Free Republic

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A 78-year-old DeLeon Springs man is in jail without bond, accused of shooting and killing his neighbor during a dispute over trees. Edward Druzolowski is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 42-year-old Brian Ford. 911 calls released Monday reveal it was the suspect's wife who called for help. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office also released body cam video showing Druzolowski's arrest. “My husband had it in his hand. He meant to scare him, and he hit him. He was on our property,” she said. The victim’s mother tells a harrowing story. Her son was...

Scott Anthony Burke is facing a slew of drug and firearms charges after officials allegedly found cocaine, ketamine, guns, and ammunition aboard his yacht. Scott Anthony Burke appeared in Plymouth District Court Thursday for a detention hearing. He is facing several firearms and drug charges after a Sept. 5 incident aboard his yacht off Nantucket. A retired surgeon from Florida was ordered held on $200,000 bail Thursday after Nantucket officials allegedly recovered cocaine, ketamine, guns, and ammunition from his yacht earlier this week. Scott Anthony Burke, 69, appeared in Plymouth District Court for a detention hearing days after Nantucket police...

A New Jersey business owner used a drone to drop damaging dye into pools at homes and a motel in Atlantic County in recent weeks, authorities said. Patrick Spina IV, 45, of Absecon, was arrested at his business in Galloway on Friday after Absecon police and other law enforcement agencies tracked the drone back to Comfort Solutions Heating and Cooling, officials said. Absecon police began investigating Aug. 13 after homeowners called to say a drone hovering over their pool dropped a dye into it. The dye turned the pool water “an alarming shade of green.” Police then got reports from...

UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- Protests concerning the migrant crisis turned violent over the weekend outside Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side. Groups on opposite sides of the issue clashed with some even throwing punches. In all, five people were arrested, including the Guardian Angels leader Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa criticized Mayor Eric Adams, who earlier this summer said he would welcome a few families at Gracie Mansion if allowed. "The next day he flipped his script and said he can't do that. Who told you you can't do that? You're the mayor," Sliwa said. The crowd was in...

Police have announced the arrest of a driver who ran a red light and struck an Uber carrying four passengers early Saturday morning in South Los Angeles, killing three. Gregory Black, 31, has been taken into custody and faces charges of vehicular manslaughter after he police determined that he was allegedly behind the wheel of the speeding Mercedes Benz that ran a red light at the intersection of S. Vermont Avenue and W. Century Boulevard, T-boning the Uber driving through the area. The crash happened around 5:30 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. Witnesses said the white Mercedes-Benz, with...

Mackenzie Shirilla was 17 when she killed Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan She drove the car carrying all three into the side of a building at 100mph Prosecutors said she wanted to kill them and herself to escape her turbulent relationship with Russo She was jailed for life in prison with her earliest chance of parole in 2038, when she will be 34 Months before she was convicted of his murder, Ohio teenager Mackenzie Shirilla paid tribute to the boyfriend she killed online, saying: 'You are the last person who deserved this... you had such a perfect life ahead of...

The North Texas area has quietly become the new frontier for the development of self-driving trucks, with several companies from around the world setting up operations — and using North Texas highways for real-world testing. For now, these delivery trucks making stops at Sam’s Club, Kroger and other destinations do have a human behind the wheel — a safety driver in case of emergencies or technology glitches. In the not-too-distant future, that will no longer be the case. Several companies are competing to bring to market a dominant driverless technology for the future of moving goods on the nation’s highways....

For the last two years, the online land records page in the town of Fairfield has offered a “fraud alert” service. Anyone can sign up to see legal filings on their property. It’s part of the careful new world – but no one could anticipate the situation that’s unfolding on Sky Top Terrace, near Sacred Heart University. Dr. Daniel Kenigsberg grew up in a house his parents bought on the semicircular street in 1953, when he was a 1-year-old. After medical school in New York and residency in Maryland, he and his wife raised their two children on Long Island,...

The National Park Service (NPS) is advising visitors to proceed with extra caution as two people were recently injured after interactions with wild bison at both Yellowstone National Park, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. On Monday, a woman from Arizona was charged and gored by a bison at Yellowstone National Park. “The female was walking with another individual in a field in front of the Lake Lodge when they saw two bison," the NPS explained of the incident in a release the NPS shared. "Upon seeing them, the visitors turned to walk away from the bison. One of the bison...

“Sound of Freedom,” the movie of the moment, has a message first, and a story second. Its message is to get us to care more about the horrors of child sex trafficking. It does that by showing queasy sequences of kids in danger, being carted around by slimy adults, and making us remember everyone’s faces. Then it gives us a weary hero, Tim Ballard, an American man whose superpower is that he cares. This father and husband cares so much that he leaves his job at Homeland Security ten months before earning a pension. Instead of only catching pedophiles, as...

