Category: News Daypop

The bodies of three residents who lived in the apartment building that collapsed in Davenport, Iowa, were found over the weekend. On Saturday, 42-year-old Branden Colvin’s body was found in the rubble; and the bodies of 51-year-old Ryan Hitchcock and 60-year-old Daniel Prien were recovered on Sunday.

Officials initially planned to demolish the building at 324 Main St. swiftly after it partially collapsed on May 28, and rescuers said there were no credible reports of any missing persons at that time.  However last Tuesday, the city halted plans to demolish the partially collapsed building because at least five residents were missing. Rescuers would go on to save more than a dozen people, as well as several pets, from the six-story structure. Of the five missing residents, two had been accounted for before discovering the bodies of the remaining three.

A structural engineer from Select Structural Engineering in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, investigated the building on Feb. 2 and discovered a “localized area of brick [that] is cracked and crumbling” on the exterior wall on the west side of the building. Reports dating Feb. 8 said of the west wall crumbling “this engineer determined that this is not an imminent threat to the building or its residents, but structural repairs will be necessary.” During a second inspection later that month, the same engineer, said “the mason pointed out that the area immediately to the north of the work area has a large and potentially dangerous void beneath the facade wythe of clay brick.”

The 16,200-square foot, 79-unit mixed-use complex was purchased in June 2021 by Davenport Hotel LLC., owned by Andrew Wold. Wold has been fined $300 and a $95 court fee for failing to maintain a “safe, sanitary, and structurally sound” property.

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Officials confirmed that an unresponsive pilot flew through restricted airspace in Washington, D.C. before crashing in Virginia on Sunday, leaving 4 dead. The Cessna Citation private jet was followed by fighter jets authorized to fly at supersonic speed.

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) dispatched 6 F-16 fighter jets immediately to intercept the plane, which set off a sonic boom heard and felt throughout the Washington, D.C. area as they attempted to intercept the Cessna. An unusual flight path caught the Federal Aviation Administration’s attention, and the pilot had stopped responding to air traffic control operators.

On Monday, federal authorities said that the crash occurred after the Cessna ran out of fuel; it was not taken down by fighter jets. The crash left behind “highly fragmented” wreckage in a mountainous area, and will take investigators days time to reach the remote crash scene about 2 to 3 miles north of Montebello in the mountainous terrain. They expect to be on the scene at least three to four days to gather, sort and inspect the wreckage, before moving it.

The FAA confirmed that the pilot and three passengers were killed and that the plane was “destroyed” in the crash. The Cessna Citation belonged to John Rumpel from Melbourne, Florida. Rumpel said his daughter, granddaughter, nanny and their pilot were all on board. Investigators are looking into when the pilot became unresponsive and why the aircraft flew the path that it did. A preliminary report will be released in 10 days, and a final report will be released in 12 to 24 months, authorities said.

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Police say that a shooting on Chicago’s West Side early Sunday morning left one dead and six others injured. Deputy Chief Adnardo Gutierrez of the Chicago Police Department said that the victims were at a memorial celebrating the life of a man killed in a car accident four years ago when an argument began and shots rang out at about 1 a.m.

The deceased, a 25-year-old female, was found unresponsive on the ground after suffering multiple gunshot wounds. She was rushed to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. A 29-year-old man was taken to the hospital in critical condition after suffering gunshot wounds to the chest and arm.

The other injured victims included a 17-year-old girl who suffered a gunshot wound to the leg; a 27-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the leg, a 29-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the arm, a 28-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to the ear; and a 28-year-old man with gunshot wounds to the leg and arm. All were taken to the hospital in good condition.

Chicago police said that no arrests have been made; and Chief Gutierrez said that authorities are unsure how many people opened fire, but are continuing to investigate the area for possible video evidence and witnesses.

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A shooting at a party in central Missouri early Sunday morning left two teenagers dead and four others wounded  Police said those who suffered fatalities were 16 and 17 years old, but their identities have not been released. The four wounded teenagers suffered non-life-threatening injuries; according to police, they were between the ages of 16 and 19.

According to the Boone County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, a large group had gathered for a party at a vacant house in Columbia, where “a verbal disturbance broke out between two opposing groups. This verbal altercation then led to shots being fired.” Cops were called to the scene just before 1 a.m.

