Category: CNN Regional

By Sarah Al-Shaikh

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    GALENA PARK, Texas (KTRK) — A mother was charged with felony murder after her 9-year-old daughter was left in a hot car in July. She was arrested on Friday, according to law enforcement.

Court documents said 36-year-old Gbemisola Akayinode admitted to law enforcement that she left her child in her car while she went to work in Galena Park. It happened in the gated employee parking lot of USG, a large manufacturer of industrial and building products.

The mother said she lowered the back windows halfway and left her daughter with food, a fan, water, and ice cubes, and gave her melatonin to help her sleep.

Court records showed that Akayinode told investigators she stayed inside the office and did not check on her daughter until after her eight-hour shift was over, because she was too busy.

When she left work, she found the child unresponsive and screamed for help. Her daughter was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

According to court documents, the medical examiner’s office found the young girl’s body temperature was 108 degrees. They said her cause of death was hyperthermia.

Court documents revealed Akayinode admitted it wasn’t the first time she left her daughter alone in the car while she went to work. According to court documents, she did it the day before and admitted to a total of about four times.

She claimed she couldn’t pay for daycare until she received her paycheck. However, court documents said a coworker claimed he was helping her with money because he knew she was struggling to make ends meet.

Investigators asked Akayinode if she had checked the weather or if she knew how hot it was going to be outside. According to court documents, she said she didn’t and that it slipped her mind.

She appeared in court for the first time early Sunday morning.

According to online jail records, Akayinode is due back in court on Monday. Her bond is set at $500,000.

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By Adam Bartow

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    AUGUSTA, Maine (WMTW) — The chief of the Maine Capitol Police has resigned, two months after he was arrested following an altercation at a pub in Hallowell.

Matthew Clancy resigned his post, effective October 8. He had been placed on paid administrative leave in August.

The video in the media player above is from our reporting following Clancy’s arrest in August.

A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety said Lt. Steven Trahan will remain in his current leadership role, pending the next steps in the process. She then said this is a personnel matter, so she won’t have any further comment.

Clancy was charged with assault, refusing to submit to arrest and disorderly conduct in connection with the incident in August, when he was accused of assaulting a police officer who responded to the scene.

The head of security for The Quarry Tap Room, Rob McGee, told Maine’s Total Coverage in August that Clancy was taking pictures of people inside the pub. A fellow patron told Clancy to stop taking pictures and when he did not stop, the patron grabbed Clancy’s phone out of his hand.

According to McGee, a fight then broke out inside the pub and then spilled out onto the sidewalk in front of the establishment.

Police said a responding officer was allegedly assaulted by Clancy, who resisted arrest.

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By WRTV Staff

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    INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) — A 23-year-old woman has been charged with murder after she allegedly shot and killed a man who honked his horn at her at a traffic light on Indianapolis’ west side, according to court documents.

Deborah Benefiel is accused of shooting Kentrell Settles in the chest Friday afternoon near the intersection of West 38th Street and Georgetown Road, a probable cause affidavit states.

According to the girlfriend’s account to police, detailed in the affidavit, she and Settles were stopped behind Benefiel’s green Ford SUV at a red light. When the light turned green, Benefiel didn’t move, so Settles honked his horn and drove around her vehicle.

The affidavit states the girlfriend told police that Benefiel followed Settles while “yelling, screaming, and throwing her hands around” inside her vehicle.

When Settles tried to turn into Georgetown Plaza, Benefiel fired one shot into his car, striking him in the chest, according to the girlfriend’s statement in court documents.

The girlfriend told police she jumped into Settles’ lap and drove him to the 3600 block of Donald Avenue, where officers found him, the affidavit states.

He was pronounced dead at a hospital at 2:43 p.m.

Court documents show the victim’s car had a single gunshot hole in the passenger rear window, causing the glass to shatter.

Detectives used license plate readers and surveillance video to track down Benefiel’s vehicle. A witness identified Benefiel in a photo lineup as the shooter.

Police executed a search warrant at Benefiel’s East Washington Street apartment and found a .40 caliber Glock handgun in a purse, the affidavit states.

Benefiel told officers the gun was in the apartment, according to the court documents.

