11-year-old girl shot in the face answering door at Pennsylvania home
An 11-year-old Pennsylvania girl was shot in the face by a masked gunman when she answered the door at a home in Bethlehem, according to police.
The unidentified child responded to a knock on the door at the Fairland Avenue home shortly before midnight Wednesday when she was shot, Bethlehem police said in a statement on Facebook.
The girl suffered “significant facial trauma” in the attack but is expected to recover, police said.
“We do not believe this to be a random act, although the victim was likely not the intended target,” the statement said. “Although we are asking Bethlehem residents to be extra vigilant and to report any suspicious sightings, we do not believe there is any increased danger to the public at large.”
The shooter is believed to be a man and could have been wearing a face covering, cops told the Express-Times.
“Fireworks, that’s all that ever happens here that’s alarming,” neighbor Marcie Lightwood told the outlet. “People are friendly, people are nice. It’s a quiet, nice neighborhood.”
Another neighbor said an elderly couple lived in the home and had their granddaughter visiting.
Asked if they believed the gunman went to the wrong address, police said they “are not ruling anything out.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/09/10/girl-shot-in-the-face-answering-door-at-pennsylvania-home/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Mom falls through ceiling during daughter’s audition, video goes viral on TikTok
A freshman at a Big Apple dramatic arts college was recording herself as she practiced for a school audition – but was upstaged by her own mom, who came crashing down through the ceiling.
Liz San Millan, who attends the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, was facing the camera as she sang “Kindergarten Boyfriend” from “Heathers: The Musical,” when she heard a crash in her parents’ home in Denison, Texas.
The shocked student turned around to the sight of her mother’s leg dangling through a hole in the ceiling – along with a chunk of insulation and pieces of drywall.
“There was a loud noise … I turn around and all of a sudden, my mom’s leg is through the ceiling,” Liz told “Good Morning America.”
“My dad said, ‘Did you just fall through the ceiling?’ and [my mom] said, ‘You’re not going to ask if I’m OK?’ She was a little sassy about it, actually,” added the student, who posted the hilarious clip on TikTok, where it went viral.
“We laughed for like 30 minutes straight,” she told ”GMA.” “She was not against posting it, and thought it was hilarious.”
The musical theater student, who recently moved to the city, told BuzzFeed News she was recording herself as practice for placement auditions when her mom tripped in the attic while looking for luggage.
“Right before she fell, you can see the irritation in my face due to her banging around while she knew I was filming,” Liz told the outlet. “There are wooden beams in the attic that you’re supposed to step on, but she tripped and stepped right into my ceiling.”
She added: “She was shocked at first, which is why she didn’t make any noise or move around, but she is completely fine! Not even a scratch.”
Her dad, Lance, has been working on filling the big hole.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the responses to my video,” Liz told BuzzFeed. “My mom has absolutely loved reading the comments and watching the duets.”
“Always love the background dancers,” one TikTok user wrote.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/09/10/mom-crashes-through-ceiling-during-daughters-audition-on-video/
Photo Credit: TikTok
Boy dies at suburban Chicago hotel after granite tabletop falls on his head at wedding reception
A five-year-old boy died in a hotel outside of Chicago last week when a granite tabletop fell on him during a wedding reception.
Luca Berlingerio, of Glenview, Illinois, was killed during the tragic accident while he was with his family at the Drake Hotel in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook on Sept. 4, according to the Oak Brook Police Department.
Police said surveillance video from the hotel shows Berlingerio lying across a table with a granite top, which was positioned against the back of a sofa where other children were playing at the time.
As Berlingerio tried to slide off the table, he grabbed its edge to stabilize himself. But as he descended, the stone tabletop fell on his head, according to police.
Berlingerio suffered severe head injuries and was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
“Our team is heartbroken about this terrible accident,” said Lee Hoener, Drake Hotel’s general manager, in a statement. “We wish to share our condolences with the family and friends affected. To respect their privacy, we aren’t able to share the specifics of the incident.”
A GoFundMe was launched to support the child’s mother, Simone Berlingerio. The site has set a goal to raise $10,000 for the family and has collected more than $2,800 over two days.
