Category: CNN Regional

By WCCO Staff

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    WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minnesota (WCCO) — A 22-year-old man faces several charges, including forgery, after he allegedly claimed he was 18 years old and enrolled at a Twin Cities area high school last fall.

Kelvin Luebke attended White Bear Lake Area High School for 19 days and participated in three football practices, according to the district superintendent.

Charging documents say White Bear Lake police were notified of Luebke after publicly available booking information at a local jail included his biographical details; a caller told officers said he had enrolled at the school under the name “Kelvin Ciatte Perry, Jr.” and claimed he was 17 years old.

The arrest was for violating the terms of his probation, related to a 2023 conviction in Washington County for sending a nude photo of himself to a 15-year-old girl.

Luebke’s father said he had been adopted from Liberia in 2009 and was primarily homeschooled before a stint at Forest Lake High School, where he was expelled for behavioral issues, charges say. He said Luebke moved out and lived with a couple, who were unaware that he had enrolled at White Bear Lake High School.

According to the complaint, Luebke in a post-Miranda interview said he had two birth certificates: one from the U.S. and one from Liberia. He said his U.S. date of birth was May 30, 2003, but family members in Africa told him he was actually 18 years old.

Luebke told officers that his biological father had recently helped him obtain a Liberian birth certificate under the name “Kelvin Ciatte Perry, Jr.” with the birth date of May 28, 2007. He said it is the name he “goes by in Africa,” the complaint says.

He said he used the Liberian birth certificate to enroll at White Bear Lake Area High School as an unaccompanied minor, charging documents say.

Federal law requires schools to immediately enroll youth who present as homeless, even if their eligibility is in dispute.

Luebke faces two counts of aggravated forgery and one count of forgery in Ramsey County.

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 Penny Kmitt

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    Massachusetts (WBZ) — A man convicted of killing a college student in Massachusetts nearly 40 years ago will spend the rest of his life in prison.

John Carey, 66, was sentenced Thursday in Essex County Superior Court for the murder of Claire Gravel.

Gravel, a 20-year-old from North Andover, was a sophomore at Salem State University, when Carey strangled her with her tank top on June 29, 1986, and left her body in the woods along Route 128 in Beverly.

The case was cracked open using a DNA sample that Carey submitted in 2008 after he was convicted of attempted murder in a separate case. That sample was then linked to DNA evidence found on Gravel’s tank top, according to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.

On March 3, a jury found Carey guilty of first-degree murder. In Massachusetts, that sentence is automatically life in prison without parole.

Carey did not speak during the sentencing, but Gravel’s family did. Her 90-year-old father and five siblings were in court Thursday.

They described how the murder brought them pain and suffering for decades.

“I’ve been waiting 39 years, 9 months and 9 days for today,” said Gravel’s sister, Denise Foley. “I continued to have nightmares for months of my sister Claire screaming for one of us to come help her and none of us were there.”

The family said they’ve never stopped seeking answers in this case and they believe their sister would be proud.

“She’s Irish. She’s feisty. She’s tough. So, she is smiling right now along with my mother,” Gravel’s brother Jim told reporters outside court.

“Nothing’s changed for Claire but it’s a new day for us, to finally have this over,” Foley said.

“Today, justice was served,” said Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker.

Carey’s attorney said they are submitting an appeal of his conviction.

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 Lisa Rozner

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    New York (WCBS, WLNY) — Former NYPD Sgt. Erik Duran was sentenced Thursday to three to nine years in prison for throwing a cooler at a fleeing suspect who later died.

Duran, 38, was found guilty of manslaughter in February for the 2023 death of Eric Duprey. He’s the first member of the NYPD in a decade to be found guilty of causing the death of a civilian while on duty.

Duprey’s family was in tears during the sentencing. Duran apologized directly to them and asked the judge for a chance to be there for his wife and three children.

“It was unintended and tragic, but he should not spend years of his life, not even days of his life for a decision he made in 2.5 seconds. That is the very definition of excessive and disproportionate,” Duran’s lawyer said.

Prosecutors asked for him to be sentenced to three to nine years, saying he “recklessly caused the death of another human he did that while on duty there is no more serious gravity of offense than taking the life of another person.”

Duran’s lawyers are planning to file an appeal.

Black Lives Matter co-founder speaks out

Hawk Newsome, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, spoke outside the courtroom. Behind him were many people holding picket signs in support of Duprey.

“In New York’s history, it is a very seldom occurrence that justice prevails when a cop kills a Black and brown person, but today, in the Bronx, we got it right,” Newsome said.

SBA president issues statement

The president of the Sergeant Benevolent Association, Vincent Vallelong, called Thursday a dark day.

“It wasn’t only Sgt. Duran, a great cop who was on trial. Every law enforcement officer who makes a split-second decision in the performance of their duties to protect the public was also on trial,” he said. “And this sentencing, which has now sent a very chilling message to every cop in the nation- that the system that we have sworn to uphold can single-handedly destroy your career and your life for doing exactly what you are trained to do.”

Deadly NYPD encounter

On Aug. 23 2023, Duprey allegedly sold drugs to an undercover officer in the Bronx, then fled on a motorized scooter when officers tried to arrest him.

