Slain woman feared husband; 4-year-old killed; mountain lion kittens found
- Updated
Odd and interesting news from around the West.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The National Park Service has released photos and video of two litters of mountain lion kittens in the Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles.
The Park Service said Wednesday the five kittens — three females and two males — were tagged and returned to their dens.
The service studies how mountain lions survive in fragmented and urbanized habitat around Los Angeles.
Biologist Jeff Sikich says lions appear to be reproducing successfully. But he says the real challenge is when the kittens grow older, disperse and have to deal with threats from other mountain lions, road mortality and poisons.
One litter includes two females, offspring of a mother dubbed P-35. The others are two males and a female born to mother P-39. Both litters likely have the same father, P-38.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
DURANGO, Colo. — Wildlife officials are reminding people to leave wildlife alone after someone who thought a fawn was abandoned picked the animal up and it had to be euthanized.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Joe Lewandowski told the Durango Herald that the unknown individual took the animal to the Humane Society.
Lewandowski said the fawn's mother had hidden the animal in La Plata Canyon while she went to forage.
He said fawns cannot be rehabilitated and that picking one up is essentially a death sentence.
The fawn was euthanized Saturday.
Lewandowski said this is the worst possible outcome of people negligently interacting with wildlife.
He said anyone concerned about an animal should call Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
BOSQUE DEL APACHE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, N.M. — Firefighters are making progress against a blaze that has charred more than a square mile at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico.
Officials say the fire was 50 percent contained Wednesday thanks to work done on the west side of the Rio Grande. There are still active flames on the east side of the river that are keeping crews busy.
Chris Leeser with the refuge says officials have reopened the northern end of the tour loop to visitors and the visitor center will resume normal hours Thursday.
The fire started Monday and is burning mostly invasive salt cedar trees.
The refuge is an important stop for migratory birds. Every winter, thousands of sandhill cranes, geese and other waterfowl make this stretch of the Rio Grande home.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
LAS VEGAS — Records show a Las Vegas mom who police say was shot and killed by her estranged husband, before he also killed their three children and himself, had tried to get a court restraining order to keep the man away.
A picture emerging Wednesday following the June 29 slayings of Phoukeo Dej-Oudom, the children ages 9 to 15, and the suicide of Jason Hagan Dej-Odoum shows the mom feared an attack after filing for divorce weeks earlier.
The divorce filing cited domestic violence.
Hair salon chain manager Taren Olson tells the Las Vegas Sun that Phoukeo Dej-Oudom quit work June 18 with a message saying she was hiding from her husband.
Police say Jason Dej-Odoum killed his wife outside a business, then killed their children and himself at home.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
SANTA FE, N.M. — The director of an office overseeing supplementary food and financial assistance within the New Mexico Human Services Department has been reassigned amid state and federal inquiries into that office's handling of benefit applications.
The secretary of the Human Services Department announced in an email to agency employees that Marilyn Martinez is no longer director of the income support division and will instead oversee the agency's financial services bureau. Martinez could not immediately be reached.
Human Services spokesman Kyler Nerison said Wednesday the management change is unrelated to an ongoing internal investigation of the division's handling of benefits.
Martinez invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when called in May to testify in federal court about allegations that managers changed or pressured workers into changing application information for emergency food benefits.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — State data shows the mining industry experienced its steepest decline ever in Wyoming history.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports the state's Economic Analysis Division compared data from the first quarter of 2015 to the same period this year and found the mining sector declined by more than 55 percent.
The national jobless rate fell to 4.9 percent while state unemployment stands at 5 percent after the loss of almost 8,700 jobs.
A state economist said the state's unemployment rate hasn't been higher than that of the rest of the country since the Great Recession. He said the largest factor has been the mineral extraction industry.
The minerals extraction industry accounts for about a fifth of sales tax collections.
Data also shows taxable sales were down almost 25 percent.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
ALTADENA, Calif. — A 4-year-old boy was killed and a man he was with on a porch was wounded in a drive-by shooting in Altadena, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said Wednesday.
The victims were in front of a home Tuesday night when someone in a dark-colored car pulled up and fired several shots before speeding away, according to Deputy Trina Schrader.
Both victims were struck multiple times. Shell casings littered the street and investigators said at least 13 shots were fired from a semi-automatic handgun.
Neighbor Cameron Jackson told reporters he came outside after hearing gunfire.
"I saw the mom," he said. "She was screaming, 'my baby, my baby.' "
A 27-year-old man and the 4-year-old boy were rushed to a hospital. The boy, identified as Salvador Esparza III, died, said coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter.
The adult victim was a family friend and not related to the child, Schrader said. The man's injuries were not life-threatening, she said.
