KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — A man shot by a Kearney police officer last month has been sentenced to four years’ probation.
35-year-old Jose Klich was sentenced Friday for a felony drug possession count. He must also complete a substance abuse treatment program, undergo counseling, take classes in money management, sobriety and employment and abide by a curfew to be set by the state probation department.
Klich was shot once in the torso by Officer Derek Payton on June 5 when Klich tried to flee a traffic stop, clipping Payton’s police cruiser in the process. The officer was trying to serve an arrest warrant for the drug charge at the time of the altercation and chase.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say a missed red light caused a crash that killed a 75-year-old man.
Police say the crash happened Friday morning in far northwest Omaha, when a dump truck drove through a red light on Maple Road and hit the driver’s side of a small SUV.
Investigators say Noel Lammers of Omaha died in the crash.
Police are still investigating and say charges could be filed later against the 59-year-old dump truck driver.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 24-year-old man who abducted and stabbed his ex-girlfriend in Omaha has been sentenced to up to 150 years in prison.
Dylan Doebelin was sentenced Friday in Sarpy County District Court to 72 to 150 years in prison. Under state sentencing guidelines, he must serve 36 years before he’s eligible for parole. Doebelin had originally been charged with kidnapping, attempted murder and stalking. In a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in April to reduced charges of assault, attempted kidnapping, making terroristic threats and weapons counts.
Doebelin forced his ex-girlfriend last summer from her job at a daycare at knifepoint, and later beat and stabbed her as she tried to escape. Authorities say good Samaritans saved the woman by distracting Doebelin and whisking the injured woman away in another car.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say they have recovered the body of a teenager who went under while swimming in the Missouri River.
Rescuers were called to the scene north of Omaha’s N.P. Dodge Park around 7 p.m. Thursday after someone reported the teen missing in the water.
Omaha authorities say that on Saturday morning, a person in a cabin on the Iowa side of the river spotted a body floating in the water and called 911. Omaha authorities say that because the teen’s body was found on the Iowa side, Council Bluffs authorities have taken over the investigation.
Family members identified the victim as 17-year-old Adrian Boatman of Omaha. They say Boatman was with an aunt and four other children Thursday when he disappeared in the river just north of NP Dodge Park.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Health officials have confirmed a human case of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus in Lancaster County.
Officials say the sickened man likely contracted the virus somewhere else. Earlier this month, a human case of the virus was reported in Scotts Bluff County in western Nebraska.
Experts say most people who are infected have no symptoms or experience only mild, flu-like symptoms. The most vulnerable people are those who are at least 50 or have weakened immune systems.
The virus is transmitted to humans through mosquitoes, which acquire the virus by feeding on infected birds.
Nebraska reported 68 human cases of West Nile virus and two deaths last year. In 2014, eight deaths were blamed on West Nile virus.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Iowa authorities say two Bellevue, Nebraska, men have been charged in warrants with attempted murder, robbery and assault in the robbery of a Council Bluffs convenience store where a shot was fired at the clerk.
20-year-old Kayvon Berry-Smith and 19-year-old Kyntral Watkins are being held in jail in Nebraska, awaiting extradition to Iowa.
Police say the men entered a Bucky’s Express in Council Bluffs around 12:30 a.m. July 1 and demanded money. Police say at least one of the men had a handgun. After the clerk handed over money from the register, police say, one of the men fired a shot toward the clerk. The clerk was not hit.
It is not known whether the men have attorneys for the Iowa charges.
GOTHENBURG, Neb. (AP) — A south-central Nebraska man is dead following a single-vehicle crash near Gothenburg.
The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the late Friday morning crash. Officials say 50-year-old Brock Johnson, of rural Gothenburg, was driving a pickup west on Highway 30 west of Gothenburg when he left the road and hit a ditch embankment.
No one else was in the pickup.
Investigators say Johnson was not wearing a seat belt.
SHELTON, Neb. (AP) — The owner who planned to refurbish an abandoned 107-year-old school building is offering a $10,000 reward for information on whoever was responsible for a fire that destroyed it.
Thomas Johnson, of Juniata, put up the reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those who caused the July 5 fire south of Shelton.
Johnson moved the school building in 1998 from Assumption in Adams County to south of Shelton on the banks of the Platte River. Johnson initially wanted to remodel the school into a bed and breakfast.
At the time of the fire, the building and one acre of land was for sale for $198,000.
Anyone with information about the fire is asked to contact the Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office.
Two men are facing felony charges after they allegedly entered a North Platte apartment and threatened the occupants with a handgun.
At around 5:21 a.m., on July 9, North Platte police responded to an apartment in the 400 block of North Dewey Street, on the report of a prior disturbance.
Officers met with three individuals who reported that 27-year-old Taylor Trembly and 25-year-old Joshua Lucero came to their apartment and knocked on the door. They stated that when the door was opened, Trembly and Lucero entered the apartment and confronted them about spreading rumors about them.
According to Investigator John Deal, the victims told officers that Lucero showed the butt of a semi-automatic gun in his waistband. Trembly then allegedly pointed at the gun and told the victims he would, “make them disappear.”
At one point, Deal says Lucero removed the gun, racked the slide and pointed it at one of the victim’s heads.
Investigators say the duo then told the residents they would come back if they reported the incident to police, and there “wouldn’t be any witnesses.” They then fled the scene.
After a lengthy investigation, investigators established probable cause to arrest both Trembly and Lucero for felony terroristic threats. On July 21, Lucero was taken into custody during a traffic stop at 4th and Poplar Streets, and Trembly was arrested at a residence in the 1500 block of East 12th Street.