Photo Credit: GoFundMe
New photos of man who allegedly wiped vomit on 42 clothing items at Wyoming Valley Mall
WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) — Well- you may have thought we’ve heard it all.
One man is now being charged after he wiped his vomit all over clothing at the Wyoming Valley Mall H&M store yesterday.
According to police, the man entered the store and started throwing up then stood up and wiped the vomit on 42 clothing items before leaving.
The man was allegedly last seen leaving the parking lot in a black Acura.
Cost in damages is $859.58.
Photo Credit: fox56
Arkansas man gets 2 life terms, 835 years for killing off-duty police officer
WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas man has been sentenced to two life terms plus 835 years in prison for the fatal shooting of an off-duty police officer in northeast Arkansas.
Demarcus Donnell Parker, 27, was convicted Tuesday by a Crittenden County jury of first-degree murder, illegally shooting a weapon from a vehicle and 21 related charges in the April 2018 shooting death of Forrest City officer Oliver Johnson, according to court documents.
An attorney for Parker did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.
Prosecutors have said Parker was shooting at rival gang members outside Johnson’s home in West Memphis when the officer was struck by a stray bullet. Investigators have said Johnson was likely not the target of the gunfire.
Trial on similar charges is pending against a co-defendant in the shooting, George Henderson, who has pleaded not guilty.
Photo Credit: Crittenden County Jail via AP
Will Smith finally buries hatchet with ‘First Aunt Viv’ Janet Hubert
Will Smith charmed us all as the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” in the 1990s.
And the star handed out some much needed good news on the 30th anniversary of the show Thursday night via Instagram.
The 51-year-old actor was reunited with his co-stars of the sitcom, as they gathered to celebrate the anniversary by filming a reunion special.
Will posted a picture in the old Banks mansion alongside Tatyana Ali (Ashley), Karyn Parsons (Hilary), Joseph Marcell (Geoffrey), Daphne Maxwell Reid (Aunt Viv No.2) and Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton), as well as the recurring DJ Jazzy Jeff.
He captioned the image: “Today is exactly 30 YEARS since The @FreshPrince of Bel-Air debuted! So we’re doin’ something for y’all… a for real Banks Family Reunion is comin’ soon to @HBOmax! RIP James. #FreshPrince30th.”
James Avery — aka Uncle Phil — died in 2013.
But what really got fans worked up Thursday night: A second picture revealed Will burying the hatchet with the original Aunt Viv, Janet Hubert.
They are pictured seated together on camera for the first time in 27 years.
She played Aunt Viv in the first three seasons before leaving in 1993 amid a long-standing feud with Smith.
Their on-set issues caused her early exit from the show, and she documented her broken relationship with Smith in her 2009 book “Perfection Is Not a Sitcom Mom.”
She claimed that she was “demonized” following her departure, and in 2017, she criticized the cast after being snubbed from a previous reunion, according to Digital Spy.
This reunion will take a look back at the series, which starred Smith as a fictionalized version of himself moving from West Philadelphia to live with his wealthy uncle and aunt in Bel Air in the NBC series which originally aired from 1990-1996.
The “Fresh Princ”e reunion night of music, dancing and surprise guests is expected to air around Thanksgiving on HBO Max, but there’s no confirmed date yet.
A separate reboot called “Bel-Air” is also in the works for streaming service Peacock.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/09/11/will-smith-finally-buries-hatchet-with-first-aunt-viv-janet-hubert/
Photo Credit: Instagram
Man arrested for alleged rape of 86-year-old woman in Delhi
An Indian man has been arrested for the alleged rape of an 86-year-old woman after he approached her while she was waiting for the milkman then lured her to an isolated field, according to a senior police official.
The woman was outside her house in a village in the Indian capital Delhi on Monday evening when she was allegedly approached by a 32-year-old man named Sonu, an additional deputy commissioner of Delhi police, R P Meena, said.
“The accused asked her to accompany him on his two-wheeler (vehicle) on the pretext that he had to ask for his money back from someone and that they would be sympathetic if he was accompanied by an old lady,” Meena told CNN Thursday.
