Author: CNN Newsource

By Mike Murillo

Click here for updates on this story

    ROCKVILLE, Maryland (WTOP) — The recent shooting at Wootton High School has many families and educators taking a fresh look at what safety inside school buildings should include.

A Montgomery County-based company says a device already being tested in some schools could help staff quietly call for help when an emergency strikes.

Silent Beacon is based in Rockville, Maryland, and makes a wearable panic button designed to reduce the steps taken when reporting an emergency.

President Kenny Kelley said the idea is to let people focus on getting to safety while the technology works in the background.

“I think there’s a lot of lawmakers and a lot of people in powerful positions that say, run, hide, call 911. With our product, you can call 911 and do everything else in the background,” Kelley said.

The device can be worn like a watch and connects to a teacher’s phone through Bluetooth.

How it’s used can vary depending on the situation, especially in schools.

“Not every single time they press the button is an escalation to 911,” said Tyler Charuhas, Silent Beacon’s director of client engagement. “So let’s keep it within our organization so that we can properly assess is this an escalation, or is this something that we can just keep and handle internally?”

During a demonstration, Charuhas explained how quickly the device can be activated.

“You’re going to press and hold it for about three seconds,” Charuhas said.

Once triggered, the device can place phone calls, send text messages and share a live location. It can be set up to alert school security or emergency services, and it can be used with or without speaking.

“You can make it seem like you did disable it,” Charuhas said. “But the microphone is still active, so emergency services can hear everything that’s happening in the room.”

School administrators can also see alerts on a live map and send mass notifications if a situation escalates.

Kelley said the technology is currently being piloted at one college and one K-12 school in the D.C. area, while other schools across the country are also using the product.

Right now, Silent Beacon relies on pairing with a smartphone, but Kelley said the company is working on a version that would not require a phone connection.

For Kelley, who is also a parent, the technology is personal. He said tools like this are meant to save time and remove hesitation when every second matters.

“When you have that two-way audio, you can actually kind of dissect what the situation requires, and 911 can actively act on that,” Kelley said.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By DeAndria Turner

Click here for updates on this story

    LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — A growing memorial now marks the spot where 35-year-old Tyrah Adams spent much of her time.

Adams died last week after an encounter with a city garbage truck, an incident city leaders have called a tragic accident. Her family, however, says it should never have happened.

Adams’ sister, Sandra Akers, said the loss is overwhelming.

“She was just the sister I looked up to the sister I needed for my comfort,” Akers said. “She’s very loved.”

Akers said no family is ever prepared for loss, but the circumstances surrounding her sister’s death made it even harder to bear.

“For it to be as extensive as it was, you were not prepared for that,” she said.

According to the family and their attorney, Adams was picked up last Thursday by the mechanical arms of a city garbage truck during a routine pick up, equipment typically used to lift large debris.

“We do have witnesses that confirm that she was picked up,” the attorney said. “They dropped her somewhere here. We don’t know the exact location, but when they dropped her, she got up and walked all the way up here to the front of the store.”

A clerk at the store called 911. Adams was taken to the hospital, where she later died.

Adams had lived in Louisville for about three years. Those years included periods of addiction and homelessness, her family said, but also moments of care and community.

“We had people that checked on her every single day, every single night,” Akers said. “There wasn’t a day that went by that they didn’t check on her.”

On Tuesday, the mayor described the incident as a tragic accident.

But Adams’ family and their attorney argue it was preventable.

“I think it was negligent, maybe even reckless,” the attorney said. “No one should be forced to go through something like that. A simple walk-around, checking what’s being picked up, could have prevented this.”

Just weeks before her death, Adams had been talking with family about getting help.

“My mom really thought she was serious this time,” Akers said. “She had tried three times before, but this felt different.”

Akers said the family never stopped trying to support Adams, even during periods when communication was limited.

“Family was there. Family was trying, in the best way that we could,” she said. “All we could do was love her in the stages she was in and keep hope.”

