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Loved ones of East High shooting suspect speak out

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- For the first time, loved ones of Austin Lyle are publicly speaking about the 17-year-old East High School student.According to police, Austin shot two administrators last week, which prompted a massive search that ended with the teen turning the gun on himself.Austin's mother is grieving the loss of her son and is not ready to speak publicly, but she's given a close friend permission to discuss a little about her son.  East High students still processing trauma, psychologist weighs in Janiece Mackey has known Austin's mother since the sixth grade and Austin since he was born. Mackey is still trying to process what's happened but said she is broken, hurt, disappointed, frustrated, sad and angry.Mackey and Austin's mother wrote a letter. They want the public to know that Austin had a brilliant mind, a bright future and was loved. The letter is titled, "A letter for Austin to reflect his legacy."It reads, in part, "You were committed to your athleticism, but equally...

Recent juvenile crimes reignite talk about bed caps at juvenile detention centers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- The Problem Solvers are looking into bed caps at juvenile detention centers, a conversation reignited by recent violent crimes involving youth around the Denver metro.There is a statewide cap on how many beds the state has for detained youth in its centers. It’s a cap that has gone down by the hundreds since 2003. The Problem Solvers heard from both sides on if there should even be a cap. Colorado youth violence at 5-year high plateau “We want the state to get rid of this policy because it’s impacting our state in a negative way,” said Dustin Zvonek.Zvonek is an Aurora City Council member who spearheaded a resolution that passed the council last month that aims to get rid of the current cap on juvenile beds altogether.Zvonek and others believe the cap puts judges in a perilous position to release violent offenders who then go on to commit more violent crimes, just to make room for newer offenders.“It’s asking them not to just expand the number of beds which they’v...

South American theft ring targets San Diego neighborhoods once again

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

SAN DIEGO - New images obtained by FOX 5 News shows two thieves involved in an elaborate burglary spree in San Diego County. San Diego Police Department's Northern Division confirmed a group has been targeting houses in La Jolla, Rancho Peñasquitos and other neighbors in the area. Authorities confirmed Monday that there has been more activity form a South American or Chilean theft ring that has carried out burglaries in La Jolla since 2021. There have been seven confirmed burglaries related to the ring as of this year. “This is a South American gang with people who are coming in on a Visa Waiver Program, and if one gets caught, they simply replace that person with another person," explained Catharine Douglass, who is the La Jolla Town Council Public Safety Chair and also on the Captains Advisory Board with SDPD. It's all too familiar for one La Jolla resident who asked to hide her identity for safety reasons. A similar break-in happened to her back in 2021. Father arrested in dea...

Study says warming-fueled supercells to hit South more often

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

America will probably get more killer tornado- and hail-spawning supercells as the world warms, according to a new study that also warns the lethal storms will edge eastward to strike more frequently in the more populous Southern states, like Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.The supercell storm that devastated Rolling Fork, Mississippi is a single event that can’t be connected to climate change. But it fits that projected and more dangerous pattern, including more nighttime strikes in a southern region with more people, poverty and vulnerable housing than where storms hit last century. And the season will start a month earlier than it used to.The study in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society predicts a nationwide 6.6% increase in supercells and a 25.8% jump in the area and time the strongest supercells twist and tear over land under a scenario of moderate levels of future warming by the end of the century. But in certain areas in the South the increase is much highe...

Handmade blankets welcome refugees, immigrants to U.S.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — “Welcome to the USA,” says a note attached to a hand-crocheted blanket of purple, white and gray stripes. Hollie Shaner-McRae, of Burlington, who made the blanket as a gift for a refugee, wrote of her great grandparents coming to the United States from Ukraine, Russia and Poland. One great grandfather was a tailor and the other was a barrel maker, she wrote. “Both were so brave and came to America as teenagers,” she wrote in the note. “I hope you make friends and feel safe here,” Shaner-McRae wrote to whomever would receive the blanket. “Vermont is blessed to have new families arrive and enrich our world.”The quilt was one of at least 86 artistic blankets that crafters sewed, crocheted and knitted as gifts for refugees and immigrants to make them feel welcomed in their new community in Vermont. The handmade creations were on display at the Heritage Mill Museum in Winooski, Vermont, before they were given away to refugees last week. The effort...

