Gunman opens fire at pee-wee football game in Texas
Two people were wounded, including a young girl, when a gunman opened fire at a pee-wee football game in Texas, according to a report.
The gunman fired as many as 30 shots into the crowd, sending parents scrambling in the bleachers and players running for cover on the field about 4 p.m. on Saturday, NBC affiliate WKXAS reported.
The station said the shooting was tied to a fight earlier in the game, when the parent of one young player got upset and called her older son — the suspected shooter — who showed up and allegedly opened fire.
“Everybody in the bleachers, they dropped in the bleachers and everyone ran everywhere,” said football mom Damber Walker. “Kids on the field were running. Coaches were running.”
The shooter, who remained on the loose Sunday, showed up during the third quarter of a game between the Fort Worth Longhorns and the 81G Bulldogs
“He was shooting at our sideline,” Longhorns coach Jonathan Cunningham told the outlet. “He was standing at the top of the hill. You could see him pointing down shooting directly at the kids.”
“So, we checked on our players, our kids, making sure everyone was OK,” he said. “That’s when we noticed one of our parents was shot.”
The woman was struck in the leg, and a girl was grazed in the back, police said. Both were taken to area hospitals with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, the outlet reported.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/09/15/gunman-opens-fire-at-pee-wee-football-game-in-texas/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Man being fired brings emotional support clown to meeting
A support dog just wasn’t going to cut it.
A New Zealand man facing the ax at work brought a support clown to his recent redundancy meeting — the $200 performer provided comedic relief as his bosses fired him.
Auckland ad man Joshua Jack said he sensed the bad news when he received an email from his agency employer telling him they needed to have a meeting to discuss his role this week.
“It did talk about being able to bring a support person,” Jack said of the email in an interview with local radio station Magic Talk on Friday.
“I thought, it’s either a promotion or worse. I thought it was best to bring in a professional — so I paid $200 and hired a clown.”
News of the support-clown stunt quickly proliferated when the New Zealand Herald published a picture of Jack having a serious meeting with the emotional-support clown and two employers seated across from him.
Jack did get fired in the end, but he said his bosses at the advertising agency FCB were grateful he decided to “spice up the meeting” and “could see the humorous side.”
The clown mimed crying as Jack’s employers slid the redundancy paperwork across the table and created a balloon unicorn and poodle to lighten the mood.
“They were getting a free service and also getting the entertainment from Joe the clown,” Jack said, but conceded the clown was a little distracting.
“It was sort of noisy, him making balloon animals, so we did have to tell him to be quiet from time to time.”
The clown thought it was a “touch unusual,” Jack said, but was “overall supportive” in the meeting.
“He was $200 so basically he was, I assume, one of the best clowns in Auckland,” Jack said. “I definitely recommend bringing Joe or another clown. Highly recommended.”
A proliferation of strange support animals in recent years — including a support peacock, duck and squirrel — have caused headaches for US airlines, but it is unclear where they stand on emotional support clowns.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/09/13/man-being-fired-brings-emotional-support-clown-to-meeting/
Photo Credit: Joshua Jack
Long Island judge pleads guilty to raiding neighbor’s dirty panties
A pervy Long Island judge is expected to become a registered sex offender after admitting breaking into a neighbor’s home to steal her dirty panties.
Robert Cicale, 50, had several pairs of worn women’s underwear stuffed into his coat when he was busted fleeing a 23-year-old neighbor’s home in March 2018, prosecutors told Suffolk County District Court on Friday.
The judge — who was suspended from the same court in Suffolk County after his arrest — was initially charged with second-degree burglary.
But he admitted to entering the 23-year-old’s home several times to snatch undies from her hamper and pleaded guilty Friday to a reduced charge of attempted burglary, still a felony, with a Nassau County District Court judge hearing the case, according to Newsday.
Cicale, of East Islip, is expected to get five years of probation and be forced to register as a sex offender when he is sentenced on Nov. 15.
Cicale’s attorney, Michael J. Brown, told Newsday that the judge had “accepted responsibility for his actions.”
“He has dealt with his mental illness issues in a proactive manner and is a better person for doing so,” Brown said.
District Attorney Timothy Sini insisted in a statement that the proceedings held him “accountable” and “serves justice.”
“He violated the law, the public’s trust and the victims’ sense of security,” Sini said.
