Driver follows Google’s advice, slides off road – down the mountain
Denver, CO (KMGH ) — When mudslides closed I-70 on Friday near Glenwood Springs, drivers had a choice — they could wait for the highway to reopen or they could use their Google Maps app to find a detour.
Loni Nelsen opted for Google but had no clue what was in store.
“Google pulled up a route and said it was clear and feasible to get through,” he said.
So Nelsen proceeded down Four Mile Road from Glenwood to Sunlight Mountain Resort and continued on County Road 117 and turned onto Forest Road 800. He said three miles in, his SUV slid off the road.
“My truck was sitting about like this,” he said, holding his hand at a tilt. “Every time I tried to get back up on the road, my truck slid further down the mountain.”
Nelsen said that’s when he started to worry that another car might slide off and hit his.
“I was scared that it was going to roll down the mountain and I was going to get crumpled in it and trapped,” he explained. “I was nowhere near cell phone service.”
He said all he could think about was getting home to his wife and kids.
Nelsen told Denver7 there was a vehicle that pulled up behind him.
“The guy was like, ‘there is no way we’re going to get you out. If you’d like, I’m going to Silt. You can hitch a ride with me.’ So, I grabbed my keys and some water, and I jumped in his truck,” Nelson said.
He said they used four-wheel drive the rest of the way.
“At one point, we drove through two rivers,” he said. “One stream was gushing. It was maybe 15 to 20 feet wide, and water was running down there very rapidly. We had to drive through it to get down the mountain.”
When Nelsen went back to retrieve his Chevy Tahoe the following day, he noticed that several other cars had slid farther downhill than his.
He sent a picture of one of those cars.
“That vehicle missed the switchbacks completely,” he said. “You could see it. I didn’t get a picture of the trail, but you could see the trail where they just blazed straight down the mountain.”
“I really hope and pray that everybody made it out safely and that nobody wandered deeper in there, or is lost or stuck or starving,” he added.
The 28-year-old Rifle resident is not too happy with Google right now.
“After going down that road, Google’s full of it,” he said. “That (road) is… for people who have jacked-up Jeeps with 30-inch tires for mud bogging and off-roading.”
Denver7 reached out to Google to ask about Nelsen’s claims.
We received an email asking if the person flagged the issue using the “send feedback button” on Google Maps.
Google asked for a screenshot of the detour and said they would look into it.
Nelsen said he tried to provide feedback, but “the only thing on Google Maps to report is an unnamed road or a missing road that is not on their computer or website.”
He said, in his opinion, the app should inform users that the road is not meant for little four-door cars, it is intended for off-road vehicles with four-wheel drive.
Photo Credit:
6-year-old boy shot and killed at California festival was a ‘happy kid’
(CNN) — The shooting death of 6-year-old Stephen Romero at a popular festival in Northern California stunned his family and neighbors.
Stephen’s father, Alberto Romero, told CNN affiliate the San Jose Mercury News newspaper that he was at home when his wife called to say she, her mother and their son had been shot at the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening, that what she was saying was a lie, maybe I was dreaming,” he said.
The dad went to a hospital to see his son.
“They told me he was in critical condition and that they were working on him,” he said. “Five minutes later they told me he was dead.”
When paternal grandmother Maribel Romero found out the boy had been shot, she went from hospital to hospital looking for him. Stephen was a happy kid, she said.
“This is really hard, there’s no words to describe (it),” she told CNN affiliate KRON of her grandson’s death. “I don’t think this is fair.”
Stephen was among the three people killed Sunday evening when a gunman sneaked into the festival and began firing. Twelve others were injured at what was supposed to be a family-friendly event. About 100,000 people attend the decades-old festival each year, previous records show.
And collectively, the event has helped raise “millions of dollars for local schools, charities and nonprofit organizations,” the festival’s website says.
Officers engaged the suspect within one minute, Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said, and the suspect was shot and killed.
‘We need to know … there’s justice’
The boy’s mother was shot in the hand and in the stomach and is expected to survive, KRON reported.
“I just wish that they get the people who did it,” Maribel Romero said. “We need to know that they got this person and that there’s justice.”
Gilroy City Council member Fred M. Tovar told CNN early Monday he was saddened by the news of the child’s death.
“I pray that God will grant his family strength. My most sincere condolences. I will keep your family close in my thoughts and prayers in the coming weeks as you are going through the process of grieving,” he said in a statement.
Written by: By Christina Maxouris, CNN
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Romero family via CNN
Baby found dead in St. Louis home may have been in freezer for 2 decades
ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) – An infant was found dead in a freezer in South St. Louis Saturday.
Police said they were called to the home in the 6000 block of Magnolia just before 1 a.m. Sunday for a “suspicious death.”
While police have not released any further information, a St. Louis man told News 4 he was cleaning out the freezer at his mother’s home after she recently died.
The man tells News 4 he opened a box that had been in the freezer for as long as he could remember, at least 20 years, and found the baby wrapped in a pink blanket. He then called police.
