One officer killed, 2 wounded in gunfight
PHOENIX (AP) — A gunbattle erupted during an undercover drug operation Wednesday night, killing one police officer and wounding two others, police said. A suspect also was shot dead, and another was wounded and being detained.
TV news helicopters showed the three officers being taken out of a south Phoenix home on stretchers Wednesday. Police say one of them was later pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.
Police said one of the two wounded officers was in critical condition at a Phoenix hospital, while the other was in stable condition.
No names have been released.
Police say the wounded suspect is being detained and two other people are being questioned. Police are unsure if there any other suspects.
Helicopter crash kills 3 in Tucson
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A medical helicopter crashed on a Tucson street and burst into flames Wednesday, killing all three people aboard. A witness said the pilot steered the plummeting chopper away from a house.
Witnesses told The Arizona Daily Star the helicopter crashed into a fence in front of the house on Park Avenue just south of Glenn Street.
The helicopter was owned by Colorado-based Air Methods. Officials with the air ambulance company confirmed that the pilot, flight nurse and paramedic were killed in the crash of the AS350 B3 Eurocopter, which was not transporting a patient at the time.
Air Methods officials said the names of the victims would not be released until Thursday at the earliest.
Federal Aviation Administration officials said the helicopter was traveling to Douglas from Marana at the time of the crash. The helicopter was in contact with air traffic controllers before the accident, and there was no indication of trouble, FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said.
2 brothers killed with father's gun
CHINO HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Two Southern California brothers — a 12-year-old who loved skateboarding and a 10-year-old about to start fifth grade — were shot to death with their father's handgun in what could be a double suicide or a murder-suicide, authorities said Wednesday.
The bodies of Bryan Gonzalez and younger brother Christian Gonzalez were found Tuesday by a family member in a dry creekbed behind their Chino Hills mobile home in rural San Bernardino County. The father's gun was found with the bodies.
The boys were each shot once, but other information about their wounds was being withheld because of the ongoing investigation, said Sgt. Frank Bell of the sheriff's homicide unit. Autopsies were under way Wednesday.
Bell said only the boys were involved in the shootings, though investigators were not sure whether they each killed themselves or one killed the other before committing suicide.
Massey to resume coal mining
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Massey Energy plans to resume extracting coal by constructing a new entrance to its Upper Big Branch mine within months, despite continuing investigations of the explosion that killed 29 men there in April, the company's chief executive said Wednesday.
Massey also wants government permission to restart two sections in the far southern reaches of the Raleigh County mine, CEO Don Blankenship said during a conference call with analysts. That area was untouched by the blast and Blankenship estimated it could produce 600,000 tons annually.
"We have the permits from an environmental viewpoint that are necessary to do that and we are going to activate that effort," Blankenship said. "Absent the government stopping us for some unknown reason, which I don't know what that would be, then I suspect that we will be able to access the reserve with that facility in the next five to six months."
Family charged in 80-year-old's abuse
BOSTON (AP) — An 80-year-old woman lay for a month in a recliner soaked with her waste, her long toenails curling back into her skin and suffering from deep bedsores, authorities said in announcing charges against five family members.
The woman was in critical condition at St. Anne's Hospital in Fall River on Wednesday, said Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for Bristol District Attorney Sam Sutter.
She had a bacterial infection in her bloodstream and was covered with bedsores, including one so deep that tendons could be seen through her decomposing skin, Miliote said. She also had 1-inch facial hair around her mouth and her toenails were so long that they were curled and bent back into her skin, he said.
Police found the woman Saturday after a family member called 911.