Hall County District Court records say Ahmed Said was sentenced Tuesday. He’d been convicted in June of second-degree murder and use of a weapon. Court records say he fatally beat 41-year-old Abdulma Khamis on April 12 last year at Pioneer Park.
A portion of the crime was captured on security video from a nearby car dealership.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The children of a woman killed in a house explosion last year are accusing the city of Lincoln, Lancaster County and gas utility Black Hills Energy of negligently causing her death.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Amy Roche and Matt Jasa have filed a more than $4 million tort claim in the blast that killed their mother, Jeanne Jasa. The filing is required before a lawsuit can be filed against a Nebraska government agency.
Lincoln police are still investigating the August 2017 natural gas explosion and haven’t yet ruled out foul play.
The family alleges Black Hills infrastructure and its safety devices failed, allowing gas to fill the home.
A utility spokeswoman declined to comment. Assistant City Attorney Elizabeth Elliott says she hasn’t made a formal decision on the claim.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man has been given 45 to 70 years in prison for the random shooting of a store employee in an Omaha parking lot.
Douglas County District Court records say 21-year-old Ryan Blaha was sentenced Monday. He’d pleaded no contest to assault and weapons charges after prosecutors dropped related charges.
Police say Blaha used a shotgun to shoot Jared Clawson on Jan. 11 last year and fire at two of Clawson’s co-workers at Nebraska Furniture Mart. Relatives say Clawson has undergone 20 surgeries for his nearly fatal wounds.
In court Monday Blaha spoke of his great shame and remorse.
WEEPING WATER, Neb. (AP) — Firefighters have rescued a skydiver who landed in a tree in eastern Nebraska after her first solo jump from a plane.
Firefighters and Cass County sheriff’s deputies were called to help around 4 p.m. Saturday. Twenty-nine-year Abbey Lacy was stuck around 60 feet (18 meters) up, hanging from parachute cords attached to her harness. Members of her parachute club gathered below and reassured her while she awaited rescue near Weeping Water.
Power was cut in nearby overhead lines, and two men using an aerial ladder freed her from her predicament.
She was treated for bumps, bruises and cuts at an Omaha hospital, and doctors say some nerve damage in one of her legs likely will heal.
The Omaha resident says she’ll go back up for another jump as soon as her leg allows.
BLOOMFIELD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man died after his car ran off a county road and rolled in northeast Nebraska.
The accident occurred just before 11 p.m. Saturday, less than 2 miles (3 kilometers) north of Bloomfield. The Nebraska State Patrol says 44-year-old Roy Kalb was driving south when his car drifted to the right and he overcorrected. His car rolled several times before landing in a roadside ditch.
Authorities say Kalb had another accident on the same road on Aug. 10. He was charged with two misdemeanors, including leaving the scene of an accident without providing required information.
He lived in Bloomfield.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Three people have been imprisoned for their roles in the slaying of a man on an American Indian reservation in northeast Nebraska.
Federal court records say the three Winnebago residents were sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Omaha. Twenty-year-old Jeremiah Wolfe was given 15 years for second-degree murder. His mother, 39-year-old Natasha Wolfe, was given 14 years for conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. And 22-year-old Lawrencia Merrick, also was given 15 years for second-degree murder. They’d pleaded guilty.
The three were charged in the April 2017 strangulation and beating of 32-year-old William Redhorn Jr. on the Winnebago Reservation.
BENEDICT, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two women died after their vehicles collided in York County.
The collision occurred Friday on U.S. Highway 81, about 2 miles (3 kilometers) north of Benedict.
The York County Sheriff’s Department says Brenda McCain was driving her car south when it collided with a northbound minivan driven by Jodi Miller. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
Both women lived in Strombsburg.
The crash is being investigated.
FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say the body of a missing 90-year-old Fremont man has been found in the Elkhorn River.
The body of Charles Folsom was found around 6 p.m. Friday about a mile from where some of his personal items were found near a creek that flows into the river.
Authorities had been searching for Folsom since Tuesday. Investigators believe Folsom had driven to the area and went into the creek sometime Tuesday.
Fremont Police Lt. Shane Wimer says investigators believe Folsom used his belt to try to get out of the creek. His family members believe he then floated to the river in an attempt to find a better spot to get out. Searchers believe he attempted to get up the bank further down the river.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new Westside Community Schools policy outlines how the Omaha district’s schools, students and families can channel grief over a student’s death without inadvertently glorifying death or damaging kids who are mourning.
The policy calls for no empty chairs at graduation and no school events dedicated to a dead classmate, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The policy also bans funeral or memorial services being held on school grounds.
Memorial plaques should be avoided, and charitable donations should be considered instead, the policy said.
Schools have been contemplating how to balance honor students who’ve died and drawing attention to tragedy, particularly in cases of suicide.
“School officials must balance the desire to honor and remember a cherished individual with awareness and concern for the emotional well-being of all students,” Westside’s policy reads.
Officials consulted staff members who had experience handling student grief in an age-appropriate way, said Board President Dana Blakely.
“As these situations arise, it’s also very helpful for us to have looked ahead to receive some guidance and some input from the people who know best how to work with our students in a positive and healthy way,” she said.
Westside’s grief response group is led by two guidance counselors who provide “emotional and psychological support for students following the loss of a classmate, parent or staff member.” The group recommends memorial activities, such as creating a scholarship fund or organizing a park cleanup, instead of fixed memorials like plaques or benches.
The policy allows for alternative arrangements to be discussed with school principals and counselors.
By MARGERY A. BECK , Associated PressNebraska Railcar Cleaning Services’ president, Stephen Michael Braithwaite, and vice president, Adam Thomas Braithwaite, are both named in the 22-count indictment. The charges include conspiracy, violating worker safety standards resulting in worker deaths, violating federal law that governs hazardous waste management and submitting false documents to a federal agency.
The company and owners failed to implement worker safety standards and then tried to cover that up during an inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, prosecutors said.
“Protecting the health and safety of American workers at hazardous job sites is of paramount importance,” Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Wood said in a written statement. “The defendants in this case failed to live up to that responsibility, even falsifying documents to evade worker safety requirements. Tragically, employees at the defendants’ facility lost their lives while working in these unsafe conditions.”
No attorneys are listed for the company or its owners in online federal court documents. A person who answered the phone Thursday at Nebraska Railcar Cleaning Services referred questions to Stephen Braithwaite, who did not immediately return a message left for him.
Two of the company’s workers, 40-year-old Dallas Foulk and 44-year-old Adrian LaPour, were killed in the April 14, 2015, explosion. A third employee was hurt.
Later that year, OSHA cited the company for 33 violations in the case, saying it blatantly ignored warning signs that there was a serious risk of explosion in the moments before the workers were killed.
The indictment alleges that after a 2013 inspection, Stephen Braithwaite agreed to have the company test railcars for benzene, a flammable liquid widely used to make everything from plastics to detergent. But after OSHA returned in March 2015 to conduct a follow-up inspection, prosecutors say, inspectors were turned away by Steve Braithwaite.
The indictment says the Braithwaites then created documents they submitted to OSHA falsifying that the company had purchased equipment to test the contents of railcars for benzene and had taken other required safety precautions.
The indictment says that despite warnings in 2013 and 2014, the company also failed to test waste to see if it was hazardous and instead simply sent all its waste to a landfill not permitted to receive hazardous waste.