Investigators were searching for a suspect in a dark-colored car but have not identified a motive.
Homicide Det. John Corina said authorities were looking into whether the shooting was gang-related.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City police has opened an investigation into a 2014 incident in which an officer is shown on body camera video striking a woman in the face and yelling expletives at her with her young daughter watching after she allegedly spit on him during an arrest for public intoxication.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said Wednesday at a news conference that the actions seen on the video are abhorrent and not reflective of how officers are taught to handle situations.
Brown said he became aware of the video Tuesday evening when asked by a reporter. KSL-TV first reported the story. Brown said he believes the woman's attorney released the video, which her daughter posted online.
"It was tragic. That was a terrible situation," said Brown, who was named chief in May after serving as interim chief for nearly a year. "We should have been much better at controlling the situation."
In addition to an internal affairs review, Brown said he's made Salt Lake County Attorney Sim Gill aware for possible criminal charges.
Brown said Michelle S. Anderson, 43, was being arrested in October 2014 for public intoxication. Anderson was charged with public intoxication and for spitting at the officer, but those were dismissed, online court records show.
Brown said he has not yet talked with the officers involved and isn't releasing their names. The officer seen striking the woman has since retired, Brown said. The other still works for the agency and remains on duty pending the investigation, he said.
Charging documents show it was the second time officers went to the home that night. The first time, neighbors called after hearing screaming and crying inside the Anderson residence. Her 9-year-old daughter told police that her mother had called her expletive-laced names and said she didn't want to stay with her. Arrangements were made for another family member to get the girl, and police left.
The second time police came after a neighbor said Anderson was drinking too much and trying to fight a neighbor.
The video, posted on YouTube by Anderson's 22-year-old daughter, Jasmine Anderson, shows Michelle S. Anderson being calmly handcuffed by a police car while her 9-year-old daughter watches. When she asks why she's being arrested, the officer tells her, "Remember the warning I gave you? That if you came out and harassed them."
The calm in the video is broken when the officer suddenly spins around and strikes the woman in the face. It's not clear if it was a punch or done with an open hand.
"Oh my God," she says, crying and lying face down.
"You spit on me," the officer says, followed by a series of expletives and later, "You're an idiot."
With her daughter wailing in the background, Anderson says, "Please stop, I can't breathe," with her face in the grass, her arms handcuffed.
"Shut your hole," the officer says. "When you go spitting on somebody, you deserve to have your (expletive) kicked. You lose all respect."
The spit can't be seen in the footage. The officer tells his partner in the video that Anderson "splattered all over the back of me."
Jasmine Anderson told KSL-TV that she didn't believe her mother's story of what happened since her mother has had several run-ins with police. But when she received an email this week with the 8-minute video attached her opinion changed.
"I really thought my mom was exaggerating," Jasmine Anderson said.
Brown said he's troubled that that it took two years to come to light, considering sergeants are supposed to review every arrest made by the agency.
He plans to evaluate how the agency reviews arrests and body camera videos. Most patrol officers wear body cameras, leading to massive amounts of footage. Brown said there's more body camera video of the incident, but said nothing noteworthy happens besides what's seen in the YouTube click.
"The review process failed us that night," Brown said. "Why are dealing with this now instead of Oct. 11, 2014?"
- The Associated Press
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah militia group leader with ties to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges alleging he tried to blow up a federally owned cabin.
William Keebler, 57, is accused of scouting a mosque, a Bureau of Land Management office and U.S. military facilities as possible targets before choosing the rural Arizona cabin. He was angry about public land policies he saw as federal overreach, prosecutors contend.
Keebler is facing one count of attempting to damage federal property and one count of carrying a firearm during a crime of violence in a grand jury indictment handed down Wednesday.
Each charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison, and Keebler could face up to life in prison if convicted on the second count alone. His trial was set for Sept. 12.
Prosecutor Andrew Choate said there's a large amount of evidence in the case.
The device didn't do any damage because it was inert, built by undercover FBI agents who had infiltrated his small group that otherwise amounted to about four people.
Defense attorneys are considering an appeal of a decision that kept Keebler in jail ahead of trial, his lawyer Lynn Donaldson said Wednesday. Keebler's friend Lor Potts has said he isn't violent and the agents set him up, encouraging the use of explosives.
Prosecutors say Keebler asked the agents to make the device, and he was willing to shoot any agents who responded to the explosion in the northern Arizona area of Mt. Trumbull on June 21.
Donaldson has said the allegations about other targets are exaggerated and what he's accused of may have been closer to civil disobedience.
Federal authorities started investigating Keebler after he took part in a 2014 armed standoff with federal officials at Bundy's Nevada ranch over unpaid grazing fees.