When I learned that an alleged shoplifter was stabbed to death Thursday by a drugstore clerk in Times Square, I was surprised only that the killing had happened at the CVS at Broadway and 49th Street, not at the Duane Reade at Broadway and 50th Street. Over more than three years, since New York’s criminal-justice “reforms” collided with pandemic dislocations, this stretch of Broadway and the surrounding blocks and subway stations have become a magnet for disorder and danger. That a nearby resident—me—must weigh up the relative dangers of shopping at or even walking by one store rather than the...

Screenshots of what purports to be the Titan submersible’s final communications before its tragic destruction have gone viral online. The unconfirmed script alleges to reveal the final words shared between someone on board the sub – presumably OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush – and the team on board its mothership the Polar Prince. The document has raised a number of concerns, most notably by suggesting that passengers were aware of issues with the vessel some 18 minutes before its devastating implosion.

Onlookers caught glimpses of the Titan submersible wreckage as its crews brought its remains ashore. These provide clues to what may have happened while a formal investigation is underway. Though it's difficult to know for sure, an expert said the carbon-fiber hull likely failed first. Photos of the Titan submersible wreckage support the theory that the vessel's carbon-fiber hull may have led to its catastrophic implosion, an expert told Insider. The US Coast Guard brought debris from the Titan submersible ashore this week, giving onlookers a brief, imperfect glimpse as it was taken away for analysis. ... Though it is...

FAIRFAX, VA — Challenger Saddam Salim was declared the victor by the Associated Press in the 37th District race for the Virginia Senate, upsetting incumbent Sen. Chap Petersen, according to unofficial results. "I am truly humbled by the community that rallied to support me in this race," Salim said, in a statement issued late Tuesday by his campaign. "This was an incredible grassroots movement of constituents all across the district and we achieved this victory together. I look forward to being your Democratic nominee and continuing our fight for the issues that we care about: gun violence prevention, affordable housing,...

Jewish billionaire Jay Bloom says he and his son Sean were offered two seats on the ill-fated Titan submersible but declined to join over safety concerns and scheduling issues. The American real estate developer, who is based in Las Vegas, said Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman ended up taking their available seats. Dawood and his son were among the five people who died instantly when the submersible imploded on a mission to explore the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic. “Every time I see a picture of that Pakistani businessman and his 19-year-old son, I...

The one-of-a-kind Titan submersible that imploded on its descent to the site of the Titanic this week, killing all five passengers, was made with experimental materials, including carbon fiber, which experts say has not been pressure-tested over time in such extreme depths. Since the fatal dive, the innovation behind the Titan and OceanGate Expeditions — the company that owned and operated the vessel for paid tours to the Titanic — has come under increased and intense scrutiny. Days after the Titan was reported missing, sparking a frantic search, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday that the 22-foot craft imploded, though...

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, one of five passengers killed on a fatal mission to the Titanic wreckage this week, once admitted on camera to "breaking some rules" to build the tourist submersible. In comments to Mexican travel vlogger Alan Estrada in 2021, Rush evoked General MacArthur saying, "You’re remembered for the rules you break." "I’ve broken some rules to make this. I think I’ve broken them with logic and good engineering behind me," Rush said. He conceded that deep-sea submersibles "as a rule" should not be made with carbon fiber and titanium, but he did anyway.

A German adventurer who paid to see the wreck of the Titanic on the missing Titan submarine two years ago has called the voyage a 'suicide mission'. Arthur Loibl, 60, dived down 12,500 feet to the Atlantic wreck site in August 2021 and says he was 'incredibly lucky' to survive. His story echos much that has been learned about the OceanGate tourist vessel since it vanished on Sunday, with past reports highlighting how many components were purchased off-the-shelf. It has also been revealed to have been uncertified to dive to the necessary depths to reach the Titanic. Speaking to German...

As a massive search continues for a missing tourist submersible with five people on board near the Titanic wreck, US journalist Michael Guillen recounts his harrowing experience of being trapped in a similar vessel during a dive in the same spot back in 2000. "I was the first correspondent ever to report from the wreck of the Titanic. So, naturally, I was excited," Dr Guillen, who at the time was science editor at America's ABC network, told BBC Radio 4. He recollects that - together with diving partner Brian and Russian pilot Viktor - they went down in a small...

He is a descendant of US Founding Fathers Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton The saga of the missing Titanic submersible Titan continues to grip the world. And now three days after the OceanGate watercraft vanished, anger is beginning to mount over the doomed mission. OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush is one of the five men on the Titan, with around 20 hours of oxygen left. The Titan is currently missing with five people on board after it lost communication during a dive to the Titanic's wreckage, which is around 12,500ft below the Atlantic.