AUTOPSY: BORDER PATROL AGENT FIRED GUN 10 TIMES: SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Border Patrol agent in Southern California who shot and killed a mother of five after she hit him with her vehicle fired his gun 10 times from the hood of her car as he tried to get the woman to stop, according to an autopsy report released Thursday.
Valeria "Munique" Tachiquin Alvarado, 32, suffered 14 gunshot wounds to her upper body, the San Diego County Medical Examiner said. Some bullets may have caused more than one wound.
The autopsy determined the Sept. 28 death was a homicide and lists multiple gunshot wounds as the cause.
Alvarado fled a friend's apartment in Chula Vista when agents came with an arrest warrant for someone else, according to the autopsy, mirroring previous statements from police. Police say her car struck an agent and she drove with him on the hood for about 200 yards.
The agent held on to the Alvarado's 1994 Honda Accord after breaking the windshield, firing his pistol until she stopped, the autopsy says.
3 FOUND DEAD AFTER HOUSE FIRE IN EAST LA COUNTY: AZUSA (AP) — Three people were found dead Thursday in the remains of a house fire east of Los Angeles where the sound of exploding ammunition could be heard, police said.
County fire crews put out the blaze by shortly after 4 p.m., Fire Inspector Brian Riley said. He said firefighters heard popping noises like firecrackers but couldn't immediately identify them.
Three adults were found dead inside the house, police said, but no further information was released on their identities.
POLICE: CONN. MAN FATHERED CHILD WITH DAUGHTER: BETHEL, Conn. (AP) — A 46-year-old Connecticut man and his 23-year-old daughter told police they weren't certain they were related before beginning a sexual relationship and having a son together, police said in charging them with sex crimes.
George Sayers Jr. and Tiffany Hartford, of Bethel in western Connecticut, were charged Monday with third-degree sexual assault, obscenity and conspiracy after authorities said DNA tests showed Sayers was the father of both Hartford and her baby. Each pleaded not guilty and was being held on bail.
Hartford told police she aspired to be a porn star before she got pregnant, according to arrest warrant affidavits. The infant is now in state custody.
The investigation began in February when Hartford's now-former girlfriend complained to police that Sayers didn't get her permission before selling videos and photos of her and Hartford having sex, according to the affidavits.
CHISTMAS TREES BANNED AT NEWHALL SENIOR HOME: NEWHALL (AP) — Senior citizens in Newhall north of Los Angeles are protesting their landlord's order to remove a Christmas tree and menorahs from the apartment building's communal areas.
Tarzana-based JB Partners Group Inc. sent the memo Tuesday to staff at the Willows, an apartment building for seniors.
On Wednesday, two dozen residents gathered in the lobby with a neon green sign they hung like an ornament. It reads "please save our tree."
Resident Fern Scheel says she and her neighbors are angry, and the move is ridiculous.
MICHIGAN GOP APPROVES RIGHT TO WORK AMID PROTESTS: LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republicans slammed right-to-work legislation through the Michigan House and Senate Thursday, drawing raucous protests from throngs of stunned union supporters, whose outnumbered Democratic allies were powerless to stop it.
Just hours after they were introduced, both chambers approved measures prohibiting private unions from requiring that nonunion employees pay fees. The Senate quickly followed by voting to impose the same requirement on most public unions.
GENE-ALTERED MOSQUITOES COULD BE USED VS. DENGUE: KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Mosquito control officials in the Florida Keys are waiting for the federal government to sign off on an experiment that would release hundreds of thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce the risk of dengue fever in the tourist town of Key West.
If approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it would be the first such experiment in the U.S. Some Key West residents worry, though, that not enough research has been done to determine the risks that releasing genetically modified mosquitoes might pose to the Keys' fragile ecosystem.
Officials are targeting the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes because they can spread dengue fever, a disease health officials thought had been eradicated in the U.S. until 93 cases originated in the Keys in 2009 and 2010.