Neighbors heard the woman screaming for help and called the police. The accused was caught at the scene and arrested for rape and voluntarily causing hurt, Meena said.
According to Meena, the woman did not know the accused and the police don’t believe that the crime was premeditated. The woman sustained minor injuries during the struggle and has been discharged from the hospital as she is in a stable condition, he added.
Under Indian law, rape carries a possible sentence of life imprisonment. The death sentence is also available for repeat rape offenders, gang rapists, or people convicted of raping a minor.
The case has prompted anger from the Delhi Commission For Women (DCW), a statutory body that investigates safety and security issues relating to women.
On Wednesday, the DCW wrote a letter to the lieutenant governor of Delhi — the constitutional head of the city — appealing to him to fast-track the case and ensure that the accused receives the harshest possible sentence.
The chief of DCW, Swati Maliwal, alleges that the 86-year-old was assaulted and raped multiple times, although police have not confirmed those details.
“The woman’s medical examination report has revealed several injuries and bruises on her body especially on her private parts,” the letter said. “She has bled profusely and is in extreme trauma.”
India has seen several high-profile rape cases in recent years, including the rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus in 2012 that made international headlines. Four men were executed earlier this year over her death.
Following that case, campaigners called for tougher laws on sexual assault in the country. Despite reforms — which included fast-track courts to move rape cases through the justice system swiftly — the number of reported rapes has risen since 2012.
Last year, more than 33,000 cases of alleged rape were reported — roughly 91 cases each day, or one rape every 16 minutes, according to India’s National Crime Records Bureau.
Maliwal told CNN Thursday that, after the 2012 gang rape, a law was passed which said that if a police officer for any reason refuses to register a rape complaint, then a complaint can be filed against him, which likely was one of the reasons behind the rise in reported rapes.
However, she believed that the level of brutality in sexual violence crimes had increased in the past few years.
“This is one of the worst crimes I’ve come across in the last five years,” she said, referring to the alleged rape of the 86-year-old.
She said that stronger laws were not enough if they weren’t implemented properly — and noted that she had still received numerous reports of sexual violence from women during the past few months when India has been in lockdown.
“(Sexual violence crimes) are definitely not declining and without the government ensuring timely punishment there is nothing to deter offenders,” Maliwal said.
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/xandr/man-arrested-alleged-rape-86-080634186.html
Photo Credit: CNN.com
Russian man charged with stealing Americans’ identities as part of election interference efforts
CNN) — Federal prosecutors charged a Russian man who allegedly worked as a manager in the Russian government’s US-election interference efforts with conspiracy to steal the identities of Americans to open bank and cryptocurrency accounts.
The charges announced Thursday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, against Artem Mikhaylovich Lifshits, 27, of St. Petersburg, Russia, were part of the US government’s public response against Russians who the US says are involved in the Russian election interference operation.
The Treasury Department announced sanctions against Lifshits and two others allegedly part of what the US named Project Lakhta, the Russian-based effort to conduct political and electoral influence in the US ahead of the November elections.
The Trump administration said that the so-called Project Lakhta has been working since 2014 to disrupt and sow distrust of the US political system and against candidates for public office. The project concealed its work through groups such as the Internet Research Agency, whose members were charged with crimes by special counsel Robert Mueller. Lifshits allegedly worked as a manager for the Translator Department, which was responsible for much of the Russian project’s ongoing influence operations, according to Justice Department prosecutors.
Lifshits is believed to be in Russia and CNN couldn’t locate him to seek comment.
Prosecutors alleged that Lifshits and others stole the identities of real Americans to open bank and cryptocurrency accounts, which were used to conduct the Russian operation and for his own personal benefit.
The criminal charges don’t include any allegations of Americans knowingly participating in the Russian influence operation, the Justice Department said.
Photo Credit: kmov.com
11-year-old ‘hero’ drives sick grandma to hospital — in a Mercedes-Benz
When his grandmother was struggling to stand, an 11-year-old Indiana grandson got it in gear.
PJ Brewer-Laye, who was driving his go-kart at the time, had been out with Angela Brewer-Laye last week in their Indianapolis neighborhood as she walked nearby. The pair were about a mile and a half from their home when his grandma began to feel ill.
