal care staff is watching both the baby and Funani closely.

San Diego Zoo Senior Keeper John Michel said the calf and mother are bonding nicely, with their nursing sessions lasting several minutes, occurring several times a day.

“If people come out to view the baby, patience will be rewarded,” added Michel. “Guests may have to wait sometimes as long as half an hour, but the calf will wake up and start moving to deeper water, and mom will start to push it back up to shallow water.”

The San Diego Zoo says the river hippopotamus is a threatened species.

Primary threats to hippos are illegal and unregulated hunting, for meat and the ivory found in the canine teeth, and habitat loss, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Hippos can still be found in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The zoo’s first hippopotamus was born at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago in July 1935 and arrived in San Diego in August 1936, becoming the first hippo to be exhibited by a zoo on the West Coast, according to the zoo website.

In 1940, hippos Rube and Ruby arrived in San Diego from the Calcutta Zoo in India. Together, the pair had 11 offspring, helping the exhibit grow. Ruby and Rube died in 1982 and 1988, respectively.
 

Police have responded to a crash near the Big Y supermarket on Parker Street in Manchester, according to dispatchers.

The road is open.

No information was available on whether anyone has been injured.

A New Haven man already arrested in a recent Hamden bank robbery is facing charges for another bank robbery that happened in Woodbridge nearly five months ago, police said.

Salvadore Edwards, 33, demanded cash from the TD Bank at 128 Amity Road in Woodbridge on Sept. 30, ran from the bank in the direction of Amity Shopping Center and fled in a vehicle waiting for him, police said.

Hamden police, who arrested Edwards for a robbery in their town, helped Woodbridge police identify Edwards as a suspect.

Woodbridge police charged him with second-degree robbery, fourth-degree larceny and conspiracy and held him in custody in lieu of a $125,000 bond. He was arraigned in New Haven Superior Court on Tuesday morning.

Police have issued a Silver Alert for a 14-year-old Norwich girl who has been missing for almost two weeks.

Shuying Huang has been missing since March 13 and is considered an endangered runaway, according to the Silver Alert police issued on Wednesday.

Shuying goes by “Eva” and might be heading toward New York or Florida, according to police.

She is 5-feet-4, weighs 120 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes.

If you have any information on Shuying’s whereabouts, call Norwich police at 860-886-5561

Police are looking for help identifying a man suspected of robbing a First Niagara Bank in East Hartford Wednesday afternoon.

No one was injured in the robbery at the bank at 1065 Main Street.

Police described the robber as a man in his late 20s to early 30s who was about 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-7 and of medium build. He was wearing a grey Under Armour sweat shirt, white-knit ski cap with designs on it and black gloves, police said.

A sign on the door of the bank late Wednesday afternoon said "closed due to technical difficulty."

No additional information was immediately available.

Police ask anyone with information on the robbery to contact Det. Ortiz at 860-291-7669.

More than two dozen people are expected to be charged Wednesday as authorities dismantle a Oxycodone and heroin trafficking ring that distributed drugs in public places including a large Rockland County mall, NBC 4 New York has learned.

Twenty-nine people were named in federal and state indictments charging them with conspiracy and drug charges for a narcotics ring that operated out of the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack, the Mount Ivy Trailer Park in Pomona and various motels around Rockland County between early 2014 and March, law enforcement officials and a federal indictment say.

"Dealers in this operation are alleged to have sunk to a new low, selling prescription drugs and heroin at popular locations where parents drop off their kids to see a movie, attend a birthday party or spend time ice skating with friends," Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said at a news conference Wednesday.

The group sold more than 50,000 Oxycodone tablets valued at more than $1 million over the course of the year, most of which were obtained through forged and fraudulent prescriptions, according to the indictment.

One defendant allegedly used his home computer to fill out blank New York State prescriptions with fraudulent patient and doctor information, officials say. Lower-level "runners" would then go to pharmacies across the state to fill the prescriptions.

They also obtained and sold significant quantities of heroin from a distributor in the Bronx, according to officials.

Some of the defendants allegedly celebrated their drug trafficking on social media sites Instagram and Twitter, with one writing on the latter: "Shout out my TMC [Too Much Cash] bros we taking over the streets."

Teams of federal, state and local investigators began making arrests early Wednesday morning.

Seventeen people, including the operation's alleged ringleader, are being charged with federal crimes. The other 12 suspects face state charges.

Neighbors in the Pomona community where some of the drug operations allegedly took place know some of the suspects arrested Wednesday, and were stunned to hear of their arrests.

"It's just a huge surprise to me," said Joanne Brown. "They're just fun-loving guys, always fun to be around. This is just sad." 

Investigators with the DEA, NYPD, Westchester County Police and the Town of Orangetown Police conducted the investigation, law enforcement officials say.

The Boston Yeti was the star of Boston’s miserable winter of 2015, helping to lift spirits and gaining international attention as he traipsed around the city as snowstorm after snowstorm buried the city. 

Now, he’s using his newfound notoriety to help some fellow furry friends by selling Yeti swag to raise money for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 

NECN hosted a Twitter chat with the Boston Yeti on Wednesday. A full transcript of the conversation is included above.

