Official: Woman held hostage, escaped before deadly blast
PORT WENTWORTH — Military investigators began the arduous task Thursday of answering why a C-130 Hercules cargo plane being flown into retirement by an experienced crew plunged onto a Georgia highway. Families and friends of the nine airmen, meanwhile, grieved and took note of the fact that Puerto Rico’s planes are the oldest in the National Guard inventory.
There were no survivors when the huge plane dropped from the sky moments after taking off from Savannah, Georgia, narrowly missing motorists and buildings as fiery wreckage exploded over a wide area. Only the tail section was intact, sitting improbably in the middle of Georgia Highway 21.
A military officer told reporters Thursday that investigators were on the scene, but he offered no preliminary findings
“It’s extremely important for us to understand what has happened,” said Col. Pete Boone, vice commander of the 165th Airlift Wing of the Georgia Air National Guard. He said investigators would use “every resource at our disposal to properly identify a cause.”
The aging plane had rescued and resupplied American citizens after last year’s hurricanes as part of the U.S. territory’s fleet, which often struggles to remain missionready amid long waits for spare parts, said Adjutant Gen. Isabelo Rivera, commander of the Puerto Rico National Guard.
The plane crashed after taking off from Savannah/ Hilton Head International Airport en route to Arizona, where it would have been retired from service. Boone said it had received “routine maintenance” while in Savannah. He did not know if the crew made a distress call to air traffic controllers after takeoff.
All nine airmen on board were confirmed dead, Boone said. The military made their names public Thursday afternoon.
The pilot was identified as Maj. Jose Rafael Roman, from Manati on the island’s north coast. Manati Mayor Jose Sanchez told The Associated Press that Roman had two sons and his wife is five months pregnant with a girl.
“The town is in mourning,” Sanchez said.
Carlos Narvaez, a newspaper sports editor who was Roman’s close childhood friend, told the AP that Roman was nicknamed “Rotor” because he loved all things with a motor that go fast. He said 43-year-old Roman was president of his high school class and worked at a company that manufactured aluminum windows before joining the National Guard in the mid-2000s after graduating as a pilot in Memphis, Tennessee.
In December, Narvaez said Roman raised concerns about the age of the planes they were using.
“He told me, ‘We’re using the oldest planes of the entire United States of America,’” Narvaez recalled.
Emergency personnel work at the scene of an explosion in North Haven, Conn., Thursday. A Connecticut woman’s call to police to report domestic violence led to a standoff and explosion in a barn behind her home that left at least one person dead.
NORTH HAVEN, Conn. —A Connecticut woman’s call to police to report that she had escaped after being held hostage for several days led to a standoff and explosion in a barn behind her home that left one person dead and nine police officers injured, officials said Thursday.
A regional police SWAT team responded to the property Wednesday afternoon after the woman’s call and encountered a barricaded man. Officers negotiated with him for hours before a building on the property exploded around 8:30 p.m.
The nine officers were treated for non-lifethreatening injuries and the remains of an unidentified person were found on the property, state police Trooper Kelly Grant said at a news conference.
Grant said she couldn’t confirm the identity of the body until an autopsy was completed. The woman was not at the home when police arrived Wednesday night, but Grant declined to release her condition, saying it was part of the investigation.
The owners of the property, Deborah and John Sayre, were going through a divorce, according
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The younger brother of Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz is getting out of jail again after violating probation for previously trespassing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, site of the Feb. 14 massacre that killed 17 people.
A judge on Thursday ordered Zachary Cruz released anew on probation following his arrest for driving without a valid license and getting too close to a school parking lot.
Prosecutors dropped the school proximity allegation because Cruz was simply driving past and was not on the school campus, which is one of his probation restrictions.
Zachary Cruz is back on six months’ probation in the prior trespassing case, minus a few days of
Emergency personnel work at the scene of an explosion in North Haven, Conn., Thursday.
to court records. Deborah Sayre filed for divorce on April 18 and checked a box for a line that said the marriage had “broken down irretrievably.” She did not return a phone message Thursday.
John Sayre ran a plumbing business, according to state business records. A sign on the property warned visitors there was danger and to keep out, according to a Google map street view.
The woman told authorities she was held against her will for several days, North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda said, citing what police officers told him at the scene Wednesday.
North Haven Deputy Police Chief Jonathan Mulhern said a woman John Woike / Hartford Courant via AP
called police to report domestic violence and police tried for hours to coax the man outside.
“Come out, John,” police said into a bullhorn aimed at the house before the explosion.
Two of the injured officers were released from the hospital Thursday, according to Freda, who said the others who remained hospitalized were in good spirits. The injured officers were members of the regional tactical team and included five from East Haven, three from North Haven, and one from Branford.
