OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha Police say the 20-year-old woman who died in a weekend shooting was an innocent bystander caught between two rival gangs that opened fire.

Six other people were also wounded in the shooting late Saturday that killed Jasmine Harris in downtown Omaha’s Old Market area. No arrests had been made as of Monday afternoon.

Police Chief Todd Schmaderer says the shooting is part of a recent surge in gun violence his department is battling.

Schmaderer says 21 shootings were reported in May in Omaha. That followed four shootings in April and 3 in March.

Additional officers have been added to the police department’s gang unit and more officers will be stationed downtown throughout the upcoming College World Series.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska prison inmate that DNA tests linked to four Omaha rapes more than a decade ago has been sentenced to 160 to 200 years in prison.

A judge sentenced 42-year-old Brandon Weathers Monday for four sexual assaults that he was linked to after being forced to submit a DNA sample that he had resisted for years in prison.

Weathers is already serving 100 to 160 years for raping a 13-year-old child.

Prosecutor Brenda Beadle says Weathers’ savage crimes clearly warranted the maximum sentence.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities have recovered the body of a man who went under the water while tubing at Pawnee Lake west of Lincoln.

Officials say the body of 31-year-old Travis Wilkins was taken to shore just after sundown on Saturday.

Wilkins was being pulled Friday on an inner tube by a jet ski when the tube capsized. Another man and a 4-year-old were also riding on the tube. They were able to safely reach the shore.

Only the 4-year-old was wearing a life jacket.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man suspected in an Omaha slaying has died in a motorcycle crash along Interstate 80 just west of the Platte River in Cass County.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says 47-year-old Denberth Chavarria died Sunday after driving his speeding motorcycle into the rear of an eastbound semitrailer.

Omaha police say an arrest warrant listing a charge of first-degree murder charge had been issued for Chavarria. He’s suspected of killing 33-year-old Joselyn Serrano-Albayero. Her body was found late Saturday morning. Children ages 2 and 9 also were found at the residence, but they were unhurt.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha’s low unemployment rate of 2.9 percent presents what could be costly challenges to the area’s employers.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Omaha is among the 10 cities of the country’s 50 largest with unemployment rates less than 3 percent. The national rate is 3.8 percent.

Some Omaha employers have to pay higher salaries in order to attract workers to a new position or offer raises to ensure employees stay.

Todd Dawson is a managing partner at WorldBridge Partners, a recruiting company for the finance, legal and medical fields. Dawson says some Omaha businesses are offering extra paid vacation days, paid daycare, car allowances, bonuses and other company-paid benefits.

He says it’s a turnaround from a few years ago when some employers were cutting back on benefits.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man who police say fled the scene of a fatal Omaha crash has surrendered.

The Omaha Police Department said in a news release that 24-year-old Davionne Collier turned himself in Sunday and was booked into Douglas County Jail. He’s charged with a felony: failure to stop and render aid after a serious or fatal injury accident. Court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for him about the case.

Police say Collier was driving a sport utility vehicle that collided with a car on May 28, fatally injuring 2-year-old Devon Morris and injuring his 5-year-old brother and two other people in the car.

Police say Collier and a passenger in his SUV walked away from the crash scene. Another passenger in the SUV was hospitalized.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police are investigating a shooting that killed one woman and injured at least six others in downtown Omaha’s popular Old Market restaurant and shopping area.

The shooting was reported around 11:45 p.m. Saturday near 11th and Farnam streets. The victims in ranged in age from their teens to their late 20s.

Acting Omaha Police Deputy Chief Tom Shaffer says the shooting appears to be gang-related and might be tied to gun violence last month.

The woman who died was 20-year-old Jasmine Harris. The other injuries were not considered life-threatening.

No arrests had been made as of Sunday morning.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A decades-old detox program in Lincoln could be forced to close if it loses its funding and state license for locking intoxicated people in rooms.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that The Bridge Behavioral Health’s detox program often locks very intoxicated individuals in a treatment room after they’re brought in by Lincoln police.

Tammy Stevenson, executive director of the program, said The Bridge’s civil protective custody program first puts individuals in a locked room and then determines whether they can safely be moved to an unlocked location. The program cannot receive national accreditation if all individuals are initially placed in locked rooms, Stevenson said.

The state’s Division of Behavioral Health is threatening to cancel its $100,000 in funding this summer if the unit doesn’t get accredited.

Medicaid funding is also in jeopardy, which used to contribute between $50,000 and $60,000 a year to the program. Medicaid staff said they’d only pay for social detoxification if a new managed care firm took over.

But The Bridge would need to remodel and hire more staff in order to swap its locked-door policy for another approach, Stevenson said.

The change would also mean the program couldn’t take as many clients, including juveniles and individuals known to be combative, she said.

Police bring more than 3,600 people a year to The Bridge for involuntary detoxification. It could cost the county another $1.5 million to jail those formerly in the detox program.

Individuals jailed would first have to be charged with a crime, which would lead to additional fees in court costs, said Brad Johnson, manager of the county jail.
The Bridge staff is also concerned that the program could lose state licensing.

Losing state licensing would mean the program would be forced to close since most medical staff wouldn’t work at an unlicensed program, Stevenson said.

Some Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services officials recently assured the program’s staff that they’d work together on the licensing issue.

FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — The mayor of Fremont has been fined $2,250 for failing to properly disclose his business’ interests in certain contracts with the city.

The Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission decided Mayor Scott Getzschman didn’t properly disclose his family heating and air conditioning business,

Getzschman Heating, had an interest in six contracts with the city. The contracts ranged from $28 to $460.

Getzschman told regulators he never intended to violate the law, but agreed to a settlement with the commission.

State law requires public officials to make any contracts they have an interest in a public agenda item. Then officials are supposed to disclose their interests in the contract.

Getzschman has been Fremont’s mayor since 2010, and before that he served on the city council for five years.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities in southeastern Nebraska are searching Pawnee Lake for a man who went under the water and didn’t resurface.

Officials say the 31-year-old Lincoln man was being pulled Friday on an inner tube by a jet ski when the tube capsized on the lake west of Lincoln. Another man and a 4-year-old, who were also riding on the tube, were able to safely reach the shore. Only the 4-year-old was wearing a life jacket.

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission law enforcement officials were using sonar Saturday to search the lake. The Malcolm Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office and the Nebraska State Patrol also are assisting in search efforts.

The man’s name has not been released.