At that moment, PJ was zooming up and down the street past his ailing grandmother.
Feeling dizzy, weak and unable to see clearly, Angela leaned against a road sign. Then her blurry vision began to sharpen.
“I was leaning against the stop sign, and all of a sudden, I look to my right, and I see my car — my Mercedes-Benz coming towards me. Just in an easy, calm manner, it was coming towards me,” the woman told 11Alive.
“I looked in the car. It was him — it was PJ,” Angela recalled.
The boy, who just turned 12 but was 11 at the time of the incident, had quickly noticed the change in his grandma, and didn’t think twice about riding his go-kart home to fetch a more suitable road vehicle.
Angela praised the driving skills of her grandson, who, she explained, has had a lot of practice in his short life.
“This child is only 11 years old and drives like a pro,” she said. “He always rides either his four-wheeler, go-kart or his dirt bike while I’m trying to get a little exercise in.”
It wasn’t PJ’s first time behind the wheel of a full-size automobile, either, as his grandfather, Angela’s husband, often used to ask a young PJ to rearrange their cars in the driveway or yard — under Grandpa’s close watch, of course. PJ’s trip to the hospital last week was his first time on the road in a car.
“He drove me home, and he pulled in the driveway. And when I say he pulled in the driveway so precise, because my driveway is kind of narrow … He didn’t go up the curb, in the grass, nothing. He pulled in the driveway, in the garage, and helped me out the car,” said Angela, adding that he was “calm and collected” at the wheel, even during an emergency.
“He’s an extra special little boy and he doesn’t ask for anything in return,” said Angela.
As to why, of all her cars, PJ chose the Mercedes-Benz, Angela explained it was simply the easiest vehicle for him to reach at the time — though one couldn’t blame the boy hero for being drawn to the top-dollar car.
Said one viewer, who saw 11Alive’s coverage on YouTube, “Pj been wanting to drive that Mercedes for a long time. Such a smart young man.”
Another joked that PJ drove the luxury vehicle “with class.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/09/04/11-year-old-boy-drives-grandma-to-hospital-in-a-mercedes-benz/
Photo Credit: 11Alive
Girl shares mom’s rum bottle during online show-and-tell
When Illinois second-grader Penny was given an assignment to bring “something that smells good” to her remote-school class, her mind went straight to Mommy’s liquor cabinet.
“It’s moments like these that I wish I didn’t go all ‘balls out’ on having children,” Penny’s mother, Meghan Maza Oeser, wrote in a now-viral Facebook post on Monday. “Here’s Penny … showing her class ‘something that smells good.’ ”
Beneath the text is an image of Penny at her neat learning station, wearing light-pink headphones and happily holding up to her virtual classmates a bottle of Malibu rum nearly the size of her torso. While her class can’t appreciate the alcohol’s coconut scent through the airwaves, they can certainly see that Penny has chosen an object she won’t be legally allowed to drink for years to come.
“#InJesusNameAmen #BlessIt #PleaseTakeThemBackNow #HideYoWife #HideYoKids #HideYoMalibu,” Oeser hashtagged the post, which has racked up more than 93,000 likes in less than a week.
This isn’t the first time Oeser has gone viral. In April, on the first day of e-learning with her six children, she accidentally flashed her daughter’s class — a hilariously common mistake other parents have fallen victim to in the age of online classes.
“I’d go ahead and normally call myself a semi-tech savvy person. Not today. I am no longer savvy. I am now a day drinker. I’m done,” she wrote in her retelling of the event. Oeser was wearing nothing but a towel in her bedroom, having just taken a shower, when one of her kids came in, asking for phone help. “How do I end this?” her daughter whispered, holding up the phone so the screen was facing her mother, unsure how to log out of her Google Hangouts class. That’s when the towel slipped.
“So there I am … heavy towel … that fell around my waist … with my 40 something year old t–ties staring Mrs. Definitelygonnaneedsometherapyafterthis RIGHT in the face!!!” Oeser wrote, concluding the post, “End call.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/09/04/girl-brings-moms-bottle-of-malibu-to-online-show-and-tell/
Photo Credit: Facebook