Now, the family says that hope is focused on accountability.

“I will not stop until I get answers,” Akers said.

As the memorial continues to grow, her family says it stands as a reminder of a life lost, and a family still searching for why.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Caitlin Ashbaugh

Click here for updates on this story

    GREENVILLE, South Carolina (WYFF) — Before Jesse Jackson pioneered change within the Civil Rights Movement and American politics, his close peers remember how he inspired friends and strangers to persevere.

It’s 1959, and Sterling High School is celebrating the achievement of a state championship title. Jesse Jackson bears the number 40 on his jersey as quarterback, alongside teammates John Williams with 29, Samuel “Sam” Kennedy with 59 and Richard Kerns with 36.

“That’s what made this season so special. We didn’t lose any games this year,” Williams said.

The trio recalls what it was like to play football among a great.

“He always wanted to be the star when we get down to the 1-yard line. He always wanted to be the one to make the touchdown,” Kerns said. “He always wanted to be a winner. ‘If we lose, if we come in second,’ he said, ‘that’s a loser.'”

“Coach Mathis was sort of smiling to himself a lot of times about Jesse because he knew that jewel that he had,” Williams said.

“Jesse pushed all of us to do better, and because of that, we did,” Kennedy said.

Jackson would graduate from his alma mater in 1959, taking with him the inspiration to become a trailblazer.

“When we was in school, I said, ‘I guess Jesse ought to for president because he talk all the time.’ He wrote in the book that he wanted to be the president one day,” Kerns said.

Jackson’s classmates would watch as he became a prominent civil rights leader and politician — a legacy fit for a brilliant student, a natural athlete and a monumental leader.

“When he was running for president, I would tell the fellows, I said, ‘That’s my homeboy. I play football with him, and he’s my classmate,'” Kerns said.

“Living and being raised up in the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, you learn to want to do better. He helped humanity. He set an example for the community of Greenville,” Kennedy said.

“He was just one of those individuals that you see large from time to time that come through just having a tremendous impact on our world. I was happy to know him, I am happy to know, have known him, and I will always think about him,” Williams said.

His peers attribute their success to being shaped by mentors in the Greenville community, including coaches, teachers and staff at Sterling High, the Canteen at Mayberry Park. They said this was their key to earning win after win at Sirrine Stadium, going to school, serving the nation as military service members and creating a legacy.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Naomi Popa

Click here for updates on this story

    ABBEVILLE COUNTY, South Carolina (WYFF) — A farmer in Abbeville County is feeling immense gratitude towards first responders who helped rescue one of her farm animals, Jake the donkey.

Traditionally, Jake is able to roam across more than 20 acres of land. Because of the rain, he got caught in mud on Sunday and slipped down a ravine, nowhere to be found.

Not knowing what to do to help find Jake, his owner, Kaye Acton, called the Abbeville County Fire Department, requesting that drones be used to help find her farm animal.

The fire department then answered the call to help find the four-legged beloved animal, even though it was a unique call.

“We have not had a call quite like this,” said Bryan Mullet, the ACERT Drone team leader who helped find Jake.

While it didn’t take long, it took a handful of helpers. More than 15 crew members in various roles helped with the search for Jake.

“When Miss Kaye called, she said the words, you know, my donkey has just wandered off. I kind of chuckled,” said JT Bass, the Abbeville County Fire Coordinator, “Only because, you know, it’s just funny. Because it’s just a funny set of put-together and I apologize to her, she’s very graceful.”

First responders used a drone and thermal imaging to find Jake, which took roughly 15 minutes.

“He was drained, dehydrated, had no fight left in him,” said Matthew Busby, an ACERT Technical Rescue team member.

Jake was seen upside down, wedged on his back, making it difficult for him to move at first.

“Honestly, whenever you pull up and see an animal in that much distress, but to see him stand, that was a miracle by itself,” said Cheryl Phillips, a certified canine medic and tech who helped render aid to Jake when he was found.

