Pennsylvania
Police: Toddler killed in pretend wrestling move
JERSEY SHORE, Pa. (AP) - Police say a Pennsylvania man mimicking a professional wrestling move inadvertently slammed his girlfriend's toddler son to the floor, killing him.
Brandon Hoffman was charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated assault and other offenses in the death of 18-month-old Bryson Shoemaker.
Police say Hoffman was performing wrestler The Undertaker's "The Last Ride" move Tuesday and had intended for Bryson to land on a bed.
State police say Hoffman told them he tried performing CPR and took Bryson to the hospital instead of calling 911 because he feared getting in trouble.
The 20-year-old Jersey Shore man is jailed in lieu of $150,000 bail pending a May 13 preliminary hearing. Online court records listing a lawyer were not immediately available.
Ohio
Police: Weapons found at site of 26-hour standoff
MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) - The home where an Ohio man was fatally shot by officers after a 26-hour standoff contained loaded assault weapons, ammunition and survivalist bags with food and medical supplies, police said.
Mansfield police said Wednesday the items were found during an initial assessment of the home where 58-year-old David Parker was shot by an officer last week to end the daylong standoff. The home is owned by Parker's brother, who is working as a missionary in the Philippines.
Other items found in the home included a bulletproof vest, handcuffs, helmets, knives and igniters, the Mansfield News Journal reported. Authorities also found a book titled "The Anarchist Cookbook" and a military field surgeon handbook.
Parker was a U.S. Army veteran who served in peacetime after the Vietnam War, said Tony DeLong, executive director of the Richland County Veterans Service Commission. DeLong told the newspaper Parker had been receiving assistance from the commission.
The confrontation began April 27 when a gas utility worker called 911 after the resident came to the door with an assault rifle.
Mansfield Law Director John Spon had said Parker fired at officers multiple times throughout the ordeal, and was "definitely shooting with intent to kill law enforcement officers." As the standoff continued the next morning, officials said Parker again fired at officers, prompting them to fire back. He died a short time later.
Officials said police peacefully asked Parker to come out about 300 times during the standoff. They also turned a fire hose on the home on two occasions, trying to flush Parker out.
The response team's discharge of weapons is under investigation, Mansfield police said.
Georgia
Police: Teacher lowered autistic boy into trash
MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) - A Georgia special education teacher is accused of cruelty to children after police say she held an autistic boy upside-down by his legs and lowered him head-first into a trash can.
An arrest warrant says Mary Katherine Pursley told the second-grader that if he had "trashy behavior" like the Sesame Street character Oscar the Grouch, he would go "to the trash can."
Cobb County School District police state in the warrant that another employee witnessed Pursley place the boy into the trash can at Mount Bethel Elementary School outside Atlanta on April 30.
Cobb County Schools spokeswoman Jennifer Gates says Pursley is on administrative leave with pay.
Cobb County Jail records show she faces a felony charge of first-degree cruelty to children. Jail records list no attorney for her.
Georgia
Sheriff charged in shooting of real estate agent
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) - A Georgia sheriff has been charged with reckless conduct in the shooting of a real estate agent as prosecutors look into his statement that he was conducting police training exercises at the time.
Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill was charged Wednesday in the shooting, which critically wounded real estate agent Gwenevere McCord, 43, Gwinnett County Sheriff's spokeswoman Shannon Volkodav said. He was released on a $2,950 bond Wednesday night. The charge is a misdemeanor.
Authorities have said the two were alone in a model home roughly 50 miles northeast of where Hill's office is located when the shooting happened Sunday.
Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said he has fundamental questions about Hill's account, which was that he was conducting training exercises inside the home when he accidentally shot McCord.
McCord, who was shot in the abdomen, was physically unable to tell investigators what happened and Hill refused to do so, Porter said Wednesday. McCord and Hill were alone in the house at the time and Hill left the scene without giving an official statement, investigators have said.
"The statement on the 911 tape was that they were doing police training exercises," Porter said, but the placement of some items at the scene "sort of make you think about that."
Police have not released the 911 call, and Porter said he couldn't go into specifics about the evidence found at the scene.
Porter said he was told by Hill's lawyer that the sheriff would not be speaking with investigators.
Hill did give his cellphone to investigators at the scene and also turned over the clothing he was wearing and both guns he had at the time, Porter said.
Hill's time as sheriff in the county south of Atlanta has been filled with controversy. On his first day a decade ago, he fired more than two dozen deputies. He also used a military tank on drug raids as part of a tough-on-crime message.
He was voted out of office in 2008, but won it back again in 2012 despite facing more than two dozen criminal charges in a corruption case. A jury later acquitted him of all 27 charges, including theft and giving false statements.
Wisconsin
Man accused of hiding brother's body in barrel
FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) - A man is charged in Fond du Lac County with hiding the body of his brother in a barrel at their home and failing to report his death.
A criminal complaint says 45-year-old Robert Diamentis told police he had been caring for his brother who was bedridden with a rare immune system disorder. Diamentis says his brother died Feb. 14 at their Town of Ripon home. The complaint says he told investigators he hid the body in the 50-gallon barrel because his brother had sores on his body and he was afraid he would be accused of mistreating him.
Published: Fri, May 08, 2015