An autopsy is being conducted to determine a cause of death.
Anyone with information is being urged to call the Homicide Division at 314-444-5371 or CrimeStoppers at 866-371-8477.
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Female captain ‘twerked’ to get razor from masturbating inmate
A female Rikers jail captain once suggestively twerked for a male prisoner as part of a creepy deal to get him to cough up a contraband razor, says a lawsuit charging a culture of cover-ups at the infamous lockup.
Former guard Manuel Carvalho Calvelos claims in his Manhattan federal lawsuit filed this month that he was fired for blowing the whistle on such seamy behavior — as well as rampant corruption.
“Manuel had a legal obligation to report the illegal activities and corruption he witnessed within the Department of Correction, and he took that duty seriously,” his lawyer, Phillips Hines, told The Post.
“Unfortunately, those at DOC that decided to terminate him do not.”
The plaintiff’s supervisors were intent on improving the embattled jail’s statistics, including involving assaults, as they silenced him, Calvelos’ suit says.
In the twerking incident in May 2017, a DOC captain danced for a masturbating inmate to get a razor in the prisoner’s possession, the suit alleges.
When Calvelos reported the incident to three supervisors, “The captains … smiled and dismissed Plaintiff without taking further action,” according to the suit.
The former corrections officer later reported three other guards for smuggling in contraband and planting it on inmates after assaults on employees — but the same trio of supervisors didn’t follow up on the allegations, according to the suit.
Days after reporting the illegal activity, Calvelos said he was written up for violating the uniform policy but that it was only in retaliation.
The suit also claims that when he was punched in the face by an inmate, nearly breaking his nose, in March 2017, Warden Clement Glenn and one of the three supervisors told him to “hold it down” and report it only as a use of force, not an assault.
Such allegations echo a city Department of Investigation report from April that found there was no way to track assaults on staff at the jail.
Calvelos worked at the Department of Corrections for nearly two years before being let go Jan. 5, 2018 — eight days before his position would be permanent — with the agency citing two use of force incidents.
He and his lawyer say his firing was in retaliation for his whistle-blowing.
A DOC spokesman told The Post that Calvelos’ “allegations do not in any way represent the hardworking New York City correction officers who come to work every day as part of a law-enforcement community dedicated to helping keep New Yorkers safe.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/07/28/female-captain-twerked-to-get-razor-from-masturbating-inmate-lawsuit/
Photo Credit: AP
5-year-old credited with saving 13 from Chicago house fire
CHICAGO (AP) — A 5-year-old boy is being credited with saving 13 people from a Chicago house fire.
Residents say Jayden Espinosa awoke to smoke and flames just before 4 a.m. Saturday and alerted others to the danger.
Seven adults and six children who lived in the 2 1/2-story brick home in the Back of the Yards neighborhood were left homeless. No injuries were reported.
Nicole Peeples says that without the boy’s warning, “I don’t think we would have survived.”
Peeples says she smelled no smoke and “the fire alarms never went off. I’m so glad he was there.”
Fire officials are investigating the cause of the fire. Residents say the home was destroyed.
Photo Credit: foxnews.com
Man Selling Bottled Water without License Placed in Chokehold by policed: “I Can’t Breathe”
Las Vegas police arrested a man for selling bottled water without a license as witnesses recorded.
A man selling cold bottled water to thirsty tourists on a triple-digit summer day in Las Vegas was placed in a chokehold by Las Vegas police who apparently were cracking down on unlicensed street vendors.
“I can’t breathe” the man wheezes as one cop tightens the chokehold around his neck. But the cop only tells him to “quit resisting.”
“Saying he is resisting won’t make him be resisting,” says a witness as the cops continues repeating the mindless phrase.
“We’re watching you.”
The man does not resist throughout the video but the cops continue to tell him not to resist.
“You’re the only one that committed a crime,” another witness tells the cops.
The video was posted to Facebook Friday with the following description:
This video is someone I know. Jimmy Williams was exercising his right to support himself and/or his family. He was selling water in Las Vegas on a hot day. Do you still think you are free? Do you still think Police are your friends? This is what promoters, water sellers, smut peddlers etc go through everyday on the Las Vegas Strip trying to make a living and trying to put smiles on peoples faces. You have the right to pursue happiness. Whatever that is do it as long as ye harm no one. The police are nothing but a domestic terrorist organization. More people need to wake up. Its not easy. Waking up is hard to do especially when you have been indoctrinated. Rebirth is relearning what you have been taught. Life is not butterflies and crayons. Its not going to be pretty. Its going to a long lonely road but I for one would rather die standing up than to comply. Tis better to burn out than it is to fade cause rust never sleeps.
“They need to train these guys,” one woman exclaims but the video shows they are doing exactly as they are trained. From the chokehold to the knee on the back, they are only trained in how to control people whether they need to be controlled or not.
The video ends with the handcuffed man laying face down in a puddle of water from his own cooler yelling out his phone number to notify his friends or family that he has been arrested.
