FLORIDA
Skydive instructor, student killed
Authorities say a skydive instructor and a student who jumped separately died Saturday. The skydivers, both men, were part of a jump in Zephyrhills, about 30 miles northeast of Tampa. Authorities said the plane took off about 10:30 a.m. and 22 people jumped. Only 20 returned. The bodies were found near each other about 7:30 p.m. in a wooded area south of the Zephyrhills Municipal Airport. Pasco County sheriff’s spokeswoman Melanie Snow would not comment on whether their parachutes had opened, saying that was part of the investigation.
NEW YORK
Man freed from prison has heart attack
A New York City man whose murder conviction was overturned after 23 years in prison suffered a heart attack on his second day of freedom. David Ranta’s lawyer said the former inmate had a serious heart attack Friday night and was being treated at a New York hospital. Ranta, 58, walked out of jail Thursday after a judge threw out his conviction in the 1990 killing of a Brooklyn rabbi. Rabbi Chaskel Werzberger was killed by a bandit fleeing a botched robbery. One witness said a police lineup that helped convict Ranta had been rigged.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
AG averts furloughs of prison staffers
Attorney General Eric Holder said in a memo Friday he averted daily furloughs of 3,570 federal prison staffers around the country, using $150 million from other Justice Department accounts to stave off a serious threat to the lives and safety of correctional staff, inmates and the public. Holder’s memo to Justice Department employees did not say which department agencies were tapped for the $150 million and spokeswoman Nanda Chitre declined to comment on the question Saturday.
NEW YORK
Funeral held for teen shot by police
Hundreds gathered at a New York City church Saturday for an emotional, but peaceful, funeral for a 16-year-old boy whose death in a police shooting sparked a week of protests and a small riot. Kimani Gray was shot seven times on March 9 during an encounter with two plainclothes police officers, who said the teen pulled a gun as they approached him on a street in Brooklyn. Police said a .38 caliber revolver was found at the scene. The teen’s funeral was at a Roman Catholic church not far from where he was killed.
NEW YORK
Police make arrest in shooting
New York City police arrested a man Saturday they say fatally shot a man in Brooklyn’s Coney Island section. Joseph Brown is accused of shooting four people inside an apartment in a public housing development on Friday. Police said Brown knocked on the apartment’s door and shot a man in the head in a back bedroom after being let inside. Investigators said he then shot three other people in the apartment, killing one.
NEW YORK
Flash in East Coast sky likely a meteor
East Coast residents were buzzing on social media sites and elsewhere Friday night after a brief but bright flash of light streaked across the early-evening sky — in what experts said was almost certainly a meteor coming down. The flash appeared to have been “a single meteor event,” said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environmental Office. “[It] looks to be a fireball that moved roughly toward the southeast, going on visual reports. Judging from the brightness, we’re dealing with something as bright as the full moon.” The meteor was probably a yard wide, he said. “We basically have [had] a boulder enter the atmosphere over the northeast.” He noted that the meteor was widely seen, with more than 350 reports on the website of the American Meteor Society alone.
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