Keebler was also an associate of Arizona rancher Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, who served as a spokesman for Bundy's son, Ammon Bundy, and other ranchers involved in an armed standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge earlier this year. Finicum was shot and killed by authorities during a Jan. 26 traffic stop that led to Ammon Bundy's arrest.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 44-year-old New Mexico man is charged with violating a migratory bird law by allegedly trying to sell hawks without federal permission.
Wayne Martin of the Cochiti (COH'-cheh-tee) Pueblo in Sandoval County pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court in Albuquerque.
The indictment accuses Martin of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act on Feb. 29, 2012. The law makes it illegal to possess, offer for sale, or sell migratory birds or parts or products of migratory birds.
John Van Butcher, a federal public defender appointed to represent Martin, did not immediately return a call for comment on the allegations against Martin.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says the case was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington woman has died after being thrown off a car driven by her daughter.
The News Tribune reports that the 62-year-old Puyallup woman called 911 in June and said she was sitting on the roof of her 25-year-old daughter's car to stop the younger woman from leaving.
Pierce County sheriff's deputies say the woman was sitting on the hood and talking to the driver. According to court documents, the vehicle was moving slowly but then jolted, throwing the mother onto the pavement.
She was taken to the hospital with a serious head injury and died the next day.
The daughter drove off, but a deputy stopped her. She is charged with assault, failure to remain at an injury accident and failure to obey an officer.
She has a competency hearing scheduled this month.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
DENVER — The military will pay $4.3 million for filters in public water systems outside Colorado Springs and is speeding up its investigation into whether potentially harmful chemicals in the water came from nearby Peterson Air Force Base.
The Air Force announced the steps Tuesday after a preliminary review showed that a firefighting foam used during training exercises decades ago at Peterson may be the source of the contaminants.
Perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, were found in water systems serving about 69,000 people in the city of Fountain and an unincorporated community called Security-Widefield.
PFCs have been linked to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer, along with other illnesses.
State health officials say residents of Fountain and Security-Widefield have higher rates of kidney cancer than the surrounding population, but they say that might be because the residents also have higher rates of obesity and smoking.
In a report dated June 30, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said it doesn't have enough information to definitively link the increased cancer rate to PFCs.
"However, available data suggest possible causes other than drinking water exposure," the report said.
PFCs have been widely used in firefighting foam, non-stick cookware coatings and other applications but are being phased out of the products. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency doesn't regulate PFCs but is evaluating them.
Peterson is one of 664 military sites nationwide under review by the Defense Department for possible groundwater contamination from PFCs in firefighting foam.
Air Force officials aren't certain the PFCs in Fountain and Security-Widefield came from Peterson, spokesman Steve Brady said Wednesday. A contractor will begin drilling monitoring wells in October to determine the source and the extent of the chemicals. Preliminary results are expected in March 2017.
In the meantime, filters will be installed at or near wells supplying water to Fountain and Security-Widefield. They're considered a temporary measure until a permanent solution is found.
Monitoring wells weren't scheduled to be drilled until May 2017, but Peterson officials requested quicker installation after receiving the results of a preliminary review of PFC use at the base. The report hasn't been made public.
Peterson used foam containing PFCs in firefighting training exercises from 1970 until about 1990, when the base switched to water.
Peterson still uses foam with PFCs for emergencies but is looking for a replacement material, officials said.
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- The Associated Press
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY — A 16-year-old girl accused of killing two people in a nearly 100-mph crash on her way to a suicide pact has appeared in court.
The Ogden Standard-Examiner reports the Layton teenager is facing two counts of murder and could face a 15 years-to-life prison sentence on each if convicted.
The Associated Press is not naming the girl because she's a minor. She is due back in court July 27.
Her lawyer Walter Bugden says the teen is very frightened.
Police say she was headed to meet a friend so they could take drugs and crash the car together when she slammed into another car in a 45 mph zone in Roy.
The crash killed 20-year-old Maddison Haan of West Point and 19-year-old Tyler Christianson of Ogden.
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Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net
- The Associated Press
- Updated
SALT LAKE CITY — Authorities say firefighters stopped a Salt Lake City man trying to strangle a woman with a rope under a highway overpass.
KUTV reports that firefighters happened across the scene Tuesday while responding to reports a fire near an Interstate 80 overpass.
They couldn't find a fire, but on the way out noticed a strangely parked car. Police say they stopped and saw 22-year-old Juan Echeveste holding a rope around a woman's neck, trying to kill her.
Police say Echeveste tried to force her into a car and drive away when he saw the firefighters, but they stopped him and held him until Utah Highway Patrol troopers arrived. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and kidnapping.