Because of his injuries, Jake will spend some time recovering after the incident. During that time, Acton will be feeling thankful she was reunited with a piece of her heart.

“And then I found a miracle, one phone call. But the world changed. Everybody showed up, and they were wonderful, they were wonderful,” said Acton.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Jacob Murphy

Click here for updates on this story

    AUGUSTA, Maine (WMTW) — Friends and colleagues of Robert Fuller Jr. didn’t know what to think when they first heard news of his death on Tuesday.

“I was just in shock,” said Martha Everatt-Stpierre.

According to the Montgomery County Police Department, officials responded to Cogir Potomac Senior Living around 7:34 a.m. Saturday and found Fuller inside an apartment, unresponsive, with signs of head trauma. Police say he was shot and killed and pronounced dead at the scene.

Everatt-Stpierre met Fuller through his former wife, but ran into him years later when she was trying to get a new non-profit started. She wanted to bring transitional housing to veteran women, something she says had never been done before. Finding money was a challenge, but she says Fuller wrote her a check without having to ask.

“He was the first person with money that really took me seriously,” she said.

With his help, Everatt-Stpierre was able to start the Betsy Ann Ross House of Hope. They found a building in Augusta on Summer Street and used the money to refurbish it.

Charles McGillicuddy also played a role in getting the House of Hope started. He says Fuller never asked for any recognition of his contributions.

“A number of people contributed. Robert Fuller was the major donor. Most of the money came from him,” McGillicuddy said. “There’s no public acknowledgment at all, and he didn’t want to. He didn’t want it known.”

The Betsy Ann Ross House of Hope still exists today under a different name, the Sisters in Arms Center.

“He loved Maine, and he loved veterans. He was a multimillionaire, he didn’t have any children, so he wanted his money to go to bettering the community he lived in and bettering the lives of veterans,” Everatt-Stpierre said.

People who knew Fuller said that when he made donations, it was often done anonymously, so it can be challenging to track his contributions. In 2021, he donated $1.64 million to fund improvements to Cony High School’s Alumni Field complex.

He was also a part of the Winthrop Lions Club, where he met Scott Foster. Foster was organizing a golf tournament when Fuller quietly lent a hand.

“My wife gave me a box, and she’s like, ‘Bob Fuller dropped this off,’ and I looked, and it was a bunch of envelopes that he had done up,” he said. It wasn’t until a year later that he realized just how much he had given. “I added them up, and they were more than $1,000. So that’s when I realized he was just going out and doing this out of his own goodwill.”

Everatt-Stpierre said that Fuller had moved to Maryland to be closer to family but still cared deeply about his ties to Maine.

“I just couldn’t imagine who was going to kill an 87-year-old man — and why?” she said.

“I mean, he did a lot. And it’s nice that he’s getting some recognition for it. And it’s just such a shame,” Foster said. “It shouldn’t happen to an 87-year-old man in senior living.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Peter Eliopoulos

Click here for updates on this story

    PAWTUCKET, Rhode Island (WCVB) — While a motive for the Pawtucket, Rhode Island, hockey rink shooter remains unknown, a friend of the suspect said she was baffled by what happened.

On Monday, Robert Dorgan, now identifying as Roberta Esposito, walked into the Dennis M. Lynch Arena, killed his ex-wife and his son and injured three others.

Dorgan then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

On Wednesday, Dorgan’s friend, Kimberly, said she had only known the suspect as “Roberta.”

She said she met Dorgan at a biker meetup after he moved to Florida following his divorce and gender affirming surgery.

“To see the events of this tragedy was just shocking because she had such a calm demeanor,” Kimberly said.

Kimberly said the person that she knew, although different, deeply cared about his children.

“She always spoke highly of her kids, and she said that her children were the reason that she breathed,” she said.

The friend said she was disgusted by what occurred at the Pawtucket ice rink.

Kimberly said that Dorgan put his children on a pedestal.

