A pastor who was charged with murder after defending himself when a man attacked him in Las Vegas, Nevada called it an “answer to prayer” when the state dropped all charges.
However, the news was tempered with a need to continue to praying because a grand jury is being convened to hear the evidence and decide if the charges should be reinstated against Robert Cox.
Pastor Cox, his wife and 20 interns stopped at the Four Kegs Sports Pub in June 2013 during a Las Vegas trip to get dinner. As the group chatted in the parking lot before leaving, 55-year-old Link Ellingson approached the group and assaulted several of the members. Cox stepped in to stop him. At some point, Ellingson lost balance and fell hitting his head.
Cox’s attorney says he’s not concerned with the grand jury.
Frank Cofer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he believes that even if the grand jury indicts the pastor he will eventually be acquitted.
Pastor Cox says the whole episode made him rely more on the Lord.
“The whole time I’ve had to trust God,” he told the Journal.
Nevada state wildlife officials are completely baffled as to the reason all the fish in a northern Nevada marina have died.
Over 100,000 trout, bass and catfish have been found dead in the past month in the Sparks Marina near Interstate 80 east of Reno. A sudden dramatic drop of dissolved oxygen levels in the water is being blamed for the deaths.
Officials say they have no reason for the decreased oxygen.
Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said that the 100,000 figure is likely a conservative estimate for the fish kill. The Department had been stocking the lake with about 1 million fish since 1998.
“We don’t know if any small fish have survived, but for all intents and purposes, the fishery doesn’t exist anymore,” Healy told the Associated Press.
The Department stocking of the lake scheduled for late February has been cancelled pending further testing.
Authorities investigating the Monday shooting at a Nevada middle school say they have not ruled out the possibility of filing charges against the parents of the shooter. Police say that the boy was likely to have obtained the handgun used in the assault from his home.
Officials in Sparks, Nevada have refused to name the boy who shot and killed a teacher and wounded two classmates before taking his own life.
A classmate told CNN that she believes the gunman was responding to repeated bullying.
Amaya Newton said that the shooter was a “nice kid” who liked to help cheer up people having a bad day but was repeatedly bullied. She said that she believes he brought the gun as a way to protect himself from the bullying happening on the playground and in school.
Police praised slain teacher Michael Landsberry on Tuesday saying that his actions likely saved the lives of many students. The Marine veteran, who served two tours in Afghanistan with the Nevada Air National Guard, approached the gunman with hands up in an attempt to get him to lay down the weapon. He was backing away from the student as ordered when the gunman shot Landsberry in the chest.
Landsberry leaves behind a wife and two daughters.
The 12-year-old student who shot and killed a teacher and wounded two other students killed himself before he could be captured by authorities according to police reports.
Witnesses reported that the gunman was yelling at other kids who were taunting him.
“He kept saying ‘why you people making fun of me, why you laughing at me,” student Michelle Hernandez told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
The teacher who was killed was, 45-year-old Michael Landsberry, a Marine veteran who served multiple tours in Afghanistan. Witnesses say that he tried to stop the student from shooting others or injuring himself but the gunman told him to back off. As the teacher moved back, the gunman shot him.
Despite the witness reports that say the gunman was screaming about being taunted, police say they have no speculation on the motive behind the shooting. Classes at the school have been canceled for the rest of the week and counselors are being provided for students and staff.
A student opened fire at a middle school in Nevada killing a teacher and wounding two other students.
The student shooter also died.
“As you can imagine, the best description is chaos,” Tom Robinson, deputy chief of the Reno Police Department, told CNN. “It’s too early to say whether he was targeting specific people or just going on an indiscriminate shooting spree.”
A 13-year-old student told the Reno Gazette-Journal that the shooter pointed a gun at a teacher who told him to drop the weapon. The student then shot the teacher causing students to panic.
Law enforcement says they cannot tell if the shooter killed himself or if he was killed by officers.
Two large Nevada wildfires are racing through rugged mountain regions making it hard for firefighters to tame the blazes.
Officials are trying to add resources to fight the flames. One fire’s smoke can be seen from downtown Las Vegas and the second is southwest of Reno. Continue reading →
In Furnace Creek, California, the temperature was 122 in the shade.
According to weather forecasters, that’s not even close to a high temperature.
Forecasters are predicting a world-record high temperature coming to Death Valley, California of 130 degrees a deadly heat wave is raving the western part of the U.S. Continue reading →
A new report is showing that a fungal infection called Valley Fever is up across the Southwest United States.
More than 22,000 cases were confirmed in 2011, a rise from 2,265 cases in 1998 according to the CDC. The report only looks at cases in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Texas also houses the fungus that causes the disease but they do not report statistics to the CDC. Continue reading →
Thousands of acres of land have been destroyed due to wildfires raging across the western US according to wildlife officials. The US Forest Service reported 62 large and uncontained fires in Idaho, Nevada, Utah and California.
In Washington, a fire has burned 60 houses and 24,000 acres since it started on Monday. The town of Cle Elum in central Washington has been evacuated although civilians and firefighters have reported no injuries. Continue reading →