No lawyer was immediately listed for Alba in court records.
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Information from: KUTV-TV, http://www.kutv.com/
- The Associated Press
- Updated
LAS VEGAS — A British citizen has pleaded not guilty in U.S. federal court to charges alleging that he tried to grab a police officer's gun to shoot presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a Las Vegas campaign rally.
A federal magistrate judge set an Aug. 22 trial date for Michael Steven Sandford following his pleas Wednesday to charges of disrupting an official function and two firearm possession counts.
The 20-year-old Sandford could face up to 30 years in prison if he's convicted.
He's been in custody since his arrest June 18 at the rally at the Treasure Island hotel-casino.
Federal agents say Sandford told them he drove from San Bernardino, California, to Las Vegas and practiced shooting at a gun range the day before Trump's appearance.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
HELENA, Mont. — A manufacturer of copper and zinc products in East Helena has agreed to limit its use of wells that tap into lead- and arsenic-contaminated water beneath a Superfund site, according to a proposed settlement with federal environmental regulators.
American Chemet Corp. employs 126 people and sits adjacent to the site of a decommissioned lead smelter formerly owned by Asarco that contaminated the site and the land of surrounding businesses and homes for decades. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated it a Superfund site in the 1980s, and has spent the decades regulating the cleanup.
The agreement between the EPA and American Chemet is meant to help stop or reduce the underground plumes of contaminated water from expanding from the site. Injecting or withdrawing groundwater could affect the size, shape and direction the plume travels.
The deal was signed in June, and recently filed in U.S. District Court in Helena for a judge's approval.
American Chemet has already completed much of the work outlined in the agreement, which is called a consent decree, said Allan Payne, an attorney for the company.
American Chemet has capped five water wells and agreed to limit the use of another well to 7 gallons per minute. The deal also includes a ban on consuming the groundwater, installing any new wells on the property and any activities that could expose the contamination in the soil and groundwater.
The agreement requires American Chemet to put up a $100,000 bond to guarantee the work.
The Montana Environmental Trust Group now owns the former smelter site after Asarco filed for bankruptcy and is conducting the cleanup under EPA oversight.
- By BEN NEARY The Associated Press
- Updated
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Wyoming legislative task force recommends Gov. Matt Mead approve spending $3.5 million for emergency improvements at the state prison in Rawlins.
The task force voted Wednesday to request that the governor approve the money to build a new electrical services building at the prison and make repairs to a crumbling wall.
House Speaker Kermit Brown, a Laramie Republican, says lawmakers will meet with Mead this week.
Corrections Department Director Robert Lampert warned lawmakers that the room housing all electrical and security services equipment at the prison is currently leaking and equipment could fail. He recommended the state build a new modular building.
Lampert also said it's critical that the state repair a cracking gymnasium wall at the prison that supports the weight of the building's roof.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
LARAMIE, Wyo. — The University of Wyoming had 70 student-athletics earn Academic All-Mountain West Conference honors this past spring.
Wyoming's list included 23 individuals from women's swimming and diving, 12 from men's track and field, eight from women's basketball and women's track and field, six from men's and women's golf, four from women's tennis and three from men's basketball.
There were 19 sophomores, 18 freshmen, 17 juniors and 16 seniors who earned the honor this year.
To be eligible for selection, student-athletes must have completed at least one academic term while maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better, and be a starter or significant contributor on their athletic team.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
LAS VEGAS — UNLV was under a brief alert for a reported gunman on campus Wednesday afternoon, though Las Vegas police say that there's no indication of a threat.
Las Vegas police officer Larry Hadfield said officers responded at 2:53 p.m. Wednesday on reports of an active shooter but found no evidence or indication that there was one.
He said the report was false but deferred to university campus officials on how it originated.
UNLV spokesman Tony Allen said an emergency alert was issued to warn of a suspect with a firearm on campus.
Allen said that alert was followed moments later by another alert noting that the situation was all clear.
The university is investigating but couldn't immediately provide details on the alert.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
HELENA, Mont. — Montana Department of Justice officials say 2,818 Volkswagen and Audi owners in the state will benefit from a legal settlement over Volkswagen's rigged emissions tests.
DOJ spokeswoman Anastasia Barnes says the owners of the affected diesel vehicles will receive a restitution payment of at least $5,100 and have the choice of selling back their cars or having them fixed at Volkswagen's expense.
According to the settlement, which still must be approved by a judge, Montana also will receive $11.6 million in installments for environmental mitigation programs that are specified in the agreement.
The DOJ's Office of Consumer Protection also will receive more than $2 million from the settlement.
In total, the German automaker has agreed to spend up to $15.3 billion to settle lawsuits that its diesel cars cheated on U.S. emissions tests.