No suspects have been arrested. The sheriff’s office asks that anyone with information about the shooting contact the office at 573-442-6131 or 311. Anonymous tips can be shared through Crime Stoppers at 573-875-TIPS.

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The Mississippi Department of Public Safety said that two Mississippi police officers were shot and one died Thursday during a standoff that started as a hostage situation in a home.

According to The Associated Press, an unnamed person was holding a second unidentified person hostage inside a home in Brandon, a suburb of Jackson, Mississippi’s capital city. The hostage situation reportedly began as a domestic dispute between a woman and man, and Police Chief Wayne Dearman said they first received a call of the situation at around 1:45 a.m. local time.

Several law enforcement agencies responded during the eight-hour standoff, and after talking for more than an hour with the suspect, the department’s SWAT team got into the house and rescued the hostage. The officer killed was from the police department in Madison. The injured officer is from the Brandon Police Department. State police spokesperson Bailey Martin said in a statement that the suspect also was shot and killed at the home. It was not immediately clear whether police shot and killed the suspect, or the person killed himself.

The Department of Public Safety did not immediately release the names of the officers or the suspect. .

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Davenport Police Chief Jeff Bladel said during a media briefing on Thursday that three residents of an Iowa apartment building that partially collapsed on Sunday are still unaccounted for. Authorities had said five people were missing earlier this week, but Chief Bladel said that two of them have since been contacted and are safe. One moved out a month ago and was found in Texas, and the other was found locally.

Shortly before 5 p.m. on Sunday, the six-story building partially collapsed. The city of Davenport has since released documents that show the building’s owner was warned that the parts of the structural engineering of the building was unsafe.  An engineer’s report dated May 24 read that patches in the west side of the building’s brick façade “appear ready to fall imminently” and could be a safety hazard to cars or passersby. The engineer’s report also detailed that window openings were insecure, with openings “bulging outward” and “poised to fall.”  The report states that inside the first floor, unsupported window openings help “explain why the façade is currently about to topple outward … The brick façade is unlikely to be preserved in place, but it can be brought down in a safe, controlled manner.”

The city of Davenport received a host of complaints over the years about conditions in the century-old building. The building’s owner, Andrew Wold, released a statemen saying “our thoughts and prayers are with our tenants” and that his company, Davenport Hotel LLC, is working with agencies to help them.  The city filed a new enforcement action against Wold on Tuesday, saying he failed to maintain the property “in a safe, sanitary, and structurally sound condition” before the collapse. The city is seeking a $300 fine.

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On Wednesday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that two state laws banning abortion are unconstitutional. However, abortion remains illegal in the state in nearly all cases, except life-threatening situations. The laws struck down on Wednesday both included a civil-enforcement mechanism that allowed citizens to sue someone who either performed or helped someone perform an abortion. The high court said in a 6-3 ruling that the two bans are unconstitutional because they require a “medical emergency” before a doctor can perform an abortion. The court said this language conflicts with a previous ruling it issued in March that determined the Oklahoma Constitution provides an “inherent right of a pregnant woman to terminate a pregnancy when necessary to preserve her life.”

Doctors specializing in obstetriccs and gynecology had said uncertainty about the state’s abortion laws often forced them to make women facing severe medical complications and nonviable pregnancies to wait for their condition to worsen before they could perform an abortion. Dana Stone, an Oklahoma City obstetrician and gynecologist, said: “In our practice we had cases where we would just have to tell women who we would normally offer a (pregnancy) termination to protect her health … ‘We have to let you go home and monitor your condition and if you start showing signs of infection or worsening blood pressure, then come back and we have the ability to legally treat you.’  Otherwise, we’re at risk with these laws of going to jail for 10 years, having hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and losing our medical licenses.”

Oklahoma’s 1910 law makes it a felony crime punishable by up to five years in prison for anyone to perform an abortion or help a woman obtain an abortion unless it is “necessary to preserve her life.”  Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement: “Despite the court’s decisions today on SB 1603 and HB 4327, Oklahoma’s 1910 law prohibiting abortion remains in place. Except for certain circumstances outlined in that statute, abortion is still unlawful in the state of Oklahoma.”

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Actor Danny Masterson was convicted on Wednesday on two counts of rape during his retrial in Los Angeles. The Associated Press reported that the seven-woman, five-man jury deadlocked on the third count after deliberating for over a week. The actor has been free on bail since his June 2020 arrest by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division.

