Details Released On School Murder Plot (Bartow, FL) -- A tip from a student is credited with uncovering a mass murder plot at a Polk County school. Two girls were arrested this week for planning the knife attack at Bartow Middle School. Bartow Police say the 12 and eleven-year-old claimed to be Satanists, and they planned to kill 15 students before eating their body parts and killing themselves. The SRO learned about the plot after a student told a teacher on Monday that one of the girls warned them to avoid part of the building the following day.
Bartow's police chief wants to reassure parents after the incident that, he says, shook him to his core. Chief Joe Hall posted a message to parents on Facebook yesterday writing he understands how troubling the news is, but promising his officers will do everything they can to keep children safe. He also wrote how proud he was of the school staff and police officers for making sure the plot didn't turn into a tragedy.
Student Arrested For Threatening To Shoot Classmate (Palm Coast, FL) -- A Flagler County student is facing charges for threatening to shoot a classmate. The 16-year-old Flagler Palm Coast High School student was arrested yesterday. He says he made the threat because he thought the other student was going to fight the suspect's friend. The boy did not have weapons on him, but he apparently told the SRO his parents keep guns at home.
Red Tide Declining On Space Coast (Titusville, FL) -- Despite more dead fish on the beaches, there is some good news about red tide on the Space Coast. Recent tests by the FWC find red tide is slightly declining. It was hard to find visual evidence of that yesterday, though, as dead fish washed up on Melbourne Beach, Satellite Beach and Indialantic. Still, testing this week showed red tide dropping to background levels in some places and medium levels in others.
It has impacted early voting beachside though as Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott has moved the Canova Park early voting site, where irritation caused by the red tide was unbearable, to the Satellite Beach Public Library on Jamaica Blvd.
Gillum, DeSantis Debate (Davie, FL) -- Andrew Gillum and Ron DeSantis debated last night at Broward College in Davie on the day after records were released about Gillum's trip to New York two years ago. Gillum said last night DeSantis should release documents related to his travel while he was in Congress. Gillum says DeSantis traveled to New York with taxpayer money to appear on Fox News, but DeSantis says the trip was legal.
Pepper Spraying Grandma Due In Court (Papillion, NE) -- A Nebraska woman is in trouble with the law for allegedly using pepper spray on one of her grandkids. Officials in Sarpy County say Nancy Knipp used the spray on the child over the weekend while they were visiting her. The kids are nine and eleven-years-old and there have been visitation issues between the mother and Knipp in the past. The child is doing okay but felony child abuse charges are in the works. The 79-year-old is due back in court next month.
Fired Trigger Happy Cop Receives Payout(Hartford, CT) -- A Connecticut police officer is getting a cash payout after being fired for saying he is trigger happy. Stephen Barone was dismissed from the Hartford Police Department after video of him went viral telling a group of men that he is trigger happy. The city is paying Barone more than 12-thousand-dollars for unused vacation time and he will also collect the 72-thousand-dollars he paid into his retirement account. He won't get is unused sick time because he was fired.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
1994, Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina claimed that a black carjacker had driven off with her two sons. Smith later confessed to drowning the children herself and was convicted of murder.
1983, U.S. Marines led an assault on the island of Grenada. The invasion was ordered to protect U.S. citizens on the island from a coup by Grenada's Communist government.
1978, the horror film "Halloween" premiered in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
1971, Walt Disney World was dedicated in Orlando, Florida.
1881, Sheriff Wyatt Earp and his group of lawmen defeated the Clanton Gang in the "Shootout at the O-K Corral."
1825, the Erie Canal was opened. America's first man-made waterway linked the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.