According to authorities, 30-year-old Duprey was traveling at 30 mph, driving on the sidewalk and not wearing a helmet.

Video from the incident shows Duran throwing a picnic cooler at Duprey’s head as he flees. Duprey then swerves and slides under a vehicle. He died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Duran was suspended after the incident and later charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Manslaughter trial

During his testimony at trial, Duran said he was worried Duprey was going to crash into other officers and was trying to protect them by throwing the cooler.

Prosecutors argued Duran was trying to “save an arrest,” not lives, and called his actions “reckless, unreasonable [and] unnecessary.”

Duran was convicted of manslaughter after a bench trial, meaning there was no jury and the judge rendered the verdict.

The criminally negligent homicide charge was waived.

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 Chantelle Navarro

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    PAULS VALLEY, Oklahoma (KOCO) — Parents in Pauls Valley are breathing a sigh of relief thanks to a high school principal who they are calling a hero.

Pauls Valley High School Principal Kirk Moore is being hailed as a hero after he tackled a would-be school shooter at the school, an act that has left the community in shock but grateful.

To jump in and confront a school shooter isn’t something that just anybody would do, but those who know Moore said this was a no-brainer for him.

“He would do anything to save those kids,” Madison Knighten, a former student, said.

The sentiment was shared by others in the community, including former students.

“If some student was to get harmed, he would definitely take a bullet for him. I believe that,” said Spencer Flinn, a former student.

Childhood friends also described who Moore is as a person and as a principal.

“He’s a hero. He wasn’t thinking about himself. He was thinking about the kids,” childhood friend Harold Marcum said.

The community is recovering from the shock of the incident but is grateful for what didn’t happen, thanks to Moore’s actions.

“I didn’t know this could happen in a small town, possibly, especially my hometown,” Knighten said. “I’ve lived here. I’ve lived in Pauls Valley for 19 years. So, I am super shocked that this happened.”

Investigators said the suspect entered the school intending to kill the principal but was stopped when Moore tackled him.

Moore is recovering in a hospital while the suspect is in jail.

Knighten, who graduated with the shooter, said Moore was always there for her and other students. She said she can’t understand why he would do something like this to someone as selfless as Moore.

“He helped me through mental health. When I was getting hurt really bad, he would help me through anything and everything that I needed help with, and every time I would come to him, he would always offer his help,” Knighten said.

Marcum, who has known Moore for 55 years, said Moore even honored his late son on campus, reflecting the kind of person he is.

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 Marc Liverman

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    BUNCOMBE COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — An Asheville woman is sharing her story after she says she was scammed out of $5,000 by a person pretending to be with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman was so shaken up that she didn’t want to reveal her identity. She said it started with a phone call on Wednesday, April 8, when a man accused the victim of failing to appear for jury duty and said she was in contempt of court.

“Two warrants for my arrest were active, and that I needed to pay in order to get those dismissed and suspended,” she explained, adding that he told her if she did, “that it would be refunded once I showed up to the courthouse, that they would write me a check, and he kept convincing me of that.”

So, the woman said she transferred $5,000 through Apple Pay, which is like cash because the funds can’t be recovered.

“I feel really ashamed and embarrassed that this happened, but it was so convincing and so scary,” she said.

As it turns out, the Asheville woman isn’t the only local victim. She said a person with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office told her she was the 10th person to tell a similar story that day.

She explained that her main reason for speaking out was to help prevent this type of scam from happening to someone else.

“It breaks my heart that it’s happening in my community that has already worked really hard to be in recovery,” she said, choking back tears.

The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it is working on multiple cases like this.

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 Madilyn Destefano

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    Florida (WESH) — Meet Charley the cow, a young 4-H steer who is highly trained, very social and well-groomed for competitions.

4-H, in cow-competition terms, is a development program for young cows focused on raising, judging, and showing cattle for animal science purposes. In other words, it’s a livestock judging contest.

At a recent weigh-in, Charley found out he was too skinny to continue with 4-H.

In the livestock world, that usually means the slaughterhouse.

Sending him to a sanctuary would allow him to live out the rest of his days “peacefully on an educational farm teaching kids about sustainable farm living,” a GoFundMe for Charley said.

A GoFundMe was organized to raise the $5,500 needed to send Charley to Bell Family Farm in Polk City.

The campaign is still about $2,000 short of its goal, but the organizer has paid personally so Charley wouldn’t get slaughtered while the community was still working to raise the remainder of the money needed.

Bell Family Farm has agreed to take Charley in, where he will become a certified cow cuddler and farm ambassador.

Charley was delivered for free from Florida Farm School in Dade City to Bell Family Farm, with several parts of the community stepping in to help.

The farm, which sustained damage from Hurricane Milton and has since faced financial difficulties, hopes Charley and their new cow-cuddling business will help sustain operations.

“Charley’s story is remarkable,” said the Bell family. “He managed to cross paths with all the right humans in our incredible community who would recognize his unique worth.”

The GoFundMe campaign remains active, and Bell Family Farm continues to seek support to ensure Charley’s care and the farm’s future.

All in all, Charley is safe, but the cost still needs to be covered.

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.