“They all did suffer injuries that were consistent with the blast,” Mulhern said. “This impacted not only the North Haven Police Department, not only our community, File, Susan Stocker /
jail time. Broward County Judge Melinda Brown urged Zachary Cruz to keep his nose clean because “they are watching you very closely.”
“I want you to be successful,” Brown said.
Nikolas Cruz, 19, faces the death penalty if convicted of the Stoneman Douglas shooting, which South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP
Zachary Cruz, brother of Nikolas Cruz who’s accused of killing 17 students and staff members at the school Feb. 14, appears in court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
also wounded 17 other people.
His lawyers say he would plead guilty in exchange for a life prison sentence, but prosecutors have rejected that offer.
Zachary Cruz pleaded no contest in March for trespassing at the Parkland school. Deputies say they found Zachary John Woike / Hartford Courant via AP but this is a far reaching incident to the other communities that serve the south central region.”
Firefighters on Thursday continued to put out hot spots from the blaze, which also damaged other structures and vehicles.
Residents near the home said on the police department’s Facebook page that they heard the explosion and felt their own homes shake. Additional police rushed to the scene as the fire raged, and sounds of smaller explosions also were heard.
North Haven resident Joan Mazurek, 76, a retired accountant, heard what she thought was a train at her home about a mile away from the scene. It was the explosion.
“Then we heard all the, oh my God, all the ambulances and fire engines. The noise from all the emergency vehicles was unbelievable,” she said. “It’s a shock. Nothing ever happens like this in North Haven.”
State police said they had taken over the investigation. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded to the scene.
North Haven is located just outside of New Haven, home to Yale University. Cruz riding his skateboard on campus March 19 about two hours after school had been let out. Officials say he had been told to stay away from the school.
As part of his probation, Zachary Cruz was ordered to stay at least a mile from Stoneman Douglas and to not enter any other school unless enrolled. Prosecutor Sarahnell Murphy said at Thursday’s hearing the school proximity violation was being dropped because he never set foot on campus.
“He basically drove by it,” she said.
Broward Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said Zachary Cruz’s caretaker reported him to authorities because he was driving without a license and insurance.
She said violating any law is a violation of probation. He was arrested Tuesday.
— The Arizona governor signed a plan Thursday to give striking teachers a 20 percent pay raise, ending their five-day walkout after a dramatic all-night legislative session and sending more than a million public school students back to the classroom.
Gov. Doug Ducey’s signature awarded teachers a 9 percent raise in the fall and 5 percent in each of the next two years. Those increases are in addition to a 1 percent raise granted last year.
Teachers did not get everything they wanted, but they won substantial gains from reluctant lawmakers.
“The educators have solved the education crisis! They’ve changed the course of Arizona” Noah Karvelis of Arizona Educators United shouted to several thousand cheering teachers. “The change happens with us!”
Hours after Ducey acted, strike organizers called for an end to the walkout. Some schools planned to reopen Friday, with others likely to resume classes next week.
The Senate approved the pay raises just before dawn as hundreds of redshirted teachers followed the proceedings from the lobby, many sitting on the cold stone floor.
The night before, the teachers, who are among the lowest paid in the country, held a candlelight vigil in a courtyard outside the original neoclassical Capitol building. They stood together with their right hands over their hearts and sang “America the Beautiful.”
Wrapped in blankets or sleeping bags, they napped on the ground or in folding metal chairs, occasionally using cellphones to monitor an online video stream of the legislative debate in the chambers.
Ducey said the teachers had earned a raise and praised the legislation as “a real win” for both teachers and students. The pay increases will cost about $300 million for the coming year alone.
Some teachers returned to the Capitol on Thursday as lawmakers debated the rest of the state’s $10.4 billion budget plan. Among them was Wes Oswald, a third-grade teacher from Tucson who made the twohour drive for a sixth day.
Oswald said the budget still does not address serious issues such as the need for higher per-pupil spending, raises for support staff and a smallerstudent-to-counselor ratio.
Teachers must still fight for those problems to be addressed, Oswald said, adding that “the worst thing would be for this movement to dissolve.”
Arizona Education Association President Joe Thomas said Thursday that educators now should focus on a campaign for a November ballot measure that would seek more education funding from an income tax increase on the wealthiest taxpayers.
“The budget is a significant investment, but it falls far short” of what the movement demanded, Thomas said.
The state’s largest district in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, as well as districts in the suburbs of Scottsdale and Glendale, planned to reopen Friday. Officials from Tucson’s biggest school district said they will not be ready and were working to reopen 86 school sites on Monday.