uDALLAS (AP) — Authorities say a 72-year-old Dallas man fatally shot a suspected burglar behind his home and then went back to bed before finally calling police nearly two hours later.
The Dallas Morning News reports that James Michael Meyer has been charged with murder in the Thursday killing and was jailed on $150,000 bail as of Friday.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Meyer told police he was awakened at around 5 a.m. Thursday by noise outside and saw someone trying to break into his storage shed with a pickax. He says he grabbed his handgun, went outside and yelled at the person to stop and not come closer or else he’d shoot.
Police say he told investigators the person took several steps toward him, so he fired and the burglar dropped his pickax and ran toward the park behind his home. Police say he said he fired again “into the night” in the direction of the park then went back to bed.
uOFFICIAL: MAN JUMPS TO HIS DEATH AT GRAND CANYON SKYWALK: GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities are trying to locate the body of a man who climbed over a safety barrier at the Grand Canyon Skywalk and apparently jumped to his death.
They say the 28-year-old visitor to the tourist spot on the Hualapai reservation outside Grand Canyon National Park jumped around 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
A Grand Canyon West spokesman says a body recovery effort began Sunday morning.
Skywalk opened in 2007. It’s a horseshoe-shaped glass walkway that juts about 70 feet over the canyon overlooking the Colorado River.
The vertical drop from the Skywalk is between 500 feet and 800 feet (244 meters).
A Chinese tourist fell to his death in March when he stumbled while trying to take a photo close to Skywalk.
uMAN WITH 18 DUIS GETS PRISON TIME FOR SERIOUS INJURY CRASH: HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) — A 60-year-old Minnesota man with 18 drunken-driving convictions will serve 20 months in prison for causing a crash that seriously injured two people in 2017.
Marshall A. Knoll pleaded guilty to first-degree driving while impaired in exchange for the dismissal of two more-serious charges. Prosecutors say Knoll was driving with a suspended license and was high on illicit drugs.
The Star Tribune reported Sunday that Knoll received a three-year prison sentence. With credit for time served, what remains of his sentence is 20 months.
Prosecutors say Knoll was speeding in his struck when he rear-ended another vehicle. One of that vehicle’s occupants suffered a broken sternum, fractured ribs, a broken arm and bleeding in his brain. Another of the vehicle’s passengers required spine surgery.
uPOLICE: WVA MAN TRIED TO STAB, CHASE AMBULANCE MEDICS: ELKVIEW, W.Va. (AP) — A man has been charged with assaulting two West Virginia ambulance medics who were transporting him to a hospital.
Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford says deputies had found 27-year-old Richard William Thornton of Parkersburg along a road in Elkview on Saturday. While being transported to a hospital in Charleston by ambulance, Thornton removed the straps securing him to a cot.
Rutherford says Thorton then pulled out a knife and tried to stab a medic. The driver stopped and both medics left the ambulance, and Thornton chased after them. He was later located at a convenience store.
Thornton was charged with two counts of attempted murder.
uWINFREY SHOCKS FUNDRAISERS WITH $1M DONATION FOR STUDENTS: CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Oprah Winfrey shocked attendees at a North Carolina fundraiser by announcing a donation of more than $1 million toward the United Negro College Fund.
The Charlotte Observer reports that former talk-show host and OWN television network chief made the surprise announcement Saturday while speaking at Charlotte’s 17th annual Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Luncheon.
United Negro College Fund officials were hoping the luncheon would help raise $500,000 for deserving area students to attend historically black colleges.
At the time of Winfrey’s address, a running tally at the event showed that about $1.15 million had been raised. That’s when Winfrey said she was going to match the total, prompting a standing ovation from the stunned audience.
uHARVARD PRESIDENT SORRY 13TH AMENDMENT COMMENT OFFENDED SOME: CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow is saying he regrets the controversial comments he made invoking the 13th Amendment in referring to the university’s relationship with wealthy donors.
The Boston Globe reports Bacow was speaking Tuesday to Harvard alumni relations and fundraising staff when he referred to the 13th Amendment, which freed slaves in the United States, to say Harvard’s individual schools could no longer own specific wealthy graduates.
Some at the meeting found the comparison inappropriate.
Bacow sent an email Saturday to the university’s alumni relations and development saying he regretted that the comments caused offense. He said that was not his intent.
uJUDGE SORRY FOR COMMENT ABOUT TREE FALLING ON TEXAS GOVERNOR: AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A county administrator in Texas is apologizing for saying Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “hates trees because one fell on him.”
The Texas Tribune reports that the comment made Friday by Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt, a Democrat, during a panel discussion was first reported in a tweet by the online magazine The Federalist.
Abbott, a Republican, has been paralyzed from the waist down since 1984 when a tree fell on him in Houston while he was jogging.
Eckhardt said on her website and in a tweet that she “made a mistake” and apologizes to Abbott. Eckhardt said she “made a flippant comment that was inappropriate.”
Eckhardt’s comments came during a discussion about the Texas Legislature overriding local ordinances such one in Austin regarding the cutting down of trees.
