REGIONAL Tosa police make arrest after threats
Snow, arctic blast on tap for region
Break out your winter parkas.
Polar air has arrived, snow is forecast for this weekend and a significant arctic blast is possible next week, according to the National Weather Service in Sullivan.
High temperatures in the low- to mid-20s are expected through Saturday, with brisk, westerly winds that are expected to become southerly Saturday night. There’s a 20% chance of snow Thursday, according to the weather service.
Friday night is expected to be the coldest night of the week, with a low temperature of about 12 degrees, according to the weather service.
While it’s too early to say how much snow is heading our way this weekend, a couple of National Weather Service computer models suggest 5 to 6 inches could fall Saturday night and Sunday, temporarily bringing slightly warmer air with it.
After the snow, temperatures are expected to fall through the middle of next week, with high temperatures between 12 and 20 degrees, according to the weather service.
Wauwatosa police have made one arrest in a series of threats against officers that began Monday evening after prosecutors said no charges would be filed against the Tosa officer who shot and killed Jay Anderson Jr.
The department is investigating at least five incidents of phoned-in threats of violence against officers, Lt. Brian Zalewski said.
“Obviously we don’t take these things lightly,” he said Wednesday.
Officers arrested one man Tuesday night and will refer him to prosecutors on a tentative charge of unlawful use of a telephone, Zalewski said. The other investigations remain ongoing.
On Monday, Milwaukee County prosecutors said Officer Joseph Mensah’s shooting of Anderson was justified self-defense because Anderson lowered his hand and Mensah believed Anderson was within reach of a gun in the car. Mensah came upon Anderson, who was in a parked car in Madison Park, about 3 a.m. June 23.
Anderson’s family has called for criminal charges in the case and requested federal prosecutors review it after learning that no state charges will be filed. The high-profile police shooting sparked marches at Mayfair mall and outside the police department.
Pedestrian hit by car, critically injured
Milwaukee police are investigating a Tuesday night accident involving a 61-year-old male pedestrian who was hit by a car and critically injured.
The man walked into the street in the 8400 block of W. Appleton Ave. about 11 p.m. and was struck by a passing car, according to a news release. He was hospitalized in “very critical condition” as of early Wednesday morning, the release said.
The driver of the vehicle remained on the scene, according to police.
Pastor faces child sex charges
The pastor of a Hales Corners church has been indicted on multiple counts of sexually assaulting children when he was a minister at an Arizona church, The Daily Courier newspaper reported Wednesday.
Thomas Jonathan Chantry, 46, now pastor
at Christ Reformed Baptist Church, faces five counts of molestation of a child related to two minors and three counts of aggravated assault involving three other minors, according to a story posted on the Prescott, Ariz., newspaper’s website.
The assaults allegedly occurred in 1995, 1996 and from 1998 to 2001 while Chantry was pastor of Miller Valley Baptist Church in Prescott, according to the newspaper.
One of the alleged victims, a man now 32, said Chantry began groping and fondling him when he was 9 or 10 during twice-weekly, hourlong tutoring sessions in his office, the newspaper reported.
Chantry was arrested in Waukesha in July on a warrant taken out by Prescott police. He posted bond there, appeared in court and was allowed to return, according to the newspaper.
Since leaving Miller Valley, Chantry has been a member of Reformed Baptist churches in Washington and Illinois and spent four years teaching at a Christian school in the Chicago area before starting at Christ Reformed in the summer of 2005, according to his profile on the church’s website.