(AP) — Authorities are investigating the cause of a fire at a Bellevue apartment complex.
Battalion Chief Kurt Strachota with the Bellevue Fire Department says the blaze was reported around 12:30 p.m. Thursday at Brent Village apartments. No injuries were reported.
The fire was contained to the south side of the building’s exterior. Residents of at least two units were displaced.
The state fire marshal is investigating the case.
(AP) — The family of a 5-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet that entered her Omaha home says they do not want retaliation for her death.
Tabatha Manning says she wants justice for her daughter Payton Benson’s death. She asked the public to let police handle the investigation.
Manning and other family members made comments Thursday. Payton was fatally shot Wednesday morning as she ate breakfast in her north Omaha home. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Authorities say the stray bullet was connected to a nearby shooting that involved multiple people, weapons and gunfire.
Manning encouraged people involved in the shooting to come forward. Police made the same plea during a press conference Wednesday night. Authorities are trying to identify several possible suspects, but no arrests have been made.
Lincoln police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a park as a homicide.
People who live near Peter Pan Park called police around 10:40 a.m. Thursday. Officers soon found the body.
Police say the body had injuries that they do not believe were self inflicted.
No further details have been released.
(AP) — A 43-year-old man has died after being struck by a semitrailer on the West Dodge Expressway in Omaha.
Police say the accident occurred around 6 p.m. Wednesday. The man had stopped his sport utility vehicle on the shoulder and turned on his hazard lights. Police say the man was in a traffic lane when he was hit by the big rig.
Police say Christopher Demman, of La Vista, was pronounced dead at the scene. The truck driver was identified as 50-year-old Greg Hoeser, of Loyal, Wis.
The accident is still being investigated.
(AP) — A 27-year-old man has been given 20 to 60 months in prison for choking a woman at the Hastings apartment they’d been sharing.
Tyler Millard was sentenced on Tuesday by Judge Stephen Illingworth in Adams County District Court. Millard had pleaded no contest to a charge of strangulation after prosecutors dropped two other charges.
The woman told police that she wanted to break up with Millard. She was moving his belongings out of the apartment on Sept. 13, 2012, when she and Millard got into an argument that turned physical. She says he choked her into unconsciousness.
Separate traffic stops on two vehicles for following too close violations led troopers to seize 14.1 lbs. of marijuana.
Around 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, January 15, a trooper stopped a 2013 Mazda 5, on eastbound I-80 near the 56th Street Interchange for following too close. A second vehicle, a 2013 Chevy Malibu, was stopped by another trooper two miles up the road for the same violation. Separate NSP Police Service Dog units were called to each stop with both canines indicating to the odor of drugs coming from each of the vehicles.
Information gathered during the two stops led the troopers to believe the vehicles were traveling together. A probable cause search of the Mazda led to the seizure of 14.1 lbs. of marijuana. The marijuana, contained in 10 vacuum sealed packages, was located in three duffle bags in the cargo area of the Mazda.
The driver of the Mazda, Martin J. Pearson, 22, Truckee Calif., was lodged in the Lancaster County Corrections on a charge of Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Deliver.
The driver of the Chevy Malibu, Dakota M. Fox, 22, of Truckee, Calif., and a passenger in the vehicle, Kelly A. Wright, 22, of Truckee, Calif., were both lodged in the Lancaster County Corrections, each on a charge of Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Deliver.
(AP) — University of Nebraska President J.B. Milliken has been named chancellor of the City University of New York.
The CUNY Board of Trustees approved Milliken’s appointment unanimously at a special meeting on Wednesday. He will begin no later than June 1.
CUNY is the third-largest university system in the United States, with 24 campuses across New York City and 270,000 degree-credit students.
Milliken, a Fremont native, began his career at the University of Nebraska as an assistant to the president in 1988. He later became a vice president of external affairs before leaving in 1998 for a similar role at the University of North Carolina. He became NU’s president in 2004.
In a statement, Milliken says his service at Nebraska “has been one of the greatest privileges of my career.”
(AP) — Omaha smokers are wanted for a study of tobacco marketing’s effect.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Roswell Park Cancer Institute are examining point-of-sale tobacco advertising and smoking habits. The three-year, $1.4 million study is funded by the National Cancer Institute.
Researchers are seeking about 1,000 smokers who are 18 or older, live in Omaha, have smoked more than 100 cigarettes over their lives and currently smoke five or more cigarettes a day. They’ll be asked to undertake a 30-minute telephone survey and, in six months, a 15- to 20-minute follow-up telephone survey. Participants will be compensated for their time.
For more information or to participate in the study, people may call the toll-free number for the project: 855-600-6960.
(AP) — A Nebraska lawmaker has introduced a plan designed to reduce recidivism and ease overcrowding in the state prison system.
Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha introduced a bill Wednesday that would encourage the use of supervised release for inmates. Judges would impose supervised release at their discretion, and the measure would expand the use of electronic ankle monitoring.
Ashford says no inmate should leave prison without a clear path to integrate back into society.
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman told lawmakers in his State of the State speech that he’s open to working with lawmakers on prison reforms. Ashford’s bill would also reform “good time” credit for offenders who are segregated, allowing them to receive access to programming but not to “good time.”
(AP) — An Omaha man convicted of killing a man last spring has been sentenced to decades in prison.
Douglas County District Judge J. Russell Derr sentenced 22-year-old Devaughn Griffin on Tuesday to 60 to 70 years in prison. He must serve 32½ years in prison before being eligible for parole.
Griffin shot and killed Jer’ray Moore on April 6 at an apartment complex in central Omaha. Prosecutors say Griffin was angry because Moore beat up Griffin’s girlfriend’s sister.
Moore’s mother, Tricia Moore, denied her son beat the woman.
Another man, LaMichael Fewell, also was arrested in the killing, but those charges were later dropped.