His neighbor was a 23-year-old former intern at the Islip Town attorney’s office, where he used to work, Newsday said. It wasn’t clear whether she had worked directly for him at the time.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/09/15/long-island-judge-pleads-guilty-to-raiding-neighbors-dirty-panties/
Photo Credit: Victoralcorn.com
Woman swallows engagement ring while asleep, requiring surgery
SAN DIEGO, CA (KGTV) — A dream became reality for a San Diego woman, but not in a good way. Jenna Evans says she swallowed her engagement ring in her sleep.
Tuesday night, Evans dreamed that she and her fiance, Bobby, were facing off with “bad guys” on a high-speed train. During the struggle, Bobby told Evans that she had to swallow her engagement ring to protect it. So she did. Not just in her dream, but in real life. She woke to find the ring clean off her finger.
“When I woke up and it was not on my hand, I knew exactly where it was,” Evans said. “It was in my stomach.”
The next morning, Evans and her future husband went to Urgent Care, where they saw her X-rays. Her ring was clearly nestled right in her stomach.
A gastroenterologist, however, suggested it would not be best to let nature run its course. Doctors recommended an upper endoscopy to remove her beloved bling.
“I was really happy because I don’t know if I can look at it and appreciate it in the same way, if I had to search for it,” Evans chuckled.
At this point, Evans says she could feel the ring in her stomach and it was starting to become painful.
Doctors safely removed the ring from her intestines and returned the jewelry to Evans — well, to Bobby for safe keeping, at least. Bobby eventually gave Evans her ring back.
“I feel very grateful that I got it back, and that this is a happy and funny story,” Evans said.
It was a crazy adventure that gave new meaning to “A Sparkling bride, inside and out.”
She says she now takes the ring off when going to sleep.
The couple will get married in Evans’ home state of Texas, hopefully with the ring in hand, next May.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/09/15/woman-swallows-engagement-ring-while-asleep-requiring-surgery/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Child won’t receive her officer father’s ‘survivor’ benefits after he was killed in the line of duty
BROOKLYN — To look at two-year-old Angelina Liu, there doesn’t seem any doubt that she’s the biological daughter of slain NYPD Detective Wenjian Liu.
“Nobody can say my daughter Angelina is not his child,” said her mother, Pei Xia Liu. “She looks exactly like him. You don’t even have to do any tests! By looking at her, you can see that’s Wenjian’s child.”
But under current state law, Angelina is not recognized as Wenjian Liu’s daughter, and a state senator is looking to change that.
“In this case, state law is just woefully out of date,” state Senator Andrew Gounardes of Brooklyn said Friday.
Angelina was born on July 25, 2017, nearly three years after her father and his partner, Rafael Ramos, were assassinated in their patrol car by a Brooklyn housing project.
“She’s a miracle because of science,” her mother, Pei Xia Liu, told PIX11 News Friday.
On the evening Wenjian Liu was gunned down by a crazed gunman who took a bus from Baltimore, emergency room doctors asked Pei Xia Liu if she wanted to preserve her husband’s sperm.
The couple had only been married three months.
“We always wanted to raise and have a family,” Pei Xia Liu said. “And he was the only child!”
Liu was the first Asian American NYPD officer killed in the line of duty, and his death left his parents heartbroken.
Pei Xia Liu said she wanted to carry on her husband’s name.
So, in 2016, she began the painful process of getting shots to facilitate in vitro fertilization.
The procedure worked the first time it was attempted.
Pei Xia Liu said she’s been close to other “line of duty” widows with small children, and they told her Angelina should be eligible for Social Security “survivor’s” benefits.
But Liu showed us the Social Security letter that turned her down — twice.
The letter states, “Angelina Liu is not entitled to child’s benefits because the facts we have do not show that she meets the definition of child under state or federal law.”
Part of the problem is with an archaic New York State law.
“This would be ok if he [Wenjian Liu] had signed a consent form 7 months before he passed away,” state Senator Gounardes said. “There was no way to anticipate a situation like this. When an officer is shot down in the line of duty, and we have so few precious minutes to stabilize him or extract reproductive materials, the law doesn’t deal with this situation adequately.”
Gounardes said he will seek to tweak the state law, so that if a partner proves she was married, the child would be “entitled to the full array of benefits under Social Security.”
“She needs to be respected and acknowledged,” Pei Xia Liu said of little Angelina.