After spending three years in Florida, Kimberly said Dorgan moved to Maine in 2023 to be closer to family, but had expressed frustration over not really being able to see the children.

“We had a conversation not long after she moved up there, and it was repeated, where she said, you know, ‘I moved all the way up here, and I don’t see my kids as much as I want,'” Kimberly said. “Well, kids, a lot of teenagers don’t want to be around their parents anyway… if I’m being honest, it’s sometimes probably hard when you have the dad, that’s now a mom, and sometimes her wardrobe was sometimes more flamboyant than her personality.”

Dorgan is accused of shooting and killing his ex-wife, Rhonda, and their son, Aidan, and also wounding Rhonda’s parents and a family friend.

“I cannot in any situation understand how she can go and take the life of her child, especially because she spoke so highly of them,” Kimberly said. “It breaks my heart, I’m disgusted, I’m mad, I’m disappointed.”

Police are continuing to investigate the motivation behind all of this.

NewsCenter 5 went to Dorgan’s parents’ house in Smithfield and was not able to speak with anyone.

If you or someone you love is experiencing a mental health crisis, the National Suicide & Crisis Hotline is 988.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Christian Petersen

Click here for updates on this story

    WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (WXII) — A Winston-Salem family is picking up the pieces after a fire damaged their home.

The Winston-Salem Fire Department responded to the Slater Avenue home around 6 o’clock on Valentine’s evening.

Timeka Couthen’s grandmother and four of her children were in the home at the time, but everyone made it out safely.

Couthen and her family spent the day salvaging what they could and putting it in storage.

Couthen says she was at dinner in Greensboro when her 12-year-old son called to say the house was on fire. She says they could smell the smoke and see the flashing emergency lights down the street. She described what it was like when she finally saw her children that night.

Couthen said, “That was the best moment of my life. Because I was able to see them. And I know that they were okay. Even though they were crying. They were shook up. I was able to hold them. I was able to grab them. I was able to put them in my arm because it could’ve been different.”

Couthen and her children are staying with her sister until they find a permanent home, and are also receiving help through the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School System. Fire officials say a space heater started the fire.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Carlos Cristian Flores

Click here for updates on this story

    PITTSBURGH (WTAE) — Having a baby is something you try to plan ahead as much as possible, but sometimes a baby can come whether you’re ready or not — and that’s when folks at the Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS step in.

“It’s not ideal. But when the child comes, you know, we’re there for supportive care. But they are very trained in delivering babies,” said Amera Gilchrist, chief of Pittsburgh Emergency Medical Services.

The city of Pittsburgh has seen an increase in pre-hospital births. Officials with the bureau say that pre-pandemic, there were around eight pre-hospital births per year.

That has now jumped to around 12 births per year.

There were several factors that led to that, but it has also led the bureau to level up its training and its equipment.

Every Pittsburgh ambulance also has every tool you can imagine to make sure a mother and baby are safe in this situation, but a crew chief with the Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS, Brianna Kramer, says there was something missing from their kits: a hat.

“So a lot of their heat gets lost through their head. That’s another reason why hats are so important,” Kramer said.

So Kramer got to work and brought out the crochet needles.

“I got really quick at crochet this last year. This was an idea that I’ve had for a little bit, and something that I had encountered problems with in the past. And this year just kind of was the perfect circumstance to come to life,” she said.

So far, she has made 36 hats, two for each kit in every ambulance.

“It is already such a unique and difficult thing to be born out of hospital. And now there’s a little memento that you can have a physical reminder of it, too,” Kramer said.

The hats have already been put to good use.

A baby named Na’Layla was born Sunday morning with the help of the city’s Medic 2 team.

“And I just thought it was the perfect way. Plus, they get a little souvenir. And so, a reminder that Pittsburgh EMS helped you come into this world,” Kramer said.

Now, if you would like to help Kramer, she says being a good neighbor and helping one another in these situations can go a long way.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.