Man who rammed doors of Minneapolis fire station is jailed
MINNEAPOLIS — A man was in custody Friday morning after he rammed the front doors of a Minneapolis fire station where a woman had gone to seek protection from him.
The woman went to the fire station on the 2700 block of S. Blaisdell Avenue just after 7 p.m. Thursday and asked firefighters for help after the man, who she knew, refused to stop following her, said Minneapolis police spokesman Garrett Parten.
Police did not say how the man and woman knew each other.
The man had driven a pickup truck onto the driveway of Station No. 8. Firefighters stepped between the truck and woman and told the man to leave. But the man continued to drive slowly toward the woman, Parten said.
As firefighters opened the folding bay door to get the woman to safety inside the station, the man attempted to drive past them and struck one of the doors. Firefighters used a tool to puncture a tire and disable the vehicle and held the man until police arrived, Parten said.
Police arrived and found the man's truck "nosed up" against the open bifold bay doors of the station and firefighters detaining the man, Parten said.
Officers arrested the man, who was booked into the Hennepin County Jail for assault. Neither the woman nor any firefighters were hurt, police said.
The station remained in service during the incident, Parten said.
—Star Tribune
Philly QAnon detective in DC last Jan. 6 still on limited duty
PHILADELPHIA — This time last year, Jennifer Gugger, a longtime Philadelphia police detective responsible for screening potential recruits, had returned from Washington, where she'd been posting on Facebook about having beers with "fellow patriots." Hashtag: #StoptheSteal.
Hours after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, fueled by the lie that Donald Trump had won the 2020 presidential election, Gugger tweeted at then-Vice President Mike Pence that he'd sold his "soul to the devil."
Two days later, when Pence lamented the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick — who died after trying to ward off the mob — Gugger responded with apparent references to the QAnon conspiracy theory.
"You're a traitor and a cabal operative and pedophile!" Gugger tweeted at Pence, calling him a "swap [sic] creature" who "fooled us all."
Gugger's presence in Washington on Jan. 6 and her increasingly unhinged social-media activity triggered an Internal Affairs investigation the week after the insurrection. She was reassigned and her gun was taken away.
A year later, however, Gugger remains a police officer on restricted duty, police say. She awaits a disciplinary hearing on possible departmental violations that have not been publicly disclosed.
Sgt. Eric Gripp, a police spokesperson, said while at least one Police Department employee was in Washington on the day of the attack, an Internal Affairs probe found no evidence of any employees "taking part in the insurrection or having entered any unauthorized areas."
Gov. Hochul adds booster mandate for NY health workers
NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that New York state’s coronavirus caseload could be peaking, albeit at steep heights, signaling that the hospital admissions surge may soon slow, too.
The heavily mutated omicron variant drove a rapid rise in cases as fall faded to winter, flooding hospitals and sapping businesses and emergency services of staff. As New York entered the new year, one in five COVID tests statewide were coming back positive.
But Friday, the state’s weeklong average in cases per 100,000 people increased by just 1% from the previous day. And the state’s test positivity rate dropped each day from Monday to Thursday.
Despite the hopeful developments, the state still reported disturbing daily tallies of hospitalizations and deaths: 155 infected New Yorkers perished on Thursday, and more than 11,000 were hospitalized.
Hochul tentatively hailed the indications that the case count is cresting, but noted hospitalizations and deaths are poised to continue to rise. Hospital admissions lag behind infections.
“This is still a pandemic,” Hochul said. “The number of cases and hospitalizations are still rising.”
—New York Daily News
Sea lion wanders onto San Diego highway, slowing traffic
SAN DIEGO — A sea lion made its way to a highway interchange east of downtown San Diego Friday morning — a fairly long way from the ocean — a shocking sight that left drivers pulling over to help protect the lost creature.
Calls started coming in to 911 dispatchers about 9:40 a.m. reporting that the sea lion was trying to cross state Route 94 near state Route 15, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Several cars stopped and the animal crossed to the center divide, according to CHP's online logs and CHP Officer Jim Bettencourt.
CHP slowed traffic, and officials asked Sea World to help rescue the sea lion.
By about 10:15 a.m., rescuers had reached and wrangled the wayward sea lion in the grass.
Jeni Smith, a supervisor with the rescue program at Sea World San Diego, acknowledged that it is unusual to find a sea lion so far from the ocean. She said she wasn't sure exactly where the animal came from.
She said rescuers would take the animal to Sea World for evaluation and rehabilitation so it could be returned to the ocean.
—The San Diego Union-Tribune