Wednesday’s verdict was delivered nearly six months after Masterson’s first trial ended with a mistrial, with jurors leaning towards acquitting the now 47-year-old star of “That ’70s Show”. Masterson was accused of raping three women he met through the Church of Scientology (to which Masterson still belongs) – identified at trial as Jane Doe #1, Jane Doe #2 and Jane Doe #3 — at his Hollywood Hills home from 2001 to 2003. He faced up to 45 years in prison if he was convicted on all three counts.

Masterson has denied all the allegations leveled against him by the women. Masterson never took the stand in either the first trial or retrial, and his defense attorneys declined to call any witnesses. The actor also denies assaulting a fourth woman, identified as Jane Doe #4, who told the court during his first trial he had raped her; Masterson has not been criminally charged with raping her. Both of Masterson’s trials have focused on the Church of Scientology, which Masterson’s accusers all said tried to cover up the allegations against the actor. The judge again allowed witnesses to testify how they were pressured by church officials not to talk to police about the rape allegations. Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw has denied the allegations, saying that church doctrine requires members to “abide by all the laws of the land.”

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Police in Hollywood, Florida said that two people have been arrested, while three suspects are still being sought in connection with Monday’s mass shooting on the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk in Hollywood, Florida that left nine people including several children hospitalized.  Hollywood Police have not released the identities of the injured, but said four of the nine victims are minors ranging in ages from 1 to 17, and the 5 adults are between the ages of 25 – 65. All of the victims were taken to either Memorial Regional Hospital or Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital; as of Tuesday morning, three adults had been treated and released from the hospital, while the other victims were in stable condition.

The shooting on Memorial Day happened shortly before 7 p.m. near Johnson Street, as the Broadwalk was crowded with Memorial Day beachgoers. Police said the incident started with an altercation between two groups of people that resulted in gunfire, and video from the city of Hollywood’s live feed of Hollywood Beach show people running or seeking cover when the gunshots were fired. What appears to be two guns can also be seen on the ground in the video. Officers responded and detained multiple people at or near the scene.

Police said Tuesday that while the people detained weren’t identified as the shooters, two were arrested on firearms charges; five handguns had been recovered, police said. Two of the handguns had been reported stolen, including one from Miami-Dade and one from Texas. Officials also released photos of three people who they believe were involved in the shooting, and are asking for the public’s help in identifying them. At a news conference Tuesday, Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy was the two people arrested were not from Hollywood but were from elsewhere in South Florida. Said Levy: “I’m very confident that we will apprehend those three persons. When you do something like this in broad daylight, with CCTV cameras up and down our Broadwalk, you will be identified and you will be caught and brought to justice. We’re not gonna tolerate this kind of behavior in a beautiful beach setting. We’re a very peaceful city and we will not tolerate people coming into our city and behaving in this way with no regard to people that are in harm’s way with iinocent bystanders injured like they were yesterday.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the Hollywood Police Department at 954-764-4357(HELP) or 954-967-4567.

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In a statement issued by the Carter Center on Tuesday, the family of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter announced that Mrs. Carter has dementia. The statement read: “The Carter family is sharing that former first lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia. She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains and visits with loved ones. Mrs. Carter has been the nation’s leading mental health advocate for much of her life. First in the Georgia governor’s mansion, then in the White House, and later at The Carter Center, she urged improved access to care and decreased stigma about issues surrounding mental health.”

The former first lady is 95, and the statement did not say when she was given the diagnosis. The statement continued: “One in 10 older Americans have dementia, a condition that affects overall mental health. We recognize, as she did more than half a century ago, that stigma is often a barrier that keeps individuals and their families from seeking and getting much-needed support. We hope sharing our family’s news will increase important conversations at kitchen tables and in doctor’s offices around the country. The universality of caregiving is clear in our family, and we are experiencing the joy and the challenges of this journey. We do not expect to comment further and ask for understanding for our family and for everyone across the country serving in a caregiver role.”

In February, it was announced that former President Jimmy Carter, 98, was suspending medical care and receiving only end-of-life hospice care, tweeting at the time: “After a series of short hospital stays, former President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”

The Carters have been married since 1946. They have four children and more than two dozen grandchildren and great grandchildren.

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