Photo Credit: newsmaven.io
Dead Newborn Found in Bathroom of Applebee’s in Suburban Dallas
Police in suburban Dallas are investigating the death of a newborn, who investigators say was left in a trash can after being born inside a restaurant’s bathroom.
Irving police say the infant was found Friday afternoon inside the bathroom of an Applebee’s restaurant.
Investigators believe the baby was born in the bathroom and was then put in a trash can. Authorities haven’t said whether or not the baby could have been stillborn.
Police say the baby’s mother then left the restaurant and that they’re still looking for her.
The newborn’s body was found about 30 minutes after the mother left by restaurant employees who were cleaning the bathroom.
via: https://ktla.com/2019/07/27/dead-newborn-found-in-bathroom-of-applebees-in-suburban-dallas/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Emmett Till memorial to be replaced with bulletproof sign
A bullet-riddled memorial sign for Emmett Till at the center of a photo showing three white University of Mississippi students posing with guns is now gone.
It has been vandalized multiple times over the years and, in a few months, the sign will be replaced again — this time with a bulletproof marker.
The sign was placed near the spot where Till’s bodywas pulled from the Tallahatchie River in 1955. The 14-year-old African American was tortured and killed by two white men after accusations that he flirted with a white woman. His death became an important catalyst in the civil rights movement.
Patrick Weems, the executive director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, said the group began to mark every site that was part of Emmett’s story after community leaders offered his family an apology for the first time about 10 years ago.
“For 50 years our community didn’t want to talk about Emmett Till, they just wanted to forget it,” Weems said.
The 50-pound purple marker was removed a few days ago when the commission learned that the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica were publishing a story along with a photo of the three University of Mississippi students, Weems said.
The students have been suspended by their fraternity and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is also reportedly investigating.
It’s not the first time the sign has seen trouble.
The first sign went up along the river in 2007 and was stolen the following year. No arrests were ever made. When the marker was replaced, it was riddled with bullet holes. in 2018, a third sign was put up at the site but only 35 days went by before it was shot up again.
The sign will be replaced in October with a nearly 600-pound sign made of reinforced steel, according to Matt Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon Studio in Brooklyn who has been working to create the sign.
And this time, the sign is expected to be bulletproof.
“We won’t’ stop. There will be another sign up,” said Rev. Willie Williams, the commission’s treasurer. “This particular area will go forward in the long run. Because this legacy and this story, it’s much bigger than any of us.”
The commission is asking local authorities to launch an investigation into the students’ photo. Members said they don’t know whether the students damaged the sign.
As Weems walked around the remote site where the marker once stood on Friday, he said, the vandalized signs have brought him both frustration and hope.
“And the hope is that there are people around this country who care about this story,” Weems said. “That Emmett Till did not die in vain. His mother didn’t allow him to die in vain and we have a sacred oath to make sure that these sites go back up.”
via: https://pix11.com/2019/07/27/emmett-till-memorial-to-be-replaced-with-bulletproof-sign/
Photo Credit: Mat Dilling/Light Bright Neon Studios
Woman orders food, tells server ‘this one’s on God’ before fleeing
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A New Mexico woman is facing charges after police say she ordered food from a Sonic and told a server, “This one’s on God,” before fleeing.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reports 30-year-old Delila Hernandez was arrested Monday in a felony robbery case.
Police say Hernandez rode her bicycle to a Sonic in Las Cruces and ordered a meal. When the server asked for payment, she allegedly told him, “This one’s on God.”
Police say the server told her, “That’s not how this works,” but gave her the meal after she came toward him.
Police later found Hernandez at a nearby park.
It was not known if Hernandez had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.
Authorities say her charges may be reduced.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/07/26/woman-orders-food-tells-server-this-ones-on-god-before-fleeing-cops/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Florida trooper had sex with 14-year-old girl in the back of his car
A Florida state trooper has been arrested for having sex with a girl starting from when she was just 14 — at least once in the back of his car parked in a public gas station, according to authorities.
Highway Patrol trooper Riley Marcus Schwarz, 23, was busted after the girl’s parents found her journal detailing the numerous times the officer had sex with the youngster, according to the Tampa Bay Reporter.
“The contents of the journal indicate that the relationship was sexual in nature and that they had been talking to each other since Sept. 23, 2018,” the arrest affidavit says, according to the paper.
They started having sex in October 2018 when the girl was just 14, the affidavit states.
Schwarz admitted to the having intercourse with the girl “six to eight times,” according to the affidavit, including once “in the back seat of his vehicle” at a Mobil gas station.
Schwarz has been charged with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery involving sexual activity of a victim 12-15 years of age, according to records, and is being held in Land O Lakes jail on $10,000 bond.
He was immediately fired by the Florida Highway Patrol.
“The alleged actions are reprehensible, and the department continues to cooperate fully with the investigation,” Captain Thomas E. Pikul said, according to the Reporter.
Photo Credit: Pasco Sheriff’s Office