Benefiel has been charged with murder and criminal recklessness.

Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears released the following statement regarding this matter:

“This case is yet another tragic example of a simple dispute on our roadways turning deadly over what amounts to nothing. A moment of anger should not cost someone their life.

This kind of senseless violence is something prosecutors and police are seeing far too often. We will continue to work together to hold those who commit senseless acts on our roadways accountable in the courtroom, but as a community we must find ways to respond to conflicts with reasonableness— not violence.”

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By Ricardo Tovar

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KSBW) — The San Francisco Giants are reportedly close to hiring their next manager, who began his coaching career on the Central Coast.

Baseball insider Ken Rosenthal reports that the Giants are “closing in” on hiring Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello as the club’s next skipper.

Vitello has been Tennessee’s head coach since 2018, winning over 72% of his games. The Volunteers most recently won the College World Series in 2024, and Vitello was named ABCA Coach of the Year.

After finishing his playing career and completing a management degree at Missouri, Vitello got his first coaching job in Salinas.

In 2002, he served as an associate coach for the Salinas Packers of the California Collegiate League. The team went 50–14 and earned its first trip to the NBC World Series.

He left the following year for an assistant coaching job at Missouri before moving on to TCU and later Arkansas in the same role. He then landed a head-coaching job in 2018.

The Giants just completed an average season, going 81–81. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2021, when they won a franchise-best 107 games.

The Buster Posey–led Giants are hoping the 47-year-old skipper can inject energy into a largely newly assembled team.

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By Tim Pulliam

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    LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Imagine being an owner of Dodgers history! One Santa Fe Springs man walked away from Game 4 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) with Shohei Ohtani’s third home run ball of the game — in what was arguably the greatest MLB postseason performance of all time.

Longtime Los Angeles Dodgers fan David Flores was in the right place at the right time. Now, he could be a soon-to-be multi-millionaire.

“I knew it was going to ricochet off the people in front of me for some reason, my intuition told me that. When it did, I stayed nice and calm, and I caught the ball like a baby and just gripped it nice and tight,” Flores said. “I looked around me, and everybody was so happy and thrilled about what happened.”

Ohtani launched the ball into the stands — his third home run of the game — during the same game where he started as a pitcher and struck out 10 batters.

The ball found its way to Flores, who is now looking to make some big bucks out of it.

“I had a just Dodger hat on and all camouflage, so maybe that’s why I caught the ball, because nobody could see me, and the ball came right to me,” Flores said with a laugh.

The catch has been life-changing for the sports fan, who is a professional boxing coach in Santa Fe Springs.

“My phone is going off. My phone is, ‘ding, ding, ding, ding’… nonstop,” he said. “I’m very happy that this happened to me in my life.”

Now, Flores has big plans for the lucrative piece of history.

“I’m going to say this in the most humble way possible… I’m looking to sell the ball,” Flores said. “You know, to the highest bidder or the highest offer. I want to sell the ball.”

Ohtani’s three home runs and 10 strikeouts helped the Dodgers advance to the World Series for the second year in a row.

So, how much is the ball worth?

“The market will tell us, but my initial estimation on that ball, due to the historic relevance of what happened on Friday night. I think it’s three, four, five million dollars plus,” said Michael Keys, the COO at SCP Auctions. “It was the most historic, I think, single player performance in any baseball game, let alone an NCLS-clenching game.”

Keys says that before Flores can cash in, the images of him catching the ball will have to be reviewed and authenticated by a forensic firm that partners with an auction company. After that, he will have to take a lie detector test.

“And then we’ll put it up for auction, and our next auction is coming up in November, so the timing couldn’t be more perfect,” Keys said.

“It hasn’t hit me yet. It hasn’t hit me yet, to be honest,” Flores said.

Flores said he is hoping to build generational wealth for his family. He also wants to meet Ohtani and the rest of the team.

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By Adam Thompson

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    BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A woman was rescued from a burning apartment building and revived in Baltimore on Sunday, according to a Baltimore City Fire spokesperson.

Firefighters responded to the 200 block of Diener Place, where a three-story building caught fire. The woman was removed from the fire and taken to a hospital in critical condition.

