National Roundup

Connecticutt Teen's video of gun-firing drone investigated CLINTON, Conn. (AP) - A teenager may be in trouble with federal aviation officials after posting online a video that shows shots being fired from a drone that had been rigged to carry a handgun. The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it was investigating whether 18-year-old Austin Haughwout, of Clinton, violated its regulations, which prohibit the careless or reckless operation of a model aircraft. Haughwout's father told WFSB-TV last week that his son created the drone with the help of a Central Connecticut State University professor. The 14-second video shows a four-propeller drone with a semiautomatic handgun strapped on top hovering as it fires four shots in a wooded area. The FAA said it was working with Clinton police, who also are investigating. Haughwout did not immediately return telephone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. Haughwout made news last year when police charged a woman with assault after she confronted him about flying a drone at a state beach. Andrea Mears, of Westbrook, was sentenced to probation in July 2014. A video Haughwout posted showed Mears calling him a pervert, striking him and ripping his shirt. Haughwout said he had been using the remote-controlled drone, called a quadcopter, to get footage of the landscape from about 50 feet above the beach when Mears confronted him. Pennsylvania Suspect in woman's death shot by officer PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A suspect who shot an officer in his bulletproof vest early Wednesday before police killed him was wanted in a pregnant woman's slaying last year, the city's police commissioner said. Commissioner Charles Ramsey would not release the suspect's name at a news briefing, saying authorities were still working to notify the man's family. The 17-year veteran SWAT officer was part of a team of officers serving an arrest warrant in the woman's killing. The suspect grabbed a gun, ran, then spun and fired at police after they entered his apartment about at 6:10 a.m., Ramsey said. The vest the officer was wearing had an extra-long flap covering his lower abdomen, which likely saved the officer's life, the commissioner said. Police returned fire, striking the suspect. He died about 40 minutes later at Aria Health Torresdale Hospital, where Ramsey later addressed the media. The officer, who has two children, has a "nasty bruise" but should be OK, Ramsey said. He was released from the hospital Wednesday morning. The unidentified officer had been shot on duty once before, Ramsey said. The warrant being served involved the death last fall of a woman who was eight months pregnant, police said. Megan Doto, 25, died Sept. 14 after being struck by gunfire while sitting outside in the Frankford section of Philadelphia. Doctors were able to deliver her baby, but the newborn girl died 12 hours later. Doto had two other children. Virginia 'Bicycle bandit' suspect wants trial moved ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A man accused of being the "bicycle bandit" who fled a dozen Virginia bank robberies on two wheels wants his trial moved after his high-profile alleged escape. WTOP-FM reports that lawyers for Wossen Assaye, who's charged with escape, kidnapping and bank robbery, want his trial moved from Alexandria, Virginia to Charlottesville. They say the publicity generated by the manhunt for Assaye after his alleged escape from custody will keep him from getting a fair trial. Assaye was arrested in March. Authorities say he tried to kill himself while in custody and was taken to a hospital. While there, prosecutors say he overpowered and briefly kidnapped one of his guards. They say he fled the hospital and evaded authorities for nine hours until the search ended in Washington, D.C. South Carolina Smith says she never planned to kill her two sons COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina mother sentenced to life in prison for killing her two young sons never planned to kill them and instead intended to end her own life, according to a letter she wrote to a Columbia newspaper. "I had planned to kill myself first and leave a note behind telling what had happened," Susan Smith said in a letter to The State newspaper. "I didn't believe I could face my family when the truth was revealed." Smith, now 43, was convicted in 1995 of leaving her sons strapped in their car seats as she rolled her car into a Union County lake in the northwestern part of the state. The case incensed the black community because Smith claimed a black man carjacked her and drove off with the children. Prosecutors said Smith killed her sons because a wealthy, well-connected man she was having an affair with cut off the relationship. A prosecutor sought the death penalty, but Smith was sentenced to life in prison. In the letter, reported in Wednesday's newspaper editions, Smith wrote that she loved 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex and had not planned to kill them. "Something went very wrong that night. I was not myself," she wrote. "I was a good mother and I loved my boys. ... There was no motive as it was not even a planned event. I was not in my right mind." Smith said she only lied about the kidnapping because she didn't know what to tell people about their deaths. "I am not the monster society thinks I am," she wrote. "I am far from it." Tennessee @ROUND UP Briefs Headline:UT rape suspects to be given separate trials KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A former University of Tennessee football player charged with rape will be tried separately from his suspended ex-teammate. Stephen Ross Johnson, an attorney for former linebacker A.J. Johnson, told The Tennessean on Tuesday that his client will have a separate trial from Michael Williams later this year. A.J. Johnson is now scheduled for a Sept. 29 trial, court records show. Williams, a defensive back, still has the Aug. 24 trial date originally scheduled for the pair, according to court records. Johnson and Williams were indicted on two counts each of aggravated rape in February after being named as suspects in an investigation into a November 2014 incident. Both have pleaded not guilty. Lawyers representing Johnson filed a motion in May, asking to sever the trials of the two defendants. Published: Thu, Jul 23, 2015