Former head of public safety department reacts to East High shooting

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- FOX31 heard from the man who used to lead Denver Public Schools’ Department of Safety following the double shooting Wednesday. Michael Eaton, who now works in San Antonio, happened to be in town this week when that shooting happened at East High.He spent 11-and-a-half years with the district and said he is just devastated by the news.“SROs and police officers are a vital part of an all-inclusive emergency management plan for large urban school districts,” Eaton said. “Some opponents may say an SRO wouldn't have stopped this from happening. I disagree. You can't quantify the prevention that an armed uniformed SRO could have provided in a horrible situation like [Wednesday].” Parents praise security at DPS schools, call for more resources after board decision He agrees with the DPS board’s decision to bring officers back to high schools for the remainder of the school year. The move was an about-face from the board’s decision in 2020, linked to what some school offi...

Parents praise security at DPS schools, call for more resources after board decision

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Parents reacted to the decision made by the board at Denver Public Schools to place armed officers on campuses.Some parents are relieved there will be any kind of security presence at schools. Some who agree with the decision said their position is more nuanced than a simple yes to armed officers on campus."Quite frankly we need more counselors than cops," Sarah Hines, a parent at East High School, said.The support for school resource officers at campuses across Denver Public Schools is layered, at best. Students call for action at the Capitol following East High shooting "Maybe having them in plain clothes," Jessica King, an East High parent, said, "developing a relationship with these kids, not someone seen as a brute force."Tran Ngyuen-Wills, another East High parent, is a hard no on armed officers at schools."After we took away the school resource officers, nothing changed then," Ngyuen-Wills said.Ngyuen-Wills was an East parent before officers were voted out ...

$1,525 facility fee highlights medical measure at Capitol to limit facility fees

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) -- Colorado hospitals say they can't survive without facility fees but some patients say they may avoid medical care because they can't afford the rising cost of facility fees. A controversial measure, House Bill 23-1215, to limit facility fees will have its first hearing at the state Capitol on Friday. Aurora mom Natalie Zelinska will watch closely after receiving a $1,525 facility fee following her 4-year-old son's November 2022 appointment at Children's Hospital Colorado."We need to monitor his heart condition all the time. One to two times a year just to see where he is," Zelinska said, who previously took her son to Denver Health Medical Center for bi-annual electrocardiograms and ultrasounds. Family’s $2,500 hospital charge reduced after Problem Solvers get involved When her pediatric cardiologist moved to Florida, he suggested the Zelinksas seek care at Children's Hospital Colorado.Bills reviewed by the Problem Solvers showed the facility fee at Denver ...

Denver mayoral candidates discuss public safety

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- With the Denver mayoral election just a few weeks away, a handful of candidates addressed the issue of public safety.The two-day forum was hosted by the Denver Justice Project and the Denver Task Force to Re-imagine Policing and Public Safety.Voter and Denver East High School graduate Sofia Joucovsky was in attendance. Board rules to allow officers in all Denver Public Schools high schools “I do support SROs (school resource officers) being in schools,” she said. “I do not think they should have the responsibility of disciplining students.”The forum was held in the Northfield area of Denver.The mayoral election is April 4 and if no candidate receives the majority of votes, the top two candidates move to a runoff on June 6.

Pedestrian hit, killed in South Bay crash

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- A person walking within the lanes of traffic on Interstate 5 died Thursday morning after being struck by a vehicle in the Chula Vista area, law enforcement said.The incident occurred around 3:04 a.m. on I-5 northbound, located north of Main Street, Jesse Matias with the California Highway Patrol told FOX 5.Authorities say the pedestrian was struck by other vehicles as well, but that number is unknown at this time. The pedestrian died due to their injuries, Matias confirmed. Man killed in two-car crash The man driving the vehicle, who was not injured, pulled over to the right shoulder and waited for first responders to arrive, per CHP.Driving under the influence is not suspected in the crash, according to authorities.The identity of the pedestrian is being withheld pending next of kin notification.

Sex trafficking plea deal unending ‘nightmare’ for Texas mom

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Irma Reyes’ mind raced as her husband drove through the predawn darkness toward a courthouse hundreds of miles from home: Don’t they know my daughter matters?Reyes had been barely able to eat since she heard that Texas prosecutors planned to let the two men charged with sex trafficking her daughter walk free. She was going to court to try to stop them.Reyes’ daughter was 16 in 2017, when men she knew only as “Rocky” and “Blue” kept her and another girl at a San Antonio motel where men paid to have sex with them. Now, the cases against Rakim Sharkey and Elijah Teel — who police identified as the traffickers — have seen years of delay, a parade of prosecutors, an aborted trial and, ultimately, a stark retreat by the government.They are among thousands of cases under a cloud of dysfunction at the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose legal troubles include a federal criminal investigation. Trafficking cases in particular have come under scrutiny and cast...

Is bringing back firing squads for executions a good idea?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The image of gunmen in a row firing in unison into the chest of a condemned prisoner may conjure up a bygone, less enlightened era. But the idea of using firing squads is making a comeback. Idaho lawmakers passed a bill this week seeking to add the state to the list of those authorizing firing squads, currently Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Fresh interest comes as states scramble for alternatives to lethal injections after pharmaceuticals barred the use of their drugs. Some, including a few Supreme Court justices, view firing squads as less cruel than lethal injections despite the violence involved in riddling bodies with bullets. Others say it’s not cut-and-dry, or that there are other factors to consider. Here is a look at the status of firing squads in the United States: WHEN WAS THE LAST EXECUTION BY FIRING SQUAD? Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed at Utah State Prison on June 18, 2010, for killing an attorney during a courthouse escape attemp...

Gwyneth Paltrow expected to testify in ski collision trial

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:48:00 GMT

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Gwyneth Paltrow and the man who broke four ribs after the two collided at a Utah ski resort seven years ago are both expected to testify on Friday in a trial over his claims that the movie star’s recklessness caused his concussion and lasting physical injuries.Paltrow and Terry Sanderson, the retired optometrist suing her, are expected to answer questions about the crash as their attorneys jostle to convince the 10-member jury who was responsible for the collision and who had the right of way as the skier farther downhill. Paltrow claims Sanderson was responsible for the crash.In a trial that Judge Kent Holmberg and attorneys for both parties have agreed will last eight days, with each side getting four to call witnesses, Friday marks the final day that Sanderson’s attorneys can compel Paltrow to testify. Next week, Paltrow’s team is expected to call medical experts, ski instrutors and her two children, Moses and Apple.The trial thus far has ...