Route 9 north has reopened after a crash near exit 22 in Berlin.

The Frontage Road exit ramp will remain closed, however.

No further information was immediately available.

A fire broke out on the second floor for a house in East Hartford Wednesday night, triggering the smoke detector to alert the family.

East Hartford firefighters responded to a 123 Porterbrook Avenue home after the family called 911 at abuot 5:47 p.m.

The fire took about 15 minutes to knock down, according to Fire Chief John Oates.

The family and their cat got out of the home safely and no one was injured.

There was significant damage on the second floor as a result of the fire and there was water damage on the first floor.

It's not clear how the fire started.

No further information was immediately available.

South Windsor's superintendent of schools has begun the process of terminating an English teacher at the high school after complaints he directed students in February to read and discuss a poem containing sexually explicit content.

The superintendent's office sent a letter to teacher David Olio on Friday notifying him that his termination is under consideration. According to his website, Olio graduated from Trinity College and has taught English at South Windsor High School since 1996.

"Based on the facts, as described below, I must initiate proceedings to terminate your employment with the South Windsor Board of Education. Accordingly, as required by statute, I hereby notify you that termination of your contract of employment as a teacher with the South Windsor Public Schools is under consideration," South Windsor Superintendent Kate Carter wrote to him on Friday.

She wrote that state-required proceedings will be followed in order to finalize the termination.

The superintendent's initiation of termination proceedings stems from a class on Feb. 25 in which Olio asked students if they had a poem to share, according to the letter. One student showed him his copy of "Please Master" by Allen Ginsberg, which contains explicit descriptions of sexual acts, vulgar language and expletives. Despite the student's objections, Olio "insisted" on sharing it with the rest of the class after reading through it, according to Carter.

He shut  the door and told his third period AP English class, "I'm not going to say what happens in AP English stays in AP English, but..."  before turning off the lights to project the poem on the white board, Carter said in the letter. Olio then used his school computer to show them a YouTube video restricted to adults of the author reading the poem, according to Carter's letter based on interviews with students who reported being uncomfortable. He didn't warn them of the explicit content in the poem and showed them the content despite knowing most of his students were under 18, she said. Olio also led students in a discussion about the poem, according to Carter.

She wrote that the termination proceedings are due to "egregiously poor professional judgment" when he shared the poem with his class, which isn't in the South Windsor curriculum and wasn't part of his lesson plan that day.

"By so doing, you violated the trust placed by the Board of Education in you as a teacher, you brought discredit upon the South Windsor Public Schools, you undermined public confidence and parent trust in you as a teacher, and you put the emotional health of some students at risk," Carter wrote in her letter.

In the meantime, Olio is under suspension and the central office said he is not allowed to contact students or enter school property during his suspension. While the South Windsor Board of Education is investigating, police said they are not taking part. Olio is not facing any charges.

Allen Ginsberg, an icon of the 50s and 60s known for his sexually explicit writings, is described by the Poetry Foundation as one of the most acclaimed poets of his generation.

In a previous email to parents, Carter said both students and parents expressed concern on social media following the assignment. Carter said parents were notified immediately.

A state panel has rescinded the parole that had been granted to a man who has spent 25 years behind bars for killing a Plainville police officer.

The decision to rescind the parole for Gary Castonguay was made at a hearing at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield on Wednesday morning.

Castonguay was convicted for killing Officer Robert Holcomb during a burglary on Nov. 21, 1977.

In 1980, he was originally sentenced to life in prison, but that conviction was thrown out on technicalities. Nine years later, in 1989, he was convicted again after a second trial and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, with no definite end date.

Between the two trials, lawmakers changed a state law to define life imprisonment as a 60-year term, so Castonguay argued that since his new trial and sentence came after the law changed, he should be released after 60 years.

However, the justices disagreed and determined that the new sentencing guidelines did not apply to Castonguay retroactively because his original crime was committed before the change in the law and he has been incarcerated at  Macdougall-Walker Correction facility in Suffield.

On Jan. 9, he was granted parole during a hearing. but none of Holcomb's family members attended the because they didn't know it was happening.

That was not the case this time around. Several of Holcomb's family members attended the hearing, as did around 50 uniformed and retired police officers from plainville, as well as Southington, Bristol, Wethersfield, Hartford and state police.

Following the hearing, Holcomb's family members spoke outside to share the decision.

As Holcomb's niece, Maria Weinberger, said parole was revoked, the police officers applauded.

“(N)o mere words can convey how much the unwavering support of each police officer here, in person or in spirit, has meant to us as we came together to ensure the heinous criminal who brutally killed Plainville police officer Robert Holcolmb remained incarcerated,” Weinberger said. “You should be proud of all you’ve done to honor the memory and sacrifice of our loved one and your law enforcement brother.”

Castonguay will not be eligible for parole consideration for five years.

Robert’s son, Mac Holcomb, also attended the hearing and his father's fellow police officers saluted him when he stood up to the podium to address the crowd gathered.

The last few months have been a difficult and trying time for the family, he said, and thanked the parole board on behalf of his family for revoking parole.

