Miss. governor: 2 convicts escaped prison where 3 were killed last week
Mississippi authorities were searching for two prisoners believed to have escaped Saturday from one of several prisons rocked by violence that has left at least five inmates dead in the past week.
Gov. Phil Bryant tweeted Saturday that he has directed “the use of all necessary assets and personnel” to find the two inmates who escaped from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
The state Department of Public Safety has deployed state troopers and the highway patrol’s special operations group to help the Department of Corrections find the two inmates and to help restore order at the troubled facility that they escaped from, Mr. Bryant said.
The Corrections Department said in a Facebook posting that David May, 42, and Dillion Williams, 27, were discovered missing from Parchman during an “emergency count” about 1:45 a.m. May is serving a life sentence for two aggravated assault convictions in Harrison County, and Williams is serving a 40-year sentence for residential burglary and aggravated assault in Marshall County.
Five inmates have died in prison violence since Sunday; three of those deaths have occurred at Parchman.
Alleged robber charged
An armed bank robber has been charged with sexually assaulting a woman he held hostage Friday for nearly seven hours inside an Illinois credit union.
Nicholas August, 39, is facing two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault as well as armed robbery and aggravated unlawful restraint in connection with the hourslong standoff in Rockford, Ill., according to CBS-2 Chicago.
Police said August entered the Heritage Credit Union through a back door at about 2:30 p.m. Friday, took a female employee hostage, and barricaded himself inside.
The incident came to an end around 9 p.m., when August released the hostage and surrendered. He had “a pellet gun that resembled a real firearm” at the time of his arrest.
The bank employee was hospitalized for non-lifethreatening injuries. FBI agents later learned she was allegedly sexually assault during the lengthy holdup.
August, who had been wanted on warrants for domestic battery and probation violation, remained behind bars Saturday on $2 million bail.
Mother held in deaths
A judge on Saturday ordered a woman held without bail after she was accused of killing her two young sons and seriously injuring a 70year-old man before jumping from a South Side apartment building.
Aleah Newell, 20, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her two sons, Ameer Newell, 7 months, and Johntavis Newell, 2, on Thursday in the South Shore neighborhood. Prosecutors allege that Ms. Newell killed her two sons and then jumped from the 11th-floor apartment.
She is also facing an attempted murder charge for stabbing a 70-year-old male relative. Both Ms. Newell and the man remain hospitalized.
Man, daughter killed
A South Carolina man and his daughter were killed after they were mistaken for deer and were shot during a
New Year’s Day hunt, authorities said.
The victims were among four hunters who “were attempting to move deer, also known as driving deer, near Barracada Road in Walterboro when two hunters were shot after being mistaken for a deer,” according to a statement released by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. It was not clear whether they were wearing brightly colored safety gear.
Richard Harvey, the Colleton County coroner, said the victims were Kim Drawdy, 30, and his daughter Lauren, 9. Mr. Harvey said they were shot with a shotgun. Their autopsies were set to be performed Sunday.