The fire was controlled.

“(The firefighters) actions made all the difference,” Baltimore City Fire spokesperson John Marsh said.

Maryland smoke alarm requirements:

Maryland’s state law requires that each sleeping area in a home have an automatic smoke alarm, which includes one and two-family homes, apartment buildings, dormitories, and hotels.

According to the state of Maryland, a smoke alarm must meet the following four requirements:

Installed to the satisfaction of the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code

Listed and labeled by a nationally recognized testing laboratory to comply with Underwriters Laboratories (UL) 217, “Standard for safety for single and multiple station smoke alarms”

Able to sense visible or invisible particles of combustion

Able to sound an alarm that will warn people in the sleeping area

What to do if a fire starts?

According to the American Red Cross, here’s what you should do if you are in a fire:

– Learn how to use a fire extinguisher

– Get out of the building quickly, stay out, and immediately call 911.

– Scream “Fire!” several times and go outside right away. If there are elevators, use the stairs.

– Leave everything and get out of the building quickly. Save yourself.

– If closed doors or handles are warm or smoke blocks your primary escape route, use your second way out. Do not open doors that are warm to the touch.

– If you need to escape through heavy smoke, get low and go under the smoke to your exit, and close the doors behind you.

– If smoke, heat or flames block your exit routes, stay in the room with doors closed. Place a wet towel under the door and call the fire department or 911.

– If you are trapped inside a room, open a window and wave a brightly colored cloth or flashlight to signal for help.

– Once you are outside, go to your meeting place and then send one person to call the fire department.

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By Gregg Montgomery

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    INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Grateful Rescue is working to save pit bulls in Indianapolis through Project Pit Stop, an initiative aimed at reducing the high euthanasia rates of these dogs in local shelters.

Pamela Terhune, founder and president of Grateful Rescue, visited News 8’s “Daybreak” on Saturday to talk about efforts to create additional housing for pit bulls, which are often euthanized due to overcrowding in shelters. The housing initiative, supported by Al Unser Jr. and Norma Unser, seeks donations to build facilities that can accommodate these dogs and give them a second chance at life.

Pit bulls are the most euthanized dogs in shelters, and Grateful Rescue is taking steps to address this issue by alleviating the population at Indianapolis Animal Care Services.

Terhune said many pit bulls are family-quality dogs whose only crime is taking up space in overcrowded shelters.

Terhune also said that while Grateful Rescue and other animal facilities are full, they rely on people to foster dogs.

She advised people who find stray pit bulls to contact animal control or shelters, as rescues often take dogs from these facilities.

Pet Pals TV airs every Saturday at 10:30 a.m. on WISH-TV. More information is available at PetPalsTV.com.

Using Closed Captioning, this story was formatted for WISHTV.com using AI-assisted tools. The WISH editorial team reviews and edits all content published to ensure it meets our journalistic standards for accuracy and fairness.

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Kevin Harrington
7-9473

By Nick Lentz, Julia Avant

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    CLINTON COUNTY, Michigan (WWJ) — The three people killed in a small plane crash in Bath Township, Michigan, on Thursday evening have been “presumptively identified,” according to a medical official.

Rodolfo Pimentel Zamora, Francisco del moral Jimenez and Alvaro Espejo Javier Rodriguez, all from Mexico, are “presumed” to have been on the plane that went down near the intersection of Clark and Peacock roads, Michelle Fox said during a news conference on Sunday.

Fox is the chief investigator at the office of the medical examiner serving Clinton County. She said the next of kin for all three people have been notified.

The crash of the Mexico-registered Hawker 800 XP happened around 5 p.m. All three died at the scene.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. Ryan Fewins-Bliss, supervisor of the Bath Township Board of Trustees, thanked workers with both agencies, who he said are not being paid amid the government shutdown.

Fewins-Bliss added that township officials also couldn’t get support from the federal public relations office due to the shutdown.

Law enforcement officials could not confirm on Sunday where the plane came from or where it was going.

Clark Road between Upton and Peacock roads will be closed until both the FAA and NTSB complete their on-site probe. Fewins-Bliss said the township expects to receive a preliminary report within the next two weeks.

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