PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska authorities say a Papillion mother faces a felony child abuse charge for leaving her toddler home alone while she was out drinking.
The 25-year-old was arrested Friday night. It’s unclear if she has been charged.
Freeman says the woman was pulled over for drinking and driving and tested at more than twice the legal blood alcohol level. She told police she had to get home.
Police say they found her home unlocked and her 3-year-old son asleep in a bedroom.
The woman also faces third offense drunk driving charges.
CENTENNIAL, Wyo. (AP) — A Wyoming pastor was shot and wounded with his own handgun after apparently interrupting a burglary at his rural church.
The Albany County Sheriff’s Office says 44-year-old pastor Dennis Lynn Davis was airlifted to a Cheyenne hospital Tuesday evening with a gunshot wound to his abdomen.
No information on his condition was immediately available Wednesday.
Albany County Undersheriff Rob DeBree said deputies were called to the Centennial Valley Community Church, about 28 miles west of Laramie, at about 8:20 p.m.
DeBree stated Davis was shot with his own .380-caliber handgun during a struggle with the burglar.
Davis said the burglar was about 6 feet tall and wore a black ski mask and camouflaged clothing.
The shooting prompted a search around Centennial, a picturesque village at the foot of Wyoming’s Snowy Range.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A pet cat has died after it was bitten by a Lincoln police dog tracking men suspected of robbing a taxi cab driver at gunpoint.
Police officers and the canine were searching for the robbers on Friday.
Jackson says the officers lost trail of the robbery suspects and that the dog was trying to pick up a scent in the area. He says the cat ran into the dog on a porch.
The dog’s bite broke the cat’s back. Jackson says the cat died after it was taken to a private veterinary clinic.
Jackson says he doesn’t know if the cat died from the dog’s bite.
EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) — Police say they have located a missing 3-year-old girl safe with her biological mother.
Excelsior Springs Police Capt. Clint Reno says an Amber Alert had been issued earlier for Ramy (RAY’-mee) Demboski, who was taken earlier in the day from her father’s home.
Police said an adult was watching Ramy when a woman came to the door saying her car had broken down and she needed help. After the stranger left, the adult noticed Ramy was missing.
Police say the girl has been the subject of a custody dispute.
EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) — Police in northwest Missouri are looking for a 3-year-old girl who may have been abducted from the home where she lives with her father and stepmother.
Excelsior Springs police issued an Amber Alert shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday for Ramy (RAY’-mee) Angeline Demboski. The girl has blond hair and was last seen wearing a white shirt, flannel shorts and black flip-flops.
Ramy has been the subject of a custody dispute.
Police said an adult was watching Ramy when a woman came to the door around 3:30 p.m. saying her car had broken down and she needed help. After the stranger left, the adult noticed Ramy was missing.
Authorities are looking for a blue-gray Dodge Charger with Nebraska plates. They’re also trying to contact Ramy’s biological mother.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha’s police chief says officers are taking the death of a “Cops” TV show crew member very hard.
Police officers who opened fire while disrupting a robbery at a fast-food restaurant Tuesday night killed sound man Bryce Dion as well as the robbery suspect, who was carrying what officers thought was a real handgun. It turned out that the gun fires only plastic pellets.
The other man who was killed has been identified as parolee Cortez Washington.
Dion was wearing a bullet-proof vest but Police Chief Todd Schmaderer says a single bullet “slipped into a gap in the vest” and struck him in the chest. A full video of what happened isn’t being released but will be part of a grand jury investigation.
The crew for the reality show has been filming all summer in Omaha and had only one week left in the city.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a beloved chicken statue that was reported missing from a Lincoln restaurant has been found damaged.
Lincoln police say the chicken, known as Pioneer Pete, was stolen early Saturday from Lee’s Restaurant. All that remained of the 5-foot, 200-pound statue were torn chicken feet.
The statue was found Wednesday behind the restaurant with most of its head broken. The restaurant owners say they’re grateful the thief or thieves returned all the broken pieces, which will help when fixing the bird.
The statue has been outside the restaurant for 50 years. The owners say its disappearance brought dozens of visitors to the business for photo ops with the torn chicken feet.
Police say they’ve dusted Pete for fingerprints, but they have no suspects.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man believed to have been shot while breaking in to an Omaha home remains hospitalized in fair condition.
Police say the 29-year-old man was shot early Tuesday morning by the home’s 73-year-old owner as the younger man was trying to enter the house through a front window he had broken.
Officers who arrived at the home found the younger man on the front porch, bleeding. He was taken to an Omaha hospital in critical condition, but was soon upgraded to fair condition.
No charges have yet been filed in the case. The investigation continues.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Officials say a state emergency response fund is financially solid despite a year of heavy storms that caused millions of dollars in damage in Nebraska.
State officials said Wednesday that the governor’s emergency fund has $7 million available for future disasters. The fund is used to reimburse local governments for some of their emergency expenses.
It was nearly depleted in 2012 after wildfires swept through central and western Nebraska. This year, the state has experienced severe storms and tornadoes that caused millions of dollars in damage, but many of the affected areas qualified for federal disaster aid or were covered by private insurance.
Gov. Dave Heineman says the Federal Emergency Management Agency responded well to the disasters in Nebraska, and volunteers also played a critical role.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 39-year-old man already sentenced in California and Nebraska for sexual abuse of teenage girls has been given federal time for child pornography.
Prosecutors say Todd Tackwell, formerly of Lincoln, on Tuesday was sentenced to 13 years in prison for receiving and distributing child pornography. Federal investigators first contacted Tackwell in August 2008 when he lived in Hastings. He was indicted in 2010 after investigators found pornographic videos on his computer.
In November he was given 35 to 45 years in a Nebraska prison for child sexual assault. He’d had a sexual relationship with a girl that started when she was 14. In California, Tackwell was convicted in April 2012 of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl. He’s been serving his California sentence of 25 years to life.
jailFREMONT, Neb. (AP) — A 53-year-old Iowa man has been imprisoned for stealing dozens of brass vases from an eastern Nebraska cemetery.
Gary Hostetter, of Carter Lake, Iowa, on Monday was given 20 to 60 months. He had pleaded no contest to a theft charge. Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass has said Hostetter admitted taking 45 vases from Memorial Cemetery in Fremont earlier this year.
Dodge County Jail records say Hostetter remained in custody on Tuesday. Online court records don’t list the name of his attorney.
PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska authorities say a Papillion mother faces a felony child abuse charge for leaving her toddler home alone while she was out drinking.