Anti-government protests in Kenya hit Nairobi for 2nd week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

Nairobi, Kenya (AP) — Thousands of anti-government protesters marched on the streets of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on Monday despite the government’s declaration that the protests are illegal.Opposition leader Raila Odinga joined protesters on the western side of the capital where his convoy attracted thousands of supporters and he addressed them at various stops calling for electoral justice and reduced prices for food items.Police used a water cannon and teargas to disperse supporters. Police chief Japheth Koome insists that the protests are illegal but Odinga says Kenyans have a right to demonstrate.Odinga and his party, Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition, are leading the protests against the rising cost of living and calling for President William Ruto’s resignation saying he wasn’t validly elected in last year’s election.The protests occurred last week and Odinga has urged his followers to take to the streets twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. ...

High tornado death toll in Mississippi like losing family

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — Lonnie and Melissa Pierce lived a quiet, peaceful life in the Mississippi Delta before a powerful tornado swept up a neighbor’s semi-truck and dropped it onto their brick home like a bomb, killing the married couple.A retired welder, Lonnie Pierce was fond of hunting and bass fishing, friends and neighbors said. Melissa Pierce volunteered for a local Christian charity that operates a small thrift store.“They were good. About the best, I can tell you that,” said neighbor Harvey Cockrell, 76, a fellow welder who worked with Lonnie Pierce for decades.A mound of broken rubble was all that remained of the couple’s home after a devastating twister packing winds of up to 200 mph (320 kph) tore through the rural town of Rolling Fork late Friday. The 18-wheeler that had been parked next door before the storm hit remained perched atop the debris Monday, and deer antlers that had been among Lonnie Pierce’s hunting trophies covered the couple’s yard....

Georgia bill is latest GOP effort targeting prosecutors

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A new Georgia commission to discipline and remove wayward prosecutors would be the latest move nationwide to ratchet up oversight on what Republicans see as “woke prosecutors” who aren’t doing enough to fight crime.The Georgia House voted 97-77 on Monday for Senate Bill 92 to create the commission. The Senate later sent the measure to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature or veto. Kemp has previously voiced support for the concept.The Georgia bill parallels efforts to remove prosecutors in Florida, Missouri, Indiana and Pennsylvania, as well as broader disputes nationwide over how certain criminal offenses should be charged. All continue anti-crime campaigns that Republicans ran nationwide last year, accusing Democrats of coddling criminals and acting improperly by refusing to prosecute whole categories of crimes including marijuana possession. All the efforts raise the question of prosecutorial discretion — a prosecutor’s decision of what cases to ...

Nashville shooter was ex-student with detailed plan to kill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The former student who shot through the doors of a Christian elementary school in Nashville and killed three children and three adults had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and conducted surveillance of the building before carrying out the massacre.Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake did not say exactly what drove the shooter to open fire Monday morning at The Covenant School before being killed by police. But he provided chilling examples of the shooter’s elaborate planning for the targeted attack, the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country that has grown increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools.“We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident,” he told reporters. “We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”He said in an interview with NBC News that investigators believe the shooter had “some resentment for havi...

Gwyneth Paltrow’s experts to testify in Utah ski crash case

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Gwyneth Paltrow’s attorneys are expected to call a series of experts and read depositions from her two teenage children on Tuesday in the first full day of the movie star ‘s trial that they have to call witnesses to make their case.Due to the trial’s judge-imposed eight-day clock, Paltrow’s defense team is expected to face tough time management decisions much like Sanderson’s did throughout last week as they attempt to juggle family members, ski instructors and experts in skiing and brain science.Paltrow is in court fighting a lawsuit from Terry Sanderson, the 76-year-old retired optometrist suing her for more than $300,000 over a 2016 ski collision that he says left him with broken ribs and years of lasting concussion symptoms. The actor and Goop founder-CEO has denied Sanderson’s claims that she crashed into him, countersuing for $1 and contending that he, in fact, skied into her.Her defense attorneys will likely use their witnesses t...