“It is my prayer that no family should have to go through such a situation and such a time as this family has now gone through, but we’re very thankful on this day that parole has been denied,“ he said. “In this world, there are evil people who will do evil things and we are very thankful to know that what is right and what is just can still be done.”

Richard Sparaco, executive director of the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles, explained earlier this year that the family member who registered with the Office of Victim Services died and the state couldn’t reach anyone to let them know.

“The Board was later made aware after the hearing of other family members who wanted to testify, but were not registered,” he said, adding that the requirements of the hearing where "not satisfied."

“It is nobody’s fault but rather an unfortunate technical error – one that we want to and can rectify,” Sparaco said.

Holcomb's family members were adamant that they want to do what they can so what happened to their family does not happen again.

“It is equally as important that we remain vigilant so that no other family finds themselves in circumstances that led us here today. No person who has already suffered the grievous loss of a loved one, friend or colleague through a violent crime should have to struggle and fight to be heard by the public agency charged with guarding Connecticut residents from the release of deranged murderers into society," Weinberger said. 

Valerie Holcomb said earlier this year that she had called the Office of the Victim Advocate, which worked with the Department of Corrections Victim Unit to expedite an appeal and set up this new parole hearing.

“Victim involvement in the parole hearing is a right and we want to make sure that the statements of the victim, or in this case the deceased victims family are part of the decision-making process,” Sparaco said in an earlier statement.

Naugatuck police are looking for a 56-year-old man who has been missing since he left on a bus to visit a family member in Florida on Sunday.

Miguel Arroyo was last getting on the bus on Sunday and was supposed to get his destination by 5 p.m. Monday, but the Florida family said he never arrived, so the family called police, Naugatuck police said.

Police learned that Arroyo reported to Richmond, Virginia police that he was robbed on Monday at about 5 a.m., police said. That was the last documented communication with Arroyo.

Police described Arroyo as a white male who is 5-foot-5, weighs 155 pounds and who has gray hair and green eyes.

Naugatuck police ask anyone with information on Arroyo's whereabouts to contact them at 203-729-5221.

The mysterious reported kidnapping for ransom took a new twist Wednesday night when authorities said the woman and her family who had made plans to talk to police had disappeared.

Denise Huskins, 29, was reportedly abducted Monday morning from a Vallejo home, police said. She was reported to be kidnapped by her boyfriend but was found safe Wednesday morning in Huntington Beach, her family and police told NBC4.

Huskins and her family had made plans to speak with authorities but have since disappeared, Vallejo police said.

Police said there was some indication that she would be cooperative and speak with investigators but when the FBI had for a jet to bring her to Northern California for an interview, she was nowhere to be found.

Huskins has since retained an attorney and detectives don't know where she is.

Since the investigation was launched on Monday, 40 detectives and over 100 personnel have been searching for and investigating Huskins' disappearance, which they said they didn't believe was a random act of violence.

"Today, there is no evidence to support the claims that this was a stranger abduction or an abduction at all," Vallejo police said in a press release. "Given the facts that have been presented thus far, this event appears to be an orchestrated event and not a kidnapping."

Lt. Kenny Park of the Vallejo Police Department told reporters at a press conference Wednesday night said police are looking into possible state and federal charges in the case.

Park said his department received a phone call from Huntington Beach police at 10:30 a.m. reporting Huskins had been found safe at an undisclosed location.

Huskins' boyfriend claims an intruder broke into his Mare Island home early Monday morning and took her by force while demanding a ransom. But for some reason, her boyfriend waited 11 hours to report it to police. Park said the alleged ransom for Huskins was $8,500.

Prior to the news conference, Mike Huskins said his daughter, Denise Huskins is safe in Huntington Beach. He provided no other details.

How Huskins got to Huntington Beach was not made clear in Wednesday's press conference.

Huskins is from Huntington Beach, and according to her Facebook page moved to Vallejo in June 2014. She is a physical therapist at Kaiser Permanente.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle was sent an email with an audio file of a woman claiming to be Denise Huskins, who said in a brief call, “I’m kidnapped, otherwise I’m fine.”

In the short clip, she identifies herself, talks about the French Alps plane crash to establish the date and references a personal detail about herself about the first concert she saw. Her voice is calm and the clip lasts less than 10 seconds. It’s unclear who made the clip, or who emailed it to the Chronicle.

NBC Bay Area's Gonzo Rojas and Jodi Hernandez contributed to this report.

Police arrested a Wallingford man and seized crack cocaine and stolen goods from his home on Tuesday.

Wallingford police searched the North Plains Highway apartment of Michael Gavrish, 55, on a warrant Tuesday as part of an investigation into narcotic sales and stolen goods trafficking at the home, police said.

Police seized crack cocaine, digital scales, prescription pills and "a substantial amount of stolen consumer merchandise" as part of a narcotics and fencing operation, police said. Fencing is  when someone resells stolen goods.

Gavrish was charged with possession of narcotics with intent to sell, possession of narcotics, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and interfering with police.

He was held in custody in lieu of a $75,000 surety bond and appeared in Meriden Superior Court on Wednesday.

Police continue to investigate the stolen goods found in his possession and expect further arrests.

The department asks anyone with information to call 2-3-294-2805.