- The Associated Press
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The National Park Service has released photos and video of two litters of mountain lion kittens in the Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles.
The Park Service said Wednesday the five kittens — three females and two males — were tagged and returned to their dens.
The service studies how mountain lions survive in fragmented and urbanized habitat around Los Angeles.
Biologist Jeff Sikich says lions appear to be reproducing successfully. But he says the real challenge is when the kittens grow older, disperse and have to deal with threats from other mountain lions, road mortality and poisons.
One litter includes two females, offspring of a mother dubbed P-35. The others are two males and a female born to mother P-39. Both litters likely have the same father, P-38.
- The Associated Press
DURANGO, Colo. — Wildlife officials are reminding people to leave wildlife alone after someone who thought a fawn was abandoned picked the animal up and it had to be euthanized.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Joe Lewandowski told the Durango Herald that the unknown individual took the animal to the Humane Society.
Lewandowski said the fawn's mother had hidden the animal in La Plata Canyon while she went to forage.
He said fawns cannot be rehabilitated and that picking one up is essentially a death sentence.
The fawn was euthanized Saturday.
Lewandowski said this is the worst possible outcome of people negligently interacting with wildlife.
He said anyone concerned about an animal should call Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
- The Associated Press
BOSQUE DEL APACHE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, N.M. — Firefighters are making progress against a blaze that has charred more than a square mile at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico.
Officials say the fire was 50 percent contained Wednesday thanks to work done on the west side of the Rio Grande. There are still active flames on the east side of the river that are keeping crews busy.
Chris Leeser with the refuge says officials have reopened the northern end of the tour loop to visitors and the visitor center will resume normal hours Thursday.
The fire started Monday and is burning mostly invasive salt cedar trees.
The refuge is an important stop for migratory birds. Every winter, thousands of sandhill cranes, geese and other waterfowl make this stretch of the Rio Grande home.
- The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Records show a Las Vegas mom who police say was shot and killed by her estranged husband, before he also killed their three children and himself, had tried to get a court restraining order to keep the man away.
A picture emerging Wednesday following the June 29 slayings of Phoukeo Dej-Oudom, the children ages 9 to 15, and the suicide of Jason Hagan Dej-Odoum shows the mom feared an attack after filing for divorce weeks earlier.
The divorce filing cited domestic violence.
Hair salon chain manager Taren Olson tells the Las Vegas Sun that Phoukeo Dej-Oudom quit work June 18 with a message saying she was hiding from her husband.
Police say Jason Dej-Odoum killed his wife outside a business, then killed their children and himself at home.
- The Associated Press
SANTA FE, N.M. — The director of an office overseeing supplementary food and financial assistance within the New Mexico Human Services Department has been reassigned amid state and federal inquiries into that office's handling of benefit applications.
The secretary of the Human Services Department announced in an email to agency employees that Marilyn Martinez is no longer director of the income support division and will instead oversee the agency's financial services bureau. Martinez could not immediately be reached.
Human Services spokesman Kyler Nerison said Wednesday the management change is unrelated to an ongoing internal investigation of the division's handling of benefits.
Martinez invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when called in May to testify in federal court about allegations that managers changed or pressured workers into changing application information for emergency food benefits.
- The Associated Press
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — State data shows the mining industry experienced its steepest decline ever in Wyoming history.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports the state's Economic Analysis Division compared data from the first quarter of 2015 to the same period this year and found the mining sector declined by more than 55 percent.
The national jobless rate fell to 4.9 percent while state unemployment stands at 5 percent after the loss of almost 8,700 jobs.
A state economist said the state's unemployment rate hasn't been higher than that of the rest of the country since the Great Recession. He said the largest factor has been the mineral extraction industry.
The minerals extraction industry accounts for about a fifth of sales tax collections.
Data also shows taxable sales were down almost 25 percent.
- The Associated Press
ALTADENA, Calif. — A 4-year-old boy was killed and a man he was with on a porch was wounded in a drive-by shooting in Altadena, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said Wednesday.
The victims were in front of a home Tuesday night when someone in a dark-colored car pulled up and fired several shots before speeding away, according to Deputy Trina Schrader.
Both victims were struck multiple times. Shell casings littered the street and investigators said at least 13 shots were fired from a semi-automatic handgun.
Neighbor Cameron Jackson told reporters he came outside after hearing gunfire.
"I saw the mom," he said. "She was screaming, 'my baby, my baby.' "
A 27-year-old man and the 4-year-old boy were rushed to a hospital. The boy, identified as Salvador Esparza III, died, said coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter.
The adult victim was a family friend and not related to the child, Schrader said. The man's injuries were not life-threatening, she said.