Pei Xia Liu said the the little girl is “caring” like her father, “very neat,” and likes to read, just like dad.
Pei Xia Liu has started the Detective Wenjian Liu Foundation and the first benefit dinner will be held this October 23rd.
“He was my soul mate, and we were so close to each other,” Pei Xia Liu said. “I believe he would be the best father of all.”
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Couple abandoned adopted 8-year-old daughter after changing her age to 22
Indiana (WRTV) — An Indiana couple is facing neglect charges after detectives say they abandoned their young adopted daughter and moved out of the country.
Detectives filed charges against Michael and Kristine Barnett on Wednesday, following a five year investigation.
According to charging documents filed with the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office, the couple adopted a little girl from the Ukraine in 2010. The little girl told detectives she has a form of dwarfism.
The little girl told detectives that she lived with the Barnetts for two years after the adoption, at a home in Hamilton County.
Then in 2013, the little girl said the couple rented her an apartment in Lafayette and left her there, alone, while the rest of the family moved to Canada. The couple never contacted her after they left the country.
According to court documents, Michael Barnett said they had the child’s legal age changed from 8 to 22 in June of 2012.
They also say the couple rented the apartment in Lafayette, because the child had no other contacts or affiliations in the county or surrounding area. They left the child at the apartment, alone, between July 2013 and February 2016.
Court documents detail medical records from Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, which show the child was examined on June 3, 2010 and she was estimated to be approximately 8 years old. Later medical records from 2012 also show that the child had a skeletal survey completed at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital which estimated her age to be approximately 11 years old at the time.
Michael told detectives that his wife had told the child to tell others that she “looks young” but was actually 22, according to court documents, although he admitted to knowing the medical records said she was a minor and he believed she was when they abandoned her in 2013.
Michael also told detectives that they had been paying the rent for the apartment in Lafayette, but had not provided any other form of monetary assistance to the child since they abandoned her.
Michael and Kristine Barnett have both been charged with two counts of neglect including endangering a dependent’s life and abandoning or cruelly confining a dependent.
The case remains under investigation.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Wendy Williams ditches party at the last minute to avoid Lil’ Kim
Wendy Williams caused some drama by pulling out of Us Weekly’s Most Stylish New Yorkers party just hours before the event, Page Six is told.
And while some insiders say it’s “a mystery” why she ditched the appearance, another source says she decided not to show after discovering that her nemesis, Lil’ Kim, was also set to be honored at the event.
We’re told there had been much negotiation between the scandal-struck chat-show host’s team and the event’s organizers in the run-up to the big night, with Williams agreeing to appear in return for being included on the list.
And when her team told the tabloid on the morning of the event that she had to drop out because of a “scheduling conflict,” the stunned staff made a flurry of calls in an attempt to get her to change her mind.
Insiders say arrangements had already been made to make sure that Williams and Lil’ Kim — who have traded barbs about the rapper’s plastic surgery and Williams’ alleged fling with Kim’s ex, Biggie Smalls — weren’t seated close to each other at the event at Cathédrale at Moxy East Village.
Apparently, all the other honorees showed up as planned. They included La La Anthony, Coco Austin and Ice-T and Sara Haines.
Reps for Us Weekly and Williams didn’t get back to us.
Photo Credit: pagesix.com/Getty Images
Woman’s boss harassed her so much it killed her, scathing suit claims
A Coney Island Hospital ER doctor was harassed to death, a bombshell lawsuit claims.
Dr. Inna Shuman was so mentally and physically stressed by a campaign of cruelty conducted by her department chairman that her immune system was compromised, making her susceptible to cancer, and “exacerbated her condition and caused her quick demise” from the disease, the suit alleges.
Shuman died on Nov. 14, 2017, from gallbladder cancer at the age of 53.
Her husband, Dr. Gennadiy Bilitch, 55, who chairs the psychiatry department at the same taxpayer-funded hospital where his spouse was employed, has continued the court fight his wife initiated against Coney Island in 2011, on behalf of her estate.
Jury selection in the $10 million civil case is scheduled for later this month.
Dr. Shuman was hired in October 2007 and in 2009 was chosen “as the best doctor in the ER,” court papers claim. The veteran MD happily worked night shifts in order to care during the day for her son, Jonathan.
Her troubles began when she was groped in May 2010 by Dr. David P. Neckritz, the suit claims, two months after he took over as chair of emergency medicine.
