Star News

Authorities say a welfare check escalated into gunfire, a deputy’s death and a long surrender outside a home near Wister. WISTER, OK — An Oklahoma sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed and a small-town police chief was wounded Sunday after officers answering a welfare check near Wister came under fire, touching off a standoff that lasted about five hours before the suspect surrendered. The shooting pushed a rural eastern Oklahoma community into mourning and left …

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Hearley Smith pleaded guilty after prosecutors said he used his school role to isolate and exploit a Canyon Springs High School student. LAS VEGAS, NV — A former Clark County School District assistant principal was sentenced Tuesday to eight to 20 years in prison in a Las Vegas sex crimes case after pleading guilty to second-degree kidnapping and two counts of sexual conduct between a school employee and a pupil. Hearley Smith, 55, was sentenced …

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One worker suffered burns across about half his body after the blast near Mayer, Arizona. MAYER, AZ— Two men were severely burned in a gas line explosion at a jobsite near Mayer last week, sending both workers to a burn center in Phoenix as relatives and local officials said the cause of the blast remained under review. The explosion drew wider attention this week as family members described the injuries of one of the workers, …

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Crews spent two days tearing up concrete and soil at a north side property long linked to convicted murderer Michael Lock before police said they found nothing of evidentiary value. MILWAUKEE, WI — Milwaukee police used excavators, a Bobcat and other equipment to dig under and around a garage behind a home in the Rufus King neighborhood this week, carrying out a search warrant at a property tied for years to convicted killer Michael Lock. …

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Deputies say the men tried to rob a security guard at an apartment complex before gunfire erupted and all three were wounded. MIAMI-DADE, FL — Newly released surveillance video shows a security guard in northwest Miami-Dade fighting off two armed men who deputies say tried to rob him at an apartment complex in February, a confrontation that ended in a shootout, three injuries and felony charges against both suspects. The video, released this week as …

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Police say a driver followed the victim from Port St. Lucie to a Riviera Beach FedEx hub before opening fire. RIVIERA BEACH, FL — A road rage dispute that began on Florida’s Turnpike ended in a fatal shooting outside a FedEx facility in Riviera Beach, where police say a Boynton Beach man followed a delivery worker for miles and shot him multiple times late April 16. Nathaniel Padgett, a FedEx worker, died after the shooting …

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Prosecutors say the 2-year-old boy was repeatedly abused after being placed with relatives in Santa Clara County’s foster care system. SAN JOSE, CA — A San Jose teenager has been charged with murder in the death of 2-year-old Jaxon Juarez, a foster child known to supporters as “Baby Jaxon,” after prosecutors said the boy was sexually and physically abused for weeks inside a relative’s home before he died this month. The new charge, filed Monday …

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Police later arrested an 18-year-old Bowie man after finding the stolen Lexus and a loaded handgun, authorities said. PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, MD — Mahasin El Amin, the elected clerk of the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, said she feared she was about to be killed when a man opened her car door, showed a gun and stole her Lexus in broad daylight near Woodmore Town Center last week. The attack quickly became more than …

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Police said the suspect remained at large after the early Monday attack inside a North Brighton Street home. BURBANK, CA — A woman was killed and her adult daughter was critically injured after a predawn stabbing inside a single-family home in Burbank on Monday, authorities said, setting off a homicide investigation and a search for a suspect who had not been arrested by early Tuesday. The attack shook a quiet residential block and quickly drew …

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Police say two women were killed at an apartment complex, and a 45-year-old suspect now faces two first-degree murder charges. ARCADIA, FL — A woman pleaded for her life before she was fatally shot, and a second woman was killed while on the phone with 911 during a double homicide at an Arcadia apartment complex on April 17, according to a newly reported account of the case and jail records. The killings have shaken this …

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