Investigators were searching for a suspect in a dark-colored car but have not identified a motive.
Homicide Det. John Corina said authorities were looking into whether the shooting was gang-related.
- The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City police has opened an investigation into a 2014 incident in which an officer is shown on body camera video striking a woman in the face and yelling expletives at her with her young daughter watching after she allegedly spit on him during an arrest for public intoxication.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said Wednesday at a news conference that the actions seen on the video are abhorrent and not reflective of how officers are taught to handle situations.
Brown said he became aware of the video Tuesday evening when asked by a reporter. KSL-TV first reported the story. Brown said he believes the woman's attorney released the video, which her daughter posted online.
"It was tragic. That was a terrible situation," said Brown, who was named chief in May after serving as interim chief for nearly a year. "We should have been much better at controlling the situation."
In addition to an internal affairs review, Brown said he's made Salt Lake County Attorney Sim Gill aware for possible criminal charges.
Brown said Michelle S. Anderson, 43, was being arrested in October 2014 for public intoxication. Anderson was charged with public intoxication and for spitting at the officer, but those were dismissed, online court records show.
Brown said he has not yet talked with the officers involved and isn't releasing their names. The officer seen striking the woman has since retired, Brown said. The other still works for the agency and remains on duty pending the investigation, he said.
Charging documents show it was the second time officers went to the home that night. The first time, neighbors called after hearing screaming and crying inside the Anderson residence. Her 9-year-old daughter told police that her mother had called her expletive-laced names and said she didn't want to stay with her. Arrangements were made for another family member to get the girl, and police left.
The second time police came after a neighbor said Anderson was drinking too much and trying to fight a neighbor.
The video, posted on YouTube by Anderson's 22-year-old daughter, Jasmine Anderson, shows Michelle S. Anderson being calmly handcuffed by a police car while her 9-year-old daughter watches. When she asks why she's being arrested, the officer tells her, "Remember the warning I gave you? That if you came out and harassed them."
The calm in the video is broken when the officer suddenly spins around and strikes the woman in the face. It's not clear if it was a punch or done with an open hand.
"Oh my God," she says, crying and lying face down.
"You spit on me," the officer says, followed by a series of expletives and later, "You're an idiot."
With her daughter wailing in the background, Anderson says, "Please stop, I can't breathe," with her face in the grass, her arms handcuffed.
"Shut your hole," the officer says. "When you go spitting on somebody, you deserve to have your (expletive) kicked. You lose all respect."
The spit can't be seen in the footage. The officer tells his partner in the video that Anderson "splattered all over the back of me."
Jasmine Anderson told KSL-TV that she didn't believe her mother's story of what happened since her mother has had several run-ins with police. But when she received an email this week with the 8-minute video attached her opinion changed.
"I really thought my mom was exaggerating," Jasmine Anderson said.
Brown said he's troubled that that it took two years to come to light, considering sergeants are supposed to review every arrest made by the agency.
He plans to evaluate how the agency reviews arrests and body camera videos. Most patrol officers wear body cameras, leading to massive amounts of footage. Brown said there's more body camera video of the incident, but said nothing noteworthy happens besides what's seen in the YouTube click.
"The review process failed us that night," Brown said. "Why are dealing with this now instead of Oct. 11, 2014?"
- The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah militia group leader with ties to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges alleging he tried to blow up a federally owned cabin.
William Keebler, 57, is accused of scouting a mosque, a Bureau of Land Management office and U.S. military facilities as possible targets before choosing the rural Arizona cabin. He was angry about public land policies he saw as federal overreach, prosecutors contend.
Keebler is facing one count of attempting to damage federal property and one count of carrying a firearm during a crime of violence in a grand jury indictment handed down Wednesday.
Each charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison, and Keebler could face up to life in prison if convicted on the second count alone. His trial was set for Sept. 12.
Prosecutor Andrew Choate said there's a large amount of evidence in the case.
The device didn't do any damage because it was inert, built by undercover FBI agents who had infiltrated his small group that otherwise amounted to about four people.
Defense attorneys are considering an appeal of a decision that kept Keebler in jail ahead of trial, his lawyer Lynn Donaldson said Wednesday. Keebler's friend Lor Potts has said he isn't violent and the agents set him up, encouraging the use of explosives.
Prosecutors say Keebler asked the agents to make the device, and he was willing to shoot any agents who responded to the explosion in the northern Arizona area of Mt. Trumbull on June 21.
Donaldson has said the allegations about other targets are exaggerated and what he's accused of may have been closer to civil disobedience.
Federal authorities started investigating Keebler after he took part in a 2014 armed standoff with federal officials at Bundy's Nevada ranch over unpaid grazing fees.