“I was horrified and I felt ashamed and humiliated that another man, especially a supervisor in the same place where my husband and I would work, would grab at my breast so brazenly and press his penis up against my body in the middle of the workplace,” Shuman said in an affidavit.
Neckritz allegedly whispered that he would fire another doctor so she could become his assistant, and would raise her salary from $147,000 to $200,000.
She told no one at first.
“I didn’t want my husband to find out or for this to have any impact on him professionally and I suffered in silence at home for many months, hiding my pain over the violation from my husband,” she said.
But Shuman “no longer felt safe” at work.
Rejected and suspecting that Shuman was talking to people, Neckritz began to retaliate, the suit says.
He allegedly berated Shuman for not discharging patients fast enough, and allegedly asked other staffers to “get dirt” on Shuman. In one instance, an assistant took pictures of Shuman at her desk “mid blink” to show she was “sleeping on the job.”
By the end of 2010, Neckritz removed Shuman from the critical care area of the emergency department.
Shuman became physically distressed. She “couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat and then would overeat, began having intense anxiety and trouble breathing,” the suit says.
“Repeated studies have shown that exposure to significant stress more than doubles the risk of developing cancer,” said Dr. William Malarkey, an Ohio State University researcher who is an expert witness for the plaintiff, in court papers. “It would be consistent with well-accepted medical knowledge that Dr. Shuman would be profoundly affected by Dr. Neckritz’s behavior and continued presence in her environment.”
Neckritz resigned “unscathed” from Coney Island at the end of 2015, around the same time Shuman was diagnosed and two years before her death, said Shuman’s attorney, Zarina Burbacki.
“It’s been a long road for Dr. Inna Shuman to bring justice to those who gravely abused their power as her employers,” Burbacki said. “She was a devoted and respected emergency department doctor, a loving wife and exceptional mother who suffered immensely for standing up to her abuser.”
The suit names Neckritz; New York City; the city Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs Coney Island Hospital; and Physician Affiliate Group of New York, as defendants.
NYC Health and Hospitals spokesman Christopher Miller said the defendants “take allegations of sexual harassment seriously. At this stage, the court has not determined the credibility of Dr. Shuman’s claims. A jury will decide whether her claims have merit.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/09/14/womans-boss-harassed-her-so-much-it-killed-her-scathing-suit-claims/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Pennsylvania man jailed for kissing, menacing coworker on his second day on the job
DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — A Dauphin County man accused of giving a co-worker an unwanted kiss on his second day on the job earlier this year will serve time in state prison after being convicted of indecent assault and other offenses Thursday in Dauphin County Court.
Carl Gamby will serve a sentence of 11.5 to 23 months in prison, according to the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office. He was also found guilty of indecent exposure and possession of drug paraphernalia in the March 28 incident, which occurred at a Swatara Township Econo Lodge.
According to prosecutors, Gamby was being trained at the front desk of the hotel by another employee when he excused himself, went to the bathroom and ingested a controlled substance. After stumbling out of the bathroom, Gamby kissed his coworker on the neck, took off her shirt, and began approaching her again, telling her “I just want to kiss you.”
The victim managed to ward off Gamby and fled to safety while dialing 911, prosecutors said.
Gamby then proceeded to take off the remainder of his clothes and ran into the walls of the hotel before spotting the victim in the parking lot, according to prosecutors. He then chased after her and began pounding on the doors and windows of her car until she was able to drive away.
Police responding to the scene later found Gamby completely naked in the hotel parking lot.
The jury found him guilty on all counts.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Day care workers arrested, accused of helping children bully 5-year-old girl
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two child care workers are now behind bars for child endangerment involving a 5-year-old girl, WCMH reports.
Police said video shows Emma Dietrich, 31, of Columbus, and Joshua Tennant, 27, of Columbus, sitting back and watching abuse at the Worthington Learning Center.
The girl appeared to be scared in the video and kept her eyes closed, trying to curl up into the fetal position.
The report also said Tennant is seen picking up the student who was being bullied by her ankle and carrying her upside down before placing her back on the rug.
Dietrich and Tennant are facing child endangerment charges in connection to the incident, police said.
According to recent inspection reports online, Worthington Learning Center it is a licensed child care center.
The center was last inspected by the state in June, where they found several safety issues including a lack of child abuse training required for staff.
Everything is now in compliance as noted in the inspection report.
Photo Credit: pix11.com