ODENTON, Md. (AP) — A Maryland man is in jail, accused of arming his suicidal 14-year-old son with a shotgun and saying, “Just do it.”
WMAR-TV reports that the father has been arrested and charged with offenses including first-degree assault and child abuse. Charging documents by Anne Arundel county police say the child told authorities he was choked by his father and beaten with a belt or extension cord at least three times this year.
It says the child recently confided in his parents that he was having thoughts about killing himself. Charging documents say that’s when he shoved a shotgun into the teen’s hands, forced him to grip the trigger and urged him to pull it. The man was denied bail.
Judge awards over $81K to man
shot at during a traffic stop
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who was shot at by a U.S. Marshal during a traffic stop has received about $81,000 in a post-traumatic stress lawsuit.
Jahmazeo Richardson was driving home from work in 2015 when he was pulled over and surrounded by a seven-member task force of marshals and Memphis authorities.
When Richardson was given permission to reach for his registration, Marshal Mark Carney fired a shot at him through the passenger-side window and missed. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Brackstone said the shooting was accidental.
The Commercial Appeal reports Judge Jon McCalla ruled Wednesday that the shooting had a profound impact on Richardson’s health. McCalla says Richardson was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and has had suicidal thoughts.
Florida school finds alternative
for frog dissections
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (AP) — No frogs were harmed in the making of a Florida high school’s science class.
J.W. Mitchell High School in New Port Richey began using synthetic frogs for educational dissections last Wednesday. Pasco County Superintendent Kurt Browning says it’s the first school in the world to use the technology.
The lives of real frogs are being spared at a cost of $150 per synthetic frog. Tampa-based developer SynDaver received funds from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to help create the “SynFrog.”
SynDaver says the fake frogs are made of water, fibers and salts and can be reused. Founder and CEO Dr. Christopher Sakezles says the synthetic frogs are also safer because there are no potentially harmful chemicals.
PETA says 3 million frogs are killed for classroom use each year.
Purdue student died in
200-foot fall in Alabama cave
SCOTTSBORO, Ala. (AP) — Authorities in Alabama say a Purdue University student died in a 200-foot (60-meter) fall while rappelling in a cave.
News outlets report 21-year-old Trever Col died Saturday after his equipment failed in Valhalla Cave Preserve in northern Alabama. The cave is known for its 227-foot (69-meter) pitch and its mile-long (1.5-kilometer) walkway at the bottom.
Jackson County Sheriff Chuck Phillips says Col was one of five Purdue students exploring the cave. All were experienced hikers with cavern access permits. Phillips says Col’s rigging had come loose due to a knot in the rope and Col fell while trying to fix it.
Phillips says Col is the third person to die in the cave this year.
Teen babysitter sent to prison
in child’s beating death
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee teenager has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in the beating death of a girl he was babysitting.
Shelby County prosecutors say 18-year-old Antonio Evans pleaded guilty Friday to adult charges of second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
Prosecutors say Evans was a 14-year-old foster child when he was left in charge of three other foster children, ages 6, 7 and 9, in the Memphis suburb of Cordova.
The children said Evans repeatedly punched, kicked and whipped them with a belt and a cord for three days in December 2015. They said Evans threatened them with more abuse if they told anyone.
A 6-year-old girl died at a hospital from injuries she suffered.
Man’s body found in freezer recently
deceased woman’s home
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The body of a man found in a dead Utah woman’s freezer had been there for at least one year and maybe as long as a decade, police said Monday.
Officers went Friday to an apartment complex in a city west of Salt Lake City to check on a 75-year-old woman who hadn’t been seen in two weeks, said Tooele Police Sgt. Jeremy Hansen.
They found the deceased woman on a bed and called detectives to come assess the scene. While looking through the apartment, the detectives discovered an unidentified man inside a chest freezer, Hansen said.
They couldn’t tell from looking at the fully intact body how he died, but suspect foul play, he said.
Detectives have suspicions about who the man is and his relationship to the woman but are waiting to say publicly until the medical examiner completes the autopsy. The medical examiner will determine the identity and cause of death.
Hansen said detectives estimate the man’s body had been there at least one year and as long as 11 years based on when residents in the apartment complex say they last saw him.
The woman has been identified as Jeanne Souron-Mathers. She had lived in the apartment since 2007. Her death is not considered suspicious.