Keebler was also an associate of Arizona rancher Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, who served as a spokesman for Bundy's son, Ammon Bundy, and other ranchers involved in an armed standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge earlier this year. Finicum was shot and killed by authorities during a Jan. 26 traffic stop that led to Ammon Bundy's arrest.
- The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 44-year-old New Mexico man is charged with violating a migratory bird law by allegedly trying to sell hawks without federal permission.
Wayne Martin of the Cochiti (COH'-cheh-tee) Pueblo in Sandoval County pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court in Albuquerque.
The indictment accuses Martin of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act on Feb. 29, 2012. The law makes it illegal to possess, offer for sale, or sell migratory birds or parts or products of migratory birds.
John Van Butcher, a federal public defender appointed to represent Martin, did not immediately return a call for comment on the allegations against Martin.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says the case was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
- The Associated Press
TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington woman has died after being thrown off a car driven by her daughter.
The News Tribune reports that the 62-year-old Puyallup woman called 911 in June and said she was sitting on the roof of her 25-year-old daughter's car to stop the younger woman from leaving.
Pierce County sheriff's deputies say the woman was sitting on the hood and talking to the driver. According to court documents, the vehicle was moving slowly but then jolted, throwing the mother onto the pavement.
She was taken to the hospital with a serious head injury and died the next day.
The daughter drove off, but a deputy stopped her. She is charged with assault, failure to remain at an injury accident and failure to obey an officer.
She has a competency hearing scheduled this month.
- The Associated Press
DENVER — The military will pay $4.3 million for filters in public water systems outside Colorado Springs and is speeding up its investigation into whether potentially harmful chemicals in the water came from nearby Peterson Air Force Base.
The Air Force announced the steps Tuesday after a preliminary review showed that a firefighting foam used during training exercises decades ago at Peterson may be the source of the contaminants.
Perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, were found in water systems serving about 69,000 people in the city of Fountain and an unincorporated community called Security-Widefield.
PFCs have been linked to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer, along with other illnesses.
State health officials say residents of Fountain and Security-Widefield have higher rates of kidney cancer than the surrounding population, but they say that might be because the residents also have higher rates of obesity and smoking.
In a report dated June 30, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said it doesn't have enough information to definitively link the increased cancer rate to PFCs.
"However, available data suggest possible causes other than drinking water exposure," the report said.
PFCs have been widely used in firefighting foam, non-stick cookware coatings and other applications but are being phased out of the products. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency doesn't regulate PFCs but is evaluating them.
Peterson is one of 664 military sites nationwide under review by the Defense Department for possible groundwater contamination from PFCs in firefighting foam.
Air Force officials aren't certain the PFCs in Fountain and Security-Widefield came from Peterson, spokesman Steve Brady said Wednesday. A contractor will begin drilling monitoring wells in October to determine the source and the extent of the chemicals. Preliminary results are expected in March 2017.
In the meantime, filters will be installed at or near wells supplying water to Fountain and Security-Widefield. They're considered a temporary measure until a permanent solution is found.
Monitoring wells weren't scheduled to be drilled until May 2017, but Peterson officials requested quicker installation after receiving the results of a preliminary review of PFC use at the base. The report hasn't been made public.
Peterson used foam containing PFCs in firefighting training exercises from 1970 until about 1990, when the base switched to water.
Peterson still uses foam with PFCs for emergencies but is looking for a replacement material, officials said.
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Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott.
- The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — A 16-year-old girl accused of killing two people in a nearly 100-mph crash on her way to a suicide pact has appeared in court.
The Ogden Standard-Examiner reports the Layton teenager is facing two counts of murder and could face a 15 years-to-life prison sentence on each if convicted.
The Associated Press is not naming the girl because she's a minor. She is due back in court July 27.
Her lawyer Walter Bugden says the teen is very frightened.
Police say she was headed to meet a friend so they could take drugs and crash the car together when she slammed into another car in a 45 mph zone in Roy.
The crash killed 20-year-old Maddison Haan of West Point and 19-year-old Tyler Christianson of Ogden.
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Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net
- The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Authorities say firefighters stopped a Salt Lake City man trying to strangle a woman with a rope under a highway overpass.
KUTV reports that firefighters happened across the scene Tuesday while responding to reports a fire near an Interstate 80 overpass.
They couldn't find a fire, but on the way out noticed a strangely parked car. Police say they stopped and saw 22-year-old Juan Echeveste holding a rope around a woman's neck, trying to kill her.
Police say Echeveste tried to force her into a car and drive away when he saw the firefighters, but they stopped him and held him until Utah Highway Patrol troopers arrived. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and kidnapping.
No lawyer was immediately listed for Alba in court records.
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Information from: KUTV-TV, http://www.kutv.com/
- The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — A British citizen has pleaded not guilty in U.S. federal court to charges alleging that he tried to grab a police officer's gun to shoot presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a Las Vegas campaign rally.
A federal magistrate judge set an Aug. 22 trial date for Michael Steven Sandford following his pleas Wednesday to charges of disrupting an official function and two firearm possession counts.
The 20-year-old Sandford could face up to 30 years in prison if he's convicted.
He's been in custody since his arrest June 18 at the rally at the Treasure Island hotel-casino.
Federal agents say Sandford told them he drove from San Bernardino, California, to Las Vegas and practiced shooting at a gun range the day before Trump's appearance.
- The Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. — A manufacturer of copper and zinc products in East Helena has agreed to limit its use of wells that tap into lead- and arsenic-contaminated water beneath a Superfund site, according to a proposed settlement with federal environmental regulators.
American Chemet Corp. employs 126 people and sits adjacent to the site of a decommissioned lead smelter formerly owned by Asarco that contaminated the site and the land of surrounding businesses and homes for decades. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated it a Superfund site in the 1980s, and has spent the decades regulating the cleanup.
The agreement between the EPA and American Chemet is meant to help stop or reduce the underground plumes of contaminated water from expanding from the site. Injecting or withdrawing groundwater could affect the size, shape and direction the plume travels.
The deal was signed in June, and recently filed in U.S. District Court in Helena for a judge's approval.
American Chemet has already completed much of the work outlined in the agreement, which is called a consent decree, said Allan Payne, an attorney for the company.
American Chemet has capped five water wells and agreed to limit the use of another well to 7 gallons per minute. The deal also includes a ban on consuming the groundwater, installing any new wells on the property and any activities that could expose the contamination in the soil and groundwater.
The agreement requires American Chemet to put up a $100,000 bond to guarantee the work.
The Montana Environmental Trust Group now owns the former smelter site after Asarco filed for bankruptcy and is conducting the cleanup under EPA oversight.
- By BEN NEARY The Associated Press
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Wyoming legislative task force recommends Gov. Matt Mead approve spending $3.5 million for emergency improvements at the state prison in Rawlins.
The task force voted Wednesday to request that the governor approve the money to build a new electrical services building at the prison and make repairs to a crumbling wall.
House Speaker Kermit Brown, a Laramie Republican, says lawmakers will meet with Mead this week.
Corrections Department Director Robert Lampert warned lawmakers that the room housing all electrical and security services equipment at the prison is currently leaking and equipment could fail. He recommended the state build a new modular building.
Lampert also said it's critical that the state repair a cracking gymnasium wall at the prison that supports the weight of the building's roof.
- The Associated Press
LARAMIE, Wyo. — The University of Wyoming had 70 student-athletics earn Academic All-Mountain West Conference honors this past spring.
Wyoming's list included 23 individuals from women's swimming and diving, 12 from men's track and field, eight from women's basketball and women's track and field, six from men's and women's golf, four from women's tennis and three from men's basketball.
There were 19 sophomores, 18 freshmen, 17 juniors and 16 seniors who earned the honor this year.
To be eligible for selection, student-athletes must have completed at least one academic term while maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better, and be a starter or significant contributor on their athletic team.
- The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — UNLV was under a brief alert for a reported gunman on campus Wednesday afternoon, though Las Vegas police say that there's no indication of a threat.
Las Vegas police officer Larry Hadfield said officers responded at 2:53 p.m. Wednesday on reports of an active shooter but found no evidence or indication that there was one.
He said the report was false but deferred to university campus officials on how it originated.
UNLV spokesman Tony Allen said an emergency alert was issued to warn of a suspect with a firearm on campus.
Allen said that alert was followed moments later by another alert noting that the situation was all clear.
The university is investigating but couldn't immediately provide details on the alert.
- The Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. — Montana Department of Justice officials say 2,818 Volkswagen and Audi owners in the state will benefit from a legal settlement over Volkswagen's rigged emissions tests.
DOJ spokeswoman Anastasia Barnes says the owners of the affected diesel vehicles will receive a restitution payment of at least $5,100 and have the choice of selling back their cars or having them fixed at Volkswagen's expense.
According to the settlement, which still must be approved by a judge, Montana also will receive $11.6 million in installments for environmental mitigation programs that are specified in the agreement.
The DOJ's Office of Consumer Protection also will receive more than $2 million from the settlement.
In total, the German automaker has agreed to spend up to $15.3 billion to settle lawsuits that its diesel cars cheated on